VARIOUS NEWSPAPER ARTICLES, SPANNING 1947-1977,

ABOUT THE DEMANDS AND VIOLENCE

OF THE BENGALI MUSLIMS
By Rick Heizman, January 9, 2019, San
Francisco

Note: There is NO use of the term ‘Rohingya’ at

all, in any of these worldwide newspapers:

In the Indian Daily Mail:

Demand For Separate Arakan State
25 April 1947

Rangoon, Apr, 25 — Arakan leaders have sent a

petition to the Frontier Area Commission asking for
recognition of their claim for a separate Arakan state
in south-west Burma, it was reliably learned today.

The Arakan campaign, which has been marked by

unrest and minor disturbances is reported to have
gained momentum and officials returning here say
that there is intense “rebel” activity in many
districts. In some places such as the town of Gwa in
Sandoway the local authorities were forced to
evacuate, they said.

Officials stated that the Arakan Movement has no

connection with the Muslim League’s Pakistan claim
for a separation of an Arakan division from the rest
of Burma. It is supported by all communities who
demand the establishment of a separate Arakan
buffer state between India and Burma, not
incorporation with India’s eastern Pakistan
provinces.

Though there has been communal in certain Arakan

districts no outbreaks of violence have been
reproted, the officials said. In North Arakan the
Muslims majority leaders recently invited the
minority Buddhists to return to their villages with
guarantees of complete security.—Reuters.
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In “The Scotsman”
Trying to End “The Chittagong
Moslem War”

From - Michael Davidson,

“The Scotsman” Special
Correspondent

AKYAB (Arakan), Tuesday, May

18, 1949

A peace mission to North Arakan

(which lies toward the Pakistan
border) is trying the end “the
Moslem War,” which is one of
the Burmese Government’s
many headaches.

Moslem elders, carrying an order

from Prime Minister Thakin Nu,
are in contact with the insurgent
Moslems, and the latest reports
from these emissaries say that
some Moslems have already laid
down their arms. These guerrilla
operations are less a Moslem
insurrection against the
Government than a “communal”
action against the Arakanese - a prolongation of the Moslem-Buddhist riots of 1942. The
Moslems - natives of Chittagong in East Bengal, now part of Pakistan - fear oppression by
the Arakanese. The Arakanese, an intensely clannish community less than a million strong,
hate their Burmese kith and kin, and are afraid of losing their identity in the growing
Chittagonese population. Neither trusts the other.

A dangerous aspect of this fighting is its international aspect: Moslem insurgents have been
carrying the Pakistan flag, and many of them clamor for the incorporation of this end of
Arakan with Pakistan. It was suspected that they drew arms from across the border: the
Government, however, is now satisfied that their rifles and ammunition are old stocks left
behind by the Japanese and British. An official of a neutral Embassy in Rangoon told me
recently that Pakistan’s attitude is entirely “correct” - Though if Burma were to disintegrate,
Pakistan would doubtless step in. The great majority of Arakan Moslems are said to be really
Pakistantis from Chittagong, even if they have been settled here for a generation. Of the
130,000 Moslems here, 80,000 are still Pakistani citizens.

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In The Singapore Free Press:
NEW PROBLEM FACES STRIFE-TORN
BURMA — ISLAM WANTS OWN PROVINCE
RANGOON, Saturday, November 19, 1949

Anther faction has added yet a further discordant

demand on a new Burma torn by inner strife. Some
300,000 Muslims are seeking establishment of a
new Islamic province, administered by Muslims for
Muslims, on the western seaboard of Burma.

U Aung Zan Wei, Minorities Minister in the Thakin

Nu Government, disclosed the demands of the
Muslims who form the majority population of Akyab
district, northern province of Arakan, where there
has been violent upheaval even before Burma’s
Independence. Aung Zan Wei told the Associated
Press that agitators, racially Arakanese and
therefore nationals of Burma, wish to divide Akyab
District in two, taking control of the larger area. They
are basing their demand on the population ration of
300,000 Muslims to 100,000 Buddhists.

Akyab is the most fertile of the three districts

comprising the turbulent Arakan. Most of the
riceland’s here are in Akyab district where the town
of Akyab is the largest and busiest among west
coastal ports.
Between Arakan and India there are close blood ties.
The Arakanese are the descendants of the
Bengalese of India who settled on this strip of West
Burma centuries ago. Frequent intermarriage
continues between the Arakanese and Indians living
immediately across the border.

Negotiations
Aung Zan Wei stated that the Rangoon Government
is unwilling to any carving up of Akyab district. He
said negotiations between the government and
Arakanese representatives continue barren of result.
Political observers in Rangoon say that
establishment of a virtual Islamic State within
Burmese territory is not in this country’s best
interests. They say that while secession from Burma presently is not being sought, there is no
guarantee that the would-be creators of the Islamic district will not at some future date switch
allegiance from the Burmese to the Pakistani flag.
They recall that immediately after the British reoccupation of Burma, Muslims along the border district
of Buthidaung and Maungdaw pressed for a link-up with what was then was a part of India.

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In The New York Times:
Burma Moslems Battle Buddhists;
Karachi Scans Situation Closely
March 21, 1952
A small and little publicized war has been going
on in the Arakan Province of Burma, just across
the frontier of East Pakistan [now Bangladesh],
for the last two years. Burmese Moslems are
fighting Buddhist communists.
Until recently Pakistan considered the whole
thing as something resembling comic opera but
now it has become the subject of much official
worry.
Arakan contains between 400,000 and 500,000
Moslems and a substantially smaller number of
Buddhists. They have been skirmishing for
many years. During the past two years
however, the Moslems charge, the Buddhists
have turned Communist and have benefited
from organized Communist Party help.
During the winter the Burmese government
sent a detachment of the national army across
the jungles and into the province to see about
putting down the Communists. The Moslems
assert that instead of fighting the Buddhists the
army troops sold their guns to them and walked
off back home, The freshly armed Buddhists, it
is charged, then attacked the Muslims with new
effectiveness and chased a number them into
Pakistan.
Hear the Moslems called on their brothers in
religion for equipment to equal that of the
Buddhists. With an eye to continued excellent
relations with Rangoon, however, Pakistan told
the refugees that the problem was an internal
one and none its business.
The riots in East Pakistan late last month,
which were effectively supported by the
Communists, caused Karachi to re-examine
carefully the problems on that frontier. The
political situation in East Pakistan is anything
but stable and high Pakistani officials are of the
opinion that in case of trouble, either with India
or on the Burmese frontier, East Pakistan might
well turn Communist overnight.
At the same time the Pakistani army, concentrated as it is on the Kashmir front, is, according to
military experts here, in no position to fight for East Pakistan.
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In the Straits Times
CONSPIRACY TRIAL: B’DESH DIPLOMAT IMPLICATED
Sept 25, 1977

Rangoon, Sat.
Bangladesh military attaché to Burma, Colonel Amin, was
implicated by a prosecution witness testifying before the
Rangoon division court, it was reported today.

The Working People’s Daily reported that during the current

trial of three Burmese man accused of conspiring to
assassinate state leaders, prosecution witness Hashim Bhai
testified that he had introduced the accused to Col. Amin in
Rangoon last February.

Firearms
The witness said that during the conversation that took place
the colonel inquired about the Muslim, Buddhist, and
Christian population in the Arakan region and also asked the
accused what firearms and ammunition they possessed.

The witness said the attaché then asked the accused if they
would be able to control the Arakan region and also what
their relations with India, Bangladesh, and Burma would be if
they gained independence.

The Working People’s Daily had previously mentioned the

Bangladesh military attaché its coverage of another high
treason trial.—AFP.
————————————————————————————————

The info that came out of this trial helped derail a very bold
and sinister plot to seize Arakan. The plan was that on a
given day, the Muslims would assassinate every town, city,
state, and governmental leader that they could, resulting in
such country-wide chaos that they could launch massive
attacks across the Bangladesh border, exterminate all non-
Muslims in quick genocide, and seize the land for their
Islamic State - freed from Buddhist rule:

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1977 Plot with Libya and Bangladesh

In 1977, Mujahid rebels and members of ARNO led by Sultan Mahmud, sent select members
to Libya and met with Libyan leader Colonel Qaddafi. (Qaddafi thought of himself as the
leader of the Arab Muslims and in his megalomania he projected himself as the leader of
Muslims around the world.) Sultan Mahmud’s group explained their their intention was to
transform Arakan into an Islamic State - to be called Arkistan - and they asked for Colonel
Qaddafi and Libya to help them and the other resistance groups to wage a well-armed jihad
against the Burmese central government. Shortly after that visit to Libya, a serious plot to
elicit a full-blown Muslim insurrection throughout Burma and overthrow the government of
Ne Win was discovered by the Burmese government. Bangladesh, and Libya were covertly
involved in the conspiracy. However, subversive attempts to spark their nefarious plans failed
as they were stopped by Burmese authorities. Many local Muslim conspirators were
arrested, and others then feared arrest or harm, and many fled back to Bangladesh.

This diabolical plot was the reason that Nagamin was launched:

Nagamin Military Operations Against Bengali Mujahid in 1978

The Naga Min Sitsin Yae (King Dragon Operation), was a large-scale military operation in
Arakan, Burma, carried out under the authority of General Ne Win. The operation focused on
rooting out the Mujahid rebels, who were fighting for an Islamic state in Northern Rakhine
state.

The operation began February 6, 1978 in the village of Sakkipara in Sitetway district, where
there were mass arrests and torture of alleged collaborators and sympathizers of the Mujahid
rebels, who had been waging a bloody and vicious guerrilla war for decades. Over three
months, approximately 150,000 to 200,000 Muslims fled to neighboring Bangladesh, where
the Muslim government of Bangladesh offered them shelter in makeshift camps. The United
Nations recognized them as refugees and began a relief operation.

by Rick Heizman, January 9, 2019, San Francisco

papers at: scribd.com/rheizman

photos and videos at: arakan-reality.smugmug.com

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