Honolulu Star-Bulletin - Wed, July 3, 1991

Muslim ‘holy warriors’ plan war on

Burma’s military government
By Edith M. Lederer
Associated Press

ON THE BANGLADESH-BURMA BORDER — At a secret

camp deep in the jungle, more than 500 young Muslims are
training to make war on the Buddhist military government of
Burma.
The rebels call themselves mujahideen, or holy warriors, and
claim Muslims are persecuted. Their goal is to restore the
once-independent Muslim homeland of Arakan on Burma’s
west coast. [Journalist Edith M. Lederer may have been a
well-known and generally good reporter, but she seems to
have greatly erred by accepting the Bengali Muslim fake
identity and history. The previous sentence is TOTALLY and
wrong - the Muslims NEVER had an independent Muslim
homeland or kingdom in Arakan. Even these days, in 2020,
Bengali Muslims and their ilk do not claim this, at all.]
Professor Mohammed Zakariya, a leader of the insurgency,
said hundreds of trained guerrillas are scattered in 11 other
camps along the border and thousands more are inside and
outside Burma, awaiting the order to fight.
“The day is not far off,” said Zakariya, a 47-year-old botanist.
Bearded men and young boys in green military uniforms
patrolled the grounds of the camp hidden by towering jungle
trees and dense foliage. They were armed variously with
AK-47 assault rifles, M-16s and Bren guns, British weapons
from World War II.
“I came to fight for the cause of Allah because the military are
persecuting us and torturing our villagers,” said Mohammed
Ivanid, 15.
1
The guerrillas displayed several rocket-propelled grenades.
They claim to have short-range mortars, M-79 rocket
launchers and explosives, including claymore mines.
Most were stolen or captured from the Burmese military, but
some were purchased in other Asian countries, Zakariya
said.
Many rebels had no weapons, which he described as the
main reason their offensive had not begun.
“Finding 100,000 youths to fight is not a problem if we have
the weapons,” Zakariya said, adding that “about 20,000 is
enough to fight these bandits in this front.”
Since the early 1950s, Burmese Muslims have waged
periodic guerrilla warfare on governments they accuse of
trying to annihilate the Muslim minority and create a pure
Buddhist state.
Zakariya said persecution has been worst in Arakan, which
was an independent Muslim Kingdom from 1430 to 1784 and
now is the only Muslim-dominated province in Burma. [Again,
1) Arakan was a BUDDHIST Kingdom, with minorities of
Hindus, Portuguese, Dutch, Javanese, Ceylonese, and
Muslims. 2) Arakan WAS not and IS not a Muslim-dominated
province in Burma. The province is now Rakhine State,
where the Rakhine Buddhists are clearly a majority
everywhere, except, Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships.]
Arakan’s Muslims are called Rohingya Muslims, from
Rohang, the ancient name of Arakan. The guerrilla group
running the camps and preparing the insurgency is the
Rohingya Solidarity Organization, founded in 1982.
Guerrilla leaders accuse Burmese Buddhists of massacring
200,000 Muslims in the last 50 years. [Gross demonization -
why have remaining Muslims never found extensive mass
graves with 200,000 bodies or skeletons?]
Anti-Muslim activities have increased under the current
military ruler, Gen. Saw Maung, said Ezhar Miah, a former
member of Parliament from Arakan who replaced Zakariya in
March as the commander of the mujahideen.
Burma’s military already confronts insurgencies by ethnic
minorities on its northern, eastern and southern borders.
Fighting in western Arakan would put pressure on the armed
forces from the fourth direction.
2
 Muslims have been crossing into Bangladesh since March.
Bangladeshi officials would not give numbers, but Zakariya
put the total at about 10,000. He said the flight began when
Burmese troops destroyed seven Arakan villages. [The words
‘seven Arakan villages’ would actually refer to Buddhist,
Hindu, or ethnic minority villages - Lederer carelessly used
‘seven Arakan villages’ to mean ‘seven Muslim villages’.]
He said nearly half the 3 million Muslims of Arakan had fled
the country in the last 40 years because of atrocities and
oppression, but that those who remain still outnumber the 1
million Arakan Buddhists, called Maghs. [Again, egregious
manipulative fake numbers as ‘facts’. Maghs is a
contemptuous term for Rakhine Buddhists.]
Burma’s population of 41 million include about 6 million
Muslims, Zakariya said. [More manipulative numbers - Burma
/ Myanmar has about 4% Muslim, not 7%, and about half of
that 4% is Bengali Muslim, and then there are about 2%
Kaman, Panthay, Myedu, and other Muslim groups - who are,
by the way, quite opposed to the Bengali Muslim agenda.]
Muslims supported the 1988 uprising for democracy led by
Aung San Suu Kyi and 400 were killed in the subsequent
military crackdown, he said. [Another bit of disinformation - if,
indeed, 400 Muslims (or a smaller number) were killed, they
would have nearly all been non-Bengali Muslims.]
The Rohingya Solidarity Organization’s bimonthly newsletter
names Muslims it says have been murdered, raped, tortured,
arrested, or dismissed from their jobs. Eleven murder victims
were listed in the first four months of 1991.
Miah, the new commander, said three boys were beaten to
death June 3 in the Maungdaw district of Arakan for allegedly
visiting a mujahideen camp.
“Before the army had that excuse, Muslims were beaten and
killed just because they were Muslims,” he said.
Abdul Rashid, a former Rangoon businessman who is now a mujahideen commander, said
the only alternative for Rohingya Muslims is independence, a word often used in the camp.
“Fight or die: this is the only way left for us,” said Zakariya, who lost his job at Akyab College
in Arakan in 1976 and now is the organization’s secretary for mujahideen affairs, equivalent to
a defense minister.
He said the Rohingya Solidarity Organization has been planning the insurgency for nine years
and is better prepared than were previous Muslim guerrilla groups.
3
“Today we have at least 10 to 15 times more weapons, and more modern weapons, and our
organizational control and discipline is much better,” he said. “Before… there was no control
over the mujahideen or the organizational setup. Now, nobody is lying lazy. Everyone is being
educated and trained.”
Some are veterans of other guerrilla operations.
Ruhul Amin, 26, who left Burma in 1964 after beatings by Magh students, said he came here
after six months of military training in Pakistan with the mujahideen of Afghanistan.
The Rohingya mujahideen have built their own fairly sophisticated radios, mainly using parts
from shipwrecks, to communicate with the network of camps.
Zakariya said they are able to monitor Burmese military communications.
The camp has 385 chickens and a thatched-roof hospital with a nine-man medical team.

By Rick Heizman, August 16, 2020

Photos and Videos of Arakan at: arakan-reality.smugmug.com - go to Conflict videos

Photos and Videos of all of Myanmar at: rickheizman.smugmug.com

Papers at scribd.com/rheizman

Facebook: Rick Harmony

YouTube: Richard Heizman

Email: [email protected]
[email protected]

See this short video about the incredible evidence, data, and intel we got from a captured
computer of a high ARSA / Mujahidin commander:
https://arakan-reality.smugmug.com/ARAKAN-the-CONFLICT-VIDEOS/SEIZED-
COMPUTER-OF-ARSA-COMMANDER/i-8QXgGZp/A