Page 68 - Beautiful Rohingyas

66 Beautiful Rohingyas

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Arakanese Muslims run from their hometowns
Arakan upon the mass arrests of religious leaders,
community leaders and the Muslim population by
Myanmar Administration.
Chris Lewa, the coordinator of the non-governmen-
tal organization called Arakan Project stated that 8
thousand Muslims left Arakan in one week and this fig-
ure was higher than that of all Arakanese people
escaping the region in 2013. Lewa indicated that Mus-
lims leaving Arakan went to Thailand and Malaysia on
boats and Myanmar police stood by throughout all
these events.
Lewa added that religious leaders and religious
community leaders were successively arrested in the
last period, and some arrestees were tortured
to death and this "c caused panic among
the public".
The report stated that Muslim com-
munities, especially the Rohingya in
Myanmar were increasingly mar-
ginalized for years in the social and
political life. The report also noted
that the majority of Muslim popula-
tion was not completely given the
status of citizenship and efforts
were now made in the parliament
to revoke the right to vote of Mus-
lims.