Monks call on UN to stop attacks in Bangladesh

Source: Radio Australia News
http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/201003/2838134.htm?desktop

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Bangladeshi Buddhist monks want the United Nations to intervene. [Reuters]

Ron Corben, Bangkok

Last Updated: Fri, 5 Mar 2010 20:09:00 +1100

A group of Bangladeshi Buddhist monks have called on the United Nations to intervene and halt attacks on Buddhist communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region of south-eastern Bangladesh, which borders both India and Myanmar.

They say attacks by Bengali Muslims and the Bangladesh military in late February have left at least two people dead, dozens injured, and still more missing after a village was set ablaze.

Speaking at a protest outside the United Nations in Bangkok, a member of the Bangladesh Jumma Buddhist Forum, Monk Arjun Chakma, said the Baghaichari massacre occurred in Chittagong Hill Tracts between February 19 and 23.

"The whole village was burned down by the military and the Bangladeshi Muslim. The illegal Muslim they try to grab our land and since in the long time the Bangladesh government try to clean the indigenous people and Bangladesh government try to make us Muslims but we are Buddhist people, we never want to come back into other religions," he said.

Monk Arjun Chakma showed reporters photographs taken of the scene of the attack. It included the destruction of a Buddha statue given to the community by Thailand.

"They put the fire into the village and all the village destroyed, right, you see. That person was shot by the military but he was taken to the medical treatment and the hospital but he is not alive now.... This is a military truck whom oppress the Jumma Buddhist people and this is the village burning down."

"We would like to request to the United Nations to take the action and to send news to the Bangladesh Prime Minister to end the military operation on Jumma indigenous people, stop the looting, stop the grabbing land, stop the human violence."

Rights group Amnesty international has called on the Bangladesh government to carry out an independent investigation into the attacks.

Amnesty says while government officials confirmed two deaths, local people feared at least six more Jumma indigenous people were killed on 20 February, but their bodies were not recovered.