Chittagong, Bangladesh: A 124 year-old Muslim cemetery was demolished by the Burmese military regime’s Engineers’ Corps from Pegu Division on December 16, 2010, according to a statement issued by the Burmese Muslim Association (MBA).

The ancient Muslim cemetery was situated near the Rangoon-Mandalay highway road. It had been donated in 1886 by the Satshin Justice (U Rasul Bauk) to bury Muslims who died from incidents on the highway, and was situated together with an ancient mosque to perform prayers, a religious school for Muslim children, and several tombs of saints who had spent their entire lives in religious services, the statement said.

The military regime, then called the Burmese Socialist Program Party (BSPP), banned burying dead bodies in the cemetery on April 22, 1987, and the performing of all other Islamic religious services have been completely banned since 2005, the statement reported. “From 2002 to 2005, the military regime partly demolished the cemetery.”

“Local authorities issued a notice to the cemetery’s trustee members to hand over the keys to the local authorities before 15 June 2010, but the trustees decided to resist the order of local authorities,” according to a member of the trustees. “Then the municipality and military bulldozers started to demolish the walls without prior notice on December 16 at 3 p.m.”

The land was registered as religious property and approved by the regime’s own law, the trustee said.

The SPDC mentions in law 9/98 that if any building is listed as historical property, removal, evacuation, and demolition are prohibited. SPDC law protects such property by law, which is mentioned in Act (2), Paragraph b-4.

Muslims from Pegu and the village neighboring the cemetery were angered by this clearly illegal crime of the military regime. However, this action is in line with the usual practice of the military regime since they took power in 1962; all the minorities believe that they have been discriminated against and persecuted by the regime, according to a local resident from Pegu.

Muslims in Pegu are now preparing for retaliation against the authorities if they move forward with plans to demolish the Islamic religious school located in the cemetery grounds, the local said.

The five major Muslim organizations in Burma are appealing to the authorities regarding this incident, the MBA stated.

A former NLD youth leader from Pegu, Ko Myo Win, is preparing to file the details of this matter to the NLD and the ILO, and the Muslims are seeking the help of Daw Aung San Su Kyi to resolve this matter, the statement concluded.