From the interviews we learned the truth: in life, Ma Thida Htwe was a pious, peaceful, kind and loving person who came from a loving family that did nothing to deserve this evil. From these hours we spent with the victim’s family, we gathered much information about this important crime in a very remote place. We had a glimpse into the real life of Ma Thida Htwe, as her mother brought along many of her possessions for us to see. Ma Thida Htwe was a beautiful young woman in her twenties when she lost her life in this heinous crime. Her deepest thoughts were of the Dhamma and pure goodness, which is reflected through her personal writings and letters to her mother while studying meditation in Yangon before her murder. Her clothes gave us an idea of her tiny physical stature, being no match for the three armed Bengali murderers who followed her from the roadside restaurant with such evil intentions. Ma Thida Htwe will be forever missed by her family and friends.
Since the interviews, Rick Heizman has completed some of his work on the murder of Ma Thida Htwe.
One of the Bengali murderers has been called a Rakhine Buddhist by Islamists, which is an unsubstantiated claim refuted by the Rakhines in the township of Kyauk Ni Maw, including the family of Ma Thida Htwe, who can actually identify the origins of the criminals. Remember, the Bengalis were segregated from the ethnic Rakhines in the village tract, so there was little social contact between them, but the rest of the villagers in the tract know one another in some way, including the small settlement of Kaman Muslims, and can identify each other as part of their community. Furthermore, the murderers were reported missing from their Bengali village on the morning after Ma Thida Htwe disappeared. These claims of a Rakhine Buddhist among the murderers are meant to dilute the real impact of the story in a divisive manner using identity politics. These claims are similar to how the Bangladeshi Islam apologist Dr. Habib Siddiqui, dissident activist Maung Zarni and the ARSA Rohingya terrorists try to whitewash the horrific sexual violence, rape, robbery and barbaric cruelty of the killing as “simply murder.”
As we have already seen, these dangerous pundits and Islamic terrorists have no ethical boundaries; there is no low to which they will not descend in order to protect their flawed storyline in Rakhine, because truth means nothing to them. For Siddiqui and Zarni, these lies translate directly into power and wealth. They have both made a lucrative living by masterfully telling one side of a story at the expense of the victims, with partial truths or outright falsehoods.
Without any doubt, the 2012 heinous gang rape, robbery and murder of Ma Thida Htwe by three Bengalis became one of the most politically divisive murder cases the world has seen. In the aftermath, fury arose about the gruesome nature of her rape and murder, from the pictures that were posted on social media. Information began circulating that the fugitives were fleeing to Thandwe, and were being protected by the police in another perceived subversion of justice amid the ongoing rape crisis by Bengalis against Rakhines in Kyauk Ni Maw township. On June 3, 2012, a large group of outraged Rakhines went to Thandwe looking for the fugitives, who were actually in police custody. A bus carrying ten Bengali imams and other influential Bengalis, all sent by the headquarters of the Muslim League from Yangon, was spotted travelling to southern Rakhine in the direction of Thandwe. When the bus was stopped, the delegation of Bengalis visiting the murderers from Yangon was taken from the bus and beaten to death by the angry mob, because they initially thought the bus was concealing the fugitives for their escape.
Indeed, these so-called pilgrims, mostly from Yangon, were on their way back from visiting the murderers at the police station, giving the families of the murderers support, donations and money, while doubtless trying to somehow secure the release of the murderers. Meanwhile, the family of Ma Thida Htwe, who are the real victims, ironically received nothing from these people. This delegation of influential Bengalis from Yangon didn’t even meet with the victim’s family to help them. Jihadists wrongly label the ten murdered Bengalis as pilgrims, which is false by definition, because their objective in Rakhine was not to visit any holy or sacred site, but rather to help the murderers at the expense of the real victims. As of late July 2012, thirty Rakhines had been arrested for these murders of the ten Bengalis on the bus.
On June 8, 2012, thousands of Bengalis had been organized at the grand mosque in Maungdaw after Friday prayers to go on a deadly, violent rampage against the minority of ethnic Rakhines living there, reportedly incited by the recent murder of the Bengali “pilgrims” from Yangon, a theory that only reflects part of the story. In the hierarchical worldview of their Islamic supremacy, the brutal rape and murder of an idol worshipper, and what’s more, a woman, Ma Thida Htwe, meant nothing to these Bengalis, so her death was not even a consideration for them. From their warped perspective, the fact of three “innocent” Bengalis facing execution over the fictitious rape and murder of an ethnic Rakhine woman, a sub-human idol worshipper, was also grounds for their insurgency in Maungdaw.
At the time, this sentiment from the Bengalis circulated online. This theme is continued even today by Islamic propagandists, reflected by the terrorists of ARSA, Dr. Siddiqui and Maung Zarni among others, who call it “simply murder” as part of a larger conspiracy directed against the Bengalis in Rakhine. Any retaliation in Maungdaw was an outrage directed at one side of the tragedy only — namely, ten Bengali “pilgrims” from the bus and three “innocent” Bengalis facing execution, whereas the crimes leading up to these events never existed. These people will never admit that three Bengalis were guilty in the rape, robbery and murder of Ma Thida Htwe without making all kinds of excuses, because her life means nothing to them; she is dehumanized as a kaffir.
During the several months of the statewide insurgency in 2012, the Bengalis waged a continual campaign of lethal violence against the ethnic Rakhine villages, as in Maungdaw as in the siege of Kyauk Phyu. This was a poorly organized, but premeditated and deliberate attempt to establish an autonomous Islamic state in Rakhine. The sequence of events has changed the history of Rakhine and of Myanmar itself, because following the murder of Ma Thida Htwe, the social fabric was irreparably torn, with escalating violence. Sometime shortly after this failed insurgency in late 2012, the ARSA Rohingya terror organization, backed by entities in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, began organizing in Rakhine, which culminated with the most recent insurgency for an Islamic state there in late August 2017.
To emphasize the point made by the family of Ma Thida Htwe in the interviews, if the mawlawi had not lied to protect the murderers at the critical moment of the missing persons search, in all likelihood Ma Thida Htwe would still be alive today. So events in the aftermath of her murder would never have happened in Rakhine. The course of recent history in Rakhine State, and Myanmar, would have a very different outcome without this one insidious lie from the mawlawi using the deception of taqiyya.
San San Maw says
There were thousands of untold stories under attacked of so called Rohingya for many years. The last attacked was Rakhines and Hindus said if military don’t come the entire regions of natives will be wipe out.
gravenimage says
Seven Days in Rakhine: Day Three — Some Truth About the Murder of Ma Thida Htwe (Part 3)
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Just horrifying. This is how Muslims behave everywhere.
kiran says
In india there was lot of publicity by establishment media regarding how much persecution the rohingyas are facing without mentioning the reason behind it.
Cicero says
Yes because the “secular Indian media “ are too busy appeasing the exploding Muslim population in India whilst indulging in “ minorityism “ politics”
nomoreignorantofIslam says
Everybody, with exception of a few investigative researchers, in the non-Islamic world are being duped and deceived by constant claims of Muslim victimhood in international media. Thank you for bringing this to public attention. Most people in the non-Islamic world are still ignorant of hateful Islamic teachings contained in their religious texts. The more longer we are ignorant, the more quicker we all are going to face subjugation under Islam.