While Rick Heizman was busy all day with translations, a journalist friend arrived to give me a tour of Sittwe. An obvious feature in downtown Sittwe is a No-Go Zone guarded by security forces. There are several No-Go Zones in Sittwe since the 2012 Islamic insurgency, but the one in downtown Sittwe is different, because […]
Seven Days in Rakhine: Day Four — Victims of Jihad Tell Their Stories
When we arrived in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine, Rick Heizman had a delegation of people waiting for him to discuss his victim testimonies for the Independent Commission Of Enquiry (ICOE). This independent commission was set up to collect a database of victims from the 2017 insurgency by the ARSA Rohingya terrorists. The body of […]
Seven Days in Rakhine: Day Three — Some Truth About the Murder of Ma Thida Htwe (Part 3)
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. […]
Seven Days in Rakhine: Day Three — Some Truth About the Murder of Ma Thida Htwe (Part 2)
The family friend started by explaining some background to the situation. He was the person who found her mutilated body after the intensive search, but was sentenced to a year in jail for posting the infamous pictures of the body from the crime scene on social media. There is a large population of Bengalis in […]
Seven Days in Rakhine: Day Three — Some Truth About the Murder of Ma Thida Htwe (Part 1)
Few murder cases have had the impact on a country that the horrific case of Ma Thida Htwe had. On May 28, 2012, Ma Thida Htwe was gang raped, robbed and murdered by three Bengali Muslims in the district south of Kyauk Phyu at the edge of Ramree Island. The murder of Ma Thida Htwe […]
Seven Days in Rakhine: Day Two — The Bengali Siege of Kyauk Phyu
The 2012 siege of Kyauk Phyu began at the mosque near the edge of the Muslim quarter situated between two ethnic Rakhine areas, which is now an empty field. In order to reach the town center, ethnic Rakhines needed to cross the Bengali village. Adjacent to the now overgrown field remains a derelict house, which […]
Seven Days in Rakhine: Day One — The Kyauk Phyu No-Go Zone
The day is bright and sunny, another fresh day as you go to the market stalls to get some things for supper. However, on the way you begin to hear frightened screaming, and wonder at the commotion. Then you start seeing smoke and fire, and people are running for their lives. As you continue through […]
Sri Lanka: Iranian Woman Caught Smuggling Drugs in a False Bottom Suitcase
It is not uncommon for Muslim women to be involved with drug trafficking in Sri Lanka, especially in the heroin trade, as several Muslim women were connected to the historic heroin seizure on December 31, 2018, stemming from a previous heroin bust a few weeks earlier involving a Muslim woman. Now a 24-year-old Iranian woman […]
Sri Lanka: Muslim students desecrate ancient sacred Buddhist monument
On the evening of January 23, 2019, a special police task force arrested seven engineering students, with another subsequent arrest on the morning of January 24, for violating the archaeological Antiquities Act by taking pictures atop an ancient chethiya (stupa) at the large 250 acre Kiralagala Archaeological Reserve in Horowpathana, North Central Province, Sri Lanka. […]
Sri Lanka: New Islamic State chapter behind the recent high explosives seizure
Authorities in Sri Lanka have confirmed that the massive explosives seizure at a remote compound in Wanathawilluwa was actually a training camp for the Islamic State (IS) that attempted to detonate multiple high explosive bombs targeting historic Buddhist monuments in the ancient city of Anuradhapura. This is the first actual terror threat from the Islamic […]
Sri Lanka: Organ Harvesting of Foreign Workers in Islamic Countries
A heinous crime preying on an economic underclass is growing worldwide: organ trafficking. Make no mistake, organ trafficking is a crime of economic circumstance, stripping the body parts of victims, all of whom are economically underprivileged, in order to sell them for organ transplants to affluent people who can afford expensive life-saving surgery. In some […]
Sri Lanka: A closer look at the Ampara riots over claims Muslims plotted to taint food with sterilization pills
Last year in Sri Lanka there was a disturbing story involving a tainted food scare with “Wanda Pethi,” or sterilization pills, from a Muslim-owned restaurant that evolved into riots in the eastern city of Ampara. Aside from the completely sanitized media response, it can easily be demonstrated that these fears are not groundless, as there […]
Sri Lanka: Major Islamic terror attack thwarted on ancient Buddhist shrines
During the search for suspects wanted for a series of anti-Buddhist hate crimes in Mawanella, on January 17, 2019, where several Buddha statues were destroyed several weeks before, the authorities in Sri Lanka discovered a large amount of high explosives (100 kg, or 220 pounds), along with 100 detonators and various other items, including firearms, […]
Sri Lanka: New Information on the Historic Drug Seizure from Islamic Gangs
Startling new information has been released about the historic narcotics seizure in Dehiwala, Sri Lanka on December 31, 2018. As mentioned in a previous article here, the drug seizure was related to the growing problem of Islamic gangs in Sri Lanka. The new information suggests that the heroin seized in Sri Lanka originated from Pakistan, […]
Sri Lanka: Historic Narcotics Seizure From Islamic Gangs
There are indications the war on drugs has intensified in Sri Lanka over 2018, ending the year with this massive narcotics seizure. On December 31, 2018, the Sri Lankan Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) conducted a raid on a large, upscale house in Dehiwala, south of Colombo, where the house was being occupied by two men […]
Another Anti-Buddhist Hate Crime in Sri Lanka
In the early hours on the 26th of December, at least two revered statues of Buddha were vandalized in the Delgahagoda village near Mawanella, Sri Lanka, by two Muslim youths. One youth was captured by residents of the house next to the Buddha statue after they heard the sound of breaking glass. After the incident, […]