In-depth: What next for Myanmar? MYANMAR: What next for the Rohingyas?

Source from IRIN, 29 Mar 2012
BANGKOK, 29 March 2012 (IRIN) - As Myanmar gears up for a by-election on 1 April, experts and community leaders are divided over what the ongoing reforms may hold for the Rohingya people, a stateless Muslim ethnic group living in the country's Northern Rakhine State.

Only a fraction of the Rohingyas who have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh are registered

Candidate and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has highlighted ethnic conflicts as the country's most urgent problem. In January the government signed a ceasefire with ethnic Karen rebels in southern Burma to halt one of the world's longest running civil wars.

But to the frustration of Nurul Islam, president of the London-based Arakan Rohingya National Organization, "There is no change of attitude of the new civilian government of U Thein Sein towards Rohingya people; there is no sign of change in the human rights situation of Rohingya people. Persecution against them is actually greater than before."

Statelessness

The Rohingya are not legally recognized in Myanmar and struggle with a lack of access to healthcare, food and education.

There are some 800,000 stateless Muslims, mostly Rohingyas, who form 90 percent of the population of northern Rakhine State, which borders Bangladesh and includes the townships of Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung.

Known as Arakan State in British colonial times, in 1989 the ruling military junta changed its name to Rakhine State to reflect the dominant ethnic group, the Rakhine Buddhists. Communal violence between Muslims and Buddhists has led to periodic large-scale riots, forcing hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas to flee to Bangladesh.

The heavily populated (295 persons per square kilometre compared to 80 persons nationwide), primarily rural and disaster-prone zone suffers from a consistently high rate of global acute malnutrition that exceeds the World Health Organization emergency threshold of 15 percent, according to the European Community Humanitarian Office.

In early 2011, the UN World Food Programme reported 45 percent of surveyed households in Northern Rakhine State as “severely food insecure”, compared to 38 percent in 2009.

Some 200,000 Rohingya have fled west from Myanmar into neighbouring Bangladesh. Almost 30,000 are documented and living in two government camps, assisted by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), but hundreds of thousands more have been living illegally nearby since the Bangladeshi government stopped registering arrivals.

Recognition

Given the unprecedented pace of change in Myanmar, Eric Paulsen, co-founder of the Malaysia-based human rights and law reform NGO, Lawyers for Liberty, has advised Rohingyas to make the most of the current political opening.

Rohingya activists have long demanded recognition as a national ethnic group with full citizenship by birthright, but Paulsen thinks they should push for naturalization.

"Naturalized citizenship is not on a par with national ethnic group recognition, but at present it remains the most realistic and workable solution to their statelessness," Paulsen recently wrote.

The Arakan Rohingya National Organization is pursuing full recognition and is unhappy about a perceived lack of support. "Obviously she [Aung San Suu Kyi] is ignoring the Rohingya problem, a key human rights issue in Burma," said Islam.

"However, still the Rohingyas have high expectations of her. Rather than avoiding the Rohingya people and their problem, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi should take all measures to formally accommodate Rohingya into the family of the Union of Burma, with full ethnic and citizenship rights, as one of the many ethnic nationalities of the country."

Tin Soe, the editor of the Bangladesh-based Rohingya newsgroup, Kaladan Press Network, noted that elections do not necessarily equate democracy, without which Rohingyas cannot gain legal recognition.

"We Rohingya will fight for our rights in the parliament if democracy comes to Burma," Soe told IRIN. "Then we will lobby the parliament, hold demonstrations, show them the results of our fact finding. Now you basically have the armed forces still in power - with them you cannot do anything."

Repatriation fears

Following Myanmar's transition from military to a nominally civilian government in 2010, many Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh were briefly hopeful, but soon disappointed.

"After the 2010 election the Rohingya situation is going from worse to worse," said Soe. Rohingyas were given voting rights in the 2010 elections and promised citizenship if they voted for the military regime's representatives, he added.

Photo: Photo courtesy of The Arakan Project

Life on the run for Rohingyas

"Citizenship is still not restored," said Islam. "Killing, rape, harassment, torture and atrocious crimes of border security forces and armed forces have increased. The humiliating restrictions on their freedom of movement, education, marriage, trade and business still remain imposed."

The Bangladeshi government has sought support for repatriating Rohingya refugees to Myanmar and according to Bangladeshi media, representatives of the Burmese government have said the country is ready to "take" them back.

"The refugees are against repatriation because conditions in Northern Rakhine State have not improved at all, so the announcement has created a new panic in the [Bangladeshi] camps," said Chris Lewa, who monitors the Rohingya situation for the Arakan Project, an NGO advocating Rohingya issues in Myanmar.

"They don't know what will happen," Lewa said. "The fear is there that harassment in the camps [to force repatriation] may happen again soon."

ms/pt/he

For more, visit IRIN's in-depth: What next for Myanmar?

BRAT Refutation to Racist Rakhaing Letter to U Thein Sein

Source from mayyunaddi, 21 Mar 2012

First of all as a native of Maungdaw,I would like to say that the letter to U Thein Sein which was written by some former Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) aka MASALA followers non native migrated Rakhaing was completely baseless and funny.I rejected the facts and condemned it.

Note: U Kyaw Nu is a former student leader of Rangoon University who led demonstration in relating to the U Thant, the then UN Secretary General

Here, I would like to present and discuss about Aung Myo Min @Jahangir (MP-Arakan State Parliament);
He is graduated from Rangoon University (RASU) and a senior teacher of High School ,Maungdaw. His father U Rachid Ahamed was an elected MP of U Nu's democratic government and was also a teacher of State Middle School of Kyin Chaung (Bawli Bazar).

Aung Myo Min (a) Jahangir MP's grand father's father was Late Gazi Abdul Gafur Chowdhury who was a Zawmindar and an owner (ruler ) of Gazirbill Estate.The whole land of the area is owned by him.

Aung Myo Min (a)Jahangir MP's grand father's maternal grand father was Dobashi Mohamed Ali Chowdhury who was a Zaminder and an owner (ruler ) of Gnan Chaung Estate(Naine Chaung) .He was a single owner of land of the estate.In Burmese it called (Pyuu zuu gaung) as like as Sawbwa in Shan State.the said Dobashi Mohamed Ali Chowdhury was also maternal grand father of mine. In this famliy connection ,Aung Myo Min @ Jahangir is my nephew. As per our family tradition, he has to regard me as his father and I have to love and admire him as my own son.

However ,the readers can analyses here , e a Banghow USDP MP Sayar Aung Myo Min Jahangir s/o Sayar Rashid Ahmed MP can bangali ?? He can proudly state his grand father's grand fathers family records and names. He can proudly state his relatives were enjoyed the top bureaucratic posts like Auditor General (Ngwe Saryinn Mingyi ), Post Master General (Sar Thai Mingyi), President's gold medal awarded police high ranking officer,University teacher ,Divisional and District high ranking officers etc.

How JahangirMP can be a Bangali foreigner ??

If the reader will like to know more ,you can get more detail of him from my cousins U Saw Lwin (Retired in 1988 as Audit General ) and U Aung Myint (Retired in 2000s as Divisional /District Administration officer) who are living in Rangoon.The said persons are uncles of him.

The others USDP /NDDP MPs are also descendant of a well to do families.They can present their fore fathers' records.

I can bravely challenge that there is not a single Bangali in Arakan.Every Rohingya has fore fathers' family records.They are glorious decsdant of Rohang/Arakan.

If the U Thein Sein's Administrations were not drunk ,they will not believe this type of low grade letter.

U Ne Win made so called laws including 1982 were okayed for a few collaborators. They are former MASALA's brain children racists. Even this black laws can't challenge the Rohingyas .Our History used to start since the human explored the area Rohang/Arakan. We don't need to care this barking dogs.Their times are counting.We will defend our identities since a Rohingya was alive.

Sincerely,

Maung Kyaw Nu

President

Burmese Rohingya Association in Thailand (BRAT)

Asia's New Boat People

Source from myanmathadin.com, 17 March 2012


A Muslim minority group unrecognized by Burma's military regime has sparked a diplomatic flurry, as they take to the high seas to escape persecution.

Rohingya asylum-seekers aboard a Thai Navy vessel, December 2008. Photo courtesy of Thai Navy.

BANGKOK—Burma's Muslim Rohingya minority are routinely persecuted by powerful local officials in the northern state of Rakhine, the Rohingya and their advocates say.

"In Rakhine state, it is as if martial law has been imposed," a Rohingya refugee now living in Malaysia said in an interview.

"The Rohingya have to get permission from local authorities just to go from one village to another."

Permits for movement between villages are usually only issued for periods of seven days to people needing to seek medical treatment, the refugee said.

"Additionally, one has to have his travel documents stamped at each stage of the journey."

The refugee said the Muslim minority group—which Burma has refused to recognize as citizens, saying they are from Bangladesh—is also vulnerable to forced, unpaid labor for the military.

"On top of all these restrictions, we have to worry about being taken away by the military to serve as porters in their military operations," he said.

"They also take away our cattle, goats, and ducks when they come into our villages, and if they cannot get 'donations' they beat up the villagers."

Vulnerable group

Faced with a lack of legal status and the threat of persecution, thousands of Rohingya have left Burma in recent years.

Rights groups say they are particularly vulnerable to human traffickers, and their case is now being taken up by the Bali Process, a human-smuggling summit involving more than 40 regional nations.

The Rohingya drew global attention this year when the Thai military was accused of towing the boats of as many as 1,000 asylum-seekers out to sea and leaving them to drift at the mercy of the currents without adequate food and water.

Hundreds of thousands have fled to refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh or attempted the perilous sea crossing to Southeast Asia.

But talks between Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and Burmese police chief Brigadier-General Khin Yi ended with little more than a reiteration of the Burmese government's refusal to recognize the Rohingya as Burmese.

Australia has pledged U.S. $3.2 million to aid programs set up for the Rohingya.

Local officials blamed

U Min Lwin Oo, a lawyer with the Asian Human Rights Commission, said orders imposing restrictions on the Rohingya, who are concentrated near the border with Bangladesh, are issued by local district and township authorities rather than the central government.

"The township local authorities have lot of leeway to do what they want," he said.

"We have found documents and papers which give the township local authorities the right to issue orders without receiving authorizations from the federal center."

These include "such things as requiring foreigners or persons suspected of being foreigners, whether they are government officials or not, to apply for permission in advance before they plan to travel."

"Also there are specific regulations requiring those persons to apply for permission from the local townships to get married and have marriage ceremonies," U Min Lwin Oo added.

A stark contrast

And Thailand-based rights activist Chris Leewa, who founded the nonprofit Arakan Project to raise the profile of the Rohingya, said the group is fragmented and disempowered through lack of education.

This is in stark contrast with the days of Rohingya political ascendancy during the U Nu government of the 1950s, which saw a number of high-profile Muslims enter the cabinet, with official support for the Rohingya language.

"There is very little advocacy done on the Rohingya people," she said.

"There are very few educated Rohingyas, and they do not know how to do things systematically," she said.

"On top of that they are not able to build up unity amongst themselves. The human rights organizations active in the Southeast Asian region are also not interested in the Rohingya issue."

Thousands of refugees

The Rohingya are denied citizenship under the laws of mainly Buddhist Burma, and rights groups say they face official repression and poverty.

More than 100,000 live in Bangladesh in refugee camps registered with the United Nations refugee agency.

In 1992, 250,000 Rohingya, around one-third of their total population, fled over Burma’s border into Bangladesh, citing persecution in Burma.

Rights advocates estimate that the number of Rohingya fleeing the Burma-Bangladesh border area to seek a better life elsewhere has increased from hundreds to thousands over the last five years.

The Rohingya take to the sea for a dangerous voyage in boats, putting their lives in the hands of human traffickers and facing brutal treatment by the Thai and Malaysian navies when they arrive, activists say.

According to Amnesty International, the Rohingyas’ freedom of movement is severely restricted, with the vast majority having been effectively denied Burmese citizenship.

"They are also subjected to various forms of extortion and arbitrary taxation; land confiscation; forced eviction and house destruction; and financial restrictions on marriage," the group said in a recent report.

"Rohingyas continue to be used as forced laborers on roads and at military camps, although the amount of forced labor in northern Rakhine state has decreased over the last decade."

Diverse roots

A senior Burmese senior official recent described the Rohingya as “ugly as ogres” and insisted that they should not be described as Burmese nationals.

The Rohingyas themselves say they are Muslim descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan traders, who migrated to Burma as early as the 7th century A.D. But their ethnic identity isn't widely recognized.

"These people were not known as Rohingyas in the past," rights lawyer U Min Lwin Oo said.

"When Burma was under [British] colonial rule, these people came in from India to various parts of Burma to work as seasonal laborers. Most of these people were from the areas that are adjacent to the borders with India and Bangladesh."

{mosgoogle}"If we look into the evidence of the past, we will not find these people specifically classified as Rohingyas. We will find them as being classified as Bengalis. What I can assume is that after Burma became independent those people living in Burma started to classify themselves as Rohingyas," he added.

Embattled Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has promised a full investigation into Thailand's treatment of Rohingya refugees, thousands of whom are also grouped in camps on the Thai-Burma border. He has also called for a regional solution.

Original reporting by Zaw Moe Kyaw for RFA's Burmese service. Director: Nancy Shwe. Translated by Soe Thinn. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

Suu Kyi feels sorry for Myanmar refugees

Source from Free Malaysia Today, , 25 Feb 2011

 

Despite having been kept in isolation and under house arrest for 14 years, Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi's priority is still freeing her people from the junta.

KUALA LUMPUR: Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi feels empathy for her fellow Myanmar citizens who have been forced to seek shelter as illegal refugees in Malaysia.
“I am very sorry that conditions in our country are such that the Burmese (Myanmars) have been forced to become refugees.
“We hope that the day will come when they will be able to return to their homes in safety,” she told reporters here over the telephone from Myanmar.
Released three months ago after being under house arrest for 14 years, Suu Kyi also had a few words for Malaysians.
“To the people of Malaysia, I would like to say, thank you for letting the refugees stay,” she said, without missing a beat.
Acknowledging that refugees were difficult issues for many countries, she said: “We would like them (the home countries) to look upon these refugees with compassion and understanding.”
Nearly 100,000 Burmese refugees reside in Malaysia, with over 10,000 of them children.
As refugees, they are not recognised here. Malaysia classifies them as illegal immigrants.

Help needed
As such, many have been mistreated and rounded up into detention centres.
Some have been trafficked, never to be seen again.
“We are trying to do everything we can to alleviate conditions in which they (refugees) are living in,” Suu Kyi said, calling on donor countries and NGOs for help.
She also said that there were efforts to create an international Burmese network for both refugees and migrant workers.
Nevertheless, the embattled Burmese leader said that Myanmar needed to change if the refugee problem was to be arrested.
“Nobody wants to run away across the border and live in refugee camps. They do so only because conditions here are so bad.
“In order to stop them from being a problem to the rest of the world, we have to try and change conditions in Burma.”
Political conditions
Myanmar has been under the thumb of a military junta for nearly 50 years.
Decried by many around the world as an oppressive regime, the junta has kept an iron grip over nearly all facets of Burmese life.
The junta has also detained more than 2,000 political opponents in the country.
Refering to the prisoners, Suu Kyi said: “They are kept in appalling conditions.
“The fact that I have been released is nothing to celebrate about, as long as there are 2,000 more still  in prison.”
The Burmese leader also denounced MPs in her country’s newest Parliament as nothing more than “showpieces”.
It is not difficult to see why, with sessions in Myanmar’s Parliament, the Hluttaw, lasting for not more than 15 minutes each.
Suu Kyi’s own political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), was rendered illegal by the military junta in May 2010, months before the country’s first election in 20 years.
Even so, she said that her party still commanded a firm support base throughout the country, especially among Myanmar’s youth.

Media in Burma
Suu Kyi also commented on the junta’s direct control of her country’s mass media.
“There is no freedom of the media yet in Burma,” Suu Kyi said, referring to the recent arrest of Myanmar Times editor Ross Dunkley.
Dunkley, who founded the Yangon-based English-language weekly, was accused of assaulting a woman in January.
Although the woman withdrew the complaint, the junta decided to pursue the matter.
The Myanmar Times is also the only newspaper in the country with foreign investors, a detail which Suu Kyi questioned.

With a heavily censored media system, Myanmar stands at position 174 out of 178 countries, according to the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres.
“It would help if we could try to expand the limits of what journalists can do in Burma. I think we all have to work towards greater freedom of information.
“But I don’t know whether that kind of freedom (can be achieved) by investing in Burma’s media through the authorities,” she said.
Suu Kyi added that it was not practical to use Twitter and Facebook in Myanmar at this stage, due to stringent Internet restrictions.
“We have made an application to the relevant departments,” she said, adding that she hoped to use both tools in the future.

Middle East comparisons
Suu Kyi also told reporters that the current unrest in the Middle East was not reported in Myanmar’s media.
Nevertheless, she said that those familiar with events in the Arab world compared them with Myanmar’s own uprising in 1988.
Back then, thousands of Burmese civilians including Buddhist monks were killed by the military junta after holding demonstrations across the country.
Suu Kyi said that the Burmese have stood up against the junta many times before, only to be gunned down by the army.
While she said that the Libyan army was divided on how to treat its citizens, she added that the Burmese junta had no such inhibitions.

Rohingyas: a people both with, and without, an origin

Source from thenews.com.pk, 17 February 2012

 

There are some three to four hundred thousands of them in the city, but, according to the law, they simply do not exist. The Burmese Muslims - known as Rohingyas –make up a sizable portion of illegal immigrants living in Karachi, and, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), are considered to be one of the most persecuted ethnic groups in the world.
Although they are often misconstrued as Bengalis, the Rohingyas, both culturally and linguistically, are very much different from the people of Bangladesh. “For the layman, they are all Bangladeshis, but the Burmese people are poles apart in every way, even in terms of facial features,” said Muhammad Khan Lodhi, an assistant director at the National Alien Registration Authority (Nara).

History

“The Rohingyas are a stateless people,” says Daniyal Rizvi of the Futuristic Foundation, a social research institute that works extensively on issues of illegal immigration and human trafficking in South Asia.

Rizvi said that a majority of the Burmese people living in Pakistan belong to the Arkan province of Myanmar. The Rohingyas are not considered Burmese by the government of Myanmar because they are not of a ‘pure Buddhist bloodline’.

In the late 70s, and again in early 90s, two major Rohingya exoduses took place. Their people were, for all intents and purposes, forced to leave their home country due to the imposition of laws that restricted their intermarriage and religious freedom. They took refuge in Bangladesh.

“There is not a single mosque in the whole of the Arkan province – a state where 70 percent of the population is Muslim, even after multiple resettlement programmes by the state to bring down the Muslim population,” added Rizvi, who has visited Myanmar nine times for research on these issues.

The Bangladeshi government does not consider them refugees. The Rohigyas live on the roads from Teknaf (the Bangladesh-Myanmar border) to Chittagong and are hounded by the police. They have no land of their own.

Life in the city

“My parents came to Pakistan because it is a Muslim country,” said Shabbir Hussain, a taxi driver and a madrassa graduate.

According to reports, there are 65 shantytowns populated by Rohingyas and Bengalis in which members of both communities live side by side. At least two such colonies are named after the Burmese lineage in Karachi: Arkanabad (named after the Arkan province in Burma) in Korangi Dai Number and a Burmese colony situated near Landi.

The Burmese population, like that of the Bengalis, is mainly employed by the city’s textile and fishing sector, where they have to work for ten to twelve hours a day. “They are the lumpen proletariat of Karachi,” says Salman Mukhtar, a senior social activist who works on poverty-related issues in Karachi.

“These people are basically migrant labourers. They have no legal status, no job security; they are virtually slaves to the whims of contractors who take work orders from textile and fishing companies to, for example, get an export assignment done,” he told The News.

“They work for the minimum possible wages; the Bengali and Burmese population, because of their low pay-rate, played a pivotal role in making Pakistani textiles competitive in the international market during the mid-80s and the 90s.”

Despite living in run-down shanty homes, where there is no access to electricity or clean water, the Rohingyas have managed to outstrip their Bengali counterparts in terms of being accepted by the mainstream Pakistani, a fact that does not bode well with the Bengali community leaders.

Political ambitions

The Bengalis claim that the Burmese, who started coming to Pakistan in the late 70s, call themselves Bengalis because they want an excuse to get naturalised citizenship; however, the Rohingya leadership denies having any link whatsoever to Myanmar.

“They have nothing to do with Pakistan. We are Pakistanis, we have been living here since before the fall of Dhaka, we gave sacrifices for the creation of Pakistan, we have a stake in this country,” said Masud-ur-Rehman, the general secretary of the Pak-Bangla Ittehad, a community-based Bengali organisation.

This turf war between the two groups has resulted in much political activism in recent times. Playing on the Bengali card, the Rohingyas have managed to form a party called the Action Committee which is backed by the largest political party of Karachi.

Mehsud’s claims were refuted outright by Abul Hussain Sonar, who is a member of the supreme council of the Action Committee. “We are Bengalis. We have no connection with Myanmar whatsoever. I am a second generation Pakistani. My parents migrated from Bangladesh in the 1960s.” Sonar claims that there are no Rohingyas living in Karachi, and that even if there are, there is a minimal number of them. The Bengalis, on the other hand, think that their political mandate is being exploited. Masud says the Burmese have money and are relatively better educated, which has allowed them to claim representation of the ethnic Bengalis in the city, who are at least four times more than the Rohingyas in number.

“If you actually make a comparison, you can see that there are a number of differences between our communities. For example, the Burmese have a tendency to send their children to madrassas; they are well-read and are a very close-knit community, which has given them an edge.”

Whatever the truth may be, one thing is for sure: the Rohingyas have successfully buried their violent past and have begun a new life with a new identity in the city of Karachi.

Rohingya Denied Passports to Work in Thailand

Source from Irrawaddy news, 16 Feb 2012

Ethnic Rohingya from western Burma's Arakan State say that Burmese authorities in the Thai border town of Ranong have refused to issue them the documents they need to work in Thailand legally.


Ethnic Rohingya boat people wait for medical treatment after being rescued at a port in Aceh Province, Indonesia, in February 2011. (Photo: AP)

Around 20 Rohingya currently working on the Thai resort island of Phuket said that they have been unable to obtain "border passports" because local Burmese authorities have refused to recognize them as Burmese citizens.

"They said we were lucky they didn't catch us in Kawthaung [opposite Ranong on the Burmese side of the border], or they would have had us thrown in prison," said Maung Oo, a 35-year-old Rohingya man from Buthidaung Township in Arakan State.

"For us, it is difficult to stay in any country. Even in Bangladesh, India or Thailand," he added.
The Rohingya are a Muslim minority from western Arakan State, near Burma's border with Bangladesh. Denied recognition as one of the country's more than 130 ethnic groups, they face persecution at home, forcing many to flee to other Asian countries.

According to Maung Oo, other Muslims he spoke to from Moulmein, the capital of southern Burma's Mon State, were issued passports. Only Muslims from Arakan State were rejected, he said.
"I was born in Burma and went to a Burmese school. I speak Burmese and am a Burmese citizen, but they still wouldn't give me a passport," said Sa Pwint, another Rohingya from Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State.

Sa Pwint said he and two friends went to the border twice to apply for passports, and were rejected both times because they came from Arakan State, even though they had documents to prove that they were Burmese citizens.

"They just said that all of our documents were fake," he said.
Nai Nyan, an ethnic Mon man who currently works in Thailand's Trat Province, said that when he went to Ranong to get a border passport, three Muslim women who traveled on the same bus were refused the documents.

"One woman cried in front of me. It was very sad to see," said Nai Nyan.
Andy Hall, the director of the Migrant Justice Program for the Bangkok-based Human Rights and Development Foundation, confirmed that the practice of denying border passports to Muslims from Arakan State appears to be widespread.

"I have previously received similar information, as have networks I work with, that people of Muslim ethnicity/descent"¦ were refused nationality verification (NV) temporary passports by [Burmese] authorities when questioned at the government's three NV centers in Ranong, Myawaddy and Tachilek if they said they were from Arakan State," said Hall in an email.

Burma: Homelands confiscation continues in Arakan

Source from Green Left, 5 February 2012
By Habib

Map of the 36 Rohingya villages of the Kyauktaw township in the western Burmese Arakan state along the Kaladan River.

Early in January, the Sa-Ka-Kha-9 military division based near the ancient Falom village seized about 50 houses and a mosque that had been built at the village's edge. It is one of 36 that are Rohingyan (a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority) in the Kyauktaw township in the western Burmese Arakan state along the Kaladan River.

These lands had been re-bought from the military by Falom villagers. For 17 years, until re-buying the land, the village consisted of 280 houses and some farm lands. The mosque was demolished by the military in 1995.

In recent years, the military sold-back some of these lands to the villagers. Villagers rebuilt about 50 houses and more are being built.

In 1995, the military forces led by sub-captain Mya Hlaing attacked villagers and drove them into the jungle. Dozens of villagers were detained and a few were brutally killed. The jungle was too deep and rough for the displaced villagers to live in.
Some of them went to other Rohingyan villages, some returned to stay around the graveyard of Falom village. The rest were settled near Namaungnya village.
In its latest attack, the military did not care that villagers have official papers for the land they bought back.

One Falom villager, Mr Noor, who has taken refuge in Australia, has approached Rohingya organisations to highlight his village's issue.
He said the military division responsible for the latest attack established itself near the village in about 1993 and forcefully occupied the village and lands in 1995.

The division then expanded its territory, using new techniques to extort money from villagers.
Despite promises from Burma's military-backed civilian government to end repressive policies towards Rohingya people such as "arbitrary fines, 'Muslim free zones' and extensive jail sentences," nothing has yet changed.

The fact is, the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party and the people of majority ethnic group within the Arakan state do not recognise the existence of the Rohingya people and they are still hostile towards them.
[For more information, Mr. Noor can be contacted at 0469 756 116.]

The Rohingya: Myanmar's outcasts

Source from Aljazeera, 30 Jan 2012

The Rohingya ethnic group of Myanmar is not recognised by the government [GALLO/GETTY]

This article is the first in a series by Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, a former Pakistani high commissioner to the UK, exploring how a litany of volatile centre/periphery conflicts with deep historical roots were interpreted after 9/11 in the new global paradigm of anti-terrorism - with profound and often violent consequences. Incorporating in-depth case studies from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, Ambassador Ahmed will ultimately argue that the inability for Muslim and non-Muslim states alike to either incorporate minority groups into a liberal and tolerant society or resolve the "centre vs periphery" conflict is emblematic of a systemic failure of the modern state - a breakdown which, more often than not, leads to widespread violence and destruction. The violence generated from these conflicts will become the focus, in the remainder of the 21st century, of all those dealing with issues of national integration, law and order, human rights and justice. 

The Rohingya ethnic group of Myanmar is not recognised

Washington, DC - The image of a smiling Daw Aung San Suu Kyi receiving flowers from her supporters is a powerful message of freedom and optimism in Myanmar, the symbol of democracy in a country which has known nothing but authoritarian oppression for decades.
Yet few ask one of the most pressing questions facing Daw Suu Kyi. How will she deal with the Rohingya? "The Rohingya," you will ask. "Who are they?"  

The Rohingya, whom the BBC calls "one of the world's most persecuted minority groups", are the little-publicised and largely forgotten Muslim people of the coastal Rakhine state of western Myanmar. Their historic lineage in Rakhine dates back centuries, as fishermen and farmers. Over the past three decades, the Rohingya have been systematically driven out of their homeland by Myanmar's military junta and subjected to widespread violence and the total negation of their rights and citizenship within Myanmar. They are a stateless Muslim minority.

The continued tragedy of the unrecognised Rohingya, both in Myanmar and as refugees abroad, casts a dark shadow over the bright hopes and prospects for democracy in a country plagued by violence and civil war. Suu Kyi is ideally placed to extend democratic reforms to all ethnic peoples, including the Rohingya, in a free Myanmar.

Though the Rohingya may be small in number at less than two million, the real lesson of the Arab Spring is that no notion of democracy can succeed without the inclusion of all people within a country's borders. Every member of society, regardless of race and religion, must be given their due rights as citizens.

"While many ethnic minorities in Myanmar have been the victims of the central government's oppressive measures, the Rohingya stand apart in that their very existence is threatened."

While many ethnic minorities in Myanmar have been the victims of the central government's oppressive measures, the Rohingya stand apart in that their very existence is threatened. The Rohingya's plight abroad as refugees in places such as Bangladesh and Thailand has seen glimmers of the media spotlight, but less attention has been brought to the underlying cause of their flight: the violence and cultural oppression at home.
These policies were enacted by Myanmar's government to force the Rohingya outside of Myanmar as a result of their being Muslim and ethnically non-Myanma. The government erroneously labelled them as "illegal Bengali immigrants" in their efforts to eradicate the Rohingya culture.

Kings to refugees
Yet, the long history of the Rohingya and the Rakhine state contradicts the government's claims. The medieval Kingdom of Arakan, encompassing the Muslim Rohingya, was once an enlightened centre of culture, knowledge and trade, displaying a harmonic blend of Buddhism and Islam in its administration and court life. The kingdom's cosmopolitan and international capital city, Mrauk U, was described in the 17th century as "a second Venice" by a Portuguese Jesuit priest and was often compared to Amsterdam and London by travellers and writers of the time.

It was the 1784 military conquest by Bodawpaya, the king of Burma (now Myanmar), that transformed this once vibrant kingdom into an oppressed peripheral region. After this, many haunting tales began to circulate of Burmese soldiers rounding up the Rohingya in bamboo enclosures to burn them alive, and marching thousands to the city of Amarapura to work, effectivley as slave labour, on infrastructure projects.

Rohingya boat people stuck in limbo

With the rise to power of the military junta in 1962 under General Ne Win, a policy of "Myanmarisation" was implemented as an ultra-nationalist ideology based on the racial purity of the Myanma ethnicity and its Buddhist faith. The Rohingya, as both Muslims and non-Myanma, were stripped of their legitimacy and officially declared foreigners in their own native land. With the passage of the junta's 1982 Citizenship Law, they effectively ceased to exist legally.

Stripped officially of their citizenship, the Rohingya found their lives in limbo: prohibited from the right to own land or property, barred from travelling outside their villages, repairing their decaying places of worship, receiving an education in any language or even marrying and having children without rarely granted government permission. The Rohingya have also been subjected to modern-day slavery, forced to work on infrastructure projects, such as constructing "model villages" to house the Myanmar settlers intended to displace them, reminiscent of their treatment at the hands of the Burmese kings of history.
The denial of citizenship and rights was accompanied by a military strategy of physical and cultural war designed to drive the Rohingya out of Myanmar.
The initial push of the military's ethnic cleansing campaign came in 1978 under Operation Naga Min, or Operation King Dragon. The purpose of this operation was to scrutinise each individual within the state as either a citizen or alleged "illegal immigrant". This resulted in widespread rape, arbitrary arrests, desecration of mosques, destruction of villages and confiscation of lands among the Rohingya people. In the wake of this violence, nearly a quarter of a million Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh, many of whom were later repatriated to Myanmar where they faced further torture, rape, jail and death.
In 1991, a second push, known as Operation Pyi Thaya or Operation Clean and Beautiful Nation, was launched with the same purpose, resulting in further violence and another massive flow of 200,000 Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh.
Non-governmental organisations from Europe and North America estimate that 300,000 Rohingya refugees remain in Bangladesh, with only 35,000 residing in registered refugee camps and receiving some sort of assistance from NGOs.

Acknowledging the Rohingya
Those remaining, more than 250,000, are in a desperate situation without food and medical assistance, largely left to slowly starve to death. The December 2011 refugee repatriation agreement reached between Myanmar President Thein Sein and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will exclude the Rohingya, due to their lack of Myanmar citizenship, one of the conditions for repatriation for the expected 2,500 returning refugees.

The Rohingya predicament underlines a paradox for the world's great faiths, straddling the divide between Islamic Asia and Buddhist Asia. Each emphasises compassion and kindness and yet, we see little evidence of this in their dealings with the Rohingya people.

As part of this current study on the relationship between centre and periphery in the Muslim world, we recently interviewed Dr Wakar Uddin, Chairman of The Burmese Rohingya Association of North America (BRANA). A gentle and learned man, he is an energetic ambassador for his Rohingya people with a firm grasp of regional history. All the Rohingya want is the reinstatement of their citizenship in their own land, as revoked by the former dictator General Ne Win, and the dignity, human rights and opportunities that come with it.
Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy have a unique opportunity to reach out to the Rohingya people and include them in the new democratic process. The NLD should work with the central government to expand the role of all ethnic minorities as full Myanma citizens.

By acknowledging their rights, the government will bestow upon the Rohingya the dignity and the responsibilities of citizenship and present opportunities for mutual cultural understanding and the repatriation of the thousands of refugees existing in purgatory, separated from their homes and families. Great strides have recently been made by the Myanmar government towards the creation of an open and democratic political system and an end to ethnic violence, yet this is only the beginning.

With the recognition of the Rohingya as Myanma citizens, Suu Kyi will honour the memory of her father, Aung San, as he, before his untimely and tragic death, also reached out to ethnic minorities to participate in an independent Myanmar. Only then can a democratic and modern Myanmar be legitimate and successful in the eyes of its own people.
But the first step is to acknowledge the Rohingya exist.

This article is based on research being conducted by Professor Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University, Washington, DC, and Harrison Akins, a Research Fellow attached to the Chair, for the forthcoming study, Journey into Tribal Islam: America and the Conflict between Center and Periphery in the Muslim World, to be published by Brookings Press, exploring the conflict between Muslim tribal groups and central governments across the Muslim world in the context of the US-led 'war on terror'. 
Ambassador Ahmed is a former Pakistani High Commissioner to the UK and former administrator in Waziristan and Balochistan. He is the award-winning author of numerous books, including Discovering Islam, and Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam (Brookings Press, 2010).
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

Burma 'blacklisting' Rohingya children

Source from DVB, 19 Jan 2012


Rohingya children who fled to Bangladesh bathe using water from a pond at a refugee camp in Cox's Bazaar (Reuters)

Despite recent tentative steps towards democratic reform in Burma, the government has continued with a discriminatory policy against the Rohingya ethnic group in the countrya's western Arakan state that includes banning Rohingya children born out of wedlock from obtaining travel permits, attending school and, in the future, marrying.

The racial profiling of children immediately after birth contradicts the praise heaped on the pseudo-civilian government by world leaders in recent months, says The Arakan Project, which is this week submitting a report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

The UN body is currently reviewing the situation of children's rights in Burma, and The Arakan Project claims the blacklisting of Rohingya babies stands in stark contrast to pledges of reform by the Thein Sein administration.

Chris Lewa, director of The Arakan Project, says the new government continues to ignore the existence of the Rohingya in its state party reports to the CRC, and has refused to implement the body's recommendations first made in 2004.

"Rohingya children bear the full brunt of the state's policies of exclusion, restrictions and arbitrary treatment," she said. "These systematic policies gravely impair their physical and mental development as children and will affect the long-term future of their community."

Successive Burmese governments claim the Rohingya, a Muslim minority group, are of Bengali origin, and thus have consistently denied them citizenship- The Arakan Project says their status in Burma "relies entirely on the political will of the government", which is predominantly Buddhist and whose current representative at the UN, Ye Myint Aung, said during his prior tenure as Consul-General to Hong Kong that Rohingya were 'ugly as ogres'.

Rohingya support groups say however that there is evidence that Islam existed in Burma prior to the now-dominant Theravada Buddhism, and that the Rohingya's roots in Arakan state go back centuries.
For decades the government has meted out hefty treatment against the group, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee the country. Up to 400,000 Rohingya are living as refugees in neighbouring Bangladesh, with hundreds attempting perilous journeys by boat each year to Thailand and Malaysia. Various NGOs have described them as one of the world's most persecuted minority groups.
Those that remain in Burma suffer persecution at the hands of government officials as well as from local Arakan communities, where anti-Muslim sentiment, reinforced by the government, is strong and where many inhabitants consider them illegal immigrants.

"If children are not in their family list they cannot stay in the village," a nine-year-old boy told researchers working on the CRC submission. "Like my brother- my parents could not include my younger brother's name in their family list. That is why they had to leave the village.
"Some parents still live in the village without registering their children but they have to hide them. Or they have to register them with other parents. Like me. I am registered as the son of my grandmother."
Another boy, 12, told the group that he was "a prisoner in [his] own village" and could not leave the confines of his village without travel documents. An 11-year-old said he was often made to skip school when local authorities forced him to help repair nearby roads, with no pay.

The Burmese government justifies this treatment of the Rohingya on national security grounds, claiming that the policy is aimed at managing "illegal migration". A ban on Rohingya parents producing more than two children stems from alleged "control on population growth", The Arakan Project says, and unauthorised marriages can result in a 10-year prison term.
The group estimates that more than 40,000 Rohingya children have been left unregistered, with parents fearing punishment if they come forward with children born out of wedlock. Those not registered face severe difficulties accessing education and healthcare.

The government has mooted a programme of registering blacklisted children and adding them to population censuses, but progress has been slow. In addition, "Despite [UN refugee agencya's] advocacy efforts to address their lack of status with the government, little progress has been achieved to date," says the report.

Lewa urged the government to "build on its reform credentials and mark a break from past regimes by taking immediate steps to end all discriminatory policies and practices against the Rohingya". The group warns that racial profiling by the government "has demoralised the Rohingya community, resulting in increased refugee outflows since September 2011".

In Brief: 40,000 Rohingya children in Myanmar unregistered

source from IRIN, 19 January 2012

Photo: David Swanson/IRIN

More than 700,000 Rohinya live in Myannmar

BANGKOK, 19 January 2012 (IRIN) - An estimated 40,000 Rohingya children are believed to be unregistered in Myanmar, according to a new report. 

"Despite recent reform efforts in Myanmar, the government has reaffirmed its deeply discriminatory policies against the Rohingya, and the children bear the brunt of this," Chris Lewa, director of The Arakan Project and author of the report, told IRIN before a session of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva on 19 January.

These include the requirement of government authorization for marriage and a "two-child policy". These restrictions have made children "evidence" of unregistered marriages, an act punishable with up to 10 years in prison, while third and fourth children who are unregistered are essentially "blacklisted" for life - unable to travel, attend school or marry.

Under Myanmar's 1982 citizenship law, Rohingya children - both registered and unregistered - are stateless and hence, face limited access to food and healthcare, leaving them susceptible to preventable diseases and malnutrition. Many are prevented from attending school and used for forced labour, contributing to a Rohingya illiteracy rate of 80 percent. More than 60 percent of children aged between five and 17 have never enrolled in school, the report said.

Burma prisoner amnesty – 13 Jan releases (Jailed Rohingya MP Kyaw Min, who was election in the 1990 polls, has been released along with his family)

Source from DVB, 13 Jan 2012

 

Published: 13 January 2012

Student leader Ko Ko Gyi [L] sits alongside Min Ko Naing. Both were released from prison today (Reuters)

We will be keeping you updated with breaking news as the day progresses. Updates in Rangoon time (+6.30 GMT). Confirmation hard to get, so note when labelled rumour

Final: Unprecedented events today in Burma, and the strongest signal yet of genuine reform? Let’s wait and see. The government released the country’s highest-profile political prisoners – Min Ko Naing, Ashin Gambira, Khun Tun Oo, Ko Ko Gyi, Khin Nyunt and many more – and the sceptics may be rethinking their stance somewhat. Suspicion still surrounds the government however (“They still have characteristics of a dictatorship,” said Gambira) but unlike past amnesties, few will be disappointed with this one. This is how it fits into the recent history of prisoner releases in Burma:
DATE                          TOTAL                  POL. PRIS           PERCENT
18 Nov 2004               3,937                            28                    0.7%
29 Nov 2004               5,311                            12                   0.2%
13 Dec 2004                5,070                           21                   0.4%
3 Jan 2005                   5,588                           26                   0.5%
6 Jul 2005                    334                             253                  75.7%
3 Jan 2007                   2,831                           50                   1.7%
23 Sept 2008               9,002                          10                    0.1%
20 Feb 2009                6,313                           24                    0.4%
17 Sept 2009               7,114                           28                   1.8%
16 May 2011                14,578                        55                    0.1%
13 Jan 2012                 651                             651                  100%
TOTAL                        60,729                       1258               2.0%
18.02pm: Filmed interview with former prime minister Khin Nyunt, who was released today. He speaks about the ceasefire signed yesterday between the government and KNU, and his newfound freedom.

17.40pm: Former army captain-turned-charity worker Nay Myo Zin also freed. He was jailed shortly after the new government came to power in March 2011 after intelligence found allegedly seditious documents on his laptop.
17.05pm: Twenty-three released from Mandalay prison: four National League for Democracy members, four activists from the September 2007 uprising, nine border security officials and six monks.
From Kyaukphyu prison, 10 prisoners of conscience and three former military intelligence (Weekly Eleven).
16.40pm: Filmed interivew with ethnic Shan leader Khun Tun Oo, who was released from Putao prison near the Chinese border today.

16.30pm: Released student leader Mya Aye “will arrive in Rangoon 5.30pm local time. He says campaigning must continue for all political prisoners to be released.” — Burma Campaign UK

16.05pm: Jailed Rohingya MP Kyaw Min, who was election in the 1990 polls, has been released along with his family. A volunteer with Burma Campaign UK spoke to him this morning: “U Kyaw Min thanked those around the world who have campaigned for the release of political prisoners. He says he is in good health.”
Also freed is Myint Hlaing, who helped DVB reporter Hla Hla Win on various assignments and was arrested alongside her in 2009.

15.50pm: Monk Ashin Gambira tells DVB of his experiences in prison:
“It was very bad in the beginning. I was kept in solitary confinement when I arrived in Insein prison [in 2008], then also in Mandalay prison. I was beaten up and then put in solitary confinement in Khamtee prison. I was also in solitary confinement for the first month I arrived in Kalay Prison. And then I was transferred to Myaungmya Prison on December 16 and now I’m out. The conditions in the prisons initially was very bad – there was no sufficient medical supply and no doctor.”
“I think [Burma] has still a long way to go. Although they are releasing prisoners now, they still have the characteristics of a dictatorship. What kind of democracy is this? They had to wait until today to release us.”
15.34pm: Tally of 591 prisoners of conscience released ties with NLD’s prisoner list released late last year. One wonders what has/will happen to the 1,000-odd counted by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma.
NB: of the 11 ‘political prisoners’ jailed in Taunggyi prison, one, Shwe Htoo, still remains behind bars, having been convicted on explosives charges, implying the NLD do not count those who have committed – or intended to commit – acts of violence as prisoners of conscience’.
14.49pm: Prominent student activist Ko Ko Gyi, who was jailed alongside Min Ko Naing, is free and on a plane bound for Rangoon, where he is expected to arrive shortly.  More details soon…
14.45pm: Of 651 prisoners released today, 591 are “prisoners of conscience” – the remaining 60 are former military intelligence officials and customs officials, Weekly Eleven says. Important distinction between ‘political prisoners’ and ‘prisoners of conscience’ used by government officials.
14.24pm: Leader of All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) group, Kyaw Ko Ko, who was sentenced in 2009, is released from prison today. He told DVB that no conditions were placed on his release.
14.05pm: Thant Zin Aung, a freelance photojournalist arrested while boarding a flight to Thailand in 2008 after intelligence found a video on him showing the destruction caused by Cyclone Nargis in 2008, is among seven political prisoners released from Hpa-an jail in Karen state.
14.00pm: Another group of political prisoners released, this time from Kale jail in Sagaing division: Sai Nyunt Lwin [Shan Nationalities League for Democracy], Myo Naing Aung, Tin Yu, Kyaw Aung, Kyaw Kyaw, Soe Yazar Phyu, Wei Phyo, Min Min Htun, Naing Linn, Htay Aung and Nay Linn Aun.
13.50pm: The Irrawaddy quotes Khin Nyunt praising Aung San Suu Kyi: “I welcome Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s efforts. If she is in the Hluttaw [Parliament], it will be better than it is now because she is brave and outspoken.”
13.40pm: DVB reporter Win Maw has been released from Kyaukphyu prison in Arakan state. He becomes the last of the named DVB reporters to be freed, although several more whose names were kept anonymous so far remain in prison. More on Win Maw here.
13.25pm: We’ve got confirmed names of 87 political prisoners released so far today, but that doesn’t include the 82 released from Insein prison, so number so far around 172. The count continues…
13.00pm: Grandchildren of Burma’s first dictator Ne Win among the 82 political prisoners released so far from Insein prison in Rangoon.  Others include members of the Karen National Union, activist group Generation Wave, NLD members, monks arrested in 2007 and former military intelligence officials, says The Voice.
12.53pm: Former PM Khin Nyunt says he will cease political activities and concentrate only on social and religious work, according to economist Khin Maung Nyo who met with him this morning.
12.33pm: Khin Nyunt tells crowds he is “in good health”.
“I’m happy and so my is family. But my men still remain in detention and some of them deserve to be free. It would be the best if everyone is released and could reunit with their families.
“I feel that it’s a bit self-centered that only they are being released like this. I wish everyone could be released and hope that they will be at one point since the current government is taking one step after another.”

Former prime minister Khin Nyunt seen shortly

after his release today (DVB)

12.15pm: News just in - DVB reporter Hla Hla Win has been released from Kathar prison in Sagaing prison. She was serving a 27-year prison sentence after being caught with video interviews of monks criticising the former junta’s crackdown on protesters in September 2007. More about her here.
Four DVB reporters have so far been released from prison today. Chief Editor Aye Chan Naing said:  ”I am very happy for the release of some of DVB’s journalists.  I hope all our journalists will be free today.”
11.53am: Quote from released Shan leader Khun Tun Oo: “Firstly I would like to say it is important to free those who remain [in detention]. It would be best if there’s no one left in the prisons.
“I feel no emotion at all to be released because I wasn’t supposed to be arrested in the first place. I didn’t commit any of the crimes they accused me of – there was no national treason. I have wasted seven years of my life for something I didn’t do and there’s nothing to be happy about now.”
11.45am: Journalist Zaw Thet Htwe is among those released from Taunggyi prison, according to his wife. Kyaw Kyaw Htwe (aka Marky) released from Insein Prison, according to The Voice.
11.40am: Shan ethnic leader Khun Tun Oo, one of Burma’s most famous political prisoners, released from Putao prison in northernmost Burma close to the China border. He was serving a 93-year sentence on charges of sedition and planning to overthrow the former junta.
11.35am: From Sittwe prison in Arakan state, Weekly Eleven reports the following eight political prisoners have been freed – Dr Thet Lwin, Than Tin (aka Ko Gyi Than), Pyi Phyo Hlaing, Aung Aung Kyaw, Zeyar Oo, Payit, Kyaw Zin Win and Dawpon Nay Nay.
11.30am: Prominent blogger Nay Phone Latt among those released from Hpa-an prison in Karen state. He was serving a 20-year sentence. Also freed from Hpa-an: Nyi Pu (1990 People’s Parliament Rep), Nanda Sitt Aung, Thant Zin Aung (jailed alongside Zarganar), Kyaw Kyaw Naing, Pyi Phyo Aung and Nyan Linn, according to The Voice.
11.21am: Two more activists from the 88 Generation Students’ Group, Panatee Htun and Nilar Thein (f), released today.
11.15am: IMPORTANT: Today’s amnesty announced under Act 401(1) - “When any person has been sentenced to punishment for an offence, the President of the Union may at any time, without conditions or upon any conditions which the person sentenced accepts, suspend the execution of his sentence or remit the whole or any part of the punishment to which he has been sentenced” (our italics).
Past amnesties have been done under Article 204(b) of the constitution: ”The power to grant amnesty in accord with the recommendation of the National Defence and Security Council”.
So it seems today’s releases have not been done with full consent of the powerful National Defence and Security Council, and that some may only be suspensions. We’ll try to find more on this…
11.08am: Sage words from the 21-year-old DVB reporter Sithu Zeya, who was released today:
“As for the president, I think he’s pretty decent as he is [enacting reforms] under a lot of pressure. But also it depends a lot on the men behind him – just one decent person won’t make the change happen. We need all-inclusive cooperation from both sides to build a democratic system.”
11.06am: The following political prisoners have been released from Buthidaung prison in Arakan state, according to Weekly Eleven:
Sithu Maung, Thant Zin Myo, Kyaw Min, Htun Nyo, Htay Kywe, Aung Zaw oo, Pyay Kyaw, Wunna Pantha, Kyaw Win San and Maung Maung Latt.
11.03am: NLD spokesperson says amnesty a ”positive sign. We welcome the release. Some (dissidents) are on their way home already,” AFP quotes.
10.56am: 12 political prisoners released from Mingyan prison, including female activist Htet Htet Aung.
10.48am: The Voice journal reports than former Burmese prime minister Khin Nyunt has been released from house arrest, along with his son. He was detained in 2004 after falling foul of former junta chief Than Shwe.
1044am: Freed DVB reporter Sithu Zeya says conditions attached to his release – if he commits any crime in the future he will be forced to serve his full 18-year sentence.  “It’s like we are being freed with leashes still attached to our necks. So I’m happy but with a leash still on my neck.”
Not clear if this ruling applies to all political prisoners released today.
10.42am: Hla Htwe (monk Vilasakka), Lah Yang Kywe, Ko Ko Naing, D Nyein Linn and Nobel Aye (f) freed from Monywa prison, according to Weekly Eleven magazine.
10.40am: Ngwe Soe Linn’s release brings to three the number of DVB reporters freed today. More on Ngwe Soe Linnhere.
10.39am: The following political prisoners released from Lashio prison, according to Weekly Eleven – Min Zeya, Min Han, Zarni Aung, Naing Oo (monk Pyinya Wunthua), Myint Naing, Aung Than Myint (Maggin monastery abbot Einraka), Ngwe Soe Linn, Min Htun, Myat Linn Htut, Honey Oo (f).
10.35am: 11 political prisoners, plus former military intelligence officials under Khin Nyunt, released from Taungoo prisons.
10.30am: The Voice magazine says Min Ko Naing was released at 10am (Rangoon time) today, along with 26 other political prisoners from Thayet.
10.25am: Confirmed that 88 Generation activists Zaw Htwe, Jimmy and Mya Aye are among those release from Taunggyi prison, according to Zaw Htwe’s wife. Still not clear if Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi are free, although we got a tip-off that Min Ko Naing’s family is en route to meet him.
10.20am: Comedian Zarganar writes on Facebook that jailed monk U Gambira, who had been severely tortured in prison, has been released.
10.16am: Rumours that leading 88 Generation activists, including Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi, will be released. Reuters quoteed from an official at Thayet prison saying Min Ko Naing will walk.
10.10am: Second DVB reporter U Zeya, father of Sithu Zeya, has already been released, according to reports from inside Burma. More details soon
09.50am: The 21-year-old DVB reporter Sithu Zeya was among the first political prisoners to be released today. He was given an 18-year jail term for videoing the aftermath of the April 2010 grenade attacks in Rangoon. Sithu Zeya had been forced to reveal under torture that his father was also a DVB journalist.
Sithu today walked from Henzada prison and will be reunited with his family.

Rohingya Representatives meet British Foreign Secretary

6 Jan 2012, pl see the link via-

arrcinfo.blogspot.com/2012_01_06_archive.html

Myanmar: Rohingya Refugees and Thailand's "Push-Back"

Source from IPCS, 30 Dec 2011

Panchali Saikia Research Officer, IPCS email: panchali@ipcs.org

The Rohingya refugee crisis is not a new phenomenon, and it has now grabbed the attention of the international media for all the wrong reasons. The Rohingyas, in large numbers, are now trying to escape to Malaysia via the sea route through Thailand, but are being denied entry by Thai authorities and forcibly pushed back. Earlier this year around 91 persons believed to be Rohingyas were rescued near Andaman Island by the Indian Navy and around 129 by the Indonesian Navy in Aceh. The Rohingyas have been sheltered by Bangladesh for nearly three decades. What is the reason for their escape to Malaysia? Why is Thailand forcibly pushing them back to sea? Thailand has provided shelter to hundreds and thousands of other displaced people from Myanmar, why is then expelling the Rohingyas? Why are the Rohingyas escaping to Malaysia? Rohingyas fled repression in Myanmar and lived in exile, mainly in Bangladesh. Since Myanmar’s independence in 1948, its successive governments have attempted every possible way to push them out. The Emergency Immigration Act of 1978 and later the ethnic cleansing campaign known as Naga Min, or Dragon King, prosecuted illegal entrants, primarily in Rakhine state. This drove out nearly 200,000 Rohingyas from Myanmar. However, after providing shelter to the Rohingyas for nearly three decades, Bangladesh is now concerned about the annual increase in their numbers. Apart from being an economic burden, the Rohingyas’ involvement in insurgent activities along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border is feared by the government. Hence to reduce the influx, the government has declared that it will no more consider any asylum seeker as refugee. Also, it has now denied permits for aid agencies to assist unregistered refugees. Anti-Rohingya communities in Bangladesh have also pressurized the government to repatriate the Rohingyas. Due to the denial of protection, assistance, and fear of repatriation, the Rohingyas are now escaping to Malaysia through the sea route. Malaysia is seen as the best destination because of the religion factor. Also, the Malaysian government’s permit to access the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has attracted asylum seekers. Rohingyas: A threat to and burden for Thailand This trend has become a major concern for Thailand, as most of these migrants/refugees escaping are landing in Thailand. It is not for the first time that Thailand has pushed them back. In 2008 and 2009, the Thai authorities were condemned by the international community for pushing the Rohingyas into international waters without any assistance or protection. The Thai authorities are apprehensive of the influx and suspect that the Rohingyas are assisting the Muslim-led insurgency in southern Thailand, which has intensified in recent times. Furthermore, nearly 1 million other migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar are estimated to already be in Thailand. The exceeding numbers of illegal migrants will add to the economic burden and pose a threat to Thai national security. Unlike the other migrants in Thailand who play a major role contributing to the Thai economy (http://bit.ly/vl6ylg), the Rohingyas are only a liability and burden; they cannot get a work permit in Thailand as this requires a nationality verification certificate which the Rohingyas do not have. Myanmar’s denial of citizenship to RohingyasThe primary problem and responsibility should lie with Myanmar. Rohingyas are primarily a Muslim ethnic group from the northern part of Arakan province (Rakhine State) of Myanmar. The term ‘Rohingya’ is derived from the Chittagonian dialect (Bengali language), in which the Rakhaine or Arakanese people are called 'Rohangya’. In this context Myanmar should consider them a national ethnic group. But, they are denied citizenship and not recognized among the 135 national ethnic groups under the 1982 Citizenship Law, leaving them stateless and as illegal immigrants in their own country. Even under the Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar which was passed in 2008 it is stated that ‘Citizenship, naturalization and revocation of citizenship shall be as prescribed by law’. Their condition has not improved even today; approximately 800,000 Rohingyas living in Northern Arakan state and Rangon are effectively stateless and are subjected to discrimination and exploitation. Most of the countries are hesitant to host the Rohingyas because they are denied citizenship in Myanmar and because of this, reaching an understanding with the Myanmar government on their resettlement or repatriation is difficult. For instance, earlier in December 2011 an agreement was reached at a meeting between President Thein Sein and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to repatriate Myanmarese refugees. But the Myanmarese government made it clear that only those refugees who met the key criteria under Myanmar citizenship law would be taken back, leaving the Rohingyas out in the cold. Thailand has earlier attempted to repatriate refugees to Myanmar (http://bit.ly/s0OVak) but mostly only the Karen and Karenni ethnic groups. The increasing number of Rohingyas will be a serious issue, first, owing to the difficulties in cooperating with Myanmarese government, and second, because of identification. In Thailand’s nine refugee shelters, most of the refugees belong to the Karen and Karenni ethnic groups of Myanmar and only 10-12 per cent is Muslim. As the Rohingyas are not able to register themselves in Thailand, there are no official records on their numbers, because of which resettlement or repatriation becomes impossible. The plight of the Rohingyas and the growing concern over their influx is not only confined to Myanmar, Bangladesh and Thailand. Other regional powers like India, Indonesia and Malaysia must also engage themselves considering its security implications. The forcible push-backs are a major threat to the maritime as well as border security of these countries. Left with no other option, the Rohingyas are vulnerable to being recruited by sea pirates and involved in arms and drug smuggling.

Burma jails Rohingya on immigration charges

Source from DVB , 8 Dec 2011

 

 

Rohingya fishermen pull a boat near a refugee camp in Teknaf, Bangladesh. In 1982 Burma passed a law that made it impossible for Rohingya to get full citizenship (Reuters)

A group of Rohingya refugees attempting to reach Malaysia have been given prison sentences of one and a half years each by a Burmese court after their boat ended up on the shores of southern Burma.

The boatload of 63 had travelled from Bangladesh, where up to 300,000 Rohingya reside having fled decades of persecution in their native Arakan state in western Burma. A BBC Burmese report says they were left stranded at sea by their broker 16 kilometres from the coastal town of Kawthaung in Tennasserim division.
Despite the hazardous nature of the journey, hundreds of Rohingya attempt the nearly 2,000-kilometre voyage from Bangladesh to Malaysia each year in search of work. The 63 however are thought to be the first Rohingya jailed under immigration charges in Burma, signifying how government policy works to ensure they are not considered Burmese citizens.

A law passed in 1982 made it impossible for the Muslim minority group to gain citizenship in Burma. The Buddhist government there claims they are of Bengali origin and thus should not be afforded the same rights as Burmese. Various Rohingya advocacy groups argue however that their roots in western Burma can be traced back to before the spread of the now-dominant Theravada Buddhism in the country.
Of the hundreds of thousands living in Bangladesh, only around 28,000 are registered by the UN. Dhaka is concerned that offering official support to all refugees would create a pull-factor for those still living in Arakan state, meaning that the majority eke out a perilous existence in unofficial camps and slums on the edge of Chittagong in eastern Bangladesh.

Following talks in Naypyidaw this week between Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Burmese President Thein Sein, however, the Dhaka-based Financial Express claimed Thein Sein had agreed to take back the refugees “after verifying them and as per the agreed criterion between the two countries”.
Kitty McKinsey, regional spokesperson for the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), said that while in principle she would welcome any positive solution for the Rohingya, “we will wait to see an official government statement confirming this” before drawing any conclusions from the meeting.

Chris Lewa, head of The Arakan Project, which advocates for the rights of the Rohingya, said she doubted whether Hasina’s visit prompted a breakthrough in the protracted issue of whether the Burmese would accept the refugees back, many of whom have been living in Bangladesh for decades.
The issue of the ‘boatpeople’ shot to global attention in January 2009 when a large group that washed up on the Thai coast were towed back out to sea by coastguards and left to die. Thailand last month intercepted another boatload but later released them.

BBC report stirs anti-Rohingya sentiment

Source from DVB, 9 Nov 2011

Published: 9 November 2011

 

Amended map first published on BBC on 6 November 2010 (BBC)

A BBC report from last November that carried a map depicting Arakan state as populated by the ethnic Rohingya minority has caused anger in Burma, and once again brought to the fore accusations of entrenched racism within Burmese society.
Although published a year ago, and since corrected, the BBC report has circulated rapaciously on the internet in recent weeks, and has become the subject of a number of blog posts either criticising the BBC for implying the Rohingya are part of the Burmese population, or lamenting the vitriolic responses its report has attracted.

The map in question demarcates areas of Burma as belonging to specific ethnic groups, albeit somewhat erroneously: the Shan, for instance, are said to inhabit only a third of modern-day Shan state, and the Karen are shown as the main ethnic group in Irrawaddy division.

But it was the identification of Arakan state as the home of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority group that has been the subject of a perennial and fiery dispute over its origins, that has sparked outrage.
Following the publication, the BBC’s Burmese Facebook page was hit with hundreds of complaints, some from monks, calling on the organisation to issue a public apology and even remove any reference to Rohingya from the map. Failing to apologise should result in a boycott of the BBC, some even argued. The BBC has since amended the map to include ‘Rakhine’, the name given by the government to Arakanese, as also populating the state, but anger continues to boil.

Many Burmese believe the Rohingya to be of Bengali origin that over centuries have migrated to western Burma, a sentiment shared by the Burmese government which denies them citizenship and which for decades has meted out hefty treatment against the group, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee the country.
Rohingya support groups say however that there is evidence that Islam existed in Burma prior to the now-dominant Theravada Buddhism, and that the Rohingya’s roots in Arakan state go back centuries.
Rumours circulated in Rangoon today that a protest would be held outside the British embassy over the BBC report, although except for a number of local and foreign journalists, little appeared to happen. Jeremy Hodges, deputy head of mission at the embassy, told DVB that he had made himself available to accept any petition that may have been circulated among protestors, but that nothing was in sight.
“We know there is a perception among some Arakanese groups that Rohingya are singled out for preferential treatment by groups like the International Organisation for Migration, and that money is given to them at the expense of other Arakanese, but we feel this is a misconception,” he said.

Unlike many Arakanese, Rohingya are prevented from travelling freely outside of specially-designated zones, and are often subject to racial and religious persecution. Up to 400,000 are living as refugees in neighbouring Bangladesh, having fled decades of maltreatment at the hands of the military and local civilians.
An article last week on the New Mandala blog, run by academics from the Australia National University, said the cries of protest were somewhat hypocritical.

“…although Arakan ethnic members very often talk against majority ethnic Burmans (or Bamar) for what they call the ‘colonization of Arakan’,  ‘Burmanization’ and Burmese chauvinism, they now mobilize the entire Burmese population against Rohingyas to ‘protect Burma and its ‘national races’’.”
Among critics of the Rohingya are high-profile Burmese, including Berlin-based historian Khin Maung Saw, whose paper, “Islamization of Burma Through Chittagonian Bengalis as ‘Rohingya Refugees’”, triggered angry responses.

Widespread anger was also vented at current Burmese ambassador to the UN, Ye Myint Aung. During his tenure as Consul-General to Hong Kong, he wrote in a letter to other heads of mission, and copying in international newspapers, that Burma’s ethnic Rohingya were “ugly as ogres”

 

--See BBC report on 6 Nov 2010  "Bleak outlook for Burma's ethnic groups"-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11595983