3 Rohingya Killed in Clash With Myanmar Police 

YANGON, Myanmar June 5, 2013 (AP)

Several women villagers from Myanmar's Rohingya minority were shot dead this week in a confrontation with security officials, police and activists said Wednesday.

A police officer in Mrauk-U township in western Rakhine state said three women died in the clash Tuesday in Parein village. The women and others were defying efforts to relocate them from the housing in which they have been living since their original homes were burned by Buddhists in a wave of sectarian clashes last year.

The officer from the Special Branch political police, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to release information, said six villagers were injured in the clash.
A website covering Rohingya news, Rohingya Blogger, said four women were shot dead and five other villagers wounded in the confrontation, which broke out when workers from another township came to unload wood to build new dwellings. It said that when Parein villagers sought to stop the unloading, they began quarreling with police, who opened fire on them.

The police officer said some in the Rohingya crowd carried knives, sticks and slingshots.
Several hundred people were killed and about 140,000 fled or lost their homes in Rakhine last year in two waves of sectarian violence that targeted mostly members of the Muslim Rohingya community. While the conflict seemed contained at the time, communal violence spread this year to central and northeastern Myanmar, with Muslims again targeted and several dozen people killed.

The violence threatens to undermine the political and economic reforms undertaken by President Thein Sein, who came to power as an elected chief executive in 2011 after almost five decades of military rule.

The government's failure to effectively tackle the problem also risks shaking the confidence of Western countries, which have rewarded Thein Sein's reforms by lifting sanctions that were applied against the previous repressive army regime.

The latest incident took place just ahead of a regional meeting of the World Economic Forum in Myanmar's capital, Naypyitaw. The meeting will be attended by hundreds of business leaders and opinion-makers from around the world and is meant to showcase the positive changes made under the new government.

Similar, though not fatal, confrontations over relocation of Muslim Rohingya were reported last month, when officials sought to move reluctant residents from camps thought to be vulnerable to damage from an expected cyclone. In the end, Cyclone Mahasen veered away from Myanmar, causing no damage. But aid workers note that many of the camps, almost all of which shelter Rohingya, have inadequate shelter, medical care and other basic services.

source-AP NEWS.

Provide Asylum Seekers Access to UN Refugee Agency/Thailand: End Inhumane Detention of Rohingya

Provide Asylum Seekers Access to UN Refugee Agency

JUNE 4 2013.

Thailand should respect the basic rights of Rohingya ‘boat people’ and stop detaining them in horrific conditions. The government should immediately allow them to pursue their asylum claims with the UN refugee agency.

Brad Adams, Asia director

The Thai government should immediately end the detention under inhumane conditions of more than 1,700 ethnic Rohingya from Burma, Human Rights Watch said today. Rohingya asylum seekers should be transferred from overcrowded cells in immigration detention centers to get screening and protection from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Shocking video footage of Rohingya locked up in an overcrowded immigration facility in Thailand’s Phang Nga province was shown on ITN Channel 4 News on May 31, 2013. Thailand’s prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra had agreed in January to permit Rohingya arriving by boat in Thailand to stay temporarily, initially for six months, until they could be safely repatriated to their places of origin or resettled to third countries.

“Thailand should respect the basic rights of Rohingya ‘boat people’ and stop detaining them in horrific conditions,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “The government should immediately allow them to pursue their asylum claims with the UN refugee agency.”

The ITN program showed most of the 276 Rohingya men living in extremely cramped conditions in two cells resembling large cages, each designed to hold only 15 men, where they barely had enough room to sit. Some suffered from swollen feet and withered leg muscles due to lack of exercise. The men said they have not been let out of the cells in five months.

Thai immigration authorities have not permitted UNHCR to conduct refugee status determination screenings of these Rohingya, and instead lock them in overcrowded immigration detention facilities across the country. Rohingya families have been split up, with women and children sent to government-run shelters separate from the men placed in immigration detention.

Each year, tens of thousands of ethnic Rohingya from Burma’s Arakan State set sail to flee persecution by the Burmese government, and dire poverty. The situation has significantly worsened followingsectarian violence in Arakan State in June 2012 between Muslim Rohingya and Buddhist Arakanese, and later government-backed crimes against humanity committed during a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” in October against Rohingya and other Muslims.

Thailand’s so-called “help on” policy towards small boats carrying Rohingya has failed to provide Rohingya asylum seekers with the protections required under international law, and in some cases significantly increased their risk.

Under this policy, the Thai navy intercepts Rohingya boats that come close to the Thai coast and supposedly provides them with fuel, food, water, and other supplies on the condition that the boats sail onward to Malaysia or Indonesia. Enforcement actions to prevent Rohingya from these vessels from coming ashore intensified after the Thai government responded to international pressure, and agreed to provide temporary shelter for more than 1,700 Rohingya who had arrived in Thailand since January 2013.

Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to seek asylum from persecution. While Thailand is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, under customary international law, the Thai government has an obligation of “non-refoulement” – not to return anyone to places where their life or freedom would be at risk. UNHCR’s Guidelines on Applicable Criteria and Standards Relating to the Detention of Asylum Seekers reaffirms the basic human right to seek asylum and state that “[a]s a general rule, asylum seekers should not be detained.” The UNHCR Guidelines also note that detention should not be used as a punitive or disciplinary measure, and that detention should not be used as a means of discouraging refugees from applying for asylum.

The Thai government should work closely with UNHCR, which has the technical expertise to screen for refugee status and the mandate to protect refugees and stateless people. Effective UNHCR screening of all Rohingya boat arrivals would help the Thai government determine who is entitled to refugee status.

“Thai authorities should provide temporary protection to Rohingya and scrap the ‘help on’ policy that places these asylum seekers in harm’s way,” Adams said. “The government should help Rohingya who escape from oppression and hardship in Burma – not worsen their plight.”

Credid-HRW.

        TWO CHILD POLICY IS A GENOCIDE!

Two child policy adopted against one small particular ethnic is a genocide. Voices must be cried out internationally. The Thien Sein regime is involving many crimes against the humanity. This jungle law must be withdrawn.

Posted by Maung Kyaw Nu,President,Burmese Rohingya Association in Thailand ,BRAT on June 3, 2013 06:58

The future of the Rohingya grows bleaker day by day Photo by phuketwan.com Burma's Callous Ethnic Cleansing Continues By Human Rights Watch Media Release Tuesday, May 28, 2013 PHUKET: Burma's government should publicly revoke a discriminatory population control regulation that restricts Rohingya Muslims to having two children, Human Rights Watch said today. Implementation of this policy is consistent with the wider persecution of the largely stateless Rohingya, violating international human rights protections, and endangering women???s physical and mental health. The Arakan State spokesperson, Win Myaing, told the media on May 26 that local authorities had reaffirmed a 2005 regulation for Rohingya Muslims in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships in northwestern Arakan [Rakhine] State along the Bangladesh border.  The discriminatory two-child rule has been enforced alongside regulations that require Rohingya couples seeking to marry to obtain permission from the authorities by paying hefty bribes. Couples often have to wait for extended periods, sometimes as long as two years, before receiving permission. Officials have also forced many women to undergo pregnancy tests as part of the marriage application process. ''Implementation of this callous and cruel two-child policy against the Rohingya is another example of the systematic and wide ranging persecution of this group, who have recently been the target of an ethnic cleansing campaign,'' said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. ''President Thein Sein says he is against discrimination. If so, he should quickly declare an end to these coercive family restrictions and other discriminatory policies against the Rohingya.'' Rakhine State Spokesperson Win Myaing claimed local officials sought to implement a recommendation by the government Inquiry Commission on the Sectarian Violence in Rakhine State, a 27-member body appointed to examine the causes of last year's deadly violence between ethnic Arakanese (Rakhine) Buddhists and Rohingya and Kaman Muslims. The commission's summary report, released on April 29, 2013, called for ''implementation of family planning programs amongst Bengali [Rohingya] communities'' to address its ''rapid population growth.'' However, the report said that ''government and other civil society organizations should refrain from implementing mandatory measures which could seem unfair and abusive.'' The commission included political leaders of Arakanese Buddhists but did not include any Rohingya members. The two-child regulation is a further example of state persecution of the Rohingya, Human Rights Watch said. Government security forces, local Arakanese political party officials, and Buddhist monks participated in crimes against humanity during a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya and other Muslims in June and October 2012. To date, no one has been held accountable for these crimes. Should further widespread or systematic attacks be carried out against the Rohingya population, enforcement of the two-child policy could amount to crimes against humanity. Renewed Call for Two Child Policy Latest Form of State Persecution THE 2005 two-child regulation was an addition to long-standing discriminatory marriage restrictions on Rohingyas in Arakan state. Advance permission to marry came from the Na Sa Ka (in Burmese, Nay Sut Kut Kwey Ye), a corrupt interagency border guard force comprising military, police, immigration, and customs. Rohingya couples seeking to marry have had to give a written undertaking that they will have no more than two children. Flouting the two-child restriction is punishable with fines and imprisonment. To avoid paying fines or being arrested, Rohingya women who became pregnant before getting official approval to marry or after having two children have resorted to unsafe and illegal abortions. Some underwent multiple unsafe and self-induced abortions at home. Article 312 of the Burmese penal code criminalises all instances of abortion except those that are carried out to save a woman's life, already posing a tremendous barrier for women seeking abortion services. These barriers to safe abortion services are exacerbated for Rohingya women because of the marriage restrictions and two-child policy. Rohingya also face severe restrictions on their right to freedom of movement, requiring advance travel permission from the Na Sa Ka even to seek emergency medical treatment. Permission is frequently refused unless bribes are paid. Unsafe abortions are a leading cause of maternal deaths in Burma. ''Fear of punishment under the two-child rule compel far too many Rohingya women to risk their lives and turn to desperate and dangerous measures to self-induce abortions,'' Adams said. The 800,000 to one million Rohingya in Burma are particularly vulnerable to government abuse because most are denied citizenship under Burma's discriminatory 1982 citizenship law. Rohingya children born out of wedlock or in a family that already has two children do not receive any status whatsoever from the government, making them ineligible for education and other government services, unable to receive travel permissions, and they are later not permitted to marry or acquire property. They are subject to arbitrary arrest and detention. To evade these regulations, Rohingya women pay bribes to register them with other legally married adults, or keep their children hidden and unregistered to avoid being fined or imprisoned. In instances that the Na Sa Ka learns of families having more than two children, these children are sometimes placed on a government blacklist. The Inquiry Commission estimated that the number of unregistered Rohingya children was 60,000. Because of these restrictions, ''the majority of the Bengali [Rohingya] population marry in secret without the necessary administrative approval and children born under these circumstances remain unregistered.'' Local government authorities and the Na Sa Ka oversee a web of tight regulations governing Rohingyas, Human Rights Watch said. These include restrictions on travel, birth, death, immigration, migration, marriage, and land ownership. Na Sa Ka officials enforce these restrictions by frequently detaining, beating, and extorting money from Rohingya. In 2012, Na Sa Ka arbitrarily detained an estimated 2,000-2500 Rohingya for ''offenses'' both serious and trivial, including repairing homes without official permission and owning ''unregistered'' livestock, according to informed sources. In all instances, contraception should not be used with the objective of ''population control,'' least of all by selectively targeting ethnic minorities, Human Rights Watch said. Contraceptive services together with other reproductive and sexual health services should be provided in a non-discriminatory and non-coercive manner to all women. Women and men should have the option of adopting contraception of their choice and deciding on the size of their family. In March 2012, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, which monitors state compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, called upon Burma to ''abolish the local order restricting marriages for Rohingya people and cease practices which restrict the number of children of Rohingya people.'' Parliamentary opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on May 27 said about the two-child policy that, ''it is not good to have such discrimination. And it is not in line with human rights.'' Human Rights Watch called upon the government of Burma to: ..Immediately revoke the regulation establishing a two-child limit for ethnic Rohingya in Buthidaung and Maugdaw townships in North Arakan State, and other coercive or discriminatory policies, rules, regulations or laws regarding population; ..Repeal provisions of the penal code that criminalise abortion, especially those provisions that punish women and girls who have had an abortion; ..Provide unfettered access for international humanitarian agencies to provide medical and other services to all persons in need in Arakan State, with special focus on needs of internally displaced persons and other populations with restricted freedom of movement; and ..Investigate and appropriately prosecute all persons, regardless of position or rank, implicated in serious human rights abuses in Arakan State since 2012. ''Governments who care about reform in Burma need to speak out about the persecution of Rohingya Muslims,'' Adams said. ''If this policy had been announced by a Burmese government official before the reform process began, donors would have denounced it in the strongest terms. ''Now, when the international community's influence is much greater, governments and donors need to find their voices.'' Other stories Rohingya Perish as Boats Evading Cyclone Capsize The Temple of Children, Burma's Answer to Intolerance: Photo Special Cyclone May Be Just What Burma's Bigots Want US Embassy Rejects Phuketwan Journalist's Bid to Study Rohingya Unwanted Burma 'Ogres' Now Aim for Australia Captive Boatpeople 'Facing Mental Issues' Will Thailand Really Send Children Back? Brutal, Beastly Burma So Easily Fools Its EU Fan Club Mass Graves, Children Hacked to Death: Report Time to Ask, Are You a Racist, Too? Phuket Rohingya: 107 Land on Island Off Southern Phuket from India Horror at Sea: 98 Bodies Thrown Overboard as Boatpeople Perish from Thirst, Starvation Boy Born on Boat Has Uncertain Future Captive Boatpeople in Thailand Plead in Secret Petitions for Access to UNHCR, Families Rohingya 'Helped On' Off Phuket: Photo Special Hidden Agony of 21st Century Slave Trade Will These Phuket Boat Children End Up For Sale by Human Traffickers? Phuket Stop for Boatpeople: Rohingya Children Now Fleeing 'Certain Death' in Burma Comments Add your comment using the form below. Want an avatar for your comments? Register with Gravatar. Name  (not required, displayed if provided) Email  (required, not displayed) Comment (text-only, no links or tags, thanks) Two child policy adopted against one small particular ethnic is a genocide. Voices must cry out internationally. The Thien Sein regime is involving many crimes against the humanity. This jungle law must be withdrawn. Posted by Maung Kyaw Nu,President,Burmese Rohingya Association in Thailand ,BRAT on June 3, 2013 06:58 You might like: Abducted Three Alive; Expats Killed on Visa Run; Phuket Guides Arrested; Star's Dad in Headbutt; Phuket Events Tourists Rescued as Ferry Begins Sinking Phuket Port Taxi Chief Rejects Claim of $200 Fare Being Asked to Patong Young Chinese Tourist Drowns on Phuket Day Trip: Ambassador To Visit Recommended by

DR MAUNG ZARNI AND MR NIRMAL GHOSH

• Maung Zarni
  
  “Muslims today see themselves as pawns in a larger game designed to rouse Burman Buddhist nationalism, discredit President Thein Sein and Ms Suu Kyi, deflect anti-Chinese sentiment to Muslims, and prove that the army is still required to maintain order.”
  
  Old monsters stirring up trouble
  Some say gangs from past regime provoked clashes to undermine Myanmar’s democracy
  
  Published on Jun 02, 2013, The Straits Times of Singapore
  
  Firefighters extinguishing a fire during a riot between Buddhists and Muslims in Lashio township last Wednesday. Some observers believe organised mobs are injected into towns to target Muslims. — PHOTO: REUTERS
  
  By Nirmal Ghosh, Indochina Bureau Chief in Bangkok
  
  Two days of violence this past week that may have left up to eight dead – the official figure remains at two – in sleepy Lashio in Shan state further defined an emerging pattern to the bloodshed rocking Myanmar in recent months: Organised mobs are injected into a town to target Muslims.
  
  Who is behind this remains a subject of speculation but the episodes are challenging the government’s ability to maintain law and order. More importantly, they are a severe test of Myanmar’s experiment with democracy in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious society.
  
  Ahead of this week’s World Economic Forum in Naypyidaw, the army has again been deployed to enforce order in the northern town of Lashio.
  
  That underlines the contradictions that can baffle outsiders expecting clear answers from a complex country that has been at war externally and with itself, in some form or the other, for decades.
  
  Shan Buddhists have no issues with Muslims living in the northern state. Shan monks in Lashio sheltered Muslims last week to save them.
  
  A group of Shan monks stated that it was Burmans who perpetrated the violence, not Shan. The man who started it all, allegedly a Muslim, by setting fire to a Buddhist woman was not a local, real residents say.
  
  They say the mobs which suddenly showed up and started smashing Muslim homes, shops, a mosque and an orphanage were outsiders too.
  
  Residents of Meikhtila say outsiders were also behind violence there in March, when more than 40 people were killed. Outsiders were also the perpetrators in Bago when riots hit that township days later.
  
  Security sources in Myanmar say the mobs are mainly men from the Swan Arshin – a loose cadre of thugs, criminals and ex-convicts used by the old military regime to intimidate and break up protests. Swan Arshin means “masters of power” or “possessors of power”.
  
  Squads of Swan Arshin are believed to have been among those who attacked opposition politician Aung San Suu Kyi’s convoy at Depayin in 2003. They were also active in breaking up protests in Yangon in 2007 until the army was deployed.
  
  A 2008 paper by the independent Asian Human Rights Commission says: “While the group’s existence and activities have been known, it is not an officially recognised organisation. It does not feature in the state media and has no public face.”
  
  It was then a tool of the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Association which evolved into the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) which is now the ruling party. The USDP recently however flatly denied it had anything to do with the Swan Arshin.
  
  A newer “Buddhist militia” called the Taung Tha army has also apparently appeared, according to the sources. Taung Tha is a town which happens to be home to the notoriously hardline Aung Thaung, a former senior general and combat veteran who is now a key figure in the USDP.
  
  The attacks in Meikhtila and Lashio were well planned and executed. Just days before the Lashio violence, the right-wing Buddhist monk U Wirathu was preaching his characteristic anti-Muslim sermons in a town some 50km away. The Swan Arshin and the Buddhist 969 movement spearheaded by U Wirathu complement each other, Myanmar analysts say.
  
  The security source said the Swan Arshin fire up poor illiterate peasants to swell their numbers – and then wait for an incident to light a match to the tinder. The incident could even be staged.
  
  The mobs, well equipped with swords and machetes, iron rods and sledgehammers, are then transported into town to attack Muslims.
  
  It is a ruthless but time-honoured tactic to attack an enemy with no accountability, or to create an enemy and then attack them, or just to sow instability and chaos which may then be guided to the benefit of those controlling the mobs.
  
  The tactic is also used to maintain an extra-parliamentary power base, a sort of insurance policy if Myanmar’s fledgling democracy disintegrates – or becomes stronger and nudges people once in lucrative positions of power to the sidelines
  
  The attack in Lashio drew a swifter government response than the Meikhtila violence in March. Ironically for mostly Western human rights groups and pro-democracy activists clamouring for a reduction in the role of the army, the Tatmadaw is back in the streets as the only agency capable of keeping the peace.
  
  Muslims today see themselves as pawns in a larger game designed to rouse Burman Buddhist nationalism, discredit President Thein Sein and Ms Suu Kyi, deflect anti-Chinese sentiment to Muslims, and prove that the army is still required to maintain order.
  
  President Thein Sein has talked tough and warned against extremists derailing the democratic transition. But politics and power in Myanmar have always been ruthless.
  
  Analysts say the President will appear increasingly weak if the old monsters cannot be tamed.
  
  nirmal@sph.com.sg
  
  RELATED LINKS
  
  Graphics adapted from AFP
  
  BACKGROUND STORY
  
  Premeditated violence
  
  Security sources in Myanmar say the mobs are mainly men from the Swan Arshin – a loose cadre of thugs, criminals and ex-convicts used by the old military regime to intimidate and break up protests. A source said the Swan Arshin fire up poor illiterate peasants to swell their numbers – and then wait for an incident to light a match to the tinder. The incident could even be staged. The mobs, well equipped with swords and machetes and iron rods and sledgehammers, are then transported into town and attack Muslims.

  
  

  • 

Burma must take steps to quell ethnic violence

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By ANDREA GITTLEMAN and BILL DAVI
Published: 30 May 2013

A soldier stands guard in front of a mosque that was burnt during a riot between Muslims and Buddhist in Lashio township on 29 May 2013. (Reuters)

This week’s outbreak of violence against Muslims in Lashio marks nearly a year of targeted attacks on Muslims in Burma. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) recently interviewed witnesses and victims in Arakan state, Mandalay and Saigaing divisions about the ongoing attacks, and found that the government places a low priority on protecting the human rights of ethnic groups in the country.

Earlier this month, a team of researchers from PHR spent ten days in central Burma investigating attacks on Muslim civilians. The team interviewed 33 people, including 14 eyewitnesses, and compiled a thorough account of the slaughter of at least 20 children and four teachers in Meikhtila, Mandalay division. Other reports estimate that many more were killed.

PHR researchers obtained video footage showing Muslims beaten and burned to death, and confirmed the authenticity of these events with GPS, satellite mapping and eyewitness interviews.

In Meikhtila, investigators found that police were complicit in the violence against Muslims   ̶  they marched unarmed Muslims toward an armed civilian mob, then refused to protect them from beating, stoning, and murder; they did not help injured Muslims; and they failed to apprehend perpetrators. The police force’s actions in Meikhtila are in violation of the UN code of conduct for law enforcement officials, and the general lack of an effective response from the central government is a monumental failure to protect its citizens from organised and targeted violence.

In the wake of unspeakable violence carried out in a methodical manner by civilians with the acquiescence of local police, there must be a strong and swift response within Burma. Despite overtures about tolerance, there has been no credible effort thus far to investigate the massacre and hold perpetrators accountable.

The government’s weak response to stop the violence and its reluctance to help Muslim victims is a symptom of a larger problem—ethnic groups are not benefitting from fledgling democratic reforms.  Despite some improvements at the political level, they are treated by the new government as they were by the previous regime. Although some analysts suggest the recent violence is a result of new freedoms and democratic reforms, it’s actually just the opposite — it is a continuation of abuses against ethnic groups that are done with impunity and either tacit or outright government approval.
The evidence PHR collected in Meikhtila shows a pattern of destruction indicative of targeted and coordinated strikes against Muslim-owned businesses, homes, and mosques, and coordinated efforts to drive Muslims out of the town. Although the government imposed curfews in some towns with threats of violence and arrested some perpetrators, the response has been insufficient. Police continue to respond too slowly to stop mobs, victims are targeted for arrest as often as perpetrators, Muslims are warned not to defend themselves against mobs, and there has been no effort to prosecute those behind the attacks. The government’s acquiescence sends a strong message that these attacks can be done with impunity.
The evidence does not suggest that the government orchestrated the attacks, but it does indicate that the government did not act effectively to curb the violence. As new reports of anti-Muslim violence emerge from other parts of the country, the central government as well as local police must do much more to stop the violence from spreading.
Unfortunately, institutionalised impunity has taken root across the country, not only in areas plagued by recent religious violence. In ethnic areas, the abuses have been ongoing for 60 years—military attacks on civilians, forced displacement, environmental destruction, and failure to provide humanitarian aid have not stopped. There has been no effective effort to rein in abuses or prosecute offenders.

Perhaps the most difficult task facing the people of Burma today is the process of social reconciliation.

One of the starkest examples ofongoing violence is in Kachin state, where the Burmese army has ignored orders from President Thein Sein to stop fighting, and continues to violate the human rights of civilians. Human rights groups have documented attacks on civilians in the state throughout the current conflict, which has raged since June 2011. Violence and impunity also persist in Shan state, where fragile ceasefires recently crumbled and civilians are once again being displaced by conflict. Long-running government abuses against Rohingya are now coming to the world’s attention, and violations of human rights against Arakanese, Chin, Karen and other groups have continued.

The international community has rewarded the government of Burma for its democratic reforms by lifting sanctions, increasing development aid, and forgiving loans. Yet Burma’s roadmap to democracy has yet to include ethnic groups, which make up at least 40 percent of the population. Though most of the sanctions and development concessions were made with the understanding that life for civilians is improving, progress has been far too slow for those in ethnic groups. The international community should not leave ethnic groups in Burma at the mercy of systematic attacks, and it must press for an end to ethnic violence and discrimination in diplomatic negotiations.
There will be no easy or quick transition to a peaceful Burma where ethnic and religious groups enjoy the fullest protections of their rights. Instilling a culture of tolerance across ethnic and religious lines and replacing impunity with accountability will not happen without concerted efforts by government actors as well as civil society leaders.

Perhaps the most difficult task facing the people of Burma today is the process of social reconciliation. After years of military dictatorship, rampant criminality, and a culture of violence, everyone must make the choice to end violence within their communities. Direction should come from recognized leaders within government and civil society, high-level religious leaders, and well-known democracy activists, who must condemn in unequivocal terms all ethnic and religious violence and hate speech.

There must also be an independent and transparent investigation of incidents of religiously motivated violence and discrimination with the ultimate aim of holding any perpetrators accountable. Other countries may be able to assist in these essential efforts, especially with the development of an independent investigation, but the will and the design for a society built on respect and tolerance must originate with the people of Burma.
Bill Davis is the former Burma project director and volunteer medical advisor for Physicians for Human Rights and Andrea Gittleman works as the group’s senior legislative counsel.

-The opinions and views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect DVB’s editorial policy

CREDID-DVB

MULTIMEDIA

Portrait of A Displaced People: Lashio’s Muslims at Mansu Temple

By STEVE TICKNER / THE IRRAWADDY| Sunday, June 2, 2013 |

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A mother cradles her child amongst the 1,400 strong crowd of displaced Muslims in Lashio. To see more photos click on the box below. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

LASHIO, Shan State — On Tuesday night an argument between a Muslim man and a Buddhist petrol vendor sparked another outbreak of anti-Muslim violence in Burma, this time in Lashio, Shan State.

The northeastern mountain town was suddenly torn apart by inter-communal violence, as Buddhist mobs went on a rampage, destroying Muslim-owned shops and religious buildings, and clashing with Muslim men on the street.

By Thursday, hundreds of Muslim families had been forced to flee the violence, often at a moment’s notice. They were only able to carry a few basic belongings and rushed their children to safety. Armed police and soldiers trucked the Muslims away from the town center, where many owned shops and businesses, and brought them to a Buddhist temple complex called Mansu.

Their lives thrown into turmoil, more than 1,400 displaced Muslims are suddenly stranded at the temple and reliant on emergency food donations by the World Food Program.

Most are ordinary Burmese citizens — mothers and fathers, extended families — who lost homes, businesses and livelihoods. Their faces carry expressions of deep sadness and anxiety, and the looks in their eyes seem like a silent plea for you to understand their plight.

And whilst the adults understand the full gravity of their situation, children make new friends, find ways to amuse themselves and continue to smile and play amidst the palpable fear and uncertainty which pervades the scene

All across Burma, Muslim minority communities now live in daily fear of a sudden outbreak of violence carried out by a small, radical group, who claim to represent Burma’s Buddhist majority.

After anti-Muslim violence broke out in Arakan State about one year ago, these groups have sought to exploit a religious divide in the country. They have destroyed and looted Muslim neighborhoods and business with impunity, driving thousands of families from towns and villages where they lived for decades.

These newly displaced people represent a human a tragedy which risks undoing Burma’s celebrated democratic transition and dashing the hopes of those who wish a better future for all of the country’s citizens.

credid-The Irrawaddy

Press Release: United Nations Human Rights Commissioner

June 1, 2013

Press Release: United Nations Human Rights Commissioner

Myanmar: UN expert urges Government to act on local regulations targeting Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State

GENEVA (31 May 2013) – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, Tomás Ojea Quintana, today said that the Government must respond unambiguously to the revival of a local order limiting the number of children that Rohingya Muslims can have to two. Contraventions can result in fines and prison sentences under section 188 of the Myanmar Penal Code.

“This local order in the Northern Rakhine State townships of Buthidaung and Maungdaw is a clear-cut human rights violation targeting a particular ethnic and religious group,” Mr. Ojea Quintana said. “The Central Government must provide an unequivocal response.”

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which Myanmar has ratified together with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, obliges state parties to respect and protect the right of women and men ‘to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children and to have access to the information, education and means to enable them to exercise these rights.’ Also, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has called on the Government not to restrict the number of children of Rohingya people.

“Not only is the local order a violation of Myanmar’s international human rights obligations and commitments, it also goes against the recommendations of the Investigation Commission set up by the President last August, which urged the Government to refrain from implementing non-voluntary family planning measures that may be seen as discriminatory or that would be inconsistent with human rights standards,” the expert said.

“It is the role of the state to provide information to the public on family planning and to provide contraception and other reproductive health services to women and men throughout Myanmar,” Mr. Ojea Quintana said. “It is not the role of the state to introduce discriminatory and coercive measures such as these.”

The Special Rapporteur went on to emphasise that the Government had an obligation to review and revoke all orders which violate international human rights standards: “This local order is one of many that have been introduced by local Rakhine State authorities that violate the basic human rights of Rohingya Muslims, including with regard to freedom of movement, marriage, and registration of new-born children.”

“These orders provide further ammunition to local authorities, including the border security force Nasaka, to discriminate against and persecute the most vulnerable and marginalised group in Myanmar. They also enable local authorities to threaten and bribe the Rohingya Muslims, who have no recourse of action available, forming the basis of what amounts to an extortion racket,” the expert warned, noting that the vast majority of the 800,000 Rohingya Muslims are without citizenship and are stateless, making them extremely vulnerable to human rights violations.

The Special Rapporteur* has previously highlighted that the discrimination and marginalisation of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar is one of the underlying causes of the communal violence that erupted in Rakhine State last year and is fuelling the spread of anti-Muslim violence across the country, including this week in Lashio (Shan State) and in Meikhtila (Mandalay Region) last March.

“Only by addressing this discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities can the Government of Myanmar hope forge integrated communities that live together in equality, peace and harmony,” he underscored.

ENDS