Tuesday, 30 July 2013
Rohingya Prisoners Rip Free But Escape is Thwarted by Immigration Guards
This's my urgent request to Thai authority to transfer all Rohingyas detainees to large camps where the can be interviewed by the United Nation High Commission for Refugees. Having long term keeping them in crowded places ,many inmate got mental disorder and sickness. In fact ,it is totally intolerable for the detainees to be there. How it be possible for human beings to stay the same cage for eight month without getting any sun bath and out side air. After learning today incident ,I feel very inconvenient . These people are escapees of genocide .They have lost everything in homeland and came here to save their lives only . By considering their dire situation ,kindly help them to be alive .Please help us.
MAUNG KYAW NU
Please read here------
Rohingya Prisoners Rip Free But Escape is Thwarted by Immigration GuardsBy Chutima Sidasathian and Alan Morison
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Latest Ten Rohingya men try to follow the example of women and children but their escape from a notorious Immigration centre is thwarted and some are now being moved. More »
credit.Phuketwan News.
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Monday, 29 July 2013
China Begins Receiving Natural Gas from Shwe Pipeline
BURMA
Nyan Tun, vice president of the Southeast Asia Gas Pipeline Company Limited (SEAGP) consortium, speaks at a commissioning ceremony for the Shwe gas pipeline in Mandalay on Sunday. (Photo: Zarni Mann / The Irrawaddy)
MANDALAY — Despite long-held objections to the project by activists and locals, the Shwe pipeline connecting Burma’s Arakan State to Kunming in southern China began piping natural gas across the Sino-Burmese border on Sunday.
At a commissioning ceremony held at the headquarters of the Southeast Asia Gas Pipeline Company Limited (SEAGP) consortium in Mandalay, Vice President Nyan Tun praised the completion of the controversial pipeline while assuring a “good, collaborative” relationship with the Burmese government and affected communities in future.
“Shwe gas is fueling neighboring China’s hunger for energy so that we can say today, our performance is a major achievement for the mutual benefit of both countries,” Nyan Tun said at the ceremony.
According to the SEAGP executive, natural gas from the Kyaukphyu oil and gas terminal in Arakan State has been supplied to the pipeline since July 15, but Sunday marked the first time that fuel flowed into China, at the border town of Nam Khan in Shan State. Along with the South East Asia Crude Oil Pipeline Co, Ltd (SEACOP) consortium, SEAGP is responsible for the pipeline project as a joint venture between China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and the former junta-linked Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise (MOGE).
Nyan Tun also expressed confidence that the US$14.2 million gas pipeline would improve Burma’s economy by boosting energy supplies and fueling industrialization.
“While placing a special focus on production and the delivery of natural gas, I really appreciate [efforts] to take care of our citizens and preserve our natural environment at all their work sites and along the pipeline corridor,” he said.
“I would like to assure you that the Ministry of Energy will maintain a good, collaborative relationship with the SEAGP consortium and will continue our support in future to SEAGP as well as the Shwe consortium in their future operations in Myanmar,” he added.
The 793-km long gas pipelines runs from Kyaukpyu Township on the coast of Arakan State and passes through Magwe Division, Mandalay Division and Shan State, terminating in Kunming, southern China, where it will provide the region with an important link to Burma’s offshore Shwe gas field. A second pipe for oil runs alongside the natural gas conduit, though it is still under construction.
Construction on the pipeline began in October 2010, with Daewoo International, ONGC Videsh Ltd., GAIL, KOGAS and five other contractors from India, China and South Korea involved in the project.
The pipeline has been widely criticized by opponents who claim widespread human rights abuses were perpetrated in the course of its construction. Critics also say the project has lacked transparency and is detrimental to the environment.
Environmentalists and activists have urged pipeline authorities to increase transparency and address local complaints that many whose lands were confiscated or otherwise affected by the project have not received adequate compensation from the companies involved in the undertaking.
“There are many farmers along the pipeline who have not received compensation yet. Some compensation has been withheld by the township or district officials but the farmers do not know how to—or dare not—complain about this,” said Ko Gyi from Pyin Oo Lwin, whose land was confiscated due to the pipeline.
“We are worried for our safety because when they tested the pipeline by transmitting water earlier this year in Shan State, the pipeline was damaged. What will happen when gas and oil are transmitted?” Ko Gyi added.
The Myanmar-China Pipeline Watch Committee has launched a signature campaign to urge pipeline authorities to act transparently and review concerns about the project’s safety and whether an equitable benefits-sharing arrangement is in place.
“We just want transparency for the project,” said Hnin Yu Shwe from the Myanmar-China Pipeline Watch Committee. “As far as we studied, the project has no transparency and will provide no benefits to locals who live along the pipeline, nor to citizens of the country who have had to suffer the consequences of the project, such as deforestation and environmental degradation. If the project is not transparent and doesn’t provide benefits to the country, just stop it.”
The committee issued a report earlier this year detailing environmental degradation wrought by the project, emphasizing deforestation along the pipeline corridor in Arakan State as well as central Burma’s Mahn, Minbu and Yaynanchaung forestry areas, and Shan State’s Naungcho, Goke Hteik and Moe Tae forestry areas.
The vice president of CNPC, Wang Dongjin, also insisted on Sunday that the gas pipeline will benefit both countries’ energy sectors.
“The successful commissioning of the gas pipeline will not only put gas fields into development and reward Myanmar with export revenue; more importantly, it will provide access to clean energy to the Myanmar people along this pipeline. Meanwhile, natural gas will play a major role in optimizing the energy mix in Southwest China,” Wang Dongjin said.
A separate commissioning ceremony was also held on Sunday in Kyaukpyu, where the pipeline begins on the coast of the Bay of Bengal.
Credit-The Irrawaddy News.
RONGHINGYA
'Gangs behind Rohingya escape'
Immigration Police say they know who was behind the mass escape of 18 Rohingya from the Phang Nga shelter on July 21 and are closing in on them.
Phang Nga and Ranong immigration officers on Wednesday night took into custody a Rohingya woman and four children while they were on a Bangkok-bound train.
"The woman was assisted by people outside the shelter. They told her they were sent by relatives and were there to help," Phang Nga immigration chief Neti Khanboon said.
"They convinced her to go to Bangkok, where they said relatives were waiting for her," he said.
"At this stage we know of two to three gangs who do this. They always pretend to be relatives or claim to be helping and that relatives were waiting for them.
"Once the Rohingya have left the shelter, the gangs have networks to smuggle them to other provinces," he said.
The four children and the woman have been returned to the shelter.
"They have been kept there a long time, about eight months. That could be making them feel uncomfortable and decide to flee the shelter," he said.
"The woman was assisted by people outside the shelter. They told her they were sent by relatives and were there to help," Phang Nga immigration chief Neti Khanboon said.
"They convinced her to go to Bangkok, where they said relatives were waiting for her," he said.
"At this stage we know of two to three gangs who do this. They always pretend to be relatives or claim to be helping and that relatives were waiting for them.
"Once the Rohingya have left the shelter, the gangs have networks to smuggle them to other provinces," he said.
The four children and the woman have been returned to the shelter.
"They have been kept there a long time, about eight months. That could be making them feel uncomfortable and decide to flee the shelter," he said.
sorce-The Nation Newspaper of Thailand.
Myanmar: UN expert welcomes latest release of prisoners, warns of ongoing arrests
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Tomás Ojea Quintana. UN Photo/Evan Schneider
29 July 2013 – A United Nations independent expert today welcomed Myanmar’s latest release of prisoners of conscience, but raised concerns over ongoing arrests of activists in the country.
“The release of prisoners of conscience continues to be one of the most tangible outcomes of Myanmar’s reforms. However, I am very concerned about ongoing arrests and sentencing,”said the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, Tomás Ojea Quintana.
Last week, President Thein Sein granted amnesty to 73 prisoners of conscience, as part of a series of reforms initiated two years ago following the establishment of a new Government. Mr. Sein stated during a recent visit to Europe that all remaining prisoners of conscience would be freed by year’s end.
While commending the Government for its recent actions, Mr. Ojea Quintana said the Government should stop arresting citizens for their politics and expressions of dissent with current policies.
“I believe there are still arrests and trials taking place that are politically motivated, including individuals involved in protests against land confiscation as well as people working to defend human rights in Rakhine state,” he said. “I intend to follow up on these cases during my upcoming mission to Myanmar next month.
Mr. Ojea Quintana noted that addressing this issue involved reforming laws such as the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Act and the Unlawful Associations Act, as well as the development of an independent judiciary in Myanmar.
“I also hope that the new prisoner review committee becomes more transparent in the important work it is doing, including with regard to the criteria used to determine prisoners of conscience,” he said, adding that the committee should also be able to investigate new cases that may be politically motivated and recommend necessary institutional and legislative reforms.
Special rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.
News Tracker: past stories on this issue
Myanmar News: Abuse of Rohingya Muslims is a Red Flag That's Reminiscent of Rwanda
- Andrew Friedman
- in
- World
- 6 hours ago
Myanmar News: Abuse of Rohingya Muslims is a Red Flag That's Reminiscent of Rwanda
The rapid political reform of Myanmar’s leadership has earned the country a reputation as a “development darling,” a country quickly changing from an international pariah to a beacon of opportunity. But, as we have seen with historical “darlings,” the positive steps of reform (and the media coverage of them) can often hide widespread human rights violations.
In 2009, the Obama administration began a policy of engagement with Myanmar, which led to a string of diplomatic successes. Since then, the country's military junta has retired, elections were held for the first time in 20 years, and a number of political prisoners, including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, were released. The United States greeted such changes by systematically easing economic sanctions, and increasing diplomatic contact. In late 2011, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Myanmar, becoming the first senior American official to visit the country in more than 50 years. Clinton's trip was followed by an unprecedented November 2012 visit by President Barack Obama, making him the first sitting U.S. president to enter the formerly reclusive Southeast Asian state.
The United States' intervention has made it easier for foreign entities to conduct business with Myanmar. Consequently, President U Thein Sein, a former military ruler who has traded his uniform for a civilian leader’s suit, has been globe-trotting, courting foreign direct investment into the previously isolationist state. Obama, for his part, has lobbied for greater international economic engagement with the country, stating that its reforms provide “incredible development opportunities,” while urging the country to continue its “remarkable journey.”
But such "remarkable journeys" have gone poorly in the past. Take the example of Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Kagame was called a “visionary leader” by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and “one of the greatest leaders of our time” by former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Kagame has been responsible for leading Rwanda since the aftermath of its genocidal war, and has turned the country into an example of economic opportunity in East Africa, despite extraordinary geographic disadvantages. However, Kagame is wholly intolerant of dissent, and has, over his tenure, overseen the destruction of the country's political environment. As theEconomist put it, Kagame, “allows less political space and press freedom at home than Robert Mugabe does in Zimbabwe.” In spite of this, President Kagame has no shortage of Western backers, including Clinton and Blair, and powerful private individuals such as Bill Gates and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. Kagame’s rampant destruction of Rwanda's political space and his interference in the affairs of neighboring states have been widely overlooked due to his economic successes.
In Myanmar, history is repeating itself. As Thein Sein makes the rounds, informing the world that the country is open for business, his government has been complicit in a tyranny against Rohingya Muslims that some say amounts to genocide. Thien Sein's government has deniedcitizenship to the Rohingya people, imposed a limit on the number of children members of the group can have (while not imposing a similar limit for Buddhists living in the same areas), andcultivated a culture of impunity for perpetrators of violence against the group.
The international community has been largely silent about these issues, instead choosing to hail the successes of reform.
Myanmar has made incredible strides from the country it was just a few years ago, thanks to diplomatic engagement. The United States had previously attempted to isolate the Southeast Asian state for over five decades, to no avail. While Myanmar has taken drastic steps forward, it still has quite a ways to go, and for the sake of the Rohingya, the international community should not pretend otherwise. While it is right for the international community to praise the good of its darlings, it must not forget that there is yet more good to be done.
Lawyer representing Rohingya accuses RNDP party secretary of harassment
Hla Myo Myint, who is representing seven Rohingya facing multiple charges including rioting and disturbing government officials after they refused to register as “Bengalis” at a displacement camp near the state capital, said the RNDP’s Khine Pyi Soe and a group of men first approached him when he was leaving the Sittwe courthouse on 12 July.
According to the lawyer, the posse allegedly surrounded him as he was
leaving the court and proceeded to follow him to his hotel after he
fled the scene in a UN vehicle.
At the hotel, the group then threatened Hla Myo Myint and tried to get the hotel staff to kick him out of the establishment.
“We were surrounded by the RNDP’s Khine Pyi Soe and his company and had to leave the [courthouse] in the UN OHCHR (Office for the High Commissioner of Human Rights) regional representative’s car,” said Hla Myo Myint.
“I went back to the Sittwe Hotel and in about half an hour, a group of seven men including Khin Pyi Soe showed up and took photos of me. They threatened me and said to stop following the case and also pressured the hotel staff to kick me out.”
While Hla Myo Myint said he has no plans to press charges against the RNDP, the lawyer has filed a formal request to Burma’s supreme court on 18 July asking to relocate the trial to Rangoon.
The RNDP general- secretary Khine Pyi Soe rejected the allegations
and claimed that the military affairs security and police’s special
intelligence department personnel were present at the scene.At the hotel, the group then threatened Hla Myo Myint and tried to get the hotel staff to kick him out of the establishment.
“We were surrounded by the RNDP’s Khine Pyi Soe and his company and had to leave the [courthouse] in the UN OHCHR (Office for the High Commissioner of Human Rights) regional representative’s car,” said Hla Myo Myint.
“I went back to the Sittwe Hotel and in about half an hour, a group of seven men including Khin Pyi Soe showed up and took photos of me. They threatened me and said to stop following the case and also pressured the hotel staff to kick me out.”
While Hla Myo Myint said he has no plans to press charges against the RNDP, the lawyer has filed a formal request to Burma’s supreme court on 18 July asking to relocate the trial to Rangoon.
Source-DVB
Sunday, 28 July 2013
Aceh Fishermen Rescue 68 Rohingya Asylum Seekers From Indian Ocean
By Nurdin Hasan on 4:54 pm July 28, 2013.
Ethnic
Rohingya refugees from Myanmar wave as they are transported by a wooden
boat to a temporary shelter in Krueng Raya in Aceh Besar in this April
8, 2013 file photo. (Reuters Photo/Junaidi Hanafiah)
Banda Aceh. Fishermen rescued a more than 60 Rohingya asylum seekers stranded in a boat off the coast of Aceh Jaya on Sunday — the third disabled Rohingya boat found floating in the Indian Ocean this year.
The 68 Rohingya — including a pregnant woman and two babies — told Aceh officials they boarded the boat after being threatened with deportation in Malaysia.
“The asylum seekers who could speak Malay said they departed from Malaysia four days ago and were heading to Australia to apply for asylum,” Rizal Dinata, the head of Aceh Jaya branch Indonesian Inter-Citizen Radio (RAPI), said.
Shortly after leaving Malaysia, the asylum seekers’ compass and global positioning system (GPS) were damaged, Rizal reported. The wind and currents pushed the boat toward Aceh, where it became stranded off the coast of Aceh Jaya.
The Rohingya told Rizal they fled their home villages in Myanmar’s coastal Arakan region amid a recent surge in anti-Muslim violence. They spent several days in Malaysia before deciding to chance the perilous journey to Australia’s Christmas Island.
The asylum seekers were in good health and fasting for the holy month of Ramadan, Rizal said. Some had Bangladesh citizenship, one was Vietnamese, Rizal said.
“There are two people who were sick and they were taken to Teuku Umar Calang General Hospital [and admitted to] intensive care,” he said.
The others were transported to an orphanage in Calang, Aceh Jaya, overseen by the local Social Affairs Office. Immigration officials from Meulaboh, West Aceh, interviewed the asylum seekers and collected data.
Asylum seeker boats continue to arrive in Indonesia despite Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s implementation of a hard-line immigration policy that shut the nation’s doors to even “legitimate refugees.”
Under the new policy, all asylum seekers, regardless of their circumstances, will be settled in neighboring Papua New Guinea — a controversial move that has garnered criticism from human rights groups.
In early April, 76 Rohingya asylum seekers were found in a disabled boat off Pulo Aceh. In February, 121 Rohingya were rescued off the coast of North Aceh.
The number of asylum seekers fleeing Myanmar has increased eight-fold in Indonesia’s Aceh province since 2009 as hard-line Buddhists launched a violent campaign targeting Myanmar’s Muslim minority.
Analysis: In search of a regional Rohingya solution
Analysis: In search of a regional Rohingya solution
HIGHLIGHTS
- Regional responsibility-sharing needed
- Refugee flight "essentially criminalized"
- Boat departures increase
- Only two ASEAN states have signed 1951 Refugee Convention
"A coordinated and immediate regional response will put pressure on the government to do more to ease the plight of the Rohingya people and prevent the situation from spiralling out of control," Joey Dimaandal, a programme associate for the South East Asia Committee for Advocacy (SEACA), a capacity building network for community-based organizations in Southeast Asia, told IRIN.
More than 35,000 people have fled by boat over the past year, recent estimates suggest, while others believe the real number is much higher.
"The numbers are much more," said Chris Lewa, head of the Arakan Project, a Rohingya advocacy group. "Many have fled overland. Many countries have been affected."
"The human toll has been enormous, dragging [on] over several decades, and it is bound to continue in the absence of a coordinated, strong, and immediate international response," said Matthew Smith, the executive director of Fortify Rights International, a US- and Swiss-registered Myanmar research NGO.
"Many southeast Asian countries fear that providing a hospitable reception to Rohingya refugees will simply encourage more to come, especially given their desperate situation in Myanmar and the hostile responses of other countries in the region," said Melanie Teff, a senior advocate for Refugees International (RI).
Since October 2012, an estimated 785 Rohingyas have drowned at sea in an attempt to reach safer shores in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia, RI reports, compared to 140 in 2011, while in Bangladesh, assistance remains limited for an estimated 300,000 who fled across the border years earlier, says Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
Others have made their way to India and Nepal, and even Timor-Leste.
At the same time, nearly 2,000 Rohingya men, women, and children are now in immigration detention centres and government shelters in Thailand.
ASEAN could do more
In October 2012, Surin Pitsuwan, secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), said the issue could potentially destabilize the whole region. However, ASEAN has yet to propose any real initiatives to address the issue.
"Comprehensive solutions must be found for the Rohingya outside of Rakhine State," said Vivian Tan, spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). "In the spirit of responsibility-sharing, countries should allow these boatpeople to disembark, and to receive temporary assistance and protection until longer-term solutions can be found."
While the agency continues to advocate reconciliation between the Muslims and Buddhists in Rakhine, along with amendments to Myanmar's repressive 1982 Citizenship Law, which locks some 800,000 Rohingyas into statelessness and curtails basic citizenship rights, Rohingyas continue to face forced return, detention, and abuse when seeking asylum across borders.
The recent abolition of the abusive border military force Nasaka has been applauded by the UN, but the spillover of Myanmar's internal conflict into at least five of ASEAN countries demands a regional solution, say analysts.
Indonesia and Malaysia have issued public statements condemning Myanmar's treatment of the Rohingya, but no country appears ready to accept them.
"Governments in the region have essentially criminalized refugee flight," said Debbie Stothard, deputy secretary-general of the International Federation of Human Rights, an international secretariat for 178 human rights organizations worldwide, based in Bangkok.
Push-backs
In 2009, the Thai navy towed six boatloads of Rohingyas (over 1,000 people) back to the Andaman Sea where they were left without food, water and fuel, and were eventually picked up by the Indonesian navy, according to the People's Empowerment Foundation, a Thai grassroots civil society network.
Similar push-backs took place in Thailand in 2011 and in Bangladesh in 2012.
"Bangladesh pushed asylum seekers back out to sea on rickety boats in monsoon seas," said Phil Robertson, deputy executive director for Human Rights Watch's Asia division.
Jakarta maintains that it has never violated the customary international law of non-refoulement; it will not return people whose lives may be in danger if they return.
"Our policy on foreigners who enter the country irregularly seeking asylum is clear. We have never turned them back to their countries of origin. We respect their rights as asylum seekers," said Muhammed Anshor, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry's director of human rights and humanitarian affairs.
However, the fear of the pull factor - or encouraging more Rohingya migration into a country, continues to prevent any ASEAN country from taking the initiative.
"The fear is that a formal regional policy would encourage more arrivals, so there has not been an official response," said Panitan Wattarayagorn, the former Thai government spokesperson for former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
This fear has a provoked "a conscious effort in some states, like Thailand, to deny them refugee status or to keep them marginalized, like in Malaysia and Indonesia," said Robertson.
But if ASEAN governments can establish a responsibility-sharing mechanism to provide temporary asylum for Rohingyas, it may mitigate the pull factor, RI's Teff says.
"This is why a coordinated regional response is necessary - one which includes an agreement between countries in the region about how they will receive and respond to the needs of refugees," said Teff, who stressed that ASEAN member states need to press the Myanmar government to issue its plan to promote peaceful coexistence, end segregation, and facilitate voluntary and safe returns of Rohingya to their homes in Rakhine State, while amending the 1982 Citizenship Law "to ensure all persons in the country have equal access to citizenship and civil rights."
In the meantime, on humanitarian grounds, it is imperative that "ASEAN member states permit Rohingya asylum seekers to access their territories and grant them a legal status," she added.
Downgraded
At the 14th ASEAN Summit in 2009 there was discussion of the need to cooperate to find a solution for the Rohingya boatpeople. Known as the Bali process, its main purpose was to decrease transnational crimes such as smuggling and illegal migration.
But the relegation of the Rohingyas' plight to the Bali process "downgraded people fleeing persecution, and now mass atrocities, to a question of human trafficking," Stothard charged.
Options for regional cooperation for refugees and asylum seekers are limited, given that only two of the 10 ASEAN countries (Philippines and Cambodia) have signed the 1951 Refugee Convention.
"There is no easy solution until ASEAN is more established," said Wattarayagorn. "It is hard for even developed countries in the European Union [to deal with illegal migration]. We still have a long way to go," he said.
Myanmar is expected to chair ASEAN in 2014, and some believe this could provide a platform for a push to end human rights violations against Rohingya.
Photo: David Swanson/IRIN
There are more than 200,000 undocumented Rohingya refugees in neighbouring Bangladesh
"Regional countries should use their economic standing vis-à-vis Myanmar to advance human rights," said Fortify Rights International's Smith.
At the same time, refugee campaigners are calling on the international community to proceed slowly in normalizing relations with Mynmar until discrimination against the Rohingyas ceases and there is non-discriminatory access to citizenship for all ethnic and religious minorities.
A missed opportunity?
"The international community has been premature in welcoming the reforms in Myanmar. and as a result, prematurely dropped many points of leverage that should have been maintained [until all human rights abuses stop]," Teff said.
UNHCR is appealing to countries in the region to keep borders open for all displaced persons.
"Longer-term solutions could include eventual return when conditions allow, the strategic use of resettlement, and setting up mechanisms for the Rohingya to regularize their stay where they are, especially if they are economically self-sufficient," said Tan.
"Without a regional solution, there will be more exploitation," Wattarayagorn added.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, close to 180,000 people were affected by two deadly rounds of sectarian violence between Buddhist ethnic Rakhine and Muslim communities in western Rakhine State in 2012.
Of these, 140,000 remain displaced, the vast majority of them Rohingya, living in more than 80 camps and makeshift sites, while an additional 36,000 people are living in 113 isolated villages with little access to basic services.
A total of 167 people were killed in the violence (78 in June and 89 in October); 223 were injured (87 in June and 136 in October); and more than 10,000 buildings and homes were damaged or destroyed, government figures reveal.
dm/ds/cb
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
credit:IRIN NEWS.
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