Stop deportation of asylum seekers; treat them with dignity

By admin, on 31 May 2011

 The Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organisation Malaysia (Merhrom) is deeply concerned over the Australian government’s plan to deport 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia.

This raises a few fundamental questions. Why does the Australian government, which is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, want to deport the 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia, which is not a signatory to the Convention? Who are the 800 asylum seekers and where do they come from? What kind of protection can the Malaysian government give them? How long is the UNHCR identification process and where will they be placed during the whole process? Who will be the 4000 refugee that will be resettled to Australia? How long will the Australian government send the asylum seekers to Malaysia and how will Malaysia manage them when the number increases over the years?

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Missions could be more alert: Faruk

Mon, May 30th, 2011 3:29
Subir Bhaumik
bdnews24.com India correspondent 

Dhaka, May 30 (bdnews24.com)—The parliamentary standing committee on foreign affairs feels the country's missions in the Middle East and North Africa region should have been more alert ahead of the people's upsurge in the 'Arab Spring'.
"That would have helped our government evacuate the large Bangladeshi population residing in the Middle East-North Africa region in good time, but that did not happen," said Mostafa Faruk Mohammad, Awami League lawmaker and senior member of the parliamentary standing committee, on Monday.
"Our people got caught up in the uprisings and the conflict that followed," Mostafa Faruk added.
He is a former High Commissioner to many countries including India. 

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Ihsanoglu Calls on Rohingya people to unite their efforts

Date: 30/05/2011
The Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Prof Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu reiterated the OIC’s solidarity with the Rohingya people and reassured them of the support of the Organisation.

In his speech which was delivered by Mr. Talal Daaous Director of the Department of Muslim Minorities in OIC, the Secretary General highlighted the importance of the Meeting of Senior Leaders of Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU) and the Euro-Burma Office (EBO) which takes place in the OIC headquarters on 30 and 31 May 2011.

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OIC/Rohingya: Ihsanoglu Calls on Rohingya people to unite their efforts

By IINA– May 30, 2011Posted in: World

JEDDAH, 27 Jumada 2/ May 30 (IINA)-The Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Prof Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu reiterated the OIC’s solidarity with the Rohingya people and reassured them of the support of the Organisation.

In his speech which was delivered by Mr. Talal Daaous Director of the Department of Muslim Minorities in OIC, the Secretary General highlighted the importance of the Meeting of Senior Leaders of Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU) and the Euro-Burma Office (EBO) which takes place in the OIC headquarters on 30 and 31 May 2011.

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OIC/Myanmar-Rohinggya: OIC undertaking a project to integrate Myanmar refugees into one Union

By IINA– May 29, 2011Posted in: Islamophobia

JEDDAH, 26 Jumada 2/May 29 (IINA)-The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) undertakes during the next two days to end nearly six decade-long of fragmentation of Rohingya refuges who were displaced from Arakan territory in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) in an aim to unite them under one single body to be called Arakan Rohingya Union.

The OIC General Secretariat in Jeddah hosts on 30 and 31 May 2011 intensive meetings with representatives from 35 Rohingya Associations from 13 countries around the world, in order to reach a common agreement.

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Myanmar/Islam: State Terrorism in Arakan and the situation of Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh

By ,IINA– May 29, 2011 

DAKHA (Bangladesh), 26 Jumada 2/May 29 (IINA)-”Rohingyas have become stateless within the state. The military regime has put up two options before the Rohingya people: either to accept a Barman melting pot and become Buddhist, or migration to alien lands. None of Rohingya could agree to an arrangement that compromises their religious identity. The ancestral land, Arakan is dear and sacred to them. The new form of persecution is increasing every day. It is only the return of Democracy that is likely to break the age-old repressive rule of the Barman over the Rohingyas of Myanmar.”
It is not often you meet someone who tells you that he is from “a people at the brink of extermination.” But the testimonies from refugees in a remote corner of southern Bangladesh, on the border with Burma, justify that assessment. For the Rohingya people, a Muslim minority in northern Arakan State, western Burma, are a stateless people whose very identity is denied.

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Aung San Suu Kyi addresses violence against women from Nobel Women's Initiative

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Stateless refugee mothers fall through the cracks in Bangladesh

Misha Hussain – Women News Network – WNN: 17 May, 2011

 Twenty-six year old Rohingya mother, Rashida Begum, is seven months pregnant. She and her four children have lived in Katupalong makehift refugee camp for four years. Image: Misha Hussain

(WNN) DHAKA, Bangladesh: Mothering in the Kutupalong makeshift refugee camp in the southwest of Bangladesh is about as tough as it gets. Those who live in the camp experience each day what it means to be undocumented and ‘meaningless.’ Without the right to work, to carry money, or to receive humanitarian aid, ethnic Burmese women and children bear the brunt of the international community’s unwillingness to tackle a 20-year-old issue. Some mothers are as young as the age of 16. Many suffer, along with their children, from acute malnutrition, hunger and starvation. Many have little access to education or healthcare.

Undocumented Burmese Rohingya refugees are in a growing state of crisis in Bangladesh as authorities prevent international aid measures to help them. Relief agencies such as MSF – Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) and Physicians for Human Rights are now facing their lowest ebb with cooperation from Bangladesh government authorities as they attempt to bring medical aid and higher food nutrition into Kutupalong camp. Another aid organization, Islamic Relief Worldwide, has recently pulled out due to inability to receive required permits to assist those in need inside camp.

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Should East Timor join ASEAN?

In March this year, East Timor officially submitted its application to the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) secretariat to join the organization. If the application is successful, Timor Leste will become ASEAN`s 11^th member.

To date East Timor’s application has gained considerable support from a number of the ASEAN member states like Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Philippine, Malaysia including Indonesia, the former occupier of East Timor from 1975-1999. Indonesia has been vocal in advocating for East Timor’s bid to join ASEAN despite the historical animosity between the two countries, dating back to East Timor’s separation from Indonesia in 1999.

However, East Timor’s chance of joining ASEAN has been increasingly uncertain after Singapore voiced its objection. It is argued that currently East Timor is still experiencing a lack of capable human resources which enable the country to effectively take part in at least the 1000 or more ASEAN meetings that are held annually. They further argued that economically East Timor is not ready to compete both regionally and internationally, hence preparations are needed prior to the ascension.

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UN says Australia refugee swap illegal

By JOSEPH ALLCHIN,Published: 25 May 2011
UNHCR chief Navi Pillay has warned Australia against the asylum seeker deal (Reuters)

Canberra’s controversial plan to send asylum seekers detained on Australian soil to Malaysia as part of a “refugee swap” is illegal, according to the head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Speaking to Radio Australia on a visit to the country this week, Navi Pillay said that the deal, which is yet to be finalised, would likely violate refugee laws. “They cannot send refugees to a country that has not ratified it,” she said, adding that individuals are not protected in Malaysia, which is not a signatory either to the UN refugee convention nor the UN convention on torture.

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Aung San Suu Kyi Condemns Rape in Conflicts

VOA News

Photo: Reuters>>Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi looks at pictures of herself at a photo exhibition held at the National League for Democracy's office in Rangoon, Burma, May 23, 2011

Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has condemned the use of rape as a weapon of terror in conflicts.

In a recorded video address to a conference in Montebello, Canada, the Nobel Peace Prize winner said rape is used in her country as a weapon against those who want to live in peace, but also want to assert their basic human rights. She said the armed forces use rape to intimidate ethnic nationalities and keep the Burmese people divided. 

Aung San Suu Kyi was released in November after having spent most of the past two decades in some form of detention.

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Burmese Political Prisoners on Hunger Strike

Voice of America

Human-rights groups say more than 20 political prisoners being held in the country’s notorious Insein prison began a hunger strike last week protesting inadequate nutrition for all inmates and calling for fundamental rights.

Human-rights groups say at least 33 political prisoners in the notorious Insein prison near Rangoon began a hunger strike last week, when a group of women prisoners protested a government amnesty that reduced overall prison sentences by one year.

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State Terrorism in Arakan and the situation of Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh

 by Nurul Islam

Rohingyas have become stateless within the state. The military regime has put up two options before the Rohingya people: either to accept a Barman melting pot and become Buddhist, or migration to alien lands. None of Rohingya could agree to an arrangement that compromises their religious identity. The ancestral land, Arakan is dear and sacred to them. The new form of persecution is increasing every day. It is only the return of Democracy that is likely to break the age-old repressive rule of the Barman over the Rohingyas of Myanmar."

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CNN documentary wins Amnesty International award

CNN) -- CNN has won an Amnesty International Media award for its documentary World's Untold Stories: Locked up and Forgotten.

The winning half-hour film, presented by CNN's Nairobi correspondent David McKenzie, highlights the negligence and social taboos suffered by Kenya's mentally disabled community, who live a life hidden away in slums and remote villages across the country.

Deprived of medical care and therapy, an estimated three million mentally disabled individuals are ostracized by society, concealed and locked away inside their own communities, often by their own families. 

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To whom it may concern

By DAVID WOOD
I am a Rohingya. An oppressed stateless people from Burma. 
 
The Burmese military has long oppressed Rohingya and been involved in an ethnic-cleansing program to prevent the creation of a Rohingya state.

My life in Burma was very hard. My family house was demolished two times by authorities and as a result we had to move to my mothers native village. Every person in that village was subject to violent abuses, fines, extortion, military harassment and corporal punishment. I am aware that at least 100 villagers are still in detention and many have died in detention. My father was died for the subsequent detentions. My siblings were detained in 2008.

After I passed matriculation, I sneaked out Arakan (his home state) to Rangon to continue my study. If I did not leave in secret my family would have had to have paid a large bribe, which they could not afford.
In Rangon, I was involved in research into natural resources, as a part of my research, I was harassed, beaten and detained by government authorities. My colleagues managed to released me through a bribe.

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Flawed math behind Myanmar 'democracy'

By David Scott Mathieson (Asia Times)

MAE SOT - What if you held an election and you weren't sure how many people showed up at the polls? To establish voting patterns and trends, one needs to have an accurate estimate of the population, clearly demarcated electorates and the eligible voters contained therein, and a system of tallying votes. It is not clear how closely these prerequisites were observed ahead of the November 7, 2010, vote in Myanmar when population estimates in the country vary widely.

Myanmar has not had an effective nationwide census for decades. Previous ones took place during British colonial rule in 1931, under the post war social democratic government in 1953, and by

the socialist government in 1983. The last official census in 1983 calculated the population to be 35.4 million, despite that count not being able to access considerable parts of the country due to civil war. But what is Myanmar's population now, and how did authorities count the votes on November 7, 2010?

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Brighton Festival: The Lady of Burma

by William McEvoy ( The Stage UK)

 

Richard Shannon’s solo show, based on the life and activism of Burmese democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi, is a simple and inspiring record of one woman’s struggle. Using minimal lighting and props, it puts performer Liana Gould centre stage with little else.

Gould shows a compelling emotional range as she leads us through Suu Kyi’s life, as a student in Oxford, dealing with grief at her parents’ illness and death, getting involved in political campaigns, coping with house arrest. She commands our attention because of her sincerity as a performer, and of course, the story itself is both moving and uplifting.

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On Myanmar, Ban “Notes” Calls to Replace UN Envoy Nambiar, Rohingya on Margins

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 20 -- With the UN's envoy to Myanmar Vijay Nambiar openly refusing to speak with the press, despite a formal request from the UN correspondents' association, the only way to learn the specifics of his recent visit is to ask the Security Council diplomats he spoke to, then ask the UN to confirm.

Inner City Press on May 20 asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky why Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has not acted on what even Nambiar on May 20 reported to the Council Aung San Suu Kyi has asked for: a full time replacement to Nambiar as envoy.

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Burma's Inconvenient Truth

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Aung Zaw is founder and editor of the Irrawaddy magazine. He can be reached at aungzaw@irrawaddy.org

Aung San Suu Kyi recently said to a group of Berlin students during a phone-in with German broadcaster DW-TV that no “meaningful change” has taken place in Burma since the general election in November.
A few days later, the UN secretary-general's acting special envoy to Burma, Vijay Nambiar, flew into Burma to meet with government officials and opposition leaders, including Suu Kyi.
Nambiar said, "The government has made some very interesting statements ... which are very encouraging."

He said he hoped that there would be a breakthrough, though he did not elaborate. He went on to urge Naypyidaw to release the more than 2,200 political prisoners in Burma.Then there was a classic play of the military-backed government showing its true colors. It announced a limited amnesty by reducing all current prisoners' sentences by one year. But only 47 political prisoners were released among several thousands of criminals who enjoyed the president’s “clemency.”

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ASEAN and Rights Hypocrisy

By Mong Palatino, The Diplomat Blog

Burma’s bid to chair the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2014 was politely dismissed when the bloc concluded its latest summit in Indonesia without a clear commitment on the matter. Instead of receiving support for its bid, Burma was advised by fellow ASEAN members to build better infrastructure first if it really wants to lead the group in the future. But the unstated reason for the quiet rejection of the country’s aspiration is the apparent failure of the ruling junta to improve its poor human rights record. In the eyes of ASEAN, and the rest of the world, Burma’s new government has been unable to hasten the democratization process because of its lack of sincerity and the fact that there is no definite and lasting initiative to promote political reconciliation with dissident parties.

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US envoy meets Myanmar's Suu Kyi

AFP: YANGON — A senior US diplomat met Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi Thursday for talks about the country's new political landscape following the recent dissolution of the junta.

Joseph Yun, the deputy US assistant secretary for East Asia and Pacific affairs, described the meeting as "very good" but did not reveal details of his discussion with the Nobel Peace Prize winner.

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US renews Myanmar sanctions

AFP :WASHINGTON — The United States renewed its economic sanctions against Myanmar and urged the military-backed regime to go much further after it reduced prisoners' terms by just one year.

In a formal notice to Congress, President Barack Obama on Monday said that he was renewing sanctions that would otherwise have expired this month because Myanmar, also known as Burma, was taking actions "hostile to US interests."

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Rohingyas Pass Years in Stateless Limbo in Indian Jail

Hundreds of men belonging to Burma's minority Rohingya ethnic group continue to languish in stateless limbo in an Indian jail, after being rescued at sea more than two years ago.

The waiting came to a welcome end for 18 Rohingya boat people Thursday, as they crossed from India's West Bengal state into Bangladesh. More than 200 other Rohingyas, though, remain in a prison on India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, in a waiting process that has stretched from months to years.

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ရခိုင္ျပည္နယ္၏ အေရးၾကီးေသာ လ၀က ၀န္ၾကီးဌာန စစ္၀န္ၾကီးသို႕ လြဲေျပာင္း

ရခိုင္ျပည္နယ္ အစိုးရ၏ အေရးၾကီးေသာ ၀န္ၾကီးဌာနမ်ားထဲတြင္ တစ္ခု အပါအ၀င္ ျဖစ္ေသာ လူ၀င္မူ ၾကီးၾကပ္ေရး (လ၀က) ၀န္ၾကီးဌာနကို စစ္တပ္ ၀န္ၾကီး လက္ထဲသို႕ လြဲေျပာင္း ေပးလိုက္ျပီ ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း သတင္း ရရွိသည္။
" သူ႕ကို ရာထူးက ဖယ္ရွားလိုက္တာေတာ့ မဟုတ္ပါဘူး။ သူကိုင္ေနတဲ့ ၀န္ၾကီးဌာန (၂) ခုထဲက အေရးၾကီးတဲ့ လ၀က ၀န္ၾကီးဌာနကို စစ္တပ္က လာတဲ့ ဗိုလ္မွဴးၾကီး ထိန္လင္း လက္ထဲကို လြဲေျပာင္း လိုက္တာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ သူရဲ႕ သာသနာေရး ၀န္ၾကီးဌာနကေတာ့ သူလက္ထဲမွာ က်န္ရွိေနမွာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္" ဟု အမည္မေဖၚလိုသူ အစိုးရ အဖြဲ႕၀င္ ၀န္ၾကီး တစ္ဦးက ေျပာသည္။

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EC targets aliens

Thu, May 19th, 2011 12:49 am BdST
Moinul Hoque Chowdhury
bdnews24.com correspondent

Dhaka, May 18 (bdnews24.com) — The Election Commission (EC) has requested the government for information to ensure that foreign nationals, including Rohingyas, are excluded from the voters roll.

The commission's deputy-secretary Mihir Sarwar Morshed told bdnews24.com that it has sent a letter to the home ministry requesting information on areas where foreigners and Rohingyas might trespass into Bangladesh.

In 2009, when the voters' roll was being updated, some 50,000 Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar and Chittagong Hill Tracts, and 10 people, supposedly ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam) members were identified as listed voters in Moulvibazar.

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UK cautions ASEAN from allowing Myanmar leadership

AP News

The British government has cautioned Southeast Asian countries not to allow Myanmar to take the leadership of their regional bloc.
It says Myanmar will need to show "enormous political progress" to deserve the prestigious role that it now seeks. 

Myanmar, among the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, has sought the annual chairmanship of the 10-member bloc in 2014. Fellow members have not raised any objection but urged it to continue taking steps to realize a long-unfulfilled promise to fully democratize.

U.S. Ambassador to ASEAN David Carden says it's up to ASEAN to decide on Myanmar's leadership role. He says Washington hopes Myanmar will take seriously the new ASEAN charter, which includes promotion of human rights.

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US Sending Senior Diplomat to Meet New Burmese Government

VOA News

The United States is sending a senior diplomat for “introductory” talks with leaders of Burma’s new, nominally-civilian, government. The new government was seated in late March to replace a military junta but U.S. officials say the military retains effective control.

Officials here say the dispatch of the diplomat to Burma does not reflect any easing of the critical U.S. view of the political changes there, but that the Obama administration remains committed to trying dialogue with Burma.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Joseph Yun is due to leave Washington Wednesday for a visit to Burma spanning three days.

The senior diplomat last visited Burma in December and so his visit his week will be the first since the new government was sworn in on March 30th.

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Freed hip-hop star says Burma ‘regressing’

 DVB News

One of the handful of political prisoners released yesterday in the much-criticised amnesty has said that little has improved in Burma during his three years behind bars.

Zayar Thaw, a prominent hip hop artist and member of the outlawed Generation Wave youth activist group, yesterday arrived back at his home in Rangoon, one of around 30 political prisoners of a total of 17,000 released in the amnesty.

Critics of the government variously called it a “sick joke” and a “pathetic” attempt by President Thein Sein at carrying through his pledged reforms. The 31-year-old says that despite three years in jail, the outside world is much the same as before.

“Our country is still in a state of regression,” he told DVB. “Every sector – education, health – is going backwards. The economic system only favours one’s close aides and our human living standards are dropping.”

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Flawed math behind Burmese 'democracy'

by David Scott Mathieson

Asia Times Online

What if you held an election and you weren't sure how many people showed up at the polls? To establish voting patterns and trends, one needs to have an accurate estimate of the population, clearly demarcated electorates and the eligible voters contained therein, and a system of tallying votes. It is not clear how closely these prerequisites were observed ahead of the November 7, 2010, vote in Burma* when population estimates in the country vary widely.

Burma has not had an effective nationwide census for decades. Previous ones took place during British colonial rule in 1931, under the post war social democratic government in 1953, and by the socialist government in 1983. The last official census in 1983 calculated the population to be 35.4 million, despite that count not being able to access considerable parts of the country due to civil war. But what is Burma's population now, and how did authorities count the votes on November 7, 2010? 

Population estimates between 2008 and 2010 vary from 44.2 million in 2009 according to the United Nations, based on Ministry of Home Affairs figures, to 59.1 million in 2010 according to the government's Ministry of Immigration and Population estimates. The figures stem from a survey of some kind conducted from 2007 in cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) that estimated the population growth rate at 2.02% annually. From the lowest to highest figures over a two to three year period, there is a 15 million people differential in Burma government, UN and other international organizations' estimates. 

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ျမန္မာ့ ႏိုင္ငံေရးအေျခအေန တိုးတက္ဖို႔လိုေၾကာင္း ၾသစေၾတလ် ေျပာ

RFA Burmese

အာစီယံဥကၠ႒ျဖစ္ေရး၊ ပိတ္ဆို႔အေရးယူမႈ ဖယ္ရွားေရး အတြက္ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံက ႏုိင္ငံေရးအေျခအေန တိုးတက္ဖို႔လုိေၾကာင္းထိုင္းႏုိင္ငံကို ေရာက္ရွိေနတဲ့ၾသစေၾတလ် ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရးဝန္ႀကီးက ေျပာၾကားလိုက္ပါတယ္။

AFP

၂ဝ၁၁ခုႏွစ္ ေမလ၇ရက္ေန႔႔ကအင္ဒိုနီးရွားႏုိင္ငံဂ်ကာတာၿမိဳ႕တြင္ က်င္းပသည့္ ၁၈ ႀကိမ္ေျမာက္ အာစီယံ ထိပ္သီးညီလာခံ ေဘးပန္းေဆြးေႏြးပြဲအျဖစ္ အာစီယံေခါင္းေဆာင္မ်ားႏွင့္ လူထု အေျချပဳ အဖြဲ႔အစည္း ကိုယ္စားလွယ္မ်ား အလြတ္သေဘာ ေတြ႔ဆံုေဆြးေႏြးစဥ္ ေတြ႔ရသည့္ ျမန္မာသမၼတ ဦးသိန္းစိန္။ (Photo: AFP)

 ၾသစေၾတလ် ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရးဝန္ႀကီး Kevin Rudd နဲ႔ ထိုင္းႏုိင္ငံျခားေရးဝန္ႀကီး Kasit Piromya တို႔ဟာ ထိုင္းႏုိင္ငံ ဘန္ေကာက္ၿမိဳ႕ ၾသစေၾတလ်သံရံုးမွာ မေန႔က ေတြ႔ဆံုရာမွာ အာစီယံ ဥကၠ႒ရာထူးကုိ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံက အဆိုျပဳထားတဲ့ ကိစၥနဲ႔ ထိုင္း-ျမန္မာ နယ္စပ္က အိုးအိမ္စြန္႔ပစ္ ထြက္ေျပးေနရတဲ့ စစ္ေျပးဒုကၡသည္ အေရးေတြကို ေဆြးေႏြးခဲ့ၾကတယ္လို႔ ဒီကေန႔ထုတ္ The Nation သတင္းစာမွာ ေဖာ္ျပထားပါတယ္။

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သတင္းမွန္ေရးနဲ႔ ဘက္မလိုက္ဖို႔ ေဒၚစု တိုက္တြန္း

ဗီြအုိေအ ျမန္မာ

ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံမွာသတင္းသမားေတြအေနနဲ႔ဘက္မလိုက္ဘဲမွန္ကန္တဲ့သတင္းအခ်က္အလက္ေတြကုိပဲ ျပည္သူေတြကုိ တင္ျပႏုိင္ဖို႔အေရးႀကီးတယ္လို႔ ျမန္မာ့ဒီမုိကေရစီ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္က ေျပာၾကားလုိက္ပါတယ္။ ဒီေန႔ တနလၤာေန႔ အမ်ဳိးသား ဒီမုိကေရစီ အဖြဲ႕ခ်ဳပ္ (NLD) ႐ုံးခ်ဳပ္မွာ ဖြင့္လွစ္တဲ့ သတင္းစာပညာသင္တန္း အပတ္စဥ္၁ဖြင့္ပြဲ ႏႈတ္ခြန္းဆက္အမွာစကားမွာ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ကအဲဒီလုိ ေျပာၾကားခဲ့တာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ အျပည့္အစုံကို ေဒၚခင္မ်ဳိးသက္က တင္ျပေပးထားပါတယ္။

အမ်ဳိးသားဒီမုိကေရစီအဖြဲ႕ခ်ဳပ္ဟာ ျမန္မာ့ဒီမုိကေရစီ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ ေနအိမ္အက်ယ္ခ်ဳပ္ကေန ျပန္ၿပီး လြတ္ေျမာက္လာတဲ့ ေနာက္ပုိင္း လူငယ္ေတြအတြက္ အရည္အခ်င္း ျမႇင့္တင္ေရး ပို႔ခ်မႈေတြကို အဆက္မျပတ္ လုပ္ေဆာင္ေနပါတယ္။ တနလၤာေန႔ကေတာ့ လူငယ္ ပညာေပးေရး အစီအစဥ္အရ ဖြင့္လွစ္တဲ့ သတင္းစာပညာသင္တန္း အပတ္စဥ္ ၁ ကို အဖြဲ႕ခ်ဳပ္ ဗဟိုအစည္းအေ၀း ခန္းမမွာ စတင္ ဖြင့္လွစ္ခဲ့ပါတယ္။

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Flawed math behind Myanmar 'democracy'

By David Scott Mathieson

MAE SOT - What if you held an election and you weren't sure how many people showed up at the polls? To establish voting patterns and trends, one needs to have an accurate estimate of the population, clearly demarcated electorates and the eligible voters contained therein, and a system of tallying votes. It is not clear how closely these prerequisites were observed ahead of the November 7, 2010, vote in Myanmar when population estimates in the country vary widely.

Myanmar has not had an effective nationwide census for decades. Previous ones took place during British colonial rule in 1931, under the post war social democratic government in 1953, and by

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Thai media ‘skewing reality’ for refugees

DVB News

The nine refugee camps along Thailand’s border with Burma are a ‘Bermuda Triangle’ for domestic reporters that creates a misperception of the plight of refugees among the Thai population, a human right expert has said.

Compounded by the difficulties in accessing the camps, Thai journalists rely too heavily on reports issued from the Thai government who “have their own agenda”, said Veerawit Tianchainan, executive director of Thai Committee for Refugees (TCR).

“When the Thai media talks about refugees, they talk about ‘problems’ and not about ways to treat refugees better.”

The comments were made last week at the Bangkok launch of Amnesty International’s annual Global Human Rights Report, which noted that the situation with regards to human rights had declined in many Asian nations over the past year.

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Group: Ensure rights of refugees before swap

Monday May 16, 2011

PETALING JAYA: Myanmar refugees in the country want Malaysia and Australia to ensure asylum seekers’ rights before going ahead with their swap agreement.

“These governments must conduct a thorough investigation for these asylum seekers so that their rights are protected,” said Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organisation Malaysia president Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani in a statement here yesterday.

Zafar said the Malaysian Government should first sign the 1951 Refugee Convention to protect the asylum seekers’ rights and safety.

“As Malaysia is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, there are currently no legislative or administrative provisions in place for dealing with asylum seekers or refugees in the country,” he pointed out.

Also expressing his concerns over the Malaysia-Australia pact, he said it was vague on how the plan would stop human smugglers.

Link: :http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/5/16/nation/8689573&sec=nation

 

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Malaysia swap inhumane: Refugee myths exposed

Saturday, May 14, 2011

 Refugee supporters rally outside Villawood detention centre, April 25. Photo: Peter Boyle

In a joint statement with Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on May 7, the Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced an agreement had been reached to swap 800 future “irregular maritime arrivals” from Australia with 4000 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recognised refugees from Malaysia over the next four years.

Although the details of the plan are yet to be fully revealed, a number of myths about this so-called solution have already arisen in the media. Here are the facts.

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Camp inmates suffer due to Thai policy

By Pravit Rojanaphruk ,The Nation on Sunday,Published on May 15, 2011 
Expert damns harsh attitude of govt, public; calls for sympathetic approach

Thailand's policy of keeping refugees from Burma in nine camps along the border has caused untold suffering and shows that the government does not know how to handle refugees.

This was particularly the case for 60,000 refugees "not registered" by Thai officials, said Veerawit Tianchainan, executive director of Thai Committee for Refugees (TRC).

Most Thais were not aware that 140,000 refugees had been kept in camps along the border for 26 years, he said.

Veerawit, who spoke during the global launch of Amnesty International's annual Human Rights Report 2011, alleged that the Thai Army had "recently stop distributing food" to the unregistered refugees. 

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On Myanmar, as Nambiar of UN “Neglects Justice” & Minorities, Q&A Requested

By Matthew Russell Lee.

UNITED NATIONS, May 13 -- As UN envoy Vijay Nambiar was on his way to Myanmar earlier this week, Inner City Press asked the UN if he would meet with ethnic minority groups including the Shan, whom the government is attacking. The UN said it didn't know yet.
Now Nambiar has left Myanmar, after issuing a statement that does not mention the Shan or the ending of ceasefires. At Friday's noon UN briefing in New York, Inner City Press asked again the Nambiar take questions from the media when he returns, for example about the situation of the Shan, Karen, Rohingya and other groups, especially since his statement did not mention them.
“How do you know he didn't mention them?” UN spokesman Martin Nesirky demanded.
Well, Nambiar's statement was sent to Inner City Press by e-mail, as were various statements from human rights groups critical of Nambiar's work.

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Malaysians challenge 'dubious deal'

Hamish Macdonald ,May 15, 2011

THERE is a growing chorus of opposition in Malaysia over Australian plans to send 800 unwanted asylum seekers there. An unlikely coalition of senior justice officials, legal professionals, former diplomats and opposition politicians are questioning the legality of the deal to accept refugees from Australia.

Malaysia's main opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, is the latest to join the debate. He says "this is a dubious deal, the legality of which must be investigated" and plans to strenuously object to the proposal when parliament next sits.

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'Burma Soldier' Documents Life Under Regime Command

Burma Soldier” tells the unforgettable story of a former junta member and Burmese soldier who risks everything to become a pro-democracy activist.

“Burma Soldier” provides a rare glimpse of a brutal dictatorship seen through the eyes of a courageous former soldier who, quite literally, swapped sides. The documentary will offer an exclusive and rare perspective, from inside the heart and mind of a former Burmese soldier who lays bare an understanding of a brutal regime and the political and psychological power of the junta over this country.

For decades, the Burmese army has been notorious for its horrific aggression against civilians, especially in conflict areas: underage boys have been forced to join the army; young women, mainly in ethnic areas, have been raped and murdered; locals haved been forced to work as porters—and in some cases even used to sweep for landmines.

“For them [the Burmese military], it is just as normal as eating and drinking,” said Myo Myint, 48, a former Burmese soldier who was an eyewitness to such atrocities and is the subject of the film “Burma Soldier,” a powerful documentary about the life of a former Burmese soldier who risked everything to become a pro-democracy activist.

 Link:  :http://www.filmdates.co.uk/films/2807-burma-soldier/

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Indonesia Extends Rohingyas' Staying Permit

This humanitarian aid will be given until a solution is resulted for this issue.

VIVAnews - The Indonesian government will extend the staying permit of 400 Rohingya refuges who are now waiting in Aceh. This humanitarian aid will be given until a solution is resulted for this issue.

"The Indonesian government will have a bilateral cooperation with Mynmar that will be also involved UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration," said the presidential spokesperson Dino Patti Djalal after Myanmar Prime Minister General Thein Sein's visit at the Merdeka Palace.

In the previous ASEAN Summit, it is agreed that the solution of this issue is creating a regional agreed decision. It will involve the home country, transit country, and destination country.

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Rohingya, Outcasts Not Welcome Anywhere

"We have no rights," said Shafirullah, among the 200 migrants rescued by Indonesian navy

For generations, the ethnic Muslim Rohingya have endured persecution by the ruling junta of Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country.

The plight of the Rohingya, descendants of Arab traders from the 7th century, gained international attention over the past month after five boatloads of haggard migrants were found in the waters around Indonesia and the Andaman Islands.

But unlike the Kurds or the Palestinians, no one has championed the cause of the Rohingya. Most countries, from Saudi Arabia to Malaysia, see them as little more than a source of cheap labor for the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs.

"The Rohingya are probably the most friendless people in the world. They just have no one advocating for them at all," said Kitty McKinsey, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. "Hardly any of them have legal status anywhere in the world."

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Refugees on a hiding to nothing

A family of Chin refugees from Burma lives in a cramped flat in Kuala Lumpur, trying to eke out a living while keeping under the official radar. Picture: John Ishii Source: The Australian

ALAM Shamsul Alam ran for his life. He ran barefoot across paddy fields for kilometres, then leaped into the sea and swam for two hours in a bid for freedom. He was eventually picked up by fishermen and handed to the police.

According to Malaysia's The Star newspaper, the Burmese asylum-seeker was riding his motorbike in Penang on the weekend when 

he clipped a car. Apparently he didn't have a motorbike licence, but instead of apologising and offering to pay for the damage, the 26-year-old panicked and fled. He is probably now languishing in an immigration detention camp.

The refugees and asylum-seekers in Malaysia fear the police and the government authorities with a deep and abiding anxiety. They have few rights, few avenues of appeal. They live in the community but they are not legally permitted to work or to send their children to government schools.

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Australian and Malaysian MPs Condemn Asylum Seeker Deal

Lawmakers in Malaysia and Australia have spoken out against a deal between the two countries involving a swap of asylum seekers, with one Malaysian MP expressing doubts about promises from her country's prime minister that refugees coming from Australia will be properly treated.

Under a deal announced on Saturday between Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and his Australian counterpart, Julia Gilllard, the next 800 asylum seekers to arrive in Australia will be sent to Malaysia for processing by UN officials, and in return Australia will accept 4,000 refugees—most of them Burmese—waiting in Malaysia for third-country resettlement over the next four years.

The deal is aimed at deterring “boat people,” many of them stateless Rohingya from Burma, from trying to enter Australia to seek asylum. But Australia has come under criticism from rights groups and politicians of both countries because Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention and has an appalling record of mistreating asylum seekers.

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Ethnic groups deliver UN Commission of Inquiry petition to British Foreign office

By Tin Soe

Chittagong, Bangladesh: Ethnic groups living in the UK delivered a petition with 5,323 signatures calling for a UN Commission of Inquiry into crimes against humanity in Burma to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) on May 6, according to Tun Khin (a.k.a.) Ziaul Gaffar, President of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation in the UK (BROUK).

Ethnic groups living in the UK delivered a petition with 5,323 signatures calling for a UN Commission of Inquiry into crimes against humanity in Burma to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)

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To whom it may concern

DAVID WOOD   |  May 10th, 2011
 I am a Rohingya. An oppressed stateless people from Burma. 

The Burmese military has long oppressed Rohingya and been involved in an ethnic-cleansing program to prevent the creation of a Rohingya state.

My life in Burma was very hard. My family house was demolished two times by authorities and as a result we had to move to my mothers native village. Every person in that village was subject to violent abuses, fines, extortion, military harassment and corporal punishment. I am aware that at least 100 villagers are still in detention and many have died in detention. My father was died for the subsequent detentions. My siblings were detained in 2008. 

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Likely Malay plan refugees are Christian Burmese, and already assessed

May 10 2011, The Australian , Rowan Callick
THE 4000 refugees likely to come to Australia under the Malaysian solution are Burmese, the majority of them Christians.

There are 93,000 asylum-seekers and proven refugees in Malaysia, most of them living in the Klang Valley in and around the capital Kuala Lumpur.

They are not being held in camps, but are living in poor, largely rented, accommodation "in the community" while they await either assessment by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees or, if already assessed as refugees, await placement in another country.

The UNHCR is helping them with training, and to get work, so that they can look after themselves as far as possible. They are free within Malaysia's borders, but mostly lack travel documents to go beyond.

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Lonely, beaten and ill, but still hopeful: refugees in Malaysia

A CROWD of men, women and children waited on the street in front of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees' office in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. 
The barred gate of the cage-like enclosure was kept locked by a burly guard. The crowd surged forward when it seemed more would be permitted inside the barriers.
Emotions can run high here. In 2004, an asylum-seeker set himself alight at the gates and died of his burns. Stateless, sometimes unemployed and often ill, the dispirited group at the gate was one small illustration of the appalling plight of refugees across Asia.

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Settle Rohingya issue

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Photo: Bayazid Akter / DriknewsKhondoker Rezwan Tanvir, Dept. of Business Administration, Shahjalal University of Science and Techn

Myanmar is one of the neighboring countries of Bangladesh. There exists a close tie of export-import liaison between these two countries. Of late, the Rohingya issue has been creating a crack in the diplomatic relationship between the two countries. Thousands of Rohingyas (Myanmar's aboriginals) have been crossing into Bangladesh for a long time. Because of their illegal entrance, our local inhabitants are suffering much. Rohingyas are now causing serious social and economic disturbances. They are now creating violence in our land. Most importantly, many blacklisted criminals use the Rohingya-cover to disguise themselves from police. Moreover, they are sometimes used as the human and drug trafficking agents! So, it is very important for both the Myanmar and Bangladesh govt. to come forward and settle the matter.

Link : :http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=184650

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Burma: Petition calling for UN commission of inquiry delivered to British foreign office

Christian Solidarity Worldwide

Saturday, 7 May 2011, 

A petition with 5,323 signatures calling for a UN Commission of Inquiry into crimes against humanity in Burma and organized by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) and Partners Relief and Development, was delivered to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) today.

The Head of the South-East Asia and Pacific Department at the FCO received the petition from a delegation including representatives from CSW, Partners Relief and Development, Burma’s National League for Democracy-Liberated Area (NLD-LA), and ethnic nationalities including Bwa Bwa Phan of the Karen Community Association UK, Van Biak Thang of the Chin Human Rights Organisation, Ring Du Lachyung of the Kachin National Organisation UK and Maung Tun Khin of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK.

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UK Parliament and Rohingya

Questions asked by Baroness Goudie at the House of Lords on 5th of April 2011
o ask Her Majesty’s Government what meetings United Kingdom government officials have had with representatives of the Rohingya ethnic minority in Burma.[HL8101]
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Howell of Guildford): The Government are deeply concerned about the situation facing the Rohingya people. Foreign and Commonwealth officials in London often meet with the Burmese Rohingya Organisation and the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation-most recently on 10 March 2011. Our embassy in Rangoon meets on a regular basis with a wide range of ethnic groups. The Government remain committed to advocating fundamental freedoms and greater respect for human rights for all ethnic groups in Burma including the Rohingya.

Asked by Baroness Goudie

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the United Nations Department of Political Affairs to ensure that United Nations envoys to Burma meet and consult with ethnic Rohingya representatives.[HL8102]

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Burma still lacks press freedom

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – As World Press Freedom Day is marked around the world, journalists claim Burma’s new government has not ushered in freedom of the press but superficial change is in the air.

media-freedom1In 1991, the United Nations declared May 3 as World Press Freedom Day to raise awareness about press freedom and remind all governments about the need for a free press.

Over the decades, Burma has suffered from strict censorship. But under the new government of President Thein Sein, the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD) under the Information Ministry recently lifted censorship of some journals and eased their tight control over media coverage of certain subjects.

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US lawmakers want urgent UN probe on Myanmar

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US lawmakers called Tuesday on President Barack Obama to show greater urgency in setting up a UN probe into alleged war crimes in Myanmar, saying that widespread abuses were going unpunished.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in August last year that the United States would support a UN commission of inquiry, which could lead to charges against the military-backed regime in the country also known as Burma.

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Letter from a refugee: ‘I feel as though I can’t continue any longer’

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

By Simon Butler

 

Refugees held inside Darwin’s Northern Immigration Detention Centre told members of the Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and Advocacy Network on May 3 of two recent suicide attempts by inmates.

The network has also received two letters from detainees. One of these letters, from a Rohingyan man held in detention for 18 months, appears below.

The network’s Carl O’Connor said: “These letters and the reports of suicide attempts indicate that people inside Darwin detention centres are at breaking point. Community detention is cheaper and more humane than locking people, including children, in detention centres for inordinate lengths of time.

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Nowhere To Go, Nowhere To Hide: What’s Next For Burmese Refugees?

 Written by: Tanvi Pate

Eurasia Review

Only just in mid April, Thailand announced that it would close down nine refugee camps on its 1400 kilometres long eastern border with Myanmar. It’s important to consider as to why Thailand wants to end its twenty years humanitarian policy of assisting refugees? What kind of prospects might be faced by the refugees once they are back in Myanmar? What are the views of the Nongovernmental Organisations (NGOs) and what other options are in pipeline for the refugees that might enable them to escape this bleak scenario? This article considers these various questions and suggests some policy options for Thailand at the end.

Before moving forward onto other analysis it’s necessary to ponder upon the history and nature of the Burmese refugee problem that forced several hundred thousand Burmese into the Thai sanctuaries. 

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Govt turns down $33m UN Rohingya project

 Syful Islam(Financial Express)

The government has turned down a US$33 million United Nations (UN) project aimed at reducing poverty in Cox's Bazar after it alleged that the scheme mainly targeted at the rehabilitation of Rohingya refugees in the country.

Four United Nations agencies - United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), World Food Programme (WFP), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) - initiated the project to cut poverty of the people living in Cox's Bazar's southern most sub-districts of Ukhia and Teknaf.

The sub-districts are home to more than 26,000 recognised and another 200,000 unrecognised Muslim Rohingya refugees who took shelter after fleeing decades-long persecution in northern Rakhine state of Myanmar.

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Exploited Workers of Southeast Asia Unable to Unite

Monday, 2 May 2011, 2:44 pm
Column: Richard S. Ehrlich

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Tired, poor, huddled people seeking jobs in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, America and Europe have died on the high seas, suffocated in vehicles, toiled in sweatshops, and been expelled to countries where dictators lock them up.

Human traffickers eagerly profit from migrant workers' poverty, ignorance and desperation, including many unemployed men and women who beg to be smuggled abroad despite knowing the risks.

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Bangladesh rejects UN help for Rohingya

By JOSEPH ALLCHIN (DVB News)

Dhaka has rejected a proposed $US33 million UN project to alleviate poverty in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazaar where several hundred thousand Rohingya refugees have sought asylum.

The impoverished region lies close the border with Burma’s western Arakan state, from where hundreds of thousands of the persecuted Muslim minority have fled.

But the issue of aid to this region has been locked in battle over assistance to the Rohingya. An unnamed Bangladeshi official quoted by the Express newspaper said: “The finance ministry has rejected the scheme because the actual aim of the UN initiative is to rehabilitate refugees in Cox’s Bazar district under the pretext of poverty reduction for locals.”

Chris Lewa, from The Arakan Project, which monitors human rights abuses against the Rohingya, says however that “the four UN agencies joined together to raise funds and support activities to alleviate poverty for both the communities”, but that the Bangladesh “government does not want any assistance to go to the Rohingya.”

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