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Interview

Cheryl Benton,Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Public Affairs
Eric P. Schwartz,Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration
George Rupp, President and CEO, International Rescue Committee
Washington, DC,  June 14, 2011

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SCHWARTZ: In fact, they have political solutions. You can solve the problem of the displaced – of the stateless Rohingya in Burma when you have a government in Burma that respects human rights and democracy, and that’s true with all the situations. But that doesn’t mean that humanitarians can’t play a role in promoting those ultimate outcomes. How do we do it? First with a canary in the coalmine, right? You can be sure when the – when Qadhafi was marching on Benghazi, humanitarians in the government were pointing out to decision makers what the humanitarian implications were going to be if he got to take over Benghazi. So we have a role to play. And we need to play that role in government as advocates, saying, look, if this happens, here are the bad things that are going to occur. So we have that role to play. But also we have this role, as George has said, in humanitarian situations where the superficial view is, oh, you can only provide assistance. But you can actually provide people with the tools to empower themselves. And if so, they can then begin to help create political solutions as well.

By AFP

Dunkley convicted, freed by Burma court thumbnail
Ross Dunkley seen being led to the Insein courtroom for trial in March (DVB)
A Burmese court on Thursday convicted an Australian newspaper boss of assault and sentenced him to one month in jail but allowed him to walk free after taking into account time already served.
Ross Dunkley, co-founder of the Myanmar Times, the country’s only newspaper with foreign investment, was found guilty of assaulting a 29-year-old woman and of breaching immigration laws but acquitted on other charges.
In a case that some observers say highlighted the risks of doing business in the military-dominated country, Dunkley was arrested in February and held in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison until he was granted bail in late March.
The scene at the gem market in Mahaaungmyay Township in Mandalay on Monday. Photo: Mizzima
New Delhi (Mizzima) – A fight broke out between ethnic Chinese and local Burmese gem traders at a gem market in Mahaaungmyay Township in Mandalay on Monday. The Chinese were taken to a safe location, and the gem market was closed after the clash.
The scene at the gem market in Mahaaungmyay Township in Mandalay on Monday. Photo: Mizzima
In Burma, many Chinese people own successful businesses. The recent incident and others like it have raised a question of whether there are racial problems between the Burmese and the Chinese living and doing business in Burma?

Mizzima reporter Te Te has compiled a roundup of views on the racial views of Burmese in Mandalay. In addition, he talked in depth with Dr. Hla Kyaw Zaw,  a Sino-Burmese affairs analyst.

By Matt Anderson, The Diplomat Blog

While the world’s attention is focused on the ongoing tension in the South China Sea, rebels in Burma are creating problems for the western extreme of Southeast Asia.  Though never fully pacified, Burma has made modest gains in subduing -- or at least co-opting -- the various ethnic groups that challenge the central government’s rule. But the past few days have seen troubling signs that this relative tranquillity may begin to unravel with Kachin rebels in Burma’s northwest fighting a series of skirmishes with government forces. 

Ethnic unrest in Burma isn’t new and certainly isn’t surprising.
WASHINGTON,  (UPI) --

 Fulfilling U.N. rights demands is crucial to making Myanmar the democracy the ruling junta claims it wants, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi told U.S. lawmakers.

Freeing the estimated 2,000 political prisoners held by the army government will show that the junta truly wants to create a modern, democratic nation, the pro-democracy activist said in videotaped testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Asia and the Pacific subcommittee.
Getting the military, which has ruled the country since 1962, to free political prisoners is a key demand of a March U.N. Human Rights Council Resolution.
Matthew Pennington, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The United States is prepared to have a positive relationship with Myanmar and seeks better international co-ordination in encouraging democratic reform in the Asian country, the nominee to be U.S. special envoy said Wednesday.

Derek Mitchell, who is currently a senior defence official for Asia-Pacific affairs, said that the inability of key members of the international community to co-ordinate their approach had undermined their efforts to press the government of Myanmar, also known as Burma, to free political prisoners and hold dialogue with its opponents.
By ဗြီအိုေအ (ျမန္မာဌာန)

ျမန္မာ့ဒီမုိကေရစီ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ကုိ ႏုိင္ငံေရး လႈပ္ရွားမႈေတြ လြတ္လပ္စြာ လုပ္ေဆာင္ခြင့္ေပးဖုိ႔ အေမရိကန္ ျပည္ေထာင္စုက ျမန္မာအာဏာပုိင္ေတြကုိ ေတာင္းဆုိလုိက္ပါတယ္။
ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္နဲ႔ သူဦးေဆာင္တဲ့ အမ်ဳိးသား ဒီမုိကေရစီ အဖဲြ႕ခ်ဳပ္ (NLD) ပါတီရဲ႕ ႏုိင္ငံေရး လႈပ္ရွားမႈေတြကုိ ရပ္တန္႔ဖုိ႔ ျမန္မာအစုိးရရဲ႕ သတိေပးခ်က္ ထြက္ေပၚလာတဲ့ေနာက္ အေမရိကန္ ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရးဌာန ေျပာခြင့္ရသူ မာ့ခ္ တုန္နာ (Mark Toner) က ဗုဒၶဟူးေန႔ သတင္းစာ ရွင္းလင္းပဲြအတြင္း ေျပာဆုိလုိက္တာပါ။

AFP-YANGON — Myanmar's new military-backed government has warned pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party to halt all political activities, official media said Wednesday.
The home affairs ministry has written to the Nobel Peace Prize winner saying her party is breaking the law by maintaining party offices, holding meetings and issuing statements, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.

"If they really want to accept and practise democracy effectively, they are to stop such acts that can harm peace and stability and the rule of law as well as the unity among the people including monks and service personnel," it said.
 Gordon Brown, Former Prime Minister , UK

This week I spoke to Aung San Suu Kyi after, for the third time in a year, the junta refused me permission to visit her in Burma. She impressed on me the need for mass mobilization to demand the release of all Burma's political prisoners and asked that I and her millions of supporters around the world sign the global petition here. She has been liberated by our solidarity -- and she asks that we now apply the same pressure on behalf of the silenced thousands who remain in detention. 


U.S. Campaign for Burma (www.uscampaignforburma.org) For Immediate Press Release June 27, 2011 Media Contact: Jennifer Quigley at (202) 234 8022 (Washington, DC, June 27, 2011) 

The U. S. Campaign for Burma (USCB), a Washington, DC-based human rights organization campaigning to end crimes against humanity and the culture of impunity in the Southeast Asian country of Burma, today strongly urged U.S. Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner to take action on cronies who are providing economic and political support for the ruling regime in Burma, as authorized by the Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE Act of 2008. The Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE Act of 2008 authorized the U.S. government to impose targeted financial sanctions on former and present leaders and officials of Burma’s ruling regime, current or former officials of the security services and judicial institutions of the regime, and any other Burmese persons, who provide substantial economic and political support for the regime, as well as their family members. The Department of Treasury has added names and entities of the Burmese persons under targeted sanctions in its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. However, the cronies targeted by the Department of Treasury are much fewer in number than those who are sanctioned by the governments of Australia and the European Union. Many of the regime’s business cronies are still exempt from targeted U.S. financial sanctions. 

By Francis Wade Jun 27, 2011
Refugees sit in a detention center on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Pic: AP.
The Australian government’s apathetic treatment of refugees and asylum seekers has long been a blot on its record – an irony given the historical make-up of the country and its rulers. Any hope that the new Gillard administration would reverse the hawkish policies of former prime minister John Howard, who championed the island gulags that hold thousands of refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan, Burma and elsewhere, has been short-lived – Gillard, herself a Welsh immigrant to Australia, is pushing ahead with a plan to send hundreds of refugees to Malaysia, one of only a handful of countries not to have ratified the UN refugee convention and which is therefore not bound by international laws dictating how refugees should be treated.

By John Pomfret ( The Washington Post)

The Obama administration decided Tuesday to support the creation of a United Nations commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma, a sign of a tougher U.S. policy against a regime long accused of murdering and raping its political foes.
 
U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, also said the administration is considering tightening financial sanctions against the regime as part of an effort to force it to open its authoritarian political system and free thousands of political prisoners.


ခ်င္းမိုင္ (မဇၥ်ိမ) ။  ႏုိင္ငံျခားအဆင့္ျမင့္အရာရွိမ်ား ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံသုိ႔ယခုတေလာလာေရာက္ၾကသကဲ့သို႔ၾသစေၾတးလ် ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရးဝန္ႀကီးမစၥတာKevinRuddလည္းၾကာသပေတးေန႔တြင္ ျမန္မာျပည္သို႔ ေရာက္ရွိမည္။
မစၥတာ Rudd သည္ ဇြန္ ၃ဝ ရက္မွ ဇူလိုင္ ၂ ရက္ေန႔အထိ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံတြင္ ေနထိုင္မည္ျဖစ္ကာ၊ အစိုးရ အရာရွိမ်ား၊ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ အပါအဝင္ အတိုက္အခံမ်ားႏွင့္ ေနျပည္ေတာ္ႏွင့္ ရန္ကုန္ၿမိဳ႕၌ ေတြ႔ဆံုရန္ စီစဥ္ထားသည္။
“ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ၏သမိုင္းတြင္အေရးႀကီးေသာအေျခအေနတခု ျဖစ္ပြားေနစဥ္ ယခုခရီးစဥ္ ေပၚေပါက္လာၿပီး ၾသစေၾတးလ် အစုိးရအေနျဖင့္ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ၏ ျပဳျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲေရးႏွင့္ စီးပြားေရး ဖြံ႔ၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္မႈကို မည္ကဲ့သုိ႔ အေကာင္းဆံုး ကူညီႏုိင္မည္ကုိအကဲခတ္ ေလ့လာရန္အခြင့္ရရွိလာေစမည္”ဟုၾသစေၾတးလ် ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရးဝန္ႀကီး႐ံုး၏ ေၾကညာခ်က္ထဲတြင္ ေဖာ္ျပထားသည္။


တိုင္းရင္းသားလူမ်ဳိးစံုနထိုင္တဲ့မန္မာႏိုင္ငံမွာၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းမႈရွိဖို႔ဆိုရင္မျမႇဳပ္မိုင္းပေပ်ာက္ေရးကိုဆာင္ရြက္ဖို႔လိုအပ္တယ္လို႔ ျမန္မာ့ဒီမိုကေရစီ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္က ေျပာပါတယ္။ အစိုးရတပ္ေတြေရာလက္နက္ကိုင္တာ္လွန္ေနတဲ့အဖြဲ႕ေတြပါမျမႇဳပ္မိုင္းေတြအသံုးျပဳေနတဲ့ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံမွာ ေျမျမႇဳပ္မိုင္း သံုးစြဲမႈရပ္တန္းကရပ္ပါလို႔င္ငံတကာမွာမျမႇဳပ္မိုင္းသံုးစြဲမႈပေပ်ာက္ေရးလႈပ္ရွားေနတဲ့အဖြဲ႕ကတဆင့္ ေျပာၾကားထားတာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ အေၾကာင္းစံုကို မစုျမတ္မြန္က တင္ျပေပးထားပါတယ္။

ICBLဆိုတဲ့ ႏိုင္ငံတကာ ေျမျမႇဳပ္မိုင္းသံုးစြဲမႈပေပ်ာက္ေရးလႈပ္ရွားမႈအဖြဲ႕ကတဆင့္ဗြီဒီယိုနဲ႔ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ရဲ႕ ေျပာၾကားခ်က္ထဲမွာ သာမန္ အရပ္သား ျပည္သူေတြ၊ လက္နက္ကိုင္ စစ္သားေတြ၊ တိုင္းရင္းသား အဖြဲ႕ေတြပါ ထိခိုက္ေသေက် ဒဏ္ရာရေစတဲ့ ေျမျမႇဳပ္မိုင္းေတြကိုဆက္မသံုးၾကဖို႔ ေတာင္းဆိုထားပါတယ္။ ျပည္ေထာင္စုႀကီးၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းဖို႔ ေျမျမႇဳပ္မိုင္း ပေပ်ာက္ေရးဟာ အေရးႀကီးတယ္လို႔ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္က အခုလို ေျပာၾကားခဲ့တာပါ။

By Zin Linn


The Union Parliament Speaker of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar or Burma Thura U Shwe Mann met with parliament representatives in Yangon Region and responsible persons of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry at the meeting hall of Yangon Region Parliament on Pyay Road Friday afternoon, according to the New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

It was also attended by people’s parliament representatives, national parliament representatives and Yangon Region parliament representatives in Yangon Region, RUMFCCI President and CEC members, media persons and guests.
Photo: AP/Khin Maung Win

Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi (file photo)Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi speaks to journalists after meeting with European Union special envoy to Myanmar Piero Fassino and European Union diplomatic official Robert Cooper at her home in Rangoon (file photo)
The leader of Burma’s opposition movement has urged the U.S. Congress to do what it can to make sure that her government adheres to a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution on Burma.

Aung San Suu Kyi told members of Congress a resolution that the U.N. Human Rights Council passed in March is a clear guide for what needs to be done to bring democracy to Burma.

boatbd Wednesday, 22 June 2011 16:01 Kaladan Press News - Kaladan Press
Maungdaw, Arakan State: The Burmese authorities sent back sixty Bangladeshi boatpeople from Maungdaw to Teknaf by boat yesterday, according to an official from Maungdaw.
Bangladeshi boat people in Teknaf BGB Battalion
“The Bangladeshi boat people stayed for three months in a Rangoon jail after being arrested on the shore of  Rangoon river bank.”

Arakanese-kingရခိုင္ျပည္နယ္မွ ကမန္တိုင္းရင္းသားမ်ားမွာ ျမန္မာ အစိုးရမွ သတ္မွတ္ထားေသာ တိုင္းရင္းသား လူမ်ိဳး ၁၃၅ မ်ိဳးထဲ ပါ၀င္ေသာ္လည္း အစၥလာမ္ဘာသာကို ကိုးကြယ္သူမ်ား ျဖစ္သျဖင့္ လြတ္လပ္စြာ ခရီးသြားလာျခင္း မရဘဲ ကန္႕သတ္ ပိတ္ပင္ ခံေနၾကရသည္ဟု သတင္း ရရွိသည္။
ကမန္ တုိင္းရင္းသားမ်ားမွာ ျမန္မာ အစိုးရမွ ႏိုင္ငံသား ကဒ္ျပား အစစ္အမွန္ကို ကိုင္ေဆာင္ထားသူမ်ား ျဖစ္ၾကေသာ္လည္း ခရီးသြားလာရာတြင္ အဆိုပါ ႏိုင္ငံသား ကဒ္ျပားျဖင့္ ခရီးသြားလာခြင့္မရဘဲ ပံုစံ(၄) ျဖင့္သာ ခရီးသြားလာေနၾကရသည္။
ရခိုင္ဘုရင္လက္ထက္တြင္ကမန္အမ်ိဳးသားမ်ားသည္ ေလးသည္ေတာ္မ်ားအျဖစ္တာ၀န္ထမ္းေဆာင္ ခဲ့ၾကသည္။


Rohingya refugees in Malaysia. Photo: UNHCR ,Thursday, June 23, 2011

I am a Rohingya Burmese refugee asylum seeker in Australia and I left Burma since the end of 1999 for certain circumstances based on race, political and systematic oppression.
Due to the Burmese military government’s long war against minorities through an ethnic cleansing pogrom, the Rohingya ethnic minority became the most oppressed group and Burma’s first refugees.

I escaped to Malaysia and spent 10 years where I worked with Rohingya refugee organisations and Burmese political opposition groups based in Kuala Lumpur.

MAHN SAIMON 
Refugees struggle as EU cuts aid thumbnail
Ethnic Karen children play in the rain in Mae La refugee camp, Thailand (Reuters)

Burmese refugees living in camps along the Thai border say they have been receiving less food and housing material since the EU reduced border aid earlier this year, triggering concerns about the extent to which already difficult conditions in the camps will be exacerbated.



In her first appearance before Congress, Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi testified before a House committee on Wednesday in a videotaped address.

The Nobel Peace laureate and well-known pro-democracy activist spoke calmly and deliberately in the video, mentioning little of her own experience of living for much of the past two decades under house arrest.
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Sunday, her 66thBirthday, that peace was the most important thing as more fighting has broke out in Burma.
DAASK-66th-Birthday
 General-Secretary Aung San Suu Kyi, 66, delivers remarks during her birthday ceremonies at the headquarters of the National League for Democracy in Rangoon on Sunday, June 19, 2011. Photo: Mizzima
National League for Democracy (NLD) General-Secretary Aung San Suu Kyi, 66, gave a five-minute speech at her birthday party at NLD headquarters in Rangoon.

‘In order to develop and prosper, the first thing a country need is peace. So my birthday prayer is that we all can live in peace,’ Suu Kyi said.

She also said that to establish peace, neither a person nor an organization could do it alone. She called for cooperation.

2011/06/22
ZAFAR AHMAD ABDUL GHANI, President Myanmar Ethnic Rohingyas Human Rights Organisation Malaysia Kuala Lumpur
letters@nst.com.my

JUNE 20 was World Refugee Day. The Myanmar Ethnic Rohingyas Human Rights Organisation Malaysia (Merh-rom) regrets that there is no change in our condition over the years.
June 20 also marked the 60th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention. We must analyse whether this convention has done enough to protect refugees.

Every year, we see wars and conflicts across the world. This is worrying as more people flee their countries and become refugees, asylum seekers, stateless and displaced persons. While many have found new homes after resettlement to third countries, many more are struggling for survival.
Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration
June 14, 2011

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

I wanted to brief you on my trip last week to Bangladesh to explore issues surrounding Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and the region. I was joined on the trip by Deputy Assistant Secretary Kelly Clements of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), and ably assisted on the ground by Deputy Refugee Coordinator Anjalina Sen and Embassy Dhaka officials Jon Danilowicz and Sophie Gao. I also received terrific guidance and support from our Ambassador, James Moriarty.
The Rohingya are a predominantly Muslim ethnic group from western Burma. Under successive Burmese regimes over several decades, they have been rendered stateless and subjected to systematic and severe violations of human rights. As a result of these deprivations, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh over the last three decades, principally in two waves ¬¬-- in 1978 and 1991-92.
Date: 06/16/2011 Description: Assistant Secretary Schwartz - State Dept Image
Sadly, the Rohingya are among many stateless populations throughout the world -- people who have no nationality. Without documentation or legal status, stateless people are vulnerable to serious abuses. To address this problem, our Bureau is working with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and others on a range of initiatives, which include efforts to promote equal nationality rights for women and a child’s right to nationality.
A year ago, the world was shocked by reports of Rohingya refugees being beaten and tortured by Thai soldiers. On 20 January 2009, the head of the Thai military promised an investigation into the alleged abuses. One year later, the public is still waiting for the facts to emerge.
'We should remind the government about this promised investigation,' said Chris Lewa of the Arakan Rohingya National Organization, which advocates for the rights of the Rohingya.
The Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim group, were fleeing persecution in Burma, which does not consider them citizens. But rather than finding asylum in Thailand, they were abused and set adrift in motor-less boats. Hundreds reportedly died at sea.

In a photo-essay for the Portfolio section of the Summer 2011 issue of World Policy Journal, Saiful Huq Omi documented the lives of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh—members of a Muslim minority community who fled persecution at the hands of the military junta that rules Burma, their homeland.
Though preferable in many ways to the oppression they faced in Burma (now officially known as Myanmar), life in Bangladesh is extremely difficult for the Rohingya, many of whom are denied legal status as refugees. Some Rohingya, however, have been granted asylum in places where conditions are less dire, including Britain.
Omi also spent time with a small community of Rohingya now living in Bradford, a city of around 300,000 residents in Northern England.
*****
By MAUNG TOO, DVB News

Seven Kachin women have been raped in separate attacks by Burmese troops in the country’s north, four of whom were subsequently murdered, a rights group has told DVB.

All incidents occurred in or close to Bhamo district in Kachin state, where additional battalions of Burmese soldiers have been deployed in the past fortnight to fight the insurgent Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

Moon Nay Li, coordinator of the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT), said that six women were raped this month – two of the incidents happened in Donbon village, one in Momauk township and three in Nahlon. The three women in Nahlon were then murdered.



NLD General Secretary and People's leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's 66th birthday and Burma Women's Day were celebrated on 19th June, 2011 in the headquarters of the NLD. CEC members, NLD leaders from States and Divisions, members from NLD townships, veteran politicians, CRPP members and ethnic leaders and diplomats attended the ceremony. Vice Chairman U Tin Oo chaired the ceremony when Daw Khin Saw Mu conducted as the master of ceremony.

By SIMON ROUGHNEEN Tuesday, June 21, 2011 

BANGKOK - on June 7, the day after 96 Pakistani Ahmadiyah refugees and asylum seekers were freed on bail in what was hailed as a landmark new departure in Thailand's dealings with refugees, six other Pakistani asylum seekers and one refugee were arrested in Pathum Thani, north of Bangkok.
The seven were sent to Bangkok’s Suan Phlu Immigration Detention Centre (IDC), site of the high-profile June 6 release, says the UN refugee agency (UNCHR). "We are deeply concerned about these arrests that just increase the sense of insecurity that refugees and asylum seekers already feel", said Jean-Noël Wetterwald, UNHCR regional representative and coordinator for Southeast Asia.
(CNN) -- Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will address members of the U.S. Congress this week, a rare foray into American politics for a woman who is lauded internationally even as she struggles to be heard in her native Myanmar.

Suu Kyi will not be in Washington for Wednesday's hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives' subcommittee focused on Asia and the Pacific. But she will testify via video about conditions in her nation, including on recent elections that drew widespread criticism, U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo said Monday in a statement. Myanmar is also known as Burma.

"This hearing will highlight these sham elections and Burma's difficult road ahead," Manzullo, R-Illinois, said. "I am excited to share the videotaped testimony of (Suu Kyi) so everyone can hear of the junta's continued military offenses against ethnic groups and the dire human rights situation in Burma."
Around 28,000 refugees from the Rohingya minority in western Burma live in two official camps in Bangladesh. They are the more fortunate ones: hundreds of thousands more live a precarious existence in squalid, unofficial camps like Kutupalong in the country’s eastern Cox’ Bazar, where they cannot access healthcare or education. The Rohingya, long persecuted by the Burmese government, are forced to flee in droves into Bangladesh, despite the fact that Dhaka also denies them citizenship rights.
Rohingya children stand at the door of their hut in Kutupalong refugee camp (Joseph Allchin)
 Link:  :http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8039181669102650263

By SIMON ROUGHNEEN Monday, June 20, 2011
View inside Mae La Camp 
MAE SOT/MAE LA, Thailand— Oblivious to the late afternoon downpour, six children chase each other near the roadside fence at Mae La, the biggest of nine refugee camps along the Thailand-Burma frontier.
“Please, no photos of the people,” implores a man standing nearby, sheltering against the wall of one of the thousands of timber huts along the roadside. Three of the children are his, although he refuses to give his name, saying only that he crossed to Thailand from Burma's Karen State “more than one year ago” and has been confined to the camp ever since.
Acting on the orders of Tak Provincial Governor Samart Loifah, Thai officials started a headcount in Mae La as well as Umpiem Mai and Nu Pu—the two other camps in Tak province. The census is ongoing, with roughly 40 percent of the estimated 140,000 Burmese refugee population in Thailand unregistered.
By FRANCIS WADE ,Published: 20 June 2011
Burma a top source country for refugees thumbnail
A Karen man carriess his mother through the Thai town of Mae Sot in November 2010. Up to 20,000 refugees fled fighting in Karen state (Reuters)

Burma produces the world’s fifth highest number of refugees, above that of both war-torn Sudan and Colombia, according to a UN report released today to mark World Refugee Day.
It emphasised that developing countries are the ones who are shouldering the burden of those fleeing violence and persecution, a concern that will ring true for the hundreds of thousands who have escaped Burma to neighbouring Thailand and Bangladesh.

Link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amh0Qn4y9MM&feature=youtu.be


Monday, 13 June 2011 14:25 Kaladan Press News - Kaladan Press
 
Chittagong, Bangladesh: The United States Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, Eric P. Schwartz, said on June 9 that no forced repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Burma should occur, according to a press conference at the American Centre in Dhaka.


The entrance of Registered Kutupalong refugee camp

“Nobody should be forced to return against their will to a place where their lives and their freedom will be in danger.”
“Voluntary return of Rohingya in large numbers will only be possible when the basic rights of these people can be safeguarded. And, sadly, today that is not the case.”
“Until such change comes in Burma, the United States will continue to do what we can do to assist the government and the people of Bangladesh to assist the Rohingya.”
“The solution of the Rohingya refugee issue in Bangladesh lies in Burma, and the voluntary return of the refugees to the country is still not possible.”

Thomas Maung Shwe, Mizzima News


Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The office of the UN secretary-general says a new full-time UN envoy to Burma could be appointed ‘in due time’ as a result of what they say is a willingness of the new Burmese government to work more closely with the UN.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announces that he will stand for a second five-year term as secretary-general during a press conference at UN headquarters in New York on June 6. Ban has been secretary-general since January 1, 2007 and his term ends on December 31. Diplomats say that with no rival in sight, the UN Security Council should give its approval before the end of June.

By WAI MOE (Irrawady News)


High-ranking delegations from two key Southeast Asian nations visited Naypyidaw and met Burmese President ex-Gen Thein Sein and his key cabinet members this week, while Burma upgrades its relationship with the closest ally, China, to a “strategic partnership.”

Burmese state-run media reported on Thursday and Friday that Thailand’s military delegation and Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai, who came to Burma as a special envoy, held meetings with Thein Sein and the powerful vice president, ex-Gen Tin Aung Myint Oo, and other top officials of Burma.

WASHINGTON — The United States confirmed on Monday that it blocked a North Korean vessel in the South China Sea last month, on suspicions that the ship was carrying a cargo of illegal materials to Burma in contravention of UN Security Council resolutions aimed at preventing nuclear proliferation.

At a press briefing on Monday, US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that the US Navy sought to board the ship, the M/V Light, for inspection, but was refused.

“The ship’s master refusing US permission to board it, as well as the fact that it turned around and headed back to North Korea, speaks to some of our concerns about its cargo,” he said.

GENEVA — Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Monday her nation yearns for justice and progress, and the international community must help lift its workers' grim conditions.

"Burma must not be allowed to fail and the world must not be allowed to fail Burma," the 65-year-old Nobel laureate told a UN labor conference by videolink, using the Southeast Asian country's former name.

The pro-democracy icon, freed last November after spending much of the past 20 years under house arrest, said her nation once seemed the most likely success story in Southeast Asia but "has fallen behind almost all the other nations in the region."

Suu Kyi won the 1991 Nobel Peace prize for her nonviolent struggle for democracy. She led her National League for Democracy to victory in 1990 elections, but the military junta that led the government refused to recognize the results.

The former junta changed the nation's name to Myanmar, but many democracy supporters and Suu Kyi still call it Burma.
Wednesday, 08 June 2011  
Maungdaw, Arakan State: The Rohingyas who are living in Maungdaw and Buthidaung are facing difficulty while attempting to travel on the Maungdaw-Buthidaung Road, Ahnno, a driver who regularly travels on the road, said.

“The Rohingya from Maungdaw who travel on this road must pay 1,000 kyats at the Burma border security force (Nasaka) gate at three miles, even when they have all of the required documents.”

“The Rohingya from Buthidaung must pay 2,000 kyats at the gate, and if they stay overnight, they must pay 2,000 kyats per day per person.”

June 11, 2011,

Charlie Hall
More than 700 Burmese have found refuge in the New Bern and Craven County area in recent years, escaping religious and political persecution.
They will be the highlight of this year’s local World Refugee Day June 18 at the New Bern Farmers Market. A community panel discussion about Burma is planned the evening before at the Christ Church Ministry Center on Middle Street.
The events are sponsored by the Interfaith Refugee Ministry.
“The panel discussion should be good because we are trying to get people from all over the community to come in and listen to some of these folks tell about their experiences,” said Chick Natella of the refugee ministry. “The name of it is Burma in the past, present and future, as far as our city is concerned.”
Bss, Dhaka              Saturday, June 11, 2011
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina requested the US government to take initiative after discussion with the Myanmar government to bring back the Rohingya refugees staying in Bangladesh through the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
The premier made call when the visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration Eric P Schwartz called on her at Gono Bhaban in the city on Thursday.
FE Report

The United States (US) Assistant Secretary for Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) Mr Eric P Schwartz Thursday said his country will continue providing humanitarian assistance for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

"The US will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to Bangladesh as the poor and beleaguered Rohingya people have done nothing wrong and did not get their basic rights except persecution and torture by the Myanmar authorities," he told the media at a press briefing at the American Centre at Baridhara in the capital.

Razzque

Dhaka, June 8 (UNB) - Food and Disaster Management Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque Wednesday sought US support to permanent solution to the Rohinga issue, which has put burden on Bangladesh’s resources.  

“It’s (Rohingya issue) now turned into an international problem. It has a political perspective too. An international-level proactive role could help bring permanent solution to the issue,” Razzaque told reporters at his ministry after meeting with US Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration Eric Schwartz.

US Deputy Under-Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration Kelly Clements and US Ambassador in Bangladesh James F Moriarty were present at the meeting.

United States Assistant Secretary for Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration Eric P Schwartz on Thursday said the solution to the Rohingya refugees issue in Bangladesh lies in Myanmar and the voluntary return of the refugees to the country.
“Nobody should be forced to return against their will to a place where their lives and their freedom will be in danger,” he said at a press conference at the American Centre in the city.
“But, voluntary return of Rohingya in large numbers will only be possible when the basic rights of these people will be safeguarded. And sadly today that is not the case,” he said.
Tuesday, 07 June 2011 13:49
Maungdaw, Arakan State: The percentage of students who earn passing scores from Maungdaw matriculation examination center is very low compared to other examination centers, said a school teacher from Maungdaw.

“For the 2010–2011 year, there were around 1,300 students who tested at the matriculation examination center of Maungdaw. The percentage of students who passed the exam is only 16. This is a very low profile for Maungdaw.”

“Just over 200 students from Maungdaw passed the exams. Only one student received three subject distinctions. One student earned two subject distinctions, and six got one subject.”

ရခိုင္ျပည္နယ္၀န္ၾကီးခ်ဳပ္ဦးလွေမာင္တင္၏ ေမာင္ေတာျမိဳ႕ ခရီးစဥ္တြင္ ေဒသခံ မူဆလင္ ၅၃ ဦးက အခ်က္ (၅) ခ်က္ပါ ေတာင္းဆိုခ်က္ တစ္ခုကို ေတာင္းဆိုလိုက္ေၾကာင္္း အမည္မေဖၚလိုသူ တာ၀န္ရွိသူ အရာရွိ တစ္ဦးက ေျပာသည္။
အဆုိပါ ေတာင္းဆိုခ်က္(၅)ခ်က္ကိုယမန္ေန႕က ျမိဳ႕နယ္အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္ေရးရံုးတြင္မြတ္ဆလင္လူၾကီး၁၀၀ ေက်ာ္ႏွင့္ ျပည္နယ္ ၀န္ၾကီးခ်ဳပ္ ေတြ႕ဆံုစဥ္ စာေရးသားျပီး ေတာင္းဆိုလိုက္ျခင္း ျဖစ္သည္။

" ေတာင္းဆိုတဲ့ အခ်က္ေတြကေတာ့ တိုင္းရင္းသားအျဖစ္ အသိမွတ္ျပဳေရး၊ အမ်ိဳးသားမွတ္ ပံုတင္ထုတ္ေပးေရး၊ မူဆလင္အမ်ိဳးသားေတြ လြတ္လပ္စြာ ခရီးသြားလာခြင့္၊ အမ်ိဳးသမီးေတြ အိမ္ေထာင္ျပဳတဲ့ေနရာမွာ အကန္႕အသတ္မထားဖို႕နဲ႕ ဗလီေတြကို ျပန္ေဆာက္ခြင့္ ျပဳေပးဖို႕ ေတာင္းဆိုၾကတာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္"ဟု သူက ေျပာသည္။

အဆိုပါ ေတာင္းဆိုခ်က္မ်ား အေပၚ ျပည္နယ္ ၀န္ၾကီးခ်ဳပ္ ဦးလွေမာင္တင္က ယခုကဲ့သို႕ တုန္႕ျပန္ ေျပာဆိုခဲ့ေၾကာင္း သူက ဆက္ေျပာသည္။


 By JOSEPH ALLCHIN
Published: 9 June 2011

Rohingya children eat in a refugee camp in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar (Reuters)
Dhaka says West fuelling Rohingya crisis thumbnail Bangladesh’s food minister, Abdur Razzaque, has accused Western nations of fuelling the problem of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya in the country’s east that over several decades have sought refuge from the Burmese regime.
Speaking to US Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration, Eric P. Schwartz, in Dhaka recently, Razzaque said that external pressure on the Bangladeshi government to register the refugees was “keeping the problem alive.”

အေမရိကန္ ျပည္ေထာင္စုကလူဦးေရ၊ဒုကၡသည္နဲ႔အေျခခ်ေနထိုင္ေရးဆိုင္ရာလက္ေထာက္ ႏိုင္ငံျခားေရးဝန္ႀကီး အဲရစ္ ရႊာ့ဇ္ (Eric Schwartz) ဟာ ဘဂၤလားေဒ့ရွ္နဲ႔ ေဒသတြင္းက ႐ိုဟင္ဂ်ာ ဒုကၡသည္မ်ား အေရးကို ေဆြးေႏြးဖို႔ ဒါကာၿမိဳ႕ေတာ္ကို သြားလိမ့္မယ္လို႔အေမရိကန္ ႏိုင္ငံျခားေရး၀န္ႀကီးဌာနက ေျပာပါတယ္။
ဘဂၤလားေဒ့ရွ္ ႏိုင္ငံထဲမွာ ရွိေနတဲ့ စာရင္းရွိေရာ စာရင္းမဲ့ ႐ိုဟင္ဂ်ာ ဒုကၡသည္ေတြနဲ႔ ပတ္သက္တဲ့ လူသားခ်င္း စာနာမႈဆိုင္ရာ ကာကြယ္ ေစာင့္ေရွာက္ေရး၊ အကူအညီ ေပးေရးေတြကို ဘဂၤလားေဒ့ရွ္ အစိုးရ တာဝန္ရွိသူေတြ၊ ႏိုင္ငံတကာနဲ႔ ျပည္တြင္း NGOအဖြဲ႕ေတြနဲ႔မစၥတာရႊာ့ဇ္ ေတြ႕ဆံု ေဆြးေႏြးသြားမွာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

June 8th, 2011 by Pei Palmgren

In his exposition on the human consequences of globalization, published at the turn of this millennium, sociologist Zygmunt Bauman describes the distinction between tourists and vagabonds — those enjoying increased mobility in the current era of globalization and those constrained by its boundaries, respectively.  He says, “The tourists move because they find the world within their (global) reach irresistibly attractive — the vagabonds move because they find the world within their (local) reach unbearably inhospitable.  The tourists travel because they want to; the vagabonds because they have no other bearable choice.”

Wed, Jun 8th, 2011 5:10 pm BdST
Dhaka, June 8 (bdnews24.com) — The food minister has accused the western countries of prolonging the Rohingya problem in Bangladesh.

"This is not possible for a poor country like Bangladesh to take care of huge Rohingya refugees for a long time. They (Westerners) are asking Bangladesh to increase support to the Rohingyas, keeping the problem alive," Abdur Razzaque told reporters on Wednesday.

He made the remarks after a meeting with US assistant secretary for population, refugee and migration Eric Schwartz and assistant deputy secretary Kelly Clements.

About Rohingyas' involvement in drug peddling and militancy, Razzaque said, "They (Rohingyas) are tainting Bangladesh's image abroad. The poverty level in Cox's Bazar and its adjoining areas has come down further due to their push-in."
Dhaka - Dhaka on Wednesday requested the US to intervene in its dispute with Myanmar over the repatriation of 300,000 Rohingya refugees, who have been languishing in Bangladesh for decades.
The United States should deal with Myanmar on this issue, 'as we are already burdened socially and economically, hosting these refugees on humanitarian grounds for so many years,' Bangladesh's minister for food and disaster management, Abdur Razzaque, told reporters after a meeting with a senior US official.
Graduating from primary school was just a dream for Rohingya teenager Ali Tofik, who, until 2010, lived in Myanmar's northern Rakhine State, where access to education, particularly secondary education, is limited.
clearpxl
In recent decades, this ethnic and religious minority has been stripped of its citizenship and property rights by Myanmar's military-dominated government, leading to human rights abuses and exploitation and resulting in mass exodus.
Some 200,000 fled to Bangladesh over the years, with smaller numbers to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and elsewhere in the region by boat.


The general meeting of RLDB took place in Jeddah. The attendees were advisory committee members, CEC members from local and abroad.

In the meeting, newly formed Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU) was welcomed by all attendees which is recently formed at Jeddah convention held at OIC headquarter under joint-sponsorship of OIC and EBO.

Then all members congratulated to RLDB’s Joint-General Secretary U Ko Ko Linn who was recently selected as a member of ARU at Jeddah convention.

After that the Vice Chairmen of RLDB U Mohammed Haroon and U Mohammed Ibrahim shared their experiences in Jeddah convention.

The attendees discussed various issues and future activities of RLDB in local and abroad.

RLDB is base in Saudi Arabia and its members are residing in Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Australia, Germany and Norway.

Persecuted in their Burma homeland, many of the Rohingya people have fled across the border to Bangladesh. But even there, they can’t make a living.

Menara Begum hasn’t seen her husband since he was hauled off to prison by Burma's border guard force some 18 years ago. She now lives in the unofficial Kutupalong refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, where her children play alongside those of her brother, who has been jailed in Bangladesh.
Both men were taken into custody because they were outsiders, ‘nowhere people,’ as a disgruntled aid worker says of the Rohingya. They are, he says, caught up in a ‘protracted emergency…that has existed for 20 years.’
 
Salim Ullah, an activist with the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO), says the fact that neither men are considered citizens of Burma highlights the main problem facing the Rohingya, a problem central to making them what US-based Refugees International (RI) describes as ‘one of the most persecuted groups in the world.’

Ahmadiyya Release Offers Hope for Rohingya


By SIMON ROUGHNEEN Tuesday, June 7, 2011

A Pakistani refugee family wait to board a bus after being released from the immigration detention center in Bangkok, Thailand on June 6. (Photo; AP)

boarding a bus at Bangkok's Suan Plu Immigration Detention Center (IDC) on Monday morning after spending almost 7 months at a refugee prison in central Bangkok.

Sidique is one of 96 Ahmadiyya refugees from Pakistan who have been released from detention by Thai authorities, a landmark development in a country that does not formally recognize refugees despite the fact that it is currently coming to the end of its tenure as president of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. The released Ahmadiyya are members of a  minority Muslim group that is oppressed in Pakistan, where they are not recognized as Muslims and are often victims of sectarian violence.
As women carried infants and ushered older children toward the waiting buses, males in the group thanked Thai officials and police at the IDC, all clearly relieved at being released. Watching as the group made their way from the jail across a heavily-policed courtyard, Dr Iftikhar Ahmad Ayaz, a U.K-based Ahmadiyya representative, reminded reporters of what he described as “intense and severe persecution” of Ahmadiyya in Pakistan, where he says they "are denied their basic civil and political rights.”

Some of the 96 Pakistani refugees show their joy after being released on bail yesterday from a detention centre in Bangkok with the help of the National Human Rights Commission. SOMCHAI POOMLARD

Human rights advocates said they hoped the newly launched Refugee Freedom Fund could be used to assist other illegal immigrants and stateless people such as that of the Rohingya groups, some of which have been locked up in detention centres for years.
The 96 Ahmadi Muslims walked out of Suan Phlu Immigration Detention Centre after the National Human Rights Commission and Thai Committee for Refugees (TCR) put up 5 million baht bail for them from the fund.
The refugees, including 34 children below the age of 12, smiled or shed tears of joy as they left the detention centre where they had languished for about six months.
Updated June 7, 2011 13:52:23
More than 90 members of the Ahmadiya Muslim minority have been freed from a Thai immigration centre in Bangkok under a bail arrangement being described as a breakthrough.

Thailand doesn't have a national refugee law, so any foreigners who enter the country without proper documents are subject to arrest, prosecution, detention and deportation under immigration laws, even if they are registered with the UN as asylum-seekers or refugees.

The 96 Ahmadiyas released on Monday are form Pakistan, home to several million Ahmadiyas. The group was held for six months and include 34 children under the age of 12 and an infant born during its mother's detention. Their release came thanks to the backing of a new refugee fund to assist with bail payments and the cooperation of several Thai civil society groups.

Presenter: Ron Corben
Speakers: Anoop Sukumaran a coordinator with Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network; Kitty McKinsey, regional spokesperson for the UN High Commission for Refugees; Iftikhar Ahmad Ayaz, a British based spokesman for the Ahmadiya community; Dr Amara Pongsapich chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission 
LInk: :http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/connectasia/stories/201106/s3237776.htm
Media Note,Office of the Spokesman,Washington, DC
June 6, 2011
Asistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration Eric P. Schwartz will visit Bangladesh June 7-9 to meet with government officials and international and non-governmental organizations to discuss humanitarian protection and assistance issues for the registered Rohingya refugees and undocumented Rohingya in Bangladesh.
There are over 29,000 registered Rohingya refugees living in two official camps in Cox’s Bazar district, Bangladesh. In addition, approximately 30,000 undocumented Rohingya reside in two unofficial sites near the camps and the Government of Bangladesh estimates 200,000 – 500,000 undocumented Rohingya are residing in various villages and towns outside the refugee camps.
Jeddah, KSA: The headquarters of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Jeddah hosted a convention of senior Rohingya leaders in order to form the Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU) to bring peace, prosperity, and hope for the future to the Rohingya people, according to OIC’s website and the International Islamic News Agency (IINA
Participants at Rohingya convention in OIC headquarters, Jeddah
“The Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, called for unity among Rohingya and all Muslims. The call highlighted the importance of the Meeting of Senior Leaders of Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU) and the Euro-Burma Office (EBO),
Dr. Wakar Uddin, Dr. Mohamed Younus with Mr. Harn Yawnghwe at the Rohingya convention
 which takes place in the OIC headquarters on 30 and 31 May 2011,” according to Talal Daaous, the Director of the Department of Muslim Minorities in OIC.

Fri, Jun 3rd, 2011 12:27 am BdST
 
Dhaka, June 2 (bdnews24.com) — BNP-led alliance government issued passports to Rohingya refugees under special arrangement, the foreign minister has told parliament.

Dipu Moni told parliament on Thursday that the government has 'specific evidence' supporting the allegation.

"Passports were issued to Myanmar Rohingyas from different missions. We did not issue any such passports during our term," she said, in reply to a question by MP Nurul Islam BSc.

"The alliance government had 'specific' reasons for doing that," she added.

In reply to the same question, home minister Sahara Khatun said the first condition for Bangladeshi passports was the seeker has to have Bangladeshi citizenship. "Rohingyas are not Bangladeshi citizens."

"But there are allegations that some Rohingyas are living in Saudi Arabia with Bangladeshi passports. If that is the case, their passports will be cancelled according to the law," she said.

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Link: http://bdnews24.com/details.php?id=197440&cid=2
By IINA– June 1, 2011Posted in: Articles
JEDDAH, 29 Jumada 2/June 1 (IINA)-The headquarters of the Organisationn of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Jeddah, hosted a convention of the Senior Rohingya Leaders in order to bring peace, prosperity, and hope for the future to the Rohingya people.
  • Based on resolution No. 4/37- MM, operative paragraph No.4, issued by the 37th CFM session, which urged the Rohingya parties to cooperate and unite their ranks under a united coordination council and calls on them to continue their efforts to reclaim their rights. “Commends the efforts of the Secretary General aimed at coordinating the work of the Rohingya Muslim organizations and uniting their ranks under a united coordination council and calls on him to continue these efforts to reclaim their rights;”
  • With reference to the MoU signed by the Senior Rohingya Leaders on June 8th-9th, 2010 under the patronage of H.E the Secretary General of OIC Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, an expanded Convention was jointly convened by OIC and EBO with the participation of Eminent Rohingya Leaders on 30th -31st May, 2011. The ARU appeals to the OIC Secretary General to recognize the ARU as an independent organization representing the Rohingya people.

    • Rohingya Exodus