By Chutharat Plerin

Phuket Gazette

August 31, 2013

PHUKET: The National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRC) yesterday confirmed that the report on the case of the Royal Thai Navy opening fire on Rohingya refugees off the coast of Ranong in February, will be concluded this month.

During the shooting, naval personnel allegedly killed at least two refugees fleeing arrest. 

The report will be handed over to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra “as soon as possible”, the Phuket Gazette was told.

“Our investigation concerning the allegation of the Royal Thai Navy killing at least two Rohingya will be concluded soon. We’re endeavoring to finish it by the middle of September,” Dr Nirun Phitakwatchara of the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRC) confirmed to the Gazette.

Five months ago, PM Yingluck vowed in front of the international press that the incident would be investigated (storyhere). Since then, however, details of the investigation process have not been revealed and no deadline has been set for the completion of the investigation. 

“We are now working on putting all the evidence and information together in the report that will be handed over to PM Yingluck, in the interests of resolving the whole Rohingya issue in Thailand,” said Dr Nirun.

“In addition to the alleged killings, other issues have been included in the report, including the overcrowded conditions of Rohingya refugees in Thailand’s refugee shelters, the manner in which they are treated, and what country or countries they will eventually be transferred to,” he said.

“It has taken a long time to conclude the report because the Rohingya refugee issue is a big one and has many dimensions. We have sent our staff to a number of locations to collect as much information as possible for our investigation, in order to build up a dossier comprehensive enough to be handed over to the Prime Minister.”

Dr Nirun disclosed that suggestions to solve problems related to the Rohingya-refugee influx will be included in the report, but cautioned that he could not disclose any of these suggestions at present because the investigation is still incomplete. 

However, Dr Nirun did clearly state: “We are not trying to interfere with any national authority or apportion blame, especially towards the navy. 

“This is not just a national issue, it is a global one. The issue needs to be solved by several government departments working in the same direction.

“Policies need to be made to prepare for the problem we are facing, mindful that many more Rohingya refugees will be arriving on our shores. We don’t want this to become a chronic problem for Thailand.”

By Lawi Weng & Paul Vrieze

The Irrawaddy

August 30, 2013

RANGOON — An Arakan State court reportedly sentenced 76 Rohingya Muslims to lengthy prison terms last week for their alleged roles in an outburst of deadly inter-communal violence in Maungdaw Township in June last year, according to a human rights group and a local media report. At least seven were sentenced to life imprisonment.

The Thailand-based Arakan Project, which advocates for the rights of the Rohingyas, said a total of 76 Muslim defendants from Maungdaw Township had been sentenced at Buthidaung and Maungdaw township courts last week.

“On 20 and 21 August, Buthidaung Court sentenced 43 Rohingya detainees, all from Ba Gone Nar Village Tract in Maungdaw South, in relation to the June [2012] violence. Of them, 35 were sentenced to 17 years, four to 6 years and four to life imprisonment,” the group said in a draft report that it recently submitted to the UN special envoy on the human rights situation in Burma Tomás Quintana.

On August 22, another 33 detainees were scheduled to be convicted by the Maungdaw Court, Arakan Project director Chris Lewa said on Friday, adding that she was still finding out what the court had decided.

Burmese newspaper The Voice Daily quoted a local official as saying that the Maungdaw Court handed down three life sentences. “Three Bengalis who killed one monk were sentenced to life in prison. Ten people were sentenced to 10 years,” Arakan State Attorney General Hla Thein told the newspaper.

Arakan and central government officials refer to the stateless Muslim minority as “Bengalis” to suggest that they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

The men were convicted for murder and a range of other charges related to the burning down of Arakanese Buddhists’ homes, a primary school and a health clinic in Kandayar and Mawyawaddy villages in Maungdaw Township in June 2012, according to The Voice Daily.

Arakan State spokesperson Win Myaing confirmed with The Irrawaddy that dozens of Muslim men had been sentenced last week, but gave few details. “We heard that the court sentenced them. But we do not have detailed information to talk about this case. This authority [to discuss cases] belongs to the court,” he said.

The Rohingya men spent more than one year in pre-trial detention in Buthidaung Jail before being sentenced. They are part a group of “hundreds of Rohingyas, including children and four humanitarian workers, [who] were arrested and detained for alleged involvement in violence in June 2012,” the Arakan Project said, adding that many had been tortured in custody.

On June 8, Rohingyas attacked Buddhist villages in Maungdaw Township, killing a number of villagers and torching homes. Waves of inter-communal violence subsequently spread through the state and by late October, 140,000 people, mostly Muslims, were displaced and 192 had been killed.

Human rights groups have accused government security forces of supporting the Buddhist communities against the Rohingya, and of carrying out arbitrary arrest and systematic and widespread rights abuses against the Muslim minority.

Lewa said last week’s sentences constituted a violation of the defendants’ basic rights. “None of these people had any fair judicial process and the sentences were extremely harsh. Some of these people were certainly not even involved in the [inter-communal] violence,” she said.

By comparison, Lewa said, “very few” Buddhist perpetrators of the violence were sentenced “and they received lighter sentences.”

Myo Thant, a Rohingya politician with the Maungdaw-based Democracy and Human Rights Party, said many Rohingya families in the Muslim-majority area in northern Arakan State had relatives in jail, but they are unable to communicate with them, let alone support them during their trial.

He said that his younger brother, called Kyaw Naing, had been sentenced by the Maungdaw Court on July 12 to 10 years imprisonment for alleged involvement in last year’s violence.

The family had been unable to hire a lawyer to aid his brother’s defense, he said, “Because they did not even inform our family when they sentenced him. My family still does not dare to speak out about this despite their understanding that the court sentencing of their son was not fair.”

Shwe Maung, a Muslim lawmaker from Buthidaung Township who represents the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, said arrests in Maungdaw Township were often arbitrary and court proceedings biased against Muslim villagers.

“There is no rule of law there because the victims cannot defend themselves in court,” he said. “The court only listens to one-side information and the victims have to suffer for this, as they cannot have a lawyer and their families cannot go to defend their people in court.”

RB News 

August 30, 2013 

Maungdaw, Arakan – Arbitrary arrests and abuses are continuing in Maungdaw Township of Arakan State by the local police according to locals. 

Yesterday at about 3 pm, 15 police led by Hla Myint and Maung Shay from Maungdaw police station raided a house in quarter number five. A Rohingya youth was brutally beaten at his house by the police and was then arrested. 

“We don’t know why he was arrested. He was brutally beaten by them at his house and was arrested. They beat him in front of his neighbors while they take him to the car. The Rohingya youth’s name is Mohammed Yasin, son of Mohammed Isaque, aged 22.” a local Rohingya told RB News. 

Furthermore, they raided another house at 5 pm. They searched all the things inside the house but didn’t arrest anyone from that house. 

Two police, Hla Myint and Maung Shay have been reportedly abusing the Rohingyas who are passing by their outpost after 7 pm. Their outpost is situated next to the government middle school in quarter number two. 

“The most two notorious police are Hla Myint and Maung Shay in Maungdaw. They are beating any Rohingya passing by their outpost after 7 pm. They are just beating the passers without any reason. Five Rohingya youths were brutally beaten by them and another 7 police on last Monday at about 8 pm, who are passing by their outpost. The youths were on their way back homes but they were beaten by those notorious police without any reason.” the Rohingya continued. 

After dissolution of Nasaka in Arakan State the local police are carrying on with the same job the Nasaka did. The plight of Rohingyas remains the same as before. Although the union government is well informed about the abuses committed by local authorities there has not been any action taken against torturing local Rohingyas by the local authorities.

By Bangkok Post

August 30, 2013

The government has agreed to hold about 2,000 Rohingya migrants in detention centres nationwide for another six months, Deputy Prime Minister Pracha Promnok said on Thursday. 

The migrants were originally due to remain in the centres for six months while the government assessed options for their relocation, but that initial deadline passed last month. The new detention deadline would now end in January.

The deputy PM, who oversees national security, was responding to an opposition request for details on the government's policy to deal with the Rohingya migrants.

The request was made during a parliamentary session yesterday by Democrat MP for Bangkok Samart Maluleem.

Mr Samart said more than 2,000 Rohingya were being detained at immigration detention centres. He said he was concerned by overcrowding in the centres.

Pol Gen Pracha said the Rohingya, most of whom travelled by boat to escape religious unrest in Myanmar's Rakhine state, had breached the 1979 Immigration Act.

The law allows immigration officers to detain them only at Immigration Bureau detention centres. However, some Rohingya women and children with health problems are being held at shelters operated by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security. Pol Gen Pracha said the government was also concerned about the living conditions of the Rohingya.

He said the Foreign Ministry would use the detention deadline extension to hold talks with international organisations to explain the government's policy in caring for the migrants.

The ministry has already held talks with Myanmar and asked it to help repatriate the Rohingya. Myanmar, however, has expressed doubts about the origin of the migrants, saying it needed verification of their identities.

National Human Rights Commissioner Niran Pithakwatchara, who oversees the Rohingya problem, said he would ask the government next week to help provide the Rohingya with proper shelters and to raise the problem at an Asean forum.

"It is not just a Thai problem, it is one for all Asean countries," Dr Niran said.

Meanwhile, four Rohingya who earlier escaped from Singkhorn detention centre in Prachuap Khiri Khan's Muang district were apprehended in Bang Saphan district yesterday. Police said they were attempting to reach Malaysia.

By The Daily Star

August 30, 2013

Dipu Moni tells new UNHCR representative Stina E Ljungdel; receives credentials from new UNFPA representative Argentina Piccin

Dhaka yesterday reaffirmed its position that Bangladesh was already hosting a huge population of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and could not take in more.

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said this when newly appointed country representative of the UN refugee agency UNHCR, Stina E Ljungdel, presented her credentials to the former at the foreign ministry, said a press release.

Referring to her recent visit to the Rohingya camps at Kutupalong and Noyapara in Cox’s Bazar, the minister expressed concern about the socio-economic, environmental impacts that the country is facing because of these Muslim nationals of Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

Around 30,000 Rohingyas are sheltered in those camps.

Experts say the number of the Myanmar refugees living in Bangladesh will be no less than a few lakh.

In her talks to Stina, the foreign minister underlined that a durable solution for refugees and undocumented nationals from Myanmar lay in their voluntary repatriation to Myanmar and establishment of their rights in their motherland.

The government has introduced free education up to class VI, vocational skill training, computer training, and primary and secondary healthcare to prepare the Rohingyas for a productive life when they voluntarily return to their homeland, Dipu Moni said.

Stina thanked Bangladesh’s government for hosting a large number of these international refugees for the last 30 years with a highly satisfactory protection regime compared to many places in the world.

She highlighted that Bangladesh’s good work and best practices in hosting the refugees from Myanmar quite often go unappreciated when Bangladesh should receive commendations for maintaining peaceful refugee camps and voluntary repatriation of most of them before 2005.

Earlier in the day, Argentina Piccin, the newly appointed country representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), presented her credentials to the foreign minister.

During the meeting, Piccin praised Bangladesh for its extraordinary achievements in realising the health-related Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG) on infant and child mortality and MDG 5 on maternal health.

She assured that Bangladesh would be a priority country for UNFPA’s new strategic plan for 2014-2017, through which the country would be allocated substantive budget to advance its health-related development agenda beyond the post-2015 development era.

(Photo: AP)

By Holly Atkinson

Bangkok Post

August 30, 2013

I am still haunted by the testimony I heard from a survivor of the March massacre of dozens of Muslims in the central Myanmar town of Meiktila. He told me how he saw his best friend, a boy of 13, doused with gasoline and burned alive by two Buddhist men who were part of an attacking mob, while police and community leaders watched from an embankment. 

This disturbing event is unfortunately one of far too many in Myanmar. The Myanmar government has failed to protect its Muslim minority population, including Rohingya, against an unprecedented wave of violence that has spread across the country since mid-2012. The lack of response on the part of the government has provided for a culture of impunity for perpetrators, increasing the likelihood of more human rights abuses.

Over the past year, my colleagues at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and I have heard from dozens of informants and eyewitnesses about horrific acts of violence in 18 locations across Myanmar. These attacks have resulted in injury, displacement, economic hardship and death. Over the past two years, entire villages have been burnt to the ground, children have been killed, schools and mosques have been destroyed, and upwards of 250,000 people have been displaced.

Not only have the Myanmar police and military committed acts of omission by standing idly by and failing to protect the victims, but they have also facilitated some of these crimes. During episodes of violence against Muslim communities, PHR documented instances of police directly attacking individuals, as well as firing their weapons into crowds. Such behaviour not only violates international police guidelines, but contributes to the climate of impunity, and has, without a doubt, enabled or encouraged the attacks. Simply put, there is little risk for people who attack Muslims.

Most of the violent episodes reveal a pattern: they begin with an "inciting incident", which then leads to the targeting of an entire community, not just the alleged perpetrator. The government, instead of protecting the vulnerable, has allowed such incidents to spread. For far too long, it has sponsored feelings of Buddhist nationalism and allowed the targeting of the most marginalised groups, instead of taking steps to protect them. Democracy leaders in the region have also been quiet on the issue of anti-Muslim violence.

The structural violence is still in place and could lead to additional attacks at any time. We are pleased that the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation on Myanmar visited the country this month, and hope he will press for some much-needed reforms.

What does the Myanmar government need to do? It must create an atmosphere of tolerance, where the rights of all people, regardless of ethnicity or religion, are respected and protected.

The government must also thoroughly investigate these crimes and hold perpetrators accountable, including police and military personnel. It is also imperative for the government to urgently tackle the humanitarian needs of the Rohingya in Rakhine state. This means not only addressing issues of food, water, medical care, security and shelter, but also providing for a dignified future for the 100,000 Rohingya essentially imprisoned in the camps.

While there have been significant, and much welcomed, political improvements in Myanmar, these reforms should not be used to minimise the gravity of the deadly and systematic anti-Muslim violence that has gripped the nation.

It is time for the culture of impunity to end, and everyone's human rights to be respected.

The Myanmar government, civil society and the international community must stand together in order to end the violence, promote reconciliation, and secure the human rights of all.

Dr Holly Atkinson is volunteer medical adviser and past board president of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR).

By Richard S. Ehrlich

Huffington Post

August 30, 2013

(RNS) Buddhists are killing Muslims in Myanmar with impunity because the government failed to stop the attacks, New York-based Physicians for Human Rights reported amid fresh assaults that left more Muslims homeless.

During the past year, scattered clashes across Buddhist-majority Myanmar, also known as Burma, have left more than 240 people dead, most of them Muslims.

A mob of about 1,000 Buddhists burned more than 35 Muslim homes and a dozen shops on August 24 in Kanbalu in Myanmar’s central Sagaing Division after hearing rumors that a Muslim man sexually assaulted a young Buddhist woman, police told The Associated Press.

Police arrested a male Muslim suspect but refused the mob’s demand to hand him over, sparking its arson attack against his innocent Muslim neighbors, police said. The fires also destroyed a mosque.

“The Burmese government must make a concerted effort to allow an effective investigation into these abuses and hold perpetrators accountable,” the physicians group wrote in its report.

More ominously, the report concluded: “While such massacres are not sweeping the country at present, the brazen nature of these crimes and the widespread culture of impunity in which these massacres occur form deeply troubling preconditions that make such crimes very likely to continue.

“If these conditions go unaddressed, Burma may very well face countrywide violence on a catastrophic level, including potential crimes against humanity and/or genocide.”

The U.N. special rapporteur for human rights, Tomas Quintana, investigated Buddhist attacks against Muslims in another central town — Meiktila, in Mandalay Division — during a 10-day trip that ended on August 21.

Residents accused Quintana of bias against Buddhists involved in the Meiktila clashes, which occurred in March, and the government denied his claims.

Quintana’s experience gave him “an insight into the fear residents felt when being chased down by violent mobs.” Police allegedly stood by as angry mobs beat, stabbed and burned to death 43 people, he said.

Rakhine state’s Muslims describe themselves as citizens who are persecuted because they are minority ethnic Rohingya competing with Buddhists in the impoverished region.

Buddhist militants and the government insist the Rohingya are not citizens but instead are Muslim ethnic Bengalis who have illegally migrated from neighboring Bangladesh during past decades.

When Buddhists rampage and torch Muslims’ homes and businesses, driving them off their land, there are “multiple instances where police and/or the army attacked Rohingyas and other Muslims, or watched as they were attacked, instead of protecting them,” the physicians’ report said.

By Danish Refugee Council

Thomson Reuters Foundation

August 29, 2013

Tailor-made business grants enable IDPs in Myanmar’s Rakhine State to get back on their feet and resume livelihood activities. DRC’s recently launched livelihood programme will provide support to both Buddhist and Muslim communities affected by last year’s sectarian violence.

This week DRC delivered the first round of small-business grants to Buddhist IDPs displaced by the June and October 2012 sectarian violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. The violence led to the displacement of more than 140,000 people, both Muslims and Buddhists, across Rakhine State. The evident need for life-saving assistance continues. But as the IDP situation evolves from an emergency context to a more protracted displacement scenario, livelihood support will be a key element in providing economic opportunities for IDPs and other conflict-affected communities and decrease dependency on humanitarian aid.

"Many IDPs who used to be shopkeepers, craftsmen, trishaw drivers and petty traders lost all their assets in the violence. But they have not lost their skills – and with modest financial support they are able to re-start their businesses, provide for their families and spearhead early recovery," says DRC Project Coordinator Andreas Geertsen.

The small-business grants are awarded on a competitive basis providing equal opportunity to all IDPs, but supporting only the businesses with the best chance of success. Supported businesses include trishaw taxis, tea shops, small restaurants, and grocery stores – as well as production of snacks, rice noodles, and wooden furniture. A transparent selection process ensures that all applications are assessed according to objective criteria, including motivation, experience, cost-efficiency and quality of the business plan.

Buddhist IDP Ma Tin Chay is one of the grant recipients. The 43 year old single mother of 2 children used to prepare and sell fried vegetables for a living.

"But during the violence in June last year, my house was burned down and I lost everything" she says. "With this grant I can buy the items to re-start my business and support my family again," Ma Tin Chay adds.

In the coming weeks the business grant programme, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), will be extended to the Muslim IDP camps, and DRC will continue to provide balanced assistance to both of the conflict-affected communities. The livelihood programme complements DRC’s other programmatic areas in Rakhine State, including shelter, WASH, non-food items, protection, camp coordination and camp management (CCCM). DRC has worked in Myanmar since 2009, providing assistance to people affected by conflict and natural disasters.

By Jonah Fisher

BBC News

August 29, 2013

This week, religious violence has once again flared in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Hundreds of Muslim homes have been burnt to the ground in Sagaing region after being attacked by Buddhist mobs.

In just over a year more than 200 people, mostly Muslims, have been killed and many more displaced as unrest has spread from Rakhine state in the west to towns across the country. 

Many are blaming a controversial monk and the nationalist organisation he helps lead for the rising tensions. 

In a classroom at one of Mandalay's most famous monasteries, a teacher is at work. Shin Wirathu is taking a class of young monks at Masoeyin through the five precepts or pillars of the Buddhist faith. 

This morning, he is lecturing on the importance of avoiding sexual misconduct. 

"Yes venerable monk," the young men chant in unison, as Wirathu softly delivers his advice on the need to avoid temptation.

When the class is over, he shows me outside. On the wall of the monastery courtyard are graphic posters of the Buddhist victims of recent religious and ethnic violence in Rakhine state in western Myanmar.

They are unpleasant viewing. The pictures from October last year show dead children with their heads cut open and the bodies of women with their internal organs spilling out of their torsos.

Wirathu said he put them up as a reminder to Buddhists that the country is under attack from Muslim "invaders".

"Muslims are only well behaved when they are weak, " he said. "When they become strong, they are like a wolf or a jackal, in large packs they hunt down other animals."

Wirathu believes there is a Muslim "master plan" underway to turn Myanmar into an Islamic state.

If he is right, it is a long-term project. Latest estimates suggest that of Myanmar's 60 million people, 90% are Buddhist and about 5% Muslim. 

"Over the past 50 years, we have shopped at Muslim shops and then they became richer and wealthier than us and can buy and marry our girls," Wirathu said. "In this way, they have destroyed and penetrated not only our nation but also our religion." 'Master plan' 

Wirathu's solution lies in a controversial nationalist organisation called 969. It calls on Buddhists to shop, sell property and marry within their own religion. 

Small, brightly-coloured stickers have been distributed to clearly brand businesses as Buddhist-owned. 

Supporters of 969 argue it is a purely defensive organisation, created to protect Buddhist culture and identity. Listening to the rhetoric of Wirathu and 969's leaders, there is no doubt it is squarely aimed at Muslims. 

"In the past, there was no discrimination based on religion and race. We all stayed together in a brotherly way," Wirathu said. "But when their [Muslim] master plan has been revealed we can no longer stay quiet." 

From Rakhine state in the west, to more central towns like Meiktila and Okkan, the link is being made between heightened religious tensions and the preaching and activities of monks and 969. 

The outbreaks of violence usually have a depressing symmetry.

A small flashpoint, often a crime or perceived insult perpetrated by a Muslim against a Buddhist, triggers a disproportionate wave of reprisals against the entire Muslim community. 

Ten years ago, under the military junta, Wirathu was jailed for his anti-Muslim views. Now in these times of change, his message is widely disseminated through social media and DVDs. Far from being condemned, Wirathu now has backing from the very top. 

In June, as his infamy reached its peak, Wirathu appeared on the front cover of Time magazine labelled "The face of Buddhist terror". Burmese monks were outraged and Myanmar's President Thein Sein quickly leapt to Wirathu's defence. 

The Time issue was banned and a statement released with the president lauding Wirathu as a "son of Lord Buddha". 'Obstacle to reform' 

There is no shortage of theories inside Myanmar as to why Wirathu is now flavour of the month. 

One theory is that continuing ethnic and religious violence could be used by the military as a pretext for maintaining a dominant role in Burmese politics. It is certainly an argument Myanmar's generals have made before. 

"We are also wondering about this," Kaylar Sa, a monk jailed for his part in the Saffron revolution of 2007, told me as he chain-smoked his way through a pack of Red Ruby cigarettes. 

He pointed out that the government has acted decisively and violently to end monk-led demonstrations against an army-backed copper mine last year, and yet now was unwilling to tackle them over hate speech. 

"At the moment, we firmly believe that the 969 movement is unnecessary," he said. "If this movement continues to be taken seriously, it could become an obstacle to democratic reform." 

A short drive from Wirathu's monastery, Muslim volunteers guard Joon Mosque, the biggest in Mandalay, each night. The men told me that in the event of a Buddhist attack, they expect no protection from the (Buddhist-dominated) police or the army. 

Smar Nyi Nyi, a veteran of the 1988 student uprising and one of the elders at the mosque, took me to one side. He expressed views that many Burmese share, that shadowy elements within the establishment are stoking the unrest.

"Everybody is talking about the violence between Buddhists and Muslims," he said. "Nobody is interested in the dam on the Irrawaddy River. No one is interested in the gas pipeline. If somebody is controlling things, he is a smart man!" 

Some Muslims cling to the hope that there exists a silent majority of moderate Buddhists appalled by recent events, secretly rooting for them. 

"Most of the Buddhists, they are just onlookers " a retired Muslim doctor tells me with a shrug. "A few might pass a heartfelt regard and say they're sorry, but that doesn't come above the surface." 

For Wirathu, each fresh outbreak of religious conflict reinforces his view that Myanmar is part of a global war on militant Islam and that he is being badly misunderstood. 

"We don't use drones - we haven't killed [Osama] Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein or the Taliban," he told me. 

"We are just preaching and posting on the internet and Facebook for the safety and security of our nation. If we are all protecting our own nation who's the bad guy - Wirathu or Barack Obama?"

By Mizan Rahman (Dhaka)

Gulf Times

August 28, 2013

Huffington Post

August 28, 2013

By Hanna Hindstrom

Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB)

August 28, 2013 

Two US-based journalists have been blacklisted by the Burmese government after they visited conflict-struck western Arakan state to cover the ongoing persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority, DVB has learned.

The reporters, who work for an independent photography agency, say they were verbally told by officials at the Burmese embassy in Washington DC earlier this month that they were banned from returning to Burma.

Officials reportedly told Matt Rains and Alia Mehboob from Lux Capio Photography Agency that they could not be issued visas because they had entered “restricted” Muslim areas on a previous visit to Arakan state and should “try again in a year”.

In April, on their most recent trip to the restive state, the reporters were besieged by a Buddhist mob while visiting a mosque on the outskirts of Sittwe’s Muslim quarter, Aung Mingalar, before being detained by immigration authorities and sent back to Rangoon where they say they were followed by military intelligence.

The pair, who held tourist visas, said they had received formal permission from the Ministry of Tourism in Rangoon to visit any area in the Arakan capital, but were refused entry by police guarding Aung Mingalar. They subsequently visited a nearby mosque that seemed to have been taken over by local Buddhists, when a mob approached them.

“People started coming in from all over. One guy flashed his [penis] at Alia; they were trying to take potshots at us from behind. They tried to grab my camera equipment,” explained Rains.

In video footage taken by the reporters, police can be seen brandishing rifles at the pair, while locals attempt to grab their cameras. A man in civilian clothing, claiming to be “the chairman”, bursts into the mosque, shouts at them to “get out” and demands that they hand over their passports.

The pair immediately offered to go to the police station, where their passports were confiscated for several hours and the authorities booked them on the first flight back to Rangoon. After repeated requests for an explanation as to why they were being deported, the police said they had entered a “restricted” zone.

“We were let go in Rangoon, but we had four to six men following us wherever we went, two cars that would just park outside Trader’s Hotel and they would just sit in the lobby waiting for us,” said Rains. “It got to the point where it was too dangerous for anyone to meet with us, so we just booked flights out.”

A spokesperson for the Arakan state government told DVB that although he was unfamiliar with the case, journalists are obligated to travel on media visas and obtain permits before entering some areas that were ravaged by Muslim-Buddhist clashes last year. The President’s Office was not available for comment.

Aung Win, a local Rohingya media fixer, confirmed that the authorities have clamped down on journalists who want to visit Aung Mingalar, where thousands of Muslims are trapped without access to international aid or livelihoods.

“You must get a permit from the Rakhine [Arakan] state government,” said Aung Win. “I can take [journalists] around to IDP camps, but they are not allowed to visit Aung Mingalar.” He added that more recently journalists have also been able to obtain the necessary permits.

But critics say this is an attempt by the former military regime, which has been implicated in mass atrocities against the stateless Rohingya community, to monitor journalists reporting on their persecution. It follows two bouts of deadly ethno-religious clashes in western Burma, which uprooted over 140,000 people, mostly Muslims.

Rains and Mehboob say it is not the first time they have faced harassment attempting to document abuses against the Rohingya, who are considered illegal Bengali immigrants and denied basic rights by the Burmese government. In August 2012, the journalists were repeatedly “locked and loaded” by Arakan police, while locals threatened to “burn” Alia, who is Muslim and a Pakistani national.

US national Rains recalls another incident in Mrauk-U, northeast of Sittwe, which he described as “straight-up Third Reich text book”. The pair had sat in a local movie theatre to watch a film, when an “old-school patriotic national anthem” began playing and Arakanese words started flashing on the screen.

When they asked a man sitting next to them what it was saying, he replied: “’It’s talking about how the Rohingya are burning houses and murdering and killing people’,” said Rains. The moment Rains took out his camera, the screen switched to a “cheesy 80s soap opera show” and the manager asked them to leave. “It’s propaganda at its best and worst at the same time,” he added.

The Burmese government has received international praise for introducing a series of democratic reforms, including easing media restrictions and stripping names from the notorious junta-era blacklist, which barred many western journalists from entering the country. But analysts say that as many as 4,000 names could still be on the list, while military intelligence continues to monitor reporters covering a recent tide of anti-Muslim violence.

An Ex Rohingya MP U Noor Ahmed Passed Away

RB News

August 28, 2013

U Noor Ahmed (a.k.a) U Tin Maung, an ex Rohingya MP and retired head of Buthidaung Township health department passed away at his residence in Buthidaung Township, Arakan State at 12:20 am (Myanmar local time) today. The funeral prayer and burial performed at 2:00 pm (local time).

His son, Sazaat Ahmed lives in the Netherlands said “according to my brother, my father’s face is shining after his breath stopped. He died of natural causes and didn’t suffer pain before his death.”

U Noor Ahmed, age 87, a native of Buthidaung Towship served for the Rohingya people as physician and was head of the Buthidaung Township health department. He was one of four Rohingya members of parliament (MPs) elected in the general election in 1990. He represented for the National Democratic Party for Human Rights (NDPH) in 1990 election and was elected from Buthidaung constituency No. (2). 

We, RB Team pray Almighty to bestow peace to the departed Soul and strength to the family members to bear the irreparable loss.

By Dom Hammond 

Policymic 

August 27, 2013

Over the last two years, the positive news of a Myanmar embracing democracy and engaging with the developed world has been consistently offset by reports of sectarian violence between Buddhists and the minority Rohingya Muslim population. Estimates suggest that 300 Muslims have been killed and up to 300,000 displaced as refugees since the military junta nominally ceded power in 2011. No longer is this violence restricted to the state of Rakhine where the majority of Burmese Muslims live. Major incidents are reported in states as far south as Thaketa, just a few miles from Yangon, the cultural, historic and business capitol of the country which is now awash with western businessmen drinking expensive cocktails in expensive hotels. This worrying trend of more frequent and more widely spread violence threatens to derail the country’s turnaround.

As violence in Myanmar creeps closer to the capitol, shown below, the genocide taboo creeps closer to the consciousness of the west.

The violence we are forced to consider here is of the most disturbing kind — indiscriminate, brutal, and deadly. A further disturbing element is the widespread belief that government forces are supporting the violence by turning a blind eye. There are many reports of government forces standing by and, if not actively encouraging, being less than heavy-handed with Buddhist perpetrators. There is some convincing video evidence of this around the news sites and on YouTube. Convictions relating to sectarian violence have been proportionately more prevalent for Muslims who have also seen harsher sentences handed down. Despite political reforms, power is still in the hands of the military, and currently concentrated in the hands of exclusively ethnic Burmese Buddhists.

For those who believe that "genocide" is too shocking a term to use here, I would respond: The Rakhine Buddhists refer to the Rohingya as Bengali rather than Burmese and believe they are illegal immigrants despite their having settling in the Rakhine region centuries ago. By denying their history and denying the Rohingya’s right to call Myanmar home, I believe the term "genocide" can be used without hyperbole to describe this systematic approach to removing an ethnic minority. Human Rights Watch (HRW) agrees.

This makes my recent Sunday morning browse of the papers all the more extraordinary:

1. The Travel section of the Sunday Telegraph ran a feature on why you should consider a river cruise as the most relaxing way to take in the sites of Burma.

2. A McKinsey Global Institute’s report reminded me why global corporates are desperate to deploy capital in the region (in short: natural resources, geographic position and large, young workforce that can become more productive).

3. My Twitter feed reminded me that Hugo Swire, the UK’s FCO minister, is working hard to interact with Thein Sein’s government.

HRW has compared the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya to that of the Tutsis in Rwanda. I did not spend my Sunday mornings reading the paper in 1994, but the idea that travellers would be vacationing in Kigali, investors throwing money at coffee plantations, and President Clinton welcoming Juvenile Habyarimana to the White House seems far-fetched.

It is wholly incumbent on the government of Myanmar, its law enforcers, and the robustness of its judiciary to stamp out this violence. For Muslims in Myanmar, it increasingly obvious that their lives are at stake, but wherever the government sits on the scale of indifference too complicity, they must know the future prosperity of the country is at stake too, for the following reasons:

1. The flourishing tourist industry is likely to stall if the violence continues to encroach on the most popular visitor sites. While attacks remained in Rakhine state it could be dismissed by tourists as “a skirmish among locals, hundreds of miles from our hotel”. But if the stunning, temple-laden plains of Bagan and the banks of the Irrawaddy play host to burning schools and mobs with machetes, the Ray-banned, camera-toting tourists will direct their wanderlust back to Thailand.

2. Global corporates who are serious about putting down roots in Myanmar to profit from the massive economic potential of this genuine frontier market will have to consider their responsible investment obligations far more carefully. Doing business in Myanmar will, for many years to come, rely on opaque local connections and relationships with government. The legal and reputational risk of being seen to be in cahoots with factions remotely connected to the notion of genocide would be disastrous.

3. Efforts of Western nations and ASEAN to engage with Thein Sein and his government, laudable as they are, must go hand-in-hand with pressure to react to the ethnic cleansing of its people in the manner expected of a democratic government being offered a seat at the table of global trade and diplomacy.

Just two days after my rose-tinted reading, I woke up to reports on Tuesday that a 1,000 strong Buddhist mob had torched Muslim homes and shops in Sagaing. To avoid points 1, 2 and 3 above, the Myanmar government should issue a statement condemning the attacks, confirming the legitimacy of the Rohingya as an indigenous ethnic group, and committing to investigating and enforcing the full extent of the law in convicting any offenders. 

Hope springs eternal.

By Ibrahim Shah 

RB Article 

August 27, 2013

Since 2012, authorities in Western Burma have been putting out magazines of religious hatred titled “Protection of Buddhist Nationalism”. Amongst the publications, The Passima Yet Hwong (the western region) magazine was the most notorious and smartly sketched to stimulate Buddhists as strong as Hurricane winds to insult other faiths. It was authorized by authorities of all kinds of state departments. 

When westerners, European countries, ASEAN and the rest international independent institutions spoke out against the long oppression of Burmese Buddhist majority regime against ethnic minorities. The mastermind of these continual collisions is the so called "reformist" or "pseudo democratic" president Thein Sein. The former high rank military officer, triggered unexpected and/or unwanted crisis— National protection for Buddhist Nationalism. 

President Thein Sein conspired with some migrant Buddhist people racially western Rakhines (Anot-thar Mogh), who migrated from Bangladesh to western Burma for economic crisis. Then, he internally designated his adopted-fiddles immoral militaristic officers in Rakhine state government. This, to trigger riots in order for the democracy transition from military transition could be back stepped rather than going ahead. 

A histrionic rape issue— a Rakhine Buddhist girl was raped and murdered and three Rohingya adults were alleged forcibly — was created by some members of Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP) and authorities detained them without any further inquiry and on the double, they were sentenced to death. 

That murder provoked an attack on a bus passing in the Taungup area of Rakhine state by a mob of 300 people killed the ten Muslim pilgrims on the spot on June 3, 2012. The government run newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported. "Here a censorious point that how the government could reveal the exact number of gangsters." 

Since June 2012, on the double, the deliberate, unprecedented violence erupted from Taungup to most parts of the Rakhine, central Burma and almost every Muslim quarter throughout the country. 

Amid the Burmese state-sponsored religious collision (in reality the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya and eradication of other Muslims), the security forces, Buddhist terrorists, monks, police, riot police and border security forces perpetrated such terrible crimes more repressively than ever. Gangbangs to mostly immature girls and slaughter, vandalization of tens of thousands of homes and religious buildings. Lively killings of innocent persons and arbitrary arrests, displaced hundreds of thousands of well settled people. Extortion of money and torturing until death in detained centres. Threats to flee into uncertain destinations leaving own properties, dragging women as sex slaves to army camps, forced labor, confiscation lands, confinements and so on. 

It is cruel and miserable that the government has been changing the demographics of western Burma. Resettling western Rakhines from Bangladesh in Rohingya quarters. 

A few months later, the president made a state-sponsored terrorist group 969 campaign, or 969 anti-Muslim movement led by a monk Wirathu. This man was sentenced in 2003 for inspiring Islamophobia. The main motive of the 969 campaign was only to simultaneously attack Muslims and to trigger more riots. To postpone access of international delegations including diplomats and journalists. Ultimately to avoid verdict of all real miscreants. 

Moreover, other double standard rulings of the so called Neo-Nazi democratic government of Burma, many Rohingya and other Muslim elites, politicians, religious experienced mentors and intellectuals are arrested as miscreants on suspicion. They have been quickly imprisoned with false verdicts. 

Whenever the Hitlerite officials of Burma give visitations to Western countries or Europe, they assured and pledged deceptively that there would be no more collisions. They would tackle the further unrest in Rakhine and will probe the unrest. 

They implemented all commitments negatively. President Thein Sein vowed he will open schools for Rohingya children in August 2012. Later, all of the religious schools of Rohingya children were locked up. University students harassed. In lieu of erecting homes to internally displaced people (IDP), they are kept in concentration camps. This is neat and clean though, in contrast of Rakhine IDPs who are enlisted as displaced ones unwillingly by Rakhine state authorities. 

Then, Burma’s Ministry of Border Affairs and a delegation led by OIC Ambassador Ufuk Gokcen, signed a MoU on Sept. 9 to postpone opening OIC offices In Burma. The regime made countrywide demonstrations by monks and finally the deceptive Hitlerite genocidal President Thein Sein announced that he will not allow OIC to open office, for it was against the people’s desire in 15 October 2012. 

Due to international reiterative condemnations, the government disbanded the most notorious and the ever most successive and destructive and discriminatory department "Nasaka." who oppressed repressively the Rohingya. They remained in historical records as unprecedented persecution against ethnic Rohingya on this earth surface; alternatively, the para-military discriminate and incriminate ever so than former ones. i.e. Extortion of unaffordable money from the most impoverished Rohingya to whom the regime impoverished tactfully and politically since 1962. 

Where the Human rights are for Rohingya despite the fact that they are human beings? 

When can the Rohingya deserve to be valued as equals as the Rakhines do? 

How can the ruthless para-military, Hlun Htine police could shoot direct-targeting to Rohingya at Ohn Daw Gyi and Bawdupha refugee camps in August 9, 2013? 

Similarly, the world wildest and ruthless genocidal Burmese regime led by president Thein Sein plays militaristic roles with international bodies, allowed the UN special envoy for human Rights in Burma Mr. Quintana to investigate the human rights in Burma. Alternatively, the regime paved thorny red-carpets in some areas for Quinta to encounter public unwelcome and violence depreciatively by state-sponsored terrorists. How the most impoverished Rakhines who are incapable even to have food with the cheapest and disgusted Burmese favorite food time Ngha Peeh (fish paste) were dare to protest holding decrial portraits of the dignified UN Envoy Quintana, if the authorities didn't sponsor it ? 

It is a good time for UN, EU, OIC, ASEAN, and NATO, USA to corporately denounce the confidential tactic policies of Burmese Hilterite regime led by President Thein Sein, who prefers for inconsistency of his reiterative words about assurances in his international historic tours. 

As well, the regime’s ever talented and successful policies to consolidate the democracy rules if the regime refrains from such discriminatory policies and diplomatic deceptions. 

When will the regime postpone officially harassment and arbitrarily arrest to every innocent Rohingya, or whoever speaks out against the persecution? It is deplorable that a prominent Rohingya human Rights Activist Kyaw Hla Aung and a Rohingya Facebooker Than Shwe, were detained recently. While the ongoing reform procedures, bell ringing ceaselessly throughout the country Burma.