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June 2, 2014

Clashes between Muslims and Buddhists in Myanmar may have subsided, but there is a new crisis brewing in the camps housing Muslim Rohingya. Some readers may find details of this report by the BBC's Jonah Fisher disturbing.

Arriving by boat near Kyein Nyi Pyin camp, there's no obvious sign that something is wrong.

The rickety wooden jetty is busy. A pile of timber has just been offloaded and a procession of Rohingya men is transporting the logs to the camp about 1km inland. The full force of the monsoon rains are due in Rakhine state soon and the wood is being used to build more houses and to strengthen those that have already been built.

It's nearly three years since the 4,000 Rohingya Muslims of Kyein Nyi Pyin were driven off their land by gangs of Rakhine Buddhists, and the camp now has a permanent feel.

There are corrugated iron roofs, latrines and drainage ditches. Work has even started on a solar powered "Video House" to while away the time. It doesn't feel like the "concentration camp" some had warned me to expect.

There are no fences around the settlement and just a couple of sleepy policemen at the checkpoint on the way in. But the Rohingya are not free to leave. All the surrounding land is occupied by Rakhine Buddhists, many of whom drove the Rohingya from their villages back in 2011.

For the last three years life here and in Rakhine's other Rohingya camps has been one of miserable stagnation. Despite promises from central government, nothing has been done to reconcile divided communities.

Large parts of the state are now effectively segregated. Buddhists can go where they want, the Rohingya are confined - "for their own safety".

Tens of thousands of Rohingya have been displaced by the violence that erupted in Rakhine state

A new crisis is unfolding in the Rohingya camps, but you have to look inside the dark huts to find it. Pregnant women, sick children, elderly men and women are suffering and sometimes dying because they don't have access to medicine and basic healthcare.

The elders at Kyein Nyi Pyin tell me that in the last month nine people have died there, seven of them young children. None of them had seen a doctor or gone to hospital.

'Bias'

The international aid agency MSF-Holland used to provide healthcare at the camp and at many of the Rohingya communities across Rakhine state.

Their service was basic but better than nothing. Crucially, if someone was extremely ill and needed to be transferred to Sittwe General Hospital, MSF would try to organise an evacuation by boat.

That's not an option any more. After a sustained campaign by Rakhine Buddhists against anyone seen as helping the Rohingya, the aid operation has been crippled.

Some 4,000 Rohingya now live in Kyein Nyi Pyin camp, after fleeing their homes

MSF were asked to leave the state at the end of February and then a month later other international agencies, including the United Nations, were attacked by young men who threw rocks and ransacked offices in Sittwe.

With little protection from either the state or central government, the international operation in Rakhine State has had to pull back and is now less than half its strength of three months ago.

"They had to leave because of their bias and unilateral actions here," Than Tun, one of the Rakhine community leaders, told me at his home in Sittwe.

"I think it's a consequence of their own actions. They have to examine for themselves whether they deserve it."

Than Tun believes the international community and the Western media have failed to grasp the complexities of Rakhine state. The Rakhine people had been oppressed by the Burmese government for decades, he said, and most Burmese people are indifferent to the threat posed by Muslim expansion into Myanmar.

He told us to visit the small Buddhist village of Ohn Yee Pahw just outside Sittwe. This was, he said, a community that should be receiving aid instead of the Rohingya.

We found a small village that, in common with most of rural Rakhine, had no electricity or running water. Surrounded by palm trees on an estuary, the few hundred residents of Ohn Yee Pahw are totally dependent on fishing.

As some of the fishermen fixed their boats they told me that times were tough.

Rakhine fishermen say making a living is near impossible

"We don't go out to sea now, we just stay and fish near here because we are scared of being attacked by Rohingya fishermen in boats," one of them told me.

No-one from the village had actually been attacked, they said, but they'd heard stories of it happening from elsewhere.

One of the women told me that as less fish meant less money, most of the families were now unable to send their children to school. Instead of education the village boys seem to be working catching crabs in the estuary.

There's no doubting the lack of investment and poverty of places like Ohn Yee Pahw, but unlike most of the displaced Rohingya the people there can still try to earn a living. And if they are desperately sick there is way to get to hospital.

The Burmese government has attempted to fill the gap left by the aid agencies by bringing in doctors from outside Rakhine state to assist, but so far it's proving woefully inadequate. Aid workers told me the new, small medical teams lack equipment and co-ordination, and some refuse to go to more remote Rohingya communities.

There isn't any spare capacity in the Burmese health service - per capita it's one of the worst-funded in the world.

Tragically even when government healthcare is available, many of the Rohingya refuse to accept it. In Kyein Nyi Pyin, nobody had any confidence in the Ministry of Health teams.

"I want to be treated," a 20-year-old mother called Arabana told me. "But I'm scared that if I'm taken to hospital the Buddhists will attack me."

'Big challenges'

For the United Nations and the remaining aid agencies, the deteriorating situation in the Rohingya camps poses a difficult problem. Remain silent and they are complicit, speak out and they risk becoming the next target of Rakhine Buddhist anger.

"We know there are many sick people, elderly people and pregnant women who are unable to get the attention that they need, and this is a very serious situation," Mark Cutts, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Myanmar, told me.

"The government is trying to fill the gap, the Ministry of Health are sending in reinforcements. They've sent in a lot of mobile teams and we're working with them to address these gaps but there are big challenges ahead."

The starting point on the last day of our trip was pictures that a news agency had taken a couple of weeks previously. They were of two severely emaciated Rohingya twins, so thin that their skin sagged from their tiny frames.

Norbagoun was living in Dar Paing camp when this picture has taken
Her new-born twins died of tuberculosis, a treatable disease

The caption said they were 25 days old and lived with their mother, Norbagoun, in Dar Paing, one of the camps for displaced Rohingya that surround the Rakhine state capital.

It's about half an hour's drive from the centre of Sittwe to the camp. When we stopped at Dar Paing, a local elder agreed to take us to their house.

Norbagoun's hut was empty and a neighbour poked her head round the doorway. The twins were called Ruksuma and Kulsuma, she said, and just a few days after the pictures were taken the twins had died. Then to compound the tragedy their father had perished too.

"Tuberculosis," we were told with a shrug of the shoulders.

It's a disease that with treatment need not prove fatal. Norbagoun herself was nowhere to be seen.

June 2, 2014

For most of the last 50 years, Myanmar has been governed by a brutal military dictatorship. 

Steps have been made towards democracy in the last three years, but the difficult relationship between the country's Buddhist majority and Muslim minority is now seen as the government's biggest challenge ahead of a general election next year.

The BBC's Jonah Fisher reports from Rakhine state on the widespread hostility to Rohingya Muslims, which has left many without access to medical help.


June 2, 2014

The United Nations has warned the lack of health care in camps for displaced people in the west of Myanmar has developed into a "very serious situation".

Seven weeks ago members of the local Buddhist community in Rakhine state attacked international aid agencies, accusing them of favouring a Muslim minority called the Rohingya.

The aid agencies were forced to leave the state and Rohingya are now dying because they have no access to medicine or hospitals.

Jonah Fisher visited the Kyein Nyi Pyin camp to see conditions for the displaced people living there.





By Jonah Fisher
March 6, 2014

Getting into Aung Mingalar as a journalist is relatively simple. We visited a couple of government offices, had a letter written for us and then after having our documents forensically examined, were allowed in.

For the Buddhists who dominate the Rakhine capital, Sittwe, it is even easier. Their buses, rickshaws and motorbikes just get waved through by the police. Many even use the main road as a short cut just to reach another part of town.

For the residents of Aung Mingalar, however, things are very different. 

The 4,000 Muslim Rohingya who live inside are effectively prisoners - restricted first by the police checkpoints and then by the Rakhine Buddhist community that surrounds them on all sides and constantly looks on. 

"The police will not allow us out, because if they do, they know we will be beaten by the Rakhine [Buddhists]," a young Rohingya man said.

Rohingya residents of Aung Mingalar have no regular access to doctors or healthcare

Three years ago the Muslim and Buddhist communities in Sittwe lived fairly amicably side by side. Then in 2012 there were several outbreaks of sectarian violence and most of Sittwe's Muslims fled into camps to the north-west of the town. 

Both communities were affected, but the vast majority of those killed and displaced were Rohingya. Stateless and unwanted by either Myanmar (also known as Burma) or Bangladesh, it is thought that about 800,000 of them live in Rakhine state, their movements and rights heavily restricted.

When violence swept through Sittwe, the people of Aung Mingalar were among the few Muslims who decided to stay in their homes. Their neighbourhood quickly turned into a Rohingya ghetto, wrapped in barbed wire and over-run by security. 

Cut off from the outside world, it is now a miserable open-air prison. Despite its central location, there are no regular aid deliveries here and just getting money to buy food is a struggle for many. 

Prior to the violence, Maung Ni was a successful tailor working mainly for Buddhist customers. Now he sits in a shack with a leaky roof, sewing on a machine that a friend has kindly lent him. 

"I've sold everything I can," he said. "My bicycle, my rickshaw - I just don't know what to do next." 

Healthcare 'backbone' 

Twice a week, the people of Aung Mingalar club together to make a shopping trip. On Wednesdays and Sundays, six Rohingya pay 20,000 kyat ($20, £12) each in return for a security escort from the police. 

There is a big market just round the corner, but such is the local animosity that they must leave Sittwe and go to the camps for displaced Rohingya to buy more supplies. 

There is also a hospital, Sittwe General, just a few blocks away. But for now the residents of Aung Mingalar have no access to doctors or healthcare.

Tailor Maung Ni successfully worked as a tailor before the sectarian violence

The medical aid agency Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) used to visit regularly and, if necessary, would arrange an escort to one of the 10 beds in the hospital designated for Rohingya patients. 

That has now stopped after a well-organised campaign by Buddhist groups led to the government suspending MSF across Rakhine state. It has left a big hole in the international aid effort. 

"MSF has been the backbone of the entire international health response in Rakhine. They have been providing healthcare to over half a million people," said Mark Cutts, head of the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs Myanmar office. 

Few of the aid agencies operating in Rakhine will speak openly about their work. 

MSF's "crimes" in the eyes of their critics are two-fold. Firstly, by stressing that they assist people on the basis of needs rather than over simple even-handedness, many Buddhists believe the charity has favoured the Muslims over them. 

Secondly, in what may have been the final straw, MSF released information corroborating reports that Rohingya communities had been under attack. 

In January the government vehemently denied that there had been violence near the border town of Maungdaw, only for MSF to contradict them by saying their clinic had treated 22 people fleeing the area. 

"If MSF were just doing their job - they wouldn't have to leave," said Than Thun, one of the organisers of the anti-MSF demonstrations. 

"But MSF kept getting the wrong information about these Bengalis, or Rohingya, and giving it to the international community. They have inflamed the conflict here."

The Burmese government says they will be sending medics to Rakhine state

During the day we spent in Aung Mingalar, we saw a sick baby girl, her ailing mother and several elderly people badly in need of medicine. For now there is no one to see them or offer treatment. 

The Burmese government say they will send medics from outside Rakhine state to fill the gap left by MSF's suspension. But after years as one the world's most poorly-funded healthcare systems, it is not equipped to move quickly, and the doctors may still not be accepted in Muslim communities. 

Thoughts are now turning as to whether the suspension might in fact be temporary and once emotions have cooled, MSF could be quietly allowed back. 

It is far from certain that the Buddhists will allow it to happen. 

Segregation has brought a degree of stability, but the deep scars from recent violence remain raw and show little sign of healing.

By Jonah Fisher
August 29, 2013

Time magazine labelled Wirathu "The face of Buddhist terror"
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.

Kaylar Sa, a monk who took part in the Saffron revolution, said the 969 movement was unnecessary
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.

Muslims keep watch over Joon Mosque, the biggest in Mandalay, every night
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.

Smar Nyi Nyi said religious tensions distracted the public from other important issues
"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?"

Rohingya hamlet Ah Nauk Pyin is surrounded by a ring of Buddhist villages
Jonathan Head
July 1, 2013

It has been a year since sectarian fighting broke out in Burma's westernmost state, forcing 140,000 people from their homes and casting a dark shadow over the promising start made by the new reformist government. 

Ugly anti-Muslim sentiment that was evident in those first clashes between Buddhists and the Rohingya minority in Rakhine state last June and October has now spread, setting off assaults on Muslim communities in several parts of the country.

Nearly all of those displaced in Rakhine state were Rohingyas, and their plight has drawn in substantial international assistance, channelled through major NGOs and UN agencies. 

The Burmese government has become conscious of the negative publicity created by the long-standing discrimination against Rohingyas. It has authorised one official inquiry into the violence, and is co-operating with the international relief effort.

But, as I discovered on a recent visit to Rakhine state, not much has changed for the Rohingyas. 

In fact, their already tenuous status in Burma, also known as Myanmar, appears to be weakening.

Inmates in Rakhine's Rohingya camps are barred from travelling freely
A combination of intense hostility from the Rakhine Buddhist majority, and an official policy of segregation which imposes restrictions on the Rohingyas alone, has forced them to the margins of this already poor region, unwanted and unrecognised. 

My visit coincided with that of the UK International Development Minister Alan Duncan, who had come to see how British aid to Rakhine state totalling £6.4 million was being spent, and to assess the prospects for reconciliation between the two estranged communities.

It was a typically rushed affair, with little time in each of the camps he visited. 

He was accompanied at all times by the jovial figure of Burma's Deputy Minister for Borders, Major-General Zaw Win, in full military uniform, and by squads of police and soldiers. 

Nonetheless, the Rohingyas he met were unabashed in venting their frustration over their situation. 

"We just want to go home," one woman shouted. "I want citizenship, and I want my old life back."

Her camp was just a few kilometres from the state capital Sittwe, but the inmates are not allowed to go there, either for supplies or to seek work. 

Military checkpoints all around Sittwe block the Rohingyas from travelling, although the Buddhists are usually free to go where they want.

Conditions in Rohingya camps can deteriorate quickly in the rain
Some improvements have been made to the camps, but they are limited. 

Enough food is supplied, and the government has made a start building elevated long-houses to protect the Rohingyas from the rain. 

But these primitive barracks are a far cry from the neat, solid rows of individual houses already constructed for the small number of displaced Buddhists, who have been living in settlements far better made and situated than those housing the Rohingyas. 

Their camps quickly become muddy quagmires every time it rains, which it does every day now.

And the ban on travel means Rohingyas cannot go to hospital for treatment, even to have babies.

Unyielding attitudes 

Burmese officials justify these restrictions on grounds of security. But the way they are applied to just one group has uncomfortable echoes of apartheid in South Africa, or segregation in the southern USA. 

One constant obsession is the high birth-rate. 

Buddhists all over Burma believe Muslims are on track to become the majority because of the number of wives and children they have, even though official statistics put the Muslim population at around 4%.

But one exasperated international NGO worker pointed out to me that the attacks on Rohingyas and their subsequent isolation had disrupted a once-successful family planning programme.

Foreigners are rarely allowed in Aung Mingala, the last Muslim town in Sittwe
The hostility felt by the local Buddhists to the Rohingyas is a real problem for the local and central government.

As I was told by a spokesman for the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, now one of the largest in parliament and often accused of stirring up anti-Muslim feeling, even if the government wants Rohingyas to move back to their former homes in Sittwe, the people won't allow it. 

In a grand old gym in the town I watched young men training hard. 

Some have aspirations to represent their country when it hosts the South East Asian Games later this year, another milestone on Burma's journey away from its former isolation. 

But they were unyielding in their attitude to the Rohingyas. 

"It's not possible to live with them, and we don't want to", Kyaw Lyaw Win, a Taekwondo instructor told me. 

"They invaded our country. It's not just me saying this. Ask any Rakhine Buddhist - they will say the same thing." White ID cards 

There is only one Muslim neighbourhood left in Sittwe, called Aung Mingala, sealed off by checkpoints. Travelling with the British minister, we were the first foreigners allowed in for several weeks. 

I bumped into Aziz, a bright young man who helped me when I was there last November. Now he is trapped in what has become a Rohingya ghetto. 

He told me a small delegation was allowed out twice a week, to visit Muslim districts outside the town. 

Another man who helped me before is Aung Win, one of the most outspoken and respected Rohingya leaders. I had to negotiate with a police checkpoint to meet him in the Muslim neighbourhood of Bumay, where he escaped after being arrested in February for trying to meet the visiting UN Human Rights Rapporteur. 

But this means he is now separated from his wife, children and 95-year-old father, who are still at his home in Aung Mingala. 

He has repeatedly asked for permission to see them, and repeatedly been turned down. 

The situation of those Rohingyas who were not driven from their villages during the violence is little better. 

I travelled two hours north by boat to see the little hamlet of Ah Nauk Pyin, a Rohingya community entirely ringed by Buddhist villages.

In Ah Nauk Pyin, Rohingyas are given ID cards, but no citizenship
Paths into Ah Nauk Pyin were guarded by Burmese soldiers - something the Muslims said they were grateful for.

But they can't leave. Even if they were allowed to, they fear attacks by their Buddhist neighbours, and in any case all their boats, along with their livestock, were taken during the unrest.

They told me the village dated back 200 years - we are not illegal Bengali immigrants, they said. 

Yet none of them had citizenship. They pulled out the white ID cards they are issued. 

"This is very important for us", said Ali Jofar, a young man who has been designated the village medical expert, although he is not a doctor. "If we try to travel outside our village with these cards, we get arrested."

So no one there can reach hospital either.

Moryan says she has no husband, no money, and no one to care for her
18-year-old Moryan sat, pale, shaking and weeping, in her in-laws' straw house. Her house was burned down, and her husband one of 170 men from the village still imprisoned after the conflict. 

She has been seriously ill since she gave birth to her son six months ago. She cannot walk, nor can she breastfeed her baby.

The remaining men in Ah Nauk Pyin walk to the little blue mosque, washing in the village pond before going in to pray. 

They've been given simple tractors by an NGO, so, after a year, they can start farming again. 

But where would they sell their produce, in a country so hostile it has sealed them off from the outside world?
June 24, 2013

Burmese President Thein Sein has defended a Buddhist monk accused of fomenting a wave of anti-Muslim violence in the country.

US Time magazine currently has Ashin Wirathu on its front cover under the title "The face of Buddhist terror".

Thein Sein said the report undermined efforts to rebuild trust between faiths and that the monk's order was striving for peace and prosperity.

The monk has called Muslims a scourge threatening Burma's Buddhist character.

A statement on the president's website said the Time magazine report "creates a misunderstanding of Buddhism, which has existed for thousands of years and is the religion of the majority of our citizens".

"The government is currently striving with religious leaders, political parties, media and the people to rid Myanmar [Burma] of unwanted conflicts," it added.

The report was also condemned online, with a petition started over the weekend gaining close to 40,000 signatories on Monday.

Ashin Wirathu, 45, was jailed in 2003 for inciting anti-Muslim violence but was released last year as part of a prisoner amnesty.

He organised protests in support of Buddhists in Rakhine state, where violence broke out in 2012 and left at least 200 people dead and thousands displaced.

Earlier this year, central Burma saw violence between Buddhists and Muslims, which left more than 40 people dead, most of them Muslims, in March.

Ashin Wirathu's anti-Muslim sentiments are very widely shared by the Buddhist majority, and while the authorities have jailed hundreds of Muslims for involvement in the violence, very few Buddhists have been prosecuted, says the BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok.
Parts of Lashio, such as this market, were destroyed in the unrest
June 12, 2013

A Burmese Muslim man has been sentenced to 26 years in jail for an attack on a Buddhist woman that led to at least two days of violence in Shan State in May.

Nay Win, 48, was convicted for setting the woman alight at a petrol station.

After the attack, Buddhist youths armed with sticks roamed the streets in the town of Lashio in search of Muslims.

In recent months there have been several clashes between the two communities throughout Burma, but so far only Muslims have been jailed.

In March, at least 43 people - mostly Muslims - died in violence that erupted after an argument at a Muslim-owned shop in the central town of Meiktila.

The owner of the shop and nine other people, also Muslims, were imprisoned last month for that violence.

Ethnic violence in Rakhine state last year left nearly 200 people dead and forced tens of thousands of people from their homes.

The conflict that erupted in Rakhine involved Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, who are not recognised as Burmese citizens.

Burns

Nay Win, described by state media as a drug addict, was convicted on Wednesday of intent to kill, assault and drug use by a court in Lashio.

The victim, 24, suffered burns in the attack, police say.

At least one person was killed and a mosque and orphanage burned down in the ensuing violence, which reportedly erupted after police refused to hand over Nay Win to a crowd.

"We arrested about 60 people found by security forces with sticks and knives during the violence," police spokesman Major Moe Zaw Linn told the AFP news agency.

He said that Nay Win was the first person to be convicted in relation to the violence.

Correspondents say that various episodes of religious unrest - mostly targeting Muslims - have exposed a deep divide in the Buddhist-majority country and cast a shadow over widely acclaimed political reforms which began when military-rule ended two years ago.

May 14, 2013

A boat carrying Rohingya Muslims has capsized off western Burma, aid agencies say. 

The boat, said to be carrying up to 200 passengers, was evacuating people ahead of Cyclone Mahasen, which is expected to hit the area later in the week. 

It sank off Pauktaw township in Rakhine state late on Monday, leaving an unknown number of people missing. 

Tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims are living in temporary camps in Rakhine after violence last year. 

The UN had called for an urgent evacuation ahead of the storm, warning that many areas where displaced people are now living are in low-lying coastal areas at risk of flooding or tidal surges. 

Barbara Manzi, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), told the BBC from Sittwe that search-and-rescue operations were ongoing. 

"It appears that this boat left the camp with the blessing of the authorities before hitting rocks," she said. 

There were between 100 and 200 people on board the boat, she added, with some survivors.

British MP Rushanara Ali, speaks for the opposition Labour party on international Development and Melanie Teff from the charity Refugees International.

April 22, 2013

Much of the footage was shot by the Burmese police. This report contains images of violence which you may find upsetting


The BBC has obtained police video showing officers standing by while Buddhist rioters attacked minority Muslims in the town of Meiktila. 

The footage shows a mob destroying a Muslim gold shop and then setting fire to houses. A man thought to be a Muslim is seen on fire. 

It was filmed last month, when at least 43 people were killed in Meiktila. 

Meanwhile the EU is expected to decide whether to lift sanctions imposed on Burma, in response to recent reforms. 

It is thought likely that despite concerns about the treatment of minorities, Brussels will confirm that the sanctions, which were suspended a year ago, are now permanently lifted. 

The sanctions include the freezing of assets of more than 1,000 Burmese companies, travel restrictions on officials, and a ban on EU investment in many areas. However, an arms embargo is expected to remain in place. 

The move is a response to political change under President Thein Sein, who came to power after elections in November 2010. His administration has freed many political prisoners and relaxed censorship. 

Aung San Suu Kyi, who was under house arrest for many years, leads a pro-democracy opposition which has a small presence in parliament. 

Documented violence 

Some human rights groups, however, have warned that sanctions should not be lifted until the government addresses issues including recent violence against Muslims. 

The video from Meiktila, in Mandalay Region, is remarkable both for the comprehensive way it documents the violence and because much of it was shot by the Burmese police themselves, the BBC's Jonah Fisher reports from Singapore.

In the sequence where policemen look on as a man rolls on the ground having been set on fire, the watching crowd are heard to say, "No water for him - let him die". 

Another sequence shows a young man attempting to flee and getting caught, after which he is beaten by a group of men, which includes a monk. 

A savage blow with a sword strikes him and he is left on the ground, presumed dead. 

Only in one shot are the police seen escorting Muslim women and children away from their burning homes. 

The footage corroborates eyewitness testimony. A row at a Muslim-owned gold shop on 20 March was said to have started the violence, when a dispute involving a Buddhist couple escalated into a fight. 

This was followed by an attack on a Buddhist monk, who later died in hospital. News of that incident appeared to have sparked off sustained communal violence. 

The violence then spread to other towns and led to curfews being imposed. There were reports of mosques and houses being torched in at least three towns. 

The gold shop's owner, his wife and an employee were convicted of theft and assault on 12 April and jailed for 14 months. Dozens of other Muslims and Buddhists are said to be under investigation.

Deadly clashes

Violence between Buddhists and Muslims erupted in another part of Burma, Rakhine state, last year following the rape and murder of a young Buddhist woman in May. 

Clashes in June and October resulted in the deaths of about 200 people. Thousands of people, mainly members of the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority, fled their homes and remain displaced. 

On Monday, the New York-based organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) presented a report containing what it said was clear evidence of government complicity in ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity against Muslims in Rakhine state. 

It said security forces stood aside or joined in when mobs attacked Muslim communities in nine townships, razing villages and killing residents. 

It said HRW also discovered four mass-grave sites in Rakhine state, which it said security forces used to destroy evidence of the crimes. 

However, the allegations were rejected by Win Myaing, a government spokesman for Rakhine state, AP news agency reported. 

HRW investigators didn't "understand the situation on the ground," he said, adding that the government had no prior knowledge of the impending attacks, and deployed forces to stop the unrest.
Mosques and houses belonging to Muslims have been destroyed in the violence
BBC News
March 28, 2013

Burmese President Thein Sein has warned that he will if necessary use force to stop "political opportunists and religious extremists" from fomenting hatred between faiths. 

It was his first public comment on the violence, which began last week. 

At least 40 people have been killed as a result of discord between Buddhists and Muslims since 20 March. 

On Tuesday curfews were imposed on three towns as attacks on Muslim communities got closer to Rangoon. 

"I would like to warn all political opportunists and religious extremists who try to exploit the noble teachings of these religions and have tried to plant hatred among people of different faiths for their own self-interest. Their efforts will not be tolerated," the president said in a national televised address. 

'Last resort' 

"In general, I do not endorse the use of force to solve problems. However, I will not hesitate to use force as a last resort to protect the lives and safeguard the property of the general public," he said. 

"All perpetrators of violence will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law." 

The president said that "conflicts and difficulties" would inevitably arise during Burma's transition to a democracy. 

He called on police to "perform their duties decisively, bravely and within the constraints of the constitution and by-laws". 

Correspondents say that police in the central town of Meiktila in Mandalay region - where the communal violence began last week - have been criticised for failing to act quickly enough to stop the rioting, in which houses, shops and mosques were burned down. The trouble broke out after a reported argument at a gold shop. 

Violence last week also broke out in the Bago region north of Rangoon, with Muslim religious buildings, shops and houses being damaged. 

At least 12,000 Muslims are thought to have fled their homes because of the unrest. 

In similar violence in Rakhine state last year, nearly 200 people were killed and tens of thousands forced from their homes. 

The conflict that erupted in Rakhine involved Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, who are not recognised as Burmese citizens and have complained of frequent persecution.
BBC News
March 26, 2013

The death toll from communal violence in central Burma has risen to 40, state media say, amid reports of more unrest. 

Soldiers clearing debris from buildings torched by angry mobs retrieved eight more bodies in Meiktila town, says the New Light of Myanmar newspaper. 

This comes amid reports of attacks on a mosque and Muslim shops in Bago region, north of the city of Rangoon. 

The US has warned its citizens to avoid travel to parts of Burma due to the violence, which began a week ago. 

An argument at a gold shop reportedly sparked riots between Buddhists and Muslims in Meiktila in Mandalay region last Wednesday, displacing at least 9,000 residents. 

The government has sent security forces to the area and on Monday issued a renewed call to end "religious extremism". 

In a statement on Monday, the US embassy in Rangoon advised US citizens "to avoid travel to the Mandalay region because of escalating violence in that area". 

Reports of other attacks on mosques and houses were reported on Monday in towns near Meiktila - Oh the Kone, Tatkone and Yamenthin. 

It was not immediately clear who was behind the violence. Details of any casualties in these areas were also unclear. 

The conflict is the worst since violence in Rakhine state last year, where nearly 200 people were killed and tens of thousands forced from their homes. 

The conflict that erupted in Rakhine involved Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, who are not recognised as Burmese citizens. Scores of Rohingyas have fled what they say is persecution in Burma in recent months.
Muslims fleeing violence in the Myanmar town of Meikhtila arrive at a stadium that the authorities have designated a safe haven. More than 20 people have been killed in Buddhist attacks on Muslims since Wednesday. (Photo: Soe Zeya Tun)

BBC News
March 22, 2013

A state of emergency has been imposed in the Burmese town of Meiktila following three days of communal violence between Buddhists and Muslims. 

A statement announcing the decision on behalf of President Thein Sein was broadcast on state television. 

He said that the move would enable the military to help restore order in the riot-hit town, south of Mandalay. 

At least 20 people are reported to have been killed since the violence began, but exact figures are unclear. 

A BBC reporter who has just returned from the town said he saw about 20 Muslim bodies, which local men were trying to destroy by burning. 

Meiktila MP Win Thein told the BBC Burmese service that scores of mostly Buddhist people accused of being involved in the violence had been arrested by police. 

He said that he saw the bodies of eight people who had been killed in violence in the town on Friday morning. Many Muslims had fled gangs of Buddhist youths, he said, while other Muslims were in hiding. 

Mr Win said that that violence that recurred on Friday morning has now receded, although the atmosphere in Meiktila remains tense. 

Police say that at least 15 Buddhist monks on Friday burnt down a house belonging to a Muslim family on the outskirts of the town. There are no reports of any injuries.

The disturbances began on Wednesday when an argument in a gold shop escalated quickly, with mobs setting mainly Muslim buildings alight, including some mosques. 

Fighting in the streets between men from rival communities later broke out. 

Meanwhile people in the town have told the BBC of food shortages because the main market in the town has been closed for the last five days. 

Hundreds of riot police have been sent into Meiktila. They have been seen hurriedly evacuating crowds of men and women from their burning homes. 

However they have been accused of doing little to stop the razing of entire neighbourhoods and the accumulation of casualties from both communities. 

The BBC's south-east Asia correspondent Jonathan Head says that the eruption of communal anger uncomfortably echoes what happened in Rakhine state last year, where nearly 200 people were killed and tens of thousands forced from their homes. 

The conflict that erupted in Rakhine involved Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, who are not recognised as Burmese citizens. Scores of Rohingyas have fled what they say is persecution in Burma in recent months. 

The government has yet to present any long-term proposals to resolve that conflict, our correspondent says, and simmering fear and mistrust between Buddhists and the country's Muslim minorities has boiled over in the more open political climate prevailing since the first elected government in half a century took office two years ago. 

Meanwhile residents in Meiktila have complained that police have struggled to control groups of people on the streets armed with knives and sticks. 

Most of these men are Buddhists, police say, angered over the death of a Buddhist monk who suffered severe burns on Wednesday.

BBC Impact
March 8, 2013

Burmese opposition party, the National League for Democracy, is holding its first party congress since it was formed more than 20 years ago. Delegates from across the country are gathering in Rangoon to set out new policies and to select new members for its ageing leadership. 

Meanwhile, the Burmese president Thein Sein is finishing his trip across Europe and will return home to a country whose recent reforms have been rewarded by the lifting of sanctions, but where ethnic populations are suffering violent assaults. 

Troops continued a raid on rebels in Kachin state in the east over recent months, despite the president's orders to cease. And in the western Rakhine state, tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have been displaced amid clashes with Rakhine Buddhists, violence in which some say the state is complicit. 

Lucy Hocking's was joined on BBC World News by Baroness Cox, the founder of the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust charity and by Nurul Islam, of the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation.

Ahmed's back is scarred from the beatings he received
Jonah Fisher 
BBC News
January 21, 2013

An investigation by the BBC has revealed that Thai officials have been selling boat people from Burma to human traffickers. 

Thousands of Muslim Rohingya have fled to sea in recent months after deadly communal violence in Rakhine State, with many heading east across the Andaman Sea to Thailand. 

The BBC found that boats were being intercepted by the Thai navy and police, with deals then made to sell the people on to traffickers who transport them south towards Malaysia. 

The Thai government say they are taking the allegations seriously and have promised to investigate. 

'Canned fish' 

In November Ahmed said goodbye to his wife and eight children and left western Burma.

His fishing boat had been destroyed in clashes between Muslim Rohingya and Rakhine Buddhists, and he needed to earn a living. 

With 60 others he travelled for 13 days on a flimsy wooden boat across the Andaman Sea to the coast of Thailand. 

Whole families are trying to escape the communal violence in western Burma
When they were caught by the Thai navy not far from shore Ahmed thought his ordeal was over. In fact it had just begun. 

That night the Rohingya were taken from the border town of Ranong in a police van. After two hours they were bundled out and put in the back of six smaller vehicles and hidden under nets. 

"We were forced to lay down next to each other just like canned fish," he said. 

Ahmed did not know it at the time but a trade had taken place. The 61 Rohingya were now heading south towards Malaysia in the custody of people-smugglers. 

When they got out of the vehicles they were prisoners in Su Ngai Kolok, a town on the Thai Malaysia border. 

"They dug a hole for us to use as a toilet. We ate, slept and excreted in the same place," he said. "The smell was horrible. I was poked with an iron and beaten with a chain."

The traffickers had paid money for the Rohingya and were determined to get their money back. Ahmed and the other Rohingya were periodically given a phone to call friends and family to beg for help. 

"The broker said that they bought us from police," he said. "If we don't give them money they won't let us go. They said: 'We don't care if you die here'." 

The price for Ahmed's life was set at 40,000 Thai Baht, about $1,300 (£820) - a substantial amount for an ex-fisherman. Ahmed called his wife and instructed her to sell a cow. But that only raised half the amount. 

Thailand considers the Rohingya to be economic migrants
After a month as a captive, as he began to despair a fellow Rohingya in Thailand came to his rescue and loaned him the rest. 

Ahmed was set free and put on a bus back north to Phuket. Despite all that happened to him, he is surprisingly calm about his treatment by Thai officials. 

"I'm not angry at the navy. I don't hold any anger or grudge with me anymore. I'm so grateful that I'm alive," he said. 

'Natural solution' 

With weather conditions favourable Rohingya boats are now arriving on the Thai coast almost everyday. And Ahmed is not the only one being sold by Thai officials.

We took a close look at the fate of one particular boat which arrived on New Year's Day off the holiday island of Phuket. 

On 2 January the 73 men, women and children were brought onshore, put in trucks and it was announced that they were being driven to the Thai/Burma border crossing at Ranong and deported. 

But they did not get that far. A deal had been struck to sell the Rohingya to people smugglers. 

When the trucks reached the town of Kuraburi, the Rohingya were transferred back into a boat and pushed back out to sea. 

We spoke to one of the brokers involved in the deal. They said that 1.5 million baht (about $50,000, £31,500) had been transferred from Malaysia and paid to officials in Thailand. That amount was confirmed to us by other members of the Rohingya community in Thailand. 

The Thai authorities told us they believe there are just a few corrupt officials. But in the border town of Ranong a Thai official closely linked with the Rohingya issue told us that working with the brokers was now regarded as the "natural" solution. 

With the Rohingya denied Burmese citizenship, deportation is fraught with difficulties.

Thailand in turn does not want to encourage people that it considers to be almost almost exclusively economic migrants. 

"The Rohingya want to go Malaysia and Malaysia accepts these people because they are Muslims too," the official said. "No matter what they will try and go there, the question is how they get there." 

Malaysia has allowed the United Nations Refugee Agency to assess Rohingya claims for asylum. Thailand does not, reserving the right to determine for itself who it considers to be a refugee.

'Systematic solution' 

We took our information to the Thai foreign ministry. Permanent Secretary Sihasak Puangketkaew told us an investigation was underway. 

"We cannot at this moment conclude who these perpetrators are but the Thai government is determined to get to the bottom of the problem," he said. 

"At the same time the Thai government is doing its best to take care of these people on the basis of humanitarian principles. 

"At the same time we feel very strongly that all of us will have to work together through international co-operation to see how we can put on place a durable and systematic solution." 

There have been influxes of Rohingya before and in 2009 the Thai government was heavily criticised for its policy of towing boats back out to sea. 

Those boats were almost exclusively male and the Thai government said they were economic migrants. This time it is different. 

Ethnic clashes in western Burma have forced more than 100,000 Rohingya into camps and for the first time the boats crossing the Andaman Sea are a mix of men, women and children. 

    • Rohingya Exodus