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By Jonah Fisher
March 10, 2017

A top UN official says "crimes against humanity" are being committed by the military and police against Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority.

The UN's special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, was speaking as part of a joint BBC Newsnight-BBC Our World investigation.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been in power almost a year, declined an interview.

A spokesman for her party said the allegations were "exaggerated" and an "internal" not "international" issue.

Ms Lee has not been given free access to the conflict area in Myanmar. But after speaking to refugees in Bangladesh she told the BBC that the situation was "far worse" than she expected.

"I would say crimes against humanity. Definite crimes against humanity... by the Burmese, Myanmar military, the border guards or the police or security forces."

She said the problem of abuse was "systemic" within the Burmese security forces, but said that Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government should bear some of the responsibility.

"At the end of the day it is the government, the civilian government, that has to answer and respond to these massive cases of horrific torture and very inhumane crimes they have committed against their own people."

Former democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi led the National League for Democracy (NLD) to a majority win in Myanmar's first openly contested election in 25 years in November 2015.

More than 70,000 Rohingya - a Muslim minority group from Myanmar - have fled to Bangladesh in the last few months, after a militant attack in October triggered a military crackdown.

In camps in Bangladesh, the BBC heard allegations from recently arrived Rohingya refugees that the Burmese security forces had shot civilians, and abducted and raped young girls.

Many of the refugee accounts are supported by both satellite and video evidence.

The BBC has repeatedly asked Ms Suu Kyi for an interview to discuss the Rohingya.

Although the Myanmar constitution forbids her from becoming president, she is widely seen as de facto leader.

But since she won an election landslide 16 months ago, Ms Suu Kyi has not done any interviews with journalists based in Myanmar - international or foreign - or held a meaningful press conference.

The spokesman for Ms Suu Kyi's political party, the National League of Democracy, Win Htein, told the BBC that under the current constitution, Ms Suu Kyi did not have the power to get the army to stop.

Responding to Ms Lee's claims of "crimes against humanity" he said reports of hundreds of dead Rohingya were "exaggerations" and that "sometimes the United Nations is wrong".

"As a new government we're just trying to achieve to a modern country. We have thousands of problems.



"We don't believe it's crimes against humanity," he added. "It's an internal affair - it's not an international affair."

The Burmese government has set up its own investigation into allegations of abuses.

It is led by a former general and has been criticised by Ms Lee for being dominated by military men and for its methodology.

On Monday Ms Lee will present her latest findings to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and will formally call for a Commission of Inquiry to be established, similar to the ones looking at abuses in places like North Korean and Syria.

Contacted by the BBC, both the UK and the EU refused to say they would support the establishment of a commission of inquiry.

A draft Human Rights Council resolution seen by the BBC proposes a watered down investigation.

Many are wary of doing anything that might be seen as undermining Myanmar's elected leader.

The Rohingya say they have been trading in the region for generations

By Jonah Fisher
January 27, 2017

A government-appointed investigation is due to publish its final report on whether atrocities have been committed against the Rohingya minority in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

With journalists banned from northern Rakhine state, the Burmese government has been trying to counter allegations that its soldiers have been raping and killing civilians.

Readers have told us they would like to know more about Rakhine and what is happening to civilians there.

We asked our correspondent Jonah Fisher, in Myanmar, to tell us more.

Donald Trump and Aung San Suu Kyi have more in common than you might think.

The leaders of the United States and Myanmar are both aged the wrong side of 70, both have much-discussed hair and share a strong dislike of journalists.

Mr Trump's turbulent relationship with the media is covered extensively. Ms Suu Kyi's may come as a surprise.

"The Lady", as she's known here, became famous in the 1990s as an icon of human rights and democracy. While under military-enforced house arrest in Rangoon, reporters took great risks to speak to her, to hear her courageous story of resistance.

Now Ms Suu Kyi is in power, things are rather different.

She has created a powerful role for herself called State Counsellor to fulfil a promise of being "above the President". In practice that seems to also mean "above" public scrutiny.

Aung San Suu Kyi speaking at a conference

Ms Suu Kyi now never gives interviews to the Burmese press and carefully hand picks her encounters with international media. There is no regular questioning from MPs in parliament and there has not been a proper press conference since just before the election 14 months ago.

Then there is the propaganda, which is eerily reminiscent of the dark Burmese days of censorship and military rule.

Who are the Rohingya?

On a daily basis, state-run newspapers print articles that denounce the international media for stories that highlight the plight of the Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority.

There are about one million Rohingya living in Myanmar and they have been discriminated against for decades. For the last three-and-a-half months, those living in the north of Rakhine State have also been subject to a brutal military crackdown.

Exactly what is happening there depends on who you choose to believe, as the government has kept out everyone who is independent.

Some claim the Burmese army is committing ethnic cleansing, even genocidebut that is rejected by the Burmese army and Ms Suu Kyi, who says it is a counter-terrorism operation to catch the Rohingya militants who started the crisis when they attacked police outposts.

Rare interview

So it was a surprise when last week, the BBC finally received permits from the Rakhine State government to go to the conflict area. We quickly flew to the capital Sittwe and boarded a ferry heading north up the Mayu River, towards the border with Bangladesh.

Four hours, and several Burmese films later, we were in Buthidaung, only 45 minutes from the conflict area.



Unfortunately the authorities were there too. A welcoming party of policemen and security officials blocked our path up the pier and "offered" to take us to the township administration.

Once there we were politely informed that permission for our trip had been withdrawn. Word had reached Ms Suu Kyi's government in the capital Naypyidaw and the order had been given to stop us.

Before we boarded the boat back, a local administrator agreed to do an on-camera interview.

This in itself was a minor triumph. Ms Suu Kyi and her spokesman have rejected all our approaches to speak about Rakhine since the latest crisis flared in early October.

It has been tough to set up interviews with Ms Suu Kyi's spokesman

A doctor by trade, Than Htut Kyaw is a Burmese Buddhist who has lived in northern Rakhine State for the last 10 years. Chatting to him, it soon became clear that he, like many Burmese, believes that reports of atrocities being committed against the Rohingya are simply fabricated.

"We have nothing to hide," he told me. "The national government is releasing all the true facts about this situation. The teachings of Burmese Buddhism do not allow raping. It's all just rumours."

Verification challenges

The problem for Ms Suu Kyi is that it is more than just rumours. With journalists and aid workers unable to get access, the Rohingya have taken reporting into their own hands. They have been filming their own testimony on smartphones and sending it via messaging apps to those outside the country.

Over the last few months I have seen a steady stream of appalling videos of women with bruises on their faces saying they were raped, bodies of children lying on the ground and burnt skulls in piles of ash.

Verifying them is difficult but not impossible. Often there are multiple sources from the same location and some organisations have discreet networks of people on the ground. Usually Burmese state media puts out its own version of events.

It's not easy to verify precise numbers, given that people are usually fleeing and have no overall perspective. But those videos are important snapshots that show without doubt that something awful has been taking place.

The response of Ms Suu Kyi and her officials to them has been straight out of the Mr Trump playbook.

What the media says

Firstly they sought to discredit the overwhelming evidence about the Rohingya by focusing on the few occasions when the media has got things wrong.

For example, a piece in the Mail Online which alleged that a toddler being tortured was Rohingya (he was Cambodian) became front page news in state media, even though it was rapidly taken down.

Similarly, interpreting a speech by Ms Suu Kyi to suggest she laughed at the Rohingya issue also caused a huge outcry and a threat of legal action.

At times the propaganda emerging from Ms Suu Kyi's officials has been truly bizarre.



At the beginning of January the State Counsellor's office posted a picture of Sylvester Stallone, the Hollywood actor, dressed as Rambo fighting his way through the jungle. It was used as an example of the fake pictures that the Rohingya are supposedly using to support their false stories.

It is not clear who may have been so stupid as to post it, possibly a lone Facebook user. But focusing on it is a tactic we have also seen in Washington this week, using a mistake from one person to dismiss or distract from the overwhelming evidence of others.

More detailed stories that have appeared on CNN and The Guardian from Rohingya who fled into Bangladesh have been crudely "debunked". For this there is a set formula being used.

Security officials are sent to the featured Rohingya's home village and their family or neighbours are rounded up and asked to sign statements casting doubt on the story.

Could propaganda be stopped?

There are countries, Britain among them, who are giving Ms Suu Kyi the benefit of the doubt, stressing the positive aspects of Myanmar's still impressive move away from dictatorship.

After all, Ms Suu Kyi is still new in office and constitutionally does not control the army or police.

She probably could not stop the military operation in Rakhine if she tried and, whatever her many flaws, all agree she is Myanmar's best hope at present.

The problem is that Ms Suu Kyi could stop the inflammatory propaganda.

Ministries she controls and officials she directly employs are rubbishing the accounts of desperate people and repeating as fact the denials of the Burmese army. That is the same army that has an appalling track record of burning villages and raping women from Myanmar's many ethnic minorities.

Under pressure from abroad, Ms Suu Kyi did set up a commission to investigate the alleged abuses and itis due to report back in the next few days. But it is headed by the vice-president Myint Swe, a former general, and is widely expected to be a whitewash.

The truth about what has been happening in northern Rakhine state may never be truly uncovered.

Rohingya Muslims have been trying to flee into Bangladesh to escape the violence (Photo: AFP)

January 4, 2017

A commission set up by Myanmar's government says it has so far found no evidence of genocide against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state.

In its interim report, the commission also said there was not enough evidence to support widespread rape allegations.

It did not mention claims that security forces had been killing people.

There have been repeated allegations of abuses of Rohingya people since a military counter-insurgency campaign was launched in Rakhine in October.

Some have even said the state's actions amount to ethnic cleansing, and Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate, has faced international criticism.

The commission, set up by the Myanmar government and led by a former general, Myint Swe, is due to make its final conclusions before the end of January.

But, in its interim findings, it dismissed allegations of genocide on the basis that there are still Rohingya Muslims living in Rakhine and that Islamic religious buildings have not been destroyed.

It said it had so far found "insufficient evidence" that anyone had been raped by security forces, despite widespread claims. Accusations of arson, arbitrary arrest and torture are still being investigated. 

Strangely, the commission made no mention of the most serious claim - that Burmese security forces have been killing civilians as collective punishment for attacks by Rohingya militants, the BBC's Myanmar correspondent Jonah Fisher reports.

Three months since this crisis began, little progress appears to have been made to solve it, he notes. The report says hundreds of Rohingya have been arrested but armed militants are still moving around easily and that looted weapons have yet to be recovered.


Earlier in the week, several police were detained after a video surfaced appearing to show officers beating Rohingya Muslims during a security operation in November.

The admission that security forces may have carried out abuses is an unusual development, as leaders have previously insisted they are following the rule of law.

Rakhine state is closed to journalists and investigators, making it difficult to independently verify any allegations.

Who are the Rohingya?

The estimated one million Muslim Rohingya are seen by many in mainly Buddhist Myanmar as illegal migrants from Bangladesh. They are denied citizenship by the government despite tracing their ancestry back generations.

Communal violence in Rakhine state in 2012 left scores dead and displaced more than 100,000 people, with many Rohingya still remaining in decrepit camps.

They face widespread discrimination and mistreatment.

Hundreds of thousands of undocumented Rohingya are estimated to live in Bangladesh, having fled Myanmar over decades.

Bangladesh says around 50,000 Rohingya have crossed its border over the past two months.

The situation has drawn global condemnation. Over a dozen Nobel laureates wrote to the UN Security Council demanding action to stop the "human tragedy amounting to ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity" in northern Rakhine.

By Jonah Fisher
August 25, 2016

Many Rohingya still live in camps after waves of communal violence in 2012 (Photo: AFP)
There haven't been many good moments for Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims in the last four years.

This country's dramatic political changes have passed them by. Greater democracy has not brought greater respect for the stateless Rohingya's human rights.

But the formation of an Advisory Commission on Rakhine State represents a rare glimmer of hope.

For the first time, the Burmese government is seeking international expertise to try and solve one of the country's most complex problems.

It's a significant shift. For years, the official Burmese mantra has been that "no foreigner can possibly understand Rakhine's problems".

Now Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general, has been tasked with taking a fresh look at the issues as head of nine-member commission. His report could just add to the mountain of papers written about Rakhine and the Rohingya, or it just might be a game-changer.

Many Rohingya have been driven to take dangerous journeys at sea in pursuit of a better life elsewhere (Photo: AP)
So what's Aung San Suu Kyi up to?

Well, first a cynical take. Next week the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is due in the Burmese capital Nay Pyi Taw and in September Ms Suu Kyi will head to the United States for the UN General Assembly and talks with President Obama.

The Nobel laureate was no doubt bracing herself for awkward questions about why she wasn't doing more to help Myanmar's Muslim minority and in particular the 800,000 or so Rohingya. Those questions can now be easily deflected with reference to this new commission.

But there's more at play than that. By setting up the commission, Ms Suu Kyi is signalling that she is open to new ideas, and doesn't have all the answers.

Kofi Annan may be 78 but, as you'd expect from a former UN secretary general, he's his own man.

The appointment of Kofi Annan as head of the commission may help deflect criticism
The final report, due to be delivered by the end of August 2017, is likely to contain suggestions that many Burmese consider unpalatable. 

Almost certainly it will insist that the Rohingya's basic human rights are respected, perhaps recommending that Myanmar offer them a better route to citizenship.

In Myanmar's current political climate it's hard for Ms Suu Kyi to bring those ideas to the table. She'd be attacked not just by hardline Buddhists but many within her own party. 

So Kofi Annan and his report could be the "Trojan Horse" that brings this sort of proposal into the national debate.

There are of course plenty of caveats.

Problems as deeply entrenched as those between the Buddhist and Muslim communities in Rakhine State will not be solved overnight. The animosity between them has built up over decades with many in the Buddhist majority seeing the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from across the border in Bangladesh.

Some have criticised Aung San Suu Kyi - a human rights champion - for her silence on the plight of the Rohingya (Photo: Getty Images)
After the violence of 2012, more than 100,000 Rohingya were forced from their homes into camps. In the years that have followed there's been no real effort to help them return. 

Rakhine has become increasingly segregated, with some comparing it to South Africa's apartheid. Things have become quieter but there's been little reconciliation.

Whatever the commission ends up concluding, any move to give the Rohingya greater rights will be hugely controversial not just in Rakhine State but across the country.

Vocal parts of the Buddhist community are openly hostile towards international aid agencies and the UN. They're unlikely to welcome Kofi Annan's team, no doubt anticipating the sort of recommendations he might make. 

Implementing any "solution" will be even harder. 

But the formation of this advisory commission is something new. However small, it's the first bit of positive news that the Rohingya have had for a long time.

Kyaw Win quickly admitted that his degree was not real

By BBC 
March 23, 2016

The man proposed as Myanmar's new finance and planning minister has a fake degree in finance, it has emerged.

Kyaw Win admitted buying the bogus PhD from a fictitious online university - Brooklyn Park in the US - which sold fake qualifications from Pakistan.

He was caught when the National League for Democracy party, which is forming the new government, made his CV public.

It remains to be seen if Kyaw Win remains on the list of cabinet ministers to take office next week. 

A party spokesman told the BBC that the fake degree did not matter.

Confronted by the Myanmar Times newspaper, Kyaw Win admitted the degree was fake.

"I am not going to call myself 'Dr' any more, as I know now that it is a fake university. The PhD on my CV is not a real qualification," he told the newspaper.

A BBC check found the title still on his LinkedIn page, reports the BBC's Jonah Fisher.

Kyaw Win wrote a number of articles on economics and finance using his fake title.

Our correspondent says if the former civil servant is confirmed as minister, he will be responsible for a huge budget and his honesty and accuracy will be vital to the smooth running of Aung San Suu Kyi's new government in Myanmar, also called Burma.

Brooklyn Park University was among some 370 academic websites exposed as bogus last year by the New York Times which traced tens of millions of dollars in estimated revenue from fake degrees back to Pakistan.

Dr Zarni's analysis of Myanmar Prisoner Release and Democratic Transition, Impact Program, BBC World News TV, 22 Jan 2016





Commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing modelling the Burmese army's new uniform

October 13, 2015

A Burmese woman has been arrested after the army complained about a post she made on Facebook.

Chaw Sandi Tun, 25, suggested the army's commander-in-chief wrap Aung San Suu Kyi's sarong around his head after internet users noticed the colour of the army's new uniform matched the opposition leader's clothing.

The phrase is a big insult in Myanmar.

Some reports suggest the activist for Ms Suu Kyi's party could face up to five years in prison for defamation.

The army's commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing - who the BBC's Jonah Fisher in Yangon says is a prolific Facebook user - modelled the new uniform online following a rebranding exercise.

Burmese internet users spotted that the lighter shade of green matched a sarong once worn by Ms Suu Kyi.

A composite picture was made and widely shared suggesting that the army was taking its lead from Ms Suu Kyi, who it kept under house arrest for many years before the country began a transition to democracy.

Ms Chaw - a National League for Democracy activist - shared the picture and added her own comment, saying: "If you love Mother Suu so much, why don't you wrap her sarong around your head?"

The activist was arrested on Monday. She is expected to be charged under the country's Electronic Transactions Act. According to some media reports, she could face up to five years in prison.

Myanmar is due to hold a general election in November.



By Jonah Fisher
September 8, 2015

There was a time when Aung San Suu Kyi was seen as Asia's Nelson Mandela. To her more ardent fans, she was more than that. An icon, almost a saint. So why is the Nobel Peace Prize winner's political party excluding Muslims from its list of candidates for November's general election?

Sithu Maung had high hopes that he'd be chosen as a candidate for Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) and be part of a historic electoral victory.

At 29, he's perhaps a bit young, but otherwise he ticked all the right boxes.

A prominent student leader, he'd done time as a political prisoner after taking part in the so-called Saffron Revolution - a series of often monk-led protests in late 2007.

He targeted the Pabedan constituency in downtown Yangon. The area has a Muslim majority, which he figured would be a great fit for a Muslim candidate like himself.

But the NLD rejected Sithu Maung and a Buddhist candidate will be on the ballot instead.

He told me he was sure that his religion had played a part.

"I wish the NLD would give a fair and equal chance to all qualified candidates," he told me when we met in a tea shop. "Without discriminating by their race and religion."

Needing to two-thirds of the non-military seats in parliament to chose the president, Aung San Suu Kyi's party is prioritising victory above all

Sources both within the NLD and outside told us that none of their 1,151 candidates standing in regional and national elections, is Muslim.

It's hard to prove a policy of discrimination, but one thing is clear - leading Muslims in both Yangon and Mandalay, who expected to be given constituencies to fight, were overlooked.

"I don't know," was the answer of U Tin Oo, one of the party's founders, when we challenged him to name a Muslim NLD candidate.

He's 89 and his justification for the absence of Muslims from the NLD lists focused on Myanmar's citizenship rules.

That explains the absence of the stateless Rohingya, but not the many Burmese Muslims whose families have lived here for generations.

Pragmatism trumping principle

The exact number of Muslims in Myanmar is considered so sensitive that last year's census results are being suppressed. It's generally thought they represent somewhere between 4 and 10% of the population.

Ever since she was elected to parliament in a by-election in 2012, Ms Suu Kyi has gone out of her way not to offend the country's hard-line monks, also known as the Ma Ba Tha.

That's meant disappointing Western human rights groups and choosing her words very carefully in relations to the country's Rohingya - widely discriminated against in Myanmar.

Earlier this year, pragmatism trumped principle again when she refused to speak up in defence of UN envoy Yanghee Lee when she was verbally abused by prominent monk Ashin Wirathu.

The ultra-nationalist leader called Ms Lee a "bitch" and a "whore".

In July 2013, Time magazine put Mr Wirathu on their front cover with the question: "The Face of Buddhist Terror?"
Widely discriminated against, many Rohingya Muslims have been forced into refugee camps within Myanmar by sectarian violence

Post-election politics

This decision to not to run Muslim candidates should be seen in that context. Already facing what will almost certainly be bruising negotiations with the army in the post-election period, the NLD has decided not to pick a fight with any of the monks.

"It is kind of an irony that she wrote Freedom from Fear [a collection of her essays] and now she fears something," says Myat Thu, a Muslim activist who came close to joining the NLD. "I think she has lost her courage".

It's a wounding criticism for a woman whose bravery in the face of the country's generals in the 1990s and early 2000s is beyond doubt.

Chatting with me at her home, former student activist Mya Aye told me "frankly it's wrong," of the decision to exclude Muslims.

"There are many Muslims who have worked for the NLD and been loyal to them for many years. The voice of the minority is important in parliament."

With the army already guaranteed 25% of the seats in the Hluttaw [parliament] the target for the NLD is to win two-thirds of those that remain. That a big ask, but it would give them a majority and the freedom to choose the next president.

If two-thirds proves to be beyond them, the NLD will have to enlist the support of smaller parties. With that in mind, it had been expected the party would make pre-emptive deals not to contest constituencies in some ethnic minority areas.

Instead, much to the annoyance of the ethnically-based parties, the NLD appear to be fielding as many candidates as possible.

Similarly, leading members of the so-called 88 Generation of student activists were encouraged to cosy up to the NLD in the expectation that they would be allowed to run for parliament if they wished. But when it came down to it, most of the 88 Generation ended up being rejected.

They may now be regretting not setting up their own political party.

Aung San Suu Kyi has already held well-attended rallies under the guise of voter education campaigns. Having waited so long for another chance, winning the election now appears to be all that matters.

Aung San Suu Kyi: Where are you?

By Jonah Fisher 
June 3, 2015

For close to two decades no-one accused Aung San Suu Kyi of lacking principles or courage. From the early 1990s until her final release from house arrest in 2010 she was a brave symbol of defiance against what was then a brutal military dictatorship. 

Ms Suu Kyi's image was on student walls around the world, Bono even wrote a song about her. She became synonymous with the global struggle for democracy and human rights.

Now at liberty, living in the same Yangon house but in a much-changed country, Aung San Suu Kyi is free to speak her mind. But she's selective about her causes. 

In parliament, where she sits as an opposition MP, the 69-year-old frequently criticises the government for the slow pace of reform, and restates her increasingly forlorn demands for constitutional change.

But on the persecution of Myanmar's most famously forgotten minority Ms Suu Kyi is silent. 

Outrage 

For decades, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have lived in Rakhine State, near the country's western border with Bangladesh. 

They've become well-known in the last few weeks, but long denied citizenship and freedom of movement, their misery is nothing new.

There's huge disagreement over how most of them got there, where they belong and what they should be called.

So, in a facile step that instantly alienates most of Myanmar, I'm going to put history to one side. 

On a purely human level, there are currently about 800,000 people in western Myanmar, denied the most basic of rights and discriminated against due to the circumstances of their birth. They've been fleeing into the hands of cruel trafficking rings because they're poor and desperate.

From a simple human rights perspective it's a continuing outrage that should shame us all.
So why, despite the calls from around the world is Ms Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, reluctant to raise her voice?

Election thinking 

The simplest explanation, voiced repeatedly over the last few weeks, is that she's always been a pragmatic politician not a human rights activist. 

By defending the Rohingya, Ms Suu Kyi would immediately put herself at odds with powerful Buddhist nationalist groups, potentially changing the dynamics of this year's all important general election. 

An already unpredictable vote would become super-charged with religious and ethnic tensions.


There was some evidence of Ms Suu Kyi's extreme caution earlier this year when United Nations envoy Yanghee Lee visited.

After Ms Lee highlighted the plight of the Rohingya, the monk Ashin Wirathu delivered a vulgar speech describing the South Korean in derogatory terms. 

It was demeaning and outrageous and the UN's human rights chief in Geneva soon called on all of Myanmar's leaders to condemn the monk. 

Opposition leader Ms Suu Kyi remained silent.

That's despite Yanghee Lee being Asian, female, a human rights advocate and being described in the most misogynistic language possible in Ms Suu Kyi's home town. It didn't look good.



Big picture 

Aung San Suu Kyi's supporters say it's not because she doesn't care, but that she sees this sort of issue as a trap. 

Giving a strong quote on the Rohingya or Yanghee Lee might hand out a bloody nose or two and satisfy the human rights lobby, but it won't actually change anything on the ground.

The big picture for Ms Suu Kyi they say, is to win the election in November and prepare the ground for the complex negotiations on power that will follow. 

With ethnic minority parties likely to pick up a chunk of the seats, and a quarter automatically allocated to the army, Ms Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), needs to dominate the ethnically Bamar constituencies. 

To do that she'll need the support of the monks and a solid claim to be patriotically defending the Buddhist state. Sadly there are only votes to be lost in Rohingya rights. 

Who are the Rohingyas?


> Rohingyas are a distinct, Muslim ethnic group mainly living in Myanmar 

> They are thought to be descended from Muslim traders who settled there more than 1,000 years ago 

> They also live in Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan 

> In Myanmar, they are subjected to forced labour, have no land rights and are heavily restricted 

> In Bangladesh many are also desperately poor, with no documents or job prospects 


European echoes?

But there's another aspect to this.

Underpinning the demands for Aung San Suu Kyi to "speak out" is the assumption, particularly from abroad, that she's concealing her more liberal beliefs for political reasons.

Well what if she's not? Just because you've been given the Nobel Peace Prize doesn't mean you sign up to a particular set of values. Just ask Henry Kissinger. 

Maybe Ms Suu Kyi agrees with the Burmese authorities that they need to act to make sure that Myanmar's character remains overwhelmingly Buddhist, and that Muslim populations are growing too rapidly. Would it be that surprising if she shared the widely held Burmese view that the Rohingya belong back in Bangladesh? 

If parts of this debate are starting to sound familiar, blank out the ethnicities and the country's names. Put France, England, Eritreans or Syrians back in.

In European capitals these sort of views are being expressed every day by mainstream politicians about that continent's migrant crisis.

Local fisherman found a sinking boat full of migrants and ferried them to shore to the town of Kuala Langsa

By BBC
May 15, 2015

More than 700 migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar have been rescued from a sinking boat off Indonesia's coast.

Reports say another boat was turned back by the Indonesian navy. 

The fate of another vessel of stranded migrants off the coast of Thailand is unclear after it was towed out of Thai waters.

Human Rights Watch has warned of deadly "human ping-pong" in the Andaman sea, where thousands more are believed to be adrift, struggling to land. 

Rohingya Muslims have been leaving Buddhist-majority Myanmar, also known as Burma, because they are not recognised as citizens of the country and face persecution. Many of the Bangladeshis at sea are thought to be economic migrants. 

Critically ill

They attempt to flee every year during the non-monsoon season, but the smugglers who take them to Thailand have been scared by a recent Thai crackdown and instead they are reported to have been abandoned at sea. 

"For more than two months we were in the boat, we were only given little food and we were beaten when we asked for more," said Mohamad Ali, a Bangladeshi migrant.

He told the BBC that he had paid 12,000 Malaysian ringgit ($3,366; £2,133) to the boat's captain for his passage.

An Indonesian police chief in Aceh told AFP news agency that he believed the rescued boat had already been pushed out of Malaysian waters by Malaysia's navy. He said it was sinking and towed to shore by fishermen. Medical officials said eight of the migrants were critically ill.

The official policy of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia is to push back migrants trying to arrive, a policy the UN said on Friday it was "appalled" by.

Eight of those rescued off Aceh were in critical condition, medical officials said

"The focus should be on saving lives, not further endangering them," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesman Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.

He added that the decision by the Thai navy to send a boat carrying more than 300 Rohingya Muslims near the southern Thai island of Koh Lipe on Thursday out of its waters on Thursday night was "incomprehensible and inhumane".

Thai officials said the migrants did not want to go to shore but wanted to continue their journey to Malaysia.

The BBC's Jonathan Head, who visited the boat on Thursday, says its passengers had contacted their families to say that armed men in uniform had boarded the ship, repaired its broken engine, given them food and sent the boat south. Helicopters were also shown dropping food into waters nearby and migrants swimming out to eat it.

But our correspondent says that after nearly three months at sea, some are likely to need medical attention. Those on board told the BBC that 10 people had died.

It is unclear how many boats full of people are adrift at sea, but rights group say thousands of migrants are probably stranded.

Thailand has announced a regional crisis meeting for 29 May. But Myanmar has reportedly indicated that it will probably not attend.

The discrimination against Rohingyas goes back to Burma's independence from Britain

By BBC
May 15, 2015

The Rohingyas - a distinct Muslim ethnic group who are effectively stateless - have been fleeing Myanmar for decades. But a combination of factors means that they are now stranded in rickety boats in the Andaman sea, causing international alarm.

There are believed to be several thousand Myanmar migrants in boats off the coasts of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia with dwindling supplies of food and water, and not wanted by any of these countries.

Why are they fleeing Myanmar?

Successive Myanmar governments have been introducing policies to repress the Rohingya since the 1960s, according to Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (Brouk). They argue that Rohingyas are not a genuine ethnic group but Bengali migrants who represent a divisive leftover from colonial times.

They are denied basic services and their movements are severely restricted. The repression of the Rohingyas has gradually intensified since the process of reforms introduced by President Thein Sein in 2011, Brouk says. In June and October 2012 there were large scale attacks on Rohingyas in Rakhine State.

In addition, the government in March revoked white cards - or "temporary registration certificates" - that had been issued to hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas. This meant that they no longer have the right to vote in upcoming elections in November.

So inflammatory is the Rohingya issue that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been criticised for failing to raise it.

In the past three years, more than 120,000 Rohingyas have boarded ships to flee abroad, according to the UN refugee agency.

It published a report in May saying that 25,000 migrants had left Myanmar and Bangladesh in the first quarter of this year, about double the number over the same period last year. Between 40-60% of the 25,000 are thought to originate from Myanmar's western State of Rakhine.

The oppression they suffer there is so severe "that they feel they have no option but to leave", Bangkok-based Rohingya expert Chris Lewa told the BBC.

Why are they stranded at sea?

As many as 8,000 migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar are believed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to be stranded at sea.

The Thai government has recently begun to crack down on smugglers who have traditionally taken them to camps in southern Thailand and effectively held them ransom. As a result the smugglers are now reportedly abandoning them at sea.

Because the countries in the region are unwilling to allow them to land, they are effect being sent back and forth around South-East Asia.

Rohingyas face a lukewarm welcome at best from the countries they hope will give them refuge

Who are the Rohingyas?

- Rohingyas are a distinct, Muslim ethnic group mainly living in Myanmar
- Thought to be descended from Muslim traders who settled there more than 1,000 years ago
- Also live in Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan
- In Myanmar, they are subjected to forced labour, have no land rights, and are heavily restricted
- In Bangladesh many are also desperately poor, with no documents or job prospects

What is the attitude to Rohingyas among countries of the region?

"Extremely unwelcoming," says Ms Lewa. "Unlike European countries - who at least make an effort to stop North African migrants from drowning in the Mediterranean - Myanmar's neighbours are reluctant to provide any assistance."

Thailand: Its navy says that it has given aid to migrant boats in its waters, and it has indicated that it may be prepared to allow refugee camps on its shores. But it does not want permanent settlers, and few Rohingyas want to settle in the country even if the alternative is to remain on cramped boats.

Malaysia: This is the choice of destination for most Rohingya travellers, especially because it is predominantly Muslim and short of unskilled labourers. But Malaysia has made clear that it will not accept boatloads of migrants and has ordered its navy to repel them.

Bangladesh: For the last 20 years has been subjected to an influx of Rohingyas, sometimes allowing them to live in camps on its south-eastern border and sometimes sending them back to Myanmar. It is estimated that there are currently about 200,000 Rohingyas living in refugee camps, many in squalid conditions.

Indonesia: Like Malaysia is a Muslim country and like Malaysia has made clear that the Rohingyas are not welcome, with its navy turning away boatloads of migrants. A group of migrants who made it ashore in early May may be expelled, the government has warned.

Whose responsibility is it to ensure that the refugees are fed and watered?

Most aid agencies and NGOs agree that countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia have a moral imperative - if not a legal requirement - to do this if the refugees are in their territorial waters.

While these countries have made efforts to provide supplies to the Rohingyas, Chris Lewa argues that none has actively engaged in search-and-rescue operations in the areas immediately beyond their coastlines.

Legal experts point out that some countries may be unwilling to act because by doing so they are more likely to be exposed to the principle of non-refoulement, whereby refugees cannot be forcibly returned to places where their lives or freedoms may be threatened.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in May 2015 urged governments in the region to remember their obligations to keep their borders and ports open to abandoned people at sea and to ensure that "the prohibition on refoulement is maintained".

Can the Rohingya problem be resolved?

"Not until or unless the international community puts pressure on Myanmar to improve the lives of the Rohingya community," Chris Lewa argues, "because ultimately it is only Burma who can solve the problem."

Critics point out that what is happening now is in many ways a result of the failure of South-East Asian countries to act decisively.

They argue that for years these countries have quietly ignored the plight of the Rohingyas and as a result now find themselves enveloped in a deepening humanitarian crisis.

Furthermore, the critics say, officials have refrained from discussing the issue at regional conferences for fear of upsetting Myanmar.



August 29, 2014

Myanmar's first census in more than 30 years has revealed that the country has 9 million fewer people than it thought.

The country's last national survey was in 1983 and until now the government had estimated that the total population was about 60 million.

But figures released on Friday from a census conducted in March and April says the population is just 51 million.

The sensitive count caused tension after officials banned some people from choosing their own ethnicity.

Rohingya

State-run television announced the preliminary results and said a complete set of results would be released next year, which will include data on the country's ethnic groups and religions.

Jonah Fisher, the BBC's Myanmar correspondent, says the tally went smoothly, except in some areas of the western state of Rakhine.

An estimated 800,000 members of a long-persecuted Muslim minority were denied the right to identify themselves as Rohingya, our correspondent says.

The United Nations, which helped Myanmar, also known as Burma, with the survey, had called for all Burmese to be allowed to choose their own ethnicity, but officials refused.

The government insists the Muslim Rohingya are illegal migrants from Bangladesh and calls them Bengalis.

Some isolated parts of northern Kachin state were not counted during the census because they are controlled by ethnic rebels.



By BBC News
June 26, 2014

On 25 June 2014, the Liberal Democrat MP for Bradford East, David Ward, led a debate in Westminster Hall on situation in Burma and the persecution of the Rohingya and other minorities.



By BBC News
June 21, 2014

Photo: Phil Behan, UNHCR

Photographer Phil Behan says: "What immediately struck me was this woman’s age. Her name is Rasoul and at 75 years old she was forced to flee her home due to sectarian violence in Burma’s Rakhine State. After I took the photo of her, I thought to myself, 'How does someone of this age cope with such a situation?' Imagine, if you can, your own grandmother living such a fate, and then perhaps you can understand how hard displacement is."


(Photo: Saiful Haq Omi)

The UN says the Rohingya people, who live in western Burma, also known as Myanmar, are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Photographer Saiful Huq Omi says these "few words from [Rohingya refugee] John made me take a step back". "You just cross the river Naaf and there is my home by the riverside. From here it is just two miles, but for me it is like two million miles, a distance I will never be able to cross. My mother is there, my home is there. It is close for someone like you, those who have passports, and who can go anywhere they want."




By Altered Images
June 9, 2014

A deputy minister in the Burmese government has had to apologise after his wife spread a fake image of pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi wearing an Islamic headscarf.

The picture of Aung San Suu Kyi wearing a hijab and a tiara was shared by Khin Shandar Tun, wife of Deputy Information Minister Ye Htut, after it was posted by another Facebook user under the title "Woman of the Week", the news website The Irrawaddy reports. She also shared a post speaking out against tentative plans to teach the world's major religions at school.

Burma has seen a rise in anti-Muslim sentiment accompany political reforms, especially more relaxed rules around freedom of speech. There have been outbreaks of violence between the Buddhist majority and minority Muslims in the western state of Rakhine in the past two years - and sites such as Facebook have sometimes been blamed for spreading rumours and hate speech.

Facebook users appeared outraged by Khin Shandar Tun's shares. "It shows discrimination and taunting of Muslim women," one user says, adding, "People with this kind of shallow point of view will also do the same thing to Christians or whoever."

Ye Htut - known as the "Facebook minister" for his enthusiasm for social media - issued an apology on his own page. "We have to take care with the posts that we 'like' and share, for there may be hateful posts and defamation," he writes. "Apologies to those who respect and support Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and to those who visit my Facebook for my failure."


    • Rohingya Exodus