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European Commission (EC) has requested Myanmar to provide citizenship to Rohingya people and ensure their fundamental rights for a sustainable solution to the issue, an EC official said on Sunday.

European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection office’s Director General Esko Kentrschynskyj said EC as well as the international community have been maintaining contacts to solve the problems of the ethnic community of Myanmar.

He said this to Bangladesh’s Food and Disaster Management Minister Abdur Razzaque during a call on at the latter’s office on Sunday, says a food ministry press release.

Such remarks came following recent sectarian violence in Myanmar’s Rakhaine State that left dozens of Rohingyas dead. Many tried to enter Bangladesh, but Bangladesh border forces returned them in line with the government policy.

Bangladesh repeatedly and clearly said it could not accept the Rohingyas, saying that sheltering them in Bangladesh would not bring any solution. It said there are still some 25,000 Rohingyas who took shelters in two refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar two decades back, but are not returning. Besides, nearly 4 lakh unregistered Rohingyas are staying in Bangladesh.

Instead, Bangladesh urged the international community to put pressure on Myanmar for a sustainable solution to the longstanding Rohingya problem. However, some powerful countries and human rights bodies criticized Bangladesh for its stance.

While talking to Dr Razzaque, Esko Kentrschynskyj said they have already talked to Myanmar’s foreign and social welfare ministries, immigration and border forces on the Rohingya problem.

Esko said they want to make sure that the Rohingya refugees are provided with humanitarian aid including food, nutrition and social security and helped for a sustainable solution.

Food Minister Abdur Razzaque said though Bangladesh has huge population and 31 percent people live below poverty line, the government is trying its level best to ensure humanitarian assistance to the refugees.

However, continuing such help for long is very difficult for Bangladesh, he said, adding: “The only solution of the Rohingyas is their returning home.”

Razzaque asked the delegation led by Esko to deeply engage the international community for repatriation of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

Disaster Management Division Secretary Dr M Aslam Alam, European Commission for Humanitarian Aid Office’s Charge De Affaires Andrew Barnard, its Dhaka office’s technical expert Oliver Brouant and Regional Support Office Head Peter Burgess were also present.

source here 


The European Parliament,

– having regard to its previous resolutions on Burma/Myanmar, in particular that of 25 November 2010 and 20 May 2010,

– having regard to the Council Decision of 16 August 2011 (2011/504/CFSP) amending Council Decision 2010/232/CFSP regarding restrictive measures against Burma/Myanmar,

– having regard to the EU Foreign Affairs Council Conclusions on Burma/Myanmar of 23 January 2012,

– having regard to the Council Conclusions of 12 April 2011 on the temporally lifting of the suspension of high level meetings as well as on the suspension on sanction to new civil member of government (Council Decision 2011/239/CFSP),

– having regard to the Statement by the President of the European Council of 30 January 2012 on the path of reforms in Myanmar,

– having regard to the Statements by the High Representative and in particular the Statements of 13 November 2010 on the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, of 13 January 2011 and 12 October 2011 on the release of political prisoners, and of 2 April 2012 on the conduct of by-elections,

– having regard to the Statement of the ASEAN-Summit of 3 April 2012 concerning the outcome of the 1 April 2012 by-elections and the calling for sanctions to be lifted,

– having regard to the decision that Myanmar will host the South East Asia Games in 2013 and will take over the chairmanship of ASEAN in 2014,

– having regard to the speech on the state of the Union by President Thein Sein on the occasion of the first anniversary of his government on 1 March 2012, where he acknowledged that despite the efforts made there is still ‘much more to do’,

– having regard to Rule 110(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas during the first year in office the Government of President Thein Sein has made more progress towards democracy and peace than in the last decades;

B. whereas in a historical by-election on 1 April 2012, the opposition NLD party under its leader Aung San Suu Kyi won 43 out of the 45 seats in Parliament, despite irregularities noted by the election monitoring team;

C. whereas since the new government took office in March 2011, the majority of political prisoners have been released and a number have been elected to Parliament in the by-elections, preliminary ceasefires have come into force with all but one of the 13 armed ethnic groups, many political dissidents in exile have returned to Myanmar in promise of re-conciliation;

D. whereas the Parliament though elected under questionable procedures has started work on an ambitious legislative program, opening the path to a transparent budgetary procedure and exchange rate system, the establishment of labour unions, better land management, environmental conservation, and devolution of power;

E. whereas the government has taken numerous steps to expand civil liberties in the country, such as the freedom of information and expression notably with the lifting of the ban against some 30 000 internet sites and some 54 publications, the freedom of assembly, the establishment of a National Human Rights Commission and the planned scrapping of the censor board before the end of 2012;

F. whereas for the first time in decades, acts such as the halt of unpopular and potentially environmentally and socially disruptive power projects as the Myitsone hydropower dam and the coal power station near Dawei show a genuine interest of the government for people’s concerns, and give hope as to the seriousness of its intentions to combat poverty, promote rural development, enact a land reform and introduce a universal health insurance system;

G. whereas the government has indicated that it is pursuing a three-step process of peace building, starting from a cease fire, followed by socio-economic, cultural and political processes to an encompassing agreement – involving changes to the Constitution – on ethnic issues, including demobilisation and integration of ex-combatants, resource sharing and greater autonomy;

H. whereas the policies of discrimination against the Rohinga minority however continues unabated;

I. whereas the discrepancy between the political decisions and the limited institutional and technical capacities on the ground make that changes are slow to impact the life of the majority of Burmese citizens who continue to be faced with deep poverty, high levels of indebtedness, lack of employment and absence of social services;

1. Expresses its great relief over the very positive signs of change in Myanmar and the amount of reform proposals on the table;

2. Warmly welcomes the efforts by the government, parliament as well as the leadership of the armed forces to seek an end to decade-old internal armed conflicts, to lead Myanmar to democracy and to take decisive steps to combat the deprivation of its citizens from the accomplishments of socio-economic development;

3. Re-iterates its great respect for the decade long struggle of opposition leader and Sakharov Price Winner Aung San Suu Kyi who was deprived of her democratic right to form a government in 1989 and congratulates her for the land-slide victory of her party in the April by-elections;

4. Is looking forward to receive Aung San Suu Kyi in the European Parliament to officially reward her with the Sakharov Prize she received in 1990;

5. Supports the lifting of the visa ban by the EU Foreign Ministers in January and believes that the EU should further underline its support for the unprecedented reform effort by gradually lifting the sanctions which have no military implications or would have the effect to perpetuate military control over resources, in particular restrictions of development aid and bans on investments, export/import and loans;

6. Believes that Myanmar should also become eligible for the GSP+ if it continues on its reform path, notably eradicating the long-time systematic use of forced labour by the authorities and introducing ILO conform labour rights standards;

7. Welcomes the announcement of EUR 150 million in EU development aid for the next three years and calls on the EU and the member states to support the Burmese authorities with capacity building, aid and trade in order to rapidly ease the lack of institutional and technical capacity in Myanmar;

8. Calls on the UN to consider all possible ways to support the Burmese government in the transition process and welcomes the UNESCO support for the reform of the media laws;

9. Notes with concern that the positive transformation on the government level has been slow to trickle down to the general population and that much remains to be done;

10. Calls particularly on the government to finalize the peace negations with the Shan nation and encourages the authorities to continue towards achieving an encompassing peace plan irreversibly terminating all armed conflicts in the country;

11. Calls for the release of all political prisoners and access of the ICRC and international human rights bodies to Myanmar’s prisons;

12. Insists that the Rohingya minority cannot be left out of the newly developing openness for a multicultural Burma and calls on the authorities to grant Rohingyas citizens rights and equal treatment to other Burmese citizens;

13. Welcomes the creation of the National Human Rights Commission, regrets however that its independence is called into question because its members are selected by the government and its mandate is based on the 2008 Burmese Constitution, not on the universal human rights standards; urges to ensure that its mandate includes cases of abuse by the military; welcomes the EU technical and financial support to enhance the Commission’s capacities;

14. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the High Representative, the Commission, the Parliaments of the Member States, the Government and Parliament of Myanmar and the other ASEAN member states, as well as the UN Secretary General.
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BRUSSELS - The European Union will seek to ease economic sanctions against Burma in recognition of recent pro-democratic reforms, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Tuesday (17 April).

"Everything we see points to a government which is serious about change and wants to end its country's isolation," she told MEPs in Strasbourg, adding that she will visit the country on 28 April.

Recent reforms spur EU to suspend economic sanctions in Burma (Photo: Burma Democratic Concern (BDC))
The free elections, coupled with the release of most political prisoners and ceasefire agreements with rebel movement the Karen National Union are signs the country wants to open up, Ashton noted.

Some 45 vacant seats in the parliament were for grabs in the 1 April elections. Longtime prisoner and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi herself was freed from house arrest to run in the vote and won a seat in the lower house.

Burma's President Thein Sein, a former general who retains close ties to the military and who took office last year, earlier this month also formalised an initial ceasefire agreement with rebels after decades of conflict.

"The longest civil war in the world, the conflict with the Karen, may soon be over, even if the Kachin conflict remains a cause of great concern," said Asthon.

The numerous internal conflicts with the military junta have displaced some 500,000 people in eastern Burma. In the west, around 800,000 Muslims, known as the Rohingya, are stateless and lack the most basic of human rights, says US-based Refugees International.

The EU in February already lifted some restrictive measures against the country's president, the vice presidents, cabinet members and the speakers of the two houses of parliament and their family members.

Ashton's announcement indicates that economic sanctions against other individuals and companies will also suspended. The EU embargo on weapons is to remain intact, however.

"In January, we suspended the visa bans on the government of Myanmar. At the end of this month, we will do more," Ashton said.

A number of high-profile Western officials and leaders have lobbied for the EU-level measures.

Last week, British Prime Minister David Cameron, became the first standing UK prime minister to visit the country in 60 years.

For her part, Suu Kyi told the Associated Press last Friday: "I support the idea of suspension rather than the lifting of sanctions because this would be an acknowledgment of the role of the president and other reformers."

"This suspension would have taken place because of steps taken by the President and other reformers and it would also make it quite clear to those who are against reform that should they try to obstruct the way of the reformers, then sanctions could come back," she warned, however.
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BRUSSELS, (Reuters) - The European Union agreed on Monday to suspend visa bans on the president of Myanmar and other senior officials, following reforms that have included the release of hundreds of political prisoners.

EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels hailed a "remarkable programme of political reform" in Myanmar and the government's commitment to economic and social development.



They said that in response, the EU would suspend visa bans on Myanmar's president, Thein Sein, the country's vice-presidents, cabinet members and parliamentary speakers.

In a statement, the ministers also pledged to promote reform by increasing assistance to reduce poverty and for professional training and by strengthening dialogue with the government. They also called for "progressive engagement" by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Further reforms, including the release of remaining political prisoners, the holding of free and fair by-elections in April and progress in resolving ethnic conflicts could lead to more sanctions being eased by the end of April, they said.

"These changes are opening up important new prospects for developing the relationship between the European Union and Burma/Myanmar," the statement said of Myanmar's reforms.

EU sanctions were imposed after bloody military crackdowns on a pro-democracy movement led by Nobel Prize-winning dissident Aung San Suu Kyi.

They target nearly a thousand firms and institutions with asset freezes and visa bans have affected almost 500 people. The sanctions also include an arms embargo, a prohibition on technical assistance related to the military and investment bans in the mining, timber and precious metals sectors.



"QUITE EXTRAORDINARY CHANGES"

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said "quite extraordinary changes" had taken place in Myanmar in the last weeks and months and British Foreign Secretary William Hague said it was important to recognise the progress made.

Ashton said she aimed to visit the country soon -- probably after the April ballot.

"Colleagues who have already been there have experienced a real sense of transition in that country," she said. "We are working closely with Aung San Suu Kyi and I will visit Burma in coordination with her -- we've done this entirely with her."

She said the aim of the visit would be to offer "full support in what we hope will be a very successful transition".

The reforms in Myanmar have followed a March election that saw a new government take over from a military junta and have included loosening media restrictions and other repressive laws, peace talks with ethnic insurgents and the freeing of hundreds of political prisoners.

Ashton sent her top foreign policy adviser to Myanmar last year, and the EU, in a move to encourage reform, slightly eased sanctions last April by suspending travel bans and asset freezes on 24 civilian government officials.

Earlier this month, the European Union said it would open a representative office in Myanmar to manage aid programmes and promote political dialogue.

Suu Kyi, a former political prisoner who was freed in 2010, has reversed her stance on boycotting Myanmar's army-dominated political system following the reforms and has agreed to stand in the April polls.

The lifting of sanctions could lead to Western investment in oil, gas and other sectors to compete with Myanmar's neighbours, especially India, Thailand and China.

The United States has decided to upgrade diplomatic ties with Myanmar as a result of its reforms and is considering lifting its sanctions if the by elections are fair and open.

As big as France and Britain combined, Myanmar lies between India, China and Southeast Asia with ports on the Indian Ocean and the Andaman Sea, all of which make it an energy security asset for Beijing's landlocked western provinces and a U.S. priority as Obama strengthens engagement with Asia.

Its resources include natural gas, timber and precious gems. Myanmar is building a multibillion-dollar port through which oil can reach a 790-km (490-mile) pipeline under construction with Chinese money and workers.


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ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံအေပၚ ပိတ္ဆို႔အေရးယူထားမႈအခ်ဳိ႕ကို စတင္ေျဖေလွ်ာ႔ေပးေတာ႔မည္ဟု ဥေရာပသမဂၢ ယေန႔ေၾကညာ။



ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ၏ ျပဳျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲမႈေကာင္းမ်ား ပိုမို အားေကာင္းလာေရး အားေပးသည့္အေနျဖင္႔ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံအေပၚ ဥေရာပသမဂၢက ပိတ္ဆို႔အေရးယူထားမႈ အခ်ဳိ႕ကို ေျဖေလွ်ာ႔ေပးသြားမည္ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း ဥေရာပသမဂၢအဖြဲ႕ဝင္ႏိုင္ငံမ်ား၏ ႏိုင္ငံျခားေရး ဝန္ႀကီးမ်ားက ယေန႔ သေဘာတူဆံုးျဖတ္ခ်က္ ခ်လိုက္ေၾကာင္း သိရသည္။ 

ျပဳျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲေရးေကာင္းမ်ား ေဖာ္ေဆာင္မႈ အတို္င္းအတာကို ၾကည့္၍ ပိတ္ဆို႔အေရးယူထားမႈ အလံုးစံုကို ႐ုပ္သိမ္းေပးသင္႔ မေပးသင္႔ ဆက္လက္ စဥ္းစားသြားမည္ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္းလည္း ဘရပ္ဆဲလ္ၿမိဳ႕တြင္ က်င္းပေသာ အစည္းအေဝး ေၾကညာခ်က္အရ သိရသည္။

Source :
Messenger News Journal
Media release from the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute

High-level discussions on the urgent need for the establishment of a United Nations (UN) Commission of Inquiry (COI) into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma, will take place on September 6 in Brussels. The meeting is scheduled ahead of European Union (EU) representatives gathering at the Meeting of the Human Rights Working Group (COHOM) of the European Council to discuss, among other human rights issues, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on Burma for 2011, which must include a provision for a COI if its establishment is to be realised in the near future.

In the context of the widely-held view that such a COI could help reduce human rights abuses in Burma, the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) and the Open Society Foundations, organised the meeting to provide expert opinions on the establishment of a COI to those with responsibility for deciding the stipulations of the UNGA resolution on Burma; EU member states. To this end the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana; together with representatives from Burma Campaign UK; the Burma Lawyers’ Council; the International Federation of Human Rights; and Human Rights Watch will brief EU diplomats.

The experts will summarise the current human rights situation in Burma, taking into account recent political developments there, and explain why a COI is the best way forward for deterring the commission of further crimes – reported as murder, systematic rape, sexual violence, torture, the recruitment of children as soldiers, warrantless detention, widespread forced relocations and forced labour – and ensuring justice for victims. The technicalities of such a COI, including the terms of reference, will also be discussed.

Dr Mark Ellis, Executive Director of the International Bar Association said, ‘The Burmese people have suffered grave human rights violations for more than 20 years. The perpetrators act with immunity in an environment absent of action by the international community. The United Nations General Assembly should act promptly and decisively to establish a UN commission of enquiry into human rights abuses in Burma.’ He added, ‘A transparent, impartial and independent UN commission of inquiry is an established tool for investigating allegations of international crimes committed by all parties to a conflict. Establishing a commission for Burma would be a crucial and long overdue step in bringing accountability to Burma.’

Mr Quintana recently stated that, ‘Justice and accountability measures, as well as measures to ensure access to the truth, are fundamental for Myanmar to face its past and current human rights challenges, and to move forward towards national reconciliation.’

The briefing will take place at the Open Society Institute – Brussels, 9-13 Rue d’Idalie, B-1050 Brussels, between 12h00 and 13h30 (local time) under the Chatham House Rule.

The Speakers:
• Tomás Ojea Quintana, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burma, (via video-link);
• Neil Campbell, Head of EU Policy Development, Open Society Institute-Brussels;
• Mr Gregoire Thery, Permanent Representative to the European Union, International Federation of Human Rights;
• Ms Lotte Leicht, European Union Director, Human Rights Watch;
• Ms Zoya Phan, Campaigns Manager, Burma Campaign UK; and
• Mr U Aung Htoo, Secretary General, Burma Lawyers’ Council.


If you would like to interview any of the speakers after the meeting please contact the moderator, Shirley Pouget of the International Bar Association atshirley.pouget@int-bar.org

ENDS

For further information please contact:
Romana St. Matthew - Daniel
Press Office
International Bar Association
4th Floor, 10 St Bride Street,
London EC4 4AD
Direct Line: +44 (0)20 7842 0094
Main Office: +44 (0)20 7842 0090
Fax: +44 (0)20 7842 0091
E-mail: romana.daniel@int-bar.org
Website: http://www.ibanet.org


Notes for editors

The Chatham House Rule:
“When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed”.

COHOM
The Human Rights Working Group (COHOM) was created under the Council of the European Union in 1987 (with the extension of its mandate in 2003) and is responsible for human rights issues in the EU’s external relations.

It is composed of human rights experts from Member States and the European Commission. Click here to read the text of the mandate.

The Human Rights Working Group meets regularly. The agendas of meetings cover the various aspects of the EU’s human rights policy such as action in international fora, dialogues with third countries, thematic issues and mainstreaming. The agenda always includes standing items on human rights situations of urgent concern. COHOM promotes the systematic inclusion of human rights issues in the agenda of expert’s meetings on thematic issues and at summits between the EU and third countries.

COHOM: http://eeas.europa.eu/human_rights/workgroup/index_en.htm




About the International Bar Association
the global voice of the legal profession

The International Bar Association (IBA), established in 1947, is the world’s leading organisation of international legal practitioners, bar associations and law societies. Its membership includes over 40,000 lawyers and almost 200 bar associations and law societies spanning every continent. The IBA influences the development of international law reform and shapes the future of the legal profession throughout the world.

The IBA’s administrative office is in London; regional offices are located in São Paulo, Brazil and Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Grouped into two divisions – the Legal Practice Division and the Public and Professional Interest Division – the IBA offers its members access to leading experts and up-to-date information across all areas of legal practice and professional interest. Through a network of specialised committees, the IBA enables an exchange of information and opinions regarding laws, practices and professional responsibilities pertaining to the practice of law globally. High-quality publications and world-class conferences further provide unrivalled professional development and networking opportunities for legal practitioners and professional associates.

The IBA’s Bar Issues Commission provides a forum for IBA member bar associations and law societies to discuss any matter relating to law at an international level.

The IBA’s Human Rights Institute works to promote, protect and enforce human rights under a just Rule of Law, and to preserve the independence of the judiciary and the legal profession worldwide.

In partnership with the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa , the IBA created the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, based in Johannesburg, South Africa, to promote human rights and the Rule of Law in Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The IBA was instrumental in establishing the International Legal Assistance Consortium in Stockholm, Sweden. This global consortium of non-governmental organisations provides technical legal assistance to post-conflict countries.

Through a grant-funded project, the IBA also maintains an office in The Hague which manages the IBA’s International Criminal Court (ICC) Programme . This office follows the work and proceedings of the ICC, focusing primarily on the fair trial rights of the accused and the manner in which the Rome Statute and other legal documents of the Court are implemented and encourages the legal community to engage with the work of the Court. The programme also produces a dynamic news magazine about the ICC called Equality of Arms Review or EQ which is available on the IBA website.

Contact information:
International Bar Association
4th Floor, 10 St Bride Street,
London EC4 4AD
Tel: +44 (0)20 7842 0090
Fax: +44 (0)20 7842 0091
Website: http://www.ibanet.org

Credit : Burma Campaign for UK

    • Rohingya Exodus