By Hanna Hindstorm

Democratic Voice of Burma

October 23, 2013

The Burmese government is responsible for fuelling a “profound crisis” in Arakan state, where several bouts of Muslim-Buddhist clashes have claimed hundreds of lives since last year, according to a damning UN report released on Wednesday.

The 23-page document, drafted by the UN’s Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Burma, Tomas Quintana, accuses the government of failing to address local grievances behind the violence, while encouraging a culture of impunity among Buddhist perpetrators.

“There is little evidence that the government has taken steps to tackle the underlying causes of the communal violence or has put in place the policies that are necessary to forge a peaceful, harmonious and prosperous future for the state,” warned the report.

Quintana expressed concern that no public officials have been questioned or arrested, despite “consistent and credible” reports of state complicity in human rights abuses against Muslims. He described the ongoing impunity as “particularly troubling” in light of the social marginalisation of Rohingya Muslims, who are denied citizenship and heavily persecuted in Burma.

The report further backs claims that the government has unfairly targeted Muslim suspects with punitive or criminal sanctions, including the use of torture in Buthidaung prison near the Bangladeshi border.

“[Rohingya inmates] were subjected to three months of systematic torture and ill-treatment by prison guards and up to 20 prison inmates, who appear to have been brought into the prison for the specific purpose of administering beatings to Muslim prisoners,” said the report.

According to government data, 1,189 people including 260 Buddhists and 882 Rohingya Muslims have been detained for their role in the unrest. The rapporteur expressed concerns that many Muslims have been arrested as part of village “sweeps” and subsequently denied access to legal representation or fair trials.

Quintana insisted that the regime, led by President Thein Sein, has flouted its obligations to fully investigate all claims of extrajudicial killings, rapes and arbitrary detentions. He called on the international community to “consider further steps” until Burma meets its human rights obligations.

The rapporteur also highlighted the plight of several detained Rohingyas he considered political prisoners, including community leaders Tun Aung and Kyaw Hla Aung, who have both been arbitrarily detained for several months. He described the cases as a “serious blot on country’s record of reform” and urged Thein Sein to ensure their swift release.

He recommended that the mandate of the state-backed committee established to identify and release all remaining political prisoners in Burma be expanded to include suggestions to prevent future arrests. 

Religious violence first gripped Burma in June last year, when Buddhist Arakanese clashed with Muslim Rohingyas, who are considered illegal Bengali immigrants by the government. Nearly 140,000 Rohingyas have since been confined to squalid camps without adequate food, sanitation, healthcare or education.

Although Quintana welcomed some recommendations made by the state-backed Arakan investigation commission, which published a report into the violence in April, he criticised its failure to address the issue of impunity and systematic abuses against the Rohingya minority.

Quintana also condemned the rise of the so-called “969” movement, an extremist religious group which calls on Buddhists to shun Muslims and has been blamed for the spread of religious violence across the county. The latest riots, which rocked the Arakan town Sandoway [Thandwe] in early October, have been connected to a nationalist organisation with direct links to the movement’s spiritual leader and prominent monk Wirathu.

He urged the government to send a “strong, consistent and unambiguous” message through the media to counter any discriminatory propaganda vilifying Muslims and the Rohingya community, which is deeply unpopular in Burma. The rapporteur also reiterated a call for the government to revise the 1982 citizenship law, which strips the Rohingya of their legal status.

The report was compiled on the basis of a 10-day visit to the Southeast Asian country in August and will be presented to the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday. The UN is expected to pass another resolution on Burma in November, after pressure from the US government and human rights groups who want it to include strict benchmarks for measurable improvement.

By Hanna Hindstrom

Democratic Voice of Burma

October 4, 2013

President Thein Sein has accused “outsiders” of orchestrating this week’s outbreak of communal violence in Sandoway in western Burma, suggesting it was a premeditated attack intended to undermine his first ever visit to the conflict-torn region.

In a report published in state media, Thein Sein said he was “suspicious of the motives” behind the Sandoway riots, which left five Muslims dead and dozens of homes destroyed, and called for the perpetrators to be held to account.

“Participation of [everyone] is needed to expose and arrest those who got involved in the incident and those instigating the conflict behind the scene,” he told a gathering of Sandoway elders, including Kaman Muslims and Arakan Buddhists, according to Thursday’s edition of the New Light of Myanmar.

He reportedly blamed individuals driven by “external motives” for turning a trivial argument between a Muslim shop owner and Buddhist trishaw driver into an “unacceptable” outbreak of racial and religious violence.

Thein Sein insisted that the government would take swift action to identify and prosecute rioters without discriminating on the basis of religion, and called on community leaders to teach local youths not to be “deceived by instigators”.

The newspaper also reported that Gen Hla Htay Win from the Ministry of Defence, who was accompanying Thein Sein on a pre-scheduled tour of Arakan state, met with Sandoway locals to inspect the damage caused in the three-day clashes.

The article notes that Buddhist Sasana flags had been used to mark houses in order to avoid coming under attack – echoing reports from Meikhtila, where locals said Buddhists had distributed 969 stickers a week before similar violence flared in March. The 969 movement is an extremist Buddhist group preaching that Muslims are planning to take over the country and urged followers not to trade with them.

According to the New Light, Buddhist locals in Sandoway had been instructed to buy the flags from some unidentified local organisations, fuelling speculation that 969-aligned groups were behind the violence. The report added that an investigation would be held to uncover who was responsible for distributing the Buddhist flags.

On Wednesday, the Sandoway chairman of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, known for its inflammatory anti-Muslim rhetoric, and two members of a local nationalist group were held for questioning about their role in the unrest.

Burma has been swept by a tide of religious violence, increasingly targeting its minority Muslim population, since last year when Rohingya Muslims – who are denied citizenship and popularly reviled – clashed with Buddhists in northern Arakan state. The unrest has since spread through Burma’s heartlands, including Mandalay and the commercial capital Rangoon, targeting all Muslim communities.

Thein Sein has also come under fire for a perceived failure to stem the violence, which has already displaced over 140,000 mostly Muslims and claimed at least 200 lives.

Earlier this summer he defended 969 as a peaceful movement and banned a controversial edition of TIME Magazine that branded its main proponent, monk Wirathu, “The Face of Buddhist Terror”. Although the state-backed monks’ association, the Sangha Maha Nayaka, has since moved to ban 969 gatherings, there is little evidence that its leaders have been reproached.

Many foreign governments and the UN have urged Burma to do more.

Thursday’s admission is the strongest signal yet that Burma is willing to recognise the role of nationalist extremists groups in stirring up communal tensions. The government’s inertia has fuelled speculation that it is tacitly, if not actively, condoning abuses against Muslims, especially the Rohingya minority.

But rights groups continue to question the government’s commitment to tackle Buddhist extremism. Matthew Smith, the executive director at Fortify Rights International, described Thein Sein’s comments as “vague” and unsatisfactory.

“His remarks appear to be an attempt to direct attention to an unseen mastermind, diverting attention from a mountain of damning evidence against his own government for its role in ongoing violence and abuses against large segments of the Muslim population,” he told DVB on Friday.

He slammed Thein Sein for doing nothing to address the plight of the Rohingya, who unlike the Kaman Muslims in Sandoway, are denied basic rights such as freedom of movement and the right to an education.

“The international community should disabuse itself of the convenient notion that the central government bears no responsibility for what is happening in Arakan state,” he said. “We would all like to believe their hands are clean but it’s simply untrue.”

By Hanna Hindstrom

Democratic Voice of Burma

September 19, 2013

Australia is set to deport over 100 Rohingya asylum-seekers to detention centres in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Nauru in the coming weeks, in spite of accusations that the move would breach international human rights law.

It follows a decision by the former government in July to redirect all asylum-seekers to its poorer Pacific neighbours in an effort to stem the influx of boat people to Australia – which the newly elected Conservative prime minister has vowed to uphold. 

All new arrivals – of which 1,585 were recorded in August – will be sent onwards to Nauru or Manus Island in PNG where they will be resettled if successful, despite allegations of mistreatment and abuse at local detention facilities.

According to a local campaign group, at least 100 Rohingyas fleeing conflict and persecution in Burma’s western Arakan state are among those to arrive in Australia since the government announced its new policy. 

A spokesperson for the Department of Immigration confirmed to DVB on Wednesday that 72 Burmese nationals and 284 stateless individuals – which is likely to include some Rohingyas – were set for removal. 

Although he would not lay out a concrete time frame, he said that “regular transfers” of asylum seekers had taken place since July, with exceptions only being made for those with urgent medical needs.

“Everyone who’s arrived since 19 July is subject to transfer – initially to processing on Christmas Island and then onwards to either PNG or Nauru,” said the spokesperson. 

Meanwhile Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who was sworn into office on Wednesday, has moved to implement an even more draconian immigration policy by authorising the navy to intercept and physically drag boats back to their country of origin, usually Indonesia. 

“It’s so important that we send a message to the people-smugglers that from today their business model is coming to an end,” Abbott said at his inaugural ceremony.

Part of the AUS$440 million (US$397 million) scheme includes buying old fishing boats from Indonesia in a bid to prevent traffickers from using them, which activists say raises serious safety concerns for Rohingya refugees fleeing Burma.

Chris Lewa from the campaign group, the Arakan Project, described the plan as “totally ridiculous”, adding that it will only punish the victims and not the traffickers. 

“It’s definitely not going to stop [the boats] that’s for sure,” Lewa told DVB on Thursday. “Here I’m asking [Rohingya] people in Malaysia if they are still planning to go to Australia, and they say ‘yes’.”

More than 300 Burmese nationals have arrived in Australia this year, along with nearly 2,000 stateless people – who are all counted as one group but include Rohingyas, Kurds, Palestinians and others.

Earlier this week a group of Australian lawyers vowed to challenge their government at the current UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, after criticising Abbott’s policy as tantamount to “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment”.

It follows reports that G4S, the security firm responsible for running the detention facility on Manus Island – under a scheme that will cost Australian taxpayers up to AUS$1 billion (US$950 million) – has been implicated in serious abuses against inmates, including rape and torture. 

A recent investigation by The Guardian exposed “serious” gaps in the government’s oversight mechanisms for the company’s management of the Manus Island facility. But Australia has already laid out expansion plans for the centre, including cramming 10,000 more tents onto the island.

The UN Refugee Agency has accused Australia of subjecting asylum-seekers to “arbitrary detention that is inconsistent with international human rights law” and identified “significant shortcomings” in PNG’s protection mechanisms for processing refugees. Under the 1951 Refugee Convention, Australia is obligated to assist victims of political oppression.

But a spokesperson for the Refugee Council of Australia (RCA) told DVB that the government – from both sides of the political spectrum – has actively “pursued policies to deflect responsibility for people seeking protection from persecution” over the past year.

“This not only contravenes Australia’s international human rights obligations, it undermines efforts to improve refugee protections in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Andrew Williams, Communications Manager at RCA.

“The treatment of Rohingya, who are often treated as ‘illegal’ or unwanted in their country of birth and in other places they seek asylum, highlights the need for much better answers and greater sharing or responsibility for refugee protection.”

It is unclear whether Rohingya refugees who are accepted in Nauru will ever be able to obtain citizenship status, while the Christian-majority PNG is considering adopting a bill that would prevent other religions from being openly practiced.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims, who are denied citizenship in Burma, have fled the country since two bouts of communal clashes with Buddhists last year, which left nearly 140,000 displaced and 200 dead.

By Hanna Hindstrom

Democratic Voice of Burma

August 24, 2013

Burma’s ethnic Rohingya continue to face heavy persecution in northern Arakan state, despite the dissolution of a controversial border guard force which had been implicated in mass atrocities against the Muslim community.

According to an independent report seen by DVB on Friday, Rohingyas living in the Muslim-majority Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships near the Bangladeshi border have been “subject to a campaign of mass arrest and renewed restrictions” since a wave of clashes with Buddhists in Arakan state last year.

Although Rohingyas in northern Arakan suffered fewer casualties, less segregation and displacement in the violence compared to those in Buddhist-majority regions, abuses against them are of “significant concern” and a climate of harassment and insecurity persists.

Hundreds of Rohingyas, including children, the elderly and four humanitarian workers, continue to be detained since last year’s riots which displaced over 140,000 people across the western state. The vast majority are being held in the notorious Buthidaung prison, where credible reports of “systematic torture” have emerged.

“They have not had access to fair judicial process and many had been tortured before or in jail custody,” warned the report. “While some are still awaiting trial, many were convicted with harsh prison sentences.”

Earlier this week, Buthidaung court sentenced 43 Rohingya detainees to jail terms ranging from six years to life for their alleged role in the violence. It is also alleged that “several truckloads” of Rohingya inmates, including children, were transferred out of the jail in the days preceding the visit of Tomás Ojea Quintana, the UN special Rapporteur, to the area in mid-August. They were reportedly sent back after he left.

This account was confirmed by Shwe Maung, a Rohingya MP from Buthidaung township. “An eyewitness called me before the visit of Mr Quintana and said that about 200 prisoners were moved to Maungdaw and after the visit they were [moved] back,” he told DVB on Friday.

Quintana, who wrapped up a 10-day visit to Burma this week, told DVB that concerns about torture in Buthidaung jail were legitimate.

“I can confirm last year during the violence that hundreds of Muslims in detention were subjected to systematic use of torture,” he said in an exclusive interview. “These are crimes that the government is obliged to investigate and to hold accountable those who are responsible.”

Meanwhile local sources say that the disbanding of the notorious Nasaka border guard force, which was set up in 1992 to patrol the Bangladeshi border, has only brought “modest improvements” and many Rohingyas view the move as simply “old wine in a new bottle”.

The report notes that while police officers have reduced their reliance on forced labour and eased some local travel restrictions, the collection of arbitrary taxation has skyrocketed. Rickshaw drivers have reported being forced to pay 100 kyat (US$0.10) each time they pass through police checkpoints outside of Maungdaw.

Shwe Maung adds that Rohingyas are still unable to travel between townships, such as Buthidaung and Maungdaw, and workers without travel permits have been arrested at police checkpoints.

“Even though the Nasaka was disbanded, people are still not allowed to move freely, they cannot go freely to Maungdaw, they cannot go freely to Sittwe. So socio-economically, it is very bad,” said Shwe Maung, who represents the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party.

After a meeting with Quintana, the Arakan Chief of Police confirmed that anyone found in possession of a Bangladeshi mobile phone or SIM card would be arrested and prosecuted in accordance with existing laws. But he denied that Rohingyas were subject to a two-child limit, as previously affirmed by the Burmese government.

Describing it to a Nasaka “practice”, he added that village administrators would now be in charge of issuing marriage permits, which Rohingya couples are required to obtain. Chris Lewa, head of the Arakan project, said that is too early to assess the long-term impact of the Nasaka’s dissolution, especially relating to the two-child policy but that marriage restrictions were “unlikely” to change.

She added that the main perpetrator of human rights violations and arbitrary arrests was the army, which is exclusively made up of Buddhists. “Nearly all forced labour is now carried out by the military,” said Lewa, who advocates for the rights of Rohingyas.

Locals say there has been a sharp increase in military troops in Maungdaw and Buthidaung, amid news reports that militant pro-Rohingya groups have been active along the border. But Shwe Maung dismissed the reports as “propaganda” intended to stir communal tensions.

President Thein Sein disbanded the Nasaka in mid-July amid heavy international criticisms of its treatment of the Rohingya, who are viewed as illegal Bengali immigrants by the government and denied citizenship in Burma.

Hanna Hindstrom

Democratic Voice of Burma

June 20, 2013

Human trafficking remains a significant problem in both Burma and Thailand, where the stateless Rohingya minority has become particularly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, a leading US report warned on Wednesday.

The annual trafficking in persons (TIP) report released by the US state department accused the Burmese government of fuelling forced labour and trafficking among the Muslim Rohingya by denying them citizenship and stripping them of basic rights.

More than 20,000 Rohingyas are estimated to have fled on rickety boats from Arakan state in western Burma, since two bouts of ethno-religious clashes with Buddhists last year. Many end up paying hundreds of dollars to “brokers”, who either abandon them en route, or sell them to traffickers.

“There were reports that some Rohingya asylum seekers transiting Thailand en route to Malaysia were sold into forced labor on Thai fishing boats, reportedly with the assistance of Thai military officials,” said the report.

Thailand also regularly deports migrant Rohingyas back to Burma, despite protests from human rights groups, where they may be subject to re-trafficking, often in collusion with local authorities. The TIP report accuses elements in the ethnic rebel group the Democratic Karen Benevolent (formerly Buddhist) Army of participating in the trade of ethnic Rohingyas.

Burmese authorities in Arakan state have also been implicated in fuelling forced labour, sex slavery and abuse. According to the TIP report, military personnel have kidnapped several Rohingya women from the state capital Sittwe and subjected them to sexual slavery on military installations.

Earlier this year, media reports revealed that a growing number of Rohingya women were being sold as unwilling “mail order brides” to Malaysia in order to meet the growing demand for wives among the refugee population.

“As far as the Rohingya are concerned, Burma has greatly increased their vulnerability to trafficking,” Chris Lewa, head of the Arakan Project, an NGO that campaigns for the rights of Rohingyas, told DVB. “Segregation and restriction of movement have curtailed their access to livelihood; state’s persecution and arbitrary arrests have prompted many to flee abroad.“

Nearly 140,000 displaced Rohingya are currently estimated to be living in squalid camps in western Burma, where they are subjected to severe restrictions on their movements, work and family life.

Other ethnic minority populations in Burma were also identified as particularly vulnerable to trafficking and forced labour, especially in conflict-torn border regions, such as Kachin state.

“Military personnel and insurgent militia engage in the unlawful conscription of child soldiers and continue to be the leading perpetrators of forced labor inside the country, particularly in conflict-prone ethnic areas,” said the report, which ranks Burma on its Tier 2 “watch list” for the second year running.

The allegations came on the same day that the International Labour Organization (ILO) decided to lift all remaining sanctions against the former pariah state. Burma moved up from Tier 3 last year, the report’s lowest ranking, in large part due to its efforts to address forced labour in collaboration with the ILO.

Thailand, which was identified as a key destination country for Burmese trafficking victims, remained on the Tier 2 “watch list” for the fourth year running. It comes amid reports that three Burmese nationals were arrested in the Thai border town Mae Sot this week for running a prostitution ring using underage girls.

The report highlights the country’s sex tourism industry as a prominent incentive for the trafficking of women and girls. But labour rights campaigners in Thailand say the report is a “subjective” and “non-evidence” based study, which illustrates how poorly the US understands the sex industry.

Liz Hilton from the sex workers’ rights group, the Empower Foundation, insists that it is the criminalisation of sex work that is to blame.

“Look at New Zealand, where sex work is decriminalised — they’ve had no children in the sex industry, they’ve had no prosecutions for trafficking for nine years, and they’re Tier 1,” she told DVB. “So obviously the decriminalisation of sex work eliminates trafficking.”

Thailand spent US$3.7 million on anti-trafficking activities in 2012, but only assisted 270 victims. Hilton adds that this is a “bigger budget than they spend on climate change” or the women’s empowerment fund. Meanwhile, 350,000 migrants, mostly from Burma, were arrested for illegal entry in 2012, but only 57 were helped.

“[Forced work] is one tiny little tick of the exploitation in Thailand, whether it’s in the sex industry or the fishing industry or whatever,” said Hilton. “What needs to be reformed is the labour conditions in Thailand.”

Hanna Hindstrom 

April 10, 2013

A recent riot at an Indonesian detention centre, in which eight Burmese Buddhists were killed by a mob of Muslims, was sparked by the rape and sexual assault of three Rohingya women, a new police investigation has revealed. 

According to a police report obtained by DVB, the Indonesian prison brawl, which broke out on 5 April killing eight Buddhists and injuring 15 Rohingya men, was not caused by an argument over religious violence in Burma as previously reported. 

Instead the report pins the blame on “several incidents” of sexual violence perpetrated by Burmese Buddhists against Rohingya women, including two brutal gang rapes, which the authorities failed to investigate. A third woman was sexually assaulted by two men after taking a bath next to her room at the Belawan detention centre in Medan, Sumatra island. 

Although a Rohingya leader quickly reported the incidents to officers at the detention centre, the perpetrators were “only reprimanded and slapped” on the cheek, according to the police report. 

A gang of eight Buddhists, identified as “illegal fishermen”, then threatened the Rohingyas and “an unequal quarrel broke out”, in which knives, wooden rods and screwdrivers were used by the two groups to attack each other. All five men, implicated in the three cases of rape and sexual assault, were killed in the brawl. 

The new report contradicts previous accounts, which suggested that the Rohingyas launched an attack against the Buddhists after seeing images of recent anti-Muslim violence, which swept through central Burma in late March, claiming over 40 lives. 

It follows two bouts of vicious clashes between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists Arakanese in western Burma last year, in which over 125,000 people were displaced. 

The Rohingyas detained on Sumatra Island in Indonesia were described by police as “asylum seekers” with “long-standing resentment against Buddhist citizens of Myanmar [Burma] as a result of atrocities against Rohingya people committed by other Myanmar citizens.”

Rohingyas are denied citizenship and basic rights by the Burmese government and are considered one of the world’s most persecuted minorities by the UN. 

Since last year’s violence in western Burma, which primarily targeted Muslim villages, more than 15,000 Rohingyas have fled the country. The refugees, including women and children, often makes the perilous journey by sea on rickety boats, in the hopes of reaching other Muslim countries, such as Indonesia or Malaysia. 

The Burmese government has demanded a full investigation into the violence and called on the Indonesian authorities “to pay special attention” to the protection of its citizens. 

Police forces have named 20 Rohingya asylum seekers as suspects in the violence, including five 16-year-olds and one 15-year-old. According to the Jakarta Post, the suspects are accused of “conducting collective assault and torturing” and face a maximum sentence of 12 years imprisonment if convicted. 

The report also called for an increase in security at Indonesian detention centres, as well as the segregation of Muslims and Buddhists from Burma. 

However questions remain over the future of the remaining Rohingya detainees, who may be returned to Burma unless they are granted asylum in Indonesia or a third country. The police report also reveals that the detention centre was crammed with over twice as many inmates as its capacity allowed. 

The UN Refugee Agency has appealed for calm and urged the Indonesian authorities “to take action to prevent further violence, including moving individuals into community housing as soon as possible”.

This news report is originally published here.

Hanna Hindstrom

Democratic Voice of Burma

February 22, 2013

A member of parliament has fired back at claims that Rohingya Muslims do not exist in Burma, after a senior government minister allegedly accused the group of fabricating its history in a parliamentary discussion on Wednesday. 

It follows media reports that the Deputy Immigration Minister, Kyaw Kyaw Win, on Wednesday formally denied the existence of a Rohingya race in Burma, referring to a stateless Muslim minority isolated near the Bangladeshi border. 

But Shwe Maung, who is a native Rohingya, slammed the allegations, quoted in the English-language version of Burma’s state media outlet the New Light of Myanmar, as historically and factually inaccurate. 

“We should not simply deny there are no Rohingya, if we do that it would be irresponsible, we need a study,” said the MP, who represents Buthidaung constituency in northern Arakan state. 

Shwe Maung is one of only two Rohingya MPs in parliament, both of whom represent the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in Maungdaw district. In recent months, he has played an increasingly vocal role in defending the stateless minority, which is broadly viewed as “illegal Bengali immigrants” and denied citizenship by the government. 

It follows two bouts of vicious sectarian clashes between Arakanese Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya in western Burma last year, which prompted senior politicians – many from the military and USDP – to call for the group to be exiled to a third country. 

But Shwe Maung told DVB that he is leading a parliamentary initiative, along with two other MPs from Maungdaw district, to promote the rights of Rohingyas. He explained that they have called on the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Shwe Mann, to set up an investigative commission to establish whether or not Rohingyas exist in Burma. 

“We [also] shared a separate report with our colleagues and MPs and I’ve received a lot of positive and constructive remarks,” he said. “We focused on the facts and documents, especially printed by government media and the ministry of information. Based on that most of the MPs are impressed and agree that there are Rohingya [in Burma].” 

Shwe Maung cited historical research carried out prior to the British colonisation of Burma in 1824, which formally recognised some 30,000 “Rohingya” Muslims living in Arakan state. Both Burma’s first president and prime minister, Sao Shwe Thaik and U Nu respectively, reportedly recognised the Rohingya as one of the country’s “indigenous races”. 

They were later stripped of their citizenship by former military dictator Ne Win. 

“During my recent visit to Sittwe I have seen a lot of families with birth certificates with the ethnic name Rohingya, but still [some are] denying [them],” he said, dismissing allegations that “Bengalis” are migrating into Arakan state. 

“People are not coming in, people are going out,” he said. “In [our language] Burmese Rakhine Muslims are called Rohingya – they are the Muslim people who live in Arakan.” 

He also accused the English-version of the New Light of misrepresenting Wednesday’s parliamentary discussion. 

“[Kyaw Kyaw Win] did not mention there is no Rohingya in Myanmar, but it appeared in the [English-language] media,” Shwe Muang. 

In fact, the Burmese version of the New Light, quoted Kyaw Kyaw Win as saying “there have been cross-border relations since the ancient times”, although he added that Arakanese Muslims were not recognised as natives in the 1973 census. But many government representatives, including the President’s Office Director Zaw Htay, seized the opportunity to slate the Rohingya on social media. 

Although Shwe Maung’s increasingly vocal activism represents a significant shift in the USDP’s notorious reputation for silencing dissent, some analysts question its implications for Burma’s political transition. 

“I think it says more about the USDP, which is a party that people joined because it gave them a position of influence rather than a party with a particular ideology,” Mark Farmaner from Burma Campaign UK told DVB. 

“I don’t think it says much about parliament, which is constitutionally almost powerless. I think it can give people a voice they didn’t have before; and some MPs are using that to represent their constituents whereas others are using it to promote their own self-interests.” 

Farmaner added that it was “unfortunate” that Aung San Suu Kyi’s party – the National League for Democracy (NLD) – has still failed to come out more strongly on the Rohingya issue. 

But Shwe Maung insists that he will continue to “carry the voices of his constituents” to parliament. He added that he is not necessarily pushing for Rohingyas to be recognised as “indigenous peoples” in Burma, but that their basic human rights must be respected. 

“For the time being the most important thing is the people. People are living with a lack of food, they cannot move, they cannot access the market, they cannot access aid from the international community.” 

More than 125,000 people, mostly from the Rohingya minority, were uprooted in last year’s violence and many are still denied humanitarian aid.

Hanna Hindstorm

Democratic Voice of Burma

February 12, 2013

A prominent Rohingya human rights activist and interpreter, who has helped many international journalists travelling to the conflict-torn Arakan state in western Burma, was detained by authorities in Sittwe on Tuesday morning, local police have confirmed. 

Aung Win, an ethnic Rohingya with Burmese citizenship, was arrested around 10am this morning on his way to Sittwe’s Muslim quarter, Aung Mingalar. Local sources say he was hoping to meet with the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Burma, Tomas Quintana, who was visiting the state-capital as part of his latest Burma tour. 

Local police told DVB that he was “found walking in the streets” and taken to “the station for his own safety”. They alleged that he has since been released and returned to his home village on the outskirts of Sittwe. But local sources said they had been told by a police officer that he would not be released until 6pm and that his detention was specifically designed to prevent him from meeting Quintana. At the time of writing, Aung Win could still not be reached by telephone. 

Aung Win has helped a number of international media groups, including DVB, travel to the restive state in western Burma, where sectarian clashes pitted Buddhists against the stateless Rohingya minority last year. Local sources say that over 25,000 Burmese army troops have since been deployed to the region to enforce segregation between the two communities. 

“Apparently he did want to talk to Mr Quintana but it is unclear whether that alone would be the reason for his arrest,” Chris Lewa from the Arakan Project told DVB on Tuesday. Aung Win is an outspoken critic of the treatment of Rohingyas in western Burma, and has featured in several international media reports about last year’s violence. 

Since the first outbreak of clashes in June last year, more than 1,600 Rohingya Muslims have been arrested, including many community leaders with ties to the international media. His detention comes less than a day after DVB published allegations of widespread abuse and torture targeting detained Rohingya in Arakan state. 

A spokesperson for the UN Office for the Commission of Human Rights in Bangkok told DVB that they had “just received information” of Aung Win’s arrest and were trying to make contact with Quintana to discuss the allegations. The Special Rapporteur is spending a week travelling through Burma, including the volatile Kachin and Arakan states, in a bid to assess the country’s human rights situation. 

Some 800,000 Muslim Rohingyas live in western Burma, where they are denied basic rights, including citizenship and have been described by the UN as one of the world’s most persecuted minorities. 

President Thein Sein has been widely lauded for introducing a series of democratic reforms in the country since March 2011, including freeing political prisoners and easing media restrictions. But analysts say that progress has been mixed, especially in ethnic minority regions.

Hanna Hindstrom

Democratic Voice of Burma

February 11, 2013

Nearly 1,000 Muslim Rohingyas, including women and children as young as ten, remain incarcerated in northern Arakan state – accused of inciting sectarian clashes last year – where campaigners say they are subject to “pervasive” abuses and at least 68 people are believed to have died in custody. 

New data obtained by DVB shows that torture and violence, including the sexual exploitation of minors, is widespread throughout prisons in northern Arakan state, where at least 966 Rohingyas have been detained since November last year. At least 10 women and 72 children, aged between 10 and 15 years old, are understood to be among the prisoners. 

An estimated 1,600 Rohingyas were initially arrested in northern Arakan state after two bouts of sectarian clashes with local Buddhists, although many were later released after paying bribes “as high as 20 million kyats (USD$23,350)” to local officials, Chris Lewa from the Arakan Project told DVB. Some of the prisoners were initially held together with Buddhists, where they faced regular beatings – often with the support of authorities. 

“Every day a group of 10 to 15 new prisoners was taken out of their ward and beaten by jail police and Rakhine [Arakanese] prisoners,” said a 70-year-old former inmate in Buthidaung jail, who was initially sentenced to five years in jail, but later released. “Elderly Muslim prisoners, including me, were ordered to put the dead bodies into sacks and leave them at the jail gate. The dead bodies were taken away at night.” 

Sixty-two deaths were recorded in Buthidaung jail alone, where prisoners also reported being forced to shower naked in public and routinely subjected to torture and sexual humiliation. 

“Many [new inmates] had no clothes and it was clear that many had been badly tortured before their arrival in Buthidaung jail,” another former inmate said. “Some had broken bones; others knife injuries – some with cuts on their head and some on other parts of their body.“ 

The figures seen by DVB roughly correspond with government statistics released in December, which suggested that 849 Bengalis – the term officially used for the stateless Rohingya – were among the 1,121 people detained for their role in last year’s violence, which displaced over 125,000 people. Some 233 Arakanese were also in detention at the time, although many have since been released. 

Aye Maung, who was recently released from Sittwe jail along with nine other Buddhists accused of burning down a Muslim village, told DVB that 85 percent of the remaining 200 prisoners were Rohingya. He added that Arakanese inmates were treated as they would have been back in the “junta times” unless they “complained” about their conditions. But he insisted that Buddhists and Muslims were kept separately and “there were no problems” between the communities. 

“Speaking to Rakhine in Sittwe, civil society groups have put a lot of pressure on the authorities to release them,” said Lewa. “They even said it was unjust that they had been arrested, that it was the Rohingya that set fire to their own houses. It seems to confirm that the Rakhine can get out a lot easier than the Rohingya.” 

Roughly 800,000 Muslim Rohingya live in northwestern Burma, where they are viewed as illegal Bengali immigrants and denied basic rights, including citizenship. The state government was accused of siding with the Buddhist Arakanese in last year’s clashes.

Many of the detained Arakanese have been charged with lesser offences, including breaching the curfew imposed by the president in June, which usually carries sentences of less than six months. But most of the Rohingya have been targeted with draconian sections of Burma’s penal code, which carry sentences of up to 13 years. 

A number of prominent Muslim leaders have also been detained in what campaigners describe as an “arbitrary” campaign to silence those with connections to the international community or media. 

Kyaw Hla Aung, a lawyer and former worker for Médecins Sans Frontières, was one of several aid workers arrested in June after being accused of having links to Al-Qaeda. He was released in August only after sustained pressure from the aid group and the international community. 

“I am the only lawyer among the Rohingya people so they are worried that I can communicate with others and I have the political knowledge so they are afraid of me,” he told DVB during a recent field visit to Sittwe. 

Similarly, Dr Tun Aung, a retired doctor and Islamic community leader, was sentenced to 11 years in jail in November after “sending news abroad” and allegedly failing to notify the authorities about potential violence. He was convicted at a closed trial – and many of his witnesses reported being blocked from travelling to court to testify in his defence. 

His family says they have not been allowed to visit or even speak to him over the phone since his arrest in June. His daughter, Thiri, told DVB that the entire family is “very worried about his health” and fear that the 65-year-old has been tortured. 

“This is by far one of the worst examples, where freedom of all forms – professional freedom, freedom of expression and the rights of a person who is charged with a crime – has been violated by the state authorities in Burma,” said Bijo Francis from the Asian Human Rights Commission. 

The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) has recently resumed prison visits in the former pariah state, which is eventually expected to include Arakan state, but a spokesperson admitted that they will “not question the reasons for arrests” and none of their findings will be made publicly available. 

Lewa further warned that a number of inmates in northern Arakan state had been threatened not to speak to the ICRC or risk being killed. 

President Thein Sein’s government has been credited for introducing dramatic democratic reforms in Burma, including freeing political prisoners and easing media restrictions. On Thursday, state media announced the formation of a commission to investigate how many political prisoners remain in Burma, but rights groups have raised questions over its independence and scope. The government declined to comment. 

-Min Lwin contributed additional reporting.

Hanna Hindstrom

Democratic Voice of Burma

February 5, 2013

Thousands of Muslim Rohingyas, who were uprooted after sectarian clashes in western Burma last year, are still not registered as internally displaced persons (IDPs) by the government and continue to be denied humanitarian assistance, local sources have warned. 

An international aid worker, who recently returned from the conflict-torn Arakan state, told DVB that she visited remote areas around the state capital Sittwe, where people were forced to beg for food from locals and registered IDPs in order to survive. 

“What most of the world is not aware of are the refugees that are not living in [registered] camps,” said Oddny Gumaer from Partners Relief and Development. “And those people are living in conditions that are so bad that I’m sure if the international community doesn’t do something very soon they are going to die.” 

She told DVB that she was “overwhelmed” by the conditions in some of the areas she visited, which she described as akin to “concentration camps”. 

“If they are lucky they have a tarp to cover them, many of them have stitched together old rice sacks. There are no toilets, no sanitation, doctors, and no access to hospitals. I saw babies that were so malnourished and children with bloated stomachs and mothers that couldn’t feed their babies because they didn’t have any milk.” 

Arakan state was rocked by two bouts of sectarian violence in June and October last year, when the majority Buddhist population clashed with the Muslim Rohingya — a stateless minority group viewed as illegal Bengali immigrants by the government. While most of the displaced have been registered as IDPs and receive some form of humanitarian aid, many of the Rohingya have not. 

A recent report by the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN agency formally tasked with humanitarian distribution in Arakan state, recognised the problem of unregistered Rohingya camps on the outskirts of Sittwe. 

“Unregistered IDPs do not receive assistance from the international community, leaving them largely reliant on donations from host villagers and external religious organisations,” said the report released in late January. “As a consequence, living conditions for “unregistered” IDP populations are not good, with most living in small huts made of straws and pieces of tarpaulins.” 

According to the report, many “unregistered” families fled after the October conflict, because of ongoing tensions or fears of renewed clashes in their local area, “sometimes at the behest of authorities”. But a WFP spokesperson insisted that the “majority” of those displaced in last year’s violence are receiving assistance. 

“There is still a relative fluidity to the situation and people are still moving, but the government, WFP and other humanitarian actors are doing everything we can to make sure that all those who should be registered are,” Marcus Prior told DVB. 

The UN agency says it registered an additional 15,000 people between December and January, bringing the total number of IDPs to 125,000. But it is likely that thousands more, as well as host communities who have lost their livelihoods as a result of travel restrictions, are in need of aid. 

“Without a proper assessment led by government it is very difficult to say how many additional people need assistance,” Kirsten Mildren from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told DVB via email. 

“We know anecdotally that there are people that have arrived from Sittwe town and rural areas to the camps outside Sittwe. Some estimates say as many as 10,000.” 

A spokesperson for the local state government blamed the Rohingya for refusing to stay in one place. 

“I would like to say that [IDPs] in Pauktaw should stay in Pauktaw; why come to Sittwe or Tharyar?,” said Win Myaing in an interview with DVB. “Now, when we are making a list in the camp over here, then people from [another camp] will come. Frankly, [the Rohingya] are just attempting to make the list bigger so that they can get more aid.” 

He also accused the UN of “failing” to provide for unregistered IDPs and host communities affected by the violence. “WFP doesn’t provide aid at all for the unregistered refugees. But our government; the state government, is distributing aid for all those who are on the list or not on the list.” 

WFP insists they have managed to secure access to most of the areas in Arakan state, except for the very remotest. But other aid groups say access continues to be severely hampered by local hostility and government indifference. 

Since violence first erupted last year, local nationalists have led a vociferous campaign against international aid groups, who they perceive as treating the Rohingya favourably, even though they account for the vast majority of those displaced. 

Peter Aung contributed reporting.