By Yimou Lee

Reuters

January 26, 2018

YANGON -- Veteran U.S. diplomat Bill Richardson denied he was asked by Myanmar’s government to step down from an international advisory board on the Rohingya crisis, his spokesman said on Friday.

A statement issued by the office of Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi late on Thursday had accused Richardson of pursuing “his own agenda” and said that the government decided to ask him to quit as his continued participation on the board would not be in the best interests of all concerned. 

“At no point was the Governor asked to step down, either in person or in writing by any member of the Government of Myanmar or the Chair of the Advisory Board,” Richardson’s spokesman Mickey Bergman told Reuters. 

“Quite the opposite, their National Security Advisor stopped by the night before to convince the Governor to stay as planned.” 

Richardson said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday that he was resigning from the board because it was conducting a “whitewash” and accused Myanmar’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, of lacking “moral leadership”. 

The departure of Richardson, a former Clinton administration cabinet member, came as the 10-member advisory board was making its first visit to western Rakhine State, from where around 688,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled in recent months. 

A U.S. official, who spoke on Thursday on condition of anonymity, said the issues raised by Richardson had reinforced concerns about Myanmar’s handling of the Rohingya crisis. Still, the official said, the United States would likely stick to its ”measured” approach of applying limited pressure on Myanmar and avoiding more drastic measures that could destabilise the situation. 

‘CHEERLEADING SQUAD’ 

A separate statement from the nine remaining members of the advisory board on Thursday said they met this week “with open minds” and agreed “to speak with one voice”. 

“Therefore, any statement about the Advisory Board ‘whitewashing’ or ‘cheerleading’ for anyone lacks complete legitimacy,” the board said. 

Richardson said in the Reuters interview that he was worried the board would become “a cheerleading squad” for the government. 

Richardson’s spokesman said the reference to pursuing his own agenda would seem to refer to his addressing with Suu Kyi the issue of two imprisoned Reuters journalists.

In his interview with Reuters, Richardson said he got into a furious argument with Suu Kyi at a Monday night dinner when he brought up the case of two Reuters reporters, who were arrested on Dec. 12 on suspicion of violating Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act. 

Reporters Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, had worked on Reuters coverage of the crisis in Rakhine. They were detained on Dec. 12 after they had been invited to meet police officers over dinner in Yangon. 

“It’s important to note that he agreed to serve on the Board a month before the Reuters journalists were arrested,” said Richardson’s spokesman Bergman. 

The armed forces have been accused by Rohingya witnesses and human rights activists of carrying out killings, rapes and arson in Rakhine in a campaign senior officials in the United Nations and United States have described as ethnic cleansing. Myanmar rejects that label and has denied nearly all the allegations. 

The former New Mexico governor’s foundation, the Richardson Center, has “invested tens of thousands of dollars of its own money” in preparing for his role on the board “and were gearing up for a full year of robust programming for 2018,” Bergman said. 

Richardson led the first foreign delegation allowed to visit Suu Kyi in 1994 when she was under house arrest, Bergman said, ”and helped to get many Myanmar political prisoners out during military rule, some are currently serving in her government. 

“It is heartbreaking to see her indulging in similar practices, now that she is in power,” Bergman added. 

REPATRIATION CAMPS 

Former South African Defence Minister Roelof Petrus Meyer, one of the four remaining international members of the board, said on Thursday Richardson’s departure was “really unfortunate”. 

After touring temporary repatriation camps set up by Myanmar, Meyer said he thought the country was ready to take back the Rohingya refugees under an agreement with Bangladesh, where they are currently sheltering. 

“The security will be provided...the subject is so internationally covered so I don’t think (Rohingya) people should be scared,” he said. 

The Advisory Board for the Committee for Implementation of the Recommendations on Rakhine State was set up by Myanmar last year, to advise on enacting the findings of an earlier commission headed by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. 

Thursday’s statement from Suu Kyi’s office said the government was committed to “implementing the recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State to the fullest extent possible and in the shortest timeframe, in accordance with the situation on the ground”. 

Additional reporting by Thu Thu Aung and Yimou Lee in Yangon, Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom in Washington, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Paritosh Bansal in Davos; Writing by Bill Tarrant; Editing by Martin Howell

By Michael Bowman

CAPITOL HILL — A bipartisan group of U.S. senators moved to confront Myanmar over ethnic cleansing on Wednesday, with one Democrat accusing Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of holding up action on the Rohingya crisis because of his ties to the country's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

“The problem comes down to one specific issue — the relationship and friendship between Senator McConnell and Aung San Suu Kyi,” Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois told VOA. “Time and again when we’ve tried to tell the Rohingya story, the atrocities that are occurring to these people at the hands of the Myanmar military and suggest the need for leadership in Myanmar to stop it, there’s been an effort by Senator McConnell and others to stop the conversation.”

For more than two decades, McConnell was a prime sponsor of numerous sanctions measures aimed at the military junta which finally released Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and permitted elections won by her party in 2015.

McConnell “felt and we all felt years ago that she [Aung San Suu Kyi] showed extraordinary courage,” Durbin said, “but that doesn’t mean that we can ignore what’s happening today in her country and the need for her leadership.”

McConnell 'deeply troubled'

Voice of America reached out to the Republican leader’s communications director, David Popp, for comment and was referred to a statement from last September in which McConnell said he was “deeply troubled by the humanitarian situation along the Burmese-Bangladeshi border” but said that “publicly condemning Aun San Suu Kyi — the best hope for democratic reform in Burma — is not constructive.”

Hours earlier, Durbin and 14 other senators, including Republicans John McCain of Arizona and Marco Rubio of Florida as well as Democrats Tim Kaine of Virginia and Dianne Feinstein of California, introduced a Senate resolution condemning “the violence and displacement inflicted on Burma’s Rohingya and other ethnic minorities” and calling for “an immediate halt to all hostilities by Burmese authorities.”

The resolution seeks “voluntary, safe, and dignified repatriation” for Rohingya refugees, who should “enjoy equal rights with others in Burma, including the restoration or granting of full citizenship, freedom of movement, and access to basic services.”

'The greatest hope'

The resolution also urges the United Nations “to consider the feasibility of Bangladesh’s proposal for a ‘safe zone’ or for a peacekeeping mission to protect and defend vulnerable communities under international supervision.” In addition, it calls for the release of two Reuters journalists arrested and charged with violating the country’s Official Secrets Act.

McConnell had declined to support an similar resolution in September, which demanded that Aung San Suu Kyi do more to protect the Rohingyas. “I don’t favor a resolution going after her,” he said at that time. “I think she’s the greatest hope that we have to move Burma from where it has been, a military dictatorship, to where I hope it’s going.”

Amid Capitol Hill’s renewed focus on the Rohingya crisis, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations quit a Myanmar government advisory board on the country’s troubled Rakhine State, decrying the panel as “a cheerleading squad for government policy.”

Absence of 'moral leadership'

In a statement Wednesday, Ambassador Bill Richardson, who also served as governor of New Mexico, described himself as a friend of Aung San Suu Kyi but accused her of an absence of “moral leadership” on the refugee crisis and of disparaging “the media, the United Nations, human rights groups, and in general the international community.”

Richardson added, “Without the commitment and moral leadership needed from the top, my engagement on the Advisory Board is no longer tenable.”

Neither Aung San Suu Kyi nor her spokesman responded to questions for comment.

Bipartisan outrage building

In Washington, bipartisan outrage over the refugee crisis has been building to a boiling point among lawmakers.

“Since August, more than 650,000 innocent men, women and children have been forced to flee a campaign of unspeakable violence that the United Nations has called a textbook example of ethnic cleansing,” McCain said in a statement. “Many Rohingya believe their return home will be met with more violence. These displaced families deserve to have confidence that their return will be safe, voluntary and dignified. The United States and the international community should stand for nothing less,” added McCain.

“It is a most horrific circumstance,” Durbin told VOA. “When you go to a country and you say the word ‘Rohingya’ and the people of Myanmar stop to correct you, saying, 'There is no such thing — you can’t use that term,’ they deny, literally, the existence of the people who are the victims.”

YANGON -- Veteran U.S. diplomat Bill Richardson has resigned from an international panel set up by Myanmar to advise on the Rohingya crisis, saying it was conducting a “whitewash” and accusing the country’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi of lacking “moral leadership”.

Richardson, a former Clinton administration cabinet member, quit as the 10-member advisory board was making its first visit to western Rakhine State, from where nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled in recent months. 

“The main reason I am resigning is that this advisory board is a whitewash,” Richardson told Reuters in an interview, adding he did not want to be part of “a cheerleading squad for the government”. 

Richardson said he got into an argument with Suu Kyi during a meeting on Monday with other members of the board, when he brought up the case of two Reuters reporters who are on trial accused of breaching the country’s Officials Secrets Act. 

He said Suu Kyi’s response was “furious”, saying the case of the reporters “was not part of the work of the advisory board”. The argument continued at a dinner later that evening, the former New Mexico governor said. 

Suu Kyi’s spokesman, Zaw Htay, told Reuters on Thursday that the Advisory Board was meeting about the “Rakhine issue”. 

“(Richardson) talked on a topic outside the agenda of the meetings and went beyond the framework,” Zaw Htay said. “We feel sorry for his resignation due to the misunderstanding.” Reporters Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, had worked on Reuters coverage of the crisis in Rakhine, from where 688,000 Rohingya have fled an army crackdown on insurgents since late August, according to estimates by the United Nations. 

They were detained on Dec. 12 after they had been invited to meet police officers over dinner in Yangon. The government has cited police as saying they were arrested for possessing secret documents relating to the security situation in Rakhine. 

‘GOOD FAITH EFFORTS’ 

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert called Richardson’s decision to resign from the board and his reasons for doing so “cause for concern”, but noted he had been acting as a private citizen in joining the board and visiting Myanmar, which is also known as Burma. 

”Ultimately, the Burmese government and military have the authority to determine whether the Advisory Board will succeed,“ Nauert said. ”The United States has made clear that we are willing to support good faith efforts to implement the Annan Commission recommendations.” 

The Advisory Board for the Committee for Implementation of the Recommendations on Rakhine State was set up by Myanmar last year, to advise on enacting the findings of an earlier commission headed by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. 

The armed forces have been accused by Rohingya witnesses and human rights activists of carrying out killings, rapes and arson in a campaign senior officials in the United Nations and United States have described as ethnic cleansing. Myanmar rejects that label and has denied nearly all the allegations. 

Richardson said he was also “taken aback by the vigor with which the media, the United Nations, human rights groups and in general the international community were disparaged” during the last three days of meetings the board held with Myanmar officials. 

“She’s not getting good advice from her team,” Richardson said of Suu Kyi, whom he said he has known since the 1980s. “I like her enormously and respect her. But she has not shown moral leadership on the Rakhine issue and the allegations made, and I regret that.” 

Suu Kyi’s national security adviser, Thaung Tun, told Reuters he had escorted the other board members on a trip to Rakhine on Wednesday, but that Richardson had not taken part.

“He said he was unhappy about the situation but I am not sure what he was unhappy about,” he said. “This is just the initial stage, this is the start of a whole year of business so I don’t know what happened to make him feel like that.” 

PANEL CHAIRMAN SLAMMED 

Before Richardson quit the advisory board had 10 members, including five from overseas, chaired by former Thai Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai. 

Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and energy secretary in the Clinton administration, also had harsh words for Surakiart. 

The board chairman, he said, was not “genuinely committed” to implementing recommendations regarding the issues of Rohingya safety, citizenship, peace, stability and development. 

“He parroted the dangerous and untrue notion that international NGOs employ radicals and that humanitarian agencies are providing material support to ARSA,” Richardson said, referring to Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army militants. 

Surakiart was traveling with other members of the board in Rakhine and did not respond to requests for comment. 

Another board member, former South African Defence Minister Roelof Meyer, told Reuters the visit to Rakhine had been “very constructive”. 

“If anybody would say that we are just a rubber stamp or a voice on behalf of the government that would be completely untrue, unfair,” he said. “We haven’t done any recommendations so far.” 

Other members of the board, which also includes British doctor and politician Lord Darzi of Denham and speaker of the Swedish parliament Urban Ahlin, were not immediately available for comment. 

Richardson said he declined to join the advisory board’s tour of a new repatriation camp in Rakhine State on Wednesday, instead traveling to Yangon.

MASS GRAVE 

Myanmar’s military said earlier this month its soldiers had taken part in the killings of 10 captured Muslim “terrorists” during insurgent attacks at the beginning of September, after Buddhist villagers had forced the captured men into a grave the villagers had dug. 

It was a rare acknowledgment of wrongdoing during its operations in Rakhine by the Myanmar military, which said legal action would be taken against members of the security forces who violated their rules of engagement and the villagers involved. 

Richardson said he has asked the board to recommend that the Myanmar government set up an independent investigation into “the mass grave issue, especially as it pertained to ... the involvement of the military”. He did not say how the board had responded. 

The Rohingya crisis erupted after ARSA attacks on security posts in Rakhine on Aug. 25 triggered a fierce military response. Myanmar says its troops were engaged in legitimate counterinsurgency operations. 

The U.N. on Wednesday called on Myanmar to give aid agencies unhindered access to camps it has built for tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees after agreeing a deal with Bangladesh on their return. 

Reporting by Bill Tarrant; additional reporting by David Brunnstrom and Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Panu Wangcha-um in Bangkok and Yimou Lee in Yangon; Editing by Alex Richardson

By Reuters

January 24, 2018

MAUNGDAW, Myanmar -- The United Nations on Wednesday called on Myanmar to give aid agencies unhindered access to camps it has built for tens of thousands of Muslim Rohingya refugees before they can return after fleeing Myanmar military operations last year.

An international delegation advising Myanmar toured the Taung Pyo Letwe refugee camp outside the town of Maungdaw near the Bangladesh border. Video of the camp shows long, plywood houses set on a rocky field and surrounded by a wire mesh fence topped with barbed wire. 

Bangladesh on Tuesday delayed the repatriation of the largely stateless Rohingya to Myanmar as the process of compiling and verifying the list of people to be sent back was incomplete. 

But the United Nations said necessary safeguards for the refugees were still missing. 

“Until the safety and wellbeing of any child returning to Myanmar can be guaranteed, talk of repatriation is premature,” UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Justin Forsyth said in a statement. 

The UN Refugee Agency UNHCR said earlier “there are continued restrictions on access for aid agencies, the media and other independent observers” in Myanmar.

The UNHCR called on Myanmar “to allow the necessary unhindered humanitarian access in Rakhine State and create conditions for a genuine and lasting solution”. 

More than 688,000 Muslim Rohingya and a few hundred Hindu Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25 last year after the Myanmar military cracked down in the northern part of Rakhine state, amid witness reports of killings, looting and rape, in response to militant attacks on security forces. 

Many in Buddhist-majority Myanmar regard the Rohingya community as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The United Nations described Myanmar’s crackdown as ethnic cleansing, which Myanmar denies.

FILLING OUT FORMS 

Myanmar officials told a news conference on Tuesday that Bangladesh was not ready to send back the refugees as scheduled because the potential returnees hadn’t completed the forms Myanmar provided attesting to their former residency in Myanmar. 

“They also have to check with the UNHCR about whether it’s voluntary,” Minister of International Cooperation Kyaw Tin told the news conference.

“They need a lot of time to fill out the forms and to determine if they really want to come back.” 

But a UNHCR spokesperson in Bangladesh told Reuters the agency had not been involved “in the bilateral discussions on repatriations or signed any agreements”. 

“We would like to be part of the process and discussions to ensure the reparations are voluntary, safe and sustainable and that any returns are in line with international standards,” said Caroline Gluck, UNHCR’s senior public information officer, in Cox’s Bazar. 

Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed earlier this month to complete a voluntary repatriation of the refugees in two years. Myanmar says it has set up two reception centers and the temporary Taung Pyo Letwe camp to receive the first arrivals. 

The plan has sparked fears in refugee camps in Bangladesh that people may be forced to return despite a lack of guarantees around their security. 

Late on Tuesday, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the delay in the repatriations was a good idea and Washington was concerned about a lack of access for U.N. organizations. 

Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui; Writing by Bill Tarrant and Euan Rocha; Editing by Nick Macfie

By Ben Dunant

Voice of America

January 23, 2018

YANGON, MYANMAR — Myanmar’s top business leaders have rallied behind State Counselor Aung San Kyi’s plan for Rakhine State, expending money and resources on frontline efforts to resettle refugees and rebuild infrastructure.

A government agency chaired by the country’s de facto leader is also wooing private capital into an area cleared of a substantial portion of its people. Rohingya militant attacks on police posts in August provoked a military sweep driving more than 650,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh.

In an e-mailed statement to VOA, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said, “conditions in Rakhine State are not yet fully conducive to the safe and sustainable return of refugees.” 

The repatriations have been put on hold and Rohingya community leaders have demanded the restitution of community land, legal redress for atrocities, and a path to citizenship as essential preconditions.

While Myanmar’s civilian government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), is constitutionally barred from holding the army to account, it has tried to take control in other ways, chiefly via the Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development in Rakhine, or UEHRD. It was formed in October to mobilize Myanmar society in a shared patriotic venture. 

Roads and fences

Pivotal to the vision is the support of Myanmar’s tycoons—the dozen or so business leaders who made fortunes during military rule and continue to dominate the economy through privately owned, highly diversified conglomerates.

They were quick to oblige. A UEHRD ceremony held in the capital, Naypyidaw, in October drew close to $13.5 million from a roster of well-known company chairmen: Aung Ko Win of KBZ, Zaw Zaw of Max Myanmar, Steven Law of Asia World, Chit Khine of Eden, and Khin Shwe of Zaykabar, among others.

Nyo Myint, senior managing director of KBZ Group, told VOA some of the $2.2 million donated via its charitable arm, the Brighter Future Foundation, would be spent on a new fence across a stretch of the border with Bangladesh. He said this would benefit “both countries” in deterring illegal migration, a supposed conflict trigger.

Other support has been more direct. Chit Khine, the Eden Group chairman, told VOA over the phone that his company—which constructed substantial parts of Naypyidaw, launched as Myanmar’s new capital in 2005—was now helping build structures in Nga Khu Ya, one of two processing sites for returning refugees established near the border.

In early January, Myanmar state media ran a press release from Asia World, Myanmar’s largest conglomerate. It depicted a “non-for-profit” 80-kilometer road in northern Rakhine State built under the banner of its own charitable foundation—a “proud” effort undertaken as part of UEHRD’s construction taskforce.

The thaw

The heads of Eden, KBZ, and Asia World were previously under Western sanctions for their alleged links with the former military junta. Their prominence in Aung San Suu Kyi’s plan marks a broader rapprochement between the former dissident leader and the tycoons whom, during her years of house arrest, she lambasted as military “cronies.”

The thaw began early in her government tenure. In an October 2016 event for top taxpayers, she told assembled tycoons she wouldn’t dwell on past misdeeds but asked for, “those who have previously worked for their own self-interest work for others in the future.”

Gerard McCarthy, associate director of the Myanmar Research Center at the Australian National University, told VOA that enlisting the support of tycoons for national causes is not a departure from core NLD values, which center on “a morally virtuous project,” defined by individual acts of merit. Under this ethos, he said, “capitalists can be moral as long as they contribute.”

But Aung San Suu Kyi’s public-private fix for Rakhine State doesn’t stop at charity. It also involves presenting Rakhine State as a promising business opportunity in answer to a recommendation by the Advisory Commission led by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan for increased, albeit responsible, investment in one of Myanmar’s poorest states.

Former glories

To spur private sector interest, the government in October rebooted a stalled economic zone, with a focus on trade facilities, in Maungdaw in northern Rakhine State, by signing a memorandum of understanding with a consortium of local and Yangon-based firms.

The Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) is coordinating a private sector investment drive in Rakhine, on behalf of UEHRD, covering sectors ranging from agriculture to micro-finance to tourism.

Ye Min Aung, vice chair of the UMFCCI and secretary-general of Myanmar Rice Federation, told VOA, “Some people, they don’t want to donate, but they want to invest.”

“The root of all the problems in Rakhine is the desperate economic situation,” he said, adding they would promote “agribusiness for peace” by establishing a new firm, the Rakhine Agribusiness Public Company, which would eventually trade on the Yangon Stock Exchange.

He said he was lobbying the government to offer more concrete incentives for investors.

Patriotic duty

Vicky Bowman, director of the Myanmar Center for Responsible Business, told VOA via email that while humanitarian needs should come first, there was “a need for public investment in infrastructure to combat Rakhine’s isolation and associated poverty.” She added, “the private sector may be a suitable partner.”

However, among other risks, Bowman noted “local resentment that businesses from outside of Rakhine have had more opportunity than locals.” The entry of major conglomerates could foment tensions at a time of heightened Rakhine nationalism.

On January 16, the local government’s banning of a ceremony commemorating the 1784 fall of the Rakhine kingdom to the Burmese, led to deadly confrontations between the police and thousands of angry locals in the town of Mrauk-U. 

Yet, both Ye Min Aung of UMFCCI and Nyo Myint of KBZ described their efforts in terms of patriotic duty. “This is the time the Myanmar private sector should be united to show solidarity under the leadership of the present government,” said Ye Min Aung.

By Reuters

January 17, 2018

YANGON -- Myanmar police shot dead seven demonstrators, while 12 were injured in troubled Rakhine State, after a local gathering celebrating an ancient Buddhist Arakan kingdom turned violent.

The demonstrators gathered late on Tuesday in Mrauk U township in the northern part of Rakhine to mark the end of the Arakan kingdom, the secretary of the Rakhine state government, Tin Maung Swe, told Reuters. 

The violent demonstration underscores the challenges facing Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a country where dozens of ethnic groups have been clamoring for autonomy since independence from Britain in 1947. 

Some 4,000 people surrounded a government building after the annual ceremony marking the demise of the Arakan kingdom over 200 years ago, Tin Maung Swe said. Organizers did not seek approval from local authorities for the gathering, he said. 

“The police used rubber bullets initially but the crowd didn’t leave. Finally the security members had to shoot. The conflict happened when some people tried to seize guns from the police,” he said. 

Tun Ther Sein, regional MP from Mrauk U, said some of the critically injured protesters were taken to the state capital of Sittwe, a three-hour drive south of the ancient town studded with Buddhist temples. 

The United Nations in Myanmar called on authorities to “investigate any disproportionate use of force or other illegal actions that may have occurred in relation to this incident”. 

“We urge respect for the rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression, and call for the security forces and demonstrators to act with restraint and to avoid further violence,” the agency wrote in a statement. 

The U.S. embassy in a statement expressed “deep concern for all innocent people affected by the violence” and hoped “reason and restraint will prevail.” 

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay did not respond to requests for comment. 

The Rakhine, also known as Arakanese, are one of the 135 officially recognized ethnic groups in Myanmar. Their identity is closely connected to the once powerful Arakanese kingdom along the Bay of Bengal, which was conquered by the Burmese kingdom in 1784. The kingdom was once an important stop on the old silk trade route. 

Tensions in Rakhine have risen since a sweeping Myanmar army operation in August inflamed communal tension and triggered an exodus of over 650,000 Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh. 

“Very sad to hear reports of civilian casualties in Mrauk U...Rakhine urgently needs non-violent rule of law,” Kristian Schmidt, the European Union’s Ambassador to Myanmar, said on Twitter. 

Reporting By Yimou Lee, Shoon Naing and Thu Thu Aung; Editing by Bill Tarrant

By Jacob Goldberg

Coconuts Yangon

January 17, 2018

Veteran journalist and media critic Aung Hla Tun was appointed as Myanmar’s deputy minister for information on Monday. The Rakhine State native has built a reputation recently as a guardian of Myanmar’s public image, but his selective adherence to media ethics has been a source of anxiety among critics of the country’s military.

Aung Hla Tun worked as a reporter and editor for the UK-based Reuters news agency until 2015, when he took up the post of vice-chair of the Myanmar Press Council – a body that became independent from the Ministry of Information in 2013, ostensibly in order to advocate more effectively for journalistic freedom.

As vice-chair, Aung Hla Tun made it his mission to defend Myanmar’s government and military from accusations of abuses by foreign media outlets.

“The greatest responsibility of media today in Myanmar is safeguarding our national image, which has been badly tarnished by some unethical international media reports,” he said at the Forum on Myanmar’s Democratic Transition in August. “The international media often tends to sensationalize their reports and practice agenda-setting when covering sensitive issues for various reasons.”

His dogged protectiveness of the government’s reputation appears to have made him a fitting candidate for the second-highest position in a ministry that works to encourage local media to conform to the official government line.

However, Aung Hla Tun’s pro-government activism has strayed beyond just speaking up in support of government policies. On a few infamous occasions, he has failed to act as a friend to journalists.

In late November, he criticized AP reporter Esther Htusan for misquoting State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in an article titled “Suu Kyi blames world conflicts partly on illegal immigration.” After a transcript of the state counsellor’s speech was later released, Htusan corrected the article and changed the headline to reflect Suu Kyi’s actual statement.

Even after the correction, Aung Hla Tun said Htusan was guilty of a “purposeful ‘misinterpretation’ with an ulterior motive to hurt [Aung San Suu Kyi’s] image and that of our country among the international [community].”

Under Aung Hla Tun’s leadership, the Myanmar Press Council failed to release a statement in support of three journalists and their driver who were arrested for allegedly importing and flying drone near the parliament compound in Naypyidaw. One of the journalists – Aung Naing Soe – was known for his reporting on the plight of Muslims, including the Rohingya, during Myanmar’s political transition. The council also refused to help mediate Aung Naing Soe’s case with the government, though that is its primary mandate.

While the council did release a statement in support of the two Reuters reporters who were arrested last month for investigating a military massacre of Rohingya men in northern Rakhine State, its members were publicly criticized for taking a week to do so.

Aside from journalists, fears about Aung Hla Tun’s appointment are most acutely felt by those who advocate for the rights of the Rohingya, whose persecution at the hands of the Myanmar government and military the new deputy minister has sought to suppress.

Rohingya activist Nay San Lwin, told Coconuts Yangon: “Just before his appointment, [Aung Hla Tun] claimed that international news agencies don’t pay reporters who use the term ‘Bengali’ (a pejorative word used against the Rohingya). This is a good example of him misguiding journalists in Myanmar.”

He went on: “Using the term ‘Rohingya’ is a matter of respecting human rights. As he is seriously violating human rights [by suppressing the use of the term], the future of state media will be worse than before. He will promote racism officially for sure.”

By Ruma Paul, Yi-mou Lee

Reuters

January 16, 2018

DHAKA/YANGON -- Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed on Tuesday to complete within two years the return of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who had fled an army crackdown last year in Myanmar.

The UN Refugee Agency, responding to the plan, raised a concern about forcibly repatriating over 650,000 Rohingya who fled to neighboring Bangladesh after a conflict erupted in western Rakhine state in August. 

Statements from both the Myanmar and Bangladesh foreign ministries said Bangladesh would set up five transit camps on its side of the border. Those camps would send Rohingyas to two reception centers in Myanmar. The repatriation process would start next Tuesday, the statements said. 

Myanmar said it would build a transit camp that can house 30,000 returnees. 

The Bangladesh statement said “Myanmar has reiterated its commitment to stop (the) outflow of Myanmar residents to Bangladesh”. 

Myanmar stressed the need for both sides to take preventive measures against possible Rohingya attacks and said it gave Dhaka a list with the names of 1,000 alleged militants. 

The crisis erupted after Rohingya insurgent attacks on security posts on Aug. 25 in Rakhine triggered a fierce military response that the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing. Some 650,000 people fled the violence. 

The military denies ethnic cleansing, saying its security forces had mounted legitimate counter-insurgency clearance operations. 

The Bangladesh statement called for repatriating orphans and “children born out of unwarranted incidence”, a reference to cases of rape resulting in pregnancy, said a Bangladesh foreign ministry official who declined to be identified. 

The rape of Rohingya women by Myanmar’s security forces was widespread, according to interviews with women conducted at displacement camps by U.N. medics and activists. The military denies it was involved in any sexual assaults. 

VERIFICATION PROCESS 

A spokesperson from the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Tuesday the Rohingya should only return voluntarily when they feel it is safe to do so. 

“Major challenges have to be overcome,” UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic told a Geneva news briefing. “These include ensuring they are told about the situation in their areas of origin ... and are consulted on their wishes, that their safety is ensured.” 

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay told Reuters last week the returnees could apply for citizenship “after they pass the verification process”.

Myint Kyaing, permanent secretary at Myanmar’s Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population, told Reuters this month Myanmar would begin processing at least 150 people a day through each of the two camps by Jan. 23. 

The meeting that concluded on Tuesday in Myanmar’s capital Naypyitaw was the first for a joint working group set up to hammer out the details of the November repatriation agreement. 

Left out of the talks were the fears and concerns of the refugees themselves, “as if they are an inert mass of people who will go where and when they are told,” Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, told Reuters in an email. 

“Where are considerations for protection of the Rohingya from Myanmar security forces who months ago were raping and killing them? How come the discussions ignore the deprivation of rights of people held in indefinite detention, which is what these so-called “temporary” accommodations may become?,” Robertson asked. 

‘LIVING LIKE PRISONERS’

A group of refugees at the Kutupalong Rohingya camp near Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh expressed doubt about the camps Myanmar has agreed to establish on its side of the border. 

Mohammad Farouk, 20, who arrived in Bangladesh following the Aug. 25 attacks, said exchanging one camp for another made little difference - except ”the camps in Myanmar will be far worse, because we will be confined there and there will be a risk to our lives.” 

Another resident of the Kutupalong camp compared the new transit camps to ones set up near the Rakhine state capital of Sittwe following bouts of violence in previous years ”where people are living like prisoners”. 

“First, ask the military to give those Rohingya their homes and property back, then talk to us about returning,” said the Rohingya refugee who did not want to be identified. 

Some said the kind of violence they witnessed toward their community in Myanmar made it hard for them to trust the military. “Even if I don’t get food or anything else here, at least there is safety. I won’t feel safe if I go back to Myanmar,” said Rashid Ahmed, 33.

Noor Alam, 37, who came to Kutupalong five months back, wondered if he could ever get a job in Myanmar. “They don’t even call us Rohingya. Until they consider us citizens we won’t go back.” 

Some young men in the camp worried they might be arrested on accusations of terrorism if they returned to Myanmar. 

Camp conditions in Bangladesh are dire enough, but more than 520,000 Rohingya children are at even greater risk ahead of the cyclone season that generally begins in April, the United Nations Children’s Fund said on Tuesday. 

”Hundreds of thousands of children are already living in horrific conditions, and they will face an even greater risk of disease, flooding, landslides and further displacement,” said Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF Representative in Bangladesh. 

Nearly 1 million Rohingya live in Bangladesh, including those who came after previous displacements dating back to the 1990s. 

Reporting by Ruma Paul and Yi-mou Lee; Additional reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in Cox's Bazar, Shoon Naing, and Serajul Quadir in Dhaka; Editing by Bill Tarrant

By Associated Press

January 15, 2018

A top Myanmar official said Monday that a camp to house Rohingya Muslim and Hindu refugees who return from Bangladesh will be ready by its promised deadline next week.

More than 650,000 ethnic Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh since Myanmar's military launched a brutal crackdown in August following attacks on police posts by a militant group. Though Myanmar's army claimed it was a clearance operation against the terrorists, the United Nations, United States and others have said the operations were "ethnic cleansing" to remove the Rohingya from the country.

Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement in November to repatriate Rohingya and set up a working group last month to oversee the repatriation of people who had fled violence in the northern part of Rakhine state in western Myanmar.

Win Myat Aye, the minister of social welfare, relief and resettlement, said Myanmar was hosting a one-day meeting Monday with Bangladesh officials in the capital Naypyitaw to discuss the logistics of how many Rohingya will be allowed into Myanmar and how they will be scrutinized to be placed in the camps.

Officials plan to start the repatriation process from Jan. 23.

"We are planning ahead to be able accept the returnees from next week and we are sure that this will be done on time," Win Myat Aye said.

The UN refugee agency said it is not involved in the process but is willing to play a "constructive role" in the process if allowed, specifically in registering the refugees and helping determining whether they are returning to Myanmar voluntarily.

"Our involvement in the process and our full access to areas of return in Myanmar can help to build confidence for all concerned, including the refugees," said Vivian Tan, UNHCR's senior regional communication officer.

In the November agreement, Myanmar's civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, pledged to take measures to halt the outflow of Rohingya to Bangladesh and restore normalcy in the region. The U.N and rights groups have urged the Myanmar government to ensure the safe and voluntary return of the Rohingya refugees.

Many have questioned whether Rohingya would return to Myanmar under the current circumstances.

Japan's foreign minister on a visit to Myanmar last week urged Suu Kyi's government to guarantee the safe and voluntary return of the refugees.

State-run media in Myanmar reported Monday the 124-acre Hla Po Khaung camp will accommodate about 30,000 people in 625 buildings and that at least 100 buildings are to be completed by the end of the month. It would be the first camp built in the repatriation process.

By Reuters

January 10, 2017

YANGON -- Myanmar’s military said on Wednesday its soldiers had murdered 10 captured Muslim “terrorists” during insurgent attacks at the beginning of September, after local Buddhist villagers had forced the captured men into a grave they had dug. 

“Villagers and members of the security forces have confessed that they committed murder,” the military said in a statement. 

It was a rare admission of wrongdoing by the Myanmar military during its operations in the western state of Rakhine.

The army launched a sweeping counteroffensive in the north of the state in response to Rohingya militant attacks on Aug. 25, triggering an exodus of more than 650,000 Rohingya Muslim villagers. 

The United Nations has condemned the army’s campaign as ethnic cleansing. Myanmar denies that, saying its forces were carrying out legitimate counterinsurgency operations. 

The military announced on Dec. 18 that a mass grave containing 10 bodies had been found at the coastal village of Inn Din, about 50 km (30 miles) north of the state capital Sittwe. The army appointed a senior officer to investigate. 

The military said on Wednesday its investigation had found that members of the security forces had killed the 10 and that action would be taken against them. 

Security forces had been conducting a “clearance operation” in the area on Sept. 1 when “200 Bengali terrorists attacked using sticks and swords”, the military said in a statement posted on the Facebook page of its commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. 

The military refers to members of the Rohingya Muslim minority as “Bengalis”, a term the Rohingya reject as implying they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh. 

Ten of the attackers were captured after the security forces drove the rest off by firing into the air, according to the statement on Facebook, which the military often uses to make announcements. 

The captives should have been handed over to the police, in line with procedures, but the militants were attacking “continuously” and had destroyed two military vehicles with explosives, it said. 

“It was found that there were no conditions to transfer the 10 Bengali terrorists to the police station and so it was decided to kill them,” the military said, referring to the findings of the investigating team. 

Angry ethnic Rakhine Buddhist villagers, who had lost relatives in militant attacks, wanted to kill the captives, and stabbed them after forcing them into a grave on the outskirts of the village. Then members of the security forces shot them dead, the military said. 

“Action will be taken against the villagers ... and the security force members who violated the rules of engagement according to the law,” the statement said. 

Action would also be taken against those who had failed to report the incident to their seniors, and those responsible for supervising the operation, it added. 

The military investigation was led by Lieutenant General Aye Win. The same officer had been in charge of a wider probe into the conduct of troops in the conflict that concluded in a report in November that no atrocities had taken place. 

Reporting by Shoon Naing and Thu Thu Aung; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Alex Richardson

By Panu Wongcha-um

Reuters

January 6, 2018

BANGKOK -- Humanitarian workers and journalists should be given free access to Myanmar’s Rakhine State, where violence has prompted some 650,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh, the head of a new international advisory panel on the crisis said.

Surakiart Sathirathai, a former Thai foreign minister, also expressed concern at the arrest of two Reuters reporters in Myanmar last month and said he hoped the case did not lead to broader restrictions on the international media. 

“I think press and humanitarian access to Rakhine are important issues as well as free access to other stakeholders,” said Surakiart in an interview in Bangkok. “Legitimate press coverage is something that should be enhanced.” 

Myanmar has severely curtailed access to Rakhine, where an army operation in response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents has been condemned by the United Nations as ethnic cleansing - an accusation rejected by the Buddhist majority country.

Surakiart, 59, was chosen last year by Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi to head a 10-member board that will advise on how to implement the recommendations of an earlier commission headed by former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan. 

Allowing free media coverage was one of the specific recommendations in the 63-page report from Annan’s commission, which was appointed by Suu Kyi in 2016 to investigate how to solve Rakhine’s long-standing ethnic and religious tensions. 

Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who had worked on coverage of the crisis in the western state, were arrested in Yangon on Dec. 12 on suspicion of violating Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act. 

Surakiart said he had raised concerns about their case with Suu Kyi’s national security advisor Thaung Tun. He said he had asked for the case to be dealt with transparently and been assured that proper legal procedures would be followed. 

“I hope that this would not snowball in adverse directions for both the international press and the Myanmar government,” Surakiart added. “I hope the case will not lead to the Myanmar government not welcoming the international press. I want this to be a specific case and hope for a quick resolution to it.” 

BRIDGING THE GAP 

The Annan-led panel delivered its recommendations - which also included a review of a law that links citizenship and ethnicity and leaves most Rohingya stateless - just before insurgent attacks on security posts on Aug. 25 triggered the latest crisis. 

Surakiart said there were concerns over the repatriation of those who had since fled to Bangladesh and that the advisory board would need to find an approach to ensure people could return without fear, even if they were not recognised by existing law as Myanmar citizens. 

Suu Kyi has faced international criticism for perceived inaction over the crisis in Rakhine, but Surakiart said she was constrained by domestic politics. 

Buddhist nationalism has surged in Myanmar in recent years, and the army campaign has wide support. 

“Aung San Suu Kyi tried to address the issue by trying to build consensus from within rather than finger-pointing,” said Surakiart. 

“There is a big gap between domestic and international interpretations of the situation in Rakhine. If we can’t bridge this gap then it will be an obstacle for all of us who want to improve the situation.” 

The former Thai foreign minister also said his advisory board would seek to engage with all groups in Rakhine, including the military. 

“The advisory board is not a mouthpiece to anyone,” Surakiart said. “We are not a spokesperson for Myanmar or the international community.” 

The board, which is made up of five members from Myanmar and five international appointees including veteran former U.S. politician and diplomat Bill Richardson, will meet the Myanmar government on Jan. 22 in the capital Naypyitaw before making its first trip to Rakhine on Jan. 24. 

“I do not want the advisory board to be just a talking shop,” Surakiart said. “We want to help bring about tangible progress.” 

Additional report by Chayut Setboonsarng; Editing by Matthew Tostevin and Alex Richardson

By Reuters

January 6, 2018

YANGON -- Rohingya Muslim insurgents ambushed a military vehicle in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, wounding five members of the security forces, state media and officials said, and the rebels claimed responsibility for the rare attack. 

A wave of raids by the insurgents on security force posts on Aug. 25 sparked sweeping army counter-insurgency operations in the Muslim-majority north of the state that led to widespread violence and arson and an exodus of some 650,000 Rohingya villagers to neighbouring Bangladesh. 

The United Nations condemned the Myanmar military campaign as ethnic cleansing. Buddhist-majority Myanmar rejected that. 

But since Aug. 25, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) insurgents, who claimed responsibility for the coordinated raids on 30 security posts, have mounted only a few sporadic attacks. 

The military said “extremist Bengali terrorists ARSA” carried out the Friday attack on a truck taking someone to hospital. 

“A vehicle ... was attacked by 20 insurgents from the mountain using homemade mines and small arms,” the government said. The military said there were about 10 attackers. 

An ARSA spokesman said his group had carried out the attack. 

“Yes, ARSA takes responsibility for the latest military movement,” the spokesman told Reuters through a messaging service. 

He said further details may be revealed later. 

The ARSA dismisses any links to Islamist militant groups and says it is fighting to end the oppression of the Rohingya people. 

The Yangon-based Frontier Myanmar magazine quoted a resident of a nearby village as saying sporadic gunfire had been heard at the time of the ambush. A state-run newspaper reported on Saturday that fighting continued after the ambush. 

The area is largely off-limits to reporters. 

Myanmar and Bangladesh have been discussing a plan to repatriate the Rohingya refugees but more insecurity in Myanmar is likely to raise doubts about how quickly that might take place. 

Reporting by Shoon Naing, additional reporting by Andrew Marshall; Editing by Robert Birsel

By Robert Birsel

Reuters

January 4, 2017

YANGON -- Myanmar’s civilian president called in an Independence Day speech on Thursday for reform of a military-drafted constitution and for justice for all recognized minorities under a federal system, but made no mention of the treatment of its Rohingya Muslim people.

Amending the charter to remove a dominant political role for the military has been one of the most contentious issues facing Myanmar as it emerges from nearly half a century of strict army rule. 

The debate over constitutional reform, however, has been muted since the assassination in January last year of a lawyer advising government leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s ruling party on the issue. 

“As we build the Democratic Federal Republic, in accordance with the results of the political dialogues, we all need to work collectively for creating a suitable constitution,” President Htin Kyaw said in his speech marking the 70th anniversary of Myanmar’s independence from Britain. 

Htin Kyaw’s post is largely ceremonial but he is a close ally of Suu Kyi. He did not elaborate on what he meant by suitable or spell out why he was suggesting the 2008 constitution drawn up by the military was unsuitable. 

The constitution bars Suu Kyi from becoming president because it rules out candidates with a foreign spouse or child. Suu Kyi’s late husband was British as are her two sons. 

It also reserves for the military one quarter of the seats in parliament and several major cabinet posts, including defense, interior and border affairs, giving it an effective veto over constitutional change and control of security affairs.

Myanmar began emerging from 49 years of military rule in 2011. Suu Kyi’s party swept a 2015 election and formed a government but concern is growing that the reform program is stalling or even sliding back. 

This has been compounded by attacks on press freedom, including the detention of several journalists over the past year. On Dec. 12, the authorities arrested two Reuters reporters who had covered the army crackdown that has led to the mass flight of Rohingya residents of Rakhine State across the border into Bangladesh. 

Htin Kyaw called for respect for human rights but he did not refer to the crisis over the exodus of 655,000 Rohingya people, nor to the international condemnation it has generated. 

“We are working for the emergence of a democratic state based on the principles of freedom for all ethnic national races, justice, equality and right of self-determination,” he said. 

“National race” is a term used by Myanmar referring to what it categorizes as indigenous ethnic groups. The Rohingya, who have traditionally lived in Rakhine, have been denied inclusion as authorities regard them as illegal immigrants who have crossed over from Bangladesh. 

END TO CONFLICT 

The Rohingya crisis erupted in late August after Rohingya insurgent attacks on security posts in Rakhine triggered a fierce military response that the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing. 

Myanmar denies ethnic cleansing saying its security forces have mounted legitimate clearance operations. 

Htin Kyaw called for an end to conflict with insurgents from various ethnic minorities who have been battling for autonomy for decades. 

Clashes have flared in recent weeks between the army and guerrillas in Kachin and Shan states in the north. 

Myanmar’s minorities have long demanded self-determination under a federal system. The army has traditionally seen itself as the only institution preventing the country’s disintegration and has favored a unitary state. 

Amending the constitution would not be easy. 

Changes require a 76 percent majority vote in a parliament dominated by military members and their allies. 

The killing of lawyer and constitutional expert Ko Ni last year has not been fully explained even though the gunman was caught at the scene. 

Many activists believe Ko Ni, who was Muslim, was targeted for his efforts to reduce the military’s political role. 

Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore

By Hyonhee Shin

Reuters

December 28, 2017

SEOUL -- The United Nations’ independent investigator into human rights in Myanmar has called for international pressure on China and Russia to try to get them to oppose human rights abuses in Myanmar.

U.N. special rapporteur Yanghee Lee, who was last week barred by the Myanmar government from visiting the country, singled out China and Russia because they had failed to back some moves in the U.N. aimed at trying to halt the Myanmar military’s crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim community in Rakhine province. 

“I’d like to ask the international community to continue to work with China and Russia to persuade them to stand on the side of human rights,” Lee told Reuters in an interview.

Neither has joined the United States, the European Union, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in condemning the crackdown that has led to the exodus of what aid agencies estimate to be 655,000 refugees into Bangladesh. 

In response to Lee, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that “external actors” adding pressure over human rights will not help to resolve the issue, and may make it more complicated. 

This would not be in the interests of Myanmar, its neighbors or the international community, she said at a regular news briefing in Beijing on Thursday. “We hope that countries or individuals external to the issue can create a positive environment that is more conducive to Myanmar resolving the issue for themselves,” Hua added.

The Russian foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. 

The Russian government has previously warned against interfering in Myanmar’s internal affairs. Russia’s ambassador to Myanmar, Nikolay Listopadov has said it is “against excessive intervention, because it won’t lead to any constructive results.” 

BARRIER TO ICC

The Myanmar armed forces are accused by members of the Rohingya community and human rights advocates of carrying out killings, rapes and village burnings, in what top officials in the United Nations and United States have described as ethnic cleansing. 

The Russian and Chinese stance is particularly important because either of them can block the U.N. Security Council from referring allegations of crimes against humanity to the International Criminal Court in the Hague. The ICC cannot act against Myanmar without a referral because Myanmar is not an ICC member. 

Myanmar has denied human rights abuses, saying its military is engaged in a legitimate counter-insurgency operation. The military exonerated itself of all accusations of atrocities in an internal investigation, which published its findings on Nov. 13. 

Myanmar’s foreign affairs ministry has said Lee was not objective or impartial in a report she issued in July, and it wanted a fair investigator. 

Lee said there had to be a fair, partial and independent investigation. 

“The families of the victims have a right to know what happened, and I think the people of Myanmar need to know what happened, because we’re seeing, in front of our eyes, the worst humanitarian crisis.”

Surveys of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh by aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres have shown at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in Rakhine State in the month after violence flared in late August, the aid group said last week. 

The special rapporteur also criticized recent government crackdowns on media in Myanmar, including the arrest this month of two Reuters journalists who had reported on the crisis in Rakhine. 

She said that the authorities were creating “a national gag” that would prevent journalists from reporting what they see. “That will have consequences on the general public too - people will not be able to speak as freely.” 

Myanmar has said the reporters “illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media.” 

Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Martin Howell