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YANGON (Reuters) - A top United Nations envoy on Saturday voiced grave concern over alleged abuses by Myanmar security forces after sectarian violence in Rakhine State and urged a full and credible state investigation. 

Tomas Ojea Quintana, the U.N. special human rights rapporteur, called on the government to find out the truth about violence in June between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and stateless Muslim Rohingyas and address reports of extrajudicial killings and torture by its police and soldiers. 

"I am concerned ... at the allegations I have received of serious human rights violations committed as part of measures to restore law and order," Quintana said in a statement at the end of a six-day visit to Myanmar, his sixth to the country. 

"While I am in no position to be able to verify these allegations at this point in time, they are of grave concern. It is therefore of fundamental importance to clearly establish what has happened in Rakhine State and to ensure accountability." 

The conflict has exposed deep-rooted communal animosity and put the spotlight on promises by the government in office since 2011 to protect human rights after decades of brutal army rule. 

In a report this week citing witnesses and interviews with 57 people in Rakhine State, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said there was evidence of "state-sponsored persecution and discrimination" against the Rohingyas, which number at least 800,000 in Myanmar. 

The report said security forces had carried out extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrest and torture and had done nothing to intervene to stop the lynching of 10 Muslims by a Buddhist mob, which preceded a week of riots, arson and knife attacks that killed 77 people and displaced tens of thousands. 

The government has rejected the allegations and said its forces exercised "maximum restraint". A minister on Monday confirmed that 858 people have been detained. 

Quintana also called for a review of 1982 laws that he said discriminated against Rohingyas and denied them citizenship and freedom of movement, to ensure they were in line with international human rights standards. The government insists they are illegal immigrants.

Sources Here :
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization called on the governments of Burma and Bangladesh on Thursday to seek protection for Rohingya Muslims in Burma.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in a letter urged Burmese President Thein Sein to urgently take steps to end human rights violations against the Rohingya in the wake of a fresh wave of communal strife that began in early June.

“Your government must take urgent steps to end human rights violations by its security forces and to allow unimpeded access for relief organizations and international monitors seeking to enter affected areas,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a letter to the Burmese president.

“Once calm is restored, Myanmar must revise its 1982 Citizenship Law, which effectively denies citizenship to Rohingya Muslims,” Awad said, urging the president to cooperate with the international community to take immediate measures to address the ongoing abuses.

In another letter to Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Awad sought protection for those fleeing Burma and seeking refuge in her country.

“The government of Bangladesh, with the support of the international community, must offer full humanitarian assistance to those forced to flee Myanmar. Denial of this assistance will inevitably result in even greater suffering, which we should all seek to prevent,” he wrote.

In its statement, CAIR also urged the international community to address the suffering of the almost one million Rohingya in Burma, as well as those who have fled to neighboring Bangladesh.

The CAIR letter came a day after Human Rights Watch released a report detailing alleged human rights abuses by the Burmese authorities.

“Burmese security forces committed killings, rape, and mass arrests against Rohingya Muslims after failing to protect both them and Arakan Buddhists during deadly sectarian violence in western Burma in June 2012,” it said.

“Government restrictions on humanitarian access to the Rohingya community have left many of the over 100,000 people displaced and in dire need of food, shelter, and medical care,” the group said.

Meanwhile the State Department said the Special Representative to Muslim Communities, Farah Pandith, concluded a trip to Burma on Wednesday.

“While there, she met with civil society leaders, members of religious and ethnic groups, including the Rohingya, youth leaders, national and international non-profit organizations, as well as with the Minister of Religious Affairs,” the State Department said.

“She discussed areas for cooperation with Muslim communities in Burma, including education, rule of law, and economic opportunity, with a particular focus on young people,” the statement said, adding that she also participated in Ramadan activities, including the US Embassy Iftar held on July 30.

Source : sacbee




By Shaun Tandon (AFP) 

WASHINGTON — The US Congress on Thursday extended a ban on imports from Myanmar, seeking to maintain pressure despite a series of reforms in the country that have prompted an easing of other sanctions.

The Senate and House of Representatives voted separately to extend by one year a ban on all imports from the country formerly known as Burma, which was ruled for decades by generals who gave power to a nominal civilian last year.

President Barack Obama has eased other restrictions on Myanmar in hopes of encouraging reform. On July 11, he gave the green light to US companies to invest in Myanmar and partner with its controversial state oil and gas company.

Lawmakers said they were also encouraged by recent changes in Myanmar, including the election of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to parliament, but wanted to maintain leverage to press for greater improvements.

"By renewing this bill today and keeping the measure on the books even as we are open to new flexibilities, we will help send a strong signal to those in Burma," Representative Joe Crowley, a member of Obama's Democratic Party, said on the House floor.

Crowley said the measure showed US support for "the immediate release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, an end to violence against all minorities including the Kachin and the Rohingya, and the adoption of genuine democratic reform in Burma."

Republican Representative David Dreier said he would visit Myanmar next week and believed that the extension of sanctions "can play a role in continuing to encourage the positive reforms that we are seeing take place."

Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican Party's Senate leader, said that the renewed import ban allowed for a potential waiver, giving Myanmar's leaders the chance to see an end to sanctions if they make further progress.

McConnell, who spoke with Suu Kyi about the legislation, said he supported Obama's decision to open Myanmar to US investment and called on American businesses to show the "positive effects" of their involvement.

"I am confident that, as they do elsewhere around the world, US enterprises in Burma will set the standard for ethical and transparent business practices and lead the way for others to follow," McConnell said in a statement.

US businesses have pressed for a greater lifting of restrictions, fearing that they will lose out to competitors from European and Asian nations whose governments do not impose sanctions on Myanmar.

Since taking over last year, President Thein Sein has reached out to Suu Kyi -- who spent most of the past two decades under house arrest -- along with ethnic minority rebels.

But Myanmar's endemic ethnic violence has persisted, with the powerful military battling rebels in the northern state of Kachin despite orders by Thein Sein to halt fighting.

Mob violence has also pitted Myanmar's majority Buddhists against Rohingya Muslims, whom the government does not even recognize as a minority group.

Human Rights Watch said that members of Myanmar's security forces opened fire and raped Rohingyas during recent sectarian violence and did nothing as rival mobs attacked one another.

Farah Pandith, the US special representative to Muslim communities, visited Myanmar for four days until Wednesday and met with members of the Rohingya and other ethnic groups, the State Department said.

Pandith "discussed areas for cooperation with Muslim communities in Burma, including education, rule of law and economic opportunity, with a particular focus on young people," a State Department statement said.

The Obama administration opened dialogue with Myanmar in 2009 in a bid to coax the country out of its long isolation. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paid a landmark visit in December.

Please read  the statement of US Campaign For Burma : here
Please read the statement of  Senator McConnell : here

By Krystina Friedlander, Senior Editor, islawmix 


When we last read about Burmese monks in the Western press, it was in the context of mass protests against Burma's brutal military junta and their visit to Aung San Suu Kyi's home in homage of the courageous pro-democracy activist. It is surprising then, shocking even, that Burma's monks have come down on what is so blatantly the wrong side of a humanitarian crisis.

One photograph shows a Burmese monk in saffron robes, looking austere and intelligent in wireframe glasses. On his palm are the words "ROHINGYA NO," written in English. The Rohingya Muslims are an ethnic minority in Burma's western Rakhine state, and are considered by the United Nations to be among the world's most persecuted minorities. Since ethnic violence erupted last month, state-sanctioned and publicly supported oppression has driven thousands of Rohingya across the border into Bangladesh, where they are treated not as refugees but as illegal asylum seekers.Interviews with survivors in unofficial refugee camps describe how the Burmese army has systematically gone through villages, murdering men and raping women. To justify their actions, the Burmese government has attempted to portray the Rohingya as Muslim radicals, despite consistent lack of evidence, but the "anti-Rohingya campaign [also] wraps itself in calls for ethnic purity, defense of sovereignty, and protection of Buddhism."
Hannah Hindstrom at The Independent writes, "In recent days, [Buddhist] monks have emerged in a leading role to enforce denial of humanitarian assistance to Muslims, in support of policy statements by [Burmese] politicians." The same monks who campaigned against the brutal former regime are advocating against a stateless people, for what appears to be no other reason than their race and religion, "[failing] to practice compassion for all victims of violence." How can we make sense of this, and where do we go from here?
The history of eastern religions in the West is a strange and serendipitous one, where the experience of those faith traditions is often divorced from the cultural, historical, political and even religious contexts from which they emerged. Hinduism, Buddhism, Islamic Sufism and other faiths transformed in the crucible of cultural revolution that began half a century ago, taking on new relationships with race and class in the United States. Pop-spirituality, the secularization of meditation and yoga, and the democratization of spirituality have both enhanced our religious and spiritual landscape while simultaneously limiting what we know about global religion and culture.

At the same time, Islam and Muslims are frequently portrayed as the new enemy, Islamic lawcreeping into our courts, the Muslim Brotherhood infiltrating our government -- despite hard evidence indicating that American Muslims seek neither to impose sharia on Americans nor are they fomenting revolution. While this is evidence of a greater need for religious literacy, it also suggests some of the processes by which we construct categories of religions that are "good" and religions that are "bad."
The cognitive dissonance produced by Burmese monks actively preventing humanitarian aid from reaching one of the world's most persecuted minorities is real, and is worth picking apart. In the West, we conceive of certain religious groups as being inherently more "violent" or more "peaceful" or more "compassionate" than others. The victimization of Buddhists in Tibet at the hands of the Chinese state and the popularization of the Tibetan cause in American culture have uni-dimensionally reinforced the notion that Buddhists are, and can only be, nonviolent actors at the mercy of their oppressors.
My point is not to say that Buddhists aren't or can't be those things, but that all religious groups -- simply because they are made up of human beings -- are all of those descriptors while being none of them. The history of Buddhism is bloody, too. If we choose to frame history in terms of violent conflict and oppression, then the same can be said of Islam or any other belief system, including secularism.
Naturally, we can lob back and forth accusations of one religious group causing more suffering than another all day long and to no effect, entirely missing the point that the best of religious thought -- in Buddhism, Islam and elsewhere -- persistently demands compassion. Both Islam and Buddhism underscore that human nature and ego must be overcome through self-discipline and practiced compassion in order to become our best selves.

Cognitive dissonance generates questions. Ideally, stories like this can challenge us to think about one another in less monolithic, more nuanced ways. It allows us as news readers and members of pluralistic societies to complicate our understandings of The Other, whether that "Other" lives in another country or across the street. With greater attention, we can begin to be attuned to diversity and debate within religious traditions, both contemporary and historical, and to acknowledge that they are just as complicated as our own. The case of the Burmese monks also creates room for dialogue between Buddhists and Muslims, and reminds Muslims to be sensitive to the needs of vulnerable Muslim and non-Muslim ethnic and religious minorities in Muslim-majority countries. Lastly, the story opens spaces for Buddhists worldwide to put their faith into action on a global level, and to be a voice for compassion in Burma.
_________________________________________________________
Krystina Friedlander is the Senior Editor at islawmix, a project of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. She is a co-founder of Beyond Halal, a project examining relationships between Islamic law, Islamic ethics, the treatment of animals, and ethical meat consumption. She is also a childbirth doula and women’s health advocate. She holds a B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies and Anthropology, and an M.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Tulane University in New Orleans, where her research focused on intersections between Islamic authority, new media, and emerging virtual publics. A New Orleanian at heart, she currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
 
Follow on twitter @yallayagirl, @islawmix and @beyondhalal

AT last somebody in an official position has said something. United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay has called for an independent investigation into claims that Burmese security forces are systematically targeting the Rohingyas, a Muslim minority community living in the Arakan region. Even the Burmese government says at least 78 Rohingya Muslims were murdered; their own community leaders say 650 have been killed.
Nobody disputes the fact that about 100,000 Rohingya Muslims (out of a population of 800,000) are now internal refugees in Burma, while others have fled across the border into Bangladesh. As you would expect, the Buddhist monks of Burma have stood up to be counted. Unfortunately, this time they are standing on the wrong side.

This is perplexing. When the Pope lectures the world about morality, few non-Catholics pay attention. When Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran instructs the world about good and evil, most people who aren’t Shiite Muslims just shrug. But Buddhist leaders are given more respect, because most people think that Buddhism really is a religion of tolerance and peace.
When the Dalai Lama speaks out about injustice, people listen. Most of them don’t share his beliefs, and they probably won’t act on his words, but they listen with respect. But he hasn’t said anything at all about what is happening to the Rohingyas — and neither has any other Buddhist leader of note.

To be fair, the Dalai Lama is Tibetan, not Burmese, but he is not usually so reserved in his judgments. As for Burma’s own Buddhist monks, they have been heroes in that nation’s long struggle against tyranny — so it’s disorienting to see them behaving like oppressors themselves.

Buddhist monks are standing outside the refugee camps in Arakan, turning away people who are trying to bring food and other aid to the Rohingyas. Two important Buddhist organizations in the region, the Young Monks’ Association of Sittwe and the Mrauk U Monks’ Association, have urged locals to have no dealings with them. One pamphlet distributed by the monks says Rohingya Muslims are “cruel by nature.”

And Aung Sang Suu Kyi, the woman who spent two decades under house arrest for defying the generals — the woman who may one day be Burma’s first democratically elected prime minister — has declined to offer any support or comfort to the Rohingyas either.
Recently a foreign journalist asked her whether she regarded Rohingyas as citizens of Burma. “I do not know,” she prevaricated. “We have to be very clear about what the laws of citizenship are and who are entitled to them.”

If she were honest, she would have replied: “Of course the Rohingyas are citizens, but I dare not say so. The military are finally giving up power, and I want to win the 2015 election. I won’t win any votes by defending the rights of Burmese Muslims.”

Nelson Mandela, with whom she is often compared, would never have said anything like that, but it's a failure of courage on her part that has nothing to do with her religion. Religious belief and moral behavior don’t automatically go together, and nationalism often trumps both of them. So let’s stop being astonished that Buddhists behave badly and just consider what’s really happening in Burma.

The ancestors of the Rohingyas settled in the Arakan region between the 14th and 18th centuries, long before the main wave of Indian immigrants arrived in Burma after it was conquered by the British empire during the 19th century. By the 1930s the new Indian arrivals were a majority in most big Burmese cities, and dominated the commercial sector of the economy. Burmese resentment, naturally, was intense.

The Japanese invasion of Burma during the World War II drove out most of those Indian immigrants, but the Burmese fear and hatred of “foreigners” in their midst remained, and it then turned against the Rohingyas. They were targeted mainly because they were perceived as “foreigners”, but the fact that they were Muslims in an overwhelmingly Buddhist country made them seem even more alien.
The Rohingyas of Arakan were poor farmers, just like their Buddhist neighbors, and their right to Burmese citizenship was unquestioned until the Burmese military seized power in 1962. However, the army attacked the Rohingya and drove some 200,000 of them across the border into Bangladesh in 1978, in a campaign marked by widespread killings, mass rape and the destruction of mosques.
The military dictator of the day, Ne Win, revoked the citizenship of all Rohingyas in 1982, and other new laws forbade them to travel without official permission, banned them from owning land, and required newly married couples to sign a commitment to have no more than two children. Another military campaign drove a further quarter-million Rohingyas into Bangladesh in 1990-91. And now this.
On Sunday former general Thein Sein, the transitional president of Burma, replied to UN human rights chief Navi Pillay: “We will take responsibilities for our ethnic people but it is impossible to accept the illegally entered Rohingyas who are not our ethnicity.” Some other country must take them all, he said.
But the Rohingyas did not “enter illegally”, and there are a dozen “ethnicities” in Burma. What drives this policy is fear, greed and ignorance — exploited, as usual, by politicians pandering to nationalist passions and religious prejudice. Being Buddhist, it turns out, doesn’t stop you from falling for all that. Surprise.

— Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries.


Head of the Turkish Red Crescent Society is set to depart for Bangladesh on Wednesday to coordinate efforts to extend aid to Rohingya Muslims who fled violence in Myanmar's Arakan region.

Chairman Ahmet Lutfi Akar and an accompanying delegation are set to visit capital Dhaka to sign a cooperation protocol with the Bangladesh Red Crescent, and later they will proceed to Cox's Bazar where thousands of Arakan Muslims had taken refuge escaping from the attacks.

The Turkish Red Crescent delegation will also oversee aid efforts in the southwestern port city of Chittagong.
Sources Here




Cox’s Bazar, July 2 (UNB) - The government on Thursday banned the activities of three international NGOs for encouraging the Rohingya refuges crossing the border from Myanmar.

The government has asked France's Doctors without Borders (MSF), Action Against Hunger (ACF) and Britain's Muslim Aid UK to suspended their activities on charge of alluring the refugees of relief materials and thus encouraging their influx into Bangladesh.

Contacted, Deputy Commissioner of Cox’s Bazar Joynul Bari confirmed the government decision and said the three organisations were providing aid to the illegal Rohingya refugees without permission of the NGO Affairs Bureau.

“They were providing negative information to the international media about Bangladesh tarnishing the image of the country,” he said.

Denying the allegations, Muslim Aid Teknaf area officer Sarwar Alam told UNB that they have suspended their activities as per the order of the district administration but it will take at least two weeks to fully stop their activities in Teknaf.

He said, “If we suspend our activities here it’ll create tension in the Rohingya camps and the border area.”

Meanwhile, Upazila Nirbahi Officer ANM Nazimuddin said, “We’ve preparations to face the situation if any crisis is created due to the suspension of the activities of the three NGOs.”

Around 300,000 Rohingya Muslims are living in the country, the vast majority in Cox's Bazar, after fleeing persecution in Myanmar. About 30,000 are registered refugees who live in two camps run by the United Nations.

Recently, Bangladesh has turned away boats carrying hundreds of Rohingya fleeing the violence in Myanmar despite pressure from the United States and rights groups to grant them refuge.
Sources Here :
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Bangladesh Orders Aid Groups to Suspend Services to Rohingya Refugees

Bangladesh is ordering international humanitarian groups to stop providing aid to ethnic Rohingya refugees who have fled deadly communal violence in neighboring Burma.

Diderik Van Halsema, a spokesperson for Doctor's Without Borders, (MSF) tells VOA his organization is one of three groups that have reportedly been ordered to suspend their services to the Rohingya along the border with Burma.

“At MSF we do confirm that we have received a letter from the Bangladeshi authorities requesting us to stop our activities at our project in Cox's Bazaar district in Bangladesh. We are currently discussing this matter with the Bangladeshi authorities, so obviously we don't want to influence those conversations and we await the outcome of that.”

Another group, Muslim Aid UK, told the French news agency that officials ordered them to stop their so-called “illegal” services in the same area because they were supposedly “encouraging an influx of Rohingya refugees” from Burma.

Sectarian violence between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in Burma's western Rakhine state has left dozens dead since June. Rights groups say Burmese security forces have also carried out a campaign of killings and mass arrests against the Rohingya population.

The Rohingya are considered by most Burmese to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and most are denied citizenship there. But they are also denied citizenship in Bangladesh, which argues the group has been living in Burma for centuries.

Despite pressure from the United States and rights groups, Bangladesh has turned away boats carrying scores of Rohingyas who are trying to escape the violence in Burma.

On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch released a report saying that Burmese security forces have committed killings, rape, and mass arrests against Rohingya in the aftermath of the communal violence.

Burma's government, which has a long history of violence against ethnic minorities, has denied that security forces have committed abuses against the Rohingya, saying they exercised “maximum restraint” in dealing with the conflict.

Sources Here :

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Bangladesh bans foreign charities helping Rohingya
(AFP) 

DHAKA — Bangladesh has ordered three international charities to stop providing aid to Rohingya refugees who cross the border to flee persecution and violence in Myanmar, an official said Thursday.

France's Doctors without Borders (MSF) and Action Against Hunger (ACF) as well as Britain's Muslim Aid UK have been told to suspend their services in the Cox's Bazaar district bordering Myanmar, local administrator Joynul Bari said.

"The charities have been providing aid to tens of thousands of undocumented Rohingya refugees illegally. We asked them to stop all their projects in Cox's Bazaar following directive from the NGO Affairs Bureau," he told AFP.

Bari said the charities "were encouraging an influx of Rohingya refugees" from across the border in Myanmar's Rakhine state in the wake of recent sectarian violence that left at least 80 people killed.

The charities have provided healthcare, training, emergency food and drinking water to the refugees living in Cox's Bazaar since the early 1990s.

MSF runs a clinic near one of the Rohingya camp which provides services to 100,000 people.

Speaking a Bengali dialect similar to one in southeast Bangladesh, the Rohingyas are Muslims seen as illegal immigrants by the Buddhist-majority Myanmar government and many Burmese.

They are viewed by the United Nations as one of the world's most persecuted minorities.

Golam Sarwar, a senior official of Muslim Aid UK in Bangladesh, confirmed to AFP that his group had stopped its Rohingya project following the order.

The government says some 300,000 Rohingya Muslims are living in the country, the vast majority in Cox's Bazaar, after fleeing persecution in Myanmar. About 30,000 are registered refugees who live in two camps run by the United Nations.

In recent weeks, Bangladesh has turned away boats carrying hundreds of Rohingya fleeing the violence in Myanmar despite pressure from the United States and rights groups to grant them refuge.

Myanmar security forces opened fire on Rohingya Muslims, committed rape and stood by as rival mobs attacked each other during the recent wave of sectarian violence, New York-based Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

The authorities failed to protect both Muslims and Buddhists and then "unleashed a campaign of violence and mass roundups against the Rohingya", the group said in a report.

Sources Here


In Myanmar, government forces stood by while Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists were slain in devastating rounds of violence and retribution, then joined in by killing, raping and rounding up the Rohingya, Human Rights Watch said in a new report on the devastating sectarian attacks.

As the long-isolated country takes steps toward reform and gains increasing acceptance abroad, human rights activists and analysts have warned that ethnic tensions are one of its most stubborn problems and must be addressed before the country can forge a sustainable peace.

Violence exploded in June after a Buddhist woman was reportedly raped by Muslim men, sparking a deadly cycle of attacks and reprisals as mobs from both Rakhine and Rohingya communities ransacked villages and killed their people. Witnesses on both sides told the group that security forces had failed to protect them in the early days of the attacks.

“The government could have stopped this,” two men -- – one Rakhine, the other Rohingya -- told Human Rights Watch.

The attacks killed 78 people, according to Myanmar officials, but human rights groups believe the death toll was much higher. As the carnage and chaos wore on, security forces joined in against the Rohingya, Human Rights Watch found.

While Rakhine mobs burned thousands of homes in the city of Sittwe, police and paramilitary forces opened fire on Rohingya, the report found. In another area, border guards and soldiers shot at Rohingya villagers as they tried to flee and looted food and valuables from their emptied homes.

Meanwhile, the world has been cheering reform in Myanmar, which has led to the lifting of sanctions and opening up of investment, the human rights group lamented. Just after the report was released, the World Bank announced it would resume assistance to the country, ushering in up to $85 million in grants. The United States began allowing new investments in Myanmar last month.

“The international community appears to be blinded by a romantic narrative of sweeping change in Burma, signing new trade deals and lifting sanctions even while the abuses continue,” said Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch.

In the aftermath of the attacks, President Thein Sein reportedly said the only solution to the strife was to expel the Rohingya or send them to refugee camps. The government has clamped down on access to the conflict zones, especially Rohingya areas, hindering humanitarian aid, and hundreds of Rohingya men and boys have been detained, the report said.

Myanmar has rejected accusations that its forces carried out abuses and said the violence was not linked to religious or ethnic persecution, “as the victims of violence are both from Buddhist and Muslim communities.”

“The government has exercised maximum restraint in order to restore law and order in those particular places” affected by violence, the Foreign Affairs ministry said in a statement Monday.

The country also argued against "attempts by some quarters to politicize and internationalize this situation as a religious issue," an apparent reference to outrage in many Muslim countries over the assaults on Rohingya.

The damning report comes as United Nations human rights envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana is visiting western Myanmar to investigate the violence. More than 800 people are reportedly still in detention over the unrest, including several U.N. and other international workers accused of taking part in the clashes.

As it edges toward reform, Myanmar has halted hostilities with some ethnic rebels, but the Rohingya are in effect excluded from citizenship and remain victims of systemic discrimination. The United Nations estimates that 80,000 people are still displaced around the towns of Sittwe and Maungdaw. Some Muslims have told the U.N. refugee agency they fear to go home.
Sources Here:



BROUK has received reliable information that the Burmese authorities have tried to deceive UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Mr Tomas Ojea Quintana during his visit to Arakan State.

This morning BROUK received the following information from the ground:

The Maungdaw authorities dressed some Hindu youths as Rohingya religious students with Islamic Molvi dress to meet the delegations where they explained about the situation of Rohingya life, in line with the authorities’ wishes. All the Hindu youths are from Shwezarr village tract, Maungdaw. 

At least 500 people have been arrested since the violence. Government authorities moved those arrested Rohingyas from Buthidaung Jail to an unknown location just prior to Quintana visit to the Jail. The relatives of the prisoners do not know where those people were taken after Buthidaung jail. 

Many people are living in an open area without any shelter, but sometimes they were brought to designated places and had their pictures taken to show that they were in safe places. 

Farmers have been forced to go to the paddy fields in Maungdaw because of the UN envoy’s visit, not because they wanted to do it. 
Students and their parents were threatened by the Government authorities to send their children to school during Quintana visit. 

BROUK President Tun Khin said “I hope UN Rapporteur Thomas Quintana will find out the real facts and see through the authorities’ fabrications. I would encourage Quintana to visit again to investigate independently the Arakan violence. It is very important that the UN Rapporteur should recommend that a UN Commission of Inquiry is established into the silent killing fields of Arakan.” 

Tun Khin said, “ASEAN should play a key role to protect Rohingyas. EU, UN and UK governments have kept silent where Rohingyas are dying day by day as there is no food and water for them. The government is not only blocking aid, but the authorities are also restricting people trading and buying food and water. We would like to recommend that the UN Special Rapporteur supports UN humanitarian intervention in Arakan.”

For more information please contact Tun Khin +447888714866
Myanmar security forces have killed, raped or carried out mass arrests of Rohingya Muslims after deadly sectarian riots in the northeast in June, a rights group has said, adding the authorities had done little to prevent the initial unrest.

Aid workers were blocked and in some cases arrested in a government crackdown on the largest group of stateless people in Southeast Asia, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report on Wednesday.

The report comes after a week of arson and machete attack by both ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingyas in Rakhine state.

Based on 57 interviews with Rakhines and Rohingyas, the report seeks to shed light on a conflict that exposed deep-rooted communal animosity and put the spotlight on promises by the civilian government in office since 2011 to protect human rights after decades of brutal army rule.

"Burmese security forces failed to protect the Arakan [Rakhine] and Rohingya from each other and then unleashed a campaign of violence and mass round-ups against the Rohingya," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

"The government claims it is committed to ending ethnic strife and abuse, but recent events in Arakan State demonstrate that state-sponsored persecution and discrimination persist."

Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin said on Monday the authorities had exercised "maximum restraint" in restoring law and order and that the rioting was not fuelled by religious persecution.

He rejected what he said were attempts to "politicise and internationalise the situation as a religious issue", adding that the government was eager to promote "racial harmony among different nationalities".

In veiled criticism of the United States and European Union, which praised the government for its handling of the unrest, Adams said the international community had been "blinded by a romantic narrative of sweeping change" in Myanmar.

Forced resettlement

The country formerly called Burma has a diverse ethnic and religious make-up, but the Rohingya Muslims are not included by the government.

There are at least 800,000 Rohingyas in the country but they are not recognised as one of its ethnic groups.

Neighbouring Bangladesh does not accept them and pushed boatloads back out to sea when they tried to flee the unrest.

Myanmar President Thein Sein said in June the government was only responsible for third-generation Rohingyas whose families had arrived before independence in 1948 and that it was impossible to accept those who had "illegally entered" Myanmar.

He recommended that the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR take care of them in camps or "resettle them" in third countries.

UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres replied it could only resettle refugees that fled from one country to another.

'Virulent hatred'

The riots followed two brutal incidents in Rakhine state: the May 28 rape and murder of a Rakhine woman by three Rohingya males, who were sentenced to death, and the June 3 lynching in response of 10 non-Rohingya Muslims travelling on a bus.

Human Rights Watch said police and troops did not intervene to stop the mobs from beating the Muslims to death. During the riots that followed, it said some Rohingyas who tried to flee or put out fires at their homes were shot at by paramilitaries.

It called for the government to end abuses, grant full humanitarian access and invite in international monitors. Access to the area remains restricted.

Michael Vatikiotis, the Asian director for the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, said that while the primary factor in the recent violence is "the virulent hatred of the Rohingya people by the Rakhinese", this is by no means an isolated issue.

"Violence between the two communities is something that has happened in the past. This is compounding an already serious issue that affects not only Myanmar and Bangladesh, but the region as a whole."

Vatikiotis adds that claims of the state of emergency in the country being used as a cover for various abuses are "very easy to make," but says judgment should be reserved until access into the area is once again granted.

"It is very difficult to make an objective assessment because of the lack of access to the region."

Thein Sein is in a tight spot. Concessions toward the Rohingyas could prove unpopular among the general public, but perceived ill-treatment risks angering Western countries that have eased sanctions in response to human rights reforms.

Minister of Border Affairs Thein Htay says 858 people have been detained for involvement in the violence, including five UNHCR staff and a U.N. World Food Programme employee. It was unclear how many of the total were Rohingya or ethnic Rakhine.


The Foreign Ministry has said 77 people died and 109 were injured during the violence, and nearly 5,000 homes burnt down.

Sources Here




“The Government Could Have Stopped This”

Burma: Violence in Arakan State

Burmese security forces failed to protect the Arakan and Rohingya from each other and then unleashed a campaign of violence and mass roundups against the Rohingya. The government claims it is committed to ending ethnic strife and abuse, but recent events in Arakan State demonstrate that state-sponsored persecution and discrimination persist.
Brad Adams, Asia director


(Bangkok) – Burmese security forces committed killings, rape, and mass arrests against Rohingya Muslims after failing to protect both them and Arakan Buddhists during deadly sectarian violence in western Burma in June 2012. Government restrictions on humanitarian access to the Rohingya community have left many of the over 100,000 people displaced and in dire need of food, shelter, and medical care.

The 56-page report, “‘The Government Could Have Stopped This’: Sectarian Violence and Ensuing Abuses in Burma’s Arakan State,” describes how the Burmese authorities failed to take adequate measures to stem rising tensions and the outbreak of sectarian violence in Arakan State. Though the army eventually contained the mob violence in the state capital, Sittwe, both Arakan and Rohingya witnesses told Human Rights Watch that government forces stood by while members from each community attacked the other, razing villages and committing an unknown number of killings.

“Burmese security forces failed to protect the Arakan and Rohingya from each other and then unleashed a campaign of violence and mass roundups against the Rohingya,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government claims it is committed to ending ethnic strife and abuse, but recent events in Arakan State demonstrate that state-sponsored persecution and discrimination persist.”

The Burmese government should take urgent measures to end abuses by their forces, ensure humanitarian access, and permit independent international monitors to visit affected areas and investigate abuses, Human Rights Watch said.

The “Government Could Have Stopped This,” is based on 57 interviews conducted in June and July with affected Arakan, Rohingya, and others in Burma and in Bangladesh, where Rohingya have sought refuge from the violence and abuses.

The violence erupted in early June after reports circulated that on May 28 an Arakan Buddhist woman was raped and killed in the town of Ramri by three Muslim men. Details of the crime were circulated locally in an incendiary pamphlet, and on June 3 a large group of Arakan villagers in Toungop stopped a bus and brutally killed 10 Muslims on board. Human Rights Watch confirmed that nearby local police and army stood by and watched but did not intervene. In retaliation, on June 8 thousands of Rohingya rioted in Maungdaw town after Friday prayers, killed an unknown number of Arakan, and destroyed considerable Arakan property. Violence between Rohingya and Arakan then swept through Sittwe and surrounding areas.



Marauding mobs from both Arakan and Rohingya communities stormed unsuspecting villages and neighborhoods, brutally killed residents, and destroyed and burned homes, shops, and houses of worship. With little to no government security present to stop the violence, people armed themselves with swords, spears, sticks, iron rods, knives, and other basic weaponry. Inflammatory anti-Muslim media accounts and local propaganda fanned the violence. Numerous Arakan and Rohingya who spoke to Human Rights Watch reached the conclusion that the authorities could have prevented the violence and the ensuing abuses could have been avoided.

A 29-year-old Arakan man and an older Rohingya man each told Human Rights Watch, separately but in the same words, “The government could have stopped this.”

The Burmese army’s presence in Sittwe eventually stemmed the violence. However, on June 12, Arakan mobs burned down the homes of up to 10,000 Rohingya and non-Rohingya Muslims in the city’s largest Muslim neighborhood while the police and paramilitary Lon Thein forces opened fire on Rohingya with live ammunition.

A Rohingya man in Sittwe, 36, told Human Rights Watch that an Arakan mob “started torching the houses. When the people tried to put out the fires, the paramilitary shot at us. And the group beat people with big sticks.” Another Rohingya man from the same neighborhood said, “I was just a few feet away. I was on the road. I saw them shoot at least six people – one woman, two children, and three men. The police took their bodies away.”
In Sittwe, where the population was about half Arakan and half Muslim, most Muslims have fled the city or were forcibly relocated, raising questions about whether the government will respect their right to return home. Human Rights Watch found the center of the once diverse capital now largely segregated and devoid of Muslims.

In northern Arakan State, the army, police, Nasaka border guard forces, and Lon Thein paramilitaries have committed killings, mass arrests, and other abuses against Rohingya. They have operated in concert with local Arakan residents to loot food stocks and valuables from Rohingya homes. Nasaka and soldiers have fired upon crowds of Rohingya villagers as they attempted to escape the violence, leaving many dead and wounded.

“If the atrocities in Arakan had happened before the government’s reform process started, the international reaction would have been swift and strong,” said Adams. “But the international community appears to be blinded by a romantic narrative of sweeping change in Burma, signing new trade deals and lifting sanctions even while the abuses continue.”

Since June, the government has detained hundreds of Rohingya men and boys, who remain incommunicado. The authorities in northern Arakan State have a long history of torture and mistreatment of Rohingya detainees, Human Rights Watch said. In the southern coastal town of Moulmein, 82 fleeing Rohingya were reportedly arrested in late June and sentenced to one year in prison for violating immigration laws.

“The Burmese authorities should immediately release details of detained Rohingya, allow access to family members and humanitarian agencies, and release anyone not charged with a crime recognized under international law in which there is credible evidence,” Adams said. “This is a test case of the government’s stated commitment to reform and protecting basic rights.”

Burma’s 1982 Citizenship Law effectively denies Burmese citizenship to the Rohingya population, estimated at 800,000 to 1 million people. On July 12, Burmese President Thein Sein said the “only solution” to the sectarian strife was to expel the Rohingya to other countries or to camps overseen by the United Nations refugee agency.

“We will send them away if any third country would accept them,” he said.

Burmese law and policy discriminate against Rohingya, infringing on their rights to freedom of movement, education, and employment. Burmese government officials typically refer to the Rohingya as “Bengali,” “so-called Rohingya,” or the pejorative “Kalar,” and Rohingya face considerable prejudice from Burmese society generally, including from longtime democracy advocates and ethnic minorities who themselves have long faced oppression from the Burmese state.

Burma’s new human rights commission – led by chairman Win Mra, an ethnic Arakan – has not played an effective role in monitoring abuses in Arakan State, Human Rights Watch said. In a July 11 assessment of the sectarian violence, the commission reported on no government abuses, claimed all humanitarian needs were being met, and failed to address Rohingya citizenship and persecution.

“The Burmese government needs to urgently amend its citizenship law to end official discrimination against the Rohingya,” Adams said. “President Thein Sein cannot credibly claim to be promoting human rights while calling for the expulsion of people because of their ethnicity and religion.”

The sectarian violence has created urgent humanitarian needs for both Arakan and Rohingya communities, Human Rights Watch said. Local Arakan organizations, largely supported by domestic contributions, have provided food, clothing, medicine, and shelter to displaced Arakan. By contrast, the Rohingya population’s access to markets, food, and work remains dangerous or blocked, and many have been in hiding for weeks.

The government has restricted access to affected areas, particularly Rohingya areas, crippling the humanitarian response. United Nations and humanitarian aid workers have faced arrest as well as threats and intimidation from the local Arakan population, which perceives the aid agencies as biased toward the Rohingya. Government restrictions have made some areas, such as villages south of Maungdaw, inaccessible to humanitarian agencies.

“The authorities should immediately grant unfettered humanitarian access to all affected populations and begin work to prevent future violence between the communities,” Adams said. “The government should assist both communities with property restitution and ensure all of the displaced can return home and live in safety.”

Since the June violence, thousands of Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh where they have faced pushbacks from the Bangladeshi government in violation of international law. Human Rights Watch witnessed Rohingya men, women, and children who arrived onshore and pleaded for mercy from Bangladesh authorities, only to be pushed back to sea in barely seaworthy wooden boats during rough monsoon rains, putting them at grave risk of drowning or starvation at sea or persecution in Burma. It is unknown how many died in these pushbacks. Those who were able to make it into Bangladesh live in hiding, with no access to food, shelter, or protection.

Bangladesh is obligated to open its borders and provide the Rohingya at least temporary refuge until it is safe for them to return, in accordance with international human rights norms. Human Rights Watch called on concerned governments to assist Bangladesh in doing so and press both Burma and Bangladesh to end abuses and ensure the safety of Rohingyas.

“Bangladesh is violating its international legal obligations by callously pushing asylum seekers in rickety boats back into the open sea,” Adams said.

Accounts From “The Government Could Have Stopped This”

“We discussed it and decided to burn down some [Rohingya] villages that all the Muslims used as a headquarters. For example, Narzi and Bhumi. We first started to set fire to Bhumi village, the headquarters of the Muslim people. We burned down the houses and then they burned down ours. In some areas, we did not burn down houses. It would have been foolish in some areas where most houses are near Arakan houses. They would all catch fire. It was a three-day offensive. It started near Bhumi village near Sittwe University because Bhumi is their headquarters.”
– Arakan man, 45, Sittwe, Arakan State, June 2012

“The first Muslim people [who arrived] used guns. At that time, we heard the shooting and my husband tried to attack the Muslim people. They killed him right there in the village. His arm was cut off and his head was nearly cut off. He was 35 years old.”
– Arakan mother of five children, 31, Sittwe, Arakan State, June 2012

“I fell down and couldn’t breathe I was so scared. I saw all the violence. Around 300 Muslims came to attack our village. They came and burned the houses. I saw them burning the houses.... The police did not come during the violence. When the Muslims came and burned the village, I fled. It was not until I got to Sittwe that I saw any police.”
– Arakan woman, 40, Sittwe, Arakan State, June 2012

“In front of my eyes, first the Lon Thein [paramilitaries] came and said they came to protect us, but when the Arakan came and torched the houses, we tried to put out the fires and they started beating us. A lot of people were shot [by the police] at a close distance. I saw people get shot at close range. The whole village witnessed it. They were people from my village. They were 15 or 20 feet away from me.... I saw at least 50 people killed.... When we tried to go put out the fire, we were not allowed to go. First they shot once in the air, and then at the people.”
– Rohingya man, 28, Sittwe, Arakan State, June 2012

“The government did not return the dead bodies to our family. They took them and cremated them in the monastery. I did not get the bodies of my two brothers-in-law.... They were killed by the Arakan in front of me. The police were there. It was not far from the police. They were killed in front of me and the police did nothing.”
– Rohingya man, 65, Sittwe, Arakan State, June 2012




DOWNLOAD THE REPORT HERE



Breaking News

Arakan, Burma 
Wednesday, August 1, 2012

"Yesterday, Mr. Quintana could not visit Buthidaung. The Army Intelligence ( Sarapa ) trickfully, took him again to Muangdaw South, Charkumba village near Alethengyaw to show Natala village and meet Buddhist Rakhines and Monks instead of real victims. It was because Mr. Quintana planned to visit Buthidaung Jail yesterday to meet the Rohingyas arrested by the security forces during the riot. Shockingly, last night, all the Rohingyas from Buthidaung Jail were shifted to another place and kept them in a Godown. Today, Mr. Quintana again arrived Buthidaung from Akyab. And we are looking forward to more news. 

Besides, Shahid Ullah ( 28 ) s/o Asharaf, an educated person and NGO worker, from Badurpara of Alethangyaw, got access to talk Mr. Quintana for only 15 minutes. Within 15 minutes and without interpreter, he bravely unveiled and re-counted the tragedy of merciless persecution of Myanmar security forces on Rohingyas during and after the riot . Soon after Mr.Quintana's departure, he suddenly disappeared from the village. The villagers assumed that he went to hide out due to fear of reprisal from the side of army intelligence( Sarapa ). Obviously, the military were on look for him the whole night in his village. His family members, either, do not know where he is about. All are very anxious about his fate. We should express congratulations and gratitude to him for his sacrifice for the community and kindly pray for his safety." informed by A. Faiz from Maung Daw. 


"Meanwhile, a high ranking police officer namely U Hla Sein (tel:0949676422) is taking extraordinary step towards cruelty and tortures in Maung Daw. On 29.07.2012 at 1 pm, this police officer came to the "Three Diamonds Gold Shop" and arrested the shop owner "Anwar." Then he was tortured nearly to death and finally at 11 pm he was released with 5 million kyats. The police officer frequently arrest people who are out for shopping and arbitrarily extorting extra amount of money. He listed some 40 people name from Quarter 5. Then, these people are asked to call his number. When the people contact him, he is always demanding money. When some people reply that they are unable to do so, they are threatened to be killed. In short, he is doing all kinds of brutalities, tortures, arbitrary extortion of money. There are various kinds of brutalities are taking place on the ground without the permission or the consent of Myanmar's higher authorities because the people in the police force and Hluntin (security Guards) are Rakhines themselves. We request to your media to publish this news in an effort to make the news reach to higher authority of Myanmar and International community." a Rohingya victim from Maung Daw reported. 


Compiled by M.S. Anwar 
RB News 






လက္ရွိ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံရယ္လို႔ ျဖစ္တည္လာမယ့္ ႏိုင္ငံဧရိယာထဲကို ၀င္လာတဲ့ လူသားေတြဟာ အဓိက အားျဖင့္ အာရွအလယ္ပိုင္း တိဘက္ကုန္းျမင့္ဘက္က ျဖစ္ၿပီး- တိဘက္ကုန္းျမင့္ရဲ႔ အေရွ႔ဘက္ မြန္ဂိုႏိုက္အႏြယ္ေတြ ပါ၀င္သလို၊ တိဘက္ကုန္းျမင့္ရဲ႔ အေနာက္ပိုင္း အာရိယာန္အႏြယ္ေတြလည္း ပါ၀င္ခဲ့တယ္။ (တိဘက္ကုန္းျမင့္ ေဒသကိုယ္က အာရိယာန္နဲ႔ မြန္ဂိုအႏြယ္တို႔ ေပါင္းစပ္ရာ ျမစ္ဆံုေဒသလို႔ ျဖစ္ေနတယ္၊ ဒါေၾကာင့္ အာရိယာန္ နဲ႔ မြန္ဂို ကျပားေတြလည္း ပါ၀င္ခဲ့တယ္။ ဒါေၾကာင့္ ျမန္မာျပည္ အေရွ႔ပိုင္းရွိ လူမ်ိဳးႏြယ္ေတြက မြန္ဂိုလီးယား အႏြယ္ရုပ္မ်ိဳးကို ဆင္ၿပီး ျမန္မာျပည္ ေနာက္ပိုင္းအျခမ္း လူမ်ိဳးေတြက အာရိယာန္ မြန္ဂိုကျပား ရုပ္ရည္မ်ိဳးကို ဆင္ေနတာ ေတြ႔ရပါမယ္။ (ဥပမာ ပခုကၠဴေဒသ သားမ်ားနဲ႔ ရွမ္းကုန္းျမင့္ေဒသ သားမ်ား ရုပ္ရည္မ်ားကို ႏိႈင္း ယွဥ္ၾကည့္ပါ။ ရာသီဥတုေၾကာင့္ အသားေရာင္ ကြာျခားလာတာလို႔ ေျပာႏိုင္ေပမယ့္- ႏွာတံသြယ္ပံုခ်င္း ကြာ ျခားမႈဟာ ရာသီဥတု အပူအေအးႏွင့္ မဆိုင္ပါ။)

ၿပီးေတာ့ ျမန္မာျပည္ထဲကို ၀င္လာခဲ့တဲ့ လူေတြဟာ အဓိကအားျဖင့္ ျမစ္ရိုးတစ္ေလွ်ာက္ စုန္ဆင္းလာခဲ့တာ မ်ားပါတယ္။ သံလႊင္ျမစ္ရိုးတစ္ေလွ်ာက္ အေျခခံၿပီး စုန္ဆင္းလာတယ္၊ ဧရာ၀တီ ျမစ္ရိုးတစ္ေလွ်ာက္ အေျခခံၿပီး စုန္ဆင္းလာတယ္၊ ခ်င္းတြင္းျမစ္ရိုးတစ္ေလွ်ာက္ အေျခခံၿပီး စုန္ဆင္းလာခဲ့တာမ်ား ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

အလားတူပဲ ရခိုင္ေဒသလို႔ ေခၚေနတဲ့ ျမန္မာျပည္ အေနာက္ပိုင္း အျခမ္းမွာလည္း လူသားေတြဟာ ေလးမူး ျမစ္ရိုး၊ ကုလားတန္ ျမစ္ရိုးနဲ႔ ေမယုျမစ္ရိုး မ်ားတစ္ေလွ်ာက္ စုန္ဆင္းလာခဲ့တာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ ေလးမူးျမစ္ရိုးဟာ တိုၿပီး ရခိုင္ရိုးမႀကီးမွာ ဆံုးသြားတယ္၊ ေခ်ာင္းသြယ္ေျမာင္းသြယ္ အျဖစ္ ဆက္စပ္ခဲ့ရင္ေတာင့္ ေက်ာက္ပန္း ေတာင္းကို ဆက္စပ္ႏိုင္တယ္- ဒါေၾကာင့္ အဲ့ဒီ ျမစ္ရိုးတစ္ေလွ်ာက္ စုန္ဆင္းလာခဲ့ရင္ သူတို႔ဟာ ပ်ဴလူမ်ိဳးႏြယ္ မ်ား ျဖစ္ႏိုင္တယ္။ ကုလားတန္ျမစ္ရိုးကေတာ့ အာသံ- မဏိပူရကိုေက်ာ္ၿပီး အခုေခတ္နီေပါလ္နားအထိ ဆိုက္ တယ္- ဒါေၾကာင့္ ကုလားတန္ျမစ္ရိုးတစ္ေလွ်ာက္ ဆင္းလာသူမ်ားက အာရိယာန္အႏြယ္မ်ား ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ အလားတူ- ေမယုျမစ္ရိုးဟာ မဏိပူရနယ္အထိ ဆိုက္တယ္- အဲ့ဒီက ဆင္းလာသူမ်ားဟာလည္း အာရိယာန္ အႏြယ္၀င္မ်ား ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ (ကုလားတန္ျမစ္၊ ေလးမူးျမစ္၊ ေမယုျမစ္ မ်ား စီးဆင္းပံုကို ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံေျမပံု၌ ေသခ်ာစြာၾကည့္ပါ။)

သံလႊင္ျမစ္ရိုးတစ္ေလွ်ာက္ စုန္ဆင္းခဲ့သူ(ကရင္၊ ပအို႔၀္၊ ကရင္နီ၊ ရွမ္း)မ်ားနဲ႔ ဧရာ၀တီျမစ္ရိုးတစ္ေလွ်ာ္ စုန္ဆင္းခဲ့သူ (ဗမာ)မ်ား ရုပ္ရည္ ကြဲျပားသလို၊ ရခိုင္မွာလည္း ေမယု၊ ကုလားတန္ ျမစ္ရိုးတစ္ေလွ်ာက္စုန္ဆင္းခဲ့ သူမ်ားနဲ႔ ေလးမူးျမစ္ရိုးမွသည္ ရခိုင္ေတာင္ပိုင္းနယ္သား အားလံုးရဲ႔ ရုပ္ရည္ဟာ သီးသန္႔ျဖစ္ေနပါတယ္။

ကုလားတန္၊ ေလးမူးလူမ်ိဳးႏြယ္မ်ား ေပါင္းစပ္လာၿပီး ရပ္ရြာတည္တံ့လာတဲ့ အခ်ိန္ကစ ကိုယ္ပိုင္အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္ေရးနဲ႔ ႏိုင္ငံငယ္ေလး ျဖစ္လာခဲ့ပါတယ္။ ဒ႑ာရီလိုလို၊ သေဘာင္လုိလုိ ေျပာစမွတ္အရ ဘီစီ ၃၀၀၀ ေက်ာ္ကတည္းက မာရယူမင္းက ႏိုင္ငံထူေထာင္ခဲ့တယ္ ဆိုေပမယ့္- ေသခ်ာတဲ့ သမိုင္းမ်ား မေတြ႔ရေသးပါ။ ေအဒီ ၄ ရာစု (ျမန္မာ ႏိုင္ငံ ပုဂံအင္ပါယာထက္ ႏွစ္ေပါင္း ၇၀၀ ေက်ာ္ေစာၿပီး) ေလာက္မွာ မဟာစႁႏၵမင္းက ဓည၀တီ ေနျပည္ေတာ္ကို စတင္ထူေထာင္ခဲ့ေၾကာင္း ဗုဒၶဘာသာကို ကိုးကြယ္ယံုၾကည္ခဲ့ေၾကာင္း သမိုင္းမ်ား ရွိေနပါတယ္။ အဲ့ဒီ ဗုဒၶသာသ နာဟာ ဗမာမ်ားဆီက ကူးစက္ခဲ့ျခင္း မဟုတ္ပါ။ ဒီအခ်ိန္မွာ ဗမာမ်ားကိုယ္တိုင္က ေထရ၀ါဒ ဗုဒၶဘာသာကို လက္မခံေသးပါ။ ဓည၀တီေနျပည္ေတာ္ဟာ ႏိုင္ငံေရးအရ အေနာက္ဘက္ အိႏၵိယအင္ပါယာ (ထုိစဥ္က မာဂဓ အင္ပါယာ)ကို တည္မွီအားကိုးေနရတဲ့ သေဘာမွာ ရွိေနေတာ့ မာဂဓ အင္ပါယာတြင္းမွ ကူးစက္ျပန္႔ႏွ႔ံလာခဲ့ျခင္း သာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

ဓည၀တီေနျပည္ေတာ္ဟာ ေလးမူးနဲ႔ ကုလားတန္ ျမစ္ရိုးၾကားေဒသမွာ စတည္ခဲ့ေပမယ့္- ႏိုင္ငံက်ယ္ျပန္႔လာ တာနဲ႔ အမွ် အေနာက္ဘက္ အေရွ႔ဘက္ကို နယ္နိမိတ္တိုးခ်ဲ႔လာခဲ့ပါတယ္။ ေတာင္ဘက္မွာ ပင္လယ္ျပင္ ေျမာက္ဘက္မွာ ရခိုင္ ရိုးမႀကီးကာဆီးထားတဲ့ အတြက္ နယ္နမိတ္က တိုးခ်ဲ႔လို႔ မရႏိုင္ပါ။ ေျမပံုကို ၾကည့္ပါ။


ေအဒီ ၄ ရာစုက စတည္ခဲ့တဲ့ ဓည၀တီ၊ ေ၀လာလီ၊ ေလးမူး၊ ေျမာင္းေဟာင္း နယ္ျပည္ေတာ္မ်ားမွာ အေနာက္ဘက္ ေမယုျမစ္၊ နာ့ဖ္ျမစ္ရိုးမ်ားကို ေက်ာ္လြန္ၿပီး ပိုင္ဆိုင္ခဲ့သလို၊ ေတာင္ဘက္ ဒြာယာ၀တီ (သံတြဲ) အထိ နယ္နမိတ္က်ယ္၀န္းလာခဲ့ပါတယ္။ ေလးမူး ေခတ္ေႏွာင္းပိုင္းမွာ ဗမာအင္ပါယာ (ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ)က အင္ အား ထြားလာၿပီး ေလးမူးေနျပည္ေတာ္ႏိုင္ငံကို ျမန္မာအင္ပါယာအတြင္း သိမ္းသြင္းႏိုင္ခဲ့ပါတယ္။
အေရးနိမ့္သြားတဲ့ ရခိုင္နယ္သားမ်ားက အေနာက္ဘက္ ဘေဂၤါနယ္မွာ ခိုလႈံခဲ့ပါတယ္။ (ထိုစဥ္က ဘေဂၤါနယ္- ဆိုတာ နာ့ဖ္ ျမစ္ရဲ႔ အေနာက္ပိုင္းေဒသ မ်ားျဖစ္ၿပီး နာ့ဖ္ျမစ္ရဲ႔ အေရွ႔ပိုင္းေဒသ စစ္တေကာင္းနယ္က ဓည၀တီ အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္လိုက္၊ ေ၀သာလီ အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္လိုက္၊ ဘေဂၤါက အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္လိုက္နဲ႔ သူသိမ္း၊ ကိုယ္သိမ္း ၾကားခံ ေဒသ ျဖစ္ေနခဲ့ပါတယ္။ ဘေဂၤါျပည္ကို အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္ထားတဲ့ မြတ္စလင္မြန္ဂိုမင္းရဲ႔ စစ္သားအကူအညီ၊ စစ္ေရးအေထာက္အပံ့အကူအညီမ်ား နဲ႔ မင္းေစာမြန္ဟာ ဗမာမ်ား သိမ္းပိုက္ထားတဲ့ ေလးမူးေနျပည္ေတာ္ကို ျပန္လည္ သိမ္းပိုက္ႏိုင္ခဲ့ၿပီး ေျမာက္ဦး အင္ပါယာကို ထူေထာင္ႏိုင္ခဲ့ပါတယ္။ ေျမာက္ဦးအင္ပါယာရဲ႔ အင္အားကို ဗမာဘက္က ၾသဇာတန္ခိုးႀကီးထြား တဲ့ ဘုရင့္ေနာင္ (ေတာင္ငူမင္းဆက္)ေတာင္ မၿဖိဳခြင္းႏိုင္ခဲ့ပါ။ ေျမပံုကို ၾကည့္ပါ။


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toungoo_Empire#First_Toungoo_Empire_.281510.E2.80.931599.29

Restored Toungoo or Nyaungyan Dynasty c. 1650
ေျမာက္ဦး အင္ပါယာဟာ စစ္တေကာင္းနယ္ တစ္ခုလံုးကို ႏွစ္ေပါင္း ၃၈၀ ေက်ာ္ အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္စိုးမိုးခဲ့ပါတယ္။ ဒါေၾကာင့္ စစ္တေကာင္းနယ္က လူမ်ိဳးအားလံုးဟာ ေျမာက္ဦးႏိုင္ငံေတာ္အတြင္းက တရား၀င္ လူမ်ိဳးမ်ား ျဖစ္ၿပီး မူလဇာတိ လူမ်ိဳးမ်ားလည္း ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ ေျမာက္ဦးမင္းဆက္ အားလံုးက မြတ္စလင္ဘြဲ႔အမည္မ်ား ခံယူၿပီး ဘာသာေရး လြတ္လပ္ခြင့္ေပးခဲ့တဲ့ အတြက္ စစ္တေကာင္းနယ္က မြတ္စလင္မ်ားကလည္း အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္ခံရမႈကို ေက်နပ္ခဲ့ပါတယ္။

ျမန္မာအင္ပါယာဟာ ကုန္းေဘာင္ေခတ္မွာ ျပန္လည္ ႀကီးထြားလာၿပီး- ၁၇၈၄ ခုႏွစ္မွာ ေျမာက္ဦး အင္ပါယာကို ျပန္လည္၀င္ ေရာက္ သိမ္းပိုက္ခဲ့ပါတယ္။ ျပင္းထန္တဲ့ စစ္ပြဲၿပီး ႏွစ္ေပါင္း ေလးဆယ္ ျဖစ္ခဲ့ကာ ရခိုင္လူမ်ိဳးေပါင္း မ်ားစြာ မ်ိဳးျပဳတ္လုနီး သတ္ျဖတ္ခံခဲ့ရပါတယ္။ ေနာက္ဆံုးမွာ ေျမာက္ဦး အင္ပါယာဟာ ဘေဂၤါကို အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္ၿပီး ျဖစ္တဲ့ ၿဗိတိသွ်ကို စစ္ကူေတာင္းလိုက္ရပါေတာ့တယ္။

ဆက္လက္တင္ျပပါမည္။-

ေဌးလြင္ဦး



UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, Mr. Tomas Ojea Quintana arrived Maung Daw around 1 pm 31st July 2012.

"As expected, authority took him to few affected areas of Rakhines and to some of the burned villages of Rohingyas and portrayed them to him as if those of Rakhines. He was hardly given any chance to freely meet with Rohingyas or visit Rohingyas' villages.

Later, he met some of Rohingya elders from Maung Daw at the district office in Myoma Kayindan. Sadly, Rohingya elders were unable to explain the real situation of Arakan because authority threatened them in advance that they would be arrested or even be killed if they failed to follow government instruction. On seeing the situation, Mr. Quintana replied "I understand your situation."

Mr. Quintana looked around the town of Maung Daw and observed the situation. There, around 60 Rakhines held protest against his visit. They held the postcards with "We don't want UN. Respect the president's decision. Respect the sovereignty. Treat fairly and respect the rights of the citizens." written on them" reported from Maung Daw on the condition of

anonymity. According to martial law declared in Arakan which is still in affect, no one is allowed to held any protest or demonstration. I wonder how the Rakhines could do so unless the government was behind this!!!
"As a rare chance, Mr. Quintan managed to meet three Rohingyas in Alay Than Kyaw. It is not known what they discussed. But soon after his departure, SaRaPha (state security affairs) started the search of the Rohingya who spoke to him (Mr. Quintana) in English. Therefore, the Rohingya has been on the run away from SaRaPha since then. Besides, he is expected to visit Sittwe on 1st August 2012.

Whereas one Rohingya from Shweza Village and three Rohingyas from Bagonna village were arrested on 30th July and 28th July respectively. Moreover, a high ranking Police officer called Than Tun is extorting money from almost all of Rohingyas from MyoThuGyi village threatening that he will arrest and kill them if they fail to give him money." Rahim from Maung Daw reported.

Compiled by M.S. Anwar
ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ၏လူ႔အခြင့္အေရးအေျခအေနကုိအျမဲတေစေစာင့္ၾကည့္ရန္ခန္႔အပ္ျခင္းခံထားရသူ ကုလသမဂၢ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး ဆုိင္ရာအထူးကုိယ္စားလွယ္မစၥတာေသာမတ္စ္ကြန္တားနားသည္ ရခုိင္ျပည္ နယ္ေမာင္းေတာၿမဳိ႕ႏွင့္စစ္ေတြၿမဳိ႕သုိ႔ ယမန္ေန ႔ ဇူလုိင္လ (၃၁) ရက္ေန႔တြင္ ျဖစ္ပြားခဲ့ေသာ အဓိကရုဏ္းႏွင့္ပတ္သက္၍သြားေရာက္စုံစမ္းျခင္းျပဳလုပ္ခဲ့သည္။ 

ကြန္တားနားအားစာနယ္ဇင္းသမားမ်ားမွ ေလ့လာေတြ႕ရွိခ်က္မ်ားအေပၚေမးခြန္းမ်ားေမးခဲ့ရာ ေျဖၾကားရန္ျငင္းပယ္ခဲ့သည္ ဟုေအပီသတင္းဌာနကေဖာ္ျပထားသည္။ 

ေဒသခံမ်ားမွတဆင့္သတင္းမ်ားအရ ဇူလုိင္လ (၃၁) ရက္ေန႔တြင္ေမာင္းေတာၿမဳိ႕သုိ႔ ရဟတ္ယာဥ္ျဖင့္ေရာက္ ရွိလာၿပီး ေမာင္းေတာၿမဳိ႕တြင္ရုိဟင္ဂ်ာလူမ်ဳိး (၅) ဦးမွ မစၥတာကြန္ တား နားႏွင့္ေတြ႔ဆုံခြင့္ရခဲ့ေၾကာင္းသိရွိရသည္။ မစၥတာကြန္တားနားမွ လုံၿခဳံေရးတပ္ဖြဲ႔၀င္မ်ား ၏ညွင္းပန္းႏွိပ္စက္မႈမ်ား၊ သတ္ျဖတ္ခံရသူမ်ားစာရင္းအတိအက်ႏွင့္ အဖမ္းခံရသူမ်ားႏွင့္ မုဒိန္းက်င့္ခံရသူမ်ားစာရင္းအတိအက်ကုိေမးျမန္းေသာ္လည္း လုံၿခဳံေရးတပ္ဖြဲ႔၀င္မ်ား ၀န္းရံ ထားေသာေၾကာင့္  ေတြ႕ဆုံသူမ်ားမွာပြင့္ပြင့္လင္းလင္းေျပာခြင့္မရခဲ့ေပ။ ေတြ႕ဆုံရန္အခ်ိန္ကုိလည္း ဆယ္မိနစ္သာ သတ္မွတ္ခဲ့ေသာေၾကာင့္ ေသဆုံးသူႏွင့္အဖမ္းဆီးခံရသူမ်ားစာရင္းကုိ အစုိးရထံမွ ရ ယူ ရန္ေျပာၾကားခဲ့ၿပီး၊ မိမိတုိ႔မွာစားနပ္ရိကၡာမလုံေလာက္သည့္ျပႆနာကုိျပင္းျပင္းထန္ ထန္ရင္ ဆုိင္ေနရေၾကာင္းသာေျပာဆုိခဲ့သည္။ 

မစၥတာေသာမတ္စ္ကြန္တားနားေမာင္းေတာၿမဳိ႕သုိ႔ေရာက္သည့္အခ်ိန္တြင္ ရခုိင္လူမ်ဳိး ၂၀၀ ခန္႔မွဆႏၵျပခဲ့ေၾကာင္း ဒီဗြီဘီ သတင္းဌာနကေဖာ္ျပခဲ့သည္။ 

ဇူလုိင္လ (၃၁) ရက္ေန႔ေန႔လည္ပုိင္းတြင္ စစ္ေတြၿမဳိ႕တမ္ဘီေက်းရြာအုပ္စု၌ လယ္ကြင္းကုိျဖတ္၍ သြားေနေသာရုိဟင္ဂ်ာ မိသားစုတစ္စုကုိ လုံၿခဳံေရးတပ္ဖြဲ႔၀င္မ်ားမွဖမ္းဆီး၍ ဖခင္ျဖစ္သူ အားသစ္ပင္ တြင္ႀကဳိးတုတ္ထားၿပီး က်န္သည့္မိသားစု၀င္ မ်ားအားေျမေပၚတြင္ လဲေလ်ာင္းခုိင္းထားခဲ့သည္။ အဆုိပါမိသားစုအားအၾကမ္းဖက္သမားမ်ားအားစြပ္စြဲၿပီး ဖခင္ျဖစ္သူ၏ လက္ေမာင္းကုိေသ နတ္ႏွင့္ပစ္ ခတ္ရာ၊ မိသားစု၀င္သုံးဦးမွ၀င္ဆြဲရန္ႀကဳိးစားခဲ့သည္။ ထုိ႔ေနာက္ ဖခင္ျဖစ္သူ၏နဖူးတည့္တည့္ ကုိပစ္ခတ္ခဲ့ၿပီး သားအႀကီးကုိျပင္းျပင္းထန္ထန္ပစ္ခတ္ခဲ့ရာ ႏွစ္ဦးစလုံး ထုိေနရာတြင္ပြဲ ခ်င္းၿပီးေသ ဆုံးခဲ့သည္။ သားအငယ္ ၏၀မ္းဗုိက္ကုိပစ္ခတ္ခဲ့ၿပီး၊ မိခင္ျဖစ္သူ ကုိလည္း ပစ္ခတ္ခဲ့ေၾကာင္း သတင္းရရွိ ပါသည္။ က်န္သည့္သားအငယ္ႏွင့္မိခင္ျဖစ္သူ ႏွင့္ပတ္သက္၍ ဆက္လက္စုံ စမ္းလ်က္ရွိပါသည္။ 

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