Suu Kyi waits to deliver a speech during the last day of the 101st session of the International Labour Conference in Geneva (Reuters)

Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi emphasised the need for “precise laws on citizenship” and “uncorrupted border vigilance” to address ongoing sectarian strife in Burma’s western Arakan state, at a press conference in Geneva on Thursday.

Speaking at the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) annual conference, she said that “fear of illegal immigration” lay at the heart of the violence between ethnic Arakanese and the stateless Rohingya minority, which has claimed at least twenty-four lives since Friday.

“Of course I am concerned and the most important lesson is the need for rule of law,” she said when asked by reporters. “We need precise laws on citizenship. I think a big problem comes from fear of illegal immigration, I think we need more responsible uncorrupted border vigilance.”

She added that those deemed worthy of citizenship, should get all the legal benefits that entails.

Ongoing ethnic strife in Burma’s western state has thrown a global spotlight on the discrimination faced by the Muslim minority the Rohingya – considered “illegal Bengali immigrants” by the government and denied citizenship, even though many of them have lived in Burma for generations.

Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) have come under growing pressure to outline their position on the Rohingya – seen as a hot-button political issue that risks alienating many of its supporters.

An outburst of anti-Rohingya sentiments have raged across social and mainstream media in recent weeks, while foreign and exile news outlets have faced accusations of “bias” for their coverage of the conflict.

One Facebook page called the “Kalar beheading gang”, which has over 500 ‘likes’, has an illustration of a grim reaper with an Islamic symbol on its robe on a blood-spattered background and explicit images purporting to be of victims of the unrest.

“Recent events in western Burmahave created a hurricane of hate in the online sphere,” Nicholas Farrelly, a research fellow at the Australian National University, told AFP.

Rohingya groups have urged Suu Kyi to speak out on their behalf, which analysts say places her in a “delicate” position. The ongoing violence is likely to overshadow her first trip to Europe since being incarcerated by the military junta in 1989.

In her address to the 101st ILO conference, she also renewed calls for responsible foreign investment in Burma, especially in the extractive industries.

“We accept that investments must bring profits, but we would like these profits to be shared between companies and our people,” said Suu Kyi speaking to a packed auditorium.

She urged foreign companies hoping to partner with the state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) to demand better governance.

“MOGE lacks transparency and accountability at present,” she said. “The government must apply internationally recognised standards such as the International Monetary Fund’s guidelines on fiscal transparency. Other countries can help by urging their companies not to partner with MOGE without agreeing to such standards.”

She welcomed the ILO decision to lift punitive measures against Burma in recognition of the steps taken to tackle the use of forced labour. The former pariah state will receive increased technical assistance as they push ahead with their plan of action to eliminate forced labour by 2015.

The ILO’s decision is widely seen as an indicator for the further removal of sanctions against Burma. However, the move has been criticized as premature by some organisations, including the Arakan Project, which recently released a new report documenting systematic abuses carried out by the Burmese military towards the Rohingya minority group.

The group warned that there has been “little progress” since the Burmese government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the ILO in March this year. While a reduction in the use of forced labour has been seen in certain townships of Northern Arakan state, it is has been coupled with a rise in arbitrary taxes and increased exploitation in other areas.

“It was a bit disappointing to see how quick and easy this decision has been taken, without really considering that forced labour is still very prevalent. I feel that it’s a bit too early,” Chris Lewa, Director of the Arakan Project toldDVB. “The need to monitor progress carefully will be important.”

The issue of forced labour inNorthern Arakanstate is inextricably linked to the legal status of the Rohingya, which leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, added Lewa.

Aung San Suu Kyi is set to travel to Norway next to collect her 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, before visiting her former home in the United Kingdom and then France.

With additional reporting from AFP.

Sources Here:

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) welcomes yesterday’s European Parliament resolution on the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Burma, which called on the Burmese government to amend its controversial 1982 citizenship law that effectively stripped the Rohingya of citizenship and allow humanitarian aid to Rakhine State “as a matter of urgency”.

The European Parliament warned that ongoing violence in Rakhine State between the majority Rakhine Buddhist and minority Rohingya Muslim populations, which has left over 70,000 people internally displaced, “may put at risk the transition to democracy in Burma/Myanmar.” The resolution urged the Burmese government to allow “UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs, as well as journalists and diplomats, unhindered access to all areas of Rakhine State, guarantee unrestricted access to humanitarian aid for all affected populations, and ensure that displaced Rohingya enjoy freedom of movement and are permitted to return to their place of residence once it is safe for them to do so.”

The resolution also called on the government to “amend the 1982 citizenship law so as to bring it into line with international human rights standards and its obligations under Article 7 of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, with a view to granting citizens’ rights to the Rohingya and other stateless minorities, as well as ensuring equal treatment for all Burmese citizens, thus ending discriminatory practices.”

In a separate development, a new report released yesterday by the Arakan Project documents that “the systemic and discriminatory practice of forced labour against the Rohingya has continued, or even intensified, across large areas of North Arakan/Rakhine State in Burma/Myanmar, since deadly communal violence broke out in June 2012.”

Meanwhile, in London this week, a delegation from the Chin Human Rights Organisation (CHRO), hosted by CSW, presented their new report, “Threats to Our Existence: Persecution of Ethnic Chin Christians in Burma”, at a meeting in the House of Commons organised by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Democracy in Burma. They also met with the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow MP.

Reports have also emerged this week that Howitzer artillery shelling is being used on civilian villages surrounding the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) headquarters of Laiza. Peace talks between leaders of the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) and the government have been suspended since July, during which time fighting between the KIA and Burmese army has escalated severely.

Benedict Rogers, CSW’s East Asia Team Leader, said, “During this week, the suffering of people in western and northern Burma has received long overdue and much needed attention, which we welcome. In the past year, Burma’s government has taken some very welcome steps towards democratization and openness, and those reforms should be recognized. However, until all the people of Burma can live in peace and without fear, we must continue to highlight the very grave human rights violations which are still taking place today, including violations of religious freedom. The Rakhine and Rohingya, as well as the Chin and Kachin people, along with the ethnic nationalities in eastern Burma, must be included in the reform process; a genuine nationwide dialogue must take place, and a political solution to decades of conflict and persecution must be agreed. As President Thein Sein and Aung San Suu Kyi prepare to visit the US, we urge them to work together to establish a nationwide ceasefire, to open a political dialogue with the ethnic nationalities, to repeal the 1982 Citizenship Law and introduce a new citizenship law that recognizes those born in Burma as citizens, and to promote religious freedom and human rights for all.”

Sources Here:

UNITED NATIONS – When Aung San Suu Kyi was last in New York she was single, sharing a small apartment in midtown Manhattan with an exiled Burmese singer and walking six minutes each day to a bureaucratic job she hated at the United Nations. 

That was in 1969. The 24-year-old daughter of the founding father of an independent Burma, still unsure what to do with her life, lived in relative anonymity for three years, until she left with no regrets to marry an Englishman, according to Peter Popham’s biography of her. 

Next week the Burmese democracy icon, now a 67-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner and member of parliament, will be back in New York for the first time in decades to attend meetings at her former employer. During a 17-day U.S. tour, she will be feted in Fort Wayne, on both coasts and awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, America’s highest civilian honor. 

Still, as she transitions from icon to practical politician, Suu Kyi’s silent treatment of the minority Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar has begun to blemish her reputation as a champion of human rights. No longer confined to house arrest, she now must gauge whether to compromise some principles in order to retain popular support. 

“She could have been Gandhi, but she sacrificed her moral authority,” said Robert Lieberman, a physics professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who spent two years making an undercover documentary on Myanmar. “The Burmese are very prejudiced against the Rohingya, and she is running in 2015. Politics are a dirty business.”

While beloved by voters – her image is a fixture in Burmese shop windows and homes – the majority of the population reviles the stateless Rohingyas, who are deprived of citizenship in Myanmar. The next nationwide vote in 2015 will take place a quarter of a century after the military dictatorship refused to recognize the victory of Suu Kyi’s party in 1990 elections. 

At home and abroad, Suu Kyi remains a symbol of Myanmar’s stoic non-violent struggle against the five-decade rule of generals who kept her under house arrest for 15 years. As the former military junta allowed a political opening, she showed her willingness to engage by entering parliament after her party’s successful showing in April by-elections, running for a seat in parliament that came open between regular elections. 

For the first time this year, Suu Kyi has been able to travel freely overseas without fear of being banned from re- entry, dropping by Oslo to pick up her Nobel Peace Prize – 21 years after it was bestowed on her. 

She also visited Great Britain, where she had studied at Oxford University and lived in the 1980s with her husband Michael Aris, a Tibetan scholar. In 1999, when Aris was dying, she dared not visit him out of concern she wouldn’t be allowed to return home. 

Wherever Suu Kyi goes, she attracts throngs of supporters seeking a glimpse of their idol and media eager to quiz her. 

Questions on where she stands on the persecution of the Rohingya dogged her in a trip to Europe in June. Her decision to skirt the issue elicited rare criticism. 

“Aung San Suu Kyi has the moral authority to change the terms of debate in Myanmar about the Rohingya towards a rights-respecting, non-discriminatory path, and we certainly hope she will seize the unique opportunity of this U.S. trip to do so,” said Bangkok-based Phil Robertson, who oversees the work of Human Rights Watch in Asia. 

“We hope she can push the government of Myanmar to recognize that the Rohingya deserve citizenship,” he said in an email. 

When Thein Sein makes his first U.N. appearance as Myanmar’s president at the General Assembly on Sept. 27, he, too, will be grilled about the Rohingya. On the same day, 80 miles north of New York in New Haven, Conn., Suu Kyi will be addressing Yale University students. Their paths won’t cross at the U.N., with Suu Kyi leaving New York as the president arrives. 

It will be harder to duck the issue of the Rohingya at media-packed events during her extended stay in the United States which also will include a stop-off on the West Coast. On Sept. 29, she will meet members of the Burmese community – a mixture of economic migrants and political dissidents – in San Francisco. 

Nyunt Than, a 49-year-old software engineer who fled Myanmar in 1992 and settled in the Bay Area in 1996, says he hopes finally to meet his idol in person. As a young activist, he and his friends followed her around wherever she spoke. 

Nyunt Than, who went on to form the Burmese American Democratic Alliance in the U.S., says he wants to visit his homeland at the end of the year, but is concerned the authorities have yet to clear his name from a travel blacklist. 

“My father is still alive, he’s 85, but my mother passed away a few years ago,” Nyunt Than said in a telephone interview. “The sad thing is that even with my financial support my family still struggles.”

Born in a village about 70 miles east of Yangon, Nyunt Than is among the 100,000 people of Burmese descent living in the U.S. He’s able to send money home through unofficial channels, and bought an apartment in the capital for his parents so they could have access to better health care. 

Known to the Burmese as the “The Lady,” Suu Kyi’s grueling schedule may take a toll on her fragile constitution. She’s had fainting spells and bouts of exhaustion this year. 

“We are so happy to have her, but I feel sorry she is coming such a long way because of her health,” Nyunt Than said. 

Still, the Rohingya remain a delicate topic, even for Burmese who left their homeland long ago. When asked about Suu Kyi’s stance on the Rohingya, Nyunt Than stiffens. 

“The international media and some rights groups do not understand the circumstances and the background well enough and got it wrong in their reporting, views and the remarks,” he said. “There is an humanitarian situation and lack of rules of law in the Arakan State in Myanmar, and the current government, activists, and the communities are collectively addressing it.”

Politics aside, Myanmar’s economic potential is the point of focus for investors. Emerging from isolation as sanctions are loosened, Myanmar’s economy may grow as much as 8 percent a year over the next decade, according to the Asian Development Bank. 

Getting Suu Kyi to be more forthcoming may prove difficult. 

Lieberman, who interviewed Suu Kyi at length while filming “They Call it Myanmar,” describes her as quite guarded, even intimidating, on subjects she’s uncomfortable with, especially her private life. When he nudged her to be a little open, she snapped, “I can’t be someone I am not.”

“And no personal questions, by the way.”

Sources Here:

Sittwe (Mizzima) – A seven-person delegation led by Turkish Ambassador to Burma Murat Yavuz Ates visited Sittwe [Sittway] and met with officials of the Arakan [Rakhine] State government last week, while providing immediate aid to displaced persons in government camps. 

Tents set up for internally displaced people on the side of the road in Thet Kel Pyin camp, Rakhine state, Burma. Photo: OCHA.

The ambassador met with Arakan State Chief Minister Hla Maung Tin and also visited Mingan village, Kyaukphyu Township, and provided medicine and bags of rice to Arakanese refugees. The delegation also provided 2,228 bags of rice to refugees in Thakkaypyin village in Sittwe Township.

Recent weeks have seen a wave of international officials visiting Rakhine State to access the situation and to determine the refugees needs.

A delegation from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), led by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, visited the Bawduba Rohingya refugee camp in Sittwe, a Muslim Quarter [Aung Mingala], and the Arakanese refugee camp in Sutaungpyace Temple on Sept. 10.

On Sept. 8, a 11-person delegation led by the US Department of State Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Joe Yun, the US ambassador to Burma Derek Mitchell and UNHCR representative Hans ten Feld visited refugee camps in Maungdaw.

Officials said six houses and 122 temporary tents have been constructed for refugees in Mawyawaddy village in Maungdaw Township; 122 dwellings totaling 463 people were put up at a relief camp in the Alalthankyaw village; and 38 houses and 79 temporary tents had been built for refugees in Shweyinaye village, a state-run newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Seventy-six households totaling 266 people have been constructed in the “4-mile” camp and Parahita camp in Maungdaw, said reports.

Sources Here:

The United States on Thursday urged Bangladesh to keep its border open to Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar in the wake of June violence but advocated their safe repatriation as a long-term solution. 

A delegation of the U.S. State Department recently visited the troubled region in Myanmar where violence between Rakhaine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in June left at least 80 people dead. The team later visited refugee camps of Rohingya in Bangladesh's southern Cox's Bazar district. 

U.S. officials said at a news conference in Dhaka that the situation in Myanmar was still grave for the Rohingya people. 

They urged both Myanmar and Bangladesh to work out a long-term solution while stressed the need for providing food and basic healthcare to stateless Rohingya. 

Dan W. Mozena praised Bangladesh for its years of support to the Rohingya people but urged the country to do more for tens of thousands of undocumented Rohingya in Bangladesh. 

Mozena, who did not visit Myanmar but went with the full delegation to the camps in Bangladesh, said the situation was "grim" among refugees outside the official camps who were deprived of basic needs. 

Some 28,000 Rohingya refugees live in two official camps in Cox's Bazar district, but tens of thousands of others languish outside without proper care or facilities. 

The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina earlier this year asked three international organizations to stop providing services to undocumented Rohingya to discourage fresh refugees from Myanmar. The government says it needs to take precautions because it has intelligence reports that some Islamic militant groups have targeted the Rohingya refugees for recruitment. 

The U.S. officials were concerned about the situation of Rohingya people in Myanmar, said one of the delegation who visited there, Kelly Clements, deputy assistant secretary for Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. 

Clements said displacement of Rohingya people was still rampant in the troubled region, where many homes were burned to the ground during the violence. But she praised Myanmar for allowing them "unprecedented access" to see the area. 

She said reconciliation and reintegration of the ethnic groups should top Myanmar's government agenda to resolve the crisis. 

She said both Bangladesh and Myanmar should ensure basic assistance to the people in trouble. 

The U.S. officials also pushed for continuous dialogue between Bangladesh and Myanmar. 

Myanmar considers the Rohingya to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denies them citizenship. Bangladesh says Rohingya have been living in Myanmar for centuries and should be recognized there as citizens. 

In the 1990s, about 250,000 Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh in the face of alleged persecution by the military junta. 

Later, Myanmar took back most of them, leaving some 28,000 in two camps run by the government and the United Nations. 

Bangladesh has been unsuccessfully negotiating with Myanmar for years to send them back and, in the meantime, tens of thousands of others have entered Bangladesh illegally in recent years.

Sources Here:

British MPs this week said the situation in Rakhine State in Burma is an issue of human rights, justice and desperate humanitarian need, and called for the British government to respond. 

Tun Khin of the Burmese Rohingya Organization UK. Photo: screenshotSpeakers said that reports indicated that some members of the Burmese security services have been directly engaged in violence towards the Rohingya, with allegations of mass killings, mass arrests and looting. 

Responding to the debate, Tun Khin, president of BROUK, said, “The Burmese Government must be held to account for how they are treating the Muslim people. Injustice is being done to the Rohingya people.”

“It has been three months since Rohingya have not been able to leave their homes in Kyauktaw, Min Bya, Puaktaw Pone Nar Kyun and Mrauk Oo,” he said in a statement issued by the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK). 

Many Rohingyas do not have any food and are afraid to leave their homes, he said.

“They have become refugees in their homes,” he said. “Urgent UN monitor teams must be allowed into the area and we need a UN Commission of Inquiry into who perpetrated crimes against humanity against Rohingyas.”

He called on the UK government to withdraw the invitation to President Thein Sein to visit the UK in order to bring home to him the seriousness of the current situation. 

He also asked the British Government “to ensure strong wording in the upcoming UN General Assembly Resolution on Burma, including reform of the 1982 Citizenship Law and the establishment of a UN Commission of Inquiry into what has taken place in Arakan State.”

Days after the violence started, security forces began targeting predominantly Muslim areas and arrested many Rohingya men and boys, who have not been heard of since, according to a BROUK statement.

MPs said the violence of the summer has brought Burma’s 1982 citizenship law into sharp focus, and noted calls for the Burmese government to repeal that law and to replace it with a new law based on human rights, which recognizes and respects the equal rights of all the Burmese people and is in accordance with international standards.

Jonathan Ashworth, MP, who opened the debate, said that historically, the Burmese government was, perhaps, more sympathetic towards citizenship rights in relation to the Rohingya. 

The first president of Burma said that the “Muslims of Arakan certainly belong to the indigenous races of Burma. If they do not belong to the indigenous races, we also cannot be taken as indigenous races,” he said.

MPs mentioned that if the Burmese government is serious about democratic reform, it should eliminate discriminatory laws, and also urged the Government of Bangladesh to treat the refugees with more compassion and to allow the United Nations and other groups greater access to provide humanitarian aid.

Sources Here:

Kyi May Kaung: Dissenting artist, award-winning writer of non-fiction, fiction, drama and poetry, doctorate in Political Economy.

Jacques P. Leider: Head, Chiang Mai Center of the École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO).

Josef Silverstein: Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science, Rutgers University, and author, Burmese Politics: The Dilemma of National Unity.

Chris Lewa: Director, The Arakan Project, an NGO based in Asia.

Maung Zarni: Founder, Free Burma Coalition and Fellow, London School of Economics.


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Lindsay Murdoch, Bangkok

Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be awarded Washington's highest honour next week amid criticism she has failed to speak up for almost one million persecuted Rohingya Muslims living in her country.

Ms Suu Kyi, 67, will receive the Congressional Gold Medal for enduring more than 20 years of personal denigration and 15 years of house arrest as she became the voice of Burma's downtrodden.

But human rights groups and some academics have expressed disappointment the mother of two who took a seat in Burma's military-dominated Parliament in July has dodged questions on the plight of the Rohingya, stateless people who are widely reviled by Burma's Buddhist majority.

One Scottish academic has even suggested she return her 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.

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Ms Suu Kyi is likely to be pressed on her views about the Rohingya during her first trip to the US since she was put under house arrest by Burma's generals in 1990.

But diplomats say she would face a backlash from Burmese Buddhists, including many of her own supporters, if she was to express support for the Rohingya.

Monks who had been long-time pro-democracy advocates took to the streets of Burma's second largest city Mandalay for three days last week to demand the Rohingya be deported.

Since bloody clashes erupted between Rohingya and Arakan Buddhists in Burma's western Arakan state in June - leaving an estimated 100,000 people displaced and at least 78 dead - Ms Suu Kyi has given only scripted answers about the bloodshed to journalists, referring to the need for a “rule of law”.

She has declined to say whether the Rohingya, who under a 1982 law are treated as non-citizens, should be granted citizenship.

The Rohingya, who speak a Bengali dialect and tend to have darker complexions than Burmese, are classified as immigrants from Bangladesh despite having lived in Burma for centuries.

They face restrictions on their movement, access to education and employment and are denied other basic rights.

Many would face possible starvation without the intervention of United Nations agencies.

Burma's President Thein Sein, a former general who has won praise for introducing democratic reforms in his country, said in July the “only solution” is for the Rohingya to leave Burma.

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

Burma's treatment of the Rohingya has prompted criticism from many Muslim groups and nations, including Malaysia and Indonesia.

A US delegation that returned on Monday from a two-day tour of areas of Arakan affected by the sectarian violence said it had “great concern” about the situation there.

“Broad swathes of both communities have been affected and the humanitarian situation remains of great concern,” said a statement from the US embassy in Rangoon.

Phil Robertson, who oversees the work of Human Rights Watch in Asia, said the international community rightly looks to Ms Suu Kyi as a beacon of light and moral authority in Burma.

“We encourage her to speak up and take a leadership role on the situation in Arakan,” he said.

About 300,000 Rohingya who have fled the Burma violence are living in Bangladesh, many of them in squalid camps where Bangladesh has restricted aid.

When the violence broke out in June, Bangladesh closed its border and pushed an unknown number of boats carrying men, women and children back out to sea, Human Rights Watch says. Their fate is unknown.

There are fears that when the monsoon season ends within weeks many Rohingya in Bangladesh will attempt dangerous voyages to Malaysia, where tens of thousands of them already there are waiting to be resettled in third countries like Australia.

Thailand has a policy to intercept boats carrying Rohingya at sea and provide them with fuel, water and food but not to allow them to land on its shores.

Thailand has previously towed Rohingya boats which have landed on its shores back out to sea, causing the deaths of hundreds of people.

Ms Suu Kyi leaves for the US on Sunday.

Source here 

September 13: Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama called the reports of gross human rights violations n Burma “very unfortunate” and said he tried to contact pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese government over the issue.

Source here 

Like millions of my fellow Buddhist Burmese, I grew up as a proud racist. For much of my life growing up in the heartland of Burma, Mandalay, I mistook what I came to understand years later as racism to be the patriotism of Burmese Buddhists. Our leading and most powerful institutions, schools, media, Buddhist church and, most importantly, the military, have succeeded in turning the bulk of us into proud racists.

Around the world, supporters of democracy in Burma have been shocked to learn of the ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the Muslim Rohingyas in Western Burmaand the attendant popular racist venom that is being spat at these most vulnerable stateless people[1].

President Thein Sein has characterised the events as ‘communal violence’[2], a deliberately misleading term designed to conceal the State’s involvement in the massacres of the Rohingyas. The damning new Human Rights Report states emphatically:


“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 Burmain 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” [3].

For nationalists, the cliché “to be Burmese is to be Buddhist” is still a given, especially those in the ruling military clique. While having deep roots in our turbulent history, the current resurgence of Burmese racism, both official and popular, is, no doubt, a direct result of half-century of racist military rule.

Largely due to the country’s international isolation under military rule, Burmese society as a whole remains deeply illiberal and potently ethno-nationalistic, in spite of the ritual pronouncements of democracy and human rights by an elite class of dissidents. Even a quarter century after Aung San Suu Kyi called for the ‘revolution of the spirit’, nothing spiritually progressive has taken root in the popular Burmese psyche[4] – including among the country’s noble dissidents. Burmese human rights defenders who spent half of their lives in military jail houses, Buddhist monks and the Burmese Buddhist diaspora are all singing from the same song sheet on issues of race. On this issue, they all stand alongside the country’s Neanderthal generals and ex-generals.

One wonders what has resulted from the loud liberal rhetoric of human rights coming from noble dissidents when it comes to the persecuted Rohingyas? Where has the loving kindness of monks gone, who only five years ago flooded the streets of Rangoon and other urban centres of Burma chanting Loving Kindness for all sentient beings?

As a former racist who grew up thinking that any individual and any group deemed to pose a threat to national sovereignty and our Burmese “Buddhist” identity should be “gassed”, I feel a deep chill in my spine thinking about what my society is in effect evolving into.

First, President Thein Sein reportedly told the visiting head of the United Nations High Commission for the Refugees (UNHCR), Antonio Guterres, that his government is prepared to either expel the 800,000 Rohingyas en masse to any third country willing to take them, or segregate them in camps where entire Rohingya communities, on the basis of their ethnicity, religion and citizenship status, could be quarantined, clothed and fed by the United Nations.[5]

Second, despite the presence of many educated presidential advisers, the country’s reformist generals and ex-generals aren’t being called on, not even nudged, to rethink their anachronistic nationalism. Quite the opposite is happening. According to the New Yorker, Burmese presidential adviser and writer Thant Myint-U said:


“Abstract moral arguments weren’t going to cut much ice. And they were deeply cynical of Western rhetoric on human rights. The argument we made that got the most traction was: ‘We’re falling so far behind our neighbors economically— China and India—that, unless we change, politically as well as economically, it’s going to be disastrous’” [6].

This unholy alliance between liberally-educated presidential advisers and the Burmese junta is cemented by economic nationalism – not human rights, nor liberal humanitarianism.

Last but not least, key international players in Burmese politics, such as the country’s former ruler Britain and the United States, looked the other way for two full months while Burma’s state-sanctioned racial violence against the Rohingya was raging on. For instance, British Foreign Secretary William Hague waited until 13 August to speak out, whereas the ‘communal violence’ broke out in early June[7]. It took another 10 days for the United States Ambassador to follow suit. The West’s primary interest in the full scale re-engagement with the ‘reformist’ military is primarily for their own strategic and commercial interests vis-à-vis a fast rising China.

It is still the primary responsibility of the Burmese themselves to resolve Burma’s long-standing and emerging challenges including ethno-religious conflicts, be they the war against the Kachin in Northern Burma or the state-sponsored violence in Western Burma. There is an urgent need to explain, expose, disrupt and eventually end the toxic merging of Burma’s governmental and popular racism against the Muslim Rohingya.

Burma’s military strong men have demonstrated neither the political will nor intellectual vision or capacity needed to resolve our post-colonial problems. Instead, they have shown time and again their sinister resolve to continue exploiting society’s ethno-religious differences, be it against the Chinese – as in the case of state-induced anti-Chinese riots of 1967 – or Muslims in general, and the Rohingya Muslims in particular.

There are pockets of Burmese citizens, of all different faiths and ethnic backgrounds, who fully appreciate our cultural, religious and ethnic diversity to be our strength. Their voices, inside Burma and in the diaspora, calling for ethnic peace are currently being drowned out by the loud chorus of ethno-racial fanaticism which pervades Burmese and English-language social media such as Facebook, YouTube, Burmese chat rooms and, not surprisingly, the state media itself.

It is all the more important that conscientious Burmese in the diaspora and within the country work hard and together against the troubling ideological merger between popular racism with the military state’s closeted fascism. If racism and fascism are learned behaviours, we must create civic educational initiatives that will enable our less informed citizens sedated on a ground-swell of racism to unlearn their racism.

Racist majoritarian democracy is no longer a viable design for our democracy.


Maung Zarni is a veteran Founder of the Free Burma Coalition and Visiting Fellow (2011-13) at Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, the London School of Economics and Political Science. He will be participating in an event on “Burma in Transition: Minorities, Human Rights and Democratic Process” on September 14 2012 at Colombia University.


[1] See New York Times “Ethnic Cleansing in Myanmar”, 12 July 2012

[2] Exclusive Interview with President Thein Sein, The Voice of America Burmese Service, 14 August 2012. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L2-QRCs5s0&feature=relmfu

[3] “The Government could have stopped this”, 1 August 2012

[4] See Sanitsuda Ekachai, “This is racism, not Buddhism”, op-ed, The Bangkok Post, 5 September 2012 &

William McGowan, “Burma’s Buddhist Chauvinism”, op-ed, Wall Street Journal, 3 September 2012

[5] “UN refugee chief rejects call to resettle Rohingya”, Associated Press, 12 July 2012

[6] “Burmese Spring”, 6 August 2012

[7] See British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, “Foreign Secretary stresses need to end violence in Burma”, 13 August 2012 . And also see See Wall Street Journal, “U.S. Ambassador in Myanmar Speaks Out on Rohingya”, 24 August 2012.

Source here 

The inquiry commission set up by the president Thein Sein visited Maung Daw and left today (Tuesday), 11th September 2012. Initially, the head of the district administration in Maung Daw arranged to hold an inquiry session at his office in Myoma Kayindan. He had demanded a Rohingya leader in Maung Daw to arrange some Rohingya members who don’t say anything against their oppressions (of Rohingyas) to the inquiry commission. His plan was not successful because no Rohingya dared attend the session since they can’t say there what they want. And because they (Rohingyas) knew that they speak the truth, they will be persecuted later. 

Therefore, some of Rohingyas contacted few members of the commission and invited them to come to their villages to see their actual situation. But they replied to Rohingya members “we don’t have any authority to go to wherever we wish and we can only visit the places that the government wishes.” Is it really an inquiry commission? If yes, why don’t they have authority to investigate freely and to visit the places wherever they want? I leave the case to you all. 

Some Rohingya members in the village of Nyaung Chaung in Maung Daw tried to meet the commission members at 4pm yesterday. But they could not meet the commission members because of threats from Dr. Aye Maung, a member of the commission. He is the chair man of Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP) who has instigated the violence against Rohingyas and one of the main culprits of atrocities against them. He threatened Rohingyas “do you want to stay here safely and without any harms? Do you want to eat here without any disturbance? If yes, then don’t do what you are doing now.” His words were nothing different from everyday language and threats of Rakhine hooligans against Rohingya community. In such situation, how can one expect impartial investigation and justify their inspection? 

At last, due to inability to meet any Rohingyas and investigate their members, the commission arranged a session in the Markaz in Myoma Kayin (the Islamic Religious Centre in Maung Daw). Outside the centre, there were many police patrolling in the name of security who actually were preventing Rohingyas from going to meet commission members. Police, especially the head of Police in Maung Daw Zone, threatened Rohingyas “you fucking people! Why are you going there? You people will soon be driven out.” 

Many educated Rohingyas and their figure heads were arrested and charged with false cases prior to the arrival of inquiry commission. They threatened the remaining educated Rohingyas that they (Police in Maung Daw) have already thought of and made the cases under which they will be imprisoned. Police further threatened “Just arresting you guys remains.” Anyhow, few Rohingyas managed to meet the commission. It is not known what they discussed. Therefore, on the one hand, the inquiry commission is portrayed as if they are doing their job and on the other hand, Police is leaving no stone unturned to prevent Rohingyas from meeting them. All in all, they are doing all efforts to cover up their crimes against Humanity. 

Compiled by M.S. Anwar 

Members of an influential Islamic body are visiting Burma’s Arakan state, a government official said Tuesday, to survey fallout from deadly sectarian unrest between Buddhist and Muslim communities. 

A delegation from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) led by the group’s representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Ufuk Gokcen, arrived in Arakan state on Sunday, according to an official in the state capital Sittwe. 

“They met the union border affairs minister and Rakhine [Arakanese] chief minister here and also visited some refugee camps and made donations,” he said, adding that the group concluded their visit on Monday. 

Fighting in Arakan state has left almost 90 people dead, both Buddhists and Muslims, since it erupted in June according to an official estimate, although rights groups fear the real toll is much higher. 

New York-based Human Rights Watch has accused Burmese forces of opening fire on stateless Rohingya Muslims during the violence, an accusation denied by the government — prompting concern across the Islamic world. 

At a summit last month in the Saudi Arabian holy city of Mecca, the 57-member OIC decided to take its concerns over the treatment of the group to the UN. 

It also condemned “the continued recourse to violence by the Myanmar authorities against the members of this minority and their refusal to recognise their right to citizenship”. 

Burma in August agreed to allow the OIC to provide aid to the region, on the condition it agreed to assist all communities in the area. 

According to a report in the English language state newspaper the New Light of Myanmar on Tuesday, the delegation had “a cordial discussion on (the) real situation that broke out in Rakhine State”, as well as rehabilitation and sustainable development. 

Hundreds of homes were razed in the unrest and an estimated 70,000 people, the majority of them Rohingya, were left displaced in government-run camps and shelters. 

The US on Monday said it had “great concern” about the humanitarian situation in Arakan after its own delegation, led by the new ambassador to the country Derek Mitchell and senior envoy Joseph Yun, ended a visit to the area. 

Speaking a dialect similar to one in neighbouring Bangladesh, the estimated 800,000 Rohingya in Burma are seen by the government and many in the country as illegal immigrants. 

Sources Here :

THE Kelab Putera 1Malaysia's (KP1M) humanitarian mission to help the Rohingyas is back on course.

KP1M president Datuk Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim told The Malay Mail yesterday the mission had received the green light from the Myanmar government.

He was informed of this by a Foreign Affairs Ministry officer at a meeting yesterday.

The ship will dock and transfer the aid at Yangon port and they will be sent to the Rakhine region by road, which is expected to take a day.

Abdul Azeez said they originally planned to dock at Sittwe port, which is closer to where the Rohingyas are camped across the border in neighbouring Bangladesh, but it was under construction.

"We are transporting 500 tonnes of goods while Sittwe port can only accept smaller cargoes. I was told by the Malaysian embassy there that we have to get the Myanmar government's approval to use the road to Rakhine," he said.

Abdul Azeez declined to say when the ship, which was still docked at the Lumut naval base in Perak, would set sail.

"We have to wait for all the procedures to be completed," he said.

The humanitarian mission was originally slated to leave for Sittwe Port on Sept 5 and return on Sunday after sending aid to refugees living in camps in Kutupalong, and in Nayapara, near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. It was reported the Bangladeshi government would only give clearance once its Myanmar counterparts gave the nod.

The aid, ferried by a crew of 38, comprises foodstuff to amenities such as medicine and wheelchairs, for 30,000 registered Rohingya refugees at the two camps, 40,000 unregistered ones in makeshift camps and 130,000 living in surrounding areas.

ွSources Here:

A four-member US team, looking for ways to help the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh improve their living standards, is scheduled to arrive here on Tuesday on a three-day visit to Bangladesh.

The team members are Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Joseph Y Yun, Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Alyssa Ayres, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration Kelly Clements, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour Daniel Baer.

The team is now in the Rakhine state of Myanmar figuring out the conditions of the Rohingyas after the recent sectarian violence there.

According to Foreign Ministry sources, the US team arrived in Myanmar on September 8.

During their visit to Bangladesh, they will hold talks with government officials and representatives of international organisations for finding out the role of the USA government to help improve the living conditions of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, not to repatriate them.

US Ambassador in Dhaka Dan W Mozena will be with the team during their visit to Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar.

Since the sectarian violence erupted in Myanmar's Rakhine state in June, countless Rohingyas are trying to enter Bangladesh through Teknaf border but Bangladesh did not accept them as it is already overpopulated although there were calls from different quarters to shelter them on humanitarian grounds.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina repeatedly said Bangladesh cannot afford to allow in any more Rohingyas fleeing persecution in the neighbouring Myanmar. She said Bangladesh is already overpopulated and it was not its responsibility to help all those coming in from across the border.

Some 25,000 Rohingyas, who took shelter in the two refugee camps in Cox's Bazar two decades back, are still living in Bangladesh instead of returning back. Besides, nearly 4 lakh unregistered Rohingyas are staying in Bangladesh.

Sources Here:

Since the violence against Rohingyas in Arakan erupted, Security Forces, Police and Rakhine Terrorists along with Military have been carrying out mass murders and genocides against Rohingyas. They have been maliciously killing Rohingyas with immense hatred and hence with no mercy at all. Their hatred against Rohingyas is so much so that many Rakhine soldiers, police and security forces proudly claim how many Rohingyas each of them killed. 

A Rakhine soldier from 352 Light Infantry Battalion told Al-Jazeera that he and his comrades killed 300 Rohingyas from Myothugyi in Maung Daw on the night of June 8. Another claimed said “I put the butt of my gun here at [the right side of] my waist and shot down many Muslims while keeping my left hand on magazines so that I could quickly fill up my bullets. There were so many dead bodies that we even had to call in a bulldozer to make a mass grave.” One more Rakhine soldier boasted to Aljazeera that he and his troops killed uncountable numbers of Rohingya in the village of Nyaung Chaung in Maung Daw in early June. He further said “We have even still kept this from our [commanding] officers.” (Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/08/201288114724103607.html) 

Now, where is Thein Sein Government that claims the dead casualties to be only about 100 when his own forces are claiming such big numbers of killing as mentioned above? In fact, thousands of Rohingyas have been being killed by security forces, police, and military together with Rakhine extremists. The government has grossly understated the numbers of Rohingyas killed. After killing Rohingyas, the authorities have, in the rush, buried their corpses or thrown wherever possible. Now, Rohingya dead bodies are being found everywhere. Three dead bodies were found in a well in the vicinity of old jail of Maung Daw. Numbers of dead bodies were buried near to the Black Bridge in the village of Shitaylla of Myoma Kayindan. Other dead bodies were found at a place in Nyaung Chaung Village. Besides, many more were found in the Jetty area of quarter one of Maung Daw. By and large, Arakan has become a Burmese version of Nazi extermination Camps for Rohingyas. 

With a view to hiding the actual situation and deceiving all the visiting investigation teams in Maung Daw, Rakhines have been rushing to set up temporary camps (tents) at the hill-sides in rural areas all over southern Maung Daw. The few affected Rakhines during the riot are kept safe and sound in the monasteries in Maung Daw. Now, it is said that all Rakhines in Maung Daw are moving to the temporary camps irrespective to rich, poor, healthy, unhealthy, affected or unaffected ones as the investigation teams set to visit the region. Hence, they will stay there as long as there is the investigation team. 

They are pretending as if they were attacked by Rohingyas and are injured which actually is not the reality. According to Rohingyas in Maung Daw, they (Rakhines) are going to benefit many things out of these camp scams. They will be able to cover up their crimes, get aids for nothing, houses and lands etc. Besides Rakhines, other ethnic people such as Mro, Thet and Dainet are also being placed in the camps under the direction of Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP). 

Military and Security Forces have exaggerated forced labouring of Rohingyas in southern Maung Daw. There is no day on which Rohingyas are not made forced labours. Almost 20 to 30 Rohingyas have to go for labouring for them. Under-aged Rohingya children also have to go for forced labouring if Military cannot manage the number of adults they need. Rohingyas are forced to carry extremely heavy materials, build houses for Rakhines and do other things for the military. Rohingyas are tortured severely if they are unable to follow the military’s instructions during forced labouring. Moreover, military threaten to kill Rohingyas if they fail to go for forced labouring. Nowadays, forced labouring has become so open that military commanders are demanding forced labours through letters. One of the letters from a military sub-commander from sub-camp No.3 in the village of Kayay Myaing demanding forced labours is shown in English Translation followed by Original Letter. 

To 

Village Administrator, 

Heads of the Hundred Houses and Heads of the Ten Houses 

Bagonna Village 

Regarding above, despite asking for sending 30 voluntary workers every day, no voluntary worker came yet and so we are informing you again. We are emphasizing you to do it as quickly as possible so that we need not come there and do it by ourselves. 

Signature 

(----------------) 

Sub-Commander 

Sub-Camp No.3 

Kayay Myaing Village