Jeerawat Na Thalang
The Nation
November 18, 2012

Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan has called on the regional grouping's members to extend humanitarian assistance to Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims after clashes in Rakhine, in the country's west, left many dead or displaced. "If all of us fail, that will create an impression that we don't care. If people feel helpless and think we have to take care of [only] ourselves, the [security] of the Malacca Straits could be at stake," he said, adding that failing to address the problem could lead to "extremism and radicalisation".

The Myanmar government has said the clashes in Rakhine between Muslims and Buddhists, which have reportedly killed more than 80 people and displaced more than 26,000, are a domestic issue. However, Surin said the international community should have a role in "communicating with people under pressure to come up with a strategy and response to relieve suffering, pain and violence".

Surin said Asean could not influence the question of citizenship in Myanmar, as this would need to be tackled by a higher-level institution such as the United Nations. "But what Asean can do is [apply] humanitarian engagement," he said.

Rohingya Muslims are denied citizenship in Myanmar.

The UNHCR has warned that during the calm sea season, more displaced people may seek to flee by boat. The Malacca Straits are the main shipping lane between the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

The expected adoption of the Asean Human Rights Declaration is a highlight of this year's Asean Summit, which started this weekend. Speaking before the summit, Surin said that despite the criticisms of the declaration, it represents the start of an effort by Asean to address human-rights concerns.

"It has to begin somewhere," he said.

Surin acknowledged the difficulties faced by Asean countries on the issue and said he could not pre-judge the results of decisions to be made by Asean leaders.

Critics have said Asean's non-interference principle could make the planned declaration ineffective.

Surin said the rights declaration marks "the least comfortable level, the least level of comfort" among Asean member countries. But he noted that, "I look at the criticism of it. It's not up to universal standards… It's a valid observation, but politics is the art of the possible. The possibility now is what they've come up with, if not perfectly."

On the South China Sea territorial dispute, Surin said, "The failure to issue a joint communique [at the Asean foreign ministers' meeting in Phnom Penh in July] had a big psychological impact on all of us. It's a wake-up call. We tried to recoup and rebalance ourselves, to come together with six points on how to go about [resolving problems] in the South China Sea."

The earlier Asean meeting in Cambodia collapsed over how to deal with the territorial dispute. Surin said that since then, "We have had a flurry of visits…backroom diplomacy has been going on rather actively since July." He added, "There's expectation that China will give some flexibility."

Surin also called for Asean to push forward the Asean Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership to deepen economic integration in line with the Asean Economic Community, which is due to be launched in 2015.

By Nyi Nyi Aung

RB News

November 18, 2012

Myebon, Arakan -- Twelve Rohingyas from Myebon Township went for fishing in the evening of November 15, 2012. They were attacked by a group of Rakhine mobs at that evening and two Rohingyas were slaughtered. The dead bodies were thrown into the sea by Rakhine mobs. The names of killed Rohingyas are:

1. Kalu (son of) U Kadir Husin (Age: 52)

2. Sayed Amin (son of) U Kabir Huson (Age: 28)

The remaining ten Rohingyas managed to escape from the Rakhine mobs and came back to their village on next day (November 16, 2012) and reported for the killing two Rohingyas to police station nearby their village. But after reporting, the policemen came to village and arrested three Rohingyas who escaped from the killing field. The names of detained Rohingyas are:

3. Zamir Ahmed (son of) U Gauni Husin

There are five Rohingya muslim quarters with 602 houses and 3998 population in Myaybon main town. All Rohingya quarters were burnt down by Rakhine mobs on October 22, 2012. 30 Rohingyas were mercilessly slaughtered and more than 300 Rohingyas were wounded.

The rest Rohingyas including wouded persons run away to the forest nearby their area for the safety. They stayed there for many days without food, medicines and clothes in the forest.

Two Rohingya Families were driven out by Army soldiers in Anaw Hrei, Pauk Taw.

On November 17, 2012 evening, Burmese army soldiers came for security or to control the tension between the Rakhine and Rohingya communities at Anaw Hrei (Anauk Ye Ywa), Pauk taw. Then they stationed in the houses of four Rohingyas. Two of those houses were vacant as the owner escaped the attack on October 22, 2012. But two families living in the remaining houses were driven out for their station. The names of the families are:

1. Mohammad Jalil - 60-years with 8 family members

2. Abdul Haque - 48-years with 7 family members

All the properties belonging to the above families were captured by those soldiers. And the two families are homeless now and became the new type of refugees.

Dr. Abid Bahar
RB Aritcle
November 18, 2012

Suu Kyi had declined to speak out on behalf of stateless Rohingya Muslims. Most people wondered why. She has now answered the question herself. Not known to most people while in India, at the age of 24 she formed her ideology as a devoted Buddhist and anti Muslim Burman. True, I have been following her for a long time, like the ultra nationalist Rakhines, when she was asked about the Rohingya, she rarely used the word "Rohingya." In her role as the opposition leader, this has been a disappointment for the Rohingya.

In Suu Kyi's claim that Rohingyas are the recent immigrants from Bangladesh, no doubt she simply buys the ultra nationalist/ military constructed history. For the Rohingya problem, instead of a solution, now she seems to have become part of the problem.

As she opened her mouth wide open in India, she "described violence in west Myanmar between Buddhists and Muslims as a "huge international tragedy'" She says: "Don't forget that violence has been committed by both sides, this is why I prefer not to take sides and also I want to work towards reconciliation," she told the NDTV news channel. But did she do anything yet for reconciliation?

When asked "Is there a lot of illegal crossing of the border (with Bangladesh) still going on?: She said: "We have got to put a stop to it otherwise there will never be an end to the problem," she said.

"This is a huge international tragedy and this is why I keep saying that the government must have a policy about their citizenship laws," she said.

"There are quarrels about whether people are true citizens under law or whether they have come over as migrants later from Bangladesh," she said. "Most people seem to think there is only one country involved in this border issue."

"There are two countries. There is Bangladesh on one side and Burma (Myanmar) on the other and the security of the border surely is the responsibility of both countries."She says.

We question: If she is right, how come over 300,000 Burmese Rohingyas are still stranded in Bangladesh and more up to a million forced out Rohingyas now live in the Middle East and in other countries.

Does she know about the history of the Rohingya? She is dead wrong about the claim that there has been continued Bangladeshi infiltration into Burma. If she thinks it is a huge international problem, as a researcher on the Rohingya, I am asking her to do some readings and find out who the Rohingyas truly are. History tells us, Rohingyas have been in Arakan from the 8th century and Burman rule in Arakan began only from 1784 with a genocidal occupation of Arakan.

"The Rohingya, who make up the vast majority of those displaced in the fighting, are described by the UN as among the world's most persecuted minorities." It is now clear that Suu Kyi who has been called by the Rohingya as their mother, but first in her silence, now in her explanation, we see she has been a Burman nationalist politician all along. Despite the setback for the Rohingya, it is good to know who is the true Suu Kyi is. It is now clear that she became a xenophobe at the age of 24 and she ignored defending the Rohingyas going through genocide.

(Dr. Abid Bahar specializes on Western Burma, visited refugee camps in Bangladesh in 1978, and 2003; he now teaches in Canada)

Buthidaung, Arakan: Around 2 am this morning, a group of Rakhine extremists from Dabru-Chaung Natala village in Buthidaung Tsp secretly entered Ywet Nyo Daung Rohingya village in the same township. They poured poison into as many as 50 Ponds in the village.

“They came into the mentioned Rohingya village secretly around 2AM. When they were caught and asked by Rohingya villagers why they entered the village, they replied they were in the village in search of frogs. Later in the morning, upon finding some suspicious packets of poison around as many as 50 ponds, the villagers informed the authorities. Then, Military and Police came to investigate. And they found that the ponds were poisoned.

No actions were taken against the conspirators despite their obvious and witnessed conspiracy. On the contrary, the authority threatened the villagers not to inform it to the higher authorities at any rate. Some of these conspirators are:

1) Phoe Thar Gyi 

2) Min Zaw 

3) Maung Myint Swe 

4) Htun Kyaw” reported by Rohingya Youths in the region.

Besides, there were two Rohingyas slaughtered in Myaybon Township on 15th November 2012. They, altogether 10 Rohingyas, were out to catch fish by a boat at night. Meanwhile, many armed Rakhine terrorists surrounded them by a few boats. Two Rohingyas were killed in the attack and others escaped. Next morning, their dead bodies were found floating in the river. The profiles of the killed Rohingyas are:

1) Khalu S/o Kadir Hussain Age 52 Years 

2) Soyed Amin S/o Kabir Hussain Age 28 Years

No action has been taken against the Rakhine terrorists although Rohingyas reported to the local authority according to a Rohingya in the township.

Rohingyas in Arakan are living in fear of being massacred again like the previous two times on June 10 and October 21 respectively. They fear that it might happen again especially after the departure of President Obama.

The Irrawaddy
November 17, 2012

WASHINGTON: The White House on Thursday appeared to defend steps being taken by the Burmese government to address rising sectarian violence in the country, even as human rights bodies stepped up their protest against Monday’s visit of US President Barack Obama.

“[The Burmese] government has taken some responsible steps in trying to defuse the violence,” the National Security Council Senior Director of Multilateral Affairs Samantha Power told reporters during a conference call on Thursday.

At the same time, she said there are long-term structural issues that need to be addressed in terms of the recognition of the Rohingya people as citizens and the welfare generally of all Buddhists, Muslims and others living in Arakan (Rakhine) State.

Defending Obama’s decision to travel to Burma, Power said the trip makes a lot of sense given that the president has long indicated a willingness to engage with countries that show concretely a will to reform and make political progress.

“The reason we engage is not to reward but to lock down progress and to push on areas where progress is urgently needed,” she said, giving a couple of examples of why this applies in the current context of Burma.

“First, we’ve seen, as many of you know, some progress that the government has made in establishing ceasefires with various ethnic groups, not long-lasting solutions but ceasefires that mean that fewer people are hurting day-to-day and genuine progress,” she said.

Referring to the steps being taken by the Burmese government with regards the Rohingya issue, Power said this is “an example of a little bit of progress in the ethnic sort of area overall, but a very, very severe and important issue that we get an opportunity now to go and engage on at the ultimate level, at the highest possible level.”

Similarly, she emphasizes that regarding the Kachin State conflict, where a ceasefire has not been signed, humanitarian access must first be ensured before renewed efforts to agree a cessation of violence and then long-term political grievances must be addressed.

But Power emphasized that there is still a long way to go. “I mean, remarkable progress [has been made], but many, many political prisoners are still behind bars, and varying lists out there, but at least several hundred political prisoners, we believe,” she said.

“As the political space opens up, one of President Obama’s key messages, of course, is that there is a need not simply for government officials to talk to one another and the executive branch to talk to the Parliament, but for the youth, for legal professionals, for businesspeople, for soldiers in the rank and file of the military, for teachers, for the citizens of Burma to take ownership of this process now as it enters its next phase and to build the checks and balances that are really the requirement in this country for these reforms to be sustainable and for this to become a true democracy over time.”

Meanwhile, in a letter to the president, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) urged Obama to raise the issues of religious freedom and continuing abuses that arise from ongoing ethnic and communal violence during his trip to Burma.

“The alarming state of affairs faced by Burma’s ethnic nationalities reveals how much farther Burma’s new government must go in advancing reform and protecting universal human rights,” said the USCIRF Chair Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett in the letter.

“Under military rule, Burma was one of the world’s worst human rights and religious freedom violators. Under civilian rule, it has yet to put that image behind it and fully affirm its ethnic and religious diversity by upholding human rights, including religious freedom, for everyone.”

Ethnic Rohingya from aik Thae Village, Kyauktaw Township, was almost attacked on Friday night. Approximately 3,000 ethnic Rakhine and security forces surrounded the village. They only left after being warned by Burmese Army soldiers that they would be fired upon if they did not disperse. Today, Saturday morning around 200 security forces and Burmese Army soldiers entered Anaryme Village in Pauktaw and ordered the villagers to leave their houses and the village. They have been evicted from their homes so that the security forces and soldiers can live in them..

An effective policy of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya is continuing on the eve of US President Barak Obama visiting Burma. Displaced Rohingya are not able to return to their homes and villages. The most recent information based on reports by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and others puts the estimate of those displaced at 110,00 people, the vast majority are Rohingya. Violence has swept the country in recent months and reports of killing, torture, rape and the burning of villages have been cited in Kyaukpyu, Kyauktaw, Maungdaw, Minbya, Mrauk-U, Myebon, Pauktaw, Ramree, Rathedaung and Sittwe.

BROUK President Tun Khin said “President Obama should not have visited Burma so soon, with such serious problems still remaining. Obama is meeting the head of Burma, President Thein Sein who has played a key role in allowing and inciting the attacks against the Rohingya .President Thein Sein gave support and encouragement to those attacking the Rohingya by asking for international support in expelling all Rohingya from Burma. State forces, local and national, are taking part in attacks against the Rohingya. As President he has command responsibility for what is taking place. These attacks would not still be taking place if the government of Burma truly wanted to stop them. It is also President Thein Sein who is placing restrictions on aid”. Meantime We, BROUK urge President Obama during his visit for the followings;

(1) To put pressure on President Thein Sein to stop violence and crimes against the Rohingya and to protect the lives of helpless Muslims in Arakan.

(2) To support UN peace-keeping forces being sent to Arakan for the purpose of preventing further death, killing, rape and destruction of the Muslims.

(3) To support a UN Commission of Inquiry and to send independent international observers to the ground.

(4) To put pressure on President Thein Sein government (i) to allow unhindered humanitarian aid to the Rohingya victims in all parts of Arakan; (ii) to stop its segregation scheme and replace it with a proactive policy of ‘peaceful co-existence’; and (iii) to repeal or amend the Burma Citizenship Law of 1982 in order to conform it with international law standards.

For more information, please contact Tun Khin +44 7888 714 866.

Bismillah Hirrah Maanir Rahim

November 16, 2012

Since the news of US President Barak Obama to visit Myanmar has confirmed, Rights group have been urging President Obama to pressure on Myanmar quasi-Military government for the series of Human Rights abuses. Many experts have speculated that Rohingya crisis could be one of the top agenda among the topics at the meeting between two leaders. 

According to the President Thein Sein’s Office spokesperson stated on his Facebook account that the President has invited some Muslim leaders and Buddhist monks to discuss Rakhine issues. The truth is that these Muslims who were invited do not represent Myanmar Muslims at all. The President does not invite anyone who belongs to five major Myanmar Muslim organisations and neither invited any Muslims politician nor activist who lead and represent Myanmar Muslims. The President has picked collectively who would only nod their head. Besides, half of them are retired army officers. 

The agenda of the meeting was to discuss Arakan crisis but it is too late to talk. While the crisis broke out second time in Arakan on 21st October, Myanmar government only admitted after the release of satellite pictures from US based HRW, which was few days later. It clearly echoed the lack of sincerity of Myanmar government over Arakan issues. Moreover, there is not a single action have taken against anti-Muslims organisations and Rakhine extremist who have been instigating against Muslims publically and who have committed terrorist attacks on Muslims in Arakan. President has ordered to form inquiry commissions one after another but none of them could investigate successfully and could not achieve any concrete evidence or prove while ten Myanmar Muslims pilgrims were beaten to death brutally by hundreds of Rakhines at the security check-point in Taung Gouk Township, in Arakan. It is one of the reason why Myanmar Muslims have lost their confidence on the government. 

Myanmar government has proficiency in using sprinkles to garnish in order to hide their ugly sinister. The plans to fool international community have been executed by lobbyist while President Barak Obama visit is a pressure on the country half century long religious persecutions and racial discriminations. Myanmar Muslims have fed up with empty promises of Thein Sein government and its members; unfortunately, the genocide of Rohingya and Kaman Muslims has hidden under the so called Democratic reforms. International community should not rush to reward any pseudo Democratic reforms policy of Myanmar military generals who dominating the power ultimately. The military is still powerful and dominating most of the affairs of the country; the genuine Democracy could be achieved only after 2015 general election if pro-Democracy parties win it. 

The simplest prove is that, President Thein Sein has stated earlier this year to send Rohingya Muslims to third country, how come a Democratic reformist President does not aware of Human Rights. His statement highlighted serious issues of xenophobic bigotry that exist inside Myanmar Military. 

Current Myanmar government as well as their predecessor Military regime have consistently favoured cronies and puppets to execute their policy and plans; now they have invited collectively who do not represent Myanmar Muslims at all to misled President Barak Obama that Muslims in Myanmar have pleasant and perfect condition. Myanmar government intend to impress to President Barak Obama that President Thein Sein is unlikely to his predecessors. If Thein Sein government were sincere, the genocide in Arakan would not repeat second time. 

The government has consistently neglected all the credible information which proving the outbreak of bloodshed in Arakan again, in spite of Myanmar Muslims leaders have informed to the Arakan state government and Central government regarding the lawlessness and extremism of Rakhines in Arakan state and the lack of security presence to protect armless Muslims in Arakan. Is this their negligence or they have underestimated the crisis; those who have neglected and failed to fulfil their responsibility to protect minorities in Myanmar and let the innocent people killed in the hands of terrorist, could not be Democratic reformers. 

Myanmar could be a bonanza of opportunity or could be a strategic key allay for US in future; a world respected leader, US President Barak Obama should not compromise with Myanmar President Thein Sein the lives of Myanmar Muslims, especially Rohginyas and Kaman Muslims in Arakan who have hugely counted on him for their liberty. 

By Kyaw Win

By Emma Batha
Thomson Reuters Foundation
November 17, 2012                                          

LONDON: U.S. President Barack Obama must press Myanmar to give citizenship to hundreds of thousands of stateless Rohingya in the west of the country where ethnic bloodshed has caused massive displacement, Refugees International says.

Obama, who will visit Myanmar on Nov. 19, should also urge Myanmar’s leaders to provide protection to everyone affected by the recent explosion of violence in Rakhine State and end restrictions on access for aid agencies, the campaign group added.

Melanie Teff, a senior advocate with Refugees International who recently visited Rakhine, warned that the crisis could derail Myanmar’s tentative transition to democracy after half a century of military rule.

Scores of people were killed and at least 75,000 uprooted from their homes when clashes erupted in June between the Muslim Rohingya and Buddhist Rakhine. Another 35,000 were displaced by violence in October.

White House officials have said Obama - the first serving U.S. president to visit Myanmar – will press leaders to restore calm and to bring the instigators of the violence to justice.

There are an estimated 800,000 Rohingya in Rakhine State. Many have lived there for generations but Myanmar's Buddhist-majority government regards them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denies them citizenship.

They are officially stateless and the United Nations calls them "virtually friendless".

“Many Rohingya have lived in Myanmar for generations,” Teff said. “The government must provide citizenship to all Rohingya born in Myanmar or with genuine links to the country, as well as their descendants - in line with international law.”

Teff said it was absurd to suggest there had been large-scale illegal immigration from Bangladesh during the military junta’s hardline rule.

“There is also the question of why would people want to come into a situation where they are treated quite so badly,” she added.

The Rohingya have suffered decades of persecution in Rakhine State, which is the second poorest state in Myanmar with acute rates of malnutrition and a stagnant economy.

Teff said she hoped Obama would also raise the issue with Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who heads the Rule of Law Committee responsible for reviewing the 1982 Citizenship Law that rendered the Rohingya stateless.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for championing democracy, has been criticised by rights groups for not speaking out on the Rohingya.

“One hopes that even if she is not taking a public stand on this that she will ensure that the law is revised in line with international standards on rights to nationality – that’s my key ask of her,” Teff added.

SEGREGATION

Most of the Rohingya forced to flee their homes in recent violence now live in segregated camps. Barriers have been erected on some roads and those still in their homes can no longer move around freely.

Teff, who visited Rakhine State in September, said aid workers had told her the situation was “worse than apartheid, because at least under apartheid the blacks could work for the whites”.

The Rohingya have traditionally worked for the Rakhine - as farmhands, fishermen or in the market in Sittwe town. But the restriction on their movement means they can no longer access work and are now dependent on aid.

Conditions in the camps range from “squalid to abysmal”, Teff said. A U.N. nutritional assessment in August found many children so malnourished they were at risk of dying.

Residents cannot cross the make-shift road barriers and told Teff they would be terrified to do so. Most Rakhine she spoke to said they could not imagine living with the Rohingya again.

Teff urged Obama to emphasise to Myanmar’s leaders the need to end segregation.

"There is clearly a desperate need for reconciliation measures. The longer it goes on the worse it will get,” she said.

“The one positive conversation we had was concerning possibilities for future economic development. Both communities said the one thing that could build links between them was an economic development plan. There is a great feeling by the Rakhine as well (as the Rohingya) that they have been left out,” Teff added.

Anisur Rahman
Gulf News
November 17, 2012

Expects Dhaka to permit international NGOs to continue providing humanitarian assistance to Rohingyas

DHAKA: The United States reiterated its call on Friday asking Myanmar to take effective steps to ensure security in its troubled western Rakhine state and urged Dhaka to soften its stance on allowing Rohingyas fleeing their home to evade the sectarian clashes at home.

“Ensure that actions are taken to maintain calm, restore security and stability according to international standards, and to hold those responsible for the violence fully accountable under just and transparent procedures according to the rule of law,” visiting US Undersecretary of State María Otero told a press briefing at southeastern Cox’s Bazar bordering Myanmar.

She said Washington continued to monitor the tensions and inter-communal violence between majority Buddhists and minority Rohingya Muslims there and “consistently” urged “Burma [Myanmar]” to enable unhindered humanitarian access across Rakhine State and to ensure the provision of security as the United Nations and other non-governmental humanitarian organisations implement assistance to all persons in need.

“We also urge . . . Bangladesh to respect the principle of non-refoulement, as the persons fleeing the violence in Burma may be refugees or have protection needs,” Otero said reiterating the US call on Bangladesh authorities.

She expected Dhaka to permit international NGOs to continue providing humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya, other vulnerable individuals fleeing the violence in Rakhine.

Otero’s comments came as she along with several US state department officials including US ambassador in Dhaka Dan Mozena visited one of the makeshift Rohingya camps at Kutupalang and talked to the registered and unregistered residents of the facility and a foreign-aided hospital for Rohingyas.

The US delegation also held talks with local administrative officials and public representatives. During the visit the Rohingyas staged a demonstration carrying banners and placards highlighting their problems.

The US comments came a day after Myanmar’s pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi described the sectarian violence in Rakhine as a “huge international tragedy” but declined to speak out for Rohingyas “as violence has been committed by both sides” while she wanted to “promote reconciliation” after the recent bloodshed.

“Most people seem to think there is only one country involved in this border issue,” she continued. There are two countries. There is Bangladesh on one side and Burma [Myanmar] on the other, and the security of the border surely is the responsibility of both countries,” said the Nobel Laureate in an interview with an Indian television as she was on a visit to India.

Suu Kyi, however, earlier visibly caused disappointment among international supporters for her muted response to violence.

Otero, too, called the Rohingya issue a “complex one” with a strong international dimension saying it required a concerted effort by affected countries in the region.

“We stand ready to assist Burma, Bangladesh and other countries in the region affected by Rohingya displacement to reach a comprehensive, sustainable, and just solution to their plight,” she said.

The United States earlier called on all countries in the region to open their borders to Rohingya boatpeople — many of whom are fleeing the violence by taking to the high seas while Bangladesh tightened its border with Myanmar declining to accept a fresh Rohingya influx saying it was already overburdened with thousands of them for decades.

The Rohingya, who make up the vast majority of those displaced in the fighting, are described by the UN as among the world’s most persecuted minorities, and are not officially recognised as citizens in Myanmar since 1982.

The UN has called on all countries in the region to open their borders to Rohingya boatpeople in the wake of recent fatal tragedies.

Bangladesh has declined to allow a fresh influx of Rohingyas saying it was already over-burdened with some 400,000 of them for years as they fled their country during the past junta rule in Myanmar. w

According to the UNHCR around one million Rohingya are now thought to live outside Myanmar, but they have not been welcomed by a third country while Bangladesh has turned back Rohingya boats arriving on its shores since the outbreak of the recent unrest.

Bangladesh has been insisting the international community focus their efforts to end sectarian violence in neighbouring Myanmar as international pressures apparently mounted on Dhaka to open borders for refugees.

“I’ll request the international community to call upon the Myanmar government to end its internal mayhem, if they sincerely want to resolve the crisis,” the Bangladesh foreign minister said in a parliamentary statement last month.

Some 260,000 Muslim refugees belonging to the Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority group fled their country to take refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh amid reported repression by the then Myanmar junta in 1991 while the exodus took place on a massive scale in two subsequent phases.

The Myanmar authorities agreed to take back its nationals under a UNHCR-brokered agreement in mid-1992 though some of the refugees repatriated on earlier occasions had sneaked back into Bangladesh.Bangladesh still hosts 25,000 documented Myanmar refugees and their 4,000 children in Cox’s Bazar district, but an undocumented number of Myanmar nationals who have fled into Bangladesh since 1991 is estimated to be as high as half a million.

Jocelyn Gecker
Associated Press
November 17, 2012

YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar’s president has pledged to consider new rights for the stateless Rohingya minority ahead of a landmark visit by President Barack Obama, but stopped short of a full commitment that citizenship and other new freedoms would be granted.

In a letter sent to the United Nations on Friday, President Thein Sein made conciliatory remarks that condemned the ‘‘senseless violence’’ in western Rakhine state between Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya.

Almost 200 people have died and more than 100,000 have been displaced since June in fighting between the two communities, an eruption of longstanding hatred that highlights the fragility of Myanmar’s transition toward democracy.

Thein Sein made no promises in his letter and offered no timeline for resolving the tensions, but it marked an overture to the international community and to Obama, who arrives Monday for the first visit to Myanmar by a U.S. president.

The White House has urged Myanmar to take urgent action to end the strife and has said Obama will press the matter with Thein Sein, along with demands to free political prisoners as the Southeast Asian country transitions to democracy after a half-century of military rule.

In his letter, Thein Sein said his government was prepared to address contentious issues ‘‘ranging from resettlement of displaced populations to granting of citizenship,’’ according to a statement from the spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that contained excerpts from the letter.

Thein Sein said he also would look at issues including work permits and permits granting freedom of movement for the Rohingya to ensure they are treated in line with ‘‘accepted international norms.’’

The U.N. statement called Thein Sein’s letter a step ‘‘in the right direction.’’

It was not clear from his letter whether Thein Sein was changing his stance on citizenship for the Rohingya. He has previously cited strict citizenship laws stating that only Rohingya whose families settled in the country before independence from Britain in 1948 were considered citizens.

The United Nations has called the Rohingya — who are widely reviled by the Buddhist majority in Myanmar — among the most persecuted people on Earth.

Myanmar denies the Rohingya citizenship, even though many of their families have lived in Myanmar for generations. The government considers them to be illegal migrants from Bangladesh, but Bangladesh also rejects them, rendering them stateless.

The U.N. estimates that 800,000 Rohingya live in Myanmar, where they face heavy-handed restrictions: They need permission to marry, have more than two children and travel outside of their villages.

Rohingya Info Collection Team (Myanmar)
RB News
November 16, 2012

Kyauk Taw: Rakhine mobs are trying to set violence again against Rohingyas in Paikthay village, Kyauk Taw Township of Northern Rakhine State.

According to an eyewitness, today at 8:30 pm a huge Rakhine mob of 3000 persons, with full weapons approached the Paikthay Rohingya village in Kyauktaw Township to set fire all houses and uproot all Rohingyas from the village.

There were military forces standby near this village, and they warned both sides of Rakhine and Rohingya that soldiers would open fire if any of person move forward.

But, the Rakhine Terrorists are shouting their slogan with megaphones that tonight they will fight for their freedom even the military shoot at them and they will destroy this (Paik Thay) Rohingya Kalar village.

This is very suspicious about government, as the Rakhine mobs dared to behave like that at the time Myanmar Televistion is broadcasting about Myanmar President U Thein Sein's meeting with Buddihist Monks and so-called Islamic Religious leaders in Naypyitaw to discuss Rakhine Conflict. Most of the local people believe that this is a show for US President Barack Obama, who is going to visit Myanmar on 19 November 2012. The situation of Paik Thay village is still critical that the Rakhine mobs didn't step back even the military intervention is there.

 Burma: CSW urges President Obama to encourage further reform, raise religious freedom and ethnic conflicts as priorities for official visit 16/11/2012


Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) urges US President Barack Obama to raise constitutional and legislative reform, religious freedom and the need to end conflicts and begin a peace process with ethnic nationalities, during his official trip to Asia on 17 November, which will include a visit to Burma.

CSW is also calling on President Obama to press for the release of all remaining political prisoners in Burma. According to media reports, earlier this week the Burmese government released more than 450 prisoners as a goodwill gesture ahead of President Obama’s visit, however there are concerns that no political prisoners are among them.

Reuters reports that President Obama is expected raise the issue of ongoing ethnic violence in Burma’s Rakhine State “directly with the leadership”. US Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ), along with 20 other members of the Senate and House, have written a bi-partisan letter to President Obama urging him to underscore current human rights atrocities in Burma that threaten future peace and stability.

CSW urges President Obama to press the Burmese government to intervene decisively to end the violence in Rakhine and Kachin states and allow unhindered access for international aid and humanitarian assistance to the affected areas. A peace process and political dialogue between the government and ethnic nationalities must be established in ethnic states where there are ongoing conflicts. Religious freedom is also a concern in the predominantly Christian Chin State, where the Chin are often discriminated against or ill-treated on the dual basis of ethnicity and religion. A recent report by the Chin Human Rights Organisation outlined a decades-long pattern of religious freedom violations, including more than 40 separate incidents of torture or ill-treatment.

The Burmese government should also be encouraged to continue with constitutional and legislative reform in the interests of democracy, including the repeal of the 1982 Citizenship Law, which effectively stripped the Rohingya of their citizenship and rendered them stateless.

Mervyn Thomas, CSW’s Chief Executive, said, “We welcome President Obama’s visit as a valuable opportunity to deliver some very clear and key messages to the Government of Burma: that the reforms already underway deserve recognition and encouragement, but that there is still a very, very long way to go. Until the conflict in Kachin State and the violence in Rakhine State end; until there is a genuine peace process with ethnic nationalities, involving a political dialogue to find a political solution to decades of civil war; until the citizenship of everyone born in Burma is respected and protected; until all prisoners of conscience are released; and until there is freedom of religion or belief for all people in Burma, we cannot speak of true and lasting change. The situation is fragile, and we urge President Obama to use his visit to promote peace and human rights for all the people of Burma. We welcome the letter by members of the US Congress, and hope that the President will take up the issues raised as a priority during his visit. There are two dangers at the moment: premature euphoria, and entrenched cynicism – both of which could undermine the chance of genuine change in Burma. President Obama has a unique opportunity to really make a difference for the people of Burma who have suffered so much for so long.”

ARU, BTF-USA, and ERC Appeals President Barak Obama to Demand Myanmar Government to Immediately End the Plights of Rohingya, and to Fully Cooperate with the International Community with Transparency

Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU), Burma Task Force USA, and The European Rohingya Council urgently appeal to President Barak Obama to address the ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya ethnic minority in Burma. We urge him to play an active role to help reach a long-term and durable solution to the current crisis, and to bring peace, stability, security, and communal harmony in Arakan state. President Obama must use his personal as well as the influence of the US Government and demand that President Thein Sein and the Myanmar Government officials must cooperate with the international community with utmost transparency. President Obama must unequivocally demand the Burmese Government to:

1. Repeal the 1982 Citizenship Law, dismantle the color-coded citizenship scheme, and reinstate the bona fide citizenship of the Rohingya ethnic minority.

2. Not to be the party to the violence in Arakan. Immediately stop violation of all the basic human rights of the Rohingya people by the Burmese police, Nasaka, and Lon Htein forces.

3. Adhere to the principle of honesty and integrity, and honor the memorandum signed by Organization of Islamic Conferences (OIC) and the Burmese Government for operation of OIC humanitarian aid office for the all affected people in Arakan.

4. Not to adopt segregation/apartheid policy in Arakan, allow the internally displaced Rohingya families to return to their homes and properties, and facilitate integration of the Rakhine and Rohingya communities for the long term and peaceful co-existence.

5. Stop collecting household data in Rohingya villages after each time violence breaks out and Rohingya families leave the village seeking refuge elsewhere. Myanmar officials must not force and physically abuse Rohingya people to use the term “Bengali” instead of Rohingya in paperwork.

6. Allow an independent international commission of inquiry, international monitoring teams and relief organizations in all townships in Arakan.

We caution the international community not to let Thein Sein's government blackmail it emotionally with the threat of reversal or derailment of democratic reform in Burma. President Thein Sein and his deputies are well aware of the consequences of the derailment. The Burmese Government and its forces with the Rakhine elements must not be allowed to use the “democratic reform” as a tool to legitimize its gruesome atrocities and serious violation of human rights against Rohingya ethnic minority in Arakan.

Sent By: @mail.house.gov
Date: 11/14/2012

Although a normal person like me doesn’t deserve to point to a person recognized by the world as ‘peace icon’ and called ‘Mother’ by a nation of 60 million sometimes and ‘aunt’ sometimes, I believe the situation of rapes of hundreds of virgins, killing of thousands of innocents, being refugee of about 100,000 person in their own homeland and burning of thousands of houses, mosques and properties into ashes justifies my writing here few words.

Here is a NLD membership card signed by the Lady. Let me translate it first for non-Burmese speakers.
This card is issued by NLD to a Rohingya member where NLD recognized his race a ‘Rohingya’ and his religion as ‘Islam’. After she had signed this card, where will she will hide the face with which she said, “I don’t know’’ when asked in her Europe trip about the world most persecuted minority of her country? If it means anything, it means nothing except that this people is weakened during 70 years of systematic persecution to the extent, as she might think, that they can’t protest if said the Sun rises from the west.

She has been making the world fool for five month by her deceiving words bearing double meaning. Also her answer to the question regarding Rohingya was ‘Rule of Law’. Do you, Dear Aunt, mean the democratic law that is enjoyed by your son in USA, that made the ragged child of African dessert lead the most powerful nation of the world, or you mean the law that you suffered from as a home arrestee in Burma? Really if you meant true democratic law, those human lives, bloods and dignities would not be so cheap in Arakan, the tears would not be so fruitless. As an icon of democracy, If you had uttered few words abiding by UDHR, we wouldn’t see the tragedies in Arakan.

Let me know what would be the attitude of the Martyr of freedom Mr. Aung San if his daughter was being raped by evils like Rakhines who are practicing all crimes against Muslim women in Arakan.

"I am urging tolerance but I do not think one should use one's moral leadership, if you want to call it that, to promote a particular cause without really looking at the sources of the problems," Suu Kyi told the BBC. The genocidal atrocities have been ongoing for five month. Perhaps after eradicating Muslim existence fully you will look at the sources of the problem. When will you move to calm the situation down? Rohingya don’t demand your moral leadership. Just speak out in favor of either side you see the truth with. Let me know what are these in your sight: hundreds of Rohingya women are raped, sometimes into death (not only a claim, but we have full databases) ; Muslims are swept out of tens villages; thousands of youth are arrested for no reason and sentenced to 10 to 20 years of jail; thousands of innocents are killed; more than 100,000 are displaced?

How ill-luck this Rohingya is who have to become Refugee in his own homeland!

There is also no stronger proof of government support for Rakhines in the current riots than its failure to stop the so-called sectarian riots for five months, while it cracked down in few days the nationwide anti-government uprisings like 2007 Saffron Revolution and 1988 student uprising, while it has been defending its country against all minority arm rebel like KNU, ALP, etc. for about seven decades.

Is it democracy or hypocrisy?

You should be deceived neither by the thinking that your Burmanization plan will sooner or later come to exist nor the thinking that the Rakhines will leave you without making next target after they get rid of Rohingyas in the cause of fulfilling their dream of founding alleged Rakhine kingdom.

In conclusion, I want to call you ‘The Daughter’ while people call you ‘the Lady’. Because the first massacre committed by these Rakhines against the Rohingyas occurred in the time of General Aung San in 1942 that left a bitter scar in the hearts of Rohingyas. Before having been healed, the current bloodshed is the next bloody aggression that occurs in your time. 

Maung Zarni
Al Jazeera
November 15, 2012

Myanmar's reforms are more about the interests and longevity of the country's military than about public welfare.

President Thein Sein's government has embarked on reforms, ending Myanmar's international pariah status and half-century of isolation, both self-imposed and externally-maintained [EPA]

In a week's time, US President Barak Obama is scheduled to visit Asia's - and perhaps the world's - hottest destination: Myanmar. He should "see" the ugly realities of the country's reforms that lie just beneath their surface and hear the cries of the wretched of Myanmar, such as the Muslim Rohingya and the Christian Kachins.

These days, Myanmar's coming out party is the talk of the town since President Thein Sein's government has embarked on reforms, ending the country's international pariah status and half-century of isolation, both self-imposed and externally-maintained.

The generals' rule since 1962 has resulted in policy-induced poverty, prolonged internal conflicts and international isolation, with devastating societal consequences. Despite its firm grip on power, the generals never really felt either secure or confident about their reign. They have always felt they are riding on the back of an angry and wounded tiger.

Through their eyes, reforms - and bringing on board Aung San Suu Kyi, their long-time nemesis - is the last resort both for themselves and the society at large. This is the existential background against which changes in Myanmar need to be understood.

As a welcome gesture, just about every leader of both the "free world" of the West and "un-free and semi-free worlds" of the East have hurried their way to Naypyidaw, Myanmar's purpose-built capital replete with North Korean-designed underground tunnels and bunkers. The freshly re-elected US President Barak Obama will top this list of international visitors who have thrown their weight behind the generals' reforms, with the Lady's blessings.

Development and humanitarian packages worth hundreds of millions of dollars have been pledged, a significant quantity of foreign debt to the tune of $3.7bn forgiven and official superlatives praise about Myanmar's changes thrown around in Washington, Tokyo, London, Berlin, Paris, Oslo, Brussels and so on. New offices are springing in Myanmar. Every visitor or long-stay visitor to Myanmar is now involved in "institution- and capacity-building" of one kind or another. Investors, insurers and do-gooders alike are all elated. Finally, Myanmar has arrived.

But there is more to the hyperboles of this "model transition", as Washington put it, than meets the eyes.

Collective future of Myanmar

What really triggers these changes is as important to understand what prospects - and challenges - lie ahead. Further, what real-world impact are these unfolding reforms having on the lives of the public, ethnic majority Bama and non-Bama ethnic minorities such as the Kachins in the North, the Rohingya in the West, the Shans and the Karens in the East?

Historically, it was the generals' fear of the loss of their half-century grip on power and wealth that led to state-ordered chronic waves of bloodbaths since "8.8.88 Popular Uprising" when the entire nation rose up against the one-party military dictatorship of General Ne Win. In 2012, nearly a quarter century after the country's greatest revolt in modern history, it is again the same fear factor that has propelled the generals to make moves: Reform the institutions and reform the way they rule the population.

Shwe Mann, Speaker of the Lower House, reportedly admitted the generals' collective fear. Within an hour of his meeting with the visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in the parliament in December last year, the former third most powerful general in Than Shwe's ruling council was telling the Myanmarese journalists, "We do not want to end up like the Arab dictators. One day they were very powerful. The next day they died ignoble deaths."

Of course, Washington's new strategy of "pivoting" back to Asia has also made it possible for the generals to come out of their bunkers, literally and figuratively. The Americans wanted the Myanmarese to walk away, as much as geo-strategically possible, from Beijing's embrace. The Myanmarese, on their part, are grateful to Washington in helping wean them of China's international protection, ironically, against Washington's perceived attempts at regime change in Myanmar. This is a classic geo-strategic symbiosis that is looking increasingly promising for the Myanmarese and the Americans.

However, through the natives' eyes, that is, the Myanmar public, the country's recent history stands in the way of embracing the outsiders' rose-tinted views of Myanmar's reforms. They don't share the international community's "reckless optimism" about its collective future. The generals' past waves of nation-building have been nothing but national nightmares.

Since 1962, Myanmarese military leaders have made and re-made themselves first as "socialist soldiers" bent on building a socialist economy and now overzealous "capitalist democrats" embracing the Free Market with fist and fury.

Fifty years ago, the late General Ne Win, then commander-in-chief, green-lighted to deputies to end the country's fragile parliamentary democracy and build a "socialist democracy". Overnight, military officers who had never dreamt of socialism to be their guiding light were ordered to become the cadres of the Burma Socialist Programme Party. This socialist experiment ended up as a policy and system failure with devastating societal consequences in terms of human resources, public health, ethnic relations, economy and culture. The 25 years of continued military rule post-socialist dictatorship has only made the social legacy even worse.

Almost 50 years after the late General Ne Win's military's socialist experiment, the "retired" Senior General Than Shwe ordered his juniors to discharge their new mission of building a "discipline flourishing democracy". Like the theatrical director, he slotted his deputies to play Speakers of the Houses, Chairman of the new army-backed ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, Commander-in-Chief, and so on.

'Buy-the-impoverished-population' approach

In Naypyidaw's new play, the soldiers are to form the backbone of reform push as "democratisers", while western educated technocrats with developmental nationalism are to be advisers. Importantly, in this new cast of characters, the Lady too has an important role to play. The psyche-war savvy generals have worked on the Lady with a "soft spot" for the Army which her martyred father founded three years before she was born. Through the regime's eyes, it has bagged the only thing in the world it needed to make itself entirely acceptable to the West.

Indeed Aung San Suu Kyi has ceremoniously helped sell the generals' new play to the world while unceremoniously choosing to remain silent on the military's war crimes against the Kachin minorities in Northern Myanmar, the ethno-religious cleansing of the Rohingya in Western Myanmar, or economic disempowerment of ordinary farmers whose ancestral land is being confiscated by army-owned mining and commercial agricultural companies.

To belabour the obvious, the ex-military officers and their active-duty brethren retain complete monopoly control over all aspects of reforms. In the new era of "democratic transition", these men, in skirts or in green shirts, continue to hold all levers of state power at all levels of administration, including "people's bicameral parliament", judiciary, foreign affairs and finance, besides their legitimate domain, namely state security apparatuses. And it is these "men on horseback", not collaborating dissidents or the advisory developmental technocrats, who determine the reforms' nature, scope, priorities and pace.

This is the picture that increasingly worries the Myanmar public who have borne the brunt of the military's policy, leadership and system failures. Here, the cynical Myanmar public know best.

Thousands displaced amidst Myanmar violence

In dealing with unhappy Arab Streets, the House of Saud, for instance, has thrown billions at the Sultanate subjects to placate the latter while the Jordanian crown has created wiggle room for its subjects. Former generals in Naypyidaw, or "Abode of Kings", have in part adopted this "buy-the-impoverished-population" approach. The catch here though is this: Unlike the House of Saud which sits on the world's largest reserve of "black gold", the cash-strapped reformist President Thein Sein - cash-strapped because the country's revenues have been stashed away in personal bank accounts of senior and junior generals - wants the international community, including the UN, international lending agencies and development banks, and "donor" countries, to foot his administration's bill.

Take, for instance, the literal cost of Naypyidaw's peace negotiations with ethnic armed resistance organisations. According to former Colonel Aung Min, the Union Minister for Peace and a confidant of the President, his government does not even pay the hotel bills for peace negotiators. Thankfully from Naypyidaw's perspective, Oslo, bent on rebuilding its tarnished image of a global peacemaker par excellence post-Sri Lanka conflict, has stepped up to the plate, and so have the local Myanmar cronies from Myanmar Egress, the best-known proxy for the Myanmar intelligence services. Everyone in the peace process is poised to reap commercial and/or strategic gains, if and when the country's war zones are transformed into multi-billion dollar special economic zones and ethnic guerrilla fighters "swap their guns for laptops", as President Thein Sein poetically put it.

Emphatically, the generals are, however, pursuing reforms largely for the wrong reasons - for their own long-term survival, both as powerful military families and as the most powerful institution with "a deeply ingrained corporate sense of entitlement to rule". Motives do matter. As a direct consequence, they remain wholly unprepared to do the needful in terms of what will really promote public welfare and advance the cause of freedom, human rights and democracy.

Negative consequences of the generals' reforms

As a matter of fact, the reforms are contradictory, reversible and fragile. They are confined to such narrow domains as freedom of speech, new business and investment law. That is, the areas important to middle class Western liberals and attractive to venture capitalists and corporations. Further, reform moves bypass active conflict zones, strategic buffer areas and resource-rich virgin lands.

When it comes to economically and strategically important regions on the country's peripheries, that is, the ancestral homes of the country's 40 percent of ethnic minorities such as the Kachin, the Rakhine, the Shan, the Karen, the Mon and the Karenni, the reforms simply translate into forced displacement, the rise in militarisation, a sharp increase in war-fleeing refugees, loss of livelihoods and so on. It is indeed no coincidence that all fresh waves of violence, atrocities and raging wars happen to be in the ethnic minority regions designated to be homes of virtually all mega-development initiatives, commercial projects, resource extraction, Special Economic zones and industrial agricultural schemes - worth billions of dollars.

Curiously, both the origin and tail of China's 2,800-plus kilometre-long twin pipeline bear witness to the unfolding violence: Ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya in the coastal region where the pipelines begin and the hot war against the Kachins in the Sino-Myanmar highlands of Northern Myanmar. To date, close to an estimate 100,000 Rohingyas have been caged in new UN-financed refugee camps on the west coast while roughly the same number of Kachins in the North have fled the war on their ancestral highlands. On the eastern side of Myanmar along Thai-Myanmar borders, donor agencies, for instance, Britain's Department For International Development (DFID) and the host country of Thailand are preparing to repatriate another 150,000 Karen and Karenni war refugees back to their regions, despite the absence there of either a meaningful and functioning ceasefire or lasting peace.

Because these wars and atrocities are off the beaten-path and largely inaccessible to the UN and other aid agencies, the dark side of Myanmar's economic reforms by and large go unnoticed except by the US military's surveillance satellites, which captured images of entire neighbourhoods in the strategic deep-sea port city of Kyauk Phyu razed to the ground. Why pay compensation for relocating a popularly disliked ethnic and religious minority community from strategically and commercially important locations if you can drive them out to the sea and torch their homes completely? These state-orchestrated crime scenes also lie outside the purview of the growing pool of visiting dignitaries, renowned experts and international statesmen and women on their whirlwind state visits to Myanmar.

More ominously, many international agencies and national governments by and large view this ugly side of development - ethnic, class and provincial conflicts, large scale displacement, pervasive land confiscation, absence of human and food security, growing income disparity, etc - as the necessary cost locals must bear if they are to enjoy projected fruits of developmental reforms in some distant future. Here, the prevailing two-fold ideology of unfettered development and "sustainable economic growth" is at work.

Even the country's iconic politician Aung San Suu Kyi, who has never set foot on active war zones of ethnic minorities, lacks any empirical understanding or experience to truly appreciate the negative consequences of the generals' reforms she is helping market in Western capitals with great success.

New era of reforms and 'Buddhist' racism

The regime's pursuit of peace with armed ethnic resistance communities warrants a closer scrutiny than has been subject to. While running the country that has not seen real peace since independence from Britain 60-plus years ago, the generals talk the talk of peace, but do not walk the walk.

Take, for instance, its hyped-up ceasefire talks with two of the country's oldest and most resolute revolutionary organisations - the Karen National Union in Eastern Myanmar and the Kachin Independence Organisation in Northern Myanmar. The widespread perception among the Kachin and Karen negotiators, and respective communities, is that the reformist government is more intent on imposing peace on its own terms, more or less. Naypyidaw is far more interested in exploiting natural resources in minority regions and securing strategic and commercial routes there than discussing seriously about the root cause of the country's ethnic rebellions, namely political autonomy founded on the principle of ethnic equality.

The Kachins who maintained a truce for 17 years no longer feel they could trust the Myanmar generals who attempted to lure them into trading the Kachins' collective drive for political autonomy in a genuinely federated Union of Myanmar for commercial deals for the Kachin upper crust.

This has led to Ko Mya Aye, one of the most prominent dissidents from the 88 Generation Group who travelled to the war zone and met with the Kachin resistance leaders, to remark pointedly, "The Burmese government knows what to change in order to have peace, but they do not want to do it. The government just does a little to look good to the international community". Myanmar's reforms are, upon closer look, more about the interests and longevity of the country's military and army-bred crony interests than about inter-ethnic and inter-faith peace, public welfare or democracy.

Upon a closer and honest look, Myanmar's extraordinary reforms begin to lose their lustre.

There is no denying that the country's quasi-civilian government has ushered in a new era of reforms. However, the types of reforms that President Thein Sein - an ex-general and a figurehead - is pursuing are the ones that will protect the military's core interests above all else. At heart, the reforms are largely geared towards creating a "late developmental state" along the lines of Vietnam and China, a benign Leviathan that will secure the generals' electability on the basis of its economic performance and along popular "Buddhist" racism. When the illiberal society's deeply ingrained racism thunders the traditionally liberal discourses of human rights, democracy and multi-culturalism go muted.

The current reform movement therefore lacks any real potential to result in a new democratic polity which will build, and in turn feeds off, a new and sustainable economic system. Sadly, the West and the rest alike are choosing to overlook the apparent pitfalls of Myanmar's reforms, ignoring the cries of the wretched of a new Myanmar.

Maung Zarni is founder of the Free Burma Coalition (1995-2004) and a visiting fellow (2011-13) at the Department of International Development, London School of Economics. His forthcoming book on Myanmar will be published by Yale University Press.

Bernama
November 14, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR -- Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu has urged re-elected US President Barack Obama to raise the critical issue of violence against Rohingya Muslims, during his visit to Myanmar on Nov 19.

He urged the president to raise the issue with Myanmar's highest authorities and its opposition leader, to end the violence immediately. He believes that this is the first step to restoring peace in the country and for national reconciliation in maintaining its democratisation.

This should also include the protection of human rights for all ethnic minority groups, the OIC reported him as saying in a letter to Obama on Tuesday. According to several reports, Obama's purpose of going to Myanmar is to meet President Thein Sein, as well as Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The OIC secretary-general also drew the president's attention to the critical situation of the Rohingya minorities in Myanmar, who are facing continuous repression and violation of human rights.

Ihsanoglu said, this was an issue of serious concern for the international community and particularly, for the Muslim world, adding that OIC was concerned with the scale of violence which was becoming dangerously close to a situation of ethnic cleansing.

He said that on Sept 5, a high-level OIC delegation had gone to Myanmar to sign a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) with the Myanmar Government to set up an office there. However, the office was not established as the Myanmar Government had retracted from the agreement.

He added that a special discussion on the Rohingya issue would be held during the 39th OIC Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting in the Republic of Djibouti from Nov 15 to 17.

There is a lot of emphasis on the Rohingya issue because the OIC is concerned about the disastrous effects it could have on the country and the world, with regard to peace and security.

In his letter to Obama, Ihsanoglu also pointed out that the OIC had repeatedly urged the Myanmar Government to take immediate steps to end the violence and create a conducive environment for national reconciliation. This could be done by addressing the root cause of the problem, such as the exclusion of the Rohingya Muslims from ongoing reform process.

"The Rohingya minorities should not be overlooked because of the new regime in Myanmar.

"The government of Myanmar has a moral and legal obligation to protect the oppressed minorities, to restore their citizenship, to allow them to return to their homes and to put an end to the hate campaign against them," he noted.