Again, look into how Myanmar TV broadcasted the incidence of the alleged rape on 28th May 2012.

It was broadcasted as Yoshi called Thet Thet s/o U Kyaw Thaung Bengali Islam, Rofi s/o Soyad Amed Bengali Isalm, Huchi s/o Aye Kwe Chi had abducted Ma Thida Tway to the forest, hugged, raped her one by one and killed her by slaughtering with knife. The way news was broadcasted was like the broadcaster was sitting by the side at the time of the crime taking place. Was it necessary for Myanmar TV to broadcast as Yoshi BENGALI ISLAM? Why did they prioritize the religion in broadcasting about a crime? What was their intention? Moreover, was it according to the media professional ethics that broadcasting that Ma Thia Da Tway was slaughtered by these people before the Court decisions? Was it not derogatory? Was it not inappropriate influence on the court judgment? With whose permission did the national TV dare do so? Was it not stimulating racism the way the broadcaster broadcasted the news in a descriptive means? They should at least have broadcasted that the criminals pleaded guilty to the Police. Yet, there is also a question whether pleading guilty to the police is legal in the court or not. It was evil deeds and against media ethics the way they have provokingly broadcasted as if they had seen the crime going on. Their journalists should not be too dumb to understand the media ethics even to the least degree!! After all, they dared not edit the news since the direction had come from the senior officials!

Similar to what Myanmar TV did, let me share you the news in the national newspaper. I think you all remember Muslims protested nearby SULAY because of this news. Here is it.

Regarding Ma Thida Tway’s case, who was “brutally” “insulted” by Muslim Kalars, and their other “intentional” “brutalities”, Taung Gok WanThaNu Rakkhita Organization is distributing pictured hand-outs with the late person’s photo titled “Creating Awareness” in order to create awareness among the people.

Subsequently, the news of the deaths of the ten people from Roma-Thessa Bus broke out. I have put some inverted commas in the piece of news above. Look at the words in the inverted commas. You will clearly understand how unethically and disrespectfully the State Newspaper and State Television spread the news! The words “brutally” and “Insulted” were the remarkable words chosen by the editors to influence the audiences. The writing “Muslim Kalars and their other intentional brutalities” is clearly leading to a fight between all the Rakhines and all the Muslims. How do you respected editors know that all Muslims are intentionally brutal to all Rakhines? Moreover, simultaneous broadcastings and writings by State TV and State Newspapers respectively can no way be accidental! Suppose it was not the direction from the higher officials but an accident, all of these dumb and evil information ministers and officials should be sacked. Besides, they even deserve imprisonments.

One more thing I have to say is that this news is an incomplete one. The newspaper did not explain what WanThaNu Rakkhita Orgaization, Taung Gok Twonship had been. Furthermore, the newspaper did not explain what had been written in the hand-outs of WanThaNu Rakkhita Organisation. Though the newspaper wrote as if the massacre of the 10 people had occurred due to WanThaNu Rakkhita's hand-outs, it did not give a comprehensible reason behind the massacre. In fact, WanThaNu Rakkhita is the NLD Youth Wing of Taung Gok Township. It is necessary to investigate whether the hand-outs that came out with the name of Taung Gok's NLD was really published by the Taung Gok's NLD members and to let the public know about it. If it is found that the letter was published by them, justice will be done only when they are punished according to the law and without any discrimination. If they can’t ensure whether the letters were written by Taung Gok's NLD Youth Wing, the newspaper should at least let the people know that they are not sure about that yet and will investigate further into the matter. If it is found that the newspaper spread such kinds of news without verification and ascertaining, the newspaper must be punished, regardless of it being the state newspaper, for derogation, defamation and committing the offense. I suspect very much whether it is a political trap for NLD! After all, how can one guarantee that Military Dictators would not do such a thing when they have the habits of Bing-Pit-Phan (arresting the innocent people and political activists by means of fake drug cases), Tabi-Pit-Phan (Throwing ladies sarong: a tactic of Burmese regime to arrest people. Especially, it is done to the Monks by Burmese Regime alleging that they (Monks) have affairs with women.) and Lu-Pit-Phan (Arresting someone alleging to have affairs with someone breaking the law. Especially it was done against Daw Suu Kyi by sending John Yettaw into her house).

By this, it has become quite obvious who the players behind the mask are, who are pulling the ropes and who are setting all these traps up.

To be continued.

Zaw Win 

A former 88 Generation Student 

9th June 2012 

Translated into English by M.S. Anwar

Who Else Could the Culprit Be But the King (Thein Sein) Himself? - Part 1  
Who Else Could the Culprit Be But the King (Thein Sein) Himself? - Part 2
  

Daniel Sullivan
United to End Genocide
November 26, 2012

Despite ongoing grave abuses against ethnic groups, last week President Obama became the first U.S. president to visit Burma. While important reforms have begun in Burma, a presidential visit was a reward too far and sends the wrong message.

U.S. policy of lifting economic pressure and restoration of full diplomatic relations with the government of Burma following some economic and political reforms has failed to bring any relief to those lacking humanitarian aid in Kachin state or to prevent further violence and abuses against other ethnic groups, particularly recently against the Rohingya.

Some 75,000 people remain displaced in Kachin and Shan states with limited access to urgently needed international aid. At least 180 Rohingya have been killed and over 100,000 displaced as the government has tacitly or overtly supported abuses and the devolution of communal violence into systemic, largely one-sided, targeting of the Rohingya.

Rather than acting to quell violence and protect civilians, Burmese officials have promulgated hatred and even encouraged a policy that amounts to ethnic cleansing at the highest level. President Thein Sein asked the United Nations to arrange for 800,000 Rohingya to be placed in refugee camps or removed entirely from Burma.

A change of course is needed, first to avert the most immediate threat of further systematic violence against Rohingya and, second, to reintroduce the threat of consequences in the dialogue with Burmese authorities. The first can be done through pressuring the Burmese government to do more to grant humanitarian access to displaced populations, revise citizenship laws and to protect Rohingya as well as through the deployment of UN mandated observers in order to investigate the violence, deter escalation and ultimately hold perpetrators accountable.

The second can be done by reiterating the fact that sanctions have not been removed, but rather suspended and can be put back in place if egregious human rights abuses continue.

President Obama raised the Rohingya issue publicly in the main speech of his visit saying there is”no excuse for violence against innocent people,” but it is unclear if he went any further in private conversations with President Thein Sein. The threat of a return to sanctions or other consequences was also absent, with only generic references that the “flickers of progress that we have seen must not be extinguished.” Ahead of his trip Obama provided yet another reward by lifting the import ban on Burma, though he at least maintained the ban on gems, the material most closely linked with abuses in ethnic areas.

If Obama was really standing with the people of Burma, he would not have gone on this trip. But since he did, there was no excuse for him to not visit ethnic groups suffering under the policies of the Burmese government and advocating for the deployment of United Nations mandated observers in Rakhine state where Rohingya have been overwhelmingly targeted in recent weeks.

As decade long abuses continue and new ethnically motivated violence threatens to spread, the United States should recognize that the incentives offered to this point, and especially a Presidential visit, bring a special responsibility to use U.S. leverage to avert further catastrophe.

In the aftermath of previous mass atrocities and ethnic cleansings, the world pledged, “never again.” Instead of rewarding “flickers of progress” by dining with those enabling the killing and displacement of the Rohingya and other ethnic groups in Burma, Obama should have been standing on the side of the oppressed, calling for an end to the violence and threatening to pull back U.S. support for the Burmese government if the ongoing abuses are not immediately addressed.

This article published on Care2.

 Sittwe, Myanmar (CNN) -- It's been three years since I reported on the plight of the Rohingya Muslim people of western Myanmar and neighboring Bangladesh. We called our documentary "A Forgotten People," and it looked at appalling incidents where boatloads of refugees fleeing poverty and persecution arrived in Thailand only to be towed back out to sea and abandoned by the Thai security forces. Hundreds died or went missing.

I asked Saulama's age, thinking that she looked like a toddler. My own dand is considerably larger, so I guess perhaps she was two. I was appalled when her mother told me Saulama is five-years old. In the west, she'd be in her first year of school. Here, she could be in the last year of her life. She's so thin she can barely walk. Her limbs are pitifully emaciated. After six months in this camp, she looks like she can't go on.

Qutub Shah
RB News
November 25, 2012

In the wake of its attempts to forcibly bengalize the ethnic Rohingyas, Myanmar government has been adopting a measure after another in the last couple of months. The government is making all efforts to prove its false accusing them of illegal immigration from Bangladesh and is forcing them softly sometimes and mightily sometimes to identify themselves as Bengalis.

Firstly, the government has started to check and investigate their documents and proofs for identification especially in the areas affected by the current apartheid after it has burnt all the homes and properties into ashes where they have lost everything even the dress worn at the time. Secondly, the investigating team targets the victims that lost every belonging including their, the displaced or the ones who has other weakness like illiteracy, poor mentality, etc.

Its first policy was mendacious temptations and false promises that it will provide Rohingyas with all fundamental rights if they admit to being Bengalis as their ethnic origin. When the government has realized that these temptations and promises have fallen on deaf ears as nobody dared to lie about his ethnicity, its next attempt was to threaten them, as is its wont, by arresting, torturing, beating and extorting huge amount of money. But this attempt appeared to be futile too.

Breaking news of November 24, 2012

Finally, in the regions under NaSaKa (Border Immigration Head Quarter)’s authority in Maungdaw and Buthidaung, every Imam of mosques – who are the spiritual and religious leaders of Rohingya communities – are called by NaSaKa to the respective offices together with village administration saying for an official meeting. Having reached there to the office, they are ordered to put off the religious dress (cap and long shirt called Kurtah) and to pay MMK 500 each before entering. And then they are forced to fill up a form for personal information keeping the ‘Race’ blank and to sign it or to sign a totally blank form. After that, the officials complete the forms writing the ‘Race’ as Bengalis. In the end, the officials let them go back after taking MMK 2000 to 6000 from each.

Indeed, the government’s thinking beyond forcing the Imams first is that perhaps the public will follow them blindly in admitting to be illegal immigrants. And all these efforts are being made by the government to blind the world to its lying for decades and to show as proofs in need.

Mahan Min Khant
RB News
November 24, 2012

“57 times severe punishments were the trademark of 57 member countries of Organization of Islamic Cooperation which is a sister organization NGO of United Nations” 

November 24 – On November 20, Twelve innocent Rohingya people from Zaw-Ma-Tet village (Lam-Ba-Guna Fara) were arrested by NaSaKa forces from Maungdaw Township. In that village, some seven to ten Muslim Rohingya houses were burnt down by Rakhine mobs on November 19 after the President Obama delivered the speech at Yangon University Convocation Hall. “As a golden present to President Obama for his speech in which he mentioned and noted in regard of Rohingya” Rakhine mobs said while torching the houses. The arrestees were falsely accused by the authority that the Rohingya houses were burnt down by themselves and that was the reason why they were arrested.

Before handing over the arrestees Rohingyas to the police of Maungdaw, NaSaKa had started deliberately torturing the arrested ones --- each 57 times severely beating up on their back. “57 times severe punishments were the trademark of 57 member countries of Organization of Islamic Cooperation which is a sister organization NGO of United Nations” NaSaKa forces said.

As a matter of fact, all these grass-root Rohingyas have no exact information or knowledge of Islamic countries’ activities in the sphere of international political activities, but all the relevant authorities have been in “rickety and wobbly” while simply dealing with ordinary Rohingya people. That remarkably all along the times the discriminatory policies adopted on Rohingyas pushes the local people to guess any outside be of assistance—whoever may be, whatever source should be, whichever channel that be---to save them from all sorts of discriminatory policies practicing on innocent Rohingya all along the time. After that, they were transferred to the police station and they again severely punished on innocent Rohingya people and they are still in police custody.

On November 22, some paddy fields workers, whom Amanullah hired to harvest in his paddy fields, each holding sickle to start up to reap the paddy in the field, were being stopped by NaSaKa paramilitary forces and Mr. Amanullah (paddy field owner) was summoned by NaSaKa nearby a house which belongs to a car driver namely Mr. Zafar. Mr. Amanullah, from “Italia” Village of Maungdaw Township, an owner of paddy fields nearly by Block (3) Maungdaw Township, was severely beaten and put in now in police custody. In this regards, though Mr. Amanullah made complaints at the NaSaKa headquarters, head of the military battalion, township police station and township administrative office, yet there is no hint to take action against the complaint by either of the authority.

Military head of “Alay-than-Kyaw” village, County of Maungdaw Township, has systematically formed some Rohingyas and Rakhine human trafficking brokers to recruit those who want to go Malaysia. It is learned that per head 300,000 Kyats is defined for a payment to send to Malaysia --- such a illicit way has been very perilous for job hunters facing many times on a half water way (on international water)--- either the people were intentionally being boarded on the bank of Thai authorities or along the coast of Irrawaddy delta and Tannassarim coast ---where the innocent Rohingya job hunters usually faced long term jail imprisonment by Myanmar authorities on alleged accusation such as Bengali immigrants crossing the Myanmar border unlawfully though its (Myanmar government) acknowledgement that Rohingya being the Myanmar citizens. Such the accidents had been many times and there are many innocent Rohingya people in every jail of the country along the nation. We have found that the alternative authorities of Myanmar from respective regions along Rakhine state have been dishonestly earning money showing the ‘enticement’ job opportunity in Malaysia and Singapore in one hand and crookedly putting the innocent job hunters (Rohingya) from a half water way by turning the sailing boats to the authorities and putting the jails subsequently from the other hand.

Again date on November 22, from the military battalion (14), some six NaSaKa paramilitary forces leading by captain Kyaw Myint entered the “Shwe Zet” village and started the routine investigation against the naive villagers so and so and --- that afraid of being arrested and tortured by the authority, the Rohingya male villagers have fled away to where a bit safe hideout – then a women villager namely “Ms. Zura Khatu” was arrested and now she is in police custody under an alleged accusation of possessing “Bangla mobile phone”.

Our attention has been drawn to the news report dated 21 November 2012 of the Radio Free Asia (RFA) Burmese Section stating “since November 19, frontier checkpoint supervising day-return visit between Maungdaw (Burma) and Teknaf (Bangladesh), has been closed from Burma side for an indefinite period as the abduction of 3 Burmese military`s General Engineering Unit was believed to have been done by Arakan Rohingya National Organization (ARNO)”.

ARNO has no direct or indirect connection with the abduction of 3 GE Unit soldiers. We strongly condemn this concocted and politically motivated news aims at tarnishing the image of the ARNO. We demand RFA to clarify the source of the information.

Meanwhile, we reiterate that ARNO is a peaceful political organization that believes in the negotiated settlement of the Rohingya problem through peaceful means with the cooperation of the international community.

For details, please contact:

Nurul Islam: + 44 7947854652

“On that day, at around 2:00 pm, a section of army from LIB Battalion No.551 went to Pyin Hla village of Para Pyin Thintan village tract of Buthidaung Township and made blank fire
into air. Seeing and hearing this, the villagers were fleeing from their village. But, later, the soldiers fired to the villagers while they were fleeing. As a result, one villager was killed on the spot and three others were seriously wounded. Some villagers were severely tortured for fleeing the village.”

“The dead villager was identified as Abdu Zawlil (45), son of Sayed Ahmed, hailed from Pyin Hla village.”

The soldiers said to the villagers while beating them, “This is not your country. Why do you live here? These are gifts for Rohingyas,” said one of the villagers who was severely beaten up by the soldiers.

Some of the soldiers from Battalion No.551 temporarily have been taking station at Gwason Island of Buthidaung Township. Its original headquarters or camp is Maung Nama Palay Daung village, east of Buthidaung Town.

On November 21, Border Affairs Minister Than Htay said that security forces have done their best to enforce the rule of law.

A schoolteacher from the locality said, “Government says to impose rule of law immediately, but in practical, it is quite difference. They have actual policy and declared policy.”

International Rights Groups have condemned the government for not taking action to stop the violence.

Egypt has expressed is strong irritation towards the renewal of acts of violence committed against Muslims in Myanmar (formerly Burma), and urged the authorities in Burma to take immediate, decisive action and bring to an end such acts of violence committed against (Burmese) Muslims who belong to the Rohingya ethnicity, said Minister plenipotentiary Amro Rushdi, a spokesman from the Egyptian Foreign Affairs Ministry.

A village elder said, “How will stay at the village, even the security forces discriminate us?”

KPN

Isaac Fadoyebo was forever grateful to those strangers who had risked their lives to save his

More than 450,000 Africans served in the British army during the second world war. Among the few who wrote at length of their experience was Isaac Fadoyebo, who has died aged 86.

Born in Emure-Ile, now in Ondo state, southern Nigeria, Isaac enlisted in the Royal West African Frontier Force in January 1942. He trained as a medical orderly before being sent to Burma the following year. While moving by raft along the Kaladan valley, Isaac's platoon was ambushed and he was severely wounded.

Although in great pain, he and another injured soldier, David Kagbo from Sierra Leone, dragged themselves into the forest. They were found by the Muslim Rohingya people, who provided food, water and medical care, and sheltered them in their village from Japanese patrols. After nine months hiding behind enemy lines, Isaac and Kagbo were rescued by Gurkha troops and eventually flown to safety.

Isaac later left the army with a disability pension and joined the civil service. He set about writing an account of his wartime adventures, which he called A Stroke of Unbelievable Luck. Forty-five years later, the BBC Africa service broadcast a series of programmes, produced by Martin Plaut, commemorating the role of African soldiers in the war. A number of listeners responded, including Isaac, who sent Plaut his 30,000-word manuscript.

The significance of his personal account was recognised immediately, not only for the description of enlistment, training and service in Asia by an African soldier, but also as a remarkable story of endurance against great odds.

I never met Isaac but corresponded with him after I read his memoir, recognised its historical value and subsequently arranged for its publication by the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1999.

In 2011, the broadcaster Barnaby Phillips produced a film for al-Jazeera about Isaac's wartime experiences, entitled Burma Boy. Through tenacious research in Burma, Phillips found and filmed the children of the family who had given shelter to Isaac. Burma Boy was screened as part of the recent Film Africa 2012 festival in London. Isaac died the following day.

He was a gentle and gracious man, humorous, forgiving, and forever grateful to those strangers who had risked their lives to save his.

Isaac, who married on his return from Burma, had several children.

Al Jazeera Correspondent: The Burma Boy Film.

Sources :

Egypt has expressed is strong irritation towards the renewal of acts of violence committed against Muslims in Myanmar, and urged the authorities in Myanmar (formerly Burma) to take immediate, decisive action and bring to an end such acts of violence committed against (Burmese) Muslims who belong to the Rohingya ethicity. 

-(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) --

Feargal Keane
BBC News
November 23, 2012

Reforms in Burma have revealed a sectarian divide between Buddhists and ethnic Muslims whose villages are being destroyed in brutal clashes with echoes of similar clashes in the Balkans, parts of Africa and Northern Ireland.

The Muslim Rohingya minority are being targeted by Burmese Buddhists and driven from their villages in their thousands. Their plight was highlighted during his recent visit by the US President Barack Obama, but hopes that Burma's most prominent civil rights campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi may support their cause have so far proved fruitless.

  

With a view to exposing the intentions of Muu Zaw, let me share more on his posts. Look at below! 

Dear Friends,

You don’t know!

And I don’t know either how the democratic activists and political parties will take it.

We will not hold any talks with them on this topic.

Besides, we will not accept Rohingyas at all. No matter who says what, we don’t sympathize them even on the humanitarian ground or whoever says whatever, we will not accept them. The people who say “Accept them, Sympathize them,” -do not live on this land.

We want to send them to America and Ban Ki Moon’s country! Will they accept them?

So, he is basically saying is 'those who sympathize them, do not to live on this land!!" That Muu Zaw deserves to be kicked on his face with the back heel! He is of mind that only he owns this land. I cannot say whether or not he thinks, when they sing “This is our country and this is our land” in the national anthem, that military dictators own the country and since he is one of them, he, too, owns the country. Even I start to feel insecure for myself when I was reading and collecting these posts and papers. After all, it is the land owned by him! It cannot either be said that he is not coming with the military from behind! Here is one more example on his posts:

No matter what our intentions and standpoints were, now we all need to be united. The problems that we are facing today in Rakhine state are not just racial and religious problems but it is turning into the form of an invasion by a foreign country. According to the current situation, declaring act 144 and giving shoot at sight orders are just to protect Rakhine people’s lives and done in the best way by the government. In this situation, if the government doesn’t know how to handle the situation effectively, they will be blamed for the genocides as if they themselves are doing it. (Now, if we look carefully to the International Media, we will find they are all keeping quiet. In rare news by CNA, only the shootings of the security guards are unfairly written and the reasons behind all these are written very less. I doubt whether they are masterminding it with the international networks.)

Keeping ideological differences aside, we urge you all friends to stand with the government together at this time. They may attack us through humanitarian and religious issues. Now we all need to show foreign countries that we are not creating any religious and racial tensions but fighting against those who are invading us unlike what CNA is trying to portray.

We cannot call Bomu Zaw Htay with any other name but with Nazi Zaw Htay if we look into his writings here. Besides the postings on his facebook which stimulate racial hatred, more than a quarter of postings regarding Rakhine state including fighting and killings can be found. In some posts, he has referred to the president’s office website. The news of the fighting and killings and the number of the deaths are mentioned in detail in the president’s office website.

Dare Bomu Zaw Thay who has come from the military academy that follows the orders with no question do all that by himself without the permission of the president or that of a his senior official? POINT TO BE NOTED!!

To be continued.

Zaw Win 

A former 88 Generation Student 

9th June 2012

Translated into English by M.S. Anwar

Who Else Could the Culprit Be But the King (Thein Sein) Himself? | Part 1

BANGKOK - A leading international rights group today accused Myanmar security forces of supporting some of the brutal anti-Muslim violence last month that forced 35,000 people from torched homes. The allegations come one day before President Barack Obama visits after a year of unprecedented democratic reforms in the South-east Asian country.

Human Rights Watch said soldiers in some parts of western Rakhine state also tried to stop Buddhist attacks and protect Muslim civilians, known as Rohingya. But the group said the government needs to do much more to protect the stateless minority, who are denied citizenship because they are considered foreigners from Bangladesh.

The New York-based rights group also released new satellite imagery detailing the extensive destruction of several Muslim areas, including a village attacked by Buddhist mobs armed with spears and bows and arrows where adults were beheaded and women and children killed.

Violence in June, and again late last month, has killed around 200 people on both sides and displaced more than 110,000 more, the vast majority of them Muslims. 

"The satellite images and eyewitness accounts reveal that local mobs, at times with official support, sought to finish the job of removing Rohingya from these areas," Human Rights Watch's Asia director Brad Adams said in a statement.

"The central government's failure to take serious action to ensure accountability for the June violence fostered impunity, and makes it responsible for later attacks not only when security forces were directly involved, but also when they weren't," he said.

There was no immediate comment from Myanmar's government on the charges. But The Associated Press has interviewed victims in Rakhine state who gave similar accounts, accusing security forces of taking part in the violence or of doing little to stop it.

On Friday, the United Nations announced it had received a letter from Myanmar President Thein Sein pledging to consider new rights for the Rohingya for the first time and condemning the "senseless violence" that has battered Rakhine state. But the letter stopped short of a full commitment that citizenship and other new freedoms would be granted, and gave no timeline.

The White House says Obama will press the matter Monday with Mr Thein Sein, along with demands to free remaining political prisoners as the nation transitions to democracy after a half-century of military rule that ended last year.

The UN 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 UN 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. 

-AP-

Myanmar President Thein Sein has asked Indonesia to help his government in resolving ongoing ethnic tensions in the country’s western Rakhine state, where more than 110,000 people, the vast majority of them Muslims known as Rohingya, have been displaced.

“Myanmar invited us to help them [in resolving the Rohingya problem], with the President [Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono] indicating his willingness to help in due time,” presidential spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said after a meeting between Thein Sein and Yudhoyono on the sidelines of the 21st ASEAN Summit and Related Summits in Phnom Penh on Tuesday.

Yudhoyono underlined that the problem had to be well resolved since it had attracted international attention, noting that the issue was a communal conflict, not a religious clash as portrayed to the general public.

Therefore, Indonesia together with Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia have tried to portray the issue proportionally.

“We must give them a kind of support or understanding in a sense that this is not related to religion,” Faizasyah said.

Besides efforts to end the conflict, Thein Sein said that Myanmar’s government had launched various programs to alleviate suffering and for community building and reconstruction measures involving a huge amount of money.

The social problems in Rakhine were indeed very complex, and included education, Thein Sein added.

“Therefore, Myanmar hopes that Indonesia can invest in the Rakhine State to create more jobs. There are complex problems there,” he said.

Thein Sein, who has orchestrated much of his country’s transition to democracy, has opened the door to any party who wants to visit, investigate and observe the situation.

Thein Sein has blamed nationalist and religious extremists for the unrest in June and October that killed at least 167 people, but has faced criticism for failing to address underlying tensions in the Rakhine state, where an estimated 800,000 Rohingya Muslims are not recognized as citizens.

ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan warned that the problem should be handled effectively. “Eight hundred thousand people are now under tremendous pressure. If that issue is not handled well and effectively, there is a risk of radicalization. There is a risk of extremism,” he said in Phnom Penh.

The United Nations said on Friday that Thein Sein had sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon promising action to tackle the problems.

In a statement, Ban’s office said Thein Sein had promised that “once emotions subside on all sides”, his government was prepared to “address contentious political dimensions, ranging from resettlement of displaced populations to granting of citizenship”.

Aside from the Rohingya, during the meeting, Yudhoyono also highlighted the recent developments in Myanmar, saying that its transformation process was on the right track.

Indonesia consistently supported Myanmar when the country, which was previously known as Burma, started its reform process. Myanmar also appreciated Indonesia’s support all this time, including during the process when they were having difficulties.

Olivia Ward
The Star
November 20, 2012

For decades, Burma’s Rohingya Muslims have suffered discrimination and harassment, and recently, arson, rape, violent attacks and murder. Dozens have drowned in an effort to escape by sea; others have been pushed back from Bangladesh, or kept in bleak camps where malnutrition is rife.

But the obscure minority has received little attention from the international community — until this month.

On his historic trip to Burma on Monday, U.S. President Barack Obama went to bat for the stateless Rohingya, who live in Burma’s Rakhine State on the border of Bangladesh.

“For too long the people of this state, including ethnic Rakhine, have faced crushing poverty and persecution,” Obama told an audience Monday. “But there’s no excuse for violence against innocent people, and the Rohingya hold within themselves the same dignity as you do, and I do.”

The speech threw a spotlight on the Rohingya, some one million Muslims whose citizenship was cancelled by Burma in 1982, but who have remained in obscurity in spite of numerous allegations of attacks and repression by majority Buddhist groups or others with links to Burmese security forces.

Almost 200 people have been killed, and more than 100,000 displaced, since fighting sprang up between the Rohingya and Buddhist Rakhine groups in June. The Rakhine — and the Burmese government — claim that the Rohingya are migrants from Bangladesh, while the Rohingya point to evidence of centuries of settlement in the region.

The United Nations, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and others have called for investigations and an end to the violence against Rohingya. Some have accused Burma of ethnic cleansing, as villages were reportedly burned to the ground, women raped, and Rohingya farmers and fishermen attacked by local mobs. Those who have fled to camps on both sides of the border have received little food or care.

Aid workers are especially worried about inaccessible groups in northern and eastern Rakhine, said Stephen Cornish, executive director of MSF Canada (Doctors Without Borders), who was in Rakhine this summer.

“They are being denied medical care, and many are suffering from malnutrition,” he said.

Although the makeshift camps for displaced people are gradually receiving care, he said, “there was a 7 ½ per cent severe acute malnutrition rate. There’s poor water and sanitation. But (outside the camps) because of roadblocks and lack of travel access, people in those (blocked) communities have no access to markets, and can’t go anywhere.”

The government has used the blocks to separate the two ethnic communities and tamp down violence, he said.

MSF evacuated the area when the new round of violence flared this fall, and they received threats and intimidation. Some staff have since returned, but parts of the state are still no-go areas for aid groups.

Although the Rohingya have been treated as Bangladeshis by Burma, the Bangladesh government has dealt harshly with refugees. Humanitarian aid was curtailed, and a Canadian government program for refugees ended when Bangladesh refused to grant exit permits to them.

As Burma liberalizes, there are signs that it may be ready to reverse its stance.

In advance of Obama’s visit — the first by an American president — Burmese President Thein Sein reportedly condemned violence between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya as “senseless,” in a letter to the UN. But he blamed “nationalist and religious extremists.”

Thein Sein said that he would consider solutions “ranging from resettlement of displaced populations to granting of citizenship.” Until now only those whose families settled in Burma before independence in 1948 were considered citizens.

Burma could make an immediate gesture to alleviate the Rohingya’s suffering, Cornish says.

“More than 100,000 people are at risk in addition to the 100,000 in camps. Access to health care is a huge issue.

“There are toddlers with malnutrition. People don’t have access to wood for cooking, and have to share what food they have with others. We’re particularly worried about people with HIV and TB who have no access to medicine, and several hundred thousand a year have been treated for malaria.

“We are jointly conducting health clinics in the camps with the ministry of health, but there is more to be done to ensure that those who are intimidating and interrupting care don’t carry the day — and that we get our access back.”

Bernama
November 21, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR: The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is in the midst of arranging a visit to Myanmar for discussion on ways to resolve the crisis faced by minority Rohingya Muslims.

According to OIC, the visit will be led by Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, and a number of foreign ministers from the member states.

The ministers will assess the humanitarian needs of those affected by the violence in the Rakhine state, and also coordinate with the Myanmar authorities to develop a plan for it, it said in a statement.

The visit is part of the resolutions adopted at the recent OIC Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) meeting in Djibouti.

The 39th CFM urged member states to intensify efforts in the restoration of the Rohingya Muslims' nationality and citizenship rights, and the return of refugees, as soon as possible.

M.S. Anwar
RB News

November 20, 2012

Maung Daw, Arakan: Immediately after President Obama had left Burma, a masterminded attack against Rohingyas at Honssara (Du-Thandar), Laambaguna (Zaw-Ma-Tat) village tract in Maung Daw was carried out yesterday. In the attack, around nine houses of Rohingyas have been blazed and razed. As an immediate response to Obama’s call to stop the violence against Rohingyas and in disagreement to his using the term “Rohingya,” Rakhine Extremists Leaders, Skinned-Head Fascists in Saffron and local authority together conspired the attack so as to become easier for them to carry out a new genocide against these people.

“Yesterday, immediately after Obama had departed the country, Rakhine Extremist Leaders from Yangon directed some Rakhine extremists in Maung Daw to resume the violence against Rohingyas to show their disagreement to Obama. Some of the Rakhine extremists who instigated the violence in Maung Daw yesterday in cooperation with the NAY-MYAY-MU (Regional of Head of NaSaKa-Border Security Force) of Southern Maung Daw include:

1) U Hla Myint- a rich Rakhine figure and the owner of Mortgage Business Shop No.4, 

2) U Khin Maung Shwe (name might be wrongly spelled)- Judge in the Court of Maung Daw Township, 

3) USDP Maung Daw Secretary- U Hla Tun Phru and other three prominent Rakhine Extremists Figures.

They altogether went to a Rakhine village called Kaing Gri located nearby the violence hit Rohingya village pretending as if they were on a picnic trip to the village. Subsequently, the houses of Rohingyas were torched in the Rohingya village mentioned above. The houses of the following people were among the houses razed.

1) Azimullah S/o Shaab Meah 

2) Ali Meah S/o Ghani 

3) Kumsuma Khatu D/o Ghani 

4) Shakayr S/o Ali Meah

Later, NAY-MYAY-MU who was bribed and coaxed by the Rakhine extremists together with KUAY-KAY-YE-MU (NaSaKa Adminstrator in Maung Daw) blamed Rohingyas BACK that they had torched their own houses. Therefore, they ordered NaSaKa to arrest any 100 Rohingya men from the nearby villages no matter whether they are guilty or not. There is a shoot-at-sight declared to those Rohingya men who resist or refused to be arrested” said a prominent Rohingya elder on the condition of anonymity.

There have been conflicting reports coming out about the number of Rohingyas arrested till date. Some say 10 Rohingya men have been arrested and some say 15.

-Therefore, is the targeting innocent Rohingyas the Justice in Burma just because Obama called to stop the violence and used the term Rohingya?

-Is the blaming Rohingyas back the Justice in Burma after burning down their houses?

-Is trying to arrest or kill Rohingyas for nothing the Justice in Burma?

-Or what is this?

The case is rested upon you to decide!!

M.S. Anwar
RB News
November 19, 2012

Maung Daw, Arakan: Police in Maung Daw led by U Aung Kyaw Kan, a high ranking officer and the team leader of Nay-Tin (Region Control Team), have been attempting to destabilize the Region for days now. They have been arresting many innocent people for nothing. It has started since the day on which a so-called Rohingya drug trafficker called Abdu Zabbar (in 50s) was arrested by the NaSaKa (Border Security Force) in Nay Myay (Region) 6 in Maung Daw.

"The NaSaKa in Nay Myay 6 said that they recently arrested a Rohingya drug trafficker. According to the NaSaKa, the trafficker said upon investigation that he used to traffick drugs in partnership with a person called Salim (a Rohingya) from Quarter 5, Maung Daw. The irony is that without confirming who the person called Salim is, the Police is arresting everyone with the name, Salim from the said village. So far, they have arrested 6 people with the name. The way the Police raid the village everyday to arrest Salims is like warring against Rohingyas. So, it automatically stimulates neighboring Rakhine extremists to resume violence against Rohingyas.

But the shocking thing is the person said to be arrested was known to be a PUPPET of the government" said a Rohingya elder from Maung Daw on the condition of anonymity.

Since Maung Daw Police is trying to re-create the violence against Rohingyas in Maung Daw using a made up case, Rohingyas are afraid of becoming victims again. Therefore, Rohingya community appeal to the President to take against these Police officers who have been oppressing them for decades. These Police officers have been in Maung Daw for more than 10 years without any transfers to other parts of the country. At the same time, Rohingyas request to the international communities to help them out as they are still the victims of the targeted violence and severe persecutions though their situation is made to look calm externally.