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Nyi Nyi Aung 
RB News 
January 4, 2013 

(Edited by M.S. Anwar)

Maung Daw, Arakan - NaSaKa (Border Security Force) from Region (NayMyay) 4, Camp Base 10 cancelled Nine Rohingya Family Census Lists in the village of Zee Bin Chaung, Maung Daw. The families were delisted because they didn’t participate in the most unjust ongoing NaSaKa operation in Arakan. The heads of the delisted families are:

  1. Dil Mohammad S/o U Moni Ruzzama 
  2. FawFor Ahmed S/o U Abdu Rahman 
  3. Monir Ahmed S/o U Mano Meah 
  4. Halarbi D/o U Abdul Kadair 
  5. Sayed Alam S/o U Kala Meah 
  6. Zarina Khatu D/o U Hakim Ali 
  7. Basar Khatu D/o U Larl Meah 
  8. Ferozah Khatu D/o U Sultan 
  9. Rashidah Khatu D/o U Nazir Ahmed 
In this ongoing operation, the vulnerable Rohingyas are threatened and forced to sign as Bengali, an identity they don’t belong to, and their finger-prints are subsequently taken in the biometric system. It is an attempt of the brutal Burmese government to wipe out the identity of this people (the sons of soil of Arakan) and to permanently portray them as if they are illegal invaders. 

Besides that, five senior educated Rohingyas from the same village were threatened and ordered to participate and cooperate with NaSaKa in the operation. Their names are:

  1. Noor Huson S/o U Noor Ahmed 
  2. Sham Shu Alam S/o ? 
  3. Abu Suleman S/o U Noor Mohammad 
  4. Sayedul Islam S/o U Noor Mohammad 
  5. Dil Dar Husin S/o Ummar Hamza 
Similarly, at 4:30PM on 4th January 2013, in Taung Pro Let Wae, Maung Daw, sixteen senior educated Rohingyas were arrested by NaSaKas from the Region (NayMyay) 3. They were arrested for the same reason of not participating in the operation as mentioned above. They are:

  1. Mv Noor Alam S/o U Sultan Ahmed, 65 
  2. Sham Shul Haque S/o U Haibullah, 75 
  3. Zahidullah S/o U Shofiullah, 32 
  4. Noor Huson S/o U Sayed Huson, 28 
  5. Dildar Huson S/o U Inna Amin, 68 
  6. Nurul Hauque S/o U Fauzau Rahman, 65 
  7. Abdu Zabbar s/o U Abul Husein, 68 
  8. Rafic S/o U Raza Meah, 45 
  9. Eshah Noor s/o U Maqul Ahmed, 33 
  10. Zahid Alam S/o U Halar Meah, 48 
  11. Zabbar S/o U Hanifah, 45 
  12. Zamir Huson S/o U sayed Huson, 35 
  13. Moether S/o U Sayed Akbar, 35 
  14. Nuru S/o U Fazal, 31 
  15. Malvi Ershadullah S/o U Habiullah, 38 
  16. Nurul Amin S/o U Sayedullah, 35 
(Note: the numbers mentioned beside their names are their respective age numbers) 

NaSaKa known as Border Security Force is also designed to put restrictions on the Rohingyas’ Marriages and Birth-Rates, to extort money from them (Rohingyas), to religiously persecute them and to torture and finally drive them out of Burma. After the formation of NaSaKa by the tyrant ex-general Khin Nyunt in the early 1990s, the department of immigration concerning Rohingyas was handed over to NaSaKas. Since then, they have been carrying out immigration operations and census check-ups (in another word, the check-ups of the number of Rohingya population) twice a year. 

If a Rohingya accidentally happened to miss the operation, he/she was delisted from the census list (meaning he/she could never come and live in Arakan again). Because of this and many other reasons, Rohingyas have just been leaving Arakan. No Bengali is illegally coming into Arakan. NaSaKa as well as Burmese authority knows this well. By lying, NaSaKa and Burmese authority are not honest not only to the world but also to themselves.
Rohingya refugees, who survived after their overloaded boat heading to Malaysia sank, are pictured on a fishing boat following their rescue by Bangladeshi border guards in Teknaf on November 7, 2012. About 85 people are missing after an overloaded boat carrying Rohingya refugees towards Malaysia sank off Bangladesh early on November 7, the second such tragedy in two weeks, officials said. (Photo - STRDEL/AFP/Getty Images)

Faine Greenwood
Global Post
January 5, 2013

Thailand has deported 74 Rohingya Muslim refugees back to Myanmar, the Bangkok Post reports, in a move carried out in the face of international opposition from human right's groups. 

The group, which includes small children, became stranded in Phuket last weekend when their boat ran out of fuel, and they were forced to come ashore in Thailand, says the Bangkok Post, and were then given food and water by regional authorities. 

After deliberating on the matter, local authorities decided that they would send the refugees back to Myanmar overland, instead of allowing them to go back out to sea. 

Human Rights Watch and the United Nations condemned the Thai decision to send the refugees back to Myanmar, claiming that Rohingya often face human trafficking and forced labor at the Thai-Myanmar border, as they desperately attempt to leave, says VOA. 

UNHCR asked for access to the refugees and a halt to the deportation plans, but the agency was denied the request by the Thai government. 

The Rohingya are a beleaguered minority in Vietnam, and have recently faced vicious sectarian violence in Eastern Myanmar, forcing many to flee Arakan State for more friendly climes. 

Rohingya who choose to escape Myanmar by boat face serious danger during the sea crossing, and often must battle high seas from old and leaking boats. 

At the end of October 120 Rohingya went missing after their vessel capsized in the Bay of Bengal. The refugees were attempting to transfer onto a vessel bound for Malaysia when the accident took place. 

Only a week later, 85 more Rohingya went missing at sea when their boat capsized in the Bay of Bengal, as the refugees headed to Bangladesh to look for work.
A member the Bangladeshi border guard force comforts a Rohingya man after being arrested while trying to cross the border in Teknaf, 18 June 2012 (Photo - Reuters)

Aye Nai
Democratic Voice of Burma
January 4, 2013

Over 80 Rohingyas, fleeing violence and persecution in Arakan state, were detained by Burmese authorities on Wednesday in a coastal town near the Thai border, after traffickers abandoned them en route to Malaysia. 

The Rohingyas, including 13 children and eight women, were taken for questioning by police when the boat was discovered at the dock in Tenasserim Division’s Kawthaung town in the southernmost tip of Burma. 

A local politician from the Democratic Party-Myanmar, Than Htun, who met with the boat people told DVB they believed they had arrived in Malaysia. 

“The [Rohingyas] paid [human traffickers] around 150,000-300,000 Kyat (USD$175-350) each to take them to Malaysia. They said the boat owner told them they had already arrived in Malaysia and they believed him,” said Than Htun. 

The group is now being kept in a derelict hospital building in town, before being returned to Arakan state’s capital Sittwe. Rohingya Muslims are denied citizenship by the Burmese government and are considered one of the world’s most persecuted minorities by the UN. 

Thousands of Rohingyas have fled Arakan state in western Burma in the wake of sectarian clashes with Arakanese Buddhists last year, which killed over 180 people and displaced 110,000 since June. 

“More than 10,000 Rohingya from northern Rakhine State have left on these boats since October last year according to our findings,” Chris Lewa, campaigner for the Arakan Project told Alertnet on Thursday, adding that more and more women and children are now making the perilous journey along with men. 

Many head for neighbouring Bangladesh, and increasingly to Malaysia, but often end up in Thailand by accident. 

This week, 73 Rohingyas, including women and children as young as three, travelling to Malaysia were detained by Thai authorities when their boat washed ashore in Phuket. They were deported back to Burma yesterday, despite severe condemnation by international human rights groups. DVB understands that the group had still not arrived back in Burma as of Thursday evening. 

According to the New York based advocacy group, Human Rights Watch, many deported Rohingyas fall prey to human traffickers on their return, who demand extortionate fees for another attempt to be transported to Malaysia. 

According to Than Htun, the Burmese Navy discovered another boat with Rohingyas in the Andaman Sea around mid-November, but pushed it back into Thai waters. The Thai authorities are also known to push boatloads of unwanted Rohingya refugees back into the sea. 

Thailand, which is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, insists it cannot accept Rohingyas leaving Burma, but will help them resettle in third countries.
Myanmar army officers patrol near a relief camp in Rakhine state. (Photo - AP)
Ben Otto
The Wall Street Journal
January 4, 2013

JAKARTA—Indonesia's foreign minister will travel to Myanmar next week to examine conditions in Rakhine, the restive western state where ethnic violence has led to an exodus of refugees seeking asylum across Southeast Asia.

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said he will make the trip Monday and Tuesday at the invitation of the Myanmar government, which has been struggling to contain the clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine that have displaced more than 100,000 people.

He told journalists that during his stay he will formally announce a pledge for $1 million in humanitarian aid to the region.

"Basically it's a seeing tour... to try to dissect what is the actual situation and what are the actual challenges" in Rakhine, he said. "Obviously there's a humanitarian problem, where people are in a very difficult state in terms of their basic needs."

About 800,000 residents of Rakhine are ethnic Rohingya Muslims, who make up less than a quarter of the state's total population. They are denied citizenship in Myanmar, also known as Burma, which is Buddhist dominated. The Myanmar government considers them illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.

Civil-society groups have warned that more Rohingya refugees are fleeing Rakhine by boat because Bangladesh stopped accepting refugees at its border with Myanmar last year. Some recent attempts to sail from Myanmar have ended in tragedy, including an incident in October when 130 Rohingya reportedly died when their ship sank.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, on Sunday took in nine shipwreck survivors believed to be Myanmar nationals after they were refused entry into Singapore. Malaysia earlier accepted 40 survivors rescued from the same wreck that were similarly denied entry into Singapore.

Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday said that "as a small country with limited land and natural resources, Singapore is not in a position to accept any persons seeking political asylum or refugee status, regardless of their ethnicity or place of origin."

On Thursday, Thailand said it had deported back to Myanmar 73 refugees found off its coast on New Year's Day.

Mr. Natalegawa said he would travel to Rakhine with nongovernment and economic specialists to assess economic prospects in the region.

"Hopefully not only we will address the immediate humanitarian situation... but also create a postconflict dividend situation" where economic development can be promoted, he said.

He declined to provide more details about the trip.

Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia aren't signatories to the U.N. Convention on Refugees, which establishes a basic framework for protecting people escaping persecution. The convention bars signatories from expelling recognized refugees—with some exceptions—or punishing refugees for illegal entry.

Michael Tene, a spokesman for the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, said Friday that the country will continue to treat Rohingya asylum-seekers as it does other refugees, by providing humanitarian assistance and ensuring they are not deported.

—Chun Han Wong in Singapore contributed to this article.

Nyein Nyein
The Irrawaddy
January 4, 2013

Phyo Wai Aung, the man accused of carrying out a deadly bombing during the Burmese water festival in 2010, has died just months after his release from prison from an illness that went untreated while he was still in custody.

Family members said he died at his home in Rangoon’s Kyauk Myaung Township at around 3 am on Friday.

The 33-year-old engineer was sentenced to death in May of last year for his alleged role in a series of bombings that killed at least 10 people and injured around 100 others during festivities to mark Thingyan, the Burmese new year, in April 2010. He was subsequently released under a presidential pardon on Aug. 3, 2012.

Following his arrest on April 23, 2010, Phyo Wai Tha was allegedly tortured while undergoing interrogation and later suffered from health problems stemming from his mistreatment. His condition went untreated until two days after he was sentenced to death in a closed trial, when he was admitted to Insein General Hospital and diagnosed with liver cancer.

When he was released from custody last August, he told The Irrawaddy that he was “arrested mistakenly” and that the political system was at fault.

Due to his rapidly deteriorating health in prison, Phyo Wai Aung suffered from paralysis of the lower half of his body. After his release, he was hospitalized in Insein and Rangoon hospitals, but his health did not improve.

His brother-in-law Aung Myint told The Irrawaddy on Friday that Phyo Wai Aung returned to his home from the hospital 16 days ago.

“He was able to speak until the last night before he died,” said Aung Myint. “It is such a loss for our family, as well as for the country,” he added.

Phyo Wai Aung’s body has been taken to the Yay Way Muslim cemetery, where he will be buried later today. He leaves behind his wife and two children, aged 8 and 4.
Smoke is seen rising from a mountain in Kachin state in this still image taken from a video taken December. Myanmar's military has stepped up attacks on ethnic Kachin rebels in recent days with airstrikes. (Photo - DVB)

Dan Murphy
CS Monitor
January 4, 2012

Yes, Myanmar's military backed government has promised elections in 2015 and released Aun San Suu Kyi from prison. But it's still calling the shots - and violently.

Myanmar's military has stepped up attacks on ethnic Kachin rebels in recent days with airstrikes. This move calls into question efforts by the United States and other international powers to richly and quickly reward the nominally civilian regime there for a series of gestures toward political reform.

US State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland told reporters yesterday that the Obama administration is "deeply troubled" by increased violence and urged dialogue between Myanmar's government and the Kachin Independence Organization, the political wing of the Kachin Independence Army, which has been in an on again, off again, war against the central state for decades.

Simon Roughneen wrote for the Monitor yesterday that"the Myanmar Army offensive – which includes helicopter gunships and aerial bombardment – comes after weeks of heavy fighting at outposts about 10 miles outside the KIA headquarters on the Myanmar-Chinafrontier." He then quoted Joseph Nbwi Naw, a Kachin Catholic priest in the KIA headquarters town of Laiza as saying "the situation is very tense. The bombers are bombing just about four or five miles from the town here."

Myanmar (also known as Burma) is as ethnically complex a country as they come, and while most in the West have focused on the democracy struggle of Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy, there is no guarantee that any new order that emerges from a political promise, with promised free elections scheduled for 2015, will create stability or justice for its minorities. Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, an ethnic Burman like most of the junta that kept Myanmar under military rule from 1962 until 2011, has been mostly silent on violence targeting the ethnic Muslim Rohingyas recently and does not appear to have spoken out on the situation involving the Kachin.

In September, the Irrawady, a Thailand-based news organization that focuses on Myanmar, reported that Aung San Suu Kyi argued against taking a strong stand, as it could make the situation worse. "There are people who criticized me when I remained [silent] on this case," she told a Burmese group on a visit to New York. "They can do so as they are not satisfied with me. But, for me, I do not want to add fire to any side of the conflict." The Irrawady wrote: "Some critics have condemned [Aung San Suu Kyi] for staying silent on Kachin as well as the sectarian violence between Arakanese Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in western Burma."

In early November, I wrote about doubts over the wisdom of America's breakneck pace of normalization with Myanmar, with President Obama becoming the first US leader to ever visit the country that month.
Has there ever been faster restoration of US relations with a country it had once worked so hard to isolate, in the absence of either a US invasion or a revolution? I can't think of one. The once-maligned leaders are being brought in from the cold. The US even indicated in October that Burmese officers would be invited to the annual Cobra Gold military exercise between the US and Thailand as official observers.
The Obama administration's motivations are clear: Demonstrate the benefits of the generals’ political opening and turn toward democracy. But with the breathless rush to friendship comes a country where ethnic tensions still dominate, and ethnic violence, specifically against ethnic Rohingya Muslims, that the generals have been either unwilling or unable to stop.
... If all goes well, the Obama administration’s overture toward Myanmar will go down as a major foreign policy achievement, and more importantly signal a brighter future for Myanmar’s 48 million people. But there are challenges and pitfalls ahead, and with each concession the US and other major powers make before 2015, a potential carrot to offer for positive change is spent.
Hopefully, Obama will not have gone to Myanmar too soon.
The recent war with the Kachin is evidence of how hard it has been to build on the fruits of "dialogue" between Myanmar and armed ethnic-minorities. A 17-year cease-fire between the Kachin rebels, in northeastern Myanmar along the Chinese border, broke in June of 2011, and the results have been catastrophic. Human Rights Watch estimated that 75,000 Kachin were displaced from their homes in the fighting, recording the razing of homes, stealing of property, torture of Kachin civilians, use of civilians as slave labor, and the rape of Kachin women, all by Myanmar soldiers.

Such events have been frequent for Myanmar's ethnic minorities since shortly after independence from Britain in 1948. In February 1947, nationalist hero Aung San, the father of Aung San Suu Kyi, and other nationalist leaders signed the Panglong agreement with ethnic minorities, who today make up about 40 percent of the national population. The agreement envisioned Myanmar as a federal state, with regional autonomy for ethnic minority states like Kachin, where the residents are mostly Christian and speak a language distinct from the ethnic-majority Burmans, who are mostly Buddhist.

But autonomy was never delivered, and when Aung San and six members of his cabinet were assassinated in July 1947, the stage was set for decades of conflict not just with the Kachin but other ethnic minorities like the Shan and the Wa, many living in the rugged mountains in eastern and northern Burma.

For now, the elections of 2015 are a long way away, and whether those elections will lead to a more just approach to ethnic minorities remains an open question. That Aung San Suu Kyi has suffered personally and for decades for her principled stand on democracy for Myanmar is no guarantee that she or anyone else who may come to power there will handle the country's ethnic tensions any better than their predecessors have for the past 60 years.

Holding some diplomatic and sanctions pressure in the back pocket may prove a wiser course than declaring a democracy victory in early 2013.
(Photo - Phuket Wan)
The Daily Star Lebanon
January 4, 2012

YANGON: About 13,000 boat people, including many stateless Rohingya Muslims, fled Myanmar and neighbouring Bangladesh in 2012 with hundreds dying during the perilous sea voyage, the UN said Friday.

A wave of deadly sectarian violence in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine has triggered an exodus of refugees, mostly heading for Malaysia.

"We know of at least 485 people who've drowned or are lost at sea," said Vivian Tan, spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency, adding the real death toll was probably far higher.

"These numbers are very worrying," Tan said.

"The fact that even women and children are increasingly risking this journey shows the growing sense of desperation among the Rohingya in Myanmar and Bangladesh," she added.

More than 10,000 people have attempted the sea voyage since October 2012 -- a sharp increase on last season's departures, according to the Arakan Project, which lobbies for the rights of the Rohingya, said by the UN to be one of the most persecuted minority groups on the planet.

October is the end of the monsoon season and traditionally marks the start of an annual wave of migration by people trying to reach Malaysia from the Bay of Bengal -- often on rickety wooden boats.

Myanmar views the roughly 800,000 Rohingya in Rakhine as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and denies them citizenship. Thousands more live in squalid refugee camps across the border in Bangladesh.

Malaysia has become the sole hope for many Rohingya refugees, after Bangladesh closed its shared border to them and Thailand as well as Singapore refused to provide asylum to members of the Muslim-minority group.

Kuala Lumpur expressed concern at the influx of refugees, saying Malaysia's patience was being tested.

"There is the humanitarian aspect," Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman told AFP on Friday, citing the recent rescue of 40 shipwrecked Rohingya who were turned away by Singapore.

"But we cannot allow Malaysia to become a destination of choice," he added, noting that the country was already sheltering some 80,000 Rohingya.

Bangkok Post
January 4, 2013

When Myanmar began opening up to the world and showed determination to reconnect with the global economy, many investors here feared the pool of cheap labour in Thailand would soon dry up as migrant workers from Myanmar started to head back home. After all, who would want to endure back-breaking work for low pay and the constant threat of police extortion here when they could go home again and find new work opportunities?

That may well be true for Myanmar nationals and some other ethnic groups, but it is certainly not the case for the Rohingya Muslims who still face violent persecution in Myanmar.

Last year, the world's enthusiasm at the prospect of political reform and an end to ethnic strife in Myanmar was quickly shattered by the outbreak of sectarian violence in Rakhine state. The bloodshed left about 200 people dead, more than 100,000 displaced and thousands of homes destroyed.

Widely viewed as illegal immigrants trying to steal land from Buddhists, the stateless Rohingya face deeply embedded sentiments of distrust and hatred among Buddhists not only in Rakhine, but across Myanmar. They are denied citizenship, legal existence, and basic rights including education, employment, the right to travel and even the right to marry and set up a family.

The hardship and hopelessness of their situation has driven successive generations of Rohingya men to work illegally in neighbouring countries to support their families back home. The perilous journey and life away from home used to be men's business only. But the outbreak of sectarian violence last year changed that; now women and small children are also joining the exodus _ not to seek jobs, but to save their lives.

At the height of New Year celebrations in Thailand, a boat carrying 73 exhausted Rohingya men, women and children _ some as young as three years old _ was found stranded near Phuket. Authorities initially planned to give them food, water and fuel, as they usually do with Rohingya boatpeople, so they could continue their journey to Malaysia. They then signalled a policy about-face, deciding to deport them back to Myanmar by land, since leaving women and children to fend for themselves in the open sea would certainly harm the country's image.

If deported by land, the Rohingya will be immediately fleeced by people smugglers at the border. There are reports that many who cannot pay to go to Malaysia are sent to work as slave labourers on Thai fishing trawlers or in plantations. Such irresponsible deportation makes Thailand a tacit supporter of human trafficking, the last thing the country should do when the European Union and United States are threatening trade sanctions.

If they are put to sea, authorities are needlessly endangering the lives of innocent people, and Thailand risks being hit with another international condemnation.

Both methods are wrong and inhumane.

This latest batch of Rohingya are not economic migrants. That the men brought their wives and children shows they are asylum seekers, and they should be treated accordingly, with a chance to seek refuge in a third country.

To solve Rohingya cross-border migration, the government must take steps with Myanmar and other Asean countries to ease the sectarian violence in Rakhine state. Meanwhile, authorities must honour the Rohingyas' right to seek asylum. The inhumane policies of pushing them back to sea and deporting them by land must stop once and for all.
(Photo - Phuket Wan)
VOA News
January 3, 2012

The United Nations refugee agency is urging Thailand not to deport a group of Rohingya Muslim boat people, saying they could be in danger if they are sent back to Burma.

UNHCR spokesperson Vivian Tan says that the group, which is allegedly fleeing sectarian violence and persecution in Burma's western Rakhine state, may be subject to punishment upon their return.

"We're strongly advocating that they shouldn't be sent back," says Tan. "We're worried they may be punished, because there are rules where if they leave they need to apply for permits, and if they come back without these permits, we don't know what could happen - there might be some punitive measures."

Tan says U.N. officials are meeting with Thai authorities Thursday in an attempt to gain access to the group so it can "find out exactly who they are and what they need."

Thai officials said Wednesday the group of 73 migrants, including women and children, must be deported by land to Burma, but their current status is not known.

The migrants were detained by Thai authorities this week after they were found drifting in a small, overcrowded boat off the resort town of Phuket, well short of what authorities say was their final destination, Malaysia.

Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, says that Thailand should suspend any plan to deport the refugees until the U.N. determines whether they have legitimate claims for protection.

He says Thai authorities, who are reluctant to absorb migrant workers from neighboring countries, must come up with a better policy for dealing with boat people.

"For the first time, Thai authorities have intercepted a boat, filled up not with young Rohingya men seeking work in Malaysia, but families with young children and women," he says. "They are traveling together claiming they are escaping persecution, human rights violations, and violence in their homeland."

Thai authorities do not accept boat people, but instead give them supplies to continue their often dangerous journeys to their final destination.

The result is often deadly. In 2008 and 2009, hundreds of Muslim Rohingya refugees are believed to have died after being turned away by Thailand.

Sunai says the problem is not going away, and that Thailand and other Southeast Asian nations must come up with a new policy to provide protection in coordination with U.N. agencies.

"We want Thailand to come up with a clear policy that recognizes Thailand's international obligations to protect asylum seekers and refugees," he says. "And in this case it is very clear that political violence, communal conflicts and human rights violations in Burma's Arakan state are getting worse and worse, and we expect there will be more Rohingya families traveling by sea in order to seek refuge in Southeast Asia."

The latest group of asylum seekers say there were headed for Malaysia, which has become a common destination for Rohingya refugees. On Sunday, about 450 Rohingya landed in Malaysia after a boat journey that left one person dead.

Rohingya are fleeing Burma's western Rakhine, or Arakan, state, where an outbreak of violence in recent months has killed dozens and displaced hundreds of thousands.

Rights groups accuse Burma's government of systematic persecution against members of the ethnic group, who are considered to be illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.

Human Rights Watch
January 2, 2013

Give UN Refugee Agency Access to Asylum Seekers
(New York) – The Thai government should immediately halt its plan to deport 73 ethnic Rohingya back to Burma, Human Rights Watch said today. Thai authorities should allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN refugee agency, unhindered access to these and other boat migrants from Burma’s Arakan State to determine whether they are seeking asylum and whether they are qualified for refugee status.

On January 1, 2013, near Bon Island in Phuket province, Thai authorities intercepted a boatload of 73 Rohingya migrants – including as many as 20 children, some as young as 3 – that contained likely asylum seekers. After providing food, water, and other supplies to the passengers and refueling the boat, Thai authorities initially planned to push the boat back to sea en route to Malaysia’s Langkawi Island. When they found that the rickety, overcrowded boat had cracks and that many passengers were too weak to endure a stormy sea voyage, the authorities brought the group ashore to the Phuket Immigration Office. By 4 p.m. on January 2, two trucks with all 73 Rohingya were heading to Ranong province for deportation to Burma.

“The Thai government should scrap its inhumane policy of summarily deporting Rohingya, who have been brutally persecuted in Burma, and honor their right to seek asylum,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “UNHCR should be permitted to screen all Rohingya arriving in Thailand to identify and assist those seeking refugee status.”

The Thai government’s so-called “help on” policy fails to provide Rohinya asylum seekers with protection required under international law, and in some cases increases their risk, Human Rights Watch said. Under this policy, the Thai navy is under orders to intercept Rohingya boats that come too close to the Thai coast. Upon intercepting a boat, officials provide the boat with fuel, food, water, and other supplies on condition that the boats sail onward to Malaysia or Indonesia. All passengers must remain on their own boats during the re-supply.

Should a boat land on Thai soil or be found to be unsafe, Thai immigration officials will step in to enforce deportation by land. This “soft deportation” process has resulted in Rohingya being sent across the Thai-Burma border at Ranong province, where people smugglers await deported Rohingya to exact exorbitant fees to transport them to Malaysia. Those unable to pay the smuggling fees are forced into labor to pay off the fees, condemning them to situations amounting to human trafficking.

“Thailand has repeatedly stated its commitment to combat human trafficking, yet by deporting Rohingya into the hands of people smugglers, they are making them vulnerable to trafficking,” Adams said.

In January 2009 Thailand’s National Security Council, led by then-Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, authorized the navy to intercept incoming Rohingya boats and detain the passengers before pushing them back to sea. Later that year, Thai security forces were captured on video towing boats with Rohingya out to sea, which the government initially denied, but which Abhisit later conceded, saying, “I have some reason to believe some of this happened.” While the recent “help on” strategy has meant that intercepted boats are re-provisioned, the Thai navy is still pushing back to sea boats filled with Rohingya, with some deadly results.

Thailand’s response to arriving Rohingya asylum seekers contrasts sharply with the policy in Malaysia, where the authorities have routinely allowed the UN refugee agency access to arriving Rohingya. Those recognized by the agency as refugees are released from immigration detention.

Burmese authorities have long persecuted the Rohingya, members of a Muslim minority group who have lived in Burma for generations. Government and military authorities in Arakan State regularly apply severe restrictions on the Rohingya’s freedom of movement, assembly, and association, levy demands for forced labor, engage in religious persecution, and confiscate land and resources. Burma’s 1982 Citizenship Law effectively denies the Rohingya citizenship, leaving them stateless.

Each year hundreds of thousands of Rohingya in Burma’s Arakan State flee repression by the Burmese military government and dire poverty. The situation significantly worsened in late 2012 following communal violence in June and October targeting Rohingya and other Muslim groups. The arrival of 73 Rohingya in Phuket province on January 1 was the first acknowledged interception that included women and children on board. Many more boats are expected to set sail from Burma in the coming months.

Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to seek asylum from persecution. While Thailand is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, under customary international law the Thai government has an obligation of “nonrefoulement” – not to return anyone to a place where their life or freedom would be at risk.

The Thai government should ensure that its laws and procedures recognize the protection needs of ethnic Rohingya, Human Rights Watch said. UNHCR has the technical expertise to screen for refugee status and the mandate to protect refugees and stateless people. Effective UNHCR screening of all boat arrivals would help the Thai government determine who is entitled to refugee status.

“Refugee screening is crucial for protecting Rohingya asylum seekers, and the Thai government should allow this critical process,” Adams said. “Until UNHCR is allowed to conduct refugee screening, the Thai government should halt forcible returns of Rohingya boat people.”
(Photo - Phuket Wan)

Saudi Gazette
January 3, 2012

THEY are inconvenient They are costly. They are troublesome. Thus most countries would rather that they had not come in the first place. 

Nevertheless, refugees are a fact of life. They have been fleeing from the terrors of conflict throughout history.

Turkey and Jordan could have done without the hundreds of thousands of Syrians who have fled across their borders and taken refuge with them. Yet both Ankara and Amman have done the decent thing. Initially from their own resources, both countries set up camps and diverted food, water and medicine to care for the growing populations of these tent cities. Turkey, with its long experience of earthquakes, diverted a large number of its emergency stores of tents and supplies to deal with the increasing refugee flow.

Arab states, not least the Kingdom, have since joined with other members of the international community to bring a longer-lasting flow of assistance to the occupants of these canvas cities now having to endure the cold and wet of an unpleasant winter. This worldwide effort to support and sustain these hundreds of thousands of miserable unfortunates would not have been possible without the original foundations provided by Jordan and Turkey who responded quickly to the desperation of helpless people.

Now compare this with the behavior on Tuesday of the Thai authorities when they intercepted a boat off the resort town of Phuket. In the vessel were 73 Rohingya Muslim refugees, the majority of them women and children, who had been at sea for 13 days. They said they had run out of food and water and had been hoping to reach Malaysia. The Thais fed these luckless souls and then announced that they would be deported overland to Burma. The boat’s passengers can expect little in the way of welcome from the Burmese authorities. What money and precious items they may have been able to keep while in Thai detention will almost certainly be taken from them on their return to the country from which they have fled.

This is by no means the first time that Thailand has acted in breach of its international obligations toward Rohingya refugees. Human Rights Watch claims that hundreds of fleeing Burmese Muslims have perished because of Thai actions. HRW says that Bangkok should be holding all refugees in humane detention until officials from the UN refugee agency, UNRA, can establish the legitimacy of their status. Economic migrants can be returned to their country of origin. Those fleeing for their lives, cannot.

HRW has told the Thais that it is perfectly clear that political violence, communal conflicts and serious human rights violations in the Rohingya’s home state of Arakan are set to create a flood of genuine refugees. It has called on Thailand and other neighboring states to which these helpless people are likely to flee to quickly develop a coordinated policy that will reflect their international obligations toward refugees.

The Thais, of course, do not want to accommodate a refugee exodus any more than the Jordanians and Turks were eager to have desperate Syrians fleeing across their borders. But Turkey and Jordan stepped up to the plate and met their obligations, not simply under international law, but out of common humanity. The Thais may protest that at least they fed and watered the passengers on the boat they intercepted. Given their determination to send them back to an extremely uncertain fate in Burma, some might wonder why they bothered.

Dr. Habib Siddiqui

[Author’s Note: Keynote speech delivered at the International Conference on “Contemplating Burma’s Rohingya People’s Future in Reconciliation and (Democratic) Reform,” held on August 15, 2012 at the Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand] 

As a conscientious global citizen of our planet, I have been writing for the past 32 years since my days as a university student on a plethora of issues, which include history, culture and civilization of the peoples of the South Asia and the Middle East. I have also studied and written on international politics, human rights and terrorism. In my decades of studies I have not found a people that are more persecuted than the Rohingyas of Myanmar, or what used to be called Burma. 

It is, therefore, necessary that we learn of this greatest tragedy of our time so that we can work towards finding a lasting solution to it. On a personal level, I consider it to be a privilege to be able to speak on the plight of this persecuted people in front of an audience that care and want to stop their misery. I take this opportunity to thank the organizers, esp. Mrs. Chalida Tajaroensuk (People’s Empowerment Foundation), Mr. Salim Ullah (JARO or Arakan Rohingya Organization-Japan) and Mr. Anwar Burmi (Rohingya National Organization in Thailand) for inviting me to this international conference.

Read more by downloading the PDF on Scribd.

The Rohingya Problem - Why and How to Move Forward by Dr. Habib Siddiqui


The BBC's Jonah Fisher on the video, shot by aid group Free Burma Rangers


BBC News
January 2, 2013

Military aircraft have been targeting rebel areas in Burma's northern Kachin state over the last five days, video obtained by the BBC shows. 

The footage, shot by the humanitarian group Free Burma Rangers, shows attack helicopters firing on the ground and jets flying close to the trenches of the rebel Kachin Independence Army. 

A government official said the army had not informed them of any air attacks. 

Fighting with the Kachin rebels resumed in 2011, after a 17-year truce. 

The presence of jets and attack helicopters in recent days was also confirmed by witnesses in the area. 

It is not clear how many casualties have been caused by five days of air attacks. Many of the people who live in the conflict areas have already fled into camps, both in Kachin and across the border in China. 

Asked to comment on the video, the director of the president's office, Zaw Htay, said the situation was complex, and that the military had told them they were only using planes to re-supply its troops. 

"The aircraft being used are K8 training aircraft not fighter jets - that is the information I got from the military," he said. 

"I have no information on the use of helicopters. There is a very difficult situation in Kachin state."

He added that they wanted to hold peace talks with the rebels as soon as possible. 

Beyond self-defence 

The aid group Free Burma Rangers provided the video footage
The witness accounts, along with the video footage, suggest that the army is going beyond Thein Sein's public instructions to only fight in self-defence, says the BBC's Jonah Fisher in Bangkok. 

At present, it appears that the military could be making preparations for a full-blown offensive on the rebel headquarters of Laiza, our correspondent adds. 

The Free Burma Rangers filmed the footage while in rebel trenches. 

The group describes itself as "a multi-ethnic humanitarian service movement", according to its website. The group works to provide aid in Burma's troubled border regions. 

An estimated 75,000 people have been displaced by fighting in resource-rich Kachin since the conflict re-started in 2011 after the end of a 17-year-old ceasefire between the rebels and the Burmese military. 

Despite appeals from the international aid community, the Burmese government has allowed only a handful of convoys to deliver supplies to those sheltering in rebel areas. 

Burma has seen a series of dramatic reforms since the nominally civilian government under Thein Sein came to power last year. 

But rights groups have also urged caution, pointing to violent unrest through 2012 in parts of the country like western Rakhine state, which has displaced more than a hundred thousand people.
(Rohingya Roundup in Burma)
Jack Lee

(Part of The Darkness Visible series)

In the 1930's Jews in Nazi occupied Europe were more than accustomed to hearing the call for their "papers". This demand was a way for Gestapo to identify their targets and place the Jews under police scrutiny. In the end this demand would lead to millions of Jews being rounded up and sent off to death camps. For these victims of the Holocaust the call for one's "papers" was a death sentence. 

Today in Burma the military Junta has gone about the call for Rohingya "papers" in a different way. For decades now the Rohingya have not been allowed to claim citizenship in Myanmar. They have however had to go to the local authorities and document their intent to travel, give birth, or even the death of a family member. The paper work that piles up documents the peril of being a Muslim Rohingya in a Buddhist dominated country. It also makes clear that the Rohingya have lived in Myanmar for generations all the way back to the start of the Burmese government. And for that the Burmese Junta must demand the papers of the Rohingya in a different manner than the Nazi Gestapo did in Germany. 

The official claim of the Myanmar government is that the Rohingya are "invaders" that came from Bangladesh. The proof that lay in the stacks of official Myanmar records tells the story differently. Thus the Burmese military and police have come up with a method to alter that past. Instead of relying upon the official paper work, Burmese officials are now relying upon testimony derived through torture and repressive tactics that put the victim in duress. 

Every since the first roundups in June of this year the Junta have used interrogations of helpless victims to force Rohingya to sign documents stating that they are Bengali. This forced testimony and signed document is then used to justify the deportations or the endless imprisonment that the victims now face. It also helps further the genocidal ambitions of ethnic cleansing that Myanmar is currently engaged in. 

In the last few weeks these methods have been ramped up. The victims are never heard from again. If they do not sign they do not get to see their families again. If they do not sign they are lost to the illegal prisons of the Burmese Junta. And if they do sign... they are deported or thrown back in prison. Their signature is simply used as a tool in the arsenal of the Burmese authorities. Their papers are used to justify the extreme measures taken by the Myanmar government to "end civil unrest". 

There is no way of telling for sure where the Rohingya victims of this tactic end up. Some activist have claimed that the Burmese government is simply exterminating those who will not sign. Though hard to believe, it is plausible when one thinks back and looks at how the Burmese military willingly opened fire upon unarmed Rohingya fleeing the mobs. Others claim that the prisons in which they are held are nothing more than concentration camps in which starvation and disease is meant to kill through attrition. Once again, hard to imagine in this day in age... but very plausible when one looks at Burma's human rights record. 

We can not say with any certainty how many Rohingya have been killed in Burma as of today. We can say, however, that the Rohingya in Myanmar now face total annihilation by the Burmese government. Through tactics like this one mentioned here the Myanmar government is pushing for the removal or complete extermination of the Rohingya. The government of Burma is receiving absolutely no pressure from the outside world to end their campaign of genocide. And without that pressure, the million plus Rohingya face certain death.
(Photo - Phuket Wan)

VOA News
January 2, 2013

Thai authorities say a boat-load of Rohingya Muslim refugees allegedly fleeing sectarian violence and persecution in western Burma must be sent back to their homeland.

The 73 migrants, including women and children, were found drifiting in a small, overcrowded boat off the Thai resort town of Phuket, well short of their final destination of Malaysia.

Thai authorities intercepted the boat, which had been at sea for 13 days, and provided the refugees with food and supplies on Tuesday. But local media reported Wednesday they have been arrested and ordered to return to Burma by land.

Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, says that Thailand should suspend any plan to deport the refugees until the United Nations refugee agency has a chance to determine whether they have legitimate claims for protection.

He says Thai authorities, who are reluctant to absorb migrant workers from neighboring countries, must come up with a better policy for dealing with boat people.

"For the first time, Thai authorities have intercepted a boat, filled up not with young Rohingya men seeking work in Malaysia, but families with young children and women," Sunai said. "They are traveling together claiming they are escaping persecution, human rights violations, and violence in their homeland."

Thai authorities do not accept boat people, but instead give them supplies to continue their often dangerous journeys to their final destination.

The result is often deadly. In 2008 and 2009, hundreds of Muslim Rohingya refugees are believed to have died after being turned away by Thailand.

Sunai says the problem is not going away, and that Thailand and other Southeast Asian nations must come up with a new policy to provide protection in coordination with U.N. agencies.

"We want Thailand to come up with a clear policy that recognizes Thailand's international obligations to protect asylum seekers and refugees," he said. "And in this case it is very clear that political violence, communal conflicts and human rights violations in Burma's Arakan state are getting worse and worse, and we expect there will be more Rohingya families traveling by sea in order to seek refuge in Southeast Asia."

The latest group of asylum seekers say there were headed for Malaysia, which has become a common destination for Rohingya refugees. On Sunday, about 450 Rohingya landed in Malaysia after a boat journey that left one person dead.

Rohingya are fleeing Burma's western Rakhine, or Arakan, state, where an outbreak of violence in recent months has killed dozens and displaced hundreds of thousands.

Rights groups accuse Burma's government of systematic persecution against members of the ethnic group, who are considered to be illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.

Press TV
December 31, 2012

Thousands of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar have fled the country, with many taking incredible risks to reach Australia, to avoid religious persecution, Press TV reports.

Myanmar’s government refuses to recognize Rohingya Muslims as citizens and labels the minority of about 800,000 as “illegal” immigrants. 

The persecuted minority have faced torture, neglect, and repression in Myanmar since it achieved independence in 1948. 
Saeed Kazim, a Rohingya Muslim who fled to Australia, told Press TV on Monday, “The Burmese military came and arrested me. They took me to a military camp. They really tortured me. They beat me.”
On December 25, the United Nations General Assembly issued a resolution expressing concern over the persecution of Muslims in Myanmar. The resolution called on Myanmar’s government to “protect all their (Muslims) human rights, including their right to a nationality.” 

The UN resolution also stated that there are “systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms” in Myanmar. 

Hundreds of Rohingyas are believed to have been killed and thousands displaced in attacks by the Buddhist extremists. The assaults have been mainly carried out in the western state of Rakhine. 

Myanmar’s army forces have reportedly provided the extremists with containers of petrol for torching the houses of Muslim villagers. 

Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader in Myanmar, has come under fire for her stance on the ethnic violence. The Nobel Peace laureate has refused to censure Myanmar’s military for its persecution of the Rohingyas. 

Rohingya Muslims are said to be descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan origins, who immigrated to Myanmar as early as the 8th century.

Myanmar people of Rohingya ethnicity who are living in Malaysia, display placards during a rally (Photo - Reuters)

G.C. TAN
The Star Online
January 1, 2012

LANGKAWI: Another 30 illegal immigrants have been rounded up, bringing the total of detained Myanmar nationals, who attempted a mass entry into Malaysia, to 481.

The 30, including their boat's captain, were nabbed within 500m of the spot where most of them landed in Burau Bay here.

Police believe there were still more than 10 people from the group in hiding.

In the attempt at about 1.30pm on Sunday, about 500 Myanmar nationals, some as young as seven, were forced to jump off a boat and swim 500m to shore.

One was found dead and two others were very weak and were rushed to hospital. Police found 449 others stranded on the beach, worn out from the tiring swim.

Most of those rounded up were men. There were 13 women, seven boys and three girls.

A girl from the group was also sent to hospital but all three were later discharged.

Late on Sunday evening, 14 more were caught. Another eight were nabbed yesterday morning while the captain and seven other men were detained at Kuala Teriang about 4pm yesterday.

Together with the eight arrested yesterday morning, they were all handed over to the Langkawi Immigration Department and left Langkawi for the immigration detention camps or depots nationwide by 11am yesterday.

The body of the Myanmar, who was killed after he was hit by the boat's propellers when he jumped into sea, was buried at a Muslim cemetery in Langkawi yesterday.

According to a witness at the scene, the immigrants jumped from a 30m wooden boat.

“One of the Myanmar nationals said they had sailed from Myanmar for 12 days after paying the agent US$300 (RM900) per person.

“The agent did not tell them where they were heading. They were ordered to jump into the sea when the boat was near the shore. They starved for five days,” said the witness.

Resort worker Azizan Ramli said some of the survivors approached him for water, adding: “They even drank from the plant pots.”
Children enjoy snacks off Phuket after 13 days at sea in an open boat (Photo - Phuket Wan)
Alan Morison & Chutima Sidasathian
Phuket Wan
January 1, 2013

PHUKET: A boatload of Rohingya - including women and children as young as three - was intercepted off the holiday island of Phuket in Thailand today.

The leader of the group of 74 told Phuketwan through an interpreter: ''Our families put to sea because there is no hope in Burma. If we stay, we will die.''

Previously, only men and boys among the persecuted Muslim minority put to sea. The family homes of thousands of Rohingya have been torched so the women and children now are also making the perilous voyages south in open boats. 

Organisations connected with the Rohingya expect more than 20,000 will put to sea and voyage past Phuket this ''sailing season'' between October and April.

It was disturbing to see young children among the passengers in the exposed open boat today. Hands reached out eagerly for food and cigarettes.

Phuketwan rented a tourist speedboat and was able to interview the group of 74 alongside their boat as Royal Thai Navy ratings replenished their fuel and supplies. 

Under Thailand's ''help on'' policy, the group will be told they cannot land but have been given assistance to reach their preferred destination, Malaysia. 

Mohamad, 45, told us: ''We were heading south with a much larger boat but we ran out of fuel so we had to stop here.''

The larger boat is believed to be the vessel that recently dropped about 500 passengers off the holiday island of Langkawi in Malaysia, with one man dying when struck by a propeller.

Off the southern Phuket holiday island destination of Rawai this morning, we reached the Rohingya boat in about five minutes. 

Rawai is a popular setting off point for tourist visitors who would have been exploring reefs and other island beaches today without realising the epic human drama of the boatpeople was just metres away. 

Of the 74 people crowded into the open boat, said Mohamad, 10 were children under the age of 10. There were three three-year-olds, two boys and a girl. 

Forteen women on board looked to Phuketwan to be mostly young teenagers.

The children keenly chewed on snacks given to them by local Chalong police and some of the men enjoyed cigarettes. 

The hold below the open deck is also packed with people. Mohamad said they had been sailing for 13 days, departing from Maungtaw, in Rakhine state, where so-called ''community violence'' has caused death and destruction since June. 

Mohamad said the fee asked by the people smuggler was 400,000 kyat per person.

Phuketwan has been covering the Rohingya saga since 2008 but this is the first time we've been able to intercept a group at sea. 

Other boatloads have landed on Phuket and along the Andaman coast from time to time. 

Usually they are described as ''Burmese'' - although the Rohingya are denied citizenship in Burma - and trucked straight back to the Thai-Burmese border. 

The children waved to us as the speedboat pulled away to head back to Phuket. 

Once they are ready and fully refuelled, the Rohingya's ''holiday'' off Phuket will be at an end.

Burma denies genocide against the Rohingya, who are hated by virtually all of Burma's Buddhist majority. 

But most observers accept that a tactictly approved policy of ethnic cleansing is now forcing thousands of them to flee their homeland any way they can.
Matali 
RB News
30.12.2012 

(Translated into English by M.S. Anwar) 

There are so many students, in Maung Daw District, who passed the University Entrance Examination in 2012 with outstanding 3-4 distinctions and other flying colors. They applied for their respective interested courses for their tertiary education as per their examination results. According to the reports coming out, the announcement list and offers for their tertiary education had come out but none of the outstanding Rohingya students were offered the professional courses they deserve and applied for but offered those ordinary courses which they did not apply for. 

Once upon a time, Rohingya students used to get opportunities to study their university education in the fields of their interests with no discriminations. However, from 2001 onwards, the Burmese ultranationalist dictatorship government and the current pseudo-civilian fascist government of Burma have been discriminatorily seizing all the opportunities of higher education of the outstanding Rohingya students. As a result, the lives of these stupendous students ruin and sometimes they meet their untimely demises. 

“My son passed University Entrance Examination with three distinctions in 2004. He was offered no course for his university study even after one year of his application and eventually he got into depression and left his home for Malaysia. Nevertheless, unfortunately, their engine boat sank in the Bay of Bengal on its way to Malaysia and I lost my son” said to RB News by his mourning mother from Maung Daw. 

“A younger brother of mine passed his university entrance examination with four distinctions in 2008. He was not offered any of the professional courses he deserved. As a result, he got into depression and is mentally sick now” said an extremely anxious man from Buthidaung. 

“My son got three distinctions in the entrance examination in 2012. Since he achieved good grades, he applied for any of five professional courses of his interests. Shockingly, he was offered none of the courses he had applied for but Mathematics, a subject he had not applied for, was offered to him. Being a hardworking student with ambition, he is now extremely depressed and trying to commit suicide. The hearts of us, parents, bleed when we look at his situation” said a man from Buthidaung. 

In 1988, a Rakhine (Magh) extremist group called “Maung Daw AmmyoTha SaungChauk Ye Apphwe” (loosely translated into English as “Organization to Protect the National in Maung Daw”) demanded the then newly formed government by coup d’état to ban Rohingya Students from joining the universities for professional studies. The former dictator and ultranationalist general Khin Nyunt fulfilled the malicious wish of Rakhine (Magh) extremists by directing the Department for Higher Education not to give any Rohingya student from Maung Daw district admission to the Universities with Professional Studies. This is one of the many Ethnic Cleansing Policies of Myanmar’s Nazi Government implementing against Rohingyas. Such policies are still being implemented against Rohingyas by the President, U Thein Sein, who claims for Democratic Changes and Respects for Human Rights. Even though Rohingyas pleaded the government of U Thein Sein to stop such human rights violations, he is still continuing the violations. Such continuous violation of their human rights is clearly contradicting the recent statement of U Thein Sein “to Upgrade Rohingyas’ Education.” Thein Sein has proven that he is nothing an oxymoron and sociopath. 

[(Please Note: 

Maung Daw district consisting Maung Daw Tsp and Buthidaung Tsp can be called one of the most undeveloped and backward areas in Burma. There are no ample number of schools, good teachers, necessary study materials such as books, computers, internet services and so forth. 

Therefore, even merely passing the university entrance examinations in this area is not an easy task. 

And let me tell you that I was one of the victims of the same Institutional Discrimination on Education of Rohingyas. There are countless similar tragedies. 

I have deleted some writings of the original writer and added some new in order to adjust the article and make it easily understandable in English.) 

By Translator]


    • Rohingya Exodus