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Human Rights Watch

Burma’s human rights situation remained poor in 2012 despite noteworthy actions by the government toward political reform. In April, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party won 43 of 44 seats it contested in a parliamentary by-election; the parliament consists of 224 seats in the upper house and 440 in the lower house, the majority of which remain under the control of military representatives or former military officers. 

President Thein Sein welcomed back exiles during the year, and released nearly 400 political prisoners in five general prisoner amnesties, although several hundred are believed to remain in prison. Freed political prisoners face persecution, including restrictions on travel and education, and lack adequate psychosocial support. Activists who peacefully demonstrated in Rangoon in September have been charged with offenses. In August 2012, the government abolished pre-publication censorship of media and relaxed other media restrictions, but restrictive guidelines for journalists and many other laws historically used to imprison dissidents and repress rights such as freedom of expression remain in place. 

Armed conflict between the Burmese government and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) continued in Kachin State in the north, where tens of thousands of civilians remain displaced. The government has effectively denied humanitarian aid to the displaced Kachin civilians in KIA territory. In conflict areas in Kachin and Shan States, the Burmese military carried out extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, torture, forced labor, and deliberate attacks on civilian areas, all which continue with impunity. Ceasefire agreements in ethnic conflict areas of eastern Burma remain tenuous. 

Deadly sectarian violence erupted in Arakan State in June 2012 between ethnic Arakanese Buddhists and ethnic Rohingya Muslims, a long-persecuted stateless minority of approximately one million people. State security forces failed to protect either community, resulting in some 100,000 displaced, and then increasingly targeted Rohingya in killings, beatings, and mass arrests while obstructing humanitarian access to Rohingya areas and to camps of displaced Rohingya around the Arakan State capital, Sittwe. Sectarian violence broke out again in 9 of the state’s 17 townships in October, including in several townships that did not experience violence in June, resulting in an unknown number of deaths and injuries, the razing of entire Muslim villages, and the displacement of an additional 35,000 persons. Many of the displaced fled to areas surrounding Sittwe, where they also experienced abuses, such as beatings by state security forces. 

Despite serious ongoing abuses, foreign governments—including the United States and the United Kingdom—expressed unprecedented optimism about political reforms and rapidly eased or lifted sanctions against Burma, while still condemning the abuses and violence. 

Limited Political Change and Ongoing Abuses 

Burma’s national parliament and 14 regional and state assemblies completed a first full year in operation in 2012 since the formal end of military rule. Former military generals hold most senior ministerial portfolios and serving generals are constitutionally guaranteed the posts of ministers of defense, home affairs, and border affairs security. Many former military officers hold important positions in the ruling military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party. 

Two new laws passed in 2012 related to land use fail to adequately protect farmers’ rights. A new law on peaceful assembly—signed in December 2011 and hailed as a reform by Western governments—fails to meet international standards, providing for imprisonment for permit violations, and requiring that protest slogans be pre-approved. 

Thirteen activists in Rangoon faced charges for failing to get permission for a demonstration held peacefully in September to oppose the armed conflict in Kachin State. Other laws that have been used to imprison peaceful activists, lawyers, and journalists remain on the books, including, among others, the Unlawful Associations Act, the Electronics Act, the State Protection Act, and the Emergency Provisions Act. 

Media freedoms improved in 2012 but remain highly restricted. In August, the government abolished pre-publication censorship that had been in place nearly 50 years but retained 16 guidelines restricting publication of articles critical of the government or related to corruption, illicit drugs, forced labor, and child soldiers. Editors continue to self-censor out of concern for arrest and hesitate to publish stories regarding government abuses. 

The National Human Rights Commission, created in September 2011, continued to disappoint in 2012. The commission exists by executive order and lacks independence from the government, contrary to the Paris Principles—minimum standards endorsed by the UN on the functioning of national human rights commissions. Statements from Burma’s commission on Kachin and Arakan States failed to mention any abuses by the state security forces, or government-imposed restrictions on delivering humanitarian aid to tens of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs). 

After spending a total of 15 years under house arrest since 1989, and otherwise facing travel restrictions, Aung San Suu Kyi’s right to travel domestically and internationally was restored, and she traveled to five European countries in June, including Oslo to accept her 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. In September she travelled to the US where she accepted the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights, awarded in 2008 while she was under house arrest. 

However, other former political prisoners continue to face persecution, including restrictions on travel and education. The Ministry of Home Affairs refused to issue passports to many former political prisoners, including democracy and human rights activists, public interest lawyers, and journalists, preventing them from traveling abroad. 

While parliament in 2012 appointed a commission to investigate land confiscation, the practice continues throughout the country. Farmers lose their land to private and state interests and in some cases are effectively forced to work as day laborers on their own land. Numerous disputes about land confiscations under the prior military juntas remain largely unresolved. 

Forced labor continued in various parts of the country despite the government’s commitment to end the practice by 2015 in an action plan agreed to with the International Labour Organization (ILO). The army continued to have child soldiers in its ranks, but in June, signed an action plan with the United Nations to halt further recruitment of children and demobilize and reintegrate those already in the army within 18 months. Several non-state armed groups continue to use and recruit child soldiers and the government continues to prevent UN agencies from accessing ethnic areas controlled by non-state armed groups to focus on demobilization and reintegration of child soldiers. 

Ethnic Conflict and Displacement 

Fighting slowed between government forces and most ethnic armed groups in eastern Burma as negotiations on tenuous ceasefires continued. In northern Burma, however, fighting continued between the Burmese armed forces and the KIA. 

The Burmese military continues to engage in extrajudicial killings, attacks on civilians, forced labor, torture, pillage, and use of antipersonnel landmines. Sexual violence against women and girls remains a serious problem, and perpetrators are rarely brought to justice. The KIA and some other ethnic armed groups have also committed serious abuses, such as using child soldiers and antipersonnel landmines. 

Internally displaced Kachin swelled to an estimated 90,000 in 2012, and the government continued to prevent international nongovernmental organizations and UN agencies access to IDP camps in KIA-held territory to provide humanitarian assistance. Kachin fleeing to China to escape violence and persecution were not welcome. Several thousand Kachin refugees temporarily in Yunnan province in southwest China lacked adequate aid and protection. In August, China forced back more than 4,000 Kachin to conflict zones in northern Burma. 

More than 550,000 people remain internally displaced in Burma, including 400,000 due to decades of conflict in eastern Burma. There are an additional 140,000 refugees in camps in Thailand and several million Burmese migrant workers and unrecognized asylum seekers who suffer due to inadequate and ad hoc Thai policies causing refugees to be exploited and unnecessarily detained and deported. 

Some 30,000 ethnic Rohingya refugees live in an official camp in Bangladesh and another 200,000 live in makeshift settlements or surrounding areas. Bangladeshi authorities ordered three international aid agencies to close humanitarian operations for Rohingya refugee camps and pushed back thousands of Rohingya asylum seekers to Burma in 2012. 

Sectarian Violence and Ensuing Abuses 

Burmese security forces committed killings, rape, and mass arrests against Rohingya Muslims after failing to protect both them and Arakanese Buddhists during deadly sectarian violence in western Burma in June 2012. Over 100,000 people were displaced by widespread abuses and arson. State security forces failed to intervene to stop the sectarian violence at key moments, including the massacre of 10 Muslim travelers in Toungop that was one of several events that precipitated the outbreak. State media published incendiary anti-Rohingya and anti-Muslim accounts of the events, fueling discrimination and hate speech in print media and online across the country. 

Violence erupted again in late October in 9 of the state’s 17 townships, with coordinated violence and arson attacks by Arakanese against Rohingya and Kaman Muslims—a government-recognized nationality group, unlike the Rohingya. In some cases violence was carried out with the support and direct involvement of state security forces and local officials, including killings, beatings, and burning of Muslim villages, displacing an additional 35,000 Rohingya and non-Rohingya Muslims. 

Government restrictions on humanitarian access to the Rohingya community have left tens of thousands in dire need of food, adequate shelter, and medical care. The authorities indefinitely suspended nearly all pre-crisis humanitarian aid programs, affecting hundreds of thousands more Rohingya who were otherwise unaffected by the violence and abuse.

Local security forces detained hundreds of Rohingya men and boys—primarily in northern Arakan State—and held them incommunicado without basic due process rights. UN and international NGO staff were among the arrested and charged. Many remain detained at this writing. 

The Rohingya number approximately one million in Burma and were effectively stripped of their citizenship in 1982 through the discriminatory Citizenship Law. There has been little political will to repeal the law due to widespread prejudice against Rohingya, including by prominent pro-democracy figures. The government has long restricted their rights to freedom of movement, education, and employment. 

President Thein Sein suggested in July that the Rohingya be expelled from Burma to “third countries” or to camps overseen by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He later appointed a 27-member commission to investigate the violence in Arakan State and make recommendations, but failed to include a Rohingya representative on the panel. 

Key International Actors 

In 2012, foreign governments expressed unprecedented optimism about Burma’s political changes, despite evidence of ongoing human rights abuses. In April, the European Union suspended all of its sanctions for one year, enabling investment by European companies and lifting travel and visa bans on nearly 500 people, but retained an arms embargo. 

In July, the United States eased sanctions to allow American companies to invest in all sectors of Burma’s economy, including the controversial and opaque oil and gas sector. The US maintained targeted sanctions against some Burmese military officers and companies they control, and appointed its first ambassador to Burma in 22 years. 

Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur on Burma, conducted his sixth visit in late July and early August, expressing concern over alleged abuses in Arakan State and calling for a credible investigation and a review of the 1982 Citizenship Law, which he said discriminates against Rohingya. He also voiced concern about ongoing abuses in Kachin State and the need to release remaining political prisoners. 

Several high-profile visits to Burma in 2012 were ostensibly aimed to show support for ongoing changes, including visits in November by US President Barack Obama—the first by a sitting US president—in April by British Prime Minister David Cameron, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. President Obama gave a historic speech at Rangoon University raising human rights concerns, including the military’s role in parliament, ethnic conflicts, national reconciliation, and abuses against Rohingya Muslims. Other high-profile visits were explicitly more economically motivated, including visits in May by India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and in September by China’s top legislator, Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress. 

Others expressed concerns for the plight of Burma’s Rohingya Muslims, including visits by Turkey’s foreign minister and a high-level delegation from the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which in September reached an agreement with the Burmese government to open an office in the country to facilitate delivery of humanitarian aid in Arakan State. President Thein Sein terminated the agreement in October following several protests in Sittwe, Mandalay, and Rangoon led by anti-Rohingya Buddhist monks opposing the OIC’s involvement in the issue. 

Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) continue to invest in and trade extensively with Burma, especially in the extractive and hydropower industries. Burma continued to earn billions of US dollars in natural gas sales to Thailand, little of which is directed into social services such as health care and education. Gas dollars will increase markedly when a gas pipeline from Arakan State to Yunnan in China is operational in 2013. Work continues on that project, which passes through northern Shan State where the Burmese army has moved in to secure territory and where armed conflict has led to abuses such as torture, forced labor, and forced displacement of Kachin and Shan. 

Russia, China, and North Korea continued to sell arms to Burma in 2012, and there are concerns that North Korean sales breached UN Security Council punitive sanctions on North Korea passed in 2006 and 2009. In May, Thein Sein assured South Korean President Lee Myun-bak that his government would cease buying weapons from North Korea. 
A Muslim Rohingya woman sits outside her temperary shelter at a village in Minpyar in Rakhine state on October 28, 2012. (Photo - AFP)
Mashiur Rahaman
The Express Tribune
January 31, 2013

BANGLADESH / COX’S BAZAR: Eight-year-old Shariful Alam has a growth in his neck and chest. Partially paralyzed, he has been unable to leave the makeshift shelter his eight-member family has called home for the last four months. Paramedics recommend that he be taken to a hospital but Alam’s family is one of the thousands of unregistered Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh who are not allowed to leave the camps they live in.

“This is the second time a tumor has popped up,” Abu Bakar, Alam’s father, said to The Express Tribune. Alam was treated in Yangon, Myanmar’s capital, the last time this happened. “I can arrange money [unlike most Rohingya refugees] but the police will arrest me if I try to take my son to the hospital.”

The family was one of the last refugee families to arrive at the camp at Madham Charpara, a village located some 52km east of Cox’s Bazaar. About 8,000 unregistered refugees live here.

Ethnic riots in Rakhine in Myanmar forced Rohingyas to cross the border into Bangladesh in 2012. Most of the residents here in Madham Charpara are unregistered Rohingyas who managed to flee Myanmar with great difficulty, and with almost nothing but their lives.

Since 1992 the Bangladeshi government has denied permission to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to register Rohingya refugees. They are still considered illegal migrants and are not entitled to food, healthcare or education provided by the UNHCR and its partner organisations.

With no resources of their own and no help from the state, the refugees are faced with enormous hardships.

According to a survey conducted by Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders), 40% of deaths in unregistered camps are caused by diarrhea. There is only one toilet for every ten families.

“The unhygienic life these refugees are leading here is the main cause of their illnesses,” said Professor Pran Gopal Datta, vice chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.

“When someone is exposed to such extreme contamination, even minor cuts and bruises can develop life-threatening infections.”

Sixteen-year-old Belal has lost sight in one eye due to an infection he contracted at the camp. No access to proper treatment or even basic healthcare has increased his chances of losing his eyesight completely. Emran Hosain, 12, has an untreated fracture in his leg. His knee has swollen to twice its size.

There are many like Alam, Belal and Hosein in almost every unauthorised refugee camp in the Cox’s Bazaar and Teknaf districts.

“These cases are most likely going to be lethal or could cause irreversible physical damage if not treated at the earliest,” Professor Datta said after going through photographs of Alam, Belal and Hosein.

“This is sheer inhuman treatment,” said Bill Frelick, director of Human Rights Watch’s refugee programme in Bangladesh. He added that unregistered refugees cannot get healthcare facilities outside their camps, and the aid agencies with better medical treatments are not allowed to reach them either.

In late July 2012, the Bangladesh government ordered three international aid organisations—MSF, Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger) and Muslim Aid – to cease assistance to Rohingya refugees living outside registered UNHCR camps.

“This is a cruel policy,” remarked Frelick, strongly urging the Bangladeshi government to let aid organisations provide life-saving help to these unregistered refugees. “It is creating an even worse situation than what these people have escaped from.”
(Photo - Kritsada Mueanhawong/Phuket Gazette)
Bangkok Post
January 31, 2013

Authorities raided a camp in a rubber plantation in Songkhla's Hat Yai district where about 200 illegal Royingya migrants were reported to be hiding on Thursday morning, but found it had been abandoned shortly before they arrived, reports said. 

The camp was located in a rubber plantation near Ban Chalung in tambon Chalung of Hat Yai district. 

It is believed the Rohingya were moved out of the camp by the smugglers only a few hours before the raid. 

The raiding team was led by Hat Yai district chief Seri Panichkul, Pol Maj Itthipol Promduang, director of the Department of Special Investigation's (DSI) operations centre for the southern border provinces, and Pol Lt-Col Piyavich Kraipanuch, secretary of the Central Institute of Forensic Science (CIFS). 

Pol Maj Itthipol said the camp was located on a rai of land near a canal. There were four temporary shelters built with plastic sheets, and a kitchen with utensils, gas stoves and rice left in it. 

There were also two temporary toilets and five hammocks hung around the perimeter of the camp. 

Pol Maj Itthipol said the raid was carried out on information obtained from other Rohingya migrants who were rescued from a camp near the Thai-Malaysian border.
(Photo - Kritsada Mueanhawong/Phuket Gazette)
The Nation
January 31, 2013

The National Security Council (NSC) on Thursday insisted that Thailand would not set up a refugee camp for Rohingyas who had fled violence in Myanmar and arrived in Thailand's southern provinces. 

NSC secretary general Lt Gen Paradorn Pattanathabutr said that 1,400 Rohingyas are currently detained in various southern provinces after illegally entering the country.

According to the Thai immigration laws, the country would detain them for no longer than six months, he said. The country would assist them in humanitarian terms and would allow them to stay here on a temporary basis.

"We will neither upgrade the problem to international level nor open refugee camps to accommodate them," he said.

"We have a clear position to help them on a humanitarian basis. As for the Rohingyas found on board boats in the sea, we will provide them with water and food but we will not allow them to enter Thai territory," he said.

Paradon said Thailand is not a target of Rohingyas, adding that their destination is Malaysia. "The Thai authorities have already talked and asked cooperation from Malaysia. We would like the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to help us talk to Malaysia," he said.

The Rohingyas are fleeing sectarian violence and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
(Photo - Kritsada Mueanhawong)

Phuket Gazette
January 31, 2013

PHUKET: A newborn baby just eight days old was among the boatload of Rohingya refugees who made landfall yesterday in the Surin Islands archipelago, in Phang Nga province, to the north of Phuket.

As the boat landed, local people brought food and drinks to the refugees, Khura Buri District Chief Manit Pianthong said.

An estimated 110 refugees were on the boat, among them 69 men, 20 women, and 21 children.
(Photo - Kritsada Mueanhawong)
“Two of the women were pregnant and 11 of the men were sick,” said Chief Manit.

The newborn baby had skin problems and was taken to Khura Buri Hospital.

The refugees are currently being accommodated at the Khura Buri Shelter, but Chief Manit pleaded for help.

“More than 500 Rohingya have arrived in Phang Nga in just one month. We cannot accommodate them, and have to move them to other areas.

“We need the support and help of the government to solve this problem,” he explained.
(Photo - Getty Images)
Oman Daily Observer
January 30, 2013

MUSCAT — Omani representatives along with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), world’s top Islamic body, have visited Myanmar’s Rakhine state several times to survey the fallout from deadly attacks on Rohingya Muslims.

“Oman has great concerns” about the humanitarian situation in Rakhine, Oman Charitable Organisation (OCO) chief Ali bin Ibrahim al Raisi, told the Observer in an exclusive interview.

Oman along with the OIC has agreed to provide development projects in the Rakhine state and not just humanitarian aid. The OIC is mobilising efforts to put in place a Special Fund for reconstruction and rehabilitation of Rakhine State.

During a recent OIC fact-finding mission to Myanmar, the OIC signed a memorandum of co-operation with Myanmar to establish a Humanitarian Affairs Office.

“Once OIC starts working in Myanmar, the OCO will launch a campaign in the Sultanate for involving the public in raising funds for Rohingyas,” said Al Raisi.

“Oman is keen to build houses in Myanmar and to invest in sectors such as manufacturing and agriculture so as to generate jobs for the people,” he added.

As part of the OIC, Oman has been in talks with the Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. She has promised to co-operate with the OIC. All Islamic countries are keen to launch programmes in Myanmar for the oppressed Rohingyas, he added.

At a summit in Mecca, the 57-member OIC condemned “the continued recourse to violence by the Myanmar authorities against the Rohingya minority and their refusal to recognise their right to citizenship”. Myanmar in August agreed to allow the OIC to provide aid to the region, on the condition it agreed to assist all communities in the area.

The OIC is keen to increase economic co-operation with Myanmar to help generate greater opportunities for its younger generations. Suu Kyi said that Myanmar badly needs investment in manufacturing sector as many young people in her country are without jobs.
Oman along with the OIC has condemned the killing of Rohingyas in Myanmar and announced that OCO is ready and keen to work in the Rakhine state to help improve its humanitarian situation, added Ali al Raisi.

The OIC has said Rohingyas face ‘genocide’ in Rakhine as violence against the ethnic minority rages on. The UN said recently more than 22,000 Rohingyas have been displaced in western Myanmar. The UN has described the “Rohingya community as the Palestine of Asia and one of the most persecuted minorities in the world”.

Human Rights Watch has released satellite images showing “extensive destruction of homes and other property in the predominantly Rohingya area”.

Myanmar’s estimated one million Rohingyas are officially stateless, and regarded by the government of Myanmar as illegal immigrants, rather than one of its 135 official ethnic groups.
Last year on December 25, the UN General Assembly issued a resolution expressing concern over the persecution of Rohingyas. The resolution called on Myanmar’s government to “protect all their (Rohingya minorities’) human rights, including their right to a nationality.”

The OCO along with the OIC team in its further visits to Myanmar would again assess the needs of humanitarian assistance for those affected by the violence in Rakhine state and co-ordinate with Myanmar authorities to develop a plan for the urgent provision of this assistance.

The OIC has built an alliance between the humanitarian organisations in the 57 member countries to undertake practical steps on the issue of Rohingya minority. The OCO is an active member of this alliance.

Experts say since Islam is the defender of the oppressed people, it is incumbent on all the 57 OIC members to take measures to help put an end to the mass murder of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar.
M.S. Anwar 
RB Article 
January 30, 2013

It was always on my mind to write an article on this topic. But I could not find enough courage in me. Normally, when we quote this saying “the survival of the fittest,” people automatically attribute it to Charles Darwin, the founder of Evolution Theory. But what people fail to realize is that it was not Darwin who first put it forward but he used the wild nature in some human beings to defeat the weaker ones, fights, battles or wars in human history to justify his own imaginary theory of evolution. So, we are free to use it even though we are non-evolution theorists. 

Fortunately, two recent things have prompted me and given me enough courage to write this article. Here are these two things: I recently happened to read a review by Ne Myo Win on RB and one of my seniors has used the same term in relating to what has been happening against Rohingyas and Kamans in Arakan, Burma. It has been moths that Rohingyas and Kamans have been being massacred, ousted from their houses, displaced, arbitrarily arrested, persecuted, boycotted and kept starved to death. Besides, their houses were burnt, their religious building locked down, women and under-age are being raped and their properties are looted on daily basis. In short, it is an out and out GENOCIDE of these ethnic people being carried both openly and silently.


Whatsoever, one cannot avoid thinking that Rohingyas and Kamans are being defeated and wiped out because they are weak and not the fittest. They have been struggling for their survival and can’t survive because they are not fitter than their oppressors are. So what to do to survive? They have to become stronger and the strongest than ever. In fact, human history is full of such incidents and tragedies, where innocent human beings were killed in mass and mercilessly. 

Rohingyas say and are the descendants of aboriginal Proto-Australoid Negritos and Indo-Aryans of Arakan, mixed with other people settled later. But who believe and care what they utter even though it is the truth? They are weak and not mighty. After all, Might is Right!! If you have Might, you have everything. You have mass media in your favor. They can turn Black into White and vice versa for you. People are ready to believe it and act upon this. Look around the world, you will find the same things. Rich and Mighty are getting Richer and Mightier. And the Poor and Weak are getting Poorer and Weaker. The blood of the poor is being sucked by the rich. Yet, we are forgetful and forgiving. Why? The same thing is happening with Rohingyas and Kamans whether you believe or not.


Some people have invaded an Indian land known today as Arakan centuries ago. And those invaders are accusing back the aborigines as the invaders. Yet, you believe! They have blindfolded the international community by portraying a state-sponsored GENOCIDE cooperated by Marauding and Sea-Pirates Maghs (Rakhines) as Sectarian or Communal Clashes. Yet, you believe! They have crying out to save them. But you don’t give a second look at them. You don’t give a damn care. Why? Instead, you suspect this world’s most persecuted people for the possible future links up with the insurgents in your country. That is indeed out of the wit of anyone with right mind! What will they do for their survival if you good people don’t give shelter to them? The self-declared human rights champions in the west are externally sympathizing them but doing nothing to solve their root problems? Because they know that they cannot benefit anything from these weak and dying people. Instead, some of them are sponsoring those who are killing these weak people. 

The world is full of self-centered hypocrites and they don’t have a sense of humanism. They portray something and do something else. That’s how the system of the world works. If you want to survive, you have to be fitter and stronger. There is no excuse for Rohingyas and Kamans either. The system of the world will not be changed for them. Rather, they need to follow the system of the world. They must not be naive and must come back stronger than any other people in Burma. But how will they do all these things to survive and get freedom.


As Ernesto Che Guevara rightly put it, “you don’t right to even believe that freedom can be won without a struggle.” What did he mean by STRUGGLE? People know him as a selfless revolutionary leader who sacrificed his life for the benefits of others. Obviously, he was not talking about the Diplomacy. In a recent review on RB, I was fascinated with the arguments (mentioned below in inverted commas) put forward by a person called Ne Myo Win. 

“Diplomacy bears no fruits without the back-ups of arm struggling. Why will Burmese Tyrannical Regime and Rakhine terrorists bother to sit down and have a talk with Rohingya leaders, the poison-less snakes? Why will they hesitate to root out these Rohingyas who, according to them, are influx viruses? ----Yet, it will not to be surprised, if Rohingyas take up arms no matter it is for their fight for survival, they will be branded as terrorists. It is a common misconception about Muslims whether they are extremists or not. Karen, Kachins, Rakhine and Shans, all, have been carrying out arm resistances for decades and they are freedom fighters. Indeed, they are fighting for their freedoms. But why can’t the same logic can be applied to Rohingyas or others? George Washington, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela were once branded as terrorists by the respective colonial governments. But what are their statuses now even though the former two passed away?” 

He was quite truly put his arguments. But it doesn’t mean that we don’t have to work to get solutions diplomatically. In fact, both arm-struggling and diplomacy are needed to get solutions to the grave humanitarian disasters being faced by Rohingyas and Kamans. It doesn’t matter what others think of you, terrorists or whatsoever. But what matters is being honest to your-selves. It is for your survival and only the fittest will survive. And remember “Might is always Right.” 

M.S. Anwar is an activist and Student in Malaysia. The writings here are of the author’s own and do not reflect the editorial policy of RB.

Suplak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation
January 30, 2013

The best place on earth to discuss the Rohingya issue is Myanmar - and it's timely to raise the issue with the authorities in Nay Pyi Taw now as they are in the process of seeking political reform for national reconciliation. And reform cannot take effect unless the Rohingya issue is addressed.Thailand alone, although receiving thousands of ethnic Rohingya annually, cannot solve the problem at the root without good cooperation in Myanmar. Arrest, detention, deportation - as Thailand is doing currently - will not help end the problem. Humanitarian assistance, if any, is just a temporary measure for survival but won't help them to have sustainable better lives.

Trafficking syndicates might take some blame, but they indeed are just facilitators to help the migrants get out of their place of origin and reach new homes.

The Rohingya issue is not new. Thailand arrests thousands of them annually as illegal migrants. News reports on illegal migrant Rohingya appear in the media around this time every year. Sometimes such reports provoke attention from the authorities and international community, but they will never lead to a permanent resolution to end their problem.

The Rohingya are leaving where they come from because they cannot live comfortably due to several disturbing factors: historical, cultural, religious, economic and political. People in Myanmar, who call them 'Bengali', rather than Rohingya, are debating the origins of these people. Many in Myanmar's Rakhine state, where the Rohingya mostly live, regard them as "foreign or alien" and feel very uncomfortable living with them. A series of major clashes between Rakhine and Rohingya people left a score of deaths last year. There are 135 registered ethnic groups in Myanmar but Rohingya are not included in the official list. The Myanmar elite used to recognise them as a part of the nation but there were several attempts during the dictatorial regime in the 1970s to delete them from the notion of state building and make them out as strangers. Some 200,000 Rohingya have taken refuge in Bangladesh since then.

They follow the Muslim faith, while the vast majority of the community is Buddhist. There is nothing wrong being Muslim in a predominantly Buddhist society, but that difference can stir up ethno-religious problems. Normal crime can easily develop into sectarian conflict, with two different religions never trusting each other, as happened in Rakhine State in June and October last year.

The clashes last year displaced at least 70,000 people who are currently living in 50 refugee camps scattered near Sittwe, Kyauktaw and Maungdaw townships in Rakhine State. The authorities are looking at places for permanent settlement for them, but such a plan raises concern among Rakhine people, as they fear they can't live peacefully with the Rohingya. They demanded a public hearing before any decision to resettle the Rohingya in any part of Rakhine State.

Politically, the ethnic Rohingya formed many organisations struggling for some certain degree of self-rule since 1947. The Rohingya political movements are not so strong, but have some voice to show they exist. The most active one these days is Arakan Rohingya National Organisation - ARNO - which tries to unite all ethnic Rohingya in the struggle.

Myanmar officials regard Rohingya political organisations as terrorists and have no peace plan for this ethnic group, although many other armed ethnic groups have drawn up truces.

To solve the Rohingya issue, all con?cerned parties in Myanmar need to readjust their basic attitude toward them first. The government needs to consider them as national citizens and look into the real root cause of the conflict they have with other groups, and with the state of Myanmar. Otherwise they will not cease taking refuge in other countries.

Bangkok Post
January 30, 2013

Nearly 350 illegal Rohingya migrants were found crammed inside two vessels entering Thai waters in southern Ranong and Phuket provinces on Tuesday.

In Ranong, a boat carrying about 140 Rohingya migrants was spotted floating about 5.5 kilometres off Phayam island in Muang district about 8.30am by a naval patrol boat.

Naval officers provided the illegal migrants with food and water, a source said. Humanitarian assistance was also provided to help them on the way to their destination.

The Rohingya had to be sent back out to sea as authorities were already struggling with an influx of illegal Muslim Rohingya migrants, the source said.

Several boats carrying Rohingya have illegally entered Thailand via this southern province on a daily basis. In some cases, the Rohingya sunk their own boats to prevent authorities from sending them back out to sea, the source said.

In Phuket, about 200 illegal Rohingya migrants were found crammed inside a vessel searched by marine police and naval officers off Racha Noi island in Muang district Tuesday.

The boat was initially spotted floating between Racha Yai and Racha Noi islands by fishermen on Monday. They provided the migrants with food and water and told the authorities.

They suggested the boat people land on Racha Noi, Phuket's southernmost island, because it was uninhabited. Some of the migrants camped on the island overnight, but most remained on the boat.

A combined marine police and navy team descended on the boat late Tuesday. It was not known where they were planning to take the refugees.

The 200 Rohingya are the latest to reach southern Thailand, following a series of arrests in Songkhla and at sea in Phangnga province this month.

This lifts the total number of illegal Rohingya migrants now in custody to about 1,700.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul will lead a delegation of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) members to meet Islamic leaders and security agencies in the three southernmost border provinces tomorrow. He said the delegation would get first-hand information about the southern violence.

He will also use this opportunity to seek a solution to the Rohingya migrant problem from the OIC and ask the delegation which countries wanted to take in the migrants who had fled from Myanmar's Rakhine state to Thailand.

As those migrants had entered Thailand, the kingdom had to provide them with temporary assistance on a humanitarian basis, he said. Authorities had to work with several international agencies such as Unicef and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to find a solution.

Phuket Gazette
January 29, 2013

PHUKET: The group of Rohingya refugees discovered off Koh Racha Noi today – numbering 205 in total – were given food and water before being “helped on” in their southbound journey.

On hearing the news of the refugees’ arrival, Rawai Municipality quickly dispatched a speedboat with basic provisions. The boat departed Chalong Pier about midday, and on arriving at Koh Racha Noi officers on board discovered that a Royal Thai Navy vessel was already there.

About 10 Thai Navy officers checked the refugees and handed out food and water before “allowing” the refugees to continue their journey toward Malaysia, the Phuket Gazette was told.

Throughout the day the Gazette received conflicting reports about the refugees: some stating that there were only men and boys on the boat; others claiming women and children were also on board, as has been the trend with recent Rohingya arrivals in Thailand.

One of the reports received by the Gazette identified Sarit Chandee, a villager on Koh Racha Yai, saying that the Rohingya were first spotted at sea by local fisherman last night.

Mr Sarit described the boat as having two levels, being only several meters wide and 30m long.

The Gazette has yet to learn whether the hundreds of Rohingya reported earlier today at Koh Phra Thong, on the Phang Nga coast north of Phuket, were also “helped on” – or if they were taken into custody by Thai officials, like the hundreds of Rohingya who have arrived by boat over the past few weeks.

The number of Rohingya coming ashore in Phang Nga has forced officials to relocate hundreds of them to immigration centers in other provinces across Southern Thailand (story here).

State news agency MCOT reported yesterday that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has sought clarification from a variety of agencies on the plight and options of well over 1,000 Rohingya migrants currently in Thai custody (story here).

Bangkok Post
January 29, 2013

The Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) says the Myanmar government's policy of segregation in Rakhine state is the main factor in the mass migration of the Rohingya people - and admits it is also at fault for its own failure to act in the past.

Kraisak Choonhavan, vice president of AIPMC and chair of the Thailand Caucus, said many Rohingya people fleeing Myanmar in hope of better life are likely to instead face detention or discrimination in other countries.

Mr Kraisak blamed Asean for not doing enough to address the root cause of the problem, in a statement issued on Tuesday.

He said Asean should put pressure on the Myanmar government to do more to safely integrate the Rohingya population and ensure them their basic rights. 

At the same time, Asean must work closely with regional law enforcement authorities and human rights agencies to combat trafficking of Rohingya refugees, he advised. 

Recent evidence indicated that some Thai officials were involved in the trafficking operation, the press statement said.

AIPMC president Eva Kusuma Sundari, who is an Indonesian MP, criticised Asean for failing to offer human rights protection to the Rohingya. The Myanmar government's policy had isolated Rohingya people in slums or camps with virtually no access to work, education or medical attention, she said.

She plans to bring the issue up at the Asean Intergovernmental Commission of Human Rights forum scheduled from Jan 28 to Feb 2 in Brunei.

Maung Maung 
RB News 
29.01.2012 

(Translated into English by M.S. Anwar) 

Mye-Bun, Arakan - During the violence against Rohingyas and Kamans in Arakan in October 2012, hundreds of Rohingyas and Kamans were massacred by Rakhine Terrorists and inhumanly buried in many graves. Recently, a few mass graves where the corpses of Rohingyas and Kamans were buried were found out. 

There were five graves found at a hill-side slope quite far from the quarter of Taung Paw. Five corpses in the first grave, three in the second and one each in the other three graves were found out respectively. 


The five dead bodies found in the first grave were of male and they were identified as: 

(1) U Bodi Miah S/o U Guth Fan 
(2) U Leraya S/o U Bodi Miah 
(3) Muhammed Sutun S/o U Hafiz Ahamed 
(4) U Maung Hla S/o U Jaw Ra Mud 
(5) U Nazir Ahmed S/o U Abdur Rahman 

The three corpses found in the second grave were of female and they were identified as: 

(1) Daw Saw Mar Khatun D/o U Kasim 
(2) Daw Hairay Nisa D/o U Bodi Miah 
(3) Daw Khusum Bi D/o U Bodi Miah 

And each dead body in other three respective graves was identified as: 

(1) U Kasim S/o U Abbar (Male) 
(2) Daw Chin Mar D/o U Abbar (Female) 
(3) U Futiya S/o U Basayr (Male) 


All these people were murdered and buried in the clothes they were on. Having finding out these corpses, the villagers informed to the concerned authority.
The Rohingyas have no state to call their own. (Photo - Mashiur Rahaman)
Mashiur Rahaman
The Express Tribune
January 29, 2013

BANGLADESH / TEKNAF: Six months ago, 89-year-old Abdul Matin fled the sectarian riots in the state of Rakhine, in Myanmar, to a refugee camp in Bangladesh. His house was burnt down during the unrest, along with all his belongings. With nothing but cruel memories of a bleeding homeland, he and his family salvaged what they could and crossed over the River Naf. 

“We had no choice but to sell the jewllery my wife was wearing at the time we escaped to pay to cross the river,” Matin told The Express Tribune. 

Matin is one of the more than 20,000 Rohingyas who fled Myanmar and came to Bangladesh, a state that does not give them refugee status. Here, the ‘unregistered’ Rohingya refugees do not officially exist. 

“In Islam, such migration is considered a ‘hijrat’ but in our case, the word Rohingya has become a derogatory term which the locals use to degrade us,” he said. 

At present, Matin and his seven family members live under an eight-by-six feet tent in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Teknaf, on the Bangladeshi side of Naf. In his hometown, Matin owned a shop, now he sells coconuts. He said he had a little idea about what life in a refugee camp would be like but the reality is far graver. 

“The daughter of the woman living in the next tent was gang-raped last week. Another family in a nearby tent is engaged in prostitution because they don’t have any male relatives who could earn for them,” said Matin, now scared for his own daughters’ future. “The worst thing is that we can’t even seek security from police as the authorities don’t recognise our existence here.” 

Myanmar passed a law in 1982 that effectively rendered the Rohingya community stateless. Frequent waves of ethnic violence since 1991 – some of those state-sponsored – have pushed more than 250,000 Rohingyas into Bangladesh, where they live in squalid, makeshift camps with little or no access to healthcare or education.

Since 1992, the Bangladeshi government has denied the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) permission to register the Rohingya refugees. They are still considered illegal migrants and are not entitled to the food relief provided by the World Food Program. They are also denied access to basic healthcare and education provided by the UNHCR and its partner organisations. 

“People do not leave their homes and go to a foreign country just because they will get basic healthcare or education,” said Jing Song, the UNHCR spokesperson in Dhaka. 

Unfortunately, the Bangladeshi government is determined to keep the aid to a bare minimum to avoid creating a ‘pull factor’ (conditions that will attract more refugees), an official of the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management said on condition of anonymity. 

In late July 2012, the Bangladeshi government ordered three prominent international aid organisations – Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger), and Muslim Aid – to cease assistance to Rohingya refugees living in unregistered camps in the Cox’s Bazaar district and around the Teknaf district. 

However, denial of healthcare and education is not all that the Rohingyas have to deal with. Since July, Bangladesh police and border authorities have launched an unprecedented crackdown, pushing over 6,000 Rohingyas back to Myanmar. Some 500 were also arrested from different parts of the country. 

Consequently, the state’s mistrust of the refugees has trickled down to the local population. Teknaf residents believe the refugees are behind the rising petty crime in the area around the unregistered camps. 

“Ever since the government has snapped aid coming from international agencies – which were supporting the unregistered refugees in these camps – the crime rate has been on the rise,” said Bokhtiar Ahmed, councilor of the local government authority at Ukhiya Upozila (sub-district) Teknaf and a member of the Anti-Rohingya Settlement Campaign. “Although we don’t want them to be settled here, we do want them to be treated humanly until they are repatriated,” he said. 

Out of desperation, many refugees have started begging or running prostitution rackets in and around the camps, he alleged. Ahmed added that many local influential people are also exploiting the poor Rohingyas for crimes as severe as smuggling and armed robberies. 

Sub-Inspector Mahmud Ratan of the Teknaf police station agreed with this assessment, “We have been receiving frequent reports of crime, including theft, arms assault, begging, smuggling and even prostitution, involving the unregistered Rohingyas. It’s a nightmare-like situation for the law enforcing authorities. These crooks are not registered and therefore cannot be traced down without their basic information.” 

For the refugees, then it is being stuck between a rock and a hard place. “The Bangladesh government says we are illegal migrants. But we didn’t enter Bangladesh secretly to work or to do crime. We have come to save our lives and our families,” said Ziaur Rahman, another refugee who lives in the Ukhiya Sub-District camp, some 12km north of Teknaf. “People are turning to crime out of desperation. What else would they do to feed their families?”
Radio Australia
January 29, 2013


A Burmese academic and human rights activist has resigned from his position at a Brunei university, complaining of censorship.

Dr Maung Zarni says the University Brunei Darussalam has "punished" him for speaking out about the violence between mainly-Muslim Rohingyas and mainly-Buddhist ethnic Rakhine in Burma.

Presenter: Liam Cochrane

Speaker: Dr Maung Zarni, visiting fellow at London School of Economics


Qutub Shah
RB News
January 29, 2013

(Edited by Anwar Arkani)

Maungdaw: Since last few months Myanmar government has been taking new approaches one after another to re-register the Rohingyas as “Bengalis”. Despite taking violent measures such as arrest, torture, abuse, cancelling property ownership, withdrawing family lists and temporary identity cards, etc., it seems that the government is not succeeding in implementing it due to lack of cooperation from the people.

As the operation does not move forward successfully with its core motives, the government has started taking cruel measures against those that do not comply with. On January 25, 2013, in Kuñúir Háli (Leik Ya) village, Maungdaw Township, the Nasaka Commander of Region 4, U Aung Myo Zaw Htay, has summoned 64 Rohingya families to the camp who denied to be registered as “Bengali illegal immigrants.” Upon arrival at the camp, the females were segregated and forced to run around the compound of the camp the whole day. And the males were tortured inhumanely. Even the elderly, pregnant, underage or disabled persons and nursing mothers were not excused.

In the evening, on condition of being present whenever summoned, they all were set free except Molvi Sayed Alam s/o Amir Hamza, 42, who was detained after being handcuffed by 6 Nasaka personnel. Also Molvi Hashim, the principal of Kuñúir Háli Islamic School, is reportedly delisted from the census falsely accusing that he organized the people not to cooperate with the operation.

In addition, these 64 families were excluded from participating in the current local census that is being conducted by Nasaka. Census is conducted twice a year.
Thai police rescued trafficked Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. (Photo - EPA)
Bangkok Post
January 29, 2013

108 migrants saved as 6-month stay limit set 

Security agencies will ask the government to build detention centres for Rohingya in Songkhla and Rayong. 

Officials have yet to settle on the locations but say each batch of arriving migrants will not stay at the centres longer than six months. 

Thailand will not accept the Rohingya as long-term refugees as this could lead to far greater numbers arriving, the National Security Council (NSC) said yesterday. 

Earlier yesterday, 108 Rohingya migrants were rescued from a sunken boat at Mu Ko Surin Marine National Park in Phangnga. 

The Rohingya were spotted floating about 1km off Surin Tai island in Khura Buri district about 2pm, Wattanasak Thongrakthong, deputy chief of Mu Ko Surin National Park, said. 

The migrants comprised 69 men, 26 women and 13 children, including a one-month old baby, he said. 

They said their boat broke down and they had to swim to shore, the park official said. All were living in a temporary shelter on the island. 

They were the second batch of Rohingya migrants found in Khura Buri district in less than a week. 

On Friday, marine police inspecting a boat off Ra island found 96 Rohingya migrants crammed into the vessel. 

The NSC and other security agencies said yesterday they would ask the government to build three detention centres in Songkhla and Ranong to shelter the Rohingya, NSC secretary-general Lt Gen Paradon Pattanathaboot said. 

They will be held at the detention centres for six months after their arrival, he said, and then will be sent back to Myanmar or other countries if anyone will take them. 

Lt Gen Paradon met representatives of the armed forces and other security agencies on Friday to discuss the Rohingya problem. The six-month deadline has been set to prevent the migrants from becoming a long-term burden, he said. 

News reports that Rohingya migrants are receiving aid after being rescued from forests in Songkhla have prompted others still in hiding to contact officials to seek help. 

If Thailand offers to shelter Rohingya fleeing Rakhine state in Myanmar for longer than six months, it will have to deal with a far greater influx, Lt Gen Paradon said. 

"Now we must contact the countries that want us to help the Rohingya and ask them if they are ready to accept the people," he said. "The ambassadors of many nations met me and asked Thailand to help. I told them we are ready to help them but these countries must also accept Rohingya themselves." 

The Rohingya do not want to live in Thailand but want to work in a Muslim country. The government will continue to define them as illegal immigrants, the NSC chief said. 

"We consider them only as illegal immigrants and do not upgrade their cases to human trafficking status. Otherwise, other countries will step in and it will be difficult to solve the problem and get them out," he said. 

An army source said Rohingya migrants want to go to Malaysia but Thailand will also ask the US, Australia and European countries to accept them. Thailand believes it could take up to three years to solve the problem. 

More than 1,000 Rohingya migrants are being held in Songkhla and Ranong. The cost of caring for them since the first arrivals were rounded up early this month has reached 11 million baht, the source said. 

The source said that while fair humanitarian care must be provided, the Rohingya must not allowed to become too comfortable and get entrenched in Thailand. 

Meanwhile, 4th Army chief Lt Gen Udomchai Thamsarorat has reportedly transferred a lieutenant colonel and a lieutenant from the southern branch of the Internal Security Operations Command following a complaint they were involved in trafficking Rohingya in the South. 

UN Refugee Agency representative M Golam Abbas thanked the government and locals for taking care of the Rohingya migrants.
Vulnerable women such as this widow are prioritized for skills training such as soap-making in Kutupalong camp.
Vivian Tan
UNHCR
January 28, 2013

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh – In many countries, when you reach the age of 21 you become an adult and must start to fend for yourself. But in the refugee camps of south-eastern Bangladesh, 21 years after the Rohingya first started arriving as refugees, they are more dependent on aid than ever. 

Some 30,000 registered refugees in Kutupalong and Nayapara, two government-run camps near Cox's Bazar, are relying on regular distributions of food rations and relief items such as shelter and clothing. Basic water, sanitation and health services are provided by the government, UNHCR and its partners. 

While these may sound like luxuries to an estimated 200,000 unregistered Rohingya living outside the camps and to local villagers in this poverty-stricken country, camp residents lament that they cannot work legally or study beyond Grade 5 in the camps' 21 primary schools. 

"This is not life," said Shaufiq Alam, a 30-year-old refugee in Kutupalong camp. "I came 20 years ago. If I had been in the village I could have received higher education by now. The camp situation is depriving us of our lives." 

The UN refugee agency is working to change that sense of powerlessness, but within tight operational constraints. It works closely with refugee-elected camp management committees, empowering them to mediate disputes and organizing women's training and peace education workshops. 

Refugees are also encouraged to participate in the day-to-day running of the camps. Bibi Begum, 30, helps to distribute food rations in Kutupalong every two weeks. Today she is in charge of sugar, stirring a sackful with her hand to loosen the grains before spooning precise portions into waiting plastic bags. 

A widow with three children, she is one of seven incentive workers at the food distribution centre who are on a six-month rotation targeting vulnerable refugees like single mothers. 

"I get 1,820 taka (US$22.50) per month. It helps with the children's school supplies and I can buy supplementary things," she said. "Usually I make fishing nets for a living, but it is not profitable. I only made 1,000 taka after three months of work." 

Vocational training is another important empowerment tool. While the refugees are not permitted to work or to sell things they produce, UNHCR seeks to keep them occupied while teaching them skills like carpentry, soap making and tailoring that they can hopefully use in the future. 

At Nayapara camp, Hamida Khatun, a 40-year-old widow with five children, is busy making soap. "I wanted to earn some money so I approached UNHCR to put my name on the list," she said. "I've been doing this for a month, learning how to mix chemicals and use the mould." 

Her job today is to cut individual bars of soap to make sure they weigh a consistent 150 grammes each. "I am proud of my soaps," she said. "I get 1,036 taka per month for six months. But it's not enough. There are 14 people in my family – six are registered and get food rations, the rest are not registered and get nothing. The money helps to buy some extra rice but is not enough for extra blankets." 

When completed, Hamida's soaps are taken to the Bangladeshi Red Crescent Society to be distributed in the camp's Women's Centre along with some underwear, clothing and other personal items. 

The clothing items are made at the Nayapara Women's Centre by refugees attending the tailoring class. "They are usually aged 15 to 25, and rotate every six months," said one of the women in charge. "We teach them skills and keep them busy so hopefully they don't get married off at a young age." 

Unfortunately, there are few prospects after the six-month training as most refugees cannot afford to buy their own equipment. Even those who manage to buy a sewing machine find it hard to get raw materials and to market their products. Without regular practice, their skills fade quickly. 

In comparison, the unregistered Rohingya living outside the camps appear to have developed their own coping mechanisms over the years. Living conditions are dire in the makeshift sites near Kutupalong and Nayapara, but the markets are busy and people have found informal ways to survive without government or UNHCR support. 

This contrast highlights the need to rethink how best to help the refugees. 

"UNHCR is good at emergency response, setting up camps quickly in the hope that refugees can return in one to two years," said Dirk Hebecker, head of the agency's sub-office in Cox's Bazar. "But when the situation gets protracted, we need to be able to adjust our strategies." 

He added that the international community should work with the Bangladeshi government to shift from focusing on just the two camps – which host just 10 to 15 per cent of the refugee population – to the whole refugee population if practical solutions are to be found to this long-running situation.
The Corpse of the Killed Rohingya after Post-Mortem 
M.S. Anwar 
RB News 
January 28, 2013 

Maung Daw, Arakan - Today, around 12:00 Noon (Myanmar Standard Time), a few military together with some Rakhine terrorists shot a poor Rohingya farmer to dead in the village of Baggona, Southern Maung Daw. The Rakhine terrorists are from nearby Kanthayar Village and military are from the camp based in the same village. The camp is under the commandment of Major Ye Win Aung from KayeMyaing Military Camp, Southern Maung Daw. 

“Rafique S/o Abdul Majid (25), a poor Rohingya farmer, was looking after his cattle by his village. Meanwhile, around four military and four Rakhine terrorists from Kanthayar came up and attempted to rob and take way his cattle. As he started to hurry to escape the robbery together with his cattle, the military shot at him and four bullets hit his body. 

The above-mentioned four Rakhine terrorists are Pho Thar Htwe, Maung Maung, Mido and Saw Maung. The former three are from Kanthayar and the latter, Saw Maung is from KayeMyaing. The whole Kanthayar was set up with the Bangladeshi Rakhines in 1970s with the help of Gen. Ne Win. 

Coincidentally, today, NaSaKa (border security force) is carrying out the census operation in the village, an operation that NaSaKa have been carrying for the past two decades and twice a year (but there is no digital finger print being taken in the operation). So, the villager informed NaSaKa and NaSaKa Captain Myo Htaik Aung from Maggyi Chaung Camp under the NaSaKa area No. 7 went to the place where the crime took place. 

There was a minor confrontation between NaSaKa and Military as NaSaKa didn’t allow the military to hide the body of the bullet hit Rohingya. His ailing body bit by four bullets was sent to Maung Daw hospital. There in hospital, according to the accompanied people, he died immediately after Rakhine doctors give injection to him. They suspect the doctors for killing the Rohingya. His body was returned after the post-mortem” said a Rohingya Elder from a nearby village.

Now, Arakan has become a silent killing field where a slow yet an effective genocide of Rohingyas and Kamans are being carried out. Burmese regime and Rakhine extremists will keep lying and denying that. Only the presence of Multi-National Peace-Keeping Force or UN Peace Force in Arakan can stop the genocide. It is high time for Rohinya Leaders to be more realistic to be able to see what measures are to be taken to effectively stop the pogroms. It is high time for them to stop living in their fantasy worlds.

News Elsewhere: Tonight around 10PM Myanmar Time, Natala Rakhines from a nearby village torched a Rohingya house in the village of Thaung Paing Nya of Myo Thu Gyi Village Tract, Maung Daw Township. When the villagers gathered to put off the fire, Military started firing so that they can't put off the fire.

Updated News: According to some latest news coming out of Maung Daw, the house burnt in Thaung Paing Nya was not owned by Rohingyas. According to them, the house was a house at a Golf Field that Golf Players used to use for resting. It was torched by NaTaLa Rakhine terrorists to buck up the blames on and to be able to create more violence against Rohingyas through Government. Now, the innocent villagers are too afraid to live in the village and are trying to escape the arbitrary expected to be carried out."
(Photo - Phuket Wan)
Bangkok Post
January 28, 2013

Two army officers attached to the southern area Region 4 office of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc), suspected of being involved in the smuggling of Royingha migrants into the country, have been transferred out of the area, an army source said.

The source said Lt-Gen Udomchai Thammasaroraj, the Fourth Army commander, signed an order to transfer the two -- a lieutenant colonel and a lieutenant -- although in an investigation there was no evidence to confirm their involvement in the trafficking of the illegal immigrants.

"However, they have been transferred out of the area to prevent further problems because there had been complaints against them," the source said.

There was no evidence against them because tambon administration organisation (TAO) officials who were involved in the smuggling of the Rohingya people had not been arrested for interrogation.

Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha, the army chief, said to cope with the problem of the Rohingya migrants the army needed cooperation from other agencies such as the Interior Ministry and police.

Pol Lt-Col Paisith Sangkhahapong, director of the Department of Special Investigation's (DSI) anti-human trafficking centre, said it was agreed last week at a meeting of security agencies that more than 800 Rohingya migrants who had been arrested for illegal entry would sent from the country in six months.

In the meantime, Thailand would provide them with humanitarian assistance.

The meeting was also attended by Defence Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat and Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul.

Thailand would coordinate with Myanmar to take the Rohingya people back and with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) help to find a third country to take them for resettlement.

Pol Lt-Col Paisit said there was no evidence that the illegal Rohingya migrants had been smuggled into the country by a human trafficking ring.

They were helped to enter the country and provided with shelter illegally but there was no evidence of a third country they were to be sent to, he said.
Rohingya refugees try to cross into Bangladesh (Photo - AFP)

Senator The Hon Bob Carr
Minister for Foreign Affairs
GPO Box 36
Sydney NSW 2001
Facsimile: (02) 92283655
January 27, 2013

Re: Communal Conflict in Rakhine State, Burma/Myanmar

Dear Senator Carr:

I firstly would like to commend the Australian Government's efforts in helping to improve the humanitarian situation following sectarian conflict last year in Rakhine (Arakan) State in Burma. As an Australian of Burmese origin, I am very proud about the way Australian Government had taken a lead in calling on all sides to peacefully resolve that communal conflict in Rakhine State in Burma.

Australian Government does have a long record of actively engaging with Burma/Myanmar. In relation to the BurmaRohingya people of Rakhine State, I note that the Australian Government have had taken a humanitarian based policy engagement with Burma. I recall that 20 years ago when forced expulsion of Burma Rohingya people took place in Burma, the then Labor Government despatched Justice Marcus Einfeld to the Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh. In following years, the Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evens had been involved in a leading role, along with his counterpart leaders of ASEAN, in finding possible solution for those Rohingya refugees.

As of recent, I am concerned about the continue segregations of Rohingya and Rakhine people within Rakhine State. The slow pace of returning to normality in Rakhine State is indicative of the inability by the Burmese government and Burmese political leaders to promote a feasible solution for Rohingya. I have outlined my concern in enclosed report, “Rohingya: New Exodus?”. As the report suggests, I fear that there will be more Rohingya taking perilous sea journey to reach especially Thailand and Malaysia.

Regarding with the unresolved communal conflict in Rakhine State, I would ask Australian Government to take a proactive humanitarian approach, in concert with its ASEAN partners, to help improve the situation for Rohingya. By helping to improve situation in Rakhine State, the already displaced Rohingya would not be compelled to take a perilous journey abroad. I also believe that this would serve in favour of Australia's security and political interests.

Thanks you and Australian Government for your continuing helps to Burma/Myanmar.

Yours faithfully,

MP U Shwe Maung
RB News
January 26, 2013

U Shwe Maung, Member of Parliament, Buthidaung constituency, Rakhine State, Myanmar, has sent a message to Thailand Prime Minister Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra, Myanmar President U Thein Sein, ASEAN Secretary General, UN Secretary General, UN Spokesperson and Ms. Valerie Amos, UN under Secretary General (Source: Twitter) 

The message is as below: 

Dear Your Excellencies, 

Rohingyas issue is no more local. Now it becomes regional and global. It is miserable to know stories and situation of Rohingya refugees in Thailand. 

On behalf of Rohingyas, I would like to request all of your excellencies to cooperate with President U Thein Sein and The Pyithu Hluttaw Speaker Thura U Shwe Mann, to recognize existence of Rohingya in Rakhine State and find a permanent solution for Rakhines & Rohingyas based on Peaceful Coexistence NOT Segregation. 

I have a very concrete document and facts. I am ready to share and cooperate for peace and stability of Rakhine State and Union of Myanmar. I would also like to appeal to local and international donors for urgent Humanitarian Assistance to all victims of violence equally. 

Finally, I want to say "Sympathize Rohingyas who are part of Rakhine State, part of Myanmar, part of Region, part of World". 

Thank you indeed. 

U Shwe Maung, MP 
January 24, 2013

    • Rohingya Exodus