RB News

April 22, 2013

Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK President Tun Khin joined EIDHR (European Instrumental Democracy and Human Rights) forum which was organized by European Commission, held in Brussels from 16-17 April 2013.More than 100 Organizations around the world and 400 participants join to the Forum. 

During the Forum BROUK President met with Kristian Schmidt, Director for Human Society Development, European Commission and EU Stavros Special Representative for Human Rights. According to BROUK President he raised “the final benchmark referred to in the Council Conclusions was “addressing the status and improving the welfare of the Rohingyas.” This benchmark has clearly not been met, and in fact the status and welfare of the Rohingya has dramatically worsened in the past year following communal conflict, which later evolved into systematic attacks against the Rohingya. The government of Burma has not only failed to provide safety and security for the Rohingya, it has also encouraged those committing acts of violence by validating their prejudice. Government ministers have spoken of the Rohingya being foreigners and President Thein Sein has asked for international assistance in deporting all Rohingya to third countries. During his visit to Europe, President Thein Sein said he has ‘no plans’ to revise the 1982 Citizenship Law, stating ‘the law intends to protect the nation’. No significant efforts are being made to try to enable Rohingya displaced by attacks to return to their homes and villages and a policy of effective apartheid seems to be developing. Therefore, the benchmark of addressing the status and welfare of the Rohingyas has not been met”. 

At the same time Tun Khin had sideline meetings with many NGOs and discussed about urgent actions needed governments around the world to stop ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas and other Muslims of Burma. 

According to BROUK President he had fruitful discussion on session of freedom of Religion or Belief and Human Rights Defenders Session.

Maung Aurther 

RB News 

April 22, 2013 

Maung Daw, Arakan - On 18th April 2013 evening, NaSaka (Border Security Force) from Myint Hlut (Mer-Ullah) South Outpost under the NaSaKa Commandment Area (8) arbitrarily arrested and tortured some Rohingyas from the South Myint-Village village tract. Two days later, they were released after the extortion of huge amount of money. 

“NaSaKa arrested and tortured the following people. 

(1) Maji Ullah S/o Dil Mohammed (25) 

(2) Shona Meah S/o Ayzar Meah (60) 

(3) Salamat S/o Lalu (45) 

(4) Sharif Hussain S/o Sultan (42) 

(5) Mohammed Noor S/o Hussain Ali (20) 

(6) Amir Hussain S/o Shafiullah (50) 

They were released two days later after the extortion of following amount of money respectively. The amounts were Kyat 20,000 from No.1 mentioned above, Kyat 20,000 from No.2, Kyat 30,000 from No.3, Kyat 60,000 from No.4, Kyat 40,000 from No.5 and Kyat 50,000 from No.6 respectively. 

Again on 20th April 2013, NaSaKas from the station of Myint Hlut Gindaw under the same commandment area mentioned above had arrested two Rohingyas named Izhar Meah S/o Salay (42) and Kalah S/o U Dolu (45) from Myint Hlut Ywa Thit. They were released after extortion of Kyat 150,000 from each. 

A person named Rahmat Ullah is already with a broken-hand due to the torture in NaSaKa detention. All the arrests are being made on arbitrary allegations” said a villager from a nearby village. 

“The NaSaKas here seem to forget that they are government staffs and have to live on the salary provided by the government. They are just rampant and extorting money from whomever they wish. They are behaving like robbers. 

Recently, having drunken, a lower-level NaSaKa beat the caretaker officer, Captain Tun Hun Htoo, in the NaSaKa commandment office No.8 because the captain used to prevent him from carrying out arbitrary arrests of the innocent people. We heard that other lower level NaSaKas were also happy to the offence committed by their colleague because they are also birds of the same feather. And now, the captain was transferred to another region” he added. 

BBC News

April 22, 2013

Much of the footage was shot by the Burmese police. This report contains images of violence which you may find upsetting

The BBC has obtained police video showing officers standing by while Buddhist rioters attacked minority Muslims in the town of Meiktila. 

The footage shows a mob destroying a Muslim gold shop and then setting fire to houses. A man thought to be a Muslim is seen on fire. 

It was filmed last month, when at least 43 people were killed in Meiktila. 

Meanwhile the EU is expected to decide whether to lift sanctions imposed on Burma, in response to recent reforms. 

It is thought likely that despite concerns about the treatment of minorities, Brussels will confirm that the sanctions, which were suspended a year ago, are now permanently lifted. 

The sanctions include the freezing of assets of more than 1,000 Burmese companies, travel restrictions on officials, and a ban on EU investment in many areas. However, an arms embargo is expected to remain in place. 

The move is a response to political change under President Thein Sein, who came to power after elections in November 2010. His administration has freed many political prisoners and relaxed censorship. 

Aung San Suu Kyi, who was under house arrest for many years, leads a pro-democracy opposition which has a small presence in parliament. 

Documented violence 

Some human rights groups, however, have warned that sanctions should not be lifted until the government addresses issues including recent violence against Muslims. 

The video from Meiktila, in Mandalay Region, is remarkable both for the comprehensive way it documents the violence and because much of it was shot by the Burmese police themselves, the BBC's Jonah Fisher reports from Singapore.

In the sequence where policemen look on as a man rolls on the ground having been set on fire, the watching crowd are heard to say, "No water for him - let him die". 

Another sequence shows a young man attempting to flee and getting caught, after which he is beaten by a group of men, which includes a monk. 

A savage blow with a sword strikes him and he is left on the ground, presumed dead. 

Only in one shot are the police seen escorting Muslim women and children away from their burning homes. 

The footage corroborates eyewitness testimony. A row at a Muslim-owned gold shop on 20 March was said to have started the violence, when a dispute involving a Buddhist couple escalated into a fight. 

This was followed by an attack on a Buddhist monk, who later died in hospital. News of that incident appeared to have sparked off sustained communal violence. 

The violence then spread to other towns and led to curfews being imposed. There were reports of mosques and houses being torched in at least three towns. 

The gold shop's owner, his wife and an employee were convicted of theft and assault on 12 April and jailed for 14 months. Dozens of other Muslims and Buddhists are said to be under investigation.

Deadly clashes

Violence between Buddhists and Muslims erupted in another part of Burma, Rakhine state, last year following the rape and murder of a young Buddhist woman in May. 

Clashes in June and October resulted in the deaths of about 200 people. Thousands of people, mainly members of the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority, fled their homes and remain displaced. 

On Monday, the New York-based organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) presented a report containing what it said was clear evidence of government complicity in ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity against Muslims in Rakhine state. 

It said security forces stood aside or joined in when mobs attacked Muslim communities in nine townships, razing villages and killing residents. 

It said HRW also discovered four mass-grave sites in Rakhine state, which it said security forces used to destroy evidence of the crimes. 

However, the allegations were rejected by Win Myaing, a government spokesman for Rakhine state, AP news agency reported. 

HRW investigators didn't "understand the situation on the ground," he said, adding that the government had no prior knowledge of the impending attacks, and deployed forces to stop the unrest.

Crimes Against Humanity and Ethnic Cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Burma’s Arakan State 

Human Rights Watch

April 22, 2013 

This 153-page report describes the role of the Burmese government and local authorities in the forcible displacement of more than 125,000 Rohingya and other Muslims and the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Burmese officials, community leaders, and Buddhist monks organized and encouraged ethnic Arakanese backed by state security forces to conduct coordinated attacks on Muslim neighborhoods and villages in October 2012 to terrorize and forcibly relocate the population. The tens of thousands of displaced have been denied access to humanitarian aid and been unable to return home.

Crimes Against Humanity and Ethnic Cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Burma’s Arakan State

Human Rights Watch

April 22, 2013

Unpunished Crimes Against Humanity, Humanitarian Crisis in Arakan State

Bangkok – Burmese authorities and members of Arakanese groups have committed crimes against humanity in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in Arakan State since June 2012, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.

The 153-page report, “‘All You Can Do is Pray’: Crimes Against Humanity and Ethnic Cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Burma’s Arakan State,” describes the role of the Burmese government and local authorities in the forcible displacement of more than 125,000 Rohingya and other Muslims and the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Burmese officials, community leaders, and Buddhist monks organized and encouraged ethnic Arakanese backed by state security forces to conduct coordinated attacks on Muslim neighborhoods and villages in October 2012 to terrorize and forcibly relocate the population. The tens of thousands of displaced have been denied access to humanitarian aid and been unable to return home.

“The Burmese government engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya that continues today through the denial of aid and restrictions on movement,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director. “The government needs to put an immediate stop to the abuses and hold the perpetrators accountable or it will be responsible for further violence against ethnic and religious minorities in the country.”

Following sectarian violence between Arakanese and Rohingya in June 2012, government authorities destroyed mosques, conducted violent mass arrests, and blocked aid to displacedMuslims. On October 23, after months of meetings and public statements promoting ethnic cleansing, Arakanese mobs attacked Muslim communities in nine townships, razing villages and killing residents while security forces stood aside or assisted the assailants. Some of the dead were buried in mass graves, further impeding accountability.

Human Rights Watch traveled to Arakan State following the waves of violence and abuses in June and October, visiting sites of attacks and every major displaced person camp, as well as unofficial displacement sites. The report draws on more than 100 interviews with Rohingya and non-Rohingya Muslims and Arakanese who suffered or witnessed abuses, as well as some organizers and perpetrators of the violence.

All of the state security forces operating in Arakan State are implicated in failing to prevent atrocities or directly participating in them, including local police, Lon Thein riot police, the inter-agency border control force called Nasaka, and the army and navy. One soldier told a Muslim man who was pleading for protection as his village was being burned: “The only thing you can do is pray to save your lives.”

Displaced Rohingya told Human Rights Watch how in October security forces stood by or joined with large groups of Arakanese men armed with machetes, swords, homemade guns, and Molotov cocktails who descended upon and attacked their villages. In some cases, attacks occurred simultaneously in townships separated by considerable distance.

Satellite images obtained by Human Rights Watch from just 5 of the 13 townships that experienced violence since June show 27 unique zones of destruction, including the destruction of 4,862 structures covering 348 acres of mostly Muslim-owned residential property.

In the deadliest incident, on October 23, at least 70 Rohingya were killed in a daylong massacre in Yan Thei village in Mrauk-U Township. Despite advance warning of the attack, only a small number of riot police, local police, and army soldiers were on duty to provide security, but they assisted the killings by disarming the Rohingya of their sticks and other rudimentary weapons they carried to defend themselves. Included in the death toll were 28 children who were hacked to death, including 13 under age 5. “First the soldiers told us, ‘Do not do anything, we will protect you, we will save you,’ so we trusted them,” a 25-year-old survivor told Human Rights Watch. “But later they broke that promise. The Arakanese beat and killed us very easily. The security did not protect us from them.”

“In October, security forces either looked the other way as Arakanese mobs attacked Muslim settlements or joined in the bloodletting and arson,” Robertson said. “Six months later, the government still blames ‘communal violence’ for the deaths and destruction when, in truth, the government knew what was happening and could have stopped it.”

Considerable local organizing preceded and backed October’s attacks. The two groups most influential in organizing anti-Rohingya activities were the local order of Buddhist monks (the sangha) and the regionally powerful Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP), which was founded in 2010 by Arakanese nationalists. Between June and October, these groups and others issued numerous anti-Rohingya pamphlets and public statements, explicitly or implicitly denying the existence of the Rohingya ethnicity, demonizing them, and calling for their removal from the country, at times using the phrase “ethnic cleansing.” The statements frequently were released in connection with organized meetings and in full view of local, state, and national authorities who raised no concerns. Local authorities, politicians, and monks also acted, often through public statements and force, to deny Muslims their rights to freedom of movement, opportunities to earn a living, and access to markets and to humanitarian aid. The apparent goal has been to coerce them to abandon their homes and leave the area.

“Local officials and community leaders engaged in an organized effort to demonize and isolate the Muslim population as a prelude to murderous mob attacks,” Robertson said. “Moreover, since the bloodshed, the central government has taken no action to punish those responsible or reverse the ethnic cleansing of the forcibly displaced Muslims.”

Human Rights Watch uncovered evidence of four mass-grave sites in Arakan State – three dating from the immediate aftermath of the June violence and one from the October violence. Security forces actively impeded accountability and justice by digging mass graves to destroy evidence of crimes.

For instance, on June 13, a government truck dumped 18 naked and half-clothed bodies near a Rohingya displaced person camp outside of Sittwe, the state capital. Some of the victims had been “hogtied” with string or plastic strips before being executed. By leaving the bodies near a camp for displaced Rohingya, the soldiers were sending a message – consistent with a policy of ethnic cleansing – that the Rohingya should leave permanently.

“They dropped the bodies right here,” said a Rohingya man, who saw the bodies being dumped. “Three bodies had gunshot wounds. Some had burns, some had stab wounds. One gunshot wound was on the forehead, one on the chest.”

Arakan State faces a major humanitarian crisis brought on by the Burmese government’s systematic restrictions on humanitarian aid to displaced Rohingya.

More than 125,000 Rohingya and non-Rohingya Muslims, and a smaller number of Arakanese, have been in displaced person camps in Arakan State since June. While President Thein Sein’s government has hosted high-profile diplomatic visits to displacement sites, it has also obstructed the effective delivery of humanitarian aid. Many of the displaced Muslims have been living in overcrowded camps that lack adequate food, shelter, water and sanitation, schools, and medical care. Security forces in some areas have provided protection to displaced Muslims, but more typically they have acted as their jailers, preventing access to markets, livelihoods, and humanitarian assistance, for which many are in desperate need.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya face a range of deadly waterborne diseases if they are not moved to higher ground before the rainy season begins in May.

“The problem with aid delivery in Arakan State is not a failure of coordination, but a failure of leadership by the government to allow displaced Muslims access to aid and freedom of movement,” Robertson said. “An entirely predictable and preventable humanitarian crisis is just weeks away when the rains fall and camps flood, spreading waterborne diseases.”

The displaced Rohingya have not been consulted on their right to return to their original towns and villages, heightening concerns of a long-term intent to segregate the population.

Lacking aid, protection, and facing violence and abuses, tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled the country by sea since June with hopes of reaching Bangladesh, Malaysia, or Thailand, and many thousands more appear ready to do the same – several hundred people have already died at sea.

Under international law, crimes against humanity are crimes committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack by a government or organization on a civilian population. Among the crimes against humanity committed against the Rohingya since June were murder, deportation and forcible transfer of the population, and persecution.

“Ethnic cleansing,” though not a formal legal term, has been defined as a purposeful policy by an ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.

Central to the persecution of the Rohingya is the 1982 Citizenship Law, which effectively denies Burmese citizenship to Rohingya on discriminatory ethnic grounds. Because the law does not consider the Rohingya to be one of the eight recognized “national races,” which would entitle them to full citizenship, they must provide “conclusive evidence” that their ancestors settled in Burma before independence in 1948, a difficult if not impossible task for most Rohingya families.

The government and Burmese society openly consider the Rohingya to be illegal immigrants from what is now Bangladesh and not a distinct “national race” of Burma, denying them consideration for full citizenship. Official government statements refer to them as “Bengali,” “so-called Rohingya,” or the pejorative “kalar.”

Human Rights Watch urged the Burmese government to urgently amend the 1982 Citizenship Act to eliminate discriminatory provisions and to ensure that Rohingya children have the right to acquire a nationality where otherwise they would be stateless.

“Burma should accept an independent international commission to investigate crimes against humanity in Arakan State, locate victims, and provide redress,” said Robertson. “Burma’s donors need to wake up and realize the seriousness of the Rohingya’s plight, and demand that the government urgently stop abuses, promote the safe return of displaced Muslims, and ensure accountability to end the deadly cycle of violence in Arakan State.”

RB News 

April 21, 2013 

Sittwe (Akyab), Arakan - On 19th April 2013, Friday, evening, a delegation led by the minister at the ministry of defense met with the representatives both Rakhine community and Rohingya community in the Bandoola Hall, Sittwe. 

The government delegation met with 15 representatives, from Rakhine community, including a lawyer, U Tha Pwin and U Maung Nyunt Sein. In the meeting, Rakhine representatives rejected all the proposals of peacefully living back together with Rohingyas. 

Then, the delegation met with 15 representatives from Rohingya community. That included U Shwe Zan, U Shwe Hla and U Aung Thein. The delegation stated that they would build hospitals, schools, markets, jetties and houses for the IDP at the current locations. So, they asked Rohingya IDP to live at the current location and not to demand to settle back to their original places. However, the Rohingya representatives except for U Shwe Hla hailing from Aung Mingala Quarter said that they could not agree to such proposals. Therefore, the meeting was ended abruptly. 

Five representatives from Aung Mingala Quarter, five from Thakket-Pyin Refugee Camp and other five were from the Rohingya IDP camps in other townships. The delegation was led by the minister at the ministry of defense and it also included the minister at the president’s office, U Tin Naing Thein and the chief director of the ministry of immigration and population, U Maung Than. 

“We were terrorized and our houses on which we have been living for generations were razed. Our relatives were mercilessly killed. Our properties and belongings were looted. It will be a year soon that we have been staying in these concentration camps amidst the immense troubles. We just want to go back to our original lands” said an internally displaced person to RB news. 

“For generations, we have been living peacefully together with Rakhines. Only today, we have become victims and scapegoats due to the hatred propaganda spread by the self-centered politicians for their political benefits” he continued. 

Last Wednesday (i.e. on 17th April 2013), many of the temporary tents broke down due to the strong wind hit the area. The Rohingya IDP had to build their own temporary tents and even now, they are to rebuild them by themselves after breaking down. 

President U Thein Sein declared in July last year that Rohingya IDP would be kept in the concentration camps and then sent to the third countries. Therefore, most of the Rohingya refugees are of the opinion that the purpose of the current delegation is to implement the same policy against Rohingyas. 

(Translated into English by Maung Aurther)

Press TV
April 21, 2013

A political analyst says the international community and particularly the West has not pressured the government in Myanmar to stop the violence and to stop this genocide or ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people. 

The comments came after the UN refugee agency warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Myanmar as the country’s displaced Rohingya Muslims face the threat of monsoon floods. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday said it is “seriously concerned about the risks facing over 60,000 displaced people in flood-prone areas and in makeshift shelters.” Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar account for about five percent of the country’s population of nearly 60 million. They have been persecuted and faced torture, neglect, and repression since the country's independence in 1948. 

Press TV has conducted an interview with Kevin Barrett, from the Muslim-Christian-Jewish Alliance, to further discuss the issue. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview. 

Press TV: Kevin Barrett, I would hate to see this monsoon season obviously pretty much have an effect on the lives of these already most persecuted minority being the Rohingyas but it seems like that maybe their fate. 

What has not occurred when we look at this really disaster that’s been going on for the past six months in terms of the persecution, the government involvement and etc.? 

Barrett: Well what hasn’t happened is that the international community and particularly the West has not pressured the government in Myanmar to stop the violence and to stop this genocide or ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people. 

Why is that? Quite often we do hear the West making loud noises about human rights and sometimes in situations where the violations of human rights are a lot, less extreme than they are in Myanmar. 

And I think the answer is in this particular situation, the West and particularly the USA has opened up good relations with the Myanmar government just at the moment that the Myanmar government has started to commit and countenance genocide on its territory. 

And the US is basically playing a geo-strategic game, is trying to take Myanmar out of the orbit of China and place it more firmly into the Western orbit. The US is deluging Myanmar with representatives trying to establish more trade ties, more business relationships, the money is flowing more than ever and rather than use the pressure and the leverage that they certainly do have to stop these very, very large scale abuses and this horrible suffering of the Rohingya ethnic cleansing victims. 

Press TV: So quickly, when you say they want to pull Myanmar out of this fear of China, of influence of China, I mean so that that border is an area that they will probably going to, if they had not already placed the military power whether it is soldiers, equipments etc. Is that another aim that the US has obviously to counter China militarily? 

Barrett: Absolutely. US is ringing China with military bases. There is a containment of China strategy going on, Obama has called it the shift to Asia . They are winding down the Middle Eastern war on terror, although you would know that from what is going on in Syria and they are ramping up the future war on China to prevent China from continuing to rise and taking its place as the world’s biggest economy and most powerful technological country. 

So it is a big geo-strategic game and the Rohingya Muslims are caught in the middle.

AFP

April 21, 2013

Aung San Suu Kyi's refusal to condemn attacks on Muslims in Myanmar has dimmed the Nobel laureate's lustre among global rights campaigners, but observers say her reticence will do her no harm with voters. 

Nearly a month after religious riots killed 43 people in central Myanmar, the former political prisoner turned lawmaker finally voiced sympathy for Muslims targeted by violence that saw mosques and homes razed. 

But Suu Kyi again failed to clearly condemn attacks against Muslims -- who represent an estimated four percent of the population -- or hate speech by some extremist Buddhist monks. 

Instead, as in 2012 when two waves of violence between the stateless Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists caused more than 180 deaths in the west, the opposition leader more indirectly urged respect for the "rule of law". 

"They did not feel they belonged anywhere else and you are just sad for them that they are made to feel they did not belong to our country either," she said of Myanmar's Muslims last week during a visit to Japan. 

But Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and endured years of house arrest, defended the restrained nature of her remarks and said: "I am sorry if people do not find my comments interesting enough to acknowledge them." 

Rights groups say her comments, delivered late and without criticism of the perpetrators of violence, sit uncomfortably with her position as a democracy champion who led a long fight against Myanmar's former military junta. 

"I'm glad she is in some ways recognising that these people are facing a very, very difficult situation" but "there has to be more than just her feeling sad," said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch. 

"The burden of action here lies with the government, but she is not an ordinary opposition leader either... and this is where some of this moral authority built up over the years needs to be used," he added. 

For their part Myanmar's ethnic minorities harbour suspicions of the Burman majority group -- including Suu Kyi -- and complain that discrimination endures under Myanmar's civilian-led reformist government. 

The Rohingya in particular feel let down by Suu Kyi. 

Some 800,000 of the minority group, considered by the UN as one of the most persecuted in the world, live in Rakhine State where tens of thousands of people were displaced by the violence last year and still languish in makeshift camps. 

Human Rights Watch has accused security forces of allowing and in some cases leading assaults against the Rohingya. 

Abu Tahay from the National Democratic Party for Development, which represents the Rohingya, said Suu Kyi has an "obligation" to intervene given her status as daughter of independence hero Aung San and a "democratic icon". 

Yet he stepped back from openly criticising the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) -- which is tipped to win general elections in 2015 that could install Suu Kyi as Myanmar's president. 

Suu Kyi's core constituency in the dominant Burman population sees the Rohingya as worthless illegal immigrants, and any offers of support may haunt her at the elections. 

"Aung San Suu Kyi has an election to win in 2015. She risks alienating politically potent Buddhist elements among her own supporters if she appears too cosy with the Rohingya, or other Muslims," said Nicholas Farrelly of the Australian National University. 

"Western human rights activists and international opponents of anti-Islamic prejudice will not have a vote in who runs Myanmar in the years ahead," he said. 

More immediately, "The Lady" does not want to fuel ethnic and religious tensions as the country undergoes its transition from junta rule, according to Win Tin, co-founder of the NLD. 

"There was some damage to her moral authority because of this situation. Daw Suu also knows about it," he told AFP, using a Burmese honorific, adding that her caution recognises "things are very fragile politically". 

Foreign observers need to take a more realistic view of the democracy leader, a senior diplomat formerly posted to Myanmar told AFP. 

Critics "need to consider whether their disappointment is a consequence of attributing near-sainthood and infallibility to her during her years under house arrest", the diplomat said, requesting anonymity. 

But Chris Lewa, the Bangkok-based director of The Arakan Project, which lobbies for Rohingya rights, said Suu Kyi was failing a vital test of leadership. 

"She talks a lot about the rule of law, but that is not enough," she said.

Jewish Chronicle

April 21, 2013

Desmond Tutu

Washington Post

April 20, 2013

Desmond Tutu is archbishop emeritus of Cape Town and a Nobel Peace laureate. 

In Myanmar, the word “kular” is an insult that you hear shouted at Muslims. You can see it printed in vicious pamphlets about the Rohingya, Myanmar’s largest Muslim ethnic group, calling for them to be kept away from towns, kicked out of the country or murdered. 

Kular is a slang word for “dark-skinned” — a form of abuse I know something about. And I, like millions of South Africans, know that such abuse can never last. God did not create us for such hatred.

I know also that a country is never truly free or prosperous until it is at peace with itself — until a nation, be it South Africa or Myanmar, loves and raises all its children equally. A nation must work hard and come together to realize this.

So we must be very measured in our praise of Myanmar’s new openness while its poorest and most vulnerable people, such as the Rohingya, are not living in safety and dignity. 

I traveled to Myanmar recently and saw for myself a great number of the positive developments that others around the world have been cheering. 

I met with several political prisoners who had been released by the new government after decades of detainment under the junta. I was thrilled to finally hold hands with Aung San Suu Kyi, who is no longer under house arrest and proudly stands in the parliament. We were free to walk the streets of Yangon together.

The dreaded red pen of newspaper censorship has also been put away; the printing presses are whirring, and Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, enjoys a newfound freedom of expression that many young people there had never experienced. 

But I departed with a heavy heart. I was shattered by the poverty, the decaying buildings, the uncertain electricity supply and the broken sidewalks. Driving into Yangon, our group paid a number of tolls for which we received no receipt, nothing. How blatantly can you steal money that should be used to benefit ordinary people?

I am worried that the winds of change are not blowing evenly, that some of the weak and the poor will be left behind. 

And then there are the Rohingya — just one poignant example of Myanmar’s new freedoms becoming exploited by bullies and extremists. How can people be treated in such a way — hunted down, homes torched, beaten and killed — in the name of a warped sense of nationalism? Do the perpetrators not know that we are from the same human family?

I was moved by a recent editorial in this newspaper that called it “a moral error” for Myanmar to gloss over its troubles. 

This inter-religious strife, previously confined to one state, is spreading to other parts of Myanmar. Protests are being violently quashed. Swaths of land in villages are being confiscated. I pray that President Thein Sein, his colleagues and the rest of the leadership of Myanmar can all apply their impressive willpower so these tragedies can be addressed. 

Otherwise, I fear that the extraordinary kindness I found there will never be rewarded and that a rare chance — one that I worried we might never see — will be missed. 

If the leadership of Myanmar can come together and embrace all its people, the country can indeed be a land of milk and honey.

AFP

April 19, 2013

Tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled communal violence in Myanmar are in danger as the monsoon season looms, the UN's refugee agency said Friday, warning that operations were desperately underfunded. 

Agency spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters that a "humanitarian catastrophe" could be on the cards. 

"UNHCR is seriously concerned about the risks facing over 60,000 displaced people in flood-prone areas and in makeshift shelters," he told reporters. 

"From May to September, the monsoon season is expected to unleash heavy rains and possible cyclones in Rakhine state, where more than 115,000 people remain uprooted after last year's inter-communal violence," he warned. 

Violence between Myanmar's Buddhist majority and the Rohingya -- described by the UN as among the most persecuted minority groups in the world -- has rocked the western state of Rakhine since June 2012. 

Myanmar views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and denies them citizenship. 

While thousands of Rohingya has taken to the Indian Ocean to escape the strife -- hundreds of whom are thought to have drowned as they try to reach neighbouring nations -- the bulk of those who have fled the violence have remained in Myanmar. 

Some are camped near the coast, where the risk of tidal surges is high, while others are living in paddy fields or low-lying areas that are set to flood when the rains begin. 

"Flooding will exacerbate the already fragile conditions of shelter and sanitation, and increase the risk of water-borne diseases. In addition, several thousand people are still living in tents and flimsy makeshift shelters made of tarpaulin, rice bags and grass that cannot withstand even moderate rains," said Edwards. 

UNHCR has been building bamboo-framed longhouses for 14,400 displaced people and distributed tents to house some 28,000, but money is running short. 

Donors have provided just 14 percent of the $71.4 million UNHCR needs for its Myanmar operation, Edwards underlined.

Himaya Quasem 

Asia Times

April 19, 2013 

PHUKET - In a narrow, damp alley at the heart of this bustling tourist hotspot sits a row of tin-roofed shacks. Hidden from view, they house Rohingya Muslims who have fled sectarian bloodshed in neighboring Myanmar. 

Described by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, the Rohingya - including women and children - have been fleeing the country by boat in growing numbers to escape communal rioting, which has killed an estimated 200 people and left tens of thousands homeless. 

Although Myanmar has been widely praised for adopting democratic reforms after years of isolation, a recent spate of ethnic clashes has raised fresh concerns about its stability. 

Last month, Buddhist mobs were locked in deadly clashes with Muslims, burning homes and mosques, in the central part of the country. The carnage followed similar sectarian violence between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in western Myanmar last year. 

Denied citizenship by the authorities, the stateless Rohingya - who are categorized by the United Nations as a religious and linguistic minority from western Myanmar but widely viewed inside the country as illegal Bengali migrants - seek sanctuary in neighboring countries. 

Some end up in parts of Thailand, including Phuket, which is better known for its sun-drenched beaches and raucous nightlife. Sitting cross-legged on the floor of a shack on the outskirts of Phuket town, Ismail, not his real name, tells a story of suffering and abuse that is a far cry from the carefree domain of the happy holidaymaker. 

"I saw my neighbors' house being burnt to the ground," said the 47-year-old fisherman, recalling the gruesome scenes he witnessed during the violence in Rakhine state. "I could find no sign of my neighbors after that. People were being shot and stabbed. I saw a small child being hacked down like a sapling." 

The conflict erupted in June amid reports that a young Rakhine Buddhist woman had been raped and murdered by Rohingya men. As retaliatory attacks spiraled out of control, entire villages were razed, leaving an estimated 125,000 people homeless, most of them Rohingya. 

A state of emergency was declared, which briefly stemmed the bloodshed, but a fresh wave of violence broke out in October. This time it was not clear what sparked the clashes. Human rights groups have accused the Myanmar security forces of tacitly supporting Rakhine Buddhist outrages against the Rohingya as part of a policy to drive them out of the country. 

The bloodletting certainly prompted Ismail to leave. His boat was destroyed in the rioting and he could no longer feed his family, so he decided to find work abroad. Along with 63 others, he boarded a rickety boat that sailed for 12 days, sometimes through storms, before nearing the Thai coast. 

Ismail said the Thai navy captured them and sold them to people smugglers who took them by truck to a camp in southern Thailand. "We were stuffed into a small house like cattle. I had no idea where I was or what was going on." 

He lived on mouthfuls of rice scooped from a single large bowl he shared with the other captives. They slept in a cramped room next to the only toilet, which was a fetid hole in the ground covered by a sheet, he said. Those were the least of Ismail's worries. The men who were holding him demanded 40,000 baht (US$1,400) as a "fee" for entering Thailand. 

"Some days, without any reason, they would grab me, tie my arms and legs and lay me flat on my stomach," he said. "Then, they started hitting me on my back and legs with heated metal rods and rope. After three or four blows I would pass out." 

Ismail understood that unless he could produce the money, the beatings would not stop. His captors allowed him to contact a fellow Rohingya living in Phuket, who managed to raise some of the funds. The rest came from his wife, who is still in Myanmar. To save her husband's life, she sold a cow and sent the money to his captors via a shadowy network of brokers who took a cut, Ismail said. 

After 24-days in the camp, his ordeal ended and he was sent by bus to Phuket, where he is now living illegally. Down the road from where Ismail lives is a government-run shelter housing children who have recently arrived in Thailand by sea. 

"We were on the boat for days without food, we just had a small amount of water to drink," one of the boys told this writer. "The youngest among us is four years old." 

Although Thailand has provided temporary protection to Rohingya, the government does not register them as refugees. Instead, it adheres to an official policy of "helping on" boat people to a third destination by providing them with food, water and assistance to continue their perilous journey. 

But the Thai Navy has been accused of abuses, like the ones that Ismail describes. These also include shooting at boatloads of Rohingya and selling others to human traffickers. The Thai government has said it will look into the allegations. 

The situation for Rohingya heading to Bangladesh and Malaysia is also far from ideal. An estimated 200,000 Rohingya languish in squalid, unofficial camps on the Bangladeshi coast and only around 28,000 of them have been registered as refugees. After violence erupted in Rakhine, Bangladesh turned away boatloads of fleeing Rohingya. 

While Malaysia takes in Rohingya who arrive at its shores, the country is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees. This means asylum seekers are treated as illegal migrants, making it difficult for them to secure formal work. 

Back in Myanmar, tens of thousands of displaced Rohingya living in overcrowded and unsanitary camps face food shortages and the threat of disease because the government has restricted the flow of aid, said Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phil Robertson. 

However, there is little public support for the Rohingya in Myanmar, said Chris Lewa, head of human rights organization the Arakan Project, which specializes in the minority group. "One key reason is religion," she added. "There is a strong anti-Muslim discourse here." 

Those simmering tensions bubbled to the surface again last month when an apparent argument between a Muslim gold shop owner and Buddhist customers provided the first spark for deadly clashes in the central city of Meikhtila which killed around 43 and left 12,000 homeless, mostly Muslims. 

The latest violence against Muslims, most of whom were not Rohingya, and Buddhists represents a challenge for the nation's democratic reform progress. 

"Who will be next?" said Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington, DC. "This kind of ethnic and religious violence is a slippery slope for a country at such a juncture." 

Many of the Rohingya are just the latest of generations who have lived in Myanmar. Ahmed, who researched the group for his book The Thistle and the Drone, said the Rohingya should be granted citizenship. Such a move would bolster Myanmar's democratic "legitimacy", he added. 

"Whether they can rise above issues of race and religion to be a united and democratic [Myanmar] will be their first and most important test." 

Himaya Quasem, a former reporter for the Sunday Mail, is a Singapore-based journalist.

RB News 

April 19, 2013 

Kitchener: The Rohingya Association Canada based in Kitchener, Ontario sent the below letter to Canadian Foreign Minister Hon. John Baird today. 

RAC also launched a petition “Hold Burmese government responsible for crimes against humanity”. The signatures will be delivered to Foreign Minister of Canada.

Letter to Foreign Minister of Canada

Gwynne Dyer

Arab News

April 19, 2013

Maha Min Khant

RB Article

April 18, 2013 

For the last six months ago, district and township level authorities, comprising multi departments from Rakhine state, have been annoying to take fingerprints from Rohingya people on computer along Rakhine state by the help of the Union Ministries’ directions. 

In fact, the program, under the headline of “ the list of illegal Bengali intruders into Rakhine state from Bangladesh” as a first test step which was started from Pauk-Taw township, the people from that town did not agree to follow the ideas task of the authorities to cooperate in this computer system program, because people believed that --the authorities might have secretly restored some ‘villain’ DATA, that worrying to Rohingya, and which has not been seen clearly to public -- and believed those secretly kept DATA should have been unacceptable and fatally concerned in the next time as a whole. 

Nevertheless they (multi comprised authorities) only wanted collective fingerprints from local people on computer as “Bengali intruders” in the column of national identification-- which the Rohingya people, at this time strongly stand on to identify themselves as Rohingya only, strongly denied and disgusted to cooperate with authorities and since then the plan had been stopped by the Union government in some townships of the central Rakhine state in the past six months ago. 

After having kept quiet for some time (6-7) months, that notorious ILLEGAL BENGALI INTRUDERS tasks have been started by NASAKA, border security forces, in Maung daw and Buthidaung Townships where there are more than (33) military stations since 1994. 

The said electronic fingerprint operation has not been systematic in region-wise to be inclusive all groups but that has been sporadically targeting only on Rohingya Muslims and very few people, who are unaware of the fake data collection or totally inexperienced to guess the degree of the nasty piece of work by the authorities, were being ensnared to seize the mass fingerprints on computer. 

Right now such kind of “Fingerprint dishonest operation” on local people in the region got totally unhappy to the residents after having been suffered multi sufferings particularly since 1990 by the colorful discriminatory policies --which the consecutive Myanmar governments simply adopted against helpless and innocent Rohingya people who the world community regards as the most persecuted people in the world. 

To be able to crush the entire Rohingya community in the region, the then Saw Maung and Than Shwe military government have stationed at least thirty more than military regiments and some Buddhists from mainland were being implanted among Rohingya villages in the region to coordinate with military forces and border guard forces, NASAKA, in need of operation against Rohingya native people. 

Every nation of the world whether small or big, no nation has ministry of attack, but there are ministry of defense to protect the homeland from enemies. But without having any strong intimidating reason or state to state hostilities between Bangladesh and Myanmar border, Myanmar government has stationed such a big sum of military forces since 1994 and so far maintains those forces– that only because to crush against Rohingya people without any reason. Nearly two decades station of the United Nations in the region may well better know and it has had experiences the magnitude of the sorts of oppressive cruelty magnitude against innocent Rohingya by the authorities and the UN may have contributed to the regional and international political arenas to have a lasting solution to the problem. 

Such a guerrilla style fingerprint collecting operation threatens the local Rohingya people at this turmoil situation – meaning turbulent situation all around the country against collective punishment on Muslims which resulted many more fatality, and government could not and cannot handle interestingly to save minority Muslims’ lives, property, livelihoods, religious buildings such as mosques and teaching schools. 

As more, there have been the consecutive governments’ inner schemes to make Rohingya people --as temporary, naturalized, associated and then at last full citizens’ status –after having been examined step by step as if a foreigner has to experience over the issue to become citizen, though Rohingya have never been foreigners in this country in accord to historical background. 

At this point in time, under the pressure of international & regional governments and United Nations bodies which have been asking the government of Myanmar to repeal the 1982 citizenship law, which has been drafted by Ne Win with the help of some Rakhine obstinate educated scholars such as the then U Aye Kyaw and others with the intention of expelling Rohingya of today or to make aliens in their land, has been strictly ‘blocking stone’ particularly for Rohingya to become citizens of the nation and to enjoy that of the citizens rights from legal standpoint. 

Inevitably, the 1982 citizenship law which has been depriving the basic rights of Rohingya people should be reconstructed as per the standard of international level to saving the vanished face of Myanmar democratic government, which has been earning the very bad profile through crisis after crisis, in the sight of world community --and equally the 2008 constitution, which was drafted by the military regime aiming to stop the rightful candidate to become president of the state, be redrafted by the hefty survey of the nationwide for the right man in the right place in the right time whether or not he or she from military background or public figure like Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Su Kyi or anyone else, I don’t care. 

Rohingya are the sons of the soil from time immemorial in this country or in their native land. They have been in the state of inhumane oppressive rule with iron hands of Myanmar consecutive governments with the help of ultra-nationalists Rakhine leaders and that of their followers – whom (Rohingya) to be eliminating, annihilating, depriving, frustrating, and at last leaving their native places to everywhere else whichever country they find in this universe. 

Right now, the above-mentioned Fingerprint movement clearly exhibits that under the directions of Rakhine bigoted leaders such as Aye Maung, Aye Thar Aung and Aye Chan from Japan have been conducting to show up the thoughtless prove to international survey team which coming soon in Rakhine region-- and they have been restless to find some Rohingya scapegoats to reserve in electronic fingerprint as people of aliens and intruders by the combination of Rakhine people local staff from respective departments in the course of union government assistance so that the scheme can reduce a lot Rohingyas as aliens as per their belief. 

Rohingya people after having perceived the real aim and object of the Fingerprint operation, which was handled by NASAKA, the local Rohingya decided not to participate in this obscure activities --feeling that the following clauses are being put and unseen by the individuals Rohingya under the headline of the “list of illegal Bengali intruders into Rakhine state from Bangladesh” --The local people are afraid of in cooperating with the team suspecting that the following clauses are included as “trap definition”. All individual Rohingya are afraid of Fingerprint that the following sentences and words are might have included in the Electronic Signature Screen Page. 

1. If they are illegal intruders from Bangladesh to Myanmar 
2. If they are illegal immigrants into Myanmar 
3. If they are currently applying for naturalized citizens and associated citizens of Myanmar 
4. If they are willingly leaving the country and going to third countries 
5. If they are willingly relinquishing the firms, cultivable lands, livelihoods, properties, buildings and houses so on. 
6. With own volition, if they are agreeing to live in Internally Displaced Camps which built by the local government and so on. 

Rohingya have been afraid of being trapped in this opaque Fingerprint operation. Unless the operation is transparent with members of stratus, Fingerprint activities should not be conducted by one-sided because it hurts again and again on the most oppressed community of the world of seven billion people and they have no more get-up-and-go to bear the burden of operation after operation. 

If the union government needs for such a census or sort of operation, the first-rate combined staffers inclusively Rohingyas local people and those honest ones, who are law abiding in line principal of national, regional and international community, be involved and typically surveyed to accomplish the operation instead of the exclusive staffers, such as Rakhine school teachers, students, immigration departments, and volunteers who are the members of RNDP, ALD and Arakan Liberation forces members. All Rakhine mass and class are in a good dream of annihilation of Rohingya people from our ancestral land.