RB News

April 26, 2013 

Ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity have been committed against Myanmar's ethnic Rohingya people, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based nongovernmental organisation. 

According to the report released on Monday, entitled All You Can Do is Pray, more than 125,000 ethnic Rohingya have been forcibly displaced since two waves of violence in May and October 2012. Satellite images show almost 5,000 structures on land mostly owned by Muslim Rohingya have been destroyed, says the report. 

The October attacks, the report states, were co-ordinated by Myanmar government officials, an ethnic Rakhine nationalist party and Buddhist monks. The deadliest attack took place on October 23, in which witnesses say at least 70 Rohingya - including 28 children - were massacred in Mrauk-U Township. 

BROUK President Tun Khin highlighted in interview “There is no safety and security for Muslims in Burma. There is no talk or solution - to return to Rohingya’s to their original villages and towns, to amend 1982 citizenship law from President Thein Sein .Rohingya IDPs in Sittwe and other towns facing blocking of aid, facing threat from Rakhine and government security forces, many Rohingya women are facing difficulties even to deliver their babies as authorise blocked medical aid, Rohingya can not buy food from market and can not go to hospital, Children are dying day by in IDP camps. It is shocking to see EU is lifting sanctions. Last year EU resolution mentioned that Status for Rohingyas and improving welfares of Rohingyas is one of the Benchmarks and that benchmark has not been met yet, Instead more than 140,000 Rohingya become IDPs living in camps and President Thein Sein is implementing his proposed ethnic cleansing plan to get rid of Rohingya from Towns and villages to camps to send to third world countries”. 

(Continued from Part 1 http://bit.ly/13R42iL)

Maha Min Khant

RB Article

April 26, 2013

Having been crying out due to rule of law by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in her previous tour around Europe and the United States, voice of the voiceless rule of law committee was established by the Pyithu Hluttaw or Lower house of representative recently -- which leading by Daw Aung Suu Kyi as chair has nothing to do to put forth the power --that invested her as show off-- to authorities concerned --whilst neither the state President nor Chairman of the lower house wants the rule of law to be strong and uphold effectively in every sector. 

Instead of every wise man’s honest advice to you while you were going to form the investigation team to be involving equal stakeholders in that Rakhine state phenomenon which was created by RNDP and others, you have dishonestly put all Rakhine criminals in that investigation team and some fare and square from proper Bamar people—but you have ignorantly set aside the stakeholders (representatives of Rohingyas) to be in that team rather you said there were Muslims members in the team. It was the way you have done by your consultants who are besides you and since that time on wards regional and international community have been pointing out their fingers as a great suspicion about the result of the investigation team –which you will announce on 24 of April 2013. 

Though your gross assumption due to finding out of the bosses of Rakhine assailants and that of their inhumane activities-- which were being clued in previous memo to the lower house of Parliament to be read out—your office hesitation and shilly-shallying to punish the culprits timely after a ‘rumor release of boycott’ of RNDP party --if the facts findings were thoroughly read out in the parliament—and then that RNDP rumor threat makes further derailing of the racial problem to be spreading out more over in some different locations in proper Burma and embolden Rakhine underground and aboveground bosses-- assailants and that of their hatred fake Buddhist monks preachers all over the country to destabilize the harmonious community—and that makes worse the plight of Rohingya and overall Muslims people into gulf at this situation. 

Your excellences—you being as the President of the state, you are our father as we are your sons and daughters—don’t you—considerably we have seen that you have visited to the victims of ‘Letpadaungtaung copper crisis’s victims and cheered and asked pardon as the president of the state and that scene good sense and we were very happy—but likewise you might have visited to the victims of Rakhine state to cheer and share their plight as the president of the state and the Rohingya and Kaman victims would have been pleased with you about your empathy that you may keep on them—and the Mittila victims as well would have been yearning your paying visit to them to listen, to help solve and share their suffering as if you have paid visit to Letpadaungtaung. 

Neither the President Thein Sein nor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi who greedily and rhetorically wanted to be the next president of the state that I have seen around—how you all Burmese leaders whether military base educated or secularly scholars poorly inherited the legacy of discriminatory policies from your forefathers and then become grumble against Islam and Muslims—why don’t you the state leaders have fare and square outlook on your citizens like your neighborly countries—see the Thai Prime minister ‘Yinlakshinawatara’ how she practices on Muslims minority and how beautiful she behaves and pray together in gathering —why don’t you take lesson from them --and haven’t you ever think about just a ‘glance’ on Muslims victims about to ask their current plight in your country. 

In contrast, you and your office close staffers have been very busy to havoc the state affairs and to make complicate superior thing to off beam and – innocent people are to be put in jail and the culprits are to be freed to make things more worse in the country and commit more crimes against innocent humanity. 

As past is past, you as a president, you are needed to show off your empathy that you have on your citizens—you should have to fulfill your pledge that you have promised in the year 2012 September 27 at the United Session and the Secretary General—that you have promised the President Barak Hussein Obama—that you have signed the Asean Charter and United Nations. 

But as far as we have experienced your cabinet ministers like Thein Htay and Khin Ye are the worst ministers and very stubborn—they make rhetoric expression differently in different places—tarnishing Rohingyas prestige and honor without knowledge though they are sons of the soil. The recent meeting (10-04-2013) with the Rakhine state peace and stability committee should be very honest and rushing to complete their task before first rain coming down at the start of May as because the shed like camps throughout Sittwe, Pauktaw, Myaybon and KyaukPyu are very likely to be washed away under the first torrential rain coming down in mid May. 

Dishonestly prolonging the drawing of the project for reconciliation and rehabilitation of the Rakhine state and that of the both Rakhine and Rohingya community—like so called ten years or long time project is needed and separation settlement forever, uncertain livelihood of Muslims and deprivation of education from Primary to University, adoption of discrimination policies against Rohingya and Muslims—restriction on movement, livelihood, marriages, expansion of military battalions, rapping the women by military forces, extortion of money by armed forces & Rakhine armed gangers, burning of houses, unjust law or arbitrary arrest for being Rohingya and Kaman as being Muslims, being all anti Muslims attackers are “above the law” to punish Muslims, and no rule of law at courts and along the offices of Rakhine state --are nothing but forcing them to be leaving from their original ancestral land to wherever – these all would be the real project of President Thein Sein—which he once talked with UNHCR high Commissioner for Refugees Mr. Antinio Guetaras who neglected the president proposal. 

At this new Myanmar year calendar, I wish President Thein Sein be the father of the citizens and my country is full of prosperity, with rule of law, bursting of reconciliation and harmonious social community which see the whole universe as a blessing of our golden country— 

If not people around the world will rush to say, discuss and settle the long lasting problem from the ground assisting oppressed human being who are under annihilation plot and voice of the voiceless.

Bangkok Post

April 26, 2013

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, BRUNEI : Thailand and Myanmar have agreed to open three more permanent border checkpoints to give a boost to economic development.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Myanmar President Thein Sein agreed on the Myanmar-proposed initiative on the sidelines of the 22nd Asean Summit in Brunei which ended yesterday. 

Deputy government spokesman Phakdeeharn Himathongkham said Ms Yingluck thanked the Myanmar government for raising the issue. 

The checkpoints are between Thailand's Three Pagodas Pass in Kanchanaburi province and Myanmar's Phayatongsu town; Ban Nam Pu Ron in Kanchanaburi and Myanmar's Tiki town; and the Singkorn temporary checkpoint in Prachuap Khiri Khan and Myanmar's Mortong town, he said. 

Mr Phakdeeharn said Ms Yingluck told Thein Sein that opening three more checkpoints would help strengthen ties between Thailand and Myanmar. 

He said Ms Yingluck took the opportunity during her meeting to follow up an earlier request made by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul about Rohingya migrants. 

He called for the Myanmar government to send officials to Thailand to investigate the Rohingya migrants being detained here. 

Mr Surapong said during the Asean Foreign Ministers Meeting in Brunei this month that he had sought cooperation from his Myanmar counterpart Wunna Maung Lwin to help return about 2,000 detained Rohingya to Myanmar. 

Wunna Maung Lwin had pledged to take them back if his officials found they truly came from Myanmar's Rakhine state. 

Mr Phakdeeharn said the two leaders also discussed the progress of the Dawei deep-sea port development project after Thailand and Myanmar earlier set up a joint committee to monitor the project. 

He said Ms Yingluck told Thein Sein that Thailand had finished drafting a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) shareholder agreement. 

She said she would like the Myanmar side to consider it. 

The agreement sets the environment of shareholder rights and regulations for the management and operational policies of the project. 

Mr Phakdeeharn said the two countries agreed they would meet to further discuss finance and investment issues for the project and would invite Japan to join the talks next month. 

At the Asean Summit, Ms Yingluck proposed the connectivity of the three Asean pillars _ political-security, economic, and socio-cultural communities _ through cultural activities and tourism to promote public interaction. 

She also wants to push forward assistance in medicine, public health, and education.

The Australian

April 26, 2013

The West might need to reconsider economic sanctions 

MYANMAR's rulers will need to do better than just release another batch of political prisoners if they want to assuage mounting concern that the international community may have gone too far, too soon in rewarding them for progress towards dismantling dictatorship and establishing democracy. 

After the UN concluded that the country's Rohingya Muslims were among the most persecuted minorities on earth, the Human Rights Watch organisation has issued an even more damning report -- a shameful indictment of a regime that the world has tried to help.

The HRW report details ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity committed by chauvinist Buddhist mobs. It includes footage of police and soldiers standing by idly or joining violence that has left hundreds dead and wounded and 150,000 homeless.

Many Rohingya, who are denied citizenship, are living in appalling conditions. They are seeking to flee in rickety boats, adding to the wave of desperate asylum-seekers in our region.

By failing to end the violence, President Thein Sein's government has breached repeated assurances given to the international community in return for lifting sanctions. 

In the case of the EU which, like Australia, has now cancelled all sanctions other than an arms embargo, Myanmar promised to release all political prisoners, end the persecution of the Rohingya and improve their status and welfare. 

That hasn't happened. And while the regime has announced the release of another 60 political prisoners, hundreds more remain incarcerated.

It was always naive to be starry-eyed about the Myanmar regime's democratic pretensions. Lifting economic sanctions in return for political reform made sense, but only as long as Mr Sein and his colleagues kept their side of the bargain.

The international community has lost a substantial part of its leverage, but it must maintain its pressure not just on Mr Sein but also on opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been regrettably mute about the outrages. 

Foreign Minister Bob Carr is right to advocate robust discussion about human rights and democracy with the regime. A new order in which abuses such as those against the Rohingya are allowed will be a democracy in name only, little better than the odious dictatorship of the past 50 years.

Wayne Hay

Al Jazeera

April 24, 2013

Thousands of Muslim refugees stuck in squalid camps in Rakhine state, left to wait for government to decide their fate.

For Muslims displaced by last year's religious violence in western Myanmar, there is no light at the end of the tunnel and the strain is beginning to show.

I have visited the refugee camps on the outskirts of the Rakhine State capital, Sittwe, several times, but this was my first visit in six months and I was struck by several changes, none of them positive.

More than 100,000 people remain homeless after attacks that were at first described as communal clashes. Subsequent violence and burning made it clear, however, that this had been largely an anti-Muslim campaign.

Most of the people in the camps are Rohingya Muslims, an ethnic group largely viewed as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. Their homes were burned down by groups of Buddhists as part of a campaign that Human Rights Watch described as ethnic cleansing.

The only way refugees can leave the camps is by getting on a boat and heading south in the hope of finding a better future in Thailand or Malaysia, but few can afford the bribes that need to be paid along the way. For many Rohingya, there is no choice but to sit and wait for the Myanmar government to decide their fate.

Government promises

The best they can hope for, at the moment, is for is some sort of more permanent housing to be built by the government. Such shelter has been promised for some time, but not delivered.

In my previous visits there had been a lot more fervor in the camps. People surrounded us, wanting to tell us their often-horrific stories. We were asked to spread the word to the international community.

Those feelings and memories haven't gone away, of course, but this time I was left with the sense that the refugees are understandably being worn down. An air of hopelessness is setting in.

People are hungry, but there is plenty of food around. People are dying, even though there is a hospital just down the road. If you were a Muslim caught up in the violence, your freedoms have now been taken away.

Yet, amid the desperation there are incredible stories of people helping their own. I was fortunate to meet Maung Maung Hla, a health worker who for 30 years was employed by the government to provide assistance at hospitals in Rakhine State.

Ten months ago, the government stopped paying him. Why? Because he's Rohingya. Now, he lives and works in the camps providing what medical assistance he can to those who live there.

There is not enough medicine to go around and not enough room for those who need in-patient treatment in his tiny medical centre.

Buddhist doctors make brief visits from the town and very occasionally a seriously ill patient is allowed to be taken to the main Sittwe hospital for treatment and medication. In some cases, much-needed surgery is denied because the patient is a Muslim.

Maung Maung Hla busily moved from one end of the medical centre to the other. He took the blood pressure of pregnant women, checked the cast on a fisherman's broken leg, and provided what little comfort he could to a man who was bitten by a rabid dog and was having regular seizures.

The man will die soon and should be in a proper hospital. He's not, because of his religion.

I asked Maung Maung Hla why he continued to do this work even though the government has cut him off. He broke down and said his people have no one else to turn to.

The people of these camps are not just being let down by the government of Myanmar, but by governments around the world who continue to trip over themselves in the rush to reap the financial rewards on offer in this evolving democracy.

Ibrahim Shah

RB Opinion

April 24, 2013

Perpetually, Since 1942, the state-sponsored genocide against Rohingya has been taking place in western Burma/Myanmar, in particular, Rohingya populous quarters. How extreme injustice it is –the Burmese Buddhist imperialist treat between Rohingya and Rakhine by double standard rules in one territory i.e. the Rakhine Buddhist are superior and the Rohingya Muslims are inferior like lord and slave. And also imposed restrictions from head to feet in every Rohingya areas. According to the authentic source of Arakan history, Rohingya are the oldest native people of northern Arakan and the Mogh today Rakhine are of the southern Arakan. After Arakan was invaded by chauvinist Burmese King Bowdaw Phaya in 1784, he and some Rakhine Buddhist extremists instigated Islamophobia to eradicate Islam. The Burmese perpetrators gradually stripped of all Rohingya rights. After five decades, since there are a lot of sanctions from UN over Myanmar dictatorship, Myanmarese imperialists dramatically elected a new democratic regime participation of MPs who are mostly with direct military uniform amongst higher rank and some are with civil dress in 2010. Amid the reform process goes ahead, the Burmese militarist regime chief,  president Thein Sein made conspiracies with Rakhine extremists to deport the entire Rohingya eliminating from democratic reforms. Its main motive is to consolidate the maneuver eternally to influence predominantly the state -Burma by militarist regime. 

In February 2012, a book titled –The occidental territory Magazine 1, in Burmese Passima RetHwang, in which it is evidently prescribed firmly to ethnocentrically protect the race and the country by Racism of Buddhism of Nationalism. The printed copy limited was about 2500 and it triggered to diffuse racism and Xenophobic instigation throughout the western Burma, Rakhine state. That discriminatory instigation book was put out under supervision of the chiefs of all concerned authorities including monks who are in charge in western Burma. 

According to a report from a local Rakhine site, it is well learned he, president Thein Sein released under presidential amnesty some murder-guilty charged of death penalty and brought in Taunggup. And created a dramatic occurrence to accomplish Rohingya genocide i.e. three Muslim men gang-raped a Buddhist woman named ms Ma Thida Htwe, looted her ornaments and murdered her on 28th May 2012, in fact, she was murdered politically by motivation of the chairperson of RNDP vet. Aye Maung. 

Furthermore, on 3rd June 2012 the Rakhine mobs  attacked a Bus and killed 10 innocent muslim pilgrims of out-state on the spot. According to the official state news agency (The New Light Of Myanamar June 4th), it is expressed that the mob about 300 Rakhine men; it seemed that the government itself motivated it thus they predicted the estimated number of the attackers. Following an interview with local eyewitness by Burmese researchers, it is learnt that there were altogether six buses travelling on the same route at about the same time on 3rd June. Nevertheless, the mob attacked dragging down the pilgrims from bus, however, the police were watching standing while the mob was attacking because it was pre-planned by higher authorities how to trigger religious riots against Rohingya. Immediately arrested three innocent Rohingya convicting unjustly over the gang-rape issue. The militarist officials tortured inhumanely the three Muslims who were convicted falsely and one of them named Htet Htet was killed amid torturing but officially reported Htet Htet committed suicide. It is mockery – how it is possible to commit suicide where the interrogation hall is infamous in Burma and there is guarded surrounding by special security forces . 

According to observation of one in-country researcher over the report of post-mortem on Ma Thida Htwe, it is expressed no trace of rape over her murdered body. Meanwhile, the ministry deceptively expressed by fabricated report that she was heavily sexual assaulted before looted and murdered. Undoubtedly, it is childish-oral services of Burmese successive militarist officials to pursue international trust. Forcibly, the rest two were hanged up without any legal judgment immediately. 

The dilly-dally of doggy Burmese militarist officials over mob attack — why the authorities did not even try to access photographic evidence or video records of the 3rd June slaughter of Muslims on the streets in broad day light, which they must surely have in their police and intelligence archives? Masterminds of that incident who would have been most certainly charged on either intelligence digital cameras or video cameras could easily be identified. 

Since the regime head, the foremost Chief-mentor of xenophobia, president Thein Sein deliberately diffused anti-Rohingya and anti-Islam propaganda across the country, it triggered genocide based on above mentioned dramatic gang-rape issue. Since June 2012, it deliberately happened one-sided violence i.e. genocide Rohingya across the Rakhine state which yielded terrible result such as casualties are high, buried in mass graves, more than one hundred thousands are internally displaced, many are missed, most Rohingya minor and aged women are raped inhumanely, children are slaughtered, Rohingya properties are completely ruined, and increased daily threats from Rakhine local extremists including Nasaka (Border guard force of western Burma) to flee desperately, etc. 

Once international media, government bodies, NGOs, INGOs, etc raised their deeply concerns against slaughtering and destruction, finally in September 2012 the pseudo reformist, genocidal Burmese president Thien Sein officially accused of Rohingya as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh, in his term Bengali instead of Rohingya, and proposed reportedly UNHCR chief Mr. Guterres to deport Rohingya into any third countries. It is disgusted to hear such discriminatory assertion from the head of a state! Later, it is going on atrocities much more times increasingly than ever on the vulnerable Rohingya by every classes of Buddhists of both officials and locals. 

Since the implementation of hidden genocide strategic planning by President Thein Sein with the advice of propaganda chief, his predecessor, former junta currently self-retired, Junta Than Shwe, is exposed evidently in front of the world bodies concerns, he, President Thein Sein asserted government will stop further violence aiming to pursue international trust over his brutal regime. Amid coming of more donations from Muslim countries vastly , he tactfully assured international bodies for better treatment on IDPs and also stressed he will open schools for Rohingya children so that Rohingya can become more social for survival easily by peaceful co-existence with Rakhine Buddhists. 

After some days UNHCR chief rejected the presidential proposal of deportation Rohingya. The regime amalgamated with Buddhist devilish monks and transferred them secretly the slaughter- burden strategic planning for Rohingya genocide. The terrorist Buddhist monks chief of central Burma, Mandalay region, monk Wirathu fixed Islamophobia mindset in every Buddhist families by the motto: “Protect the race and protect the religion Buddhism of Nationalism.” 

When Islamic countries condemned strongly over the genocidal strategic of Burmese regime against Rohingya, Burmese genocidal President Thein Sein willingly invited OIC chief to launch scrutiny in Rakhine state, western Burma. Deceptively to retract the invitation, he made alternatively nation-wide dramatic demonstration. Meanwhile, the Buddhist terrorists under leadership of Wirathu demonstrated across the state to be banned opening OIC branches in Sittwe, capital of Rakhine province and in Yangon. Absolutely most aid agencies for Rohingya are blocked and finally banned opening OIC branch. 

Currently, it is too terrible and deplorable that local Rakhine extremists, Buddhist monks, political party operatives and government officials organized themselves to permanently change the ethnic demographic of the state. Unjustly, he, president Thein Sein invited warmly Bengali-Rakhine families to be settled in the Rohingya areas, recently, forcing Rohingya to flee abroad. How a chronic liar is he-genocidal President Thein Sein! To conceal the Genocide on Rohingya, he, president Thein Sein, incited series of riots based on the riot in Rakhine State across the country i.e. Meikhtila (Central Burma) where about 18000 Muslims are displaced, Yangon, Bago, Irrawady, etc. 

Furthermore, the neo-Nazi movement with LOGO 969 led by monk Wirathu incited a fresh Islamophobic instigation across the country; however, Burmese regime is so quiet and watching staying behind how hastily it could be diminished Islamic followers. What is concealed at the bottom of dilly-dally to release report of violence in Rakhine while other report of riots in Yangon and LATPANDAUNG MINE PROJECT are released within hardly few days -- it is postponed 5 times to release the report of violence in Rohingya quarters, western Burma. Its key motive is to conceal and delete the actual fact findings concerned brutalities on the world most vulnerable Rohingya ethnic minority who are stripped of citizen rights since 1962. 

Following a statement of UN Special envoy on human rights of Myanmar, Mr. Quintana, expressed the camps of Rohingya IDPs as “it is more likely prison’’. It is to ponder critically when it will be finished building up houses for Rohingya IDPs while it is already built up many houses for Rakhine duplicate IDPs. Amid more criticism over inhumanely treatment on Rohingya community, in an interview by ABC Radio Australia the spokesperson of President’s office Ye Htut told Myanmar would not provide a better treatment for Rohingya. 

Eventually, it is focused critically over the Hocus-Pocus of genocidal Burmese president Thein Sein who has not yet implemented even one assertion concerned Rohingya plight crisis, it would be seen only series of crimes against humanity. Negatively, he implemented all his hocus-pocus i.e. all the religious buildings both schools and Mosques are locked up from concerned authorities in every Rohingya quarters instead of ‘’Opening schools for Rohingya children’’, restricted tightly more than ever for all sides including going out for earning food, banned medical treatment for Rohingya, stopped distribution of emergency drugs for serious patients, and seriously famine goes over Rohingya society in most Rohingya quarters which are situated nearby army camps, security forces camps, police camps and border guard camps, etc. Nowadays Burmese government is silent on gang-bang i.e. many Rohingya married women and virgins are kept detained inside military camps as sex-slaves who are inhumanely sexual assaulted by many soldiers. 

Additionally, it is increasingly going on Bengalization formula, in particular, named ‘’computerized finger-print operation’’ against Rohingya peculiarly in Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Rathedaung and Sittwe. Rohingya are threatened and tortured to acknowledge themselves as Bengali ancestry instead of Rohingya ancestry. According to local witnessed, the operation is imposed by the neo-Nazi Buddhism of Nationalism movement with 969 logo which key attempt is A. only to build up the land, Burma as Buddhist land B. also to keep the Rohingya in overcrowded camps until any third country welcome. 

Forcibly, if global institutions of all sorts , do not make Genocidal Burmese president Thein Sein postpone his hocus-pocus on Rohingya crisis, he will eternally dilly-dally to fulfill international demands over the Rohingya plight crisis. Militaristically, he, genocidal President of Burma Thein Sein, is a chronic player how to deceive people around the world with both diplomacy and violence.

ARAKAN ROHINGYA NATIONAL ORGANISATION 

ARAKAN, BURMA 

Press Release 

April 24, 2013 

UN Intervention and Commission of Inquiry Most Urgent 

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) welcomes the 153-page report of the Human Rights Watch (HRW) dated 22 April 2013 which titled “ ‘All You Can Do is Pray’: Crimes Against Humanity and Ethnic Cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Burma’s Arakan State” . 

In its report, HRW has said that crimes against humanity have been committed by the Burmese authorities and Rakhine Buddhist groups in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in Burma’s Arakan State. 

The report revealed that government authorities destroyed mosques, conducted violent mass arrest and blocked aid to the displaced Muslims in Arakan since June 2012 deadly violence. The Buddhist mobs attacked the Muslim communities in nine townships, razing villages and killing residents while security forces stood aside or assisted the assailants. The prestigious and credible right group (HRW) said it has uncovered evidence of 4 mass-grave sites in Arakan State. There might be more mass-graves in northern Arakan and to this piece of evidence and information we invite the attention of the UN with the international community to act in response to its ‘responsibility to protect’. 

We, therefore: 

1. Request the UNSC to immediately discuss and intervene in these serious international crimes and send UN Observers and UN Commission of Inquiry in order to protect the lives, property, honour and dignity of the vulnerable and helpless Rohingya and other Muslim communities in their segregated displacement camps and villages, and also to reveal the findings in public and bring the perpetrators to justice. 

2. Request the International Criminal Court to perceive and act in accordance with its spirit “to end impunity and achieve justice for all” 

3. Call on the international community, UN, OIC, US, UK, EU, ASEAN and neighbouring countries, including India and China, to put pressure on the Burmese government to put an immediate end to the persecution and abuses against the Rohingyas and other Muslims. 

4. Demand Burmese government to scrap the oppressive Burma Citizenship Law of 1982 or amend it to conform to international standards and grant full citizenship rights and ethnic rights to the Rohingyas. 

5. Further demand that the Burmese government disband the “969” Neo-Nazi anti-Muslim movement led by firebrand monk Wirathu and spread of hate speeches and leaflets, stickers by extremists against the Muslim communities, and hold the perpetrators responsible. 

6. Recall the dire situation of IDPs’ camps where more than 125,000 Muslims have taken shelter and reiterate the upcoming rainy season and its humanitarian consequence. 

7. Urge the Burmese government to allow international NGOs and aid workers to run unhindered humanitarian aids to the Muslim displacement camps and villages or it will be responsible for the humanitarian catastrophes involving the lives of people. 

8. Request all individuals and organisations to contact their respective MPs or representatives and authorities to create pressure on the government of Burma for a durable solution for this calamitous crisis.

For more information, please contact: 

Nurul Islam: + 44-7947854652 

Aman Ullah: + 8801558486910 

Email: info@rohingya.org 

www.rohingya.org

IRIN News

April 24, 2013

RAKHINE STATE - More than 125,000 displaced Rohingya in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State are bracing for this year’s punishing monsoon rains. 

“There’s no real shelter here. People are getting diseases and the rainy season will make it even worse,” Ali Mia, a 45-year-old Rohingya father-of-six, whose home in Sittwe, the capital city of Rakhine State, was burned during inter-communal violence in June, told IRIN. 

Set to begin as early as May, the rains will come in daily downpours, which, in the crowded and unsanitary conditions of Rakhine’s dozens of camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), could hasten the spread of disease, aid workers warn. 

“We’re very worried with the monsoon season coming up. If these people are not relocated we could see a very big humanitarian problem, [including] disease outbreaks,” said Peter Paule de Groote, the head of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Myanmar. "The water level will rise and some of it will be very, very muddy, if not flooded, and there’s nowhere for them to go.” 

Sectarian clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in June and October left 167 dead, hundreds injured and more than 125,000 displaced in Rakhine State, according to government estimates. 

More than 10,000 homes were burned or destroyed in the violence. 

Under Burmese law, the Rohingya are de jure stateless. There are an estimated 800,000 Rohingya in Myanmar and human rights groups say they have long faced persecution and discrimination. 

On 19 April [ http://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/monsoon-approaches-fears-rise-displaced-myanmars-rakhine-state ], the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) called for urgent action and increased financial support to improve conditions of the displaced to avert a “humanitarian catastrophe”. 

Some have camped in paddy fields or low-lying areas that will flood once the rains start. 

Already, international aid groups are reporting high cases of respiratory and skin infections, worms and diarrhoea in the camps they have visited. Such diseases are much more likely to spread in sodden conditions, they warn.

Moreover, the onset of rains will likely be accompanied by a spike in water-borne diseases, and the camp’s primitive latrines remain vulnerable to overflowing from rainfall. 

“The water and sanitation situation is appalling,” said MSF's de Groote. 

Unregistered lack assistance 

But it is the risk of those displaced not yet registered with the authorities that is most worrying. 

While partners are providing life-saving assistance to more than 100,000 IDPs registered by the government, there is a sizable population (15,000 individuals) that is displaced but has yet to be allowed access to humanitarian aid. 

Several thousand are living in makeshift sites that have not been sanctioned by the government. IDPs in these locations receive limited to no assistance as opposed to those in official camps. 

Unlike in official camps, where residents are supplied with waterproof tents, residents of Maw Than Mia, home to some 1,000 unregistered displaced, sleep in tiny huts constructed of nothing more than thatched straw. 

They are particularly vulnerable because their camp is spread across a low-lying field which, previously used for rice cultivation, is designed to flood. 

Aid agencies are calling on the government to address the shelter needs as a matter of priority, noting adequate land needs to be identified and allocated and challenges related to water and sanitation addressed, particularly in Myebon and Pauktaw. 

Inter-agency plans 

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, humanitarian partners, in collaboration with the government, have developed an inter-agency preparedness plan for Rakhine running from March to June. 

The plan aims to address preparedness and response actions with specific sector/cluster response plans for two scenarios: 1) a potential natural hazard such as a cyclone which would affect over 250,000 people across the state and 2) a potential deterioration of the humanitarian situation during the rainy season, particularly in the camps.

The Inquisitr

April 24, 2013

Myanmar President Thein Sein received a peace prize on Monday despite reports that he participated in, or at least endorsed, ethnic cleansing in the country. 

While Myanmar has been celebrated for his quick democratization, not everything is going well for its people. The Rohyngya have steadily attempted to escape from the country amid escalating violence aimed at them.

A new Human Rights Watch report on Myanmar’s ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people was released this weekend. The HRW’s report was made on the sectarian violence that struck in Arakan state last year. 

While more than 200 people were killed in the region, more than 125,000 were made homeless through mass arson, looting, and cold-blooded murder. The fighting erupted between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and the stateless Muslim Rohingya. 

The Human Rights Watch accused the Rakhine in the report of instigating the bloodshed. It also implicated state authorities for allowing the group to continue with no resistance. More violence against the ethnic Muslims erupted last month, threatening the country’s stability. 

But despite the report from the HRW, the International Crisis Group presented Sein with their “In Pursuit of Peace” award. The ceremony was hosted by ICG President Louise Arbour, who also served as a UN high commissioner for human rights. 

Arbour was also a lead prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. On its website, the ICG praised Sein, saying: 

“Since taking office in March 2011, President U Thein Sein of Myanmar has pioneered a historic transformation of his country with bold reform initiatives. His leadership has seen decisive action towards improving Myanmar’s relations with the political opposition and liberalizing past repressive laws.” 

But not everyone in the international community agreed with the ICG’s assessment of Sein. Along with the Human Rights Watch, hacktivist collective Anonymous andseveral others have called for support for the Rohingya. The HRW’s report instead blames some in Sein’s government and Bhuddist monks for carrying out the systematic campaign to cleans Rohingya Muslims from the Rakhine state. 

As for Sein’s part in the matter, the Myanmar president stated in July 2012 that the “only solution” to the violence in Rakhine state would be to expel “illegal” Rohingya from the country. 

Do you think Thein Sein deserves the peace prize for democracy in Myanmar, or should he instead be investigated for war crimes against the Rohingya?

AAP
April 24, 2013

FOREIGN Minister Bob Carr has welcomed the European Union's decision to lift sanctions on Myanmar (Burma), but remains concerned by ethnic violence in the impoverished South-East Asian nation. 

EU foreign ministers agreed to lift the last of the bloc's trade, economic and individual sanctions against Myanmar, hailing "a new chapter" with the once pariah state.

During a visit to Brussels in March, Myanmar's president Thein Sein urged the EU to lift sanctions, saying "we are one of the poorest countries in the world".

EU ministers noted there were "still significant challenges to be addressed" around hostilities in Kachin state and improving the plight of the Rohingya people.

Senator Carr, who lobbied EU foreign ministers for the change, said he also wanted Myanmar's government to more effectively address religious and ethnic violence.

"These are deep-seated conflicts and I welcome President Thein Sein's commitment to hold an investigation into recent violence", he said in a statement.

"Promoting and, where necessary, having robust discussions about human rights and democracy in Myanmar will remain a central element of our engagement."

Australia lifted travel and financial sanctions on Myanmar on June last year, but its arms embargo against the nation remains in place.

The EU also upheld its ban on arms trading with the South-East Asian nation.

Apriadi Gunawan

The Jakarta Post

April 24, 2013

The National Police prohibited lawyers representing Myanmar Muslim Rohingya refugees from accompanying their clients during a reenactment of a homicide in Belawan in which eight Buddhist Myanmar citizens were killed on Tuesday. 

Members of the legal team from the North Sumatra Legal and Human Rights Advocacy (PAHAM) and the Muslim Lawyers Team (TPM) were turned away by police officers guarding the scene of the reenactment at the Belawan Port Police station, despite the fact that the legal team, led by PAHAM director Dodi Chandra, presented a letter of appointment signed by the suspects.

“We showed the letter of appointment but we were still forced to leave by the police. We were not allowed to represent our clients, who were carrying out the reenactment,” Dodi told The Jakarta Post after failing to meet his clients on Tuesday.

Dodi said they had been waiting for the police’s permission to accompany their clients in the reenactment from 9 a.m. but had been turned away. He said it was a rights violation because every suspect had a right to legal representation. 

”What’s wrong with this? Why are the police so secretive in the reenactment involving our clients? We believe the police are hiding something,” said Dodi, who plans to report the matter to the National Police and North Sumatra Police chiefs.

Seventeen refugees who have been named suspects took part in the reenactment, which was heavily guarded. When contacted for confirmation, Belawan Port Police deputy chief Comr. Robertus Pandiangan denied preventing the lawyers from attending the reenactment.

He said only the 17 suspects attended so that they could calmly reenact the events of the April 5 clash. 

”We reenacted 27 scenes today [Tuesday] from the clash until after,” Robertus said, adding that the outcome of the reenactment would be submitted to the prosecutor’s office.

He added that based on the reenactment, the clash between the Muslim refugees and the Buddhist fishermen was sparked by sexual harassment of women refugees by the fishermen.

Robertus said the crime was not premeditated.

Francis Wade

Asia Correspondent

April 23, 2013

At a glitzy dinner tonight in New York, where the cover charge for a table can reach heady six figure sums, Burma’s President Thein Sein will be honoured with the International Crisis Group’s top peace award. Across the pond he will receive additional applause from the EU in the form of a termination of all sanctions on Burma, except for its arms embargo.

Yet away from the pomp of the ICG awards ceremony, a starkly different picture has been painted. Human Rights Watch released a report Monday that wholly implicates Burma’s government in crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing in Arakan state. This isn’t the conclusion of an investigation into the former junta’s rights record, but instead something very current, and for which Thein Sein bears responsibility.

“The Burmese government and security forces are responsible for attacks on the Rohingya [last year] in which crimes against humanity were committed,” said Matthew Smith, a consultant with HRW. Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of HRW, said in a statement that the government “engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya that continues today through the denial of aid and restrictions on movement”.

The emphasis of the report, which the group put together using extensive testimonies collected on the ground in Arakan state, is official complicity in the displacement of 125,000 Rohingya, and the deaths of hundreds. The intended end result of this campaign of violence, which has involved local politicians, NGOs and security forces, as well as civilians, is the removal of an entire ethnic group, either through death or displacement.

To date, the government has denied any responsibility for the two major waves of violence in June and October last year. It said in response to HRW’s accusations of complicity by security forces that the claims were “unfounded and not true information … [security forces] took security measures day and night without taking sides and without discrimination of race and religion”.

Eyewitnesses in Arakan state tell otherwise – police, army and the NaSaKa border security group were directly involved in razing houses and escorting violent mobs of Arakanese into Rohingya areas. In Yan Thei village in Mrauk U, police “assisted the killings by disarming the Rohingya of their sticks and other rudimentary weapons they carried to defend themselves,” HRW said. It also details an incident in which a government truck dumped 18 Rohingya bodies outside a Rohingya camp, a practice that is consistent with the campaign of intimidation that is often an ingredient in ethnic cleansing.

Over in Meiktila in central Burma, where entire Muslim quarters were razed by Buddhist mobs last month, footage has just emerged that shows police watching as Muslim-owned properties are destroyed.

In this context then, one struggles to fathom how ICG could honour Burma’s president. To be sure, Thein Sein has overseen positive developments in several spheres, such as media and opposition political participation. Yet this award is about peace, an area in which he has failed disastrously. “International Crisis Group’s goal is as ambitious as it is vital: to mobilise leaders around the globe to prevent and end deadly conflict,” the statement introducing the award says.

But since Thein Sein came to office, civil war has broken out in Kachin state, fierce rioting has erupted in Arakan state, and several waves of deadly anti-Muslim violence have rocked central Burma, while a huge increase in internal displacement of civilians has occurred, as has unprecedented refugee flows from western Burma to other Southeast Asian countries. The list goes on. He has demonstrably failed to respond to evidence that prominent parliamentarians, such as Dr. Aye Maung from the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, have called for the removal of the Rohingya; indeed last year Thein Sein asked the UN to resettle all 800,000 Rohingya. In ICG’s own words, however, the man should be applauded for his “efforts to bring us closer to a world free of conflict”.

The EU’s decision to drop sanctions is also highly contentious, and for similar reasons, yet it has maintained an arms embargo precisely because of substantial ongoing concerns about the military, which has shown no sign that it intends to mend its ways. ICG, which pins the award to positive developments towards an end to armed conflict, appears to refute those concerns.

The award is especially galling for Burma because ICG has backed a war crimes investigation into the Sri Lankan conflict. ICG is undoubtedly aware of what has occurred in Burma in the two years since Thein Sein became president – it follows the developments there closely, but is evidently guilty of sidelining the negatives and myopically homing in on the positives, despite the scales currently tipping in favour of the former.

It’s hard to tell why exactly they’ve chosen such a controversial position on Burma. Burmese academic Maung Zarni has some very useful thoughts here, while past observers have talked of groups like ICG wanting to become part of a “pacted transition” in Burma, with a pro-trade and aid stance that ultimately reaps significant economic benefits for stakeholders, ICG included. This commentary accuses them of being “democracy manipulators” headed by men and women with key ties to the US elite who would have considerable personal interests in a Burma that is open to business. Either way, one would be wise to take the award with more than a pinch of salt – it’s woefully misguided, and carries the potential to induce a dangerous naivety among those not versed in the major pitfalls of this transition.

Al Jazeera (Inside Story)
April 23, 2013

We discuss a Human Rights Watch report that alleges government involvement in the violence against minority Rohingya.

Authorities in Myanmar stand accused of a campaign of ethnic cleansing of minority Rohingya Muslims.

According to a report by Human Rights Watch, their actions amount to crimes against humanity, including murder, persecution and deportation. 

It relates to violence in Myanmar's western Rakhine state in June and October of last year, in which more than 200 people were killed, and over 100,000 displaced. 

Human Rights Watch says government security forces did nothing to stop the violence, and even took part in it. 

The report comes as the European Union lifts sanctions against the country and President Thein Sein is given a peace award - the 'In Pursuit of Peace Award' is from the International Crisis Group (ICG). 

The award recognises individuals for their outstanding contributions to the advancement of peace and security and praises the Myanmar's president for his efforts to "bring us closer to a world free of conflict". 

It found extensive state involvement and planning in the killings and destruction of property and that community leaders and Buddhist monks, also played a role in the killings, along with police and army personnel.

The report also criticised Thein Sein's government for failing to bring those responsible to justice. 

Myanmar's government has denied the charges made in the report, and plans to publish its own findings. 

The UN has described the Rohingya as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. 

Some historians say the group dates back centuries. And many Rohingya in Myanmar migrated from Bangladesh in the early 19th century - that was when Britain annexed Myanmar as a province of British India and brought over migrant Muslim labourers.

The UN estimates they number around 800,000. Most live in Myanmar's western Rakhine state, near the border with Bangladesh. But Myanmar's government does not recognise them as one of the nation's ethnic groups, and denies them citizenship. 

To discuss the findings of the report, Inside Story's Ghida Fakhry is joined by guests: Maung Zarni, a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics, and founding member of the Free Burma Coalition; Alistair Cook, a visiting research fellow at the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore; and Mike Harris from the Index on Censorship, an international organisation that promotes and defends the right to freedom of expression. 

Jason Szep and John O'Callaghan

Reuters

April 23, 2013

The president of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, said on Tuesday he would urge Myanmar's leaders to address Buddhist-led violence against Muslims that he said could cause problems for Muslims elsewhere in the region. 

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's visit to Myanmar on Tuesday and Wednesday comes a month after at least 43 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in four days of violence led by Buddhist mobs in the central city of Meikhtila, 80 miles (130 km) north of the capital, Naypyitaw. That sparked a wave of anti-Muslim violence

"If it's not addressed in the best way possible, its impact is not good for Myanmar and even for Indonesians who are majority Muslims," Yudhoyono told a Thomson Reuters Newsmaker event, a forum held in Singapore.

Calm has been restored in Meikhtila and other volatile central areas after authorities imposed martial law and dispatched troops. A Reuters examination showed it was well organised, abetted at times by police turning a blind eye.

"I will encourage that Myanmar will address it wisely, appropriately and prevent tension and violence. We in Indonesia are ready to support them to reach those goals," he said.

Yudhoyono will meet with Myanmar President Thein Sein during the visit and sign a memorandum of understanding on rice trade, an Indonesian government official said.

His visit also follows deadly unrest last year against Muslim Rohingya, an ethnic minority, in western Rakhine State which Human Rights Watch, a New York-based rights watchdog, described in a report on Monday as ethnic cleansing -- a charge rejected by the government.

"There are other challenges in Myanmar like communal tensions facing the ethnic Rohingya," Yudhoyono said.

Last year's violence in Rakhine State killed at least 110 people, mostly Rohingya Muslims, and left 120,000 homeless.

Rohingya activists claim their historical lineage in Rakhine dates back centuries, but Myanmar's government regards the estimated 800,000 Muslim Rohingyas as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denies them citizenship. Bangladesh has refused to grant Rohingyas refugee status since 1992.

The violence has sparked an exodus of thousands of Rohingya fleeing Rakhine State by boat. Many have ended up in other Southeast Asian countries including Indonesia, where Buddhist and Rohingya Muslims clashed in an overcrowded immigration detention centre last month.

Yudhoyono said Indonesia has a long history of engaging with Myanmar's leaders dating to military rule "to encourage them to continue their process of democratisation so they didn't need to be hurt by embargoes".

The European Union on Monday lifted sanctions imposed in response to human rights abuses during nearly five decades of military rule that ended in March 2011. The country, also known as Burma, has since embarked on a series of democratic reforms.

"World leaders now are visiting Myanmar because they see Myanmar has changed," he said. "I will visit Myanmar today firstly to support and promote the process of democratisation, of nation-building, of the rule of law, human rights."

(Editing by Neil Fullick)

Francis Wade

Foreign Policy

April 22, 2013

Buddhist monks have been major instigators of the recent violence against Muslims in Burma.

In a small wooden office in the Mahamyaing monastery, Kyaw Linn rifles through a carrier bag of stickers emblazoned with 969, the logo that has come to represent Burma's budding anti-Muslim movement. Six months ago the head monk, Oo Wi Ma La, ordered the first batch of stickers from a nearby printing company. Now they're hard to avoid. Taxis, buses, and shop fronts across Rangoon and other major towns now display what some observers consider a symbol of Buddhist extremism -- a symbol that sees Burma's Muslim community as a threat to the country and its dominant religion.

This sentiment has unleashed waves of violence over the past several months that have left more than 40 dead, and 13,000 displaced in 2013 alone. The monastery in Moulmein, southern Burma, is credited as the birthplace of the resurgent 969 movement. Production of the 969 stickers began following rioting in western Burma last year that pitted Buddhists against Rohingya Muslims. The number signifies the attributes of Buddha and his teachings, and is sacred to Buddhists.

"We did it to protect Buddhism," Oo Wi Ma La says, adding that last year's violence in Arakan state made it clear that Buddhism in Burma is under threat. "In Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, and so on there used to be so many Buddhists, but the Muslims came and kicked them out, and now they are Muslim countries. So based on history we worry Burma could become like that. "

Around four percent of Burma's population practices Islam. It is where the two religions coexist that problems have emerged, says Oo Wi Ma La. In Moulemin's busy and cramped indoor market, however, Muslim stallholders appear calm despite the wealth of 969 stickers increasingly on display on neighboring stalls. Buddhist taxi drivers and shop owners said they have no problem with Muslims using their services.

Unfortunately, however, not everyone thinks the same way. Last month simmering animosity burst into the open once again. A brawl between Buddhists and Muslims in a gold shop in the central Burmese town of Meiktila triggered two days of violence, during which more than 800 homes in the town, mostly Muslim, were razed. Witnesses say that the Buddhist mobs who perpetrated the violence were well-organized, and that the police stood by and watched as killings were carried out in broad daylight. Such reports have led to accusations of official complicity in the violence. Suspicion is prompted by belief that elements within the government or military view communal unrest as a cue for the reinvigoration of a military whose overarching power in Burma is threatened by reforms. A Human Rights Watch report released today directly implicates "political and religious leaders in Arakan State" in the planning, organization, and incitement of attacks against the Rohingya and other Muslims last October. (The report, which focuses on last year's bloodshed in Arakan, notes that the violence there has resulted in the forcible displacement of some 125,000 Arakan Muslims from their homes.)

Yet even if the military-led government may have helped to ignite the Arakan and Meiktila conflicts, the fuel, in the form of anti-Muslim sentiment among Burmese, has been stored up over decades, born of propaganda campaigns in the 1960s that triggered pogroms against Indian Muslims, and later the Rohingya in Arakan state, and the historic conflation of Buddhism with Burmese nationalism.

That movement has seen a resurgence since the Arakan rioting last year whipped up anti-Muslim fervor across Burma. The situation in Meiktila appears to lend weight to claims by some observers that an ethnic cleansing campaign is underway in parts of the country. There, the town's once sizeable Muslim population has been driven into camps which journalists are barred from entering; a similar campaign of cleansing has occurred in Sittwe in Arakan state.

Most narratives of the violence have painted the 969 movement as a cohesive anti-Muslim front that seeks to purge Burma of what it considers a pernicious Islamic presence. Anti-violence protests have used 969 as a symbol to rally against (as shown above). Yet the diverging opinions of those who distribute and carry the symbol shows that this is not so clear-cut. At one end of the spectrum are those who see it more as an identifier of Buddhist solidarity, as Christians display crucifixes. Many say the adoption of 969 as the movement's symbol was done to counter 786, a numerologically important symbol to Muslims that is also seen on some shop fronts. "Now our Buddhist people are trying to give life to this 969 concept, and it saddens me," says U Gambira, a former monk who spent four years in jail for his lead role in the 2007 Saffron Revolution. "They are basically copying something they hate."

Extremists are trying legitimize an objectionable philosophy by drawing on the spiritual "goodness" of what 969 represents: the nine attributes of Buddha, the six attributes of his teachings, and the nine attributes of the Sangha, the religious council that administers Buddhist institutions in Burma. This inevitably gives the movement an immediate appeal among Buddhists, and its leaders can then exploit underlying anti-Muslim sentiment to garner supporters, witting or unwitting.

Carrying the flag for this movement is U Wirathu, head abbot of the Masoyein monastery in Mandalay. Known in the past as a key organizing hub for anti-junta activities, the monastery has more recently developed notoriety following U Wirathu's vitriolic speeches directed at Muslims. Though he acknowledges the possibility of complicity in the recent violence with the military, whom in the past he has fiercely resisted, he considers Islam to be the greater threat. Wirathu chose to be interviewed in front of a wall decked out with self-portraits, a background that made him look more like a cult leader than a humble monk. "According to my research, 100 percent of rape cases in Burma are by Muslims. None are by Buddhists," he claims. "They forcibly take young Buddhist girls as their wives. If the wives continue to practice Buddhism then they torture them every day."

Wirathu is a man of contradictions. His recipe for ending violence and religious tension in Burma is to rid the country of "bad Muslims," but fails to acknowledge that such messages have been a key source of the violence. "If everyone in Burma was like me then there would be peace," he continues, before later handing over a booklet on whose front cover is drawn a lion baring its teeth at a child. The child is a Buddhist and the lion a Muslim, he explains.

U Wirathu was jailed in 2003 for inciting anti-Muslim unrest (though he denies any responsibility for the recent violence). But the government's unwillingness to take action this time round has added to the feeling that elements within the government or military could benefit from the spoils that may result from a fractured Burma.

The geographical reach of the campaign goes beyond just areas with a high Muslim presence. In the Shan state town of Namkham last month, anti-Muslim posters began appearing on lampposts, even though only several hundred Muslims live among the population of 100,000. Locals there, who have resisted a lucrative China-backed oil and gas pipeline that passes close by, have questioned whether the sudden threat of religious unrest in a town where the two religions had coexisted peacefully could be used as a pretext by authorities to crack down on anti-pipeline activities.

This then appears to be a campaign that benefits two powerful forces in Burma: ultra-nationalist civilian groups and hard-line elements in the government and military. If both are strengthened as a result, this will have far-reaching repercussions for the development of democracy in Burma.