U Ne Oo

May 5, 2013

In responding to much awaited 'Rakhine Investigation Commission Report', there appears to be two distinct groups amongst commentators. Some commentators -- the 'old habits die hard' exiles -- usually look for 'certain' dis-appointments in that report; and they surely won't be disappointed! Others who viewed the report in a moderate mind-set -- OHCHR for example -- see some positive developments.

To me, having viewed the summary of recommendations from that report, I could see some lights at the end of tunnel. Decades-long plights of Rohingya under the State neglect and continuous cycle of displacement could have come to an end, should some of these recommendations are being implemented properly.

WHAT ROHINGYA MEANS TO THE ETHNIC BURMANS

Generally speaking, the Burmese in proper Burma by and large view the Rohingya as an 'immigrant community' from Bangladesh. In truth, most people in Burma would never have aware of the existence of Rohingyas. Burmese people of my generation who grown up under General Ne Win's era will vagely heard about the fierce 'Mujahid fighters in Rakhine State'; and couldn't even possibly make a connection with these 'immigrants from Balgladesh'. Myself a Burman, born in Irrawaddy Delta in the 60s, only begun to learn about Rohingya and their predicaments in 1991; and I am still learning about their history. 

In sum, there is a great deal of information gap exists for the Burmese people when it comes to the issues of Rohingya. Put simply, to a normal Burmese the issues and existence of Rohingya will come as a 'shock'. The outside observers as well as those in pro-Rohingya advocacy must keep in mind of that fact.

ROOTS OF THE 'STATELESSNESS' AND BRAND 'ILLEGAL'

International Human Rights Groups and exile groups often blame, quite rightly so, Burman xenophobia and State sponsored racism as the root cause of statelessness of Rohingyas. However, the current debates about Rohingya are narrowly framed in their contexts, i.e. human rights (or) historical. The present discussion on Rohingya on Internet, for example, usually focuses on its early historical existence, especially its naming and religious origins. Such context should be widened to include more contemporary developments of Rohingya community.

Current debates and discussions on Rohingya community are lacking information about cross-border movements in General Ne Win's era. Things to consider is, for example, Bangladesh seceded from Pakistan in 1971 and came into a statehood. The Balgladeshi Liberation War (1971) and Great Femine of 1974 would have greatly influenced cross-border people movements into Rakhine State. In 1978 Gen. Ne Win regime launched a crack-down on the Rohingya border community, displacing 200,000. These displaced people were taken back by Burmese side after Bangladeshi Government put to death of these refugees by starvation. 

Around that of 1978 repatriation, the LT Gen. Zia Rahman was president of Bangladesh. It is unclear how the negotiatiation (arm-twisting) or what compromise (real-politik) might have led to General Ne Win taking back those who were displaced in Bangladesh. However, it is not likely that General Ne Win had taking these displaced people back simply out of compassion. The truth we would never know, of course. But one thing certain; General Ne Win regime did not have any policy for integrating these people other than keeping them in legal-limbo. I think we do need to look further into this 'statelessness' and 'illegal status' of Rohingyas in a more informed and rational way.

POST 1991 INFLUX AND CURRENT REGISTRATION ATTEMPTS

Soon after releasing the Commission Report, the Burmese immigration reportedly begin registering Rohingya in Rakhine State. I am quite concerns about the Rohingya who are residing on the other side of Naf river. According to reports, hunderds of thousands of Rohingyas who are living near the two UN recognised camps in a refugee-like situation. These people appears to be from the Burmese Immigration's "cleared" list in 1994 UN Supervised repatriation. After 1994 repatriation, they then sneaked back into Bangladesh side of the border since life in Rakhine State found impossible. How would these people can get registered if they so wish? May be international organization might have the answer.

ROHINGYA FOR CITIZENS ? LONG-WAY YET BUT THERE IS A WAY AHEAD

On the possibility of re-integrating the Rohingya as full citizens of Burma, there is still long ways ahead. The Burmese parliamentarians, in both Government and Opposition sides, now begin to ponder about situation of Rohingyas. As being noted earlier, the Rakhine Investigation Commission Report may well have present to us as a starting point for ending decades of displacement by Rohingyas.

Kritsada Mueanhawong

PHUKET: Immigration Bureau Commissioner Pharnu Kerdlarpphon, in Phuket for a closed-door meeting of high-ranking officials, has expressed his concern for the growing number of Rohingya refugees being detained in Thailand.

Lt Gen Pharnu’s visit to Phuket on Tuesday was to head a meeting tabled to discuss the bureau’s “working policy” at which Phuket’s own immigration superintendent did not attend.

Following the meeting, Gen Pharnu told the press, “The number of Rohingya entering the country is a worrying situation. We are now detaining 1,936 Rohingya across the country, including 399 boys and 304 girls.

“Immigration Police shelters in the South have no more room for refugees. We have even transferred some of the refugees to immigration shelters across the Kingdom,” he said.

As an example, Gen Pharnu noted that 84 Rohingya are being held the Ranong Immigration shelter.

“We provide them medical checkups and they have a chance to exercise and relax during their time at the shelter,” he explained.

However, the refugees’ detention in Thailand is intended to be only temporary, he cautioned.

“The shelters are supposed to be for only temporary detention before illegal immigrants are deported, but in the case of the Rohingya, we cannot really deport them because their home country [Myanmar] does not welcome them,” Gen Pharnu said.

“Now the Thai Government is in discussions with other countries to find a place the refugees can be transferred to.

“I have been assured that the Rohingya will be treated in a way that meets international-standards,” he added.

The Nation

May 5, 2013

Official response to riots last year was deeply flawed and probably racist Some people had hoped the government inquiry into violence in Rakhine state would be an opportunity for Myanmar to show the world it has graduated from the rigid mindset imposed on the nation during decades of military dictatorship.

But sadly, the government of Myanmar, also known as Burma, has missed a chance to show the world that it has maturity to expose the violence in the western state for what it really is. 

The Thein Sein government recently released a report by a state-appointed panel into the violence in June and October last year. International observers were hoping that this long-delayed report would show that Myanmar is prepared to address the issue of race relations head on. But in the end, the report was little more than a cop-out. 

Besides the fact that it said nothing about sentiment about the Rohingya, there were no suggestion on how the country should address this issue in a meaningful manner. 

The rioting mobs in Rakhine state must be tickled pink to see the Rohingyas referred to throughout the report as "Bengalis", a derogatory term used to challenge the legitimacy of their claim to be an ethnic nationality - one of more than 130 - living within Myanmar's nation-state.

The Rohingyas' problem stems from the fact that Myanmar's 1982 Citizenship Act basically denied them any form of citizenship. The government-appointed, 27-member commission suggested that the government should "examine" the citizenship status of people in Rakhine state. But by the look of it, this is an open-ended suggestion that may never see the light of day.

There was another suggestion which also seemed racist, saying that the Rohingyas be given "family-planning education" because they "breed too much". 

Just as worrying was the recommendation that the government should continue to keep Rohingya Muslims separate from Sittwe and other major Rakhine-majority towns. Safety was cited as the explanation but according to international observers who visited these areas, "the idea is to deny the Muslims the property on which they lived."

What about reintegrating communities affected by the riots? Dream on, the observers said, pointing to the fact that the government already has less desirable plots of land for the Muslims. So their move to temporary shelters now looks like becoming permanent segregation. 

If the government can't even acknowledge the root cause of the problem, while at the same time ignores the issue of discrimination and accountability, what hope does Myanmar has in becoming a responsible player in the regional and international community?

There was other criticism aside from the fact the government took so long to reach a conclusion, and coming up with recommendations that are off-base or counter-productive. John Sifton of Human Rights Watch said: "The recommendation to double the local security force size in [Rakhine state], for instance, completely overlooks the fact that these forces were complicit in the violence that led to the commission being appointed in the first place. That raises strong questions about the objectivity and intentions of the report authors.

"There is simply no doubt that local security forces were complicit in the violence, in some cases taking part in the violence directly or else standing by as Buddhist mobs attacked Rohingya people. If you don't offer any criticism of the fact that no one has been arrested or held accountable for this violence, there is clearly something wrong with your report," he said.

HRW said the ethnic violence, which saw hundreds killed and more than 120,000 people forced to flee their homes, was a crime against humanity. 

According to Myanmar government figures, more than 8,600 homes were also destroyed. Most troubling is the fact that the more than 100,000 people displaced were Rohingyas and other Muslims. They deserve better than this from a country that aspires to be the regional head of Asean next year.

R.C.

The Economist

May 3, 2013

I AM in Malaysia for the election on May 5th, and up here in the north of the country quite a lot of the political to-and-fro is about political Islam. The opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (better known as PAS) is strong up here in states like Kedah, so the ruling coalition Barisan Nacional is trying to scare people off voting for them by claiming that, if they were to be elected nationally, they would force the opposition coalition into turning Malaysia into an extremist Muslim state. It’s a lame old tactic, but still seems to find some traction.

A fellow-member of ASEAN, Myanmar, is wrestling with its own Islamic problem, but in a much more volatile and blood-soaked manner. This week saw another nasty outbreak of violence between Burman Buddhists and Muslims in central Myanmar, this time in a village called Oakka. It was sparked off by another minor incident, when a young girl apparently bumped into a monk. This set off a chain events that left one person dead and nine injured; reports say that Buddhist mobs torched 77 houses and a couple of mosques.

This follows widespread anti-Muslim riots across central Myanmar in March that left scores dead and thousands homeless—which in turn followed blood-lettings in the western state of Rakhine in June and October last year. What amounted to ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine, and particularly in its capital, Sittwe, killed hundreds and drove over 100,000 Rohingya to squalid refugee camps outside the city, where they still forced to live.

The killings in Rakhine, it is clear, inspired a lot of the subsequent upsurge in general anti-Muslim feeling. So there was much resting on the outcome of a government-appointed enquiry into the violence in Rakhine, which finally came out on April 29th. Yet in the end the long-delayed report was pretty much a cop-out. It makes no concessions to Rohingya sentiment and few concrete suggestions that could help the situation there. Some diplomats and UN officials were looking to it for evidence that the reforming state of Myanmar is genuinely prepared to tackle the fundamental issues of race and religion that have destabilised the country since it won its independence from Britain in 1948—but there were no signs of that in this report.

For a start, the unfortunate Rohingyas are referred to throughout the report as “Bengalis”, the derogatory term employed by their enemies to delegitimise their claims to being included as a people rightfully living in Myanmar. “Bengalis” conveys the clear meaning that the Rohingya belong in Bengal (or East Bengal; now Bangladesh) and not in Myanmar. Notch up a victory there to the rioting mobs of Rakhine—they will be very happy about that.

Some others were hoping that this big concession to the anti-Rohingya contingent would be balanced by a commitment from the commission to start giving the Rohingyas some status as citizens, perhaps leading eventually to their full citizenship. The root cause of the Rohingyas’ problems is that under Myanmar’s discriminatory and archaic 1982 Citizenship Act they are denied any form of citizenship, and thus any protection or help from the state. Yet the commission says only that the government should “examine” the citizenship status of people in Rakhine state. That’s an open-ended invitation to the government to do nothing.

No Rohingyas were invited to sit on the 27-man commission, and the bias in favour of the ethnic Rakhine shows throughout. One particularly sinister recommendation, easily open to abuse, is that the Rohingyas be given “family-planning education”. It’s a loud complaint of the Rakhine that their Muslim neighbours “breed too much” (as it was often put to me in Sittwe), and this clearly panders to that prejudice. But as must be very evident from history it’s dangerous to start advocating birth control for just one ethnic group. What sort of message will that send out to the mobs?

Just as worryingly, the report also recommends that the present separation of Rohingya Muslims from the ethnically-cleansed Sittwe and other Rakhine-majority centres be continued, temporarily—on grounds of safety. Again, not very helpful; that more or less justifies the present state of segregation without suggesting any path back to the two communities’ reintegration. Again, pretty much exactly what the more bigoted Rakhine will have wanted to hear.

In practice, unless action is taken now, the “temporary” segregation will slip almost inevitably into a “permanent” segregation—as has happened in almost all similar recent cases around the world, for instance in Sudan’s Darfur region. And the problem of what to do with the hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas, now cooped up in their tents and canvas shelters, will only worsen. With the monsoon fast approaching, there are growing fears for the health and safety of the internees. All in all, not a good week for reforming Myanmar, and a pretty disastrous one for the country’s Muslim minority.

IRIN News

May 3, 2013

BANGKOK - Human rights groups are calling for a review of Myanmar's citizenship law, which has left more than 1.2 million people stateless nationwide, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

“The 1982 citizenship law should be amended to reflect basic principles of human rights, including equality and non-discrimination,” Debbie Stothard, the coordinator for Altsean Burma, a Bangkok-based advocacy organization for minority rights in Myanmar, told IRIN. 

There are no reliable data on the number of stateless people in Myanmar; the last population census was conducted more than three decades ago, according to the UN Population Fund. But rights groups believe that in addition to some 800,000 stateless Rohingya in Myanmar's western Rakhine State, ethnic groups originating from China and India are also disenfranchised by the law, facing persecution without legal redress. 

“The law creates a permanent underclass that is exploited with impunity, creating significant resentments [liable to] explode when security forces take advantage of the legal vulnerability of stateless persons through abuse,” said Phil Robertson, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch's (HRW) Asia division. 

While all persons born on Burmese soil were considered citizens under the country's earlier 1948 citizenship law, General Ne Win's seizure of power in 1962 led to policies that excluded communities whose ancestors entered the country after 1823. 

The constitution established by Ne Win in 1974 listed 135 “national races” - including the Karen, Shan and Kachin - while excluding all “non-indigenous” minorities. 

Eight years later, the citizenship law, which recognizes only the children of national races as full citizens, was established, leading to limited rights for non-recognized groups such as the Rohingya. 

Parliament blocks amendments 

Despite repeated calls for change, including a recent attempt to amend the law on 6 November 2012 by Member of Parliament (MP) Tin Mya from the Union Solidarity and Development Party, objections from other parliamentarians caused proposals for amendments to be shelved, according to Altsean. 

“While the international community has [also] spoken up to the need to amend the law, there has yet to be a coordinated and concerted effort to ensure this actually happens,” said Stothard. 

The discriminatory law may have helped fuel the sectarian violence that broke out between the Muslim Rohingya and the Buddhist population in Rakhine State in June and October 2012 and in the town of Meiktila in March 2013, said Chris Lewa, the director of the Arakan Project, a Rohingya advocacy group. 

“The Rohingya have been constant victims of arbitrary arrests, extortion, harassment and fines due to their precarious legal status and laws prohibiting basic rights such as freedom of movement,” she said. 

Children “blacklisted” 

Since 2008, Rohingyas in Rakhine State - who must obtain permission to marry or travel outside of their villages - have been limited to having two children per couple. 

But with access to birth control limited around the country, Burmese couples have an average of 4.7 children per marriage. The majority of Rohingya families continue to have more than two children, but forgo birth registration for those children over the limit for fear of being penalized, says Lewa. 

“These children are blacklisted and without any rights at all,” she explained. “They cannot even apply for permission for marriage, to go to school or to move outside of their village with their parents because, according to the authorities, they do not exist,” she added. 

In November 2012, immigration police and the national army in the Rakhine townships of Pauktaw, Maungdaw and Sittwe attempted to register Rohingya families, issuing them temporary national residency cards (NRCs). But these efforts were met with opposition because the registration forms used the term “Bengali” to describe to the Rohingyas - a label referring to their South Asian heritage, used to emphasize their perceived foreignness. 

“It is very controversial as they deserve full citizenship, not just temporary residence, which gives them no other rights, and they are afraid that if they sign the documents then it will be proof that they are non-citizens,” said Lewa. 

Additionally, to receive the NRC, families must prove they have lived in Myanmar for three generations, but many Rohingyas lost evidence of this in the recent sectarian violence, which destroyed up to 4,800 buildings, according to HRW, and forced over 125,000 to flee their homes.

Missed opportunity 

Myanmar has undergone significant reforms since March 2011 - including the easing of media censorship, the release of hundreds of political prisoners and the reshuffling of the country’s cabinet. The European Union subsequently lifted sanctions on Myanmar on 22 April 2013. 

But rights groups fear international pressure to create an inclusive and fair citizenship law will cease to be effective. 

“We are worried that the rights of Rohingya and other stateless people will continue to be set aside in the international euphoria over Burma's reforms,” said Alstean's Stothard. 

Earlier this week, the Inquiry Commission on the Sectarian Violence in Rakhine State, a government commission set up to investigate the 2012 violence in Rakhine, failed to recommend any revisions to the citizenship law. Rather, it called for a process to examine the citizenship status of the people in Rakhine, in order to implement the provisions of the current law. 

“The commission missed a critical point when it failed to include reform of the 1982 Citizenship Act to strip out discriminatory provisions and ensure that the law complies with international human rights standards,” said HRW’s Robertson on 29 April.

Date: May 4, 2013

JOINT STATEMERNT ON THE OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE RAKHINE (ARAKAN) INVESTIGATION COMMISSION 

We the undersigned organizations reject the 186-page official report dated 22 April 2013 of the Arakan Investigation Commission as follows: 

1. The Rakhine Investigation Commission formed on 17 August 2012 by President Thein Sein included representatives from various religious and political parties and democracy groups except Rohingya representatives, who have been actual and potential victims of deadly violence and genocidal attacks. Haji U Nyunt Maung Shein and U Tin Maung Than, the two prominent Muslim leaders were purged from the Commission seeing that they were most insistent on the truth. 
2. It is a biased report favouring Rakhines, their hostile views and arguments towards Rohingya people. It purposely suppresses the core fact of the problem that the Rohingya people have long been subjected to institutionalized persecution, ethnic cleansing and genocidal onslaughts at the hands of the government and state sponsored non-state actors, particularly the extremist Rakhines. 
3. The Inquiry Commission has lost its credibility since it has been manned with people who either directly or indirectly supported, involved or publicly put fuel on crisis. The commission member veterinary doctor Aye Maung (MP), leader of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP), is the main mastermind in the violence and ‘Rohingya ethnic cleansing’, who graphically described his Rohingya annihilation plan in Rathedaung Rakhine Conference held on 25-26 September 2012. Nearly every understanding or recommendation of the Commission translates the view of the RNDP. 
4. The Commission, despite comprising of scholarly people, has largely distorted Rohingya historicity dubbing them ‘Bengalis’ and depicting them migrant community with no historical roots in Arakan, although they are a people developed in Arakan from peoples of different ethnical backgrounds over the centuries with their Muslim settlements dated back to early 8th century. 
5. The previous parliamentary government recognized the ‘Rohingya’ as one of the many ethnic groups of the Union of Burma with their language programme relayed thrice weekly from government Burma Broadcasting Service (BBS), Rangoon. In spite of that the Commission has deliberately ignored this documented fact and used the term ‘Bengali’ supporting the fierce contention of the Rakhine promoting ‘Rohingya ethnocide’ aims at turning Arakan into a Muslim-free Rakhinized region.
6. The Commission report falsely elevates the position of Rakhine as ‘prime nation’ and relegates the Rohingya as ‘sub-nation’ thus promoting the government’s current plan to segregate Rohingya under its ‘neo-apartheid policy’. It describes the Rohingyas as low-class and uncultured hardworking people, who produce more children and want to seize the arable lands of the lazy Rakhines. It is insulting that the commissioners felt irritated by the repeated telephone calls from ‘dying-alive Rohingyas’ giving accounts of their sufferings emotionally for redress. 
7. The Commission never called for the accountability of the government and its agencies, state sponsored non-state actors or Rakhine extremists for June-October 2012 deadly violence or carnage, and for their decades of Rohingya persecution, tyranny, exclusion and xenophobia that reduce them to the present state of helplessness, without basic freedoms like freedom of movement, religion, education, marriage, right to business, right to work etc. 
8. The Commission never pointed out the hostile environment and impossible situation created by the administration with the oppressive functionaries and government agencies like NaSaKa border security force, police, Lon Htin and army and Rakhine terrorists for a peaceful living of the Rohingya. As a result, half of their population of more than 1.5 million people have had left their homeland of Arakan to escape persecution. They are living in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, USA, Canada and other countries. 
9. The Commission never hinted the tragedies of the Rohingya boat people arising out of the continued large-scale persecution and crimes against humanity against Rohingya community in Arakan although the problem becomes a concern of the UN, OIC, EU, ASEAN and international community. 
10. The report made no mention of the statement of President Thein Sein as well as the demand of the RNDP leader Dr. Aye Maung to deport Rohingya people to a third country, which reflects and promotes official ‘Rohingya ethnic-cleansing policy’ of the government.
11. The Commission ignored to call for amendment of the world most repressive Burma Citizenship Law of 1982. Its recommendations lack the spirits of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and international human rights and humanitarian laws.
12. The report extremely distorted the number of deaths and extent of destruction of the Rohingya and Kaman Muslims whereas there are reports of several mass graves of Rohingya dead bodies; and the credible human rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated that it has uncovered 4 mass graves in North Arakan. Likewise an Al-Jazeera documentary film released after the violence confirmed that crimes of genocide have been committed in Arakan against the Rohingya. 
13. The report stayed away from mentioning that the police, Lon Htin, NaSaKa and army took part in the killing of the Muslims and torching their houses. The report mentions about the imposition of section 144, but lamentably it fails to tell the tangible truth that the curfew has only been applied on the Rohingyas or Muslims while the Rakhine terrorists, including armed cadres of the Arakan Liberation Party/Army (ALP/ALA), were allowed to carry on the genocidal onslaughts and mass destruction against the Muslims. 
14. Waves of deadly violence carried against the Rohingyas and Kamans were pre-planned by the RNDP, of course, with the backing of the administration under the pretext of rape and murder of a 28-year old Rakhine woman Ma Thida Twe. Most of the issues raised by the Commission as the causes of violence were irrelevant as well as unfounded. 
15. The Commission did partiality by endorsing the make-believe story of the government which stated that Ma Thida Twe was raped and murdered by what they called three Bengalis. But according to highly credible person of the Commission, there was no trace of rape found by the doctor who performed post mortem of her corpse; but the doctor was forced to sign the official post mortem report. Moreover, there was no mention of the ‘suicide in police custody’ of the principal accused Mr. Htet Htet who happened to be a Rakhine, not Rohingya or Bengalis. 
16. It is a concocted allegation of the Commission that an excess number of 5,603 refugee families with 30,338 members had to be repatriated from Bangladesh in 1978. International community was well aware that the repatriation was done under strict scrutiny on both sides of the borders, and that the refugees had resisted the forced repatriation for lack of congenial atmosphere for their safe return to Arakan. The question naturally arises is who would be going to the hellish Arakan where the human right situation of .the Rohingyas were dire. 
17. The report said that “in 1988 Ma Ra Waddi monastery at Maungdaw was burned down by Bengalis and the abbot had escaped away; the monastery was torched by the Bengalis for three times”. It is baseless information aims at inciting public sentiment against the Rohingyas. 
18. The Commissions reported some imaginary and nonsense information like Rohingyas attacking Rakhines, destroying Buddhist monasteries and committing rape of their women. It also said that “in 1998, more than 5,000 people led by Rohingya Liberation Organization (RLO) suddenly entered Maungdaw and tried to occupy the town by destroying Buddhist monasteries, torching Rakhine quarters and killing every single Rakhine, but the police could control the situation through resistance.” In reality there was no party by the name of RLO; and also there was no information, record or report of such plot or attack among the general public and in the media. The allegation is a blatant lie and politically motivated. It is surprising that, although there have been numerous cases of killing of Rohingya, rape of Rohingya women and girls, destruction and torching of their houses, looting of their properties and extortion on daily basis, committed by the extremist Rakhines, police and security forces, the biased and bigoted Commission did not mention a single such incident. This lie proves that the Commission is contemptible and its report is a rubbish piece. 
19. There was no incident on 8th of June 2012 that the Rohingyas chanted slogan “long live Muslilms, kill all Rakhines”. This is concocted report promoting hatred against the Rohingyas. 
20. The Commission reported that 246 Rakhines and 1589 Rohingyas were arrested since violence, But it is regretted that Commission did not investigate how and why these Rohingyas had been arrested and also it did not say anything about the jail killing, the squalid condition and inhuman and degrading treatment and torture of the Rohingya inmates . 
21. The Commission’s recommendations to double the security forces and take effective measures to prevent so-called illegal immigrants from Bangladesh is just a false alarm intended to distract attention from the main issue of Rohingya genocide. For the Rohingyas, increase in armed and security forces means increased crimes against humanity against them. It is important that repressive functionaries should not be augmented if they do not maintain law and order situation to ensure security, justice and equality without discrimination. 
22. There are no Rohingya illegal immigrants in Arakan, which has long been a big hell and concentration camp for the Muslims. In fact, Rohingyas have been systematically expelled or have had to leave their homeland since 1942 Muslim massacre in Arakan. In contrast, tens of thousands of illegal Bengali Rakhine Buddhists are regularly invited and settled down on the confiscated lands of the Rohingyas. The whole northern Arakan is now dotted with Buddhist settler villages. But the Commission is silent about it. 
23. However, we welcome some forward-thinking recommendations, including recommendations to address the dire humanitarian situation in Muslim displacement camps provided that they are truly, humanely, immediately and timely implemented. 
24. Last but not least, we call for an immediate UN Inquiry Commission to conduct a prompt, full and impartial investigation of all allegations and take appropriate action against those responsible. 

Signatories to this joint statement: 

1. Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) 
2. Burmese Rohingya Organisation United Kingdom (BROUK) 
3. Burmese Rohingya Association Japan (BRAJ) 
4. Burmese Rohingya Community in Australia (BRCA) 
5. Burmese Rohingya Association Deutschland (BRAD) 
6. Burmese Rohingya Community in Denmark (BRCD) 
7. Burmese Rohingya Community in Netherlands (BRCNL) 
8. Burmese Rohingya Association in Thailand (BRAT) 
9. Rohingya Community in Norway (RCN) 
10. Rohingya Society Malaysia (RSM) 

For more information, please contact: 

Tun Khin: + 44 788 871 4866 

Nay San Lwin + 49 179 653 5213

Max Fisher

Washington Post

May 3, 2013

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has issued a report highlighting those it calls the worst violators of religious freedom in the world. Among them are many Asian and Middle Eastern governments, although some Western European countries are also included. 

The report from the bipartisan advisory body divides violators into three categories. Fifteen “tier 1″ nations, marked red on the above map, have committed “particularly severe” violations that are “systemic, ongoing and egregious.” That includes all the countries you’d expect, as well as a few worsening problem areas, such as Egypt and Nigeria. The “tier 2″ countries are said to be “on the threshold” of meeting tier 1 status and include states that might have serious problems but, often, are at least making an effort to address them. A small third category of nations under “monitoring” for violations includes, among other states, some in Western Europe. 

The report isn’t just about documenting abuses: The tier 1 countries can be officially designated as “countries of particular concern” by the U.S. State Department, at which point the president is legally required to follow up with some sort of action, recommended by the report. It might suggest, for example, engaging with Burmese civil society groups to promote tolerance or working with Pakistani lawmakers to improve legislation. 

As the report itself notes, though, “in practice, the flexibility provided in IRFA has been underutilized. Generally, no new Presidential actions pursuant to CPC designations have been levied, with the State Department instead relying on pre-existing sanctions.” In other words, the red countries are usually already under some kind of trade restriction or sanction, which the president can use to say that he’s already meeting the commission’s requirements. In some cases, the president uses a waiver to avoid punishing countries that are important to U.S. foreign policy, such as Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan.

The tier 1 countries are typically cited for state-sponsored or state-enforced religious discrimination, such as China’s suppression of Tibetan Buddhists or Iran’s “prolonged detention, torture, and executions based primarily or entirely upon the religion of the accuse.” In the case of some countries, such as Egypt, the sins were those of omission: “In many cases, the government failed or was slow to protect religious minorities from violence. This violence and the failure to convict those responsible continued to foster a climate of impunity.” 

The report explains, in excruciating detail, the larger trends and worst incidents that motivated its categorizations. In Burma, for example, it finds, “In the past year, over 1,000 Rohingya [Muslims] have been killed, their villages and religious structures destroyed, and women raped during attacks.” It also notes: “It is almost impossible for Muslims to obtain building permits for either mosques or schools and unlicensed venues are regularly closed or destroyed. The government has, in recent years, ordered the destructions of mosques, religious centers, and schools.” 

Tier 2 countries are cited for less systemic but still serious violations, or for systemic refusals to improve religious freedoms. Russia, for example, is cited for exploiting “anti-extremism” laws to restrict groups, such as Jehovah’s Witness and some Muslim groups, that do not have any record of advocating or using violence. The report praises India for curtailing large-scale communal violence against religious minorities, but chides Indian officials for refusing to further investigate past incidents. 

The third category of countries being “monitored” also lists, somewhat vaguely, “Western Europe.” The section explaining its inclusion, though, overwhelmingly focuses on three countries: France, Belgium and the Netherlands, all of which are cited for “increasing restrictions on, and efforts to restrict, various forms of religious expression.” In practice, this often seems to mean the religious expression of Muslims. Laws against traditional Muslim clothing or circumcision, for example, or over-broad hate speech laws are “creating a growing atmosphere of intimidation against certain forms of religious activity in Western Europe. These restrictions also seriously limit social integration and educational and employment opportunities for the individuals affected.” 

The report also discusses a trend in Japan it calls “kidnapping and forced religious de-conversion.” Although Japan is not included in any of the watch-list categories, and this section praises the Japanese government in general for its religious freedom, the trend is about as alarming as its name implies: 

Some readers, particularly those from countries highlighted in the map above, may wonder why the report includes nothing on the United States, which has seen some local and state-level movements to expel or suppress mosques or other forms of public worship by Muslims. And it’s a fair question. Alas, the commission exists to make recommendations to the U.S. State Department, which of course does not have oversight over the United States. Still, fairly or not, U.S. representatives who seek to promote religious freedom abroad risk having their advice deflected because some Tennessee officials tried to block construction of a mosque. If nothing else, it’s a reminder that religious freedom is an ongoing process as well as a state of being.

Jared Ferrie

Reuters

May 3, 2013

Three Muslim men peered over a bamboo fence built recently to fortify their village in central Myanmar. They gazed across dry rice paddies towards a nearby Buddhist community, looking for rising dust, a sign of an approaching mob.

It was a false alarm. But a day earlier, on Wednesday, about 100 Buddhists armed with sticks had gathered outside the fence, threatening to burn the village and kill them, said the villagers of Win Kite, about a two-hour drive from Myanmar's largest city, Yangon.

Police foiled that attack. But Muslims were taking no chances after four days of mob violence led by Buddhist monks in Meikhtila in March killed 44 people, mostly Muslims, and touched off a wave of unrest in central Myanmar that threatens to derail the country's nascent economic and political reforms.

"We have a plan to defend ourselves if they come and attack us," said Kin So, adding that many in Win Kite had armed themselves with clubs and swords as a precaution for when troops and police patrolling the area pull out.

The five-foot (1.5 meter) fence encircling Win Kite is a vivid illustration of divisions between Myanmar's Muslims and majority Buddhists that are beginning to cause problems elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

Indonesian police said on Friday they had foiled a plan to attack Myanmar's embassy in Jakarta, arresting two men late on Thursday and seizing explosives.

A spokesman told reporters the suspects had planned the attack in protest at the treatment of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. At least 192 people, mostly Rohingya, were killed last year in clashes with Buddhists in Rakhine State.

In April, eight people died when Muslim and Buddhist refugees clashed at an Indonesian immigration center.

On April 30, one man was killed in riots in Oakkan and nearby villages just 100 km (60 miles) north of Yangon, when a Muslim woman bumped into an 11-year-old novice monk, who dropped his alms bowl, damaging it.

The authorities are aware that such mundane incidents can spiral out of control in the present environment. A district officer said a measure that stops crowds from gathering had been imposed in Taikkyi, a town near Oakkan, as a precaution.

Presidential spokesman Ye Htut said in a Facebook statement the authorities had averted trouble in the city of Mandalay when three motorcyclists rode through a Muslim neighborhood shouting that Buddhist monks had come to burn down their houses.

"Security personnel went to the site immediately and explained that it was not true," Ye Htut said. "They assured the people of security. An investigation is going on to expose and detain these instigators."

ARRESTS

Yangon's deputy police commissioner, Thet Lwin, told Reuters 18 people had been arrested in connection with the Oakkan riots, including the woman who inadvertently started them, charged with "deliberate and malicious acts" that insult religion.

"According to our practice, we need to send her for trial since she was involved in the root cause of the incident," he said, adding that although she had bumped into the monk by accident, it was up to the court to decide her fate.

In the village of Win Kite, a 45-minute drive down dusty roads from Oakkan, 40 members of the security forces guaranteed peace - for now.

On Wednesday, police managed to push the mob back to Sa Phyu, a Buddhist village about a half hour's walk away. There they calmed the crowd, which agreed not to attack the Muslims, according to Deputy Commissioner Thet Lwin.

One man from Sa Phyu, who would not give his name because he feared arrest, confirmed the police had prevented the attack.

A Reuters investigation found radical Buddhist monks had been actively involved in the violence in Meikhtila in March.

People interviewed in Sa Phyu denied any involvement with monks and said there had not been any meetings or phone calls on Wednesday, adding some 700 Buddhists had gathered spontaneously from various villages in the area

Myint Shwe and fellow Muslims in Win Kite fear the mob will return and they remain virtual prisoners beyond their bamboo fence.

"Now we have police and military so it's safe," he said. "But when the security forces go back, we don't know what's going to happen."

(Additional reporting by Aung Hla Tun and Minzayar Oo in Myanmar and Kanupriya Kapoor in Jakarta; Editing by Alan Raybould and Nick Macfie)

Maung Aurther 

RB Article 

May 2, 2013 

Rohingyas, genealogically, the direct descendents of the early Indo-Aryans of Arakan, have been being subjected to a new form of ethnocide in Myanmar. The ethnocide is speeding up by means of forcing Rohingyas all over Arakan to accept the term ‘Bengali’ as their racial identity. It is aimed to deprive Rohingyas, the bonafide inheritors of the land Arakan, of their indigenous rights and obliterate them from their land. Hence, the term is unanimously, rather rightly, rejected by all Rohingyas in Myanmar and all over the world. 

Nevertheless, there is an operation being carried out against Rohingyas all over Arakan by joint groups of Arakan State Government, Immigration, Police, Military, NaSaKa (Border Security Force) and Rakhine Nationalists Development Party (RNDP). The operation has been under the banner of “Census on Muslim Population” but its primary target is to implement their ill-intended portrayal of Rohingyas as British-Time-Illegal-Bengali Immigrants. Now, Myanmar authority has started to forcefully Bengalize Rohingyas by various means: Arbitrary Arrests, Tortures and Threatening to their lives etc. 

Recently, there were brawls took place between authority personnel and already displaced Rohingyas at their camps in Akyab (Sittwe) when they (displaced Rohingyas) refused to accept the term ‘Bengali’ as their racial identity. Military and NaSaKa shot at the displaced Rohingyas and Rohingyas, in turn, exchanged throwing stones at the authority personnel. The heated brawls resulted in injuries to both sides. Authority returned without carrying out their project. 

Since then, authority has started arresting Rohingya intellectuals arbitrarily accusing that Rohingyas are refusing to follow the government orders due to their incitements. However, the reality is that Rohingya people, in general, are, on their own wills, refusing to be forcefully Bengalized because they have nothing to lose anymore but an only racial identity. A Rohingya victim in Maung Daw said “we have been dehumanized mentally and physically. We have nothing to lose anymore except for our racial identity ‘Rohingya’.” Therefore, arresting and torturing Rohingya intellectuals and threatening to their lives are double victimizations of Rohingyas so that they can’t even have a slim chance to rebuild their future again. 

As mentioned above, majority of Rohingyas are the direct descendants of the early Indo-Aryans of Arakan, who later came to mix with other races as the settlements of foreign people continued through its historical periods. Hence, Rohingyas are not but a people that have developed from different racial origins. However, how the term ‘Rohingya’, exactly like the term ‘Rakhine’, has evolved is still debatable. Whatsoever, the term has been in use as early as 17th century by the Muslim Arakanese as their racial identity. 

However, it will be illogical to deny any racial, cultural and linguistic similarities between Rohingyas and Chittagonian people. Denying their similarities mean denying the history. Right from the ancient time, the Arakan and Chittagong had been a closely-related region or used to be ruled by the same kings or rulers. Besides, Rohingyas, Bengalis, Indians (excluding south Indians) and majority of Pakistanis are of the same Indo-Aryanic Origin. Before 10th Century, these regions exclusively belonged to these Indo-Aryans. The present Mongoloid Rakhines of Tibeto-Burman group are the latest arrivers in Arakan with their forebears’ invasion of Arakan in 957CE. 

Nonetheless, it is common for one, today, to assume or get confused Indigenous Rohingyas of Arakan with Bengalis of Bangladesh. Such is the strength of the racist and neo-fascist media and propaganda of the Neo-Nazi Burmese regime and Bigotry Burmese. There were some Bengali seasonal workers who used to come to British Arakan from British India in search of jobs. They used to go back to their homes after the job seasons were over. Based on this ground, Rakhine racists try to justify their fascist views on Rohingyas that they are illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. 

But what these racists fail to admit is that those seasonal Bengali workers scarcely stayed back in Arakan after their region had achieved independence from British. Bangladesh, the then East Pakistan, achieved its independence from British on 14th August 1947 and Burma did on 4th January 1948. Thus, it is logical to say that almost all Bengali seasonal workers returned to their newly independent land as Burma was still colonized by British. 

Moreover, Rakhines had been living in and around Chittagong area centuries before the annexation of Chittagong by British. Isn’t it logical to say that the unemployment problems in the region that led Bengalis to come to Arakan in search of jobs could be faced by the Rakhines living in the same region as well? Therefore, wouldn’t Rakhines, like Bengalis, also illegally come to Arakan to solve the same unemployment problems? 

Awfully enough, the bigots in Burmese society are not ashamed to say that Bengalis are still sneaking into Arakan. Now tell me why any Bengali with right mind enter a land which is ruled by one of the world’s most heartless despots leaving their democratic country behind, less economic opportunity (preferring over easily go-able developing countries like Malaysia, UAE, Saudi Arabia, India etc) and the poorest infrastructures. 

To mention again, in Bangladesh, there are both Bengalis and Rakhines living. If any problems such as population booming or famine occur in the country, they will be faced by both Bengalis and Rakhines. Therefore, both communities will sneak into Arakan. Why only Bengalis??? I wonder how serious is the selective amnesia that Rakhine racists have been suffering not to be able to apply the same logic to the people their own race!!! Can you be able to even imagine that immigration in Arakan, composed of Rakhine racists by two-third, will take bribe from and settle Bengalis in the land against whom they have been wolf-crying for decades of posing national and religious threats??? 

In reality, they are Rakhines of Bangladesh that are illegally sneaking into Arakan taking advantage of the presence of their own people in the Immigration, Police, and Administration etc while bucking up the blames on the Rohingyas who have been prone to persecutions and consequently leaving the country since the ascendance of the tyrannical Gen. Ne Win in 1962. All in all, historically, Rohingyas are indigenous to Arakan and forcing them to accept the term ‘Bengali’ or any attempt to eradicate their identity ‘Rohingya’ is nothing but an out and out ETHNOCIDE. 

Maung Aurther is an activist. He can be reached at: dhannyawadi@gmail.com

Bangkok Post

May 3, 2013

Myanmar President Thein Sein plans a landmark visit to Washington this month in a sign of US support for his reforms despite a recent surge in anti-Muslim violence, a source said Thursday.

Thein Sein, who would be the first leader of the country to visit in half a century, is planning to be in the American capital around May 20 or May 21, a staff member at the US Congress said, on condition of anonymity. 

The trip would include a summit with President Barack Obama at the White House. Administration officials declined immediate comment but have previously said that they were studying a visit by Thein Sein. 

The source said the United States was considering as another gesture a change in US policy to call the nation Myanmar, the leaders' preferred usage, and not the previous name of Burma, which is used by exile groups. 

The United States is also looking at whether to include Myanmar under the Generalized System of Preferences, through which the United States offers duty-free access for up to 5,000 products from developing countries that meet labor standards. 

It would be the first visit to Washington by a head of the country since military leader Ne Win was invited in 1966 by president Lyndon Johnson. 

Thein Sein has previously visited the United States to attend the UN General Assembly, but only held meetings in New York. 

Thein Sein, a former general, surprised even many skeptics after taking office in 2011 as a nominal civilian by undertaking a range of reforms, including freeing political prisoners and relaxing censorship. 

He has also allowed opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi to take a seat in parliament, a once unthinkable gesture as the Nobel Peace laureate spent most of the previous two decades under house arrest. 

Obama paid his own visit to Myanmar in November when he praised the nation for its transition but called for progress on reforms, particularly in the treatment of ethnic minorities. 

But Thein Sein's visit is expected to be controversial due to a surge in violence against the Rohingya, a Muslim people who are not considered citizens by Myanmar. 

A recent Human Rights Watch study accused Myanmar of a "campaign of ethnic cleansing" against the Rohingya, saying that at least 211 have been killed since June 2012 and tens of thousands more forcibly displaced. 

Jennifer Quigley, executive director of the US Campaign for Burma, a Washington-based pressure group, accused the Obama administration of only responding to positive developments and not to setbacks. 

"To invite him at this point of time would really just reinforce the message of a positive relationship when there really has been no move by the US government to tie this to the Burmese government taking necessary steps" to curb the violence, she said. 

Quigley voiced concern about the anti-Rohingya use of force and also the situation in Kachin state, where tens of thousands have been displaced since a ceasefire between the government and ethnic rebels broke down in June 2011. 

The United States has already eased key sanctions against Myanmar and has allowed US businesses to invest in the country, which has seen a surge of interest by investors since the launch of reforms. 

The congressional source said that Obama may try to send a signal to Myanmar by renewing his authority to impose sanctions, which remain on the books but have been waived. 

The European Union last week ended the last of the bloc's sanctions against Myanmar, with the exception of an arms embargo. 

Even before the reforms, most Asian nations conducted business with Myanmar, which had developed a close relationship with neighboring China.

Associated Press

May 2, 2013

YANGON, Myanmar – They have seen how the troubles start from the smallest things. They have seen the police powerless before mobs fired with religious zeal and armed with bricks and swords. They have seen on TV and in newspapers the burning homes of people just like them light up the night. And so they have erected rusted barbed-wire barricades and volunteered to sit on street corners, 10 men at time, watching for signs of trouble through the night. 

Fear courses through the streets of Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, especially among its Muslim minority. They have watched the country's spreading religious violence, which threatens to destabilize its fragile democracy, creep closer to home. With little faith in the government's ability to protect them and a growing movement of Buddhist extremism, some feel they have little choice but to try to defend themselves. 

Residents in some neighborhoods have started their own patrols. They have shuttered Muslim schools, which have been the target of attacks elsewhere. A few lucky enough to get tourist visas to Muslim-majority Malaysia have simply left. 

The once-bustling streets of Mingalar Taung Nyunt, a Yangon township where Buddhists and Muslims live side by side, grow quiet around 10 p.m. An occasional cycle rickshaw passes beneath the few functioning streetlights. Jury-rigged roadblocks of desks, street carts and barbed wire barricades dot the corners. 

The neighborhood watch volunteers, who man the corners from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., are armed only with mobile phones. Some 50 block leaders have pledged to call each other at the first sign of trouble. Others patrol the streets in a van and a ramshackle truck plastered with peace stickers. 

"This group is not just for Buddhists or Muslims, it's for everybody who lives in this township," says Khin Maryar Htwee, a 36-year-old Muslim woman who helped organize the group. "We have lived in this community forever. We are afraid this relationship will break up. That's why all religions are volunteering." 

The religious violence started last year in remote Rakhine state, where at least 192 people died in two outbreaks of violence. Then in March an altercation in a gold shop in Meikhtila in central Myanmar sparked three days of rioting that killed at least 43 while police stood idly by. 

The chaos reached Okkan, roughly 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Yangon, this week. On Tuesday, a Muslim woman and Buddhist monk bumped into each other at a crowded market, knocking the monk's alms bowl to the ground. By Wednesday, one man was dead, and nearly 160 mosques, homes and shops had been destroyed. Stunned women and children sat staring at wisps of smoke rising from a field of charred beams and ash where they used to live. Okkan had a neighborhood watch, but it was unable to stop the attack. 

"This country is like a lawless country," says Ko Aye Thaung a thickset 48-year-old from one of the Muslim villages in Okkan that were destroyed. "The whole village was burned down, it was like nothing happened." 

Mingalar Taung Nyunt organized its neighborhood watch after the March Meikhtila riots. 

Tun Kyi, a 45-year-old Muslim activist who helped form the group, says that if trouble comes, he will call in the monks from one of the township's Buddhist monasteries to restore peace. He does not mention the police. 

A few weeks ago, a car sped through, driving crazily, packed with boys shouting insults. People took it as a warning. 

"We chased them, and they ran away," says Thant Zaw, a 26-year-old Muslim shopkeeper who naps two hours to make up for the sleep he loses manning one of five informal checkpoints on his street overnight. 

Next to him, Thura Than, a 25-year-old shopkeeper, gestures to a young man with tattoos running down his muscled arms. "I'm Muslim and he's Buddhist," he says. "We don't worry about people here. We worry about outsiders." 

Adding to the unease is the growth of a radical Buddhist movement called 969, which was founded late last year. It urges Buddhists to shop only at Buddhist stores and not to marry, sell property to or hire Muslims. Though 969 professes to be peaceful, some residents of Okkan believe this week's violence is related to the 969 stickers that now adorn most motorbikes in town, and local politician Myint Thein says 969 supporters were involved in the riots. 

Tun Kyi, of Mingalar Taung Nyunt township's neighborhood watch program, says harassment of Muslims has worsened with the spread of 969 in Yangon. "It's because of the 969 effect," he says. 

The movement has caught on in Kyauk Myaung, a Buddhist-only neighborhood that borders Mingalar Taung Nyunt. Even before 969, residents wouldn't sell or rent their homes to Muslims. 

Around 10 Islamic religious schools in Mingalar Taung Nyunt township have been closed, as a precautionary measure, since late March. In Kyauk Myaung, 969 followers have been opening religious schools for Buddhist children. 

The schools are run by the Hitataya Foundation, which was founded by Wimalar Biwuntha, one of the monks who started the 969 movement. He is part of a network of monks in southern Mon state whose motto is: "We will make fences of our bones if we must." 

"It means it is noble and great to die for the religion," says 969 supporter Swe Aung. 

An herbal medicine salesman, Swe Aung spends his Sundays as a volunteer teacher at Hitataya Foundation schools. Around 20 such schools have opened in Yangon since September, he says, while nationwide there are more than 200. 

Rows of students in matching brown sashes given to them by the foundation bow before a monk at Zay Ya Mingalar monastery. Organizers say 300 students have registered at this school alone. Teachers say the curriculum focuses on Buddhist morality, history and meditation. 

"We don't teach the children to hate," says Swe Aung. 

Swe Aung is also scared, of religious violence and Muslim world domination. 

A map purporting to show that 64 percent of the world's population is Muslim hangs at the front of the class. A study by the Pew Research Center and the John Templeton Foundation found that Muslims made up 23.4 percent of the world's population in 2010. 

"I'm afraid of the Muslim people, so I want to build a fence," Swe Aung says. "In Islam, they have the right to kill according to their religion and they can go to heaven. If the Muslim community can guarantee that they will not kill Buddhist people, we will shop and eat in their shops and let them live in our homes." 

When night falls, the residents of Mingalar Taung Nyunt and Kyauk Myaung prefer to stay apart. 

Near midnight, slim silhouettes appear on the balconies of Mingalar Taung Nyunt, suspicious of the visiting journalists on the rough street below. Who has come? What's wrong? 

Young men come out of their homes and gather near the checkpoint. 

They are afraid of 969. Afraid of arrest. Afraid their houses will be burned down. They are afraid of conspiracies they will never be able to prove. They are afraid the tender fabric of their mixed neighborhood, will be torn apart by large, dark forces they cannot control. 

"It's a sensitive situation," says Khin Maryar Htwee, hustling the journalists away. "They've had trauma. It can't be cured." 

___ 

Associated Press video journalist Raul Gallego Abellan in Okkan, Myanmar, contributed to this report.

Maung Aurther 

RB News 

May 2, 2013 

Maung Daw, Arakan - Around 10PM, on 2nd May 2013, Rakhines terrorists torched a Rohingya house in Mawrongor Del, Kilaidaung (Du-Chi-Ra-Dan) village tract, Southern Maung Daw. Now, the house has totally been razed. 

“Rakhine terrorists from the nearby village of Kaing-Chaung secretly came to the village of Mawrongor Del, Kilaidaung (Du-Chi-Ra-Dan) village tract. They poured petrol around and torched the house at the edge of the village. Then, they had fled before Rohingyas villagers came to the scene. The owner of the house is Ayas Ullah S/o Khalaya (27) and now the house has been totally burnt down. We heard that NaSaKa (Border Security Force) came to the place and what they investigated is not known yet” said a worried nearby villager. 

“Last month, its neighboring house was torched and razed by the terrorists from the same village. The next day, Police from Maung Daw came and forced the lady of the house to hold a fire-stick. A photograph of her with the fire-stick was taken and she was portrayed as if she had burnt her own house. So then, she was arrested and taken to the Maung Daw Police custody. But NaSaKa made the timely intervention to get her released as she was not the culprit. However, Police released her only after the extortion of money. 

Now, we are worried that the same thing might happen to the owner of this house as well. Police may come tomorrow and will doubly victimize the victim instead of being just” he continuously exclaimed.

RB News 

May 2, 2013 

Buthidaung: It is reported on midnight April 30, officials of Border Security Force (Nasaka) arrested five Rohingya without any allegation from Mostobis village, Thaygan Khwasone village tract, Buthidaung Township, Rakhine State. 

On midnight April 30, 10 Nasaka officers of Pho Nyo Leik based Nasaka camp entered to Mostobis village, Thaygan Khwasone village tract, Buthidaung Township and raided many houses. Afterwards, arrested five Rohingya without any allegation. 

1. Suleman S/o Mostobis, 65 years 

2. Ali S/o Abul Hussein, 58 years 

3. Rabi Ullah S/o Kalim Ullah, 20 years 

4. Salim Ullah S/o Saber Ahmed, 17 years 

5. Tufail S/o Oli Ahmed, 26 years 

After arrested, have beaten brutally and, in turn, demanded money to set free. However, it is learnt since they are unable to afford the money, eventually, they were taken away to the camp situated in Pho Nyo Leik. Thence, an Imam (Prayer leader) named Abdullah was also brutally beaten. 

A resident told to RB News that threatened all villagers i.e. told that remained more ones to be arrested and repeatedly, will be arrested. Therefore, villagers are dreading. Villagers are not dare to sleep at night and staying out of house s to be escaped. Even not being valued as animals, the arrestees are torturedly beaten. And demand money. As the arrestees are unable to afford the demanded amount, they will be prosecuted under any falsified Act and imprisoned. Mainly, pillaging detained people is like dacoit pillaging.

(Translated into English by Ibrahim Shah)

RB News 

May 2, 2013 

Maung Daw, Arakan - On 26th April 2006, local Rohingyas in Sittwe (Akyab) utterly rejected the forced attempts by Immigration, NaSaKa (Border Security Force) and other authority to forcefully Bengalize Rohingyas in the township. In response to it, on 30th April, the NaSaKa Commander of the commandment area (7) in AlayThanKyaw (HaisshuRata), Southern Maung Daw, called up some local Rohingyas for a meeting. 

The commander forced the Rohingyas attending the meeting to shout as “we all are Bengalis” in his presence. He threatened to imprison the Rohingyas for 10 years each when they refused to shout so. Therefore, the extremely worried Rohingyas had to shout as ordered. 

“We attended the meeting because we were invited in the name of a discussion. We were more than 100 people in total. In the meeting, we were forced to shout as ‘we all are Bengalis’. We were threatened that each of us would be sentenced to 10-year imprisonment when we replied we could not say so. We were afraid and so, we had to shout as the commander ordered. The camera man waiting standby shot video on it” said a local to RB News. 

Besides, the NaSaKa commander said “Muslims are illegal immigrants. Therefore, you have to follow my orders. Or else, you all Muslims will be sent to jail.” 

Then, the NaSaKa forcefully registered the Rohingyas as Bengali by means of bio-metric finger prints. Besides, the NaSaKa Commander yelled “those who do not want to be registered so can leave the country.” 

Similar cases happened in the NaSaKa commandment area (8), Southern Maung Daw on 1st May 2013. The NaSaKa commander, major Wanna Zaw, called up the locals of the village of Myint-Hlut (Mer Ullah) and forced them to do so. 

“We come to know that they did so in response to what happened in Sittwe. People there could resist. Authority can’t cover up everything in Sittwe because there are many international NGOs. No International Journalist can come to our region. We are here in the open prisons. It has been more than 20 years for us under NaSaKa’s barbaric oppressions. Their recent inquiry reports on Arakan violence are also full of lies and fabrications. To justify their lies and fabrications, they are desperate to Bengalize local Rohingyas. So, they forced Rohingyas to shout to be Bengalis and made videos on it. 

Though they are bullying us and trying to Bengalize us, they can’t wipe out our real identity ‘Rohingya’ from our hearts and history. We will never become Bengalis. Because we are not Bengalis” said a victimized Rohingya to RB news. 

(Translated into English by Maung Aurther)