By Abu Aneen

RB Article

June 3, 2013

Racism in Myanmar politic was introduced since 1962 military coup d’état. Now people are so deeply immersed in racialistic mentality that they themselves do not realize that they become racialists. Today even democracy activists are blind in race, related issues. When race question appears before them, they cannot see the essence and value of democracy and human rights. There, they do not speak out against racial discriminations.

One child, two child official restrictions is nowhere, save India and China, in the world. The remark of a popular leader on the two child policy introduced in northern Rakhine State become subject to criticism from this ultra racists.

Recently in Pyi Myanmar weekly journal, (24.5.2013) a former religious affairs minister (a Lt-general) said "the guests (the Bengalis) in Rakhine state are very aggressive and expelling forcibly the hosts (the Rakhine). In response, the hosts had to assault on them and make them homeless, displaced, compelling them to take refuge in camps. It was done so in defence of our national security. The guests (The Bengalis) should choose methods of peaceful co-existence with the hosts (the Rakhine)". There what he means is the fate of the so called guests (according to his version) should be in the hands of the hosts. Is it a right/correct rationale? There are a lot of concrete primary source materials which indicate so called guests are original settlers of Arakan. 

In Rakine state, there is no any armed group insurgents of so called guest people. Instead, there, the regular army, police, para-military, immigrations and Nasaka (Border Immigration check forces) are heavily stationed along the border. 26 Nasaka stations comprising more than two hundred personnel each have a tight grasp on the daily life of this so called guest people. So called guests are not allowed to move freely. They need travel permits. There are six-monthly registration and check of both man and household animals. How could they assault on the favored and privileged Rakhine people. How could they, the guest take away the properties of hosts and expel them from their homes and hearths. Is there no proper, effective state mechanism? Are all government departments standing a loaf, doing nothing to protect the hosts?

Real fact is the guest Bengalis (Who themselves called Rohingya) have been subjected to hundreds of suppressive, discriminatory executive mechanism including forced two child policy. Their economic and social lives - not speaking of political rights - are so stifled or stagnated that they are literally almost lifeless and vulnerable. It is unimagined able that such a oppressed minority could be harmful to a privileged ruling class. It is just a mispropaganda to deceive Myanmar public. It is only to justify the gruesome in human atrocities committed against the guests (Bengali or Rohingya) in the past year. The world today according to HRW report recognized this as an ethnic cleansing, well planned campaign. It is continuation of U Ne Win's Rohingya cleansing agenda.

Mr. ex-minister! You deceived yourself. But you cannot mislead the world. The world is very small and closes now. Nothing remains unseen and unknown. People know and assess what is happening in any corner of the world within shortest time. The injustice done on Rohingya in the past year and the inhuman cruelty in various forms they are subjected to are now fully and clearly exposed to the word. The world's judgment is it is a systematic ethnic cleansing despite your accuses and denial. It is not a riot. It is one sided assault on the Rohingya. This one sided assault continued and spread to dozens of towns in the country. 

Here again so called 88 generation leaders say 1982 Myanmar citizenship law/act is the best one to solve Rohingya problem. How can you dare say that? Are you not dreaming to be state leaders in the future? How can the public rely on you? How do you lead the country? Don't you know the 1982 citizenship law was deliberately enacted at the after math of 1978 failed dragon operation to strip of Rohingya’s existing citizenship? 1978 refugees over two hundred thousand proved to be Burmese citizen by showing NRCs of Burma. Then Burmese government had to accept them and repatriate them, resettling in their original places. Here, Burmese government got a second thought; that is to strip Rohingya of Burmese citizenship and make this people stateless or a permanent degraded citizenry. Here came 1982 new citizen ship law, sections or provisions of which have no place for Rohingya's being citizens.

The whole world from the time of enactment have been decrying and condemning that law as an unjust, unfair and discriminatory one, containing retrospective effects. Alas! To the agony of Rohingya the world today has forgotten that reality. The world today is only talking on humanitarian ground. The world should raise the question of the invalidity and arbitrary nature of that law. The world today falls in the grasp of black propaganda that Rohingyas are illegal immigrants from over populated Bangladesh ignoring the fact that half of the Rohingya population today became diasporas in various countries. They have sound historic back ground and legal points to be genuine Burman. 

Once 88 generation criticized the law that had put them in jail. Now they say the law which makes Rohingya stateless and put them in permanent confinement is very excellent one for the state security. When the world cried for their release from prison, they say a lot of kudos to the world. But now as the world ask for the relaxation and release of Rohingya from present statelessness and confinement, they say sorry! It is our internal affair. We cannot tolerate foreign interference."

This contradictory political mentality of 88 generation in fact discredits their reputation. The respect and hope the public put in them is slowly fading away.

The worst is what Ko Ko Gyi in an interview with Carlos Sardina on 8th July 2012 said. He said "millions of foreigners illegally entered Myanmar from east and west and obtain citizenships after 1988 upheaval. Real fact is there cannot be one million Bengali illegal immigrants as the total so called Bengali population is officially said to be only one million. Again there is no single Rohingya who got citizenship after 1988 to confirm the allegation of Ko Ko Gyi.

If all Rohingyas are recent migrants, then who were the ones who voted in elections from 1947 to 2010. This allegation has no substantial evidence. This is just the whim of some people. If the reason of two child policy is the terribly high birthrate of Rohingya, why the Rohingya population in percentage remains the same as 1826. In 1826 Rohingya population was one third of total Rakhine population which still today is also one third. Even in 1973 census Rohingya were half of total population; seventeen hundred thousand. There is no increase but decrease of this Rohingyas.

Most of the political leaders, democracy activist and some academics are found to be racialistic, blind and chauvinistic in their political mentality. That is why Rakhine state investigation committee report was nothing but a photocopy of what R N D P statement described before. The report is totally biased and partial. It did not point out who the main culprits in the violence were. Even it tried to put the blames on the victimized Rohingya.

In the emergency session of the Pyihtaungsu Hluttaw on 20th May RNDP Chairman U Aye Maung explained the causes of the violence. He said in Arakan, Bengalis have been swallowing Rakhine economically and politically. Rakhine people were constricted by the Bengali. Bengalis are over whelming Rakhine with a tremendous, terribly high birthrate. In Myanmar proper Muslims become the exploiters, all businesses are controlled by them. So our ethnic people have no option other than to resort to violent revenge on them. This version is quite similar in essence to what Hitler once said about the Jews. 

Ko Ko Gyi compared Bengal-Myanmar border with Mexico-American border. There the parallel comparison between the two is not a realistic approach. American per capital income is ten times bigger than Mexico. Every immigrant can find out a living in America very easily. American society is a homogenous one. Myanmar (Rakhine) GDP is lesser than Bangladesh. Rakhine is a hostile and antagonistic society for Bengali. There is Nasaka and other departments strictly watching any foreigner illegally cross the border. Rakhine is not an industrial area. Minister U Khin Yi told in the parliament Rohingya cross the border to find jobs in Bangladesh. It means Bangladesh is a better place for livelihood than Arakan.

Ko Ko Gyi said there was the question of preserving our historical, cultural and political interests. Yes, OK. But Arakan was politically, culturally and historically more closer to Bengal than to Myanmar. This two were one country for many centuries. Arakan kings used Indian languages and literatures in courts and most courtiers were Muslims. Arakan kings including first Mrauk-U King Narameik Hla who did not have possession of land west of Naf river had Muslim littles (or) names.

There were fluctuations of population: Bengalis in Arakan and Rakhine in Bengal. Rakhine in Bangladesh are called Mrama where as Bengali affiliated people in Arakan are Rohingya. Rohingya is a mixed blood race.

Rohingya in Arakan were never a threat to state security. They served Rakhine and Myanmar Kings as faithful soldiers and officials. Rohingya supported Bodawpyaya's rule. They got the recognition of the kings. They got prizes, medals and other awards from the kings. Qazi Abul Karim, an awardee of gold sword who fought along with Bandoola with his own Muslim army. Bagyidaw allowed his Rakhine Muslim combatants during the war, to build two mosques in Yangon alone. These mosques still are known as Rakhine Bali or Rakhine mosques. Official registration name too is Rakhine Bali. The one who fought with British army was not Rohingya but so called ethnic Rakhine. The first group of insurgents to make peace with the government is the Mujahid in 1961. The constitution of 2008 got 97% approval in Mayu district. People used to vote their own party and own candidates. But in 2010 Rohingya voted for USDP candidates. These all are proofs Rohingya are faithful to the country and peace loving. Araknistan movement in late 1940s was not led by Rohingya but by so supposed faithful Rakhines. Who is crying now for federation and separation?

Just what we need is change of attitude and heart towards Rohingya. Once Rohingyas are treated as equal, peace and tranquility will prevail as it was in parliamentary period. Racism is a Virus that draws back country's development. The earlier you get rid of racism the better for the country.

Long time ago I learned never to say ‘never again’ when it comes to Myanmar’s savagery. The latest mayhem against the Muslims in the Shan state, far away from the western Rakhine state – bordering Bangladesh, once again shows that for this religious minority Myanmar is proving to be hell on earth. Seemingly, there is no conscientious Buddhist living inside this den of hatred and intolerance that is bold enough to challenge this status quo. Daw Suu Kyi, once darling of the West, has long shown her despicable hypocrisy when she tried to ignore the monumental crimes of her Buddhist people and the government against the Rohingyas of Myanmar, considered the worst persecuted people on earth. 

For years the Rohingya people living in the western Myanmar state of Rakhine, formerly known as Arakan, have been subjected to ethnic cleansing practices, and denied every right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Now that racial hatred and religious bigotry is spreading like a cancer all across Myanmar to include other Muslims in the country. 

Rumors now seem to have become a major weapon to justify elimination of a persecuted minority. Last year (May-October), we saw the result of this evil concoction: with the rumor of an alleged rape and murder of a Rakhine woman, the brainwashed Rakhine terrorists went on an extermination campaign that witnessed the gruesome murder and rape of thousands of Rohingya Muslims, and the wholesale destruction of Muslim properties, schools, madrassas, mosques and shrines. Nothing of value was left intact by the marauding Buddhist savages. This ethnic cleansing drive resulted in internal displacement of some 140,000 Rohingyas within Myanmar who are living in wretched refugee camps. At least thirteen thousand Rohingyas have fled the country by sea with some seven hundred losing their lives while trying to brave the ocean to find refuge elsewhere.

In October 21-25, two townships - Pauktaw and Kyaukphyu - saw the near-total expulsion of long-established Muslim populations, in what could only be described as ethnic cleansing. One village Yin Thei saw a massacre of at least 51 Muslims, among them 21 women. That violence started with a heated argument within a very poor Muslim family where the husband (Tun Naing) had lost his job and the apartheid like restrictions had prevented him from finding job outside his Muslim village. It stirred up ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in the next village, who began shouting anti-Muslim slurs. Tun Naing's village was soon besieged by hundreds of Rakhines. The next morning, Monday, October 22, hundreds of Rakhine men gathered on the southern outskirts of Mrauk-U, an ancient capital, located nearly 15 miles north of Paik Thay. Then they marched to Tha Yet Oak, a Muslim fishing village of about 1,100 people, and set alight its flimsy bamboo homes. Rakhine terrorists hurled Molotov cocktails and fired homemade guns, and the entire Muslim village was burned to ashes. The same episode was repeated in Sam Ba Le, a village in neighboring Minbya Township, where more than 200 homes were set ablaze. 

Next day, the massacre began in which the Rakhine mob was aided by police who shot Muslims. As Yin Thei burned, the last of nearly 4,000 Rohingya Muslims were fleeing the large port town of Pauktaw, in a dramatic exodus by sea that had begun five days earlier.

About 30 minutes after the last boat pushed out to sea, the two Rohingya neighborhoods in Pauktaw were set ablaze. All 335 homes were destroyed. The charred and roofless frame of a once-busy mosque was marked with graffiti: "Rakhines will drink kalar blood," using the slur for Muslims. Tuesday night fell. Soon a new inferno began in Kyaukphyu, a sleepy port town 65 miles southeast of Sittwe, targeting Kaman Muslims. Most Kyaukphyu Muslims lived in East Pikesake, a neighborhood wedged between Rakhine communities and the jade-green waters of the Bay of Bengal. By Wednesday, all the Muslim homes were set on fire. The Muslims had only one exit: the sea. A flotilla of fishing boats was preparing to leave its blazing shores.

"People swam out to the boats but were chased down and stabbed before they got there," said Abdullah, 35, a Rohingya fisherman to a reporter from the Reuters. Xanabibi, 46, a Kaman woman, said she watched from a boat as three Rakhine men with swords set upon a Muslim teenager. "I watched them ... cut up his body into four pieces," she said. The extermination campaign was touted as majority Rakhine’s way to teaching a lesson to minority of Muslims.

The week-long pogrom, by official count, claimed 89 lives, its worst in decades. The Reuters investigation painted a more troubling picture: The wave of attacks was organized, central-government military sources told Reuters. They were led by Rakhine nationalists tied to a powerful political party in the state, incited by Buddhist monks, and abetted at times by local security forces.

In March of this year, the extermination campaign moved to towns in central Myanmar, including Meiktila, which is located nearly 1oo miles north of the capital city Naypyitaw. There mobs of men, including Buddhist monks hacked to death at least 44 Muslim women and children. And all these savagery under the pretext of a rumor that a Muslim gold shop owner in Meiktila had harassed his Buddhist customers, which spiraled into a street brawl. Soon thereafter Buddhist mobs roamed the streets with sticks and swords and set Muslim-owned buildings including mosques ablaze. Rioting and arson attacks spread to 11 townships and villages outside Meiktila, as mobs of Buddhists, some led by monks, continued a three-day rampage through Muslim areas. Eight hundred Muslim homes and five mosques were torched. The violence ended with another 12,000 people displaced.

In his report in the New York Times Thomas Fuller wrote, “Images from Meiktila showed entire neighborhoods burned to the ground, some with only blackened trees left standing. Lifeless legs poked from beneath rubble. And charred corpses spoke to the use of fire as a main tool of the rioting mobs.” President Thein Sein later declared a state of emergency.

The latest manifestation of extermination campaign came last week in the northern city of Lashio, where terrified Muslims were sheltering under army guard after their homes, shops and mosque were burned down. The unrest in the northern Myanmar city of Lashio, a city located nearly 430 miles from Myanmar’s commercial capital of Rangoon (Yangon), shows how far anti-Muslim extermination campaign has spread in this Buddhist-dominated country. For years, the Shan state bordering China has been a peaceful state. And now in clear reminiscent of Meiktila, its Lashio city witnessed swarms of Buddhist men roaming Lashio's crumbling streets, armed with rocks and sticks and machetes. Before police and army troops stepped in, the Buddhist mob had torched scores of Muslim-owned shops, sending plumes of black smoke into the sky. The crowd then rampaged through the town, setting fire to Lashio's largest mosque. The mob also set fire to a Muslim school and orphanage that was so badly charred that only two walls remained

According to official report, one Muslim was killed and five people wounded including a journalist attacked by a Buddhist mob in Wednesday’s clashes. Some 1,200 Muslims were moved to Mansu Monastery after Buddhist mobs had terrorized the city – again showing government’s slow response to anti-Muslim pogroms.

As reported by the Reuters, Thein Maing, who took shelter at the monastery with his family, said they only dared to leave their house when they saw soldiers patrolling the streets on Wednesday. “I approached the soldiers and said, ‘We are afraid and we don’t know where to go. Please help us’, and they sent us here.” Khin Kyi’s family hid in the house of an ethnic Chinese neighbor, while Buddhist men with sticks and swords prowled the area. “We were very scared. This has never happened before,” she said.

The violence was sparked by a rumor last Tuesday that a Muslim man had badly burnt a Buddhist woman who sold fuel by the side of the road. After police detained the man, Buddhists surrounded the police station and demanded that he be handed over for public lynching. Badanta Ponnya Nanda, head monk of Mansu Monastery, said he tried to reason with the crowd, telling them to respect the law. “After that they went and burned the mosque,” he said.

As I have noted before, it would be wrong to think that these are isolated events. These are, in fact, part of a highly organized eliminationist policy in which Myanmar government and its Buddhist community are joint partners. For years their neo-Nazi intellectuals and bigot monks have been playing the role of Julius Streicher selling, rather very successfully, the poison pill of racial and religious purity in a country that has been multi-ethnic, multi-racial and multi-religious for hundreds of years. 

Pale-skinned and shaven-headed Buddhist monk Ashin Wirathu has become the public face of a Buddhist campaign, called ‘969’, to exclude and isolate Myanmar's Muslim minority. Wirathu is a self-confessed admirer of neo-Nazi groups like the English Defense League of the UK. He has become to the 969 fascist movement in Myanmar what Goebbels was to the Nazis in Germany. He says that his goals and methods are intended to counteract what he regards as growing Muslim power and numbers. His "969" campaign calls for boycotting Muslim-owned businesses and opposes intermarriage with Buddhists. He insists that 22 per cent of the nation's 60 million people are Muslim - the official estimate is only 4 per cent. 

There are many Buddhists in Myanmar who take this hateful monk as their spiritual guide. It is no accident, therefore, that his 969 campaign has coincided with a surge of bloody violence in which Muslims have become the main victims. Wirathu is such a diabolical figure that he has no problem in lying or talking with a twisted tongue. When hundreds of Muslim villages and townships were burned in the Rakhine state, he had an explanation: "The Rohingya there burned down their own houses so that they could live easily in the refugee camps." As to the burning and killing by the Buddhist mob in Meiktila, he said their crimes were "forgivable”. He added, "As far as Muslims go, a snake is a snake. Snakes are dangerous, so we shouldn't let them be." It is a classic example to dehumanize one’s enemy so that violence against them can be sanctified.

As I have noted elsewhere Wirathu – the evil preacher - however, is not alone justifying the elimination campaign against the Muslims of Myanmar. There have been depraved ideologues like Aye Chan, (late) Aye Kyaw and Khin Maung Saw who for years have been parroting the government’s negative stereotypes against the minority Muslims to deny their ancestral ties to Burma. As Dr. Shwe Lu Maung (Shahnawaz Khan) and other objective researchers have repeatedly shown the first settlers of Arakan were the darker-skinned people who are now known as the Rohingya. Simply put, their ties to the soil of Arakan are older than those of the Rakhine Buddhists. Obviously, facts are never important to an ultra-racist and bigot, but myth-making is to justify their eliminationist policy against a targeted minority. Thus, the indigenous, and yet endangered, Rohingya are conveniently dumped as the illegals from Bangladesh and denied their citizenship rights in Myanmar - the last apartheid state of the 21st century.

"Ahimsa," meaning not to harm others, once considered fundamental to Buddhism, has become a forgotten principle in today’s Myanmar. The denial of existence has meant denial of rights for the minority Muslims, which in turn, has translated into their extermination in which from top to bottom every Buddhist of Myanmar is intimately linked as part of a national project to that end. What the past military governments have always wanted in terms of the minority Muslims is now done by its civilian partners in crime. After all, what was possible in a military dictatorship is no longer kosher in a hybrid civil-military government, run by a reform-minded Thein Sein! What a mockery with people’s intelligence! It is, therefore, no accident that the government security forces are silent witnesses, if not active participants, in such an eliminationist project, and are always the last ones to arrive at the crime scene when the cleansing task has already been accomplished by their fellow Buddhist terrorists. It is also no accident that while the victims are always Muslims, those jailed for taking part in clashes with marauding Buddhists – whether in the Rakhine state or in central Myanmar – are always Muslims. Not a single Buddhist has been convicted so far. What a mockery of justice in Thein Sein’s Myanmar!

In spite of decades-long campaign to eliminate the Muslim minorities of Myanmar, they are still there. It is not the Rohingya Muslims alone, there are Kaman Muslims, there are Karen Muslims, and there are Shan Muslims, there are Panthay Muslims and many others who call Myanmar their home. And this realization has made the hateful provocateurs and their local agents very angry, and more determined than ever before to finish off the eliminationist project. So, the persecuted Rohingya must now adhere to the two-child policy in clear violation of their human rights. 

Ignored once again in this immoral order is the fact that Myanmar has ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which obliges State parties to respect and protect the right of women and men “to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children and to have access to the information, education and means to enable them to exercise these rights.” 

Tomás Ojea Quintana, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, has condemned the order: “These orders provide further ammunition to local authorities, including the border security force Nasaka, to discriminate against and persecute the most vulnerable and marginalized group in Myanmar.” “Only by addressing this discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities can the Government of Myanmar hope to forge integrated communities that live together in equality, peace and harmony,” he underscored.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has also called on the Government not to restrict the number of children of Rohingya people. 

As to the recent pogroms, the UN has voiced concerns about violence against the Rohingyas and has adopted a resolution in the General Assembly (Number 12-59569) on “The Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar,” which urged the Government of Myanmar to accelerate its efforts to address discrimination, human rights violations, violence, displacement, and economic deprivation affecting various ethnic minorities and, expressing particular concern about the situation of the Rohingya minority. Unfortunately, the UN fell short of either proposing any action to save the victims or punishing the major culprits who are responsible for the tragedy of this unfortunate people. The nuclear Brahmins, shamelessly, are more interested in getting their shares of the pie of Myanmar than punishing the rogue, apartheid state for its monumental failure to protect the lives and properties of minority Muslims there. More sickening is the attitude of the ASEAN, which as a regional power, has failed to chastise one of its own. They must demand a stop to this extermination campaign against the minority Muslims with a definite timeline. They must ensure full citizenship and human rights of these Muslims. Otherwise, the local problem will not remain local and become a regional one endangering regional security and stability, if it has not already reached that magnitude. 

Can ASEAN afford such a catastrophe in the making? How about South Asia?

RB News 

June 2, 2013 

Minbya, Arakan – A Rohingya woman on her way home was killed by a group of Rakhine extremists in Minbya Township. 

Rohingya woman, Laila Begum from Sin Gyi Pyin Muslim village was on her way home on May 29, 2013. She was accompanied by three Rohingya brothers from Kyun Oaut Muslim village as for a Rohingya woman, going alone was no longer secured these days after the anti-Rohingya violence took place in Arakan. Over twenty Rakhine extremists holding sticks and swords came out from Sin Gyi Pyin Rakhine village and attacked them while they were passing through a Rakhine village. Unfortunately, the Rohingya men were unable to protect Laila Begum as the Rakhine extremists were armed with various weapons and at last three Rohingya men had to flee for their lives. She was beaten to death by the Rakhine Extremists. The three Rohingya witnesses and village elders informed the police and the military immediately after the incident but so far no action has been taken by the police and military. It was also noted that the police and military did not even bother to help the villagers in searching for the victim’s body. 

After two days, finally the villagers from the Sin Gyi Pyin Muslim village found the dead body of Laila Begum floating in the stream of Sin Gyi Pyin on June 1, 2013 at 11:00 am. 

“We finally found the corpse of Laila Begum in Sin Gyi Pyin stream. She was hacked to death. She would not be killed if the authorities helped us with the security from those Rakhines extremists. But now it seems that by not providing security to Rohingyas, the authorities wanted her to be killed. Until now the authority is not taking any action against this murder case.” a villager told to RB News.

June 2, 2013

Maung Aye

RB Article

June 2, 2013

During the violence against Rohingyas last year, hardly was any Rohingya student able to go to school. There were many reasons for it. Particularly, they could not enroll their courses at school because they needed to avoid the wild Rakhine Buddhists and the brutal Burmese Armed Forces. As a result, thousands of Rohingya students had to discontinue their education last year. As the new school season is going to begin, Rohingya students, amidst many difficulties, are curiously preparing to continue their study. Despite losing one year during the targeted-violence, they seem very happy to resume their studies. 

However, the path to their studies is not an easy one. As they proceed to Basic Education High School (BEHS) 1, Maung Daw, for admission, the respective authority at the school reject them saying that they (the school authority) cannot register them because they were absent last year. And they are asked to take permission from the headmaster of the school. The Headmaster, U Kyaw Zaw Tun, in turn, demands Kyat 20-30 thousands for permission depending on the external appearances and dresses of the students. The minimum amount set to be paid for permission is Kyat 10 thousands. Many poor Rohingyas are finding hard to pay the amount especially because their economy is crippled by the government. 

When asked why the amount is to be paid, the headmaster gives an arbitrary and irrational reply “because you guys involved in torching Rakhines’ houses last year” to the innocent students. Besides, rather cruelly, he threatened some students recently that if his demand was not fulfilled, he would hand them over to the Police. Out of fear, the students had to fulfill his arbitrary demand. It was a blatant extortion of money from Rohingyas and reflects the xenophobic tendency of the headmaster. In Myanmar, since almost all the schools are run by the government, one doesn’t need to pay much admission fees.

In fact, it is an ethic and duty of a teacher to organize and encourage students to continue their studies irrespective to racial and religious differences. But instead of doing so, he is forcing the students to quit their studies. Is he really a teacher or a thug? Is there any other teacher like him in this whole world?

President Thein Sein often gives an excuse that we, Rohingyas, are unedueated and uncivilized. That’s why we are unable to integrate into Majority Burmese society and so we cause problems. It is a blatant lie! How can we be educated? They have erected all the systematic barriers against our education. Despite all our people’s enthusiasm for education, they can’t pursue it. On the other hand, President shamelessly says that we don’t study. Is he out of sense? Is he not an oxymoron? 

Maung Aye is a Rohingya Living in Arakan and graduate in English.

Ibrahim Shah

RB Article

June 2, 2013

Burma/Myanmar gained the Independence in 1948 after the successful negotiation with the Great Britain by Aung Sann-Atlee and Nu-Atlee agreements. In these two agreements, citizenship is guaranteed for every single person living in Burma as of 1948, as well as honoring them with equality and human dignity. Those principle values of the Independence were functioning well until Gen. Ne Win gave birth to dictatorship in Burma by staging a coup in 1962. 

Since then Burma faced tremendous deterioration in Human Values, Freedoms, Rights and Equality. Dictator Ne Win has crashed down all the prodemocracy movements and handed down the notorious traditions to his successors; military generals. When it came to infamous Gen. Than Shwe’s era, the country’ situation has already been severely hit by continuous sanctions from the western governments and Institutions that compelled Than Shwe to work on a strategy of safe exit. The 2008 Constitution was written in a way that the Military remains as a key role player in Burma politics and all the dictators’ interests are being safeguarded by the 2010 newly formed quasi-civilian government of Ex- Gen. Thein Sein. 

The late Gen. Ne Win is seen as the Father and the Founder of the new (Tatmadaw) Burmese Army. He is the great mentor to Gen. Than Shwe, infamous Spy Chief Gen. Khin Nyunt and current president Ex-Gen. Thein Sein. His ruthless policies are still widely practiced by the Military without questioning their validity and morality. Dictator Ne Win’s first patriotic movement right after the coup were; confiscating Indian and Chinese own businesses, introducing the Burmanization policy which recommends “Burma is for the Burmans only” and glorifying Burmans as Buddhists with ethnically pure Mongoloid blood. In Arakan, he imposed a policy of “Divide and Rule” to destroy the years long tradition of peaceful coexistence between the Rakhines (Moghs) and Rohingyas.

In 1974, he changed the name of the Western Burma and the Mayu Frontier Region from Arakan to Rakhine as a measure to undermine the existence of Rohingya being as an ethnic identity. His major armed operation; the Dragon King Operation (1977-1978) was solely targeted to Rohingya population and more than 300,000 Rohingya have been driven out from homes accusing them as illegal immigrants. Many thousands lives of Rohingya were perished and eventually had to take shelters in refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh. Again in 1982, he has enacted the unjust “Citizenship Act” as a clear sign of Rohingya Elimination from Burma.

During his successor SLORC era of 1991-1992, Ne Win’s right-hand man, the notorious spy Chief Gen. Khin Nyunt has launched an indiscriminate raid against Rohingyas in every village and quarter of Arakan. Many educated Rohingyas and religious leaders were arrested, tortured and about quarter of a million Rohingya fled to Bangladesh to escape from the atrocities. Many of the arrested were never been released and their whereabouts remains unclear until now.

As the President Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government bragging the world with democratic reforms, the Burmese government realized to redraw the strategy of Rohingya ethnic cleansing policy to avoid from worldwide open condemnation. In pursuit of government’s new approach to Rohingya Elimination, the RNDP (Rakhine Nationalities Development Party) chaired by a Rakhine ultra-nationalist veterinarian Aye Maung caught the government’s attention. 

Since the beginning of 2012, RNDP has been mobilizing Rakhine youths by openly preaching hate speeches, circulating pamphlets with religious/ethnic incitements and distributing machetes. In June 2012, RNDP backed by the government elements successfully triggered the riots by brutally killing 10 Muslim pilgrims in southern Rakhine town of Thandwe. So far no perpetrator has been brought to justice, which clearly indicates the government involvement. The violence has further spread to all over Rakhine State. Being as collaborator, the government forces did not provide safe and security to minority Rohingyas and as a result many Rohingyas lost their lives, entire village burnt down and properties destroyed. 

Another government involvement came to the spotlight when the Burmese president Thein Sein, said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres that "We will take responsibility for our ethnic people but it is impossible to accept the illegally entered Rohingyas, who are not our ethnicity, or else, will send them away if any third country would accept them and this is what we are thinking is the solution to the issue."

The President’s remark has served as a strong endorsement to the already worsening anti-Muslim, anti-Rohingya sentiment all over Burma. Many ultra nationalists Monks took to the street chanting supports to the President’s legal words of hatred. As Burma is known as a predominantly Buddhist nation, any movement from Monks is seen as a legitimate one. Burmese government being known to this very fact indulged the Monks openly preaching hatred against all Muslims and particularly targeting to Rohingyas. Wirathu, a Buddhist monk notoriously known as “Burmese Binladin” preached anti-Muslim speeches and distributed them on CD with the help of “969” The Buddhist Nationalist Movement. Though the speeches are obvious instigation for the religious violence and violate the constitution, government kept ignoring and security forces just kept watching without doing anything when the violence took place.

In Rakhines, situation of Rohingyas remains uncertain with the increasing restriction on freedom of movement, access to health care and education. Recently the Rakhine State government was instructed to impose 2 Child only policy for Rohingya population. Despite the fact that Burmese president has promised the world to speed up the resettlement of IDPs to tone down the worldwide condemnation, IDPs are continually suffering from the blockage of local and international assistance. IDPs’ children are not able to pursue education and there is no regular food supply and they are still languishing in the makeshifts concentration camps around Rakhine States. Medias, INGO and donor countries agencies are constantly facing restriction, harassment from local Rakhine people and Rakhine State government. 

As Burmese President Thein Sein and his puppet Rakhine Commission’s report insisting the non existence of Rohingyas on Burmese soil, immigration authority and the security forces are carrying out the population census on Rohingyas as Bengalese. Whoever refused to accept the identity as Bengalese is subjected imprisonment.

One can inarguably say that the Burmese government’s persecution on Rohingya is a genocide. The Nazis have perfected one during the Second World War by killing more than six million Jews worldwide. Many were gassed in concentration camps. In Burma, they have their own way of Genocide which is called “Final Solution” for Rohingya extermination. (I.e. burning down houses, massacre, gang rape on immature girls and women, indiscriminate killing including children, extortion with false accusation, torture, abduction of Rohingya girls to serve as sex slaves in army camps) 

Thousands of Rohingyas could no longer bear those hardships and persecutions, and then fled Burma as potentially risky boat people. Many have lost their lives when the boats wrecked the sea and some ended up in detention centers in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. 

Commenting on the violence which took place in Rakhine in 2012, Tomás Ojea Quintana, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, has stated that “it is of fundamental importance to clearly establish what has happened in Rakhine state and to ensure accountability”. He has also added that the human rights situation in Rakhine state is very serious and many have suffered from the loss of their homes and livelihoods as a result of the violence and now the government kept them in concentration camps.

Instead of bringing the perpetrators of the Rakhine violence to justice, President Thein Sein formed the Rakhine Commission with 27 handpicked members to investigate the root causes of the conflict. Out of 27 members, 23 members are Buddhists and the remaining 4 Muslims members were later ousted from the commission with various accusations. When the Commission finally came up with the findings, it is with full of distortion, one sidedness and mainly protecting the interest of the State rather than protecting the rights of the minority Rohingyas. Although Rohingyas have many historical evidences of being ethnicity of Burma dating back from 8th century AD to U Nu’s Multi-party democracy government, the Rakhine Commission has ignorantly denied the existence of Rohingya.

Some of the distorted antagonistic on-record statements of the Rakhine Commission members; 

• Dr Myo Myint: “They (the "Bengalis" from across Bangladesh) are here already. We can't simply kick them out. What to do?”
• Dr Myo Myint: “You don't need to report to the President about the situation on a regular basis. The security and welfare of those people ("Bengali") are not our commission's responsibility”
• MP Aye Maung: “We have to restore Rakhine villages (to the pre-Bengali period). We need to take inspiration from Israel and model our restoration (of Rakhine State only for the Rakhine) from Israel” and so on. (Source:http://www.maungzarni.com/2013/05/top-10-anti-muslim-and-anti-rohingya.html)

After releasing the Rakhine Commission Report, the Burmese government became more ignorant and bold defending its involvement in instigation of the conflict. With the presence of many INGOs, satellite images and advanced technologies, what is happening to Rohingyas in Rakhine and Muslims in Burma drew many international criticism and condemnation.

No matter how hard President Thein Sein tries to deceive the word with fake reforms, the widespread hatred on minority Muslims and Rohingyas becomes more clearly visible. Finally, it is the President’s choice whether to portray Burma as a peace loving country or a country that dances with the tune of hatred. 

The Jakarta Globe
June 1, 2013

A leading Indonesian human rights organization has urged the government to actively support a United Nations initiative for a resolution on the plight of the Rohingya ethnic minority currently facing persecution in Myanmar.

In a statement issued on Friday, the Human Rights Working Group said it was crucial that Indonesia support the initiative at the UN Human Rights Council meeting that began in Geneva on Monday and runs through June 14.

Muhammad Choirul Anam, the HRWG deputy director, said in the statement that there were several reasons for Indonesia backing the proposed resolution, which would call for opening a UN Human Rights Council representative office in Myanmar, among other things.

“First, the Indonesian government has always viewed the Rohingya case as one of human rights and ethnic persecution,” he said, adding that the proposed resolution chimed with Indonesia’s own view of the issue.

“Second, the matter of resolving this issue has become increasingly urgent in light of recent moves by the Myanmar government to stifle the social and cultural rights of the Rohingya.”

Choirul cited a proposal by authorities in the country’s Rakhine state earlier this month calling for a limit of two children for each Rohingya couple. The country’s leading pro-democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi, has condemned the policy as a violation of human rights.

HRWG said another reason for backing the UN resolution on the Rohingya issue was the fact that as Southeast Asia’s biggest country and economy, it was incumbent on Indonesia to take the lead in such matters.

Choirul said Indonesia’s leadership would also help countries in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation see the issue from a human rights perspective rather than a religious one.

Channel4
May 31, 2013

For a nation on the mend, a one-time pariah shuffling towards responsible, representative government, there was weary, depressing familiarity about events in a place called Lashio this week.

This Burmese city, reluctant host to the latest outbreak of violence and bloodshed between Buddhists and the minority Muslims.

This episode started with a fight at a petrol pump. A few hours later, however, Buddhist mobs were patrolling the streets, burning Muslim homes and businesses and handing out vigilante justice. A man was hacked to death, a mosque and orphanage were destroyed and hundreds of Muslim families are now sheltering in a heavily guarded Buddhist monastery.

The city is relatively remote – more than 400 miles north of the country’s city Yangon (Rangoon) – but the brutality and destruction in this city of 130,000 demonstrates just how quickly anti-Muslim violence is spreading throughout Burma.

As tensions build nationwide, an increasing number of Muslims in Burma are trying to get out – some are leaving for neighbouring countries on foot, others via rickety craft on the open sea. Activists think more than 20,000 Rohingya Muslims may have fled violence-wracked Rakhine state in north-west Burma.

This desperate exodus has serious implications for Burma’s neighbours – with Thailand in particular now struggling to cope with the influx. Six months ago, the Thai authorities said they would find a place for Rohingya Muslims in Thai detention centres and shelters. A few months later, however, the head of Thailand’s immigration authority, Pharnu Kerdlapphon, informed the media that they had run out of space. “The number of Rohingya entering this country is worrying,” he said.

We got a good idea of just how serious these problems are when Channel 4 Newsaccompanied a group of charity workers to an immigration lock-up in a Thai town called Phang Nga. The volunteers, who were members of a local mosque, told us the facility was severely overcrowded and they wanted us to see for ourselves.

You can see what happened next in our exclusive report but here’s a quick summary. We found 276 male Rohingya living in extremely cramped conditions on the second floor – the majority crammed in one of two small “cages”. Inside, there was barely enough room to sit. There were a small number of others living between the two cells suffering from swollen feet and withered leg muscles. The cause was simple – lack of exercise. The men say they haven’t been let out in five months.

My cameraman Matt Jasper and I captured some images of the conditions at Phang Nga – but our pictures do not adequately depict the reality of their squalid existence. This place typically hosts five to 15 men – not 276 – and the smell of sweat, urine and human waste was overpowering. The heat and mosquitos were oppressive and the men seemed to share a deep sense of despondency. A man told my translator that he was ready to tie his clothes together and use them as a rope to hang himself. In another conversation captured on film an inmate told us he had “nothing to live for”. Our translator was forced to plead with them not to kill themselves.

The anxiety and uncertainty experienced by these men is probably a bigger problem than the physical hardships. No-one we spoke to wanted to go back to Burma – but they have no idea what the Thai government is planning to do with them. Back in January, officials said detainees could stay for six months while they sought “another country” to take them – but that period is almost up.

A member of the provincial assembly, Vasit Prayadsap, told me the situation was unacceptable. “I am really concerned,” he said, “because the government still doesn’t know what to do.” At the local level, lock-ups like the one at Phang Nga are clearly not resourced properly. On the day of our visit, Muslim volunteers told us the head of the immigration centre had pleaded with them for donations of cash, clothing and cleaning equipment.

We asked the top government official in the area – the governor of Phang Nga – for an interview. We also sought one from the Thai government – but they both declined. The Thai foreign ministry did provide us with a statement:

“The Thai authorities … are aware of the overcrowding issue at the existing immigration facilities…. alternative arrangements are being identified, and this is a matter of priority. It is hoped that those arrangements will enable the authorities concerned in better addressing the crowdedness issue.”

Still, the head of Thailand’s parliamentary border affairs committee, Samat Malulim, told me the government still had “no concrete plans” for the resettlement of Rohingya. He’s not happy with the current situation either. “The conditions you have seen would even be difficult for animals,” he said.

The foreign ministry points out conditions at other detention centres in Thailand are better than those at Phang Nga and there certainly seems to be some truth to that. We found a women and children’s unit up the coast with outdoor space and adequate supplies of food and medicine.

The living quarters were still crowded, however, and many of the women were depressed – the same air of uncertainty hung over the place. The occupants hadn’t heard from their husbands in months despite the fact that many of them had sailed to Thailand together.

At best, the Thai government’s efforts have been scattered and ad-hoc – but this difficult problem will only get worse if the fighting and the bloodshed in Burma continues.

Follow @c4sparks on Twitter.

Akbar Ahmed & Harrison Akins

Dhaka Tribune

May 31, 2013

IRIN News

May 31, 2013

SITTWE, - Aid workers are calling for better health access for an estimated 140,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, most of them Rohingya Muslims. 

Although a number of NGOs and government mobile clinics are providing basic health services inside the roughly 80 camps and settlements, they are limited, and emergency health referrals remain a serious concern, they say. 

According to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), conditions inside the camps, combined with the segregation of ethnic Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya and ongoing movement restrictions, are having a severe impact on health care. 

Movement restrictions were slapped on Rohingyas around Sittwe, the Rakhine State capital, after bouts of sectarian violence in June and October 2012. 

Another concern is the negative attitude of many ethnic Rakhine to assistance provided to Muslim IDPs. 

“With threats and intimidation both to health provider and patient, this becomes an irreconcilable dilemma,” Carol Jacobsen of the medical NGO Merlin told IRIN, adding that “hostile access”, limited transportation and poor security were obstacles to health care for the Muslim population. 

“Pregnant women dying unnecessarily” 

Aside from IDPs, thousands of Rohingyas in their villages or places of origin - many reachable only by boat - are restricted from travelling to local township hospitals in the event of a medical emergency, aid workers report. 

“MSF has just returned from areas where whole villages are cut off from basic services,” said Ronald Kremer, MSF emergency coordinator in Rakhine State. “What we have seen shows that current policies such as movement restrictions are having a detrimental impact on people’s health. This includes TB patients unable to access the treatment they need to stay alive, and pregnant women dying unnecessarily because they have nowhere safe to deliver.” 

It’s estimated there are 5,000 pregnant displaced women living in the camps. 

“Normally, these women would be going to government hospitals or clinics,” said Marlar Soe, field coordinator for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in Sittwe, noting that government midwives, who are largely ethnic Rakhine, are not going into the camps. 

Almost one year after the initial violence in Rakhine State, more than half the IDPs are in Sittwe, one of nine strife-affected townships. Most Rohingyas are confined to a series of camps on the outskirts of the town. 

Security forces and metal barricades, topped with razor wire, prevent camp residents from leaving what activists are now describing as a ghetto-like prison. 

Call for action on hospitals 

The 12-bed Dar Pai emergency hospital is the only government-run health facility for the more than 100,000 Muslim IDPs and residents in an area which encompasses 11 IDP camps and makeshift sites, as well as five Rohingya host communities. 

Doctors are rarely seen and medicine is in short supply, say IDPs. 

“You’re lucky if you can get an aspirin there,” said Aung Win, a 57-year-old Rohingya man from the Mawlee quarter of Sittwe, referring to the hospital. 

Edward Hew, head of relief operations for Mercy Malaysia, says it is time for the international community to come together with state health authorities to strengthen the Dar Pai hospital as it is currently the only option available. “Many patients are not comfortable with being referred to Sittwe Hospital,” he said. 

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) currently provides emergency medical evacuation services to Sittwe Hospital. “This, however, is not always easy given the security situation, as well as the limited number of beds [12] allocated for Muslims,” said one aid worker who preferred anonymity. 

Meanwhile, with monsoon rains having begun, there is growing concern about the risk of water-borne and communicable diseases. 

“Many of the risk factors for an outbreak are present, including overcrowding, open defecation, limited potable water, poor hygiene standards and many living in makeshift shelters,” said Ingrid Maria Johansen, project coordinator for MSF in Sittwe, warning that an outbreak of acute watery diarrhoea could spread quickly through the camps.

By Dr. Maung Zarni
May 31, 2013

Associated Press

May 30, 2013

The United Nations says a decision by authorities in western Myanmar to restore a two-child limit on a Muslim minority group would be discriminatory and a violation of human rights of Muslims and the Rohingya community.

U.N. deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey said Thursday that U.N. human rights bodies have called on the authorities in Rakhine state "to remove such policies or practices."

Authorities in the strife-torn state said this past weekend that they were restoring a measure imposed during past military rule that banned Rohingya Muslim families from having more than two children. The policy applies to two Rakhine townships that border Bangladesh and have the highest Muslim populations in the state.

The order is likely to bring further criticism that Muslims are being discriminated against in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

Thousands of Muslims who fled Myanmar's latest bout of sectarian violence have sought shelter in a Buddhist monastery guarded by army soldiers in the northeastern city of Lashio. The army transported Muslim families by the truckload on Thursday out of a neighbourhood in Lashio where overturned cars and motorcycles that had been charred a day earlier left black scars on the red earth. Al Jazeera's Wayne Hay reports from Lashio.

Aye Nai

Democratic Voice of Burma
May 30, 2013

Prosecutors in Sittwe have hit seven Rohingyas in Arakan state with myriad charges, including rioting, after they were arrested for refusing to register as ‘Bengalis’.

During a hearing on 23 May, senior immigration official Yan Aung Myint charged the seven suspects from Thetkalpyin displacement camp with robbery, intimidation and disturbing officials on duty. Twenty-four individuals, who authorities claimed might be on the run, were also charged in absentia.

The hearing comes after a scuffle erupted between government officials and the Rohingya on 26 April, after authorities tried to register the internally displaced persons (IDPs) as ‘Bengalis’ in accordance with a programme headed by the Ministry of Immigration and Population.

Prosecutors said that around 100 residents, armed with sticks and swords, quickly gathered at the scene and began attacking authorities, which included policemen and soldiers who were accompanying the officials.

According to the defendants’ attorney Hla Myo Myint, the skirmish began after one of his clients, Suleman, was slapped in the face by an official, which prompted children in the camp to begin throwing rocks at authorities.

Army sergeant Win Aung reportedly sustained a head injury after being struck by a rock at the scene, while local Arakanese team member Tun Hla Aung and immigration official Sai Myint Thu sustained lacerations on their backs.

Security forces reportedly fired shots in an attempt to disperse the crowd as they hurled rocks and screamed “Rohingya! Rohingya!” Seven individuals from Thetkalpyin and two from Bawdupha displacement camps were arrested in the skirmish’s wake.

According to Hla Myo Myint, the officials who went to the camps to register the IDPs had no legal right to force his clients to identify as Bengalis – a term commonly used by government officials that implicitly infers that the group are illegal immigrants

“The officials had no authority to determine their ethnicity – according to the 1982 Burma Citizenship Law, the decision has to come at the last stage and made by a government body,” said Hla Myo Myint.

“Reportedly the [officials] were listing them [as Bengali] by force.”

Hla Myo Myint, who has represented high-profile opposition activists including the National League for Democracy’s chair Aung San Suu Kyi in the past, said his clients’ families and the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) asked that he provide legal counsel to the group. Two of the individuals Kyaw Myint and his son Hla Myint who are being charged are both USDP members.

“I’m doing this for the rule of law – one of the main objectives of the NLD – to allow human rights for them regardless of their religion and ethnicity,” said Hla Myo Myint.

The next court appointment has been set for 6 June, but will likely to be postponed until officials can decide if the 24 individuals charged in absentia have actually fled.

Arakan state is home to more than 140,000 IDPs, after two bouts of religious violence pitting Arakanese Buddhists against Muslim Rohingya last year led to massive displacement.