Ibrahim Shah

RB Article

June 26, 2013

Among the several Burmese invasions of Arakan, there were three major attacks recorded. The first attack on Arakan was carried out by Anawrahta in 1044 CE followed by the attacks by Min Khaung Yaza in 1406 CE and Bodaw Maung Wai in 1784 CE respectively.

Bodaw, immediately after his invasion, vandalized historic—temples, shrines, mosques, monuments, and libraries. Muslim custodians of the royal palace were massacred as well. Eventually, he took away the famous Buddhist statue, Mahamuni.

Since then, racial and religious hatred against Rohingyas have been being seeded in the hearts of its majority Buddhists by the different Burmese regimes in her history for strategic and political purposes. Subsequently, institutionalized discrimination and systematic oppression against Rohingya have been being implemented. 

In 1942, some Rakhine extremists of Burman origin led by Thakin leaders massacred more than 100,000 Rohingyas, dreadfully eradicated 307 Rohingya quarters in Arakan and forced more 80,000 Rohingyas to flee to Chittagong.

Furthermore, after Ne Win had staged a coup d’état in 1962, he, consistently, imposed double standard and illegal laws and carried out brutal operations targeting only Rohingyas. Of them, the most notorious King Dragon Operation (NagaMin) was carried out in 1978. Due to mass arrests of young and old alike, tortures, rapes and killings in detention centers, more than 300,000 Rohingya had, again, to flee to Bangladesh.

For perpetual ruthless attempts of Burmese authorities to exterminate Rohingya community, they enacted a discriminatory Act called 1982 citizenship law against Rohingyas to strip them off both their ethnic identity and their national identity. Consequently, it undocumented them from their ethnic status and the bigots and extremists in Burma started accusing Rohingyas to be illegal immigrants brought into Burma by the British colonialists.

To Rohingyas’ misfortune, Rohingyas had not been spared from the brutalities of Burmese tyrannical rulers even until 1990. During another terrible operation, Operation Pyi Thaya, in 1991-199, some 300,000 Rohingyas were forced to flee desperately. Those who didn’t flee have been facing oppressions, encountering tortures, gangbang in detention centers and their homes and religious buildings have been being vandalized. Their lands are being confiscated; there have been confinements on their marriage, education, movement, livelihoods, and medical treatments and so on.

The whole Rohingya community would have been exterminated had it been not sometimes due to miscarriage of perpetuation of Rohingya ethnic cleansing by Burmese Hitlerite Regime. The pseudo civilian government led by President Thein Sein, some Ultra-nationalist political figures, Extremist Buddhist monks, Rakhine terrorists chaired by Vet Aye Maung of Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP), some 88 generation leaders conspired to strip off Rohingya rights, to trigger the violence by intentionally killing ten Muslim pilgrims through a mob attack in Taungup Township in June 2012 and to exterminate Rohingyas in a vast momentum.

The attacks against Muslims spread countrywide and Muslims nowadays face several varieties of atrocities—slaughters, vandalization of Mosques and homes, threats to flee to uncertain destinations, arbitrary arrests, tortures to death in detention centers, abduction of under-aged girls and women, assaults against Rohingya women in every check-point, starvations, confinements in concentration camps, and are subjected to – forced labor , arbitrary land seizure, forced displacement, forced Bengalization and forced birth control, and endure excessive taxes and extortions and so on.

“Eventually, more than 140,000 Rohingyas have become IDPs (internally displaced people) and are kept in concentrated camps inhumanely. The UN Rapporteur Quintana reported during his sixth visit to Burma that the camps of those Rohingya IDPs are more like prisons.”

What a classic mockery it is! Although all of the dictatorial officials assured and asserted that the perpetrators of the violence will be charged for their respective crimes, yet the perpetrators are rather hastily moving against the Muslims everywhere. Therefore, the government assurance for justice is nothing but an attempt to distract international concern in order to mask the perpetrators from international scrutiny. Hence, hereby, I would like to quote Burma under Thein Sein Hitlerite regime as—Burma preaches peace and practices discrimination.

Later, due to the caustic condemnations of International bodies, the genocidal Burmese regime portrayed the ethnocide of Rohingyas as Buddhist Nationalism so as to mask the crimes against humanity committed by the state-sponsored Buddhist vigilantes. (E.g. they considerably prefer using the term ‘national security’ rather than ‘human rights’.) With full involvement of the Government, a 969 Neo-Nazi Buddhist nationalist movement led by pseudo monk Wirathu who was once imprisoned in 2003 for his role in stirring religious clashes in Mandalay has been formed. Then, they are carrying out violence against Muslims in a vast momentum mostly in Muslim quarters. 

“Article 51 of the UN charter states —the inherent right of collective or individual self-defense if an armed attack occurs—. Despite being well-evident and open Genocide against Rohingyas and other Burmese Muslims, UN is still shockingly silent and inactive. Without the interventions of UN in Darfur and East Timor conflicts, it would be impossible for them to achieve freedom. Therefore, UN must help unarmed Rohingyas who have long been persecuted by Burmese regime.”

Here are some quotations about peace, which may give light into your hearts.

If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner— Nelson Mandela. 

It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it— Eleanor Roosevelt. 

Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or everything. If you are a man take it— Malcolm X.

Accordingly, without the oppressed Rohingyas’ own physical and psychological movements, to dream of liberty is just like to dream to erect a sand wall with sand bricks.

Associated Press

June 25, 2013

Myanmar's government has banned this week's issue of Time magazine because of a cover story about a Buddhist monk accused of fueling recent religious violence in the country.

State television announced Tuesday that the decision was made "in order to prevent the recurrence of racial and religious riots."

The magazine's cover carries a photo of a Buddhist monk, Wirathu, with the words "The Face of Buddhist Terror." Wirathu is a leader of a radical movement of monks that preaches that the country's small Muslim minority threatens racial purity and national security. He has called for restrictions on marriages between Buddhists and Muslims, and for boycotts of Muslim-owned businesses.

Nearly 250 people have died and tens of thousands, mostly Muslims, have fled their homes in religious violence in the past year. Buddhist mobs have marched through villages burning houses and mosques and brandishing machetes and clubs.

A special committee led by the home minister to deal with the recent violence said the Time article could damage government efforts to build trust among people of different religions, state television said.

The article quotes Wirathu as saying, "Now is the time to rise up, to make your blood boil." Nevertheless, Witharu insists he's a man of peace.

The article has drawn anger from Buddhists. On Sunday, the President's Office issued a statement denouncing the story and saying it damages the image of Buddhism.

The recent violence has threatened to undermine political and economic reforms undertaken by President Thein Sein, who came to power in 2011 after almost five decades of repressive military rule.

New freedoms of speech under Thein Sein have made it easier to disseminate radical views, while exposing deep-seeded racism felt by much of the population toward Muslims and other minorities.

The Rohingya, a stateless minority of Myanmar, have endured decades of abuse, persecution and discrimination. One year ago, on 3 June 2012, the massacre of ten Muslims travelling in Rakhine State, following the killing and reported rape of a Buddhist woman, marked the beginning of a series of violent attacks against the Rohingya and other Muslim communities. The violence of June and October 2012 resulted in countless deaths, destruction to property, large scale internal displacement and segregation within Rakhin state of Myanmar. Consequently, thousands of Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and beyond.

One year after the violence began, the root causes and on-going humanitarian and human rights concerns remain largely unaddressed. Although both the Rakhine and Rohingya communities committed violence in June, the Rohingya were disproportionately victimized, including by security forces. Furthermore, discriminatory laws and practices against the Rohingya by the Burmese authorities, underpinned by their lack of citizenship, and their mistreatment in third countries remain matters of concern. 

Despite heavy restrictions and difficulties in accessing the affected and displaced communities, and threats against, and intimidation and arbitrary arrests of humanitarian aid workers and human rights defenders, civil society actors have monitored and documented the situation, provided humanitarian aid to victims of violence, published statements and reports, briefed the international community and repeatedly raised growing concern over the deteriorating situation in Rakhine State and for Muslim communities throughout Myanmar. Some of the key concerns raised by civil society actors over the past year relate to: 

• Incitement to violence and government hate speech – The violence against the Rohingya was instigated and has been sustained by relentless anti-Rohingya speech and campaigning by government officials and local leaders that often amounted to incitement. Government officials and local leaders have repeatedly characterized the Rohingya as illegal immigrants, branded non-Muslims who trade with or assist Rohingya as “traitors”, and encouraged campaigns against aid workers assisting displaced Rohingya, which has created an environment in which acute violence against this vulnerable group is seen as acceptable and even desirable. 

• Violence and impunity – Satellite images of entire townships destroyed, photographs of houses on fire, video footage of attacks and dead bodies and testimonies of security personnel opening fire on villages and committing sexual assaults against Rohingya women collectively stand as growing evidence of the scale of the violence. In contrast, the lack of any convictions of state officials or ethnic Rakhine perpetrators and the disproportionate arrest and prosecution of Rohingya is reflective of the impunity with which acts of violence have been committed and bias within the criminal justice system. It is also evident that this impunity has contributed to an escalation in anti-Muslim violence throughout the country. 

• The involvement of government officials and security forces – The involvement of state actors in incitement, carrying out attacks, extortion, arbitrarily arresting, detaining and torturing Rohingya, restricting their movement and hampering the delivery of humanitarian aid with impunity has been well documented. In this context, the publication of an inquiry report which primarily recommends the strengthening of state security presence in affected areas is a matter of real concern. 

• Displacement and humanitarian needs – The displaced population in Rakhine State is estimated at over 140,000, the overwhelming majority of whom are Rohingya. The lack of adequate shelter, food and clean water, medicine, education, latrines and sanitation, and livelihoods for the affected populations, the acute difficulties faced by aid organizations in reaching those most in need - particularly unregistered persons in makeshift sites - alleged corrupt practices of siphoning off humanitarian supplies, and the lack of adequate shelter arrangements for the monsoon season are all issues of grave concern which have a direct impact on the well-being and chances of survival of those displaced. 

• Statelessness and identity – The arbitrary deprivation of nationality of the Rohingya under the 1982 Citizenship Act is considered to be a major contributing factor of the present human rights and humanitarian crisis. Additionally, the denial of their ethnic identity and reports of Rohingya being forced to register themselves as ‘Bengali’ have immediate and long-term consequences for Rohingya communities. 

• Segregation and property rights – The authorities have imposed a policy of segregation, with Rohingya being restricted in separate areas, largely away from economic and commercial centres. Aung Mingalar, the last remaining Muslim neighbourhood in Sittwe, is under threat and effectively cut off from the city around it. The likelihood of this segregation arrangement becoming a long-term reality is high, particularly if the authorities do not meet their obligations to ensure the safety of at-risk populations and to work towards peaceful co-existence, reintegration and safe voluntary return in the short-term. In addition to the obvious human rights concerns over such restrictions, questions remain unanswered over the property rights of the displaced Rohingya who may not be allowed to access the lands they fled. 

• Discriminatory restrictions on family life – The discrimination endured by Rohingya over many decades is well documented. Restrictions on marriage, punishment of unauthorized marriages and the non-registration of children born of such marriages are among the most distressing practices which continue to-date. In this context, the recent reaffirmation by the Rakhine state government of the two-child policy for Rohingya families and the statement in support of the policy by Minister of Immigration and Population, Khin Yi, is a particularly serious concern. 

• Freedom of movement - Rohingya movement has been severely restricted for decades in northern Rakhine State. Since the violence, freedom of movement has been further restricted and Rohingya in central Rakhine State have been trapped in settlements and camps and forced into dependency on humanitarian aid. 

• Crimes against humanity – Under international law, crimes against humanity are crimes committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack on a civilian population, as a matter of state or organizational policy. The crimes against humanity of forced deportation, forced population transfer and persecution have been well documented in Rakhine State since June 2012, and many such abuses have been committed for decades prior, against the Rohingya population. 

In addition to the situation in Rakhine State, over the past year, the Rohingya who fled persecution in Myanmar, have continued to face a lack of protection, as well as hardship and exclusion upon new shores. In June 2012, Bangladesh in contravention of the principle of non-refoulement pushed Rohingya asylum seekers back into the sea. Immigration authorities in Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and other countries have responded to subsequent refugee exoduses by detaining those who require protection. 

The international legal obligations of all countries concerned require them to protect all persons subject to their jurisdictions, regardless of whether they are citizens, stateless persons, asylum seekers or refugees. In its treatment of the Rohingya, Myanmar has violated the right to life, the right to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the right to liberty and freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention, the right to nationality, the right to food and shelter including the fundamental right to be free from hunger and the right to the highest attainable standard of health. Myanmar must also answer allegations of crimes against humanity being perpetrated by state actors against the Rohingya. Refugee recipient countries including Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka have also acted in violation of the right to seek and to enjoy asylum and the right to liberty and freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention, and in certain instances, the right not to be subjected to refoulement. 

The undersigned civil society organizations express deep concern with regard to the human rights and humanitarian abuses that continue to disproportionately affect the Rohingya, jointly speak out on behalf of all victims of violence and abuse, displacement and denial of humanitarian aid in Rakhine State – be they Rohingya, Rakhine or of other ethnic or religious identity; and one year after the violence began, emphatically state that all violence, discrimination and abuse must end now. 

To the government of Myanmar, we urge that immediate steps are taken to: 

Facilitate unimpeded humanitarian access to all those affected by conflict regardless of registration status, and take effective action against those who intimidate humanitarian agencies.

Produce a plan for reconciliation, end movement restrictions, and ensure safe voluntary returns.

Provide protection to all people living in Rakhine State, end impunity, prosecute all perpetrators of violence and other abuses through a fair judicial system, arrange for immediate release of those who have been arbitrarily detained and provide adequate redress to all victims of violence and injustice.

Invite the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to establish an office.

Review the 1982 Citizenship Act and other discriminatory laws and practices to ensure that all persons have equal rights and equal access to citizenship and are not discriminated against on grounds of ethnicity. 

To the governments of refugee recipient countries, we urge that immediate steps are taken to: 

Protect all refugees and asylum seekers from Myanmar – and take into account the acute and specific protection needs of stateless Rohingya.

Desist from arbitrarily detaining Rohingya refugees and asylum seekers and attempting to return them to Myanmar in violation of the principle of non-refoulement. 

To international community, we urge that immediate steps are taken to: 

Insist on protection of minority rights, including the right to nationality, as a pre-requisite to full relations.

Press the government of Myanmar to present its plans for promoting reconciliation, ending the movement restrictions, and enabling safe voluntary returns in Rakhine State.

- Press the government of Myanmar to act on the recommendations above, including ending impunity and achieving greater accountability and justice. 

List of Endorsing Organizations 

1. Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance (Egypt)

2. ALTSEAN - Burma

3. Arab Council Supporting Fair Trials and Human Rights

4. Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network

5. Association INFO BIRMANIE

6. Association pour la Lutte contre la Pauvreté et le sous Développement (Mauritania)

7. Association Suisse-Birmanie (Switzerland)

8. Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Human Rights and Genocide Clinic (USA)

9. Black Pink Triangle Izmir (Turkey)

10. Burma Campaign Australia

11. Burma Campaign UK

12. Burma Partnership

13. Burmese Rohingya Association of Japan

14. Burmese Rohingya Association of North America

15. Burmese Rohingya Association of Thailand

16. Burmese Rohingya Community in Australia

17. Burmese Rohingya Community in Denmark

18. Burmese Rohingya Organization UK

19. Center for Informative and Legal Aid – Zvornik (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

20. Christian Solidarity Worldwide

21. Civic Bangladesh

22. Detention Action (UK)

23. Fahamu Refugee Programme

24. Federation of Women Lawyers (Kenya)

25. Fortify Rights International

26. Forum for Women, Law and Development (Nepal)

27. Foundation for Rural Development (Pakistan)

28. Free Burma Campaign (South Africa)

29. Freedom House

30. Frontiers Ruwad Association (Lebanon)

31. Gonggam Human Rights Law Foundation (Republic of Korea)

32. Health Equity Initiatives (Malaysia)

33. Human Rights Education Institute of Burma (Thailand)

34. Human Rights Organization of Nepal

35. Human Rights Watch

36. Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust

37. Initiative for Development and Empowerment Axis (Pakistan)

38. Institute for Asian Democracy

39. International Detention Coalition

40. International Observatory on Statelessness

41. Japan Association for Refugees

42. Jesuit Refugee Service

43. Journalists for Human Rights (Sudan)

44. Lawyers for Human Rights (South Africa)

45. Lawyers for Liberty (Malaysia)

46. Lawyers Group for Burmese Asylum Seekers in Japan

47. Loyola College Chennai, Department of Social Work (India)

48. Minority Rights Group International

49. Odhikar (Bangladesh)

50. Organization for Defending Victims of Violence (Islamic Republic of Iran)

51. Partners Relief & Development (Norway)

52. Physicians for Human Rights (USA)

53. Praxis (Serbia)

54. Project Maje (USA)

55. Protect the Rohingya (South Africa)

56. Refugee Council of Australia

57. Refugees International

58. Restless Beings (UK)

59. Rohingya Association in Canada

60. Rohingya Community in Norway

61. Rohingya Society of Malaysia

62. Society for Threatened Peoples (Germany)

63. Society for Threatened Peoples (Switzerland)

64. Solidarity for Asian Peoples’ Advocacy Working Group on ASEAN

65. South East Asian Committee for Advocacy

66. Stateless Network (Japan)

67. Swedish Burma Committee

68. Taiwan Association for Human Rights

69. Tenaganita (Malaysia)

70. Thai Committee for Refugees Foundation (Thailand)

71. The Arakan Project

72. The Cordoba Foundation

73. The Equal Rights Trust

74. The European Rohingya Council

75. U.S. Campaign for Burma

76. Yayasan Lembaga Bantuan Hukum (Indonesia)

This statement published here.

Kuwait News Agency

June 25, 2013

BRUSSELS -- British Member of the European Parliament Sajjad Karim Tuesday called on EU to take a stronger stance against Myanmar violence inflicted towards Rohingya Muslims.

In a written question sent to the EU high representative Catherine Ashton ahead of a debate on human rights in the European Parliament next week, Karim asked about steps by the European Commission and the EU foreign service to end this oppression, and what action is being taken to provide assistance to such persecuted populations across Burma/Myanmar.

The persecution of the Muslim minority in Myanmar shows no sign of abating with tens of thousands Rohingya fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh and Thailand, while 140,000 are currently living in makeshift shelters in the Rakhine state, noted Karim in a statement.

He said Ashton was quick to respond to his written question, but failed to include any concrete measures of action.

"As stated in the April 2013 Council conclusions, the EU will use all means and mechanisms at its disposal to support Myanmar's political, economic and social transition - thus aiming to meet the goal quoted by the Honourable Member," said Ashton in her reply.

Karim, the first British Muslim to be elected to the European Parliament, warned that the plight of the Rohingya community casts a dark shadow in EU-Myanmar relations.

"The EU needs to lead on this issue and take stronger stances against the Myanmar government who on one hand, allow this state sponsored violence to take place, whilst on the other are seeking to make their country fully democratic," he said.

"The EU has so far provided 5.5 million euros to the displaced people and is working to distribute aid to the region, however more pressure needs to be exerted politically on the President of Myanmar," added Karim.

Simon Roughneen

The Irrawaddy

June 25, 2013

RANGOON — Burma’s opposition leader and 1991 Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has come under fire in recent months for her apparent reluctance to condemn attacks on Muslims carried out by rioting Buddhists in various towns across the country.

The latest mini-furor kicked off last week with the publication by the Nobel Women’s Initiative (NWI) of a letter, signed by 12 Nobel Peace Prize winners, which called for an “immediate end to the violence against Muslims and other ethnic minorities in Burma.”

Among the international who’s who of peace promoters who put their names to the exhortation were Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta, microfinance mogul Mohamed Yunus and Iranian political exile Shirin Ebadi.

Absent from the list, however, was Burma’s own democracy icon and Nobel winner Suu Kyi, an omission that was quickly picked up on by high-profile human rights advocates and Burma watchers.

“Aung San Suu Kyi can’t get herself to join 12 Nobel Peace Laureates’ call for end to #Burma violence against Muslims,” tweeted Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth.

Asked by The Irrawaddy if Suu Kyi had been asked to sign or if she had snubbed the NWI, it turns out that as an elected parliamentarian, Suu Kyi is not part of the NWI.

“As per the by-laws of the organization, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, as a member of Parliament, is not a member of the Nobel Women’s Initiative,” said Rachel Vincent, the NWI media and communications director.

“As you will see from the list of signatories, we do sometimes go beyond the women laureates to extend an invitation to male laureates to sign on to statements. You will also note that none of these male laureates are sitting politicians, though some, like Oscar Arias, were in the past,” Vincent added.

Suu Kyi has previously said that she does not know if all the Rohingya, an oppressed Muslim minority living mostly in Burma’s west, are entitled to Burmese citizenship, sparking anger and disappointment among her erstwhile supporters outside of Burma.

In recent weeks, however, the opposition leader has been somewhat more forthright, criticizing a proposal to limit Rohingya women to two children as discriminatory, while opposing another suggestion, made by Buddhist monks, that Buddhist Burmese women should face restrictions in marrying Muslim men.

The NWI has in the past supported Suu Kyi and other politically active Burmese women. In 2010, the NWI helped kick-start the now-moribund campaign to look at the possibility of setting up a war crimes or crimes against humanity tribunal on Burma, arguing that long-standing and widely documented cases of sexual violence carried out by Burmese soldiers against ethnic minority women warranted further investigation.

June 25, 2013

Foreign Minister Bob Carr will travel to Myanmar next month for bilateral discussions with President Thein Sein and Foreign Minister Wunna including on human rights in Rakhine State. 

Senator Carr said recent ethnic and sectarian violence in Rakhine State had claimed 192 lives and left 140,000 people homeless.

Senator Carr plans to travel to Myanmar from July 10 to 12.

“Communal violence broke out in Rakhine State between Buddhists and the Muslim Rohingya in June last year,” Senator Carr said.

“Australia and Myanmar have worked closely on a range of issues including the need for further action on human rights in Rakhine State.

“Australia is encouraging all efforts to find a solution to the situation — one that respects the rights of all people.

“In previous discussions, I have stressed with President Thein Sein and Foreign Minister Wunna the importance of resolving ethnic and sectarian unrest and addressing issues of citizenship for stateless minorities.

“I welcome President Thein Sein’s statements condemning religious extremism and urging mutual respect amongst local communities. 

“Senator Carr said President Thein Sein's pledge to take all necessary action to stop the conflict and prosecute the perpetrators of violence was a step towards finding a lasting solution to the unrest.

Prime Minister Gillard had also raised Australia's concerns over ethnic conflicts directly with President Thein Sein, when President Thein Sein visited Australia in March earlier this year.

Australia has so far committed $5.8 million in humanitarian aid to assist displaced people in Rakhine State.

Australia’s assistance is providing:

• food to 100,000 displaced people (through the World Food Program)

• protection for 37,000 children who have been separated from their families (through Save the Children)

• tents and emergency shelter to 32,000 people who have fled or lost their homes (through UNHCR);

• blankets, clothes and mosquito nets for 14,000 people living in temporary shelters (through CARE); and

• safe drinking water and sanitation for 40,000 people (through UNICEF)

Australia is also providing $5 million to support peace-building in conflict affected regions including to the Myanmar Peace Centre.

This statement published here.

Kevin Douglas Grant

Huffington Post

June 24, 2013

Associated Press

June 24, 2013

JAKARTA, Indonesia—A rights group on Monday criticized Indonesia over its treatment of children who are migrants or seeking asylum, saying they are placed in abysmal conditions with no way of appealing their detention.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report that Indonesia has detained hundreds of migrant and asylum-seeking children each year without giving them a way to challenge their detention. The country lacks asylum laws and allows immigrants to be detained for up to 10 years.

“Hundreds are detained in sordid conditions, without access to lawyers, and sometimes beaten. Others are left to fend for themselves, without any assistance with food or shelter,” the report said.

The group said there are almost 2,000 asylum-seeking and refugee children in Indonesia as of March, and that more than 1,000 arrived in 2012. They are fleeing persecution, violence, and poverty in Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Myanmar and elsewhere.

The report was based on interviews with more than 100 migrants, including children as young as 5, as well as Indonesian officials and staff members of non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations.

It said adults and children described abuse by guards or other detainees, including being kicked, punched, beaten with sticks, burned with cigarettes and subject to electric shocks.

Ida Bagus Adnyana, director of investigation and enforcement at the immigration office, denied the allegations.

“These are not true, that is made up. We regularly remind our officers about human rights,” Adnyana said. “I am the first official to be fired if these happened.”

He said migrant children are staying with their parents while those without parents are sheltered separately from adults.

“Even some of them are staying outside detention centers with adoptive parents,” he added.

Alice Farmer, the group’s children’s rights researcher, said migrant and asylum-seeking children risk life and limb to flee their countries.

“Migrant children in Indonesia are trapped in a prolonged waiting game with no certain outcome,” Farmer said. “Desperate children will keep coming to Indonesia, and the government should step up to give them decent care.”

Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelagic nation with thousands of islands and miles (kilometers) of unpatrolled coastline, is a key transit point for smuggling migrants.

Hundreds of asylum-seekers from war-ravaged countries have died in sea accidents on the hazardous sea journey from Indonesia to Australia.

BBC News

June 24, 2013

Burmese President Thein Sein has defended a Buddhist monk accused of fomenting a wave of anti-Muslim violence in the country.

US Time magazine currently has Ashin Wirathu on its front cover under the title "The face of Buddhist terror".

Thein Sein said the report undermined efforts to rebuild trust between faiths and that the monk's order was striving for peace and prosperity.

The monk has called Muslims a scourge threatening Burma's Buddhist character.

A statement on the president's website said the Time magazine report "creates a misunderstanding of Buddhism, which has existed for thousands of years and is the religion of the majority of our citizens".

"The government is currently striving with religious leaders, political parties, media and the people to rid Myanmar [Burma] of unwanted conflicts," it added.

The report was also condemned online, with a petition started over the weekend gaining close to 40,000 signatories on Monday.

Ashin Wirathu, 45, was jailed in 2003 for inciting anti-Muslim violence but was released last year as part of a prisoner amnesty.

He organised protests in support of Buddhists in Rakhine state, where violence broke out in 2012 and left at least 200 people dead and thousands displaced.

Earlier this year, central Burma saw violence between Buddhists and Muslims, which left more than 40 people dead, most of them Muslims, in March.

Ashin Wirathu's anti-Muslim sentiments are very widely shared by the Buddhist majority, and while the authorities have jailed hundreds of Muslims for involvement in the violence, very few Buddhists have been prosecuted, says the BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok.

Gary Feuerberg

Epoch Times

June 24, 2013

Religious violence between Buddhists and the Muslim ethnic group, the Rohingya, returned again in April to Burma (officially known as Myanmar) in its western state of Rakhine (also called Arakan). The discrimination and violence against the minority Rohingya Muslims is taking on an increasingly uglier tone.

Kira Kay, correspondent for PBS Newshour, reported on June 18 that in April, “Over the three days of violence, at least 50 people, mostly Muslims, were burned alive or hacked to death; 18,000 were displaced; 12 of the town’s 13 mosques were destroyed or badly damaged.”

Once people realized the police would not intervene, they were emboldened to murder Muslims, according to Burmese parliament member Win Htein, who witnessed it and said that the mob was cheering when someone was dragged away and killed.

The spark that ignited the initial violence last year was the news that an ethnic Rakhine Buddhist woman was allegedly raped and killed by three Rohingya men in late May 2012. On June 3, 2012 a group of Rakhine vigilantes attacked and killed 10 Rohingyas on a bus they believed were responsible for the woman’s death, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA).

The recent violence has a new ominous component. Buddhist monks openly speak of the “threat” that Muslims pose and how the Buddhist community needs to put down the Muslim minority.

A virulent anti-Muslim rhetoric is taking hold of the country.

Some prominent Buddhist monks are calling for harsh measures towards Muslims. Burma’s president Thein Sein is supportive of their attitude at least toward the Rohingya Muslims.

Thein Sein stated on a government website that the 800,000 Rohingyas population are not welcome in Burma on June 14, 2012, only a few days after the ethnic clash, according to RFA.

In July Thein Sein suggested that they be put in refugee camps under the control of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) or sent out of the country—a proposal instantly rejected by the UN, according to RFA and Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Nationalist Monk

A Buddhist monk, who Time Magazine called “Burma’s most-talked-about monk,” is unabashedly whipping up nationalist feelings against Muslims.

His name is Wirathu. In the June 18 PBS Newshour broadcast he said, “We must prevent our country from becoming an Islamic state.” He is one of the leaders of the 969 movement, a popular movement whose stickers “969” are visible at many Buddhist businesses. The numbers refer to the Buddha and being a monk, but are really a code for the boycott of Muslims, both economic and social.

In the Newshour segment, Wirathu said, “Muslims never sell their land or property to Buddhists and instead buy off Buddhists’ houses. In this way, they are expanding their control, and are dominating the economy of our major cities.”

He also said “Anywhere Muslims are a majority, there is violence, like what happened in Rakhine state. That is why our idea is to control the Muslim population.”

The government regards the Rohingya as illegal Bengali immigrants from Bangladesh who exploit the porous nearly 200 miles long border to steal scarce land, according to HRW.

During the months following the June 2012 Buddhist-Muslim violence, HRW alleged that Buddhist monks, political-party operatives and government officials conspired to rid Burma of all trace of the Rohingya.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at HRW, accused the Burmese government of engaging “in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya that continues today through the denial of aid and restrictions on movement.”

Dr. Maung Zarni, a Burmese democracy activist, and research fellow at the London School of Economics, makes the case in an interview on March 28 in the Tricycle publication that the state is engaged in genocide but no one wants to call it that.

“After the military proxy party lost by a landslide in the most recent elections, they decided that the time was right to drive out the Rohingya in order to both curry Buddhist majority favor and demonstrate their relevance in reformed Burma. But you know, it’s not possible for any state in this day and age to destroy an entire population of 800,000 to one million. Not after Nazi Germany. Instead, the military has created a situation where there would be communal riots. In doing so, the military state has attempted to do what amounts to outsourcing genocide.”

Discriminatory Two-Child Policy

These sentiments didn’t begin overnight. There were signs that the country was moving in this direction. First there was a law in Rakhine State to restrict Rohingya families to two children. The policy only applies to Rohingya Muslims.

Last month, hundreds of ethnic Arakanese Buddhist protesters in the city of Sittwe, demanded that authorities enforce the discriminatory policy, according to Aruna Kashyap, reporting for HRW.

The policy was first introduced in 2005 in a couple of townships. After the sectarian violence last year, calls for its enforcement were made according to Kashyap.

President Thein Sein, who could order the state to revoke its policy, has been notably silent on the matter, while his Minister of Immigration and Population endorsed the policy.

The pretext given for the policy is that Rohingya women having more children will lead to a life of poverty and poor nutrition for the children, barely concealing their fear that the Rohingyas will alter the demographics of the state. Kashyap says the policy has caused enormous suffering and some deaths of Rohingya women as they cope with the oppressive law which is punishable by fines and imprisonment.

Restricting Marriage

Recently, a proposed law by the nationalist Buddhist monks would apply to the entire country. The new law would bar Muslim men and those from other faiths from marrying Buddhist women.

Wirathu is trying to collect signatures to pressure the parliament to adopt the law, according to RFA. “Muslim men marry Buddhist girls, but Muslim girls are taught not to marry anyone of a different religion,” Wirathu said on PBS Newshour.

Muslims make up four percent of Burma that consists of nearly 90 percent Buddhist. The country has an estimated population of 55 million.

Nobel Peace-Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been criticized for her silence on the anti-Muslim violence last year, has spoken out against the proposed law calling it discriminatory against women and a violation of human rights, Burma’s laws, and Buddhism itself.

These discriminatory policies need to be seen in a wider context of state complicity in the ethnic fighting between Arakan Buddhists and the Rohingya Muslims that occurred in June 2012.

“State security forces failed to protect either community, resulting in some 100,000 displaced, and then increasingly targeted Rohingya in killings, beatings, and mass arrests while obstructing humanitarian access to Rohingya areas and to camps of displaced Rohingya around the Arakan State capital, Sittwe,” according to the HRW 2013 World Report.

Amnesty International reported, “Police and army have arbitrarily detained hundreds of men and boys, mostly from Muslim-dominated areas, and subjected many of them to torture and other ill-treatment.” The 2013 Amnesty International report said security forces and other state agents committed “unlawful killings, excessive use of force, arbitrary arrests, torture and other ill-treatment.”

In October, more of the same violence occurred in the townships that did not experience it in June last year, resulting in an unknown number of deaths, razed Muslim villages, and an additional 35,000 displaced persons, according to the HRW report.

In April this year, more flare-ups occurred. According to PBS newshour in one township a Muslim woman bumped into a Buddhist monk in the crowded marketplace, and an argument endued. “Within hours, angry Buddhists were attacking their Muslim neighbors and a mob marched on the small enclave.”

The Muslim village chief and residents hid in bushes, watching their houses burn and their treasured mosque badly damaged. The village chief said in dismay, “We had lived together peacefully. Muslims always participated in the activities of the Buddhist community.”

“People who are committing violence or instigating violence are not being held responsible. This needs to be addressed by the government. Otherwise, the larger reform process could be at risk,” Robertson said on PBS Newshour.

Rohingya Aye Myaing

RB Article

June 24, 2013

A certain cyclone is taking place against Rohingyas in Arakan in the form of forced transformation of their ethnic identity into ‘Bengali’. It happens to be much more violent than the actual Mahasen was expected to be. The cyclone is caused by none other than a group of NaSaKa (border security force) under the commandment of NaSaKa administrator, Colonel Aung Naing Oo, at the head quarter of the border immigration affairs in Kyi Kan Pyin (Khawar Bil), Maung Daw Township.

It began in Kyi Kan Pyin in the end of April 2013 and has been going on until today. The Forced Bengalization of Rohingyas spread to other parts of the township later. Forcing Rohingyas for bio-metric finger prints and subsequent registration of them as Bengalis without their consents are some significant attempts taken by Myanmar authority to get rid of both ethnic and national rights from millions of Rohingyas. In Maung Daw Township alone, NaSaKa is getting rid of Rohingyas’ rights through so means not only in Kyi Kan Pyin where NaSaKa Headquarter is located but also in the regions like Nagpura (Ngakura) of NaSaKa Commandment area 5, Merullah (Myint Hlut) of NaSaKa Commandment Area 8 and Haisshurata (Alay-Than Kyaw) of the commandment area 7. 

The brutal means that NaSaKas implement against Rohingyas during their forced Bengalization operation has been devastating the futures of thousands of Rohingyas. They are harassing and raping Rohingya women, beating and torturing Rohingya men, vandalizing household materials and looting valuable properties etc etc. In fact, it is an unimaginably horrible physical and mental storm against Rohingyas that one ever can imagine of. Despite most of the Rohingyas in the village of Kyi Kan Pyin are trying their best to avoid the inhumane operation, NaSaKa group appointed to Bengalize Rohingyas are implementing all their barbaric plans and brutal means for it.

Hearing the vulnerable news of Rohingyas, some of UN’s representatives in Maung Daw requested Colonel Aung Naing Oo to hold a tripartite meeting among Kyi Kan Pyin villagers, UN representatives and NaSaKas on June 19, 2013 to take consensus or whether Rohngyas are willing to participate in the forced Bengalization process. The villagers gathered at the appointed place at the right time (at 10AM). However, Colonel Aung Naing Oo, despite his earlier promise, blatantly rejected UN’s proposal for the meeting saying he was too busy to participate in it. Consequently, UN’s representatives had to give up their attempts to settle down the matter through peaceful means.

To Rohingyas’ dismay, getting the information of Rohingyas’ gathering for the meeting, NaSaKa chased, beat up and forced many Rohingyas to give bio-metric finger prints for Bengalization process. It is an instance how the pseudo civilian government led by U Thein Sein is fooling the world as well as Rohingyas. Do you still think justice and rightness will prevail to Myanmar? 

Please watch this space for more updates!! 

Rohingya Aye Myaing is a Rohingya living in Arakan and graduate in English from Sittwe University.

REPORT from Refugees International

Q: When RI visited Rohingya internally displaced people (IDPs) in 2012 and 2013, they were under a great amount of stress, with inadequate food, medical care, or shelter. Some had no shelter whatsoever. In December 2012, UN Under Secretary General Valerie Amos said that the camps as some of the worst she had ever seen. You visited the Rohingya people in November 2012 and February 2013. Can you describe the conditions you observed?

A: I've traveled to the IDP camps outside of Sittwe twice since the violence last year, in November 2012 and in February 2013. On both trips, I would say the camp conditions were dismal. The camps are isolated from the town of Sittwe, where many of the IDPs had lived and earned their incomes, and nearly all of the camps have been built in rice fields that will surely flood when the rainy season arrives. Rohingya are not permitted to come and go freely so they are literally segregated from the Rakhine community and contained to very specific areas. Structures built by the government last summer are now falling apart and many of the people I met with are unregistered, which means they are not able to receive the meager food rations that others get. Most of the unregistered IDPs are now living in primitive huts made of straw and hay that in no way protect them from the elements.

In terms of the IDP camps where structures have been built, they feel more like barracks in some kind of makeshift prison camp. Access to medical care is sparse and, at least in my own observations, humanitarian assistance in the camps doesn't even come close to meeting needs. Everyone knows the rainy season is just around the corner, but at least when I was there in February and early March, it felt like few proactive measures were being taken to prepare for what could (and probably will) be a significant humanitarian crisis.

To me, one of the most disturbing parts of all of this is that there’s a very strong sense of permanency in the IDP camps. Nothing feels temporary. There are absolutely no signs that anything is really being done to facilitate the return of these tens of thousands of people to their homes anytime soon. Across the border in Bangladesh, some 26,000 Rohingya refugees in two officially recognized camps have been living for 20 years in this kind of limbo. Their outlook for the future is very dim. Now, having spent time in the IDP camps in Rakhine, I got a sense that the outlook for the Rohingya IDPs could easily (and unfortunately) be quite similar if the Burmese government and the international community don't take action soon.

Q: Is Myanmar’s government rebuilding the homes of the Rohingya who were displaced during inter-communal violence in June and October 2012?

A: In Sittwe, there is no sign that the government is rebuilding the homes of the Rohingya. With the exception of one quarter in Sittwe, all of the Muslim quarters have been flattened. There is literally nothing left. Whatever was not razed in the initial outbreaks of violence has since been destroyed or looted. In November, and even as recently as this February, you visit the empty Muslim quarters of town and it’s common to see people from the Rakhine community (mostly older women and children) digging through what is left of the rubble, trying to find anything that can be recycled or sold as scrap.

Aside from the shells and facades of a few mosques here or there in the city, there is absolutely no Muslim presence in Sittwe today. It is like it has been totally erased. And for a city where Buddhists and Muslims have lived and co-existed side by side for generations, this erasure of the Muslim community is disturbing.

Q: Were you able to talk to Rohingya about their experiences during the violence? What did they say?

A: I had several conversations with Rohingya and people from the Kaman Muslim community who are now displaced. Many are still traumatized by the violence and many – especially the Kaman, who unlike the Rohingya are actually recognized as citizens of Burma – are still shell-shocked that this has actually happened and that they now have to live in such an undignified way. All the people I talked with spoke of violence being conducted not only by mobs of Rakhine Buddhists but also monks and various arms of the government (the police, the military, etc). It doesn't take much searching to find someone who saw someone die or knows someone who did.

Q: Were you able to speak to Rohingya about what they want to happen next?

A: Many of the Rohingya I've talked to want to just return to their homes. They want things to return to the way they were before the violence, yet many have no idea that there is nothing left of their homes, businesses, etc. Many want to receive recognition as citizens of Burma and feel that this will solve all of their problems, while others are much more skeptical of what the future holds for them.

Q: Thousands of Rohingya are making the decision to leave Myanmar on boats, making their way out of the Bay of Bengal to Thailand and beyond. Many of the boats, of course, are totally unsuited to this task. Were the Rohingya you met aware of how treacherous this journey is? Were you able to talk to them about why they were leaving Myanmar?

A: I met several Rohingya just hours before they were to get on a boat that would take them (hopefully) to Malaysia. All were aware of the risk involved, and all were leaving because life as an IDP had become so intolerable that leaving was the only option. Several had lost all of their property. All had lost someone in the violence last year. As IDPs, the men had no way to earn a living and all of them were scared of what would happen once the rainy season hit. Eight months had passed since they became displaced and all of them felt like their future in Burma was pretty grim.

In the past few months, the Burmese security force NaSaKa, which is notorious in the townships of North Rakhine for being the main perpetrators of human rights abuses against the Rohingya, have also started operating in Sittwe and Pauktaw. Many Rohingya I spoke with during my trip in February talked about how they were now having problems with NaSaKa. NaSaKa pretty much has free reign in North Rakhine and it appears that very little has and is being done by the central government to hold NaSaKa in check. That said, it is very troubling to see that NaSaKa is being permitted to operate in the IDP camps in Sittwe.

Even though all of the Rohingya I talked with felt like they had no choice but to leave, none of them really wanted to leave. Burma is their home.

Greg Constantine is a photojournalist who has documented the plight of Myanmar's Rohingya population. You can view Mr Constantine's photo essay "Exiled to Nowhere" here.

June 20, 2013 (Ottawa)—Twelve Nobel Peace laureates—including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Shirin Ebadi, Muhammad Yunus, Tawakkol Karman and Jody Williams—today called for an immediate end to the violence against Muslims and other ethnic minorities in Burma.

The laureate’s statement comes on the heels of a warning by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights that the human rights violations being committed against Muslims in Rakhine state and beyond are “threatening the reform process and requires focused attention from the Government.” Navi Pillay wants the Burmese government to allow her office to have a “full mandate” in Burma to investigate human rights abuses.

The 12 laureates support Pillay’s call for a UN investigation into the deaths of Muslims in Burma, as well as to investigate on-going violence against the Kachin, the Shan and other ethnic minorities.

In their statement, the laureates note that “ …some within Burma are propagating a politics of division—and using violence as a tool to manipulate feelings of fear and insecurity.” They call on the government and other leaders in Burma to make achieving reconciliation “their top priority.”

This month marks one year since sectarian violence erupted in Burma’s western Rakhine state, and the UN estimates that some 140,000 people remain in camps with little hope of returning home. It has been two years since government forces broke the ceasefire agreement with Kachin forces in northern Burma.

Archbishop Tutu visited Burma earlier this year and was deeply troubled by high levels of violence against ethnic minorities. Additionally, recent political and economic reforms do not appear to benefit the poor and marginalized people of Burma.

“The statement issued by my fellow Nobel Peace Laureates today reflects what I saw when I visited Burma,” said Archbishop Desmond Tutu. “I left Burma with a heavy heart. “

Nobel Peace Laureates: A true democratic future in Burma will require reconciliation

June 20, 2013

Burma has taken important steps in the past two years to move from decades of repression toward a democratic future. Many, though not all, political prisoners have been conditionally released. Our fellow Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest, and the National League for Democracy now has seats in parliament after contesting last year’s by-elections. The government has also taken some positive steps toward economic reform.

However, political and economic reform still has a very long way to go in Burma. The benefits of economic reform do not extend to Burma’s poorest and marginalized groups. And in the atmosphere of uncertainty that accompanies the current changes, some within Burma are propagating a politics of division—and using violence as a tool to manipulate feelings of fear and insecurity.

Violence against ethnic minorities in Burma continues unabated in some parts of Burma and, sadly, is now moving to others that were previously untouched by such brutality.

Since June 2012, the politics of division has targeted the Muslim minority. Human rights groups allege that ‘ethnic cleansing’ is being perpetrated on the Rohingya people. The violence, however, against Burma’s Muslim population – including the Rohingya – continues, and indeed, has spread from western to central Burma. After hosting Burmese President Thein Sein at the White House last month, President Obama stated that violence against minority Muslims “needs to stop”.

Muslims are not alone in the struggle within Burma against brutality. This month marks the 2nd anniversary of renewed fighting between the Tatmadaw and the Kachin Independence Army in Kachin state, located in northern Burma. The Kachins had a 17-year cease fire agreement until June 2011 when the Burmese army launched a military offensive against them. High levels of sexual violence against Kachin women are one of many disturbing features of military offensives that are terrorizing civilian populations. In the north as well, there is violence in Shan state with civilians bearing the brunt of loss and suffering.

In a country as richly diverse as Burma, the well being of each community depends on an atmosphere of harmony, tolerance and compassion towards all communities. A prosperous and democratic future for Burma requires genuine national reconciliation. We implore political leaders and other influential voices – both in and out of government – to make achieving such reconciliation their top priority.

We deplore all violence and all expressions of intolerance directed against any individuals or communities because of their racial or religious identity. The violence against Muslims, as well as other ethnic groups, must stop immediately. Moreover, we must support and encourage those who speak out and act for peace and reconciliation.

There needs to be an international, independent investigation of the anti-Muslim violence in Burma. It is critically important that the Burmese government show leadership in implementing any recommendations from such an investigation to ensure accountability to end this cycle of violence. We urge President Thein Sein strongly to follow through on the commitment he made to allow the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to open an office in Burma. Having an independent UN body present in Burma to monitor human rights violations is an important step towards realizing the fulfillment of those international human rights principles.

We also call upon the government and the Kachin leadership to take seriously their responsibility to provide the basis for a comprehensive political settlement that ends conflict and allows humanitarian assistance to reach Kachin’s 100,000 internally displaced population.

Recently, President Thein Sein said he would release political prisoners “with a view of fostering national reconciliation”. We agree that this would be an excellent step towards true reconciliation in Burma. However, we note that thousands of prisoners have been conditionally released. We call on President Thein Sein to drop all charges against political prisoners, in order to allow them to participate in Burma’s political reforms without fear of re-arrest.

In the past we were privileged to support Aung San Suu Kyi and countless other courageous Burmese in their struggle for democracy, freedom and human rights. That struggle has entered a new phase, but a struggle it undoubtedly remains. A Burma where all can enjoy the benefits of freedom is, for the first time in decades, a possibility. However, to attain this goal will require yet more courage and a steadfast commitment to tolerance—and an end to discrimination and violence.

Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate (1976) — Ireland

Betty Williams, Nobel Peace Laureate (1976) – Ireland

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Laureate (1980) — Argentina

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Laureate (1984) — South Africa

Oscar Arias, Nobel Peace Laureate (1987) – Costa Rica

Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Nobel Peace Laureate (1992) — Guatemala

José Ramos Horta, Nobel Peace Laureate (1996) — East Timor

Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Laureate (1997) — USA

Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Laureate (2003) — Iran

Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Laureate (2006) – Bangladesh

Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace Laureate (2011) — Liberia

Tawakkol Karman, Nobel Peace Laureate (2011) – Yemen