By AFP

August 21, 2013

BANGKOK - Myanmar must address anti-Muslim propaganda and stamp out a culture of impunity for religious violence or risk "catastrophic" levels of conflict, a rights group warned Tuesday.

Physicians for Human Rights described attacks on Muslims, which have swept the country since fighting first broke out last year as "widespread and systematic", in a report examining unrest that has killed around 250 people and left tens of thousands homeless. 

The US-based group said that while the situation in the country currently appeared calm, a failure to properly investigate and deal with the causes of the tensions risks further clashes.

PHR reported that "the brazen nature of these crimes and the widespread culture of impunity in which these massacres occur form deeply troubling preconditions that make such crimes very likely to continue".

"If these conditions go unaddressed, Burma may very well face countrywide violence on a catastrophic level, including potential crimes against humanity and/ or genocide," it continued, using the country's former name.

Myanmar has strongly denied previous accusations by watchdog Human Rights Watch of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya in Rakhine state.

Attacks against Muslims, who are thought to make up at least four percent of Myanmar's population, have thrown the Buddhist-majority nation's much-hailed emergence from military dictatorship into question.

Communal unrest between local Buddhist and Rohingya Muslims engulfed the country's western Rakhine state in June and October 2012, with whole villages burned to the ground leaving some 140,000 homeless -- mainly the Rohingya.

This year the conflict has widened to target Muslims in general, with several eruptions of violence spreading across the country.

After dozens of Muslims, including more than 20 students and teachers of an Islamic school, were killed in the central Myanmar town of Meiktila in March the United Nations human rights envoy for Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, said the reluctance of security forces to crack down on the unrest suggested a possible state link to the fighting.

The reformist government of President Thein Sein has rejected the statement from the UN envoy, who is currently in Myanmar on a visit that includes tours of some of the areas affected by religious conflict.

PHR said there was little evidence of direct orders or funding for the violence, but said "patterns of abuse" seen during the conflict "may imply that police or military were following orders".

The watchdog acknowledged that authorities were prosecuting both Buddhists and Muslims accused of crimes.

"But Muslims have been given much longer sentences than Buddhists and many more Muslims have been arrested," PHR Burma director William Davis told reporters in Bangkok.

"The violence has stopped, but ... the structural violence is still there," he said, alluding to a "culture of impunity" and lack of trust in the justice system as well as laws and practices that discriminate against ethnic minorities.

By Andrew Day

RB News 

August 21, 2013

Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh: "Very bad news from our Foreign Minister." He spoke. "She said we will be sent to repatriate to Myanmar. Did you read? What shall we do?" This is the sentiment and words from a refugee living within a registered camp in Bangladesh. This, in reaction to the result of a recent visit to Cox's Bazaar from Foreign Minister Dr. Dipu Moni.

Her excellency, Dr. Moni visited just one of the camps. RB News posted a letter addressed to the Foreign Minister. It was prepared by the refugee CMC Chairman of the unvisited camp. Written with such high hopes and care. They weren't given the opportunity to present the letter to her. 

Dr. Moni who has stated "The government is keeping strict vigilance as the Rohingyas would get their right to citizenship in Myanmar." The FM office says that any move would be completely voluntary repatriation. She adds "We have finalized to send them back to their homeland through discussion with Myanmar authority but could not do so due to riot there."

Voluntary Repatriation, supposedly requires cooperation from the refugees country of origin. 

Myanmar, a country who's government let's anti Muslim propaganda get distributed and are either unable or unwilling to stop mobs and racist groups who want to wipe out the Rohingya people. 

Thousands of people held within Arakan state in unregistered camps, in flooded paddy fields in absolute squaller. All aid blocked for "security reasons." 

Voluntary Repatriation to a country who's government are currently trafficking hundreds of Rohingyas from Southern Maungdaw to Malaysia. 

Cooperation between countries. Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Mohammad Shahidul Haque recently stated he approves "in principle, the proposal to construct a barbed wire [fence] along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, set up searchlights, build watchtowers and 21 new outposts to improve border surveillance." 

Bangladesh has a population crisis. The Foreign ministry just wants the Rohingyas out of the country. 

Back in the refugee camps. Despite the terrible living conditions, the idea of Rohingyas volunteering to go to Myanmar at this point in time, seems far fetched. 

One Rohingya told RB News, "Bangladesh is like a small hell for Rohingyas. Myanmar, that's a big hell for them"

By Thomson Reuters Foundation Correspondent

Thomson Reuters Foundation 

August 20, 2013

BANGKOK – The attitudes behind the deadly and systematic violence against Muslims in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar could, if left unchecked, lead to “mass atrocities,” Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said in a report released on Tuesday. 

The New York-based rights group cited the rapid dissemination of hate speech against marginalised groups and the inaction or acquiescence of many leaders in government and the democracy movement as creating the potential for “catastrophic violence.” 

"People who've been attacked have very little legal recourse and no real avenue of justice to prosecute the people who perpetrated the attacks,” Bill Davis, PHR’s researcher for Myanmar, told journalists. 

“There haven't been attacks there in several weeks but the structural violence that made it possible for this to happen is still in place … The culture of impunity is still there,” he said. 

The violence against Muslims, which started with clashes between stateless Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in western Myanmar in June last year, has displaced nearly 250,000 people, mostly Muslims. 

Despite being lauded for its democratic reforms, Myanmar’s first elected government in half a century has failed to protect the minority group, PHR said. 

Like Reuters, PHR found security forces either taking part in attacks against the Rohingya and other Muslim minorities or failing to prevent them, and Davis said that, to his knowledge, no uniformed person had been prosecuted. 

PHR is calling on the government to end such impunity and asking the international community, which has suspended most sanctions on Myanmar, “not to be reluctant to confront a country just because it has made some recent political improvements,” he said. 

“All those dedicated to ending violence must see the crimes in Burma as a horrible example of what happens when impunity reigns and demagogues are not confronted, and as an urgent warning sign of potential atrocities,” PHR said. 

HUMAN RIGHTS ARE FOR EVERYONE 

Violence against ethnic groups - one third of the population - was common in the impoverished country, formerly known as Burma, during the half-century of brutal military rule, and the situation has not improved since an elected government took office, despite widespread praise for its democratic reforms, PHR said. 

In fact, “violence against marginalized groups has escalated to an unprecedented level as Rohingyas and other Muslims throughout Burma face renewed acts of violence”, the report said. 

While some civil society groups and monks have denounced the violence, many, including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, have remained silent. 

"Human rights are for everyone, not just people holding the government ID cards. We want human rights activists who have been pushing for human rights in Burma to come out and say this,” Davis said. 

The government must also address “the deeply engrained disdain for Muslims and other minorities that allowed for such patterns of human rights violations”, the report said. 

The report was released a day before the U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, Tomás Ojea Quintana, presents his preliminary observations on his current trip to Myanmar where he visited, among others, Rakhine State and Meikhtila town where the recent violence against Muslims occurred. 

Scores of Rohingya were killed, some 140,000 displaced and thousands of homes were burnt down in bloody sectarian violence last year which uprooted Rohingya communities in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State, and the Rohingya’s living conditions in camps have worsened since then. 

The government and the public consider the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh who deserve neither rights nor sympathy. 

Those who have lost their homes have been living in squalid, sprawling displacement camps ripe for disease. Tens of thousands, including an increasing number of women and children, have fled by boat to Malaysia, where many Rohingya have in the past found refuge. 

Many are exploited by smugglers and traffickers and are stuck in detention centres in Thailand, while those who have reached Malaysia struggle to find peace.

(Photos Caption: A boat leaving from Lay Yin Gwin village, Aley Than Kyaw, Maungdaw)

RB News
August 20, 2013

Maungdaw, Arakan – In the past five days, the regional authorities of Maungdaw Towship within the Arakan State, have been collecting Rohingyas to send Malaysia by boat.

A Rohingya told RB News that a boat left from Lay Yin Gwin village of Aley Than Kyaw village tract at 11:40 am. That small boat loaded 30 Rohingya men. A boat from Aley Than Kyaw and three boats from Myin Hlut village left at 11:50 am. Reportedly, five boats in total left from Maungdaw South. More than 150 Rohingyas were onboard. 

The small boats left for Saint Martin Island, Bangladesh where the big boat is standby to leave for Malaysia. 

Earlier reports stated that there were over 300 Rohingyas organized. The authorities have been planning for 1000 Rohingyas in the area to make the trip to Malaysia. 

The owners of the small boats are Monzoor Rahman, son of Salim Ullah from Aley Than Kyaw. Hamid Hussein, son of Abdul Karim from Aley Than Kyaw and Ex village administrator Enayet Ullah, son of Fawzol Karim from Myin Hlut village. 

It has been reported to RB News that the people mainly involved in this human trafficking case are: Aley Than Kyaw based Aley Than Kyaw in-charge Captain from Military, Police Officer, SB Police Aung Kyaw Zin, SaRaPha (Military Security) Sergeant Kyi Han, Tin Tun from Human Trafficking Prevention Group, Aley Than Kyaw village administrator Maung Thet Naing and Ex Aley Than Kyaw village administrator Zaw Htoo. 

Malaysia has been considered to be a safe haven for Rohingyas since violence broke out against them in June of last year. Many have attempted to travel there by boat. They payed large sums of money to human traffickers with hopes of gaining refugee status within the country. The voyage is to Malaysia treacherous. Rickety boats have capsized at sea. People have been starved and drowned. Many times the boats do not make it to its destination. 

Some boats have been halted by Coast Guards, seeing Rohingyas arrested and detained. Some crooked human traffickers have sold the people off as slaves. For these reasons the people who have tried to make this voyage have been dubbed as "Boat People" 

As posted in RB News on August 18th: due to the tremendous danger for the lives of the the Rohingya people who take this voyage, there were actions to try to stop the human trafficking plans by higher authorities. At this point, the government has taken no action against them. They have been letting the plans continue. The government encourages Rohingya Muslims to leave for the voyage. It works as part of ethnic cleansing of these people. A means to wipe them from the town and all of Arakan state.

By Human Rights Watch

August 20, 2013

End Inhumane Detention, Family Separation of 1,800 Muslims from Burma

(Bangkok) – Thailand’s government should release ethnic Rohingya from Burma who are detained under inhumane and unsafe conditions, and ensure their protection needs are met, Human Rights Watch said today.

On August 13, 2013, the Thai cabinet considered a plan to transfer 1,839 Rohingya who have been held in immigration detention facilities and social welfare shelters across Thailand to refugee camps on the Thai-Burmese border.

“Some senior Thai officials have recognized the Rohingya’s plight but they are still considering proposals that would keep them detained,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “The Thai government needs to end the inhumane detention of Rohingya and ensure the United Nations refugee agency and other international organizations have full access to provide much needed protection and assistance.”

On August 9, the Thai minister of social development and human security, Paveena Hongsakula, told the media that the detention and trafficking of Rohingya in Thailand were serious human rights issues. Yet at a cabinet meeting four days later she proposed sending them to refugee camps, a plan that reportedly has the backing of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Foreign Affairs Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul. Despite the fact that many Rohingya fled “ethnic cleansing” and crimes against humanity last year in Burma’s Arakan State, the Thai government refuses to consider Rohingya as refugees.

The Thai authorities have also discussed proposals to create alternative centers for the Rohingya or expand the capacity to hold Rohingya at existing immigration detention centers in Songkhla, Ranong, Prachuab Khiri Kan, and Nongkhai provinces.

Since January, the Thai authorities have detained 2,055 Rohingya on the grounds that they entered the country illegally, according to the government. Thailand has separated Rohingya families. Rohingya men have been sent to various immigration detention centers, while Rohingya women and children have been held in shelters managed by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.

As documented by Human Rights Watch, Thai and Rohingya human traffickers have gained access to the government shelters and sought to lure out Rohingya women and children. For instance, in June, traffickers who promised to reunite Narunisa, a 25-year-old Rohingya in a shelter in Phang Nga province, with her husband in Malaysia for a 50,000 baht (US$1,660) fee, instead raped her repeatedly.

Many immigration detention centers are severely overcrowded and lack access to medical services and other basic necessities. Rohingya men are restricted to extremely cramped conditions in small cells resembling large cages, where they barely have room to sit. Some suffer from swollen feet and withered leg muscles due to lack of exercise because they have not been let out of the cells for up to five months. Eight Rohingya men have died from illness while in detention. Interventions by international agencies to provide health services, prompted in part by media exposure and international expressions of concern, have resulted in health improvements, but many Rohingya still face unacceptable risks to their health due to poor detention conditions.

“The Thai government should recognize its punitive detention policy towards the Rohingya is both inhumane and counterproductive,” Adams said.

Since July, Rohingya men fearful of being sent back to persecution in Burma or detained indefinitely in Thailand have staged protests at immigration detention facilities in Songkhla and Phang Nga provinces. Approximately 208 Rohingya men, women, and children have also escaped from detention to unknown locations.

The Thai authorities should allow Rohingya to seek migrant worker status, which would permit them to work and move freely. Because Burma’s government discriminates against the Rohingya, denying them Burmese nationality, Thailand should waive the nationality verification program requirement for migrant worker status.

“The Rohingya have fled horrific abuses in Burma that would put many at risk were they to return home,” Adams said. “Instead of sticking them in border camps or immigration lockups, the Thai government should consider allowing the Rohingya to remain, work, and live under temporary protection.”

Background: Thai policy not “helping on”

For years, thousands of ethnic Rohingya from Burma’s Arakan State have set sail to flee persecution by the Burmese government. The situation significantly worsened following sectarian violence in Arakan State in June 2012 between Muslim Rohingya and Buddhist Arakanese, which displaced tens of thousands of Rohingya from their homes. In October 2012, Arakanese political and religious leaders and state security forces committed crimes against humanity in a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” against the Rohingya. During the so-called “sailing season” between October 2012 and March 2013, more than 35,000 Rohingya are believed to have fled the country. International pressure on Thailand to provide temporary protection to Rohingya arriving on its shores resulted in the current detention policy. Since January, more than 1,800 Rohingya have been sent to immigration detention centers and government shelters. However, many thousands more have been intercepted at sea by Thai officialsand either redirected to Malaysia or allegedly handed over to people smugglers and human traffickerswho demand payment to release them and send them onwards.

Thailand’s misnamed “help on” policy towards small boats carrying Rohingya has failed to provide Rohingya asylum seekers with the protections required under international law, and in some cases significantly increased their risk. Under this policy, the Thai navy intercepts Rohingya boats that come close to the Thai coast and supposedly provides them with fuel, food, water, and other supplies on the condition that the boats continue onward to Malaysia or Indonesia. Instead of helping or providing protection, the “help on” policy either pushes ill-equipped boats of asylum seekers onwards at sea, or sees them handed over to people smugglers who promise to send the Rohingya onwards for a price, and hand over those unable to pay to human traffickers.

Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to seek asylum from persecution. While Thailand is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, under customary international law the Thai government has an obligation of “non-refoulement” – not to return anyone to places where their life or freedom would be at risk. In its “Guidelines on Applicable Criteria and Standards Relating to the Detention of Asylum Seekers,” the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reaffirmed the basic human right to seek asylum and stated that “[a]s a general rule, asylum seekers should not be detained.” The UNHCR guidelines also state that detention should not be used as a punitive or disciplinary measure, or as a means of discouraging refugees from applying for asylum.

Human Rights Watch urged the Thai government to work closely with UNHCR, which has the technical expertise to screen for refugee status and the mandate to protect refugees and stateless people. Effective UNHCR screening of all Rohingya boat arrivals would help the Thai government determine who is entitled to refugee status.

Buddhist extremists are stirring up hatred of Rohingya and other Muslims in a display of racism that is part of a political agenda

Just beyond the administrative buildings in Sittwe, capital of the state of Rakhine (Arakan) in northwestern Burma, a checkpoint halts all unauthorised travel into the town’s last Muslim quarter. The police sit around looking listless in the tropical heat. A few hundred metres beyond is Aung Mingalar, into which about 7,000 mostly Rohingya Muslims were confined following last year’s violence.

In June and October last year, vicious clashes between Muslims and Buddhists convulsed Rakhine. Buddhists, who form the majority, targeted the Rohingya, a much despised minority. They were divested of their citizenship in 1982 and have so far seen few benefits during the rapid liberalisation after March 2011 when a decades-old junta ceded power to a quasi-civilian government. But sporadic violence has continued into this year and spread into other regions of Burma. The targets now include non-Rohingya Muslims who collectively make up about 5 per cent of Burma’s 60 million population.

A somewhat surreal situation ensues when a local Rohingya activist and translator named Aung Win (57) approaches the checkpoint. Although he cannot proceed up the road, he is able to talk over his mobile phone from a few dozen metres away.

“If anyone wants to go out of here, they have to pay 15,000 kyat (€12) for one trip. Up and down, they charge 30,000 kyat and only for a two-hour journey,” he says, adding that access to medical care is severely restricted.

It started in June last year, he says. “Strangers from outside of Sittwe and then the Rakhine extremists arrived and attacked the Rohingya villages. In total more than 13 villages were hit and they killed more than 100 people.”

Run-down mosque

Win’s home was located behind Sittwe’s Nobel Hotel on the town’s main road. On the far side, near the Rakhine State Museum, the Jama Mosque, built in 1859, should have pride of place as a local landmark. But its grounds are overgrown by tropical trees and creepers. The main entrance is blocked by a line of Rakhine-owned stalls made of wood and corrugated iron, selling soft drinks and snacks.

A side entrance is blocked by a pair of rifle-toting policemen. Further down the street, a billboard advertises this year’s Southeast Asian Games, hosted by Burma.

It has long been a pariah state, subject to sanctions and notorious for annulling the results of a popular vote in 1990. The nation’s re-emergence is underscored by President Thein Sein’s success in securing Burma’s role as chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations next year.

What has been tentatively termed a “Burma Spring” is proceeding at speed. In 2011, the 68-year-old Sein became the country’s first non-interim civilian president in 49 years.

Later that year, he had a high-profile meeting with the iconic opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who had spent 15 of the previous 21 years under house arrest. Suu Kyi’s party, the National League of Democracy (NLD), was allowed to contest byelections last April and she now sits as an MP and is chair of the Committee for the Rule of the Law and Tranquillity.

Poverty and corruption

But most of Thein Sein’s national-level appointees are serving or former military officers and, in both levels of the legislature, a sizeable minority of seats are still held by the Tatmadaw (army). The 2010 general election that resulted in his Union Solidarity Development Party getting more than 75 per cent of the seats was condemned internationally as rigged. Burma has about 85,000 villages and the majority are below the poverty line. Rampant land-grabbing took place over the years by the Tatmadaw and its business cronies and there has been little effort to address land reform issues.

This may partly explain the heightened communal tensions. At government buildings, a request for a pass into a “Rohingya” refugee camp meets with the barbed retort: “They are not Rohingyas! They are Bengalis!”

In the mindset of many Rakhine Buddhists, the Rohingya, with their subcontinental appearance and Islamic faith, are the descendents of migrants from Bangladesh a few generations ago.

“[Rohingyas] were present in Rakhine State 1,500 years ago,” says Abu Tahay, a legal expert and activist. “This is already proven by the stone monuments erected in the eighth century in Rakhine State. According to the script on the stone, we can see a Rohingya dialect 100 per cent different to the spoken Rakhine dialect of today.”

The junta’s 1982 Citizenship Law made the Rohingya stateless – they needed permission to travel from their townships, were banned from owning land and were limited to two children per family. Operations by the Tatmadaw in 1978 and 1991 created thousands of refugees. There are about 300,000 Rohingya in camps in Bangladesh and 100,000 on the Thai border. The bitter irony is that the “Bengalis” have fared little better in the land of their supposed ancestry. Bangladesh routinely turns back “boat people” crossing the Bay of Bengal. During last year’s riots, the Bangladeshi foreign minister stressed his country did not have the resources to house another large influx of refugees.

A fragmented road leads away from Sittwe’s rice and fish markets with their spectacular views of the Kaladan river and Baronga Island. Rows of makeshift buildings constructed of bamboo and local hardwoods appear on the outskirts of town along with the logo of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

At Set Yone Su camp, 150 families languish in land turned swampy by the rains. Adults sit in the unsanitary environs and stifling heat while children scamper around.

The first wave of violence erupted last summer. The trigger was the brutal rape and murder of a 27-year-old Rakhine woman in the town of Kyaukphu, allegedly by three Rohingya men.

On June 3rd, 10 Rohingya passengers were killed when a Rakhine mob stopped a bus in another town. A week later, as arson and rioting spread to Sittwe, Thein Sein declared a state of emergency for the first time since taking power, ordering the army to restore order.

After violence erupted once more in Rakhine State in October, Doctors Without Borders reported that posters and pamphlets were being distributed in the state, warning local staff not to treat Muslims. By then, 192 people were dead and 140,000 displaced.

Much of the anti-Muslim rhetoric is associated with the “969” movement, so called because it is said to represent the nine attributes of Buddha, six of his teachings and nine of the monkhood. Based in the northern city of Mandalay, its leader is Saydaw Wirathu. He has been dubbed a “Buddhist bin-Laden” in the media for his inflammatory speeches, including claims that Rohingyas in Sittwe and elsewhere have been burning down their own homes to get international aid.

In an online video in March, he declared that “once these evil Muslims have control and authority over us they will not let us practise our religion freely . . . these Islamists have been buying land and property all over the country. They use that money to get our young Buddhist women.”

But the nature of this year’s violence, most notably in neighbouring Shan State, has indicated that the attacks are not random.

Targeted attacks

Following four days of violence in Meiktila this March, the UN secretary general’s special adviser on Burma, Vijay Nambiar, said Muslims were “clearly targeted” and the attacks were carried out with “brutal efficiency”. Kyaw Min, a Rohingya former MP based in Rangoon, says that rhetoric feeds into wider tensions between Muslims and Buddhists in such nations as Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh.

“According to [the 969 movement] Muslims are a danger to our national survival,” he says. “They pointed out that countries like Indonesia and Malaysia were once Buddhist. Now they are 90 per cent Muslim.”

But not all Buddhists endorse the 969 line. And many see the attacks on the Rohingya and other Muslims as politically motivated.

In June, the Irrawaddy magazine and website quoted U Pantavunsa, an anti-969 monk saying that: “Buddha never lectured his disciples to be against others who have different beliefs.”

He added: “Thirty thousand copies of a DVD with 969 talks in Mon State have been distributed in Rangoon. So it’s very evident that they have a sponsor to distribute them on a large scale. There are several possibilities: cronies who would be comfortable doing business with the former military regime or some hardliners reluctant to undergo reform who might secretly finance them.”

But a general election is scheduled for 2015 and many Rohingyas fear the democratic opposition will pander to anti-Muslim sentiment.

“Aung San Suu Kyi is in a catch-22 situation,” says Kyaw Min, who spent seven years in prison in the 1990s. “If she is going to condemn all this violence openly, the Buddhist majority will withdraw their support. Only in a few cases she says something. She said the two-child policy is against human rights.”

Meanwhile in the segregated town of Sittwe, the fear of further violence is palpable.

By Fiona MacGregor 

The Myanmar Times

August 18, 2013

Threats are forcing Myanmar workers to quit their jobs helping victims of violence in Rakhine State, it has emerged. International aid organisations working in the conflict-hit state say anti-Rohingya campaigners are targeting their staff on social media after learning their identities.

A source from a major international aid organisation working in the region said the group had seen a significant number of local members resign after threats to them and their families were posted on Facebook pages.

“It makes me very sad the way things have developed here. When I first came here I had Rakhine friends who understood what we were doing in the camps but now I can’t tell them anything because they don’t think we should be helping the Rohingya people,” said the aid worker.

“It has been very difficult for Rakhine staff who are picked on by the local community if they are seen to be helping Muslim people and a lot of them have resigned because of this. It makes things very difficult.”

There are more than 80 international aid organisations now based in Sittwe following last year’s violence between Rakhine Buddhists and the minority Muslim population, who call themselves Rohingya and are more commonly referred to as Bengalis in Myanmar.

The violence left more than 140,000 people, mainly Muslim, homeless and about 200 people dead.

Rakhine victims of the conflict have expressed anger at what they see as bias in the aid effort, with senior figures in the community complaining that international organisations have focused on the needs of Rohingya population over those of the Rakhine.

Earlier this year the problem of staff intimidation was highlighted by international medical and humanitarian aid organisation Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) International.

MSF said its medical teams faced “threats and hostility”.

“In pamphlets, letters and Facebook postings, MSF and others have been repeatedly accused of having a pro-Rohingya bias by some members of the Rakhine community. It is this intimidation, and not [lack of] formal permission for access, that is the primary challenge MSF faces,” it said.

“Our repeated explanations that MSF only seeks to provide medical aid to those who need it most is not enough to forestall the accusations.”

At the time the organisation called on the authorities to “do more to make it clear that threatening violence against health workers is unacceptable”.

However, the reports of staff resigning suggest the problem has worsened over recent months.

Contacted about the question of staff resignations in the face of threats and intimidation, a spokeswoman for MSF said, “I can confirm that this remains an issue today, which obviously impacts our ability to provide medical, humanitarian assistance to people who need it.”

The spokeswoman added that while Rakhine workers were particularly vulnerable, MSF staff from other parts of Myanmar working in Rakhine State have also come under attack on social media.

By The Myanmar Times

August 18, 2013

Tomas Quintana, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, makes headlines whenever he visits Myanmar.

This is not surprising. He is outspoken – too outspoken for many, as he often draws attention to uncomfortable truths. But many who have met Mr Quintana, including staff at The Myanmar Times when he visited our office in February, have found him to be sincere in his desire to report on and improve the human rights situation in Myanmar. He has campaigned on many important issues, including political prisoners and the culture of impunity in the military.

Anyone who disagrees with his observations should have the right to express their views, through a peaceful protest,

Facebook post or opinion article. Reasoned and rational debate is essential if the vast divides in Rakhine State, and elsewhere in Myanmar, are to be bridged.

But the controversy over his latest visit represents an unhelpful distraction. Certain publications and online media groups have drawn attention to photos of Mr Quintana meeting Buddhist and Muslim community leaders in Rakhine State and accused him of failing to show respect for monks by sitting cross-legged and not removing his socks.

Many have tried to use this to support their view that he is biased against the Rakhine community. If those present at the monastery in Sittwe were offended by Mr Quintana’s actions, they should have quietly expressed that to him directly rather than let others seek to undermine his mission.

It is sad that some publications have jumped on this issue either to push their own agendas and beliefs or cater to the populist – and often racist – sentiments that they have cultivated in recent years. Unfortunately, this reporting creates further divisions between the Buddhist and Muslim communities, not only in Rakhine State but across the country.

A recent article by Eleven Media Group, “Quintana shows disrespect to Buddhist monk, locals say”, was particularly disappointing. The article quoted a United Nations Refugee Agency spokesman in Geneva as calling for for dialogue between the government and Bengalis. What the spokesman actually said was that UNHCR wants to see dialogue between the government and IDPs.

It could be an innocent mistake but the misquotation hints at the broader problems in the polarised media coverage of Rakhine State. It’s time for all journalists and editors to lift our game. The media has an important role to play as an educator and shaper of opinions. Publications should use this power constructively and not seek to undermine those working for a future in which all can enjoy their fundamental human rights.

RB News 

August 18, 2013

Maungdaw, Arakan - The authorities in Maungdaw Township of Arakan State are organizing local Rohingyas, to send them to Malaysia by boat. The boat is scheduled within days. 

SB (Special Branch) police Aung Kyaw Zin, SaRaPha (Military Security) Sergeant Kyi Han, Tin Tun, a member of Human Trafficking prevention group and Aley Than Kyaw village administrator Maung Thet Naing are reportedly involved in the organization of the local Rohingyas. They are organizing them in the villages of Maungdaw South over the past three days. 

As movement and several restrictions are imposed on Rohingyas in Arakan State, many Rohingyas are facing various difficulties just to survive. Since last year, the local authorities are heavily engaging in human trafficking. They plan to wipe out all Rohingyas from Arakan State. The method they are using is hitting two birds with one stone. They can wipe out Rohingyas from Arakan and they can earn a lot at the same time.

According to locals, a big boat is on standby nearby Saint Martin Island in Bangladesh. Up to now about 300 Rohingyas are already organized by the authorities for the upcoming trip. They are trying to organize about 1000 Rohingyas. 

Since the violence broke out in Arakan in last year June, more than 13000 Rohingyas left from Arakan by boat, according to the figure of UNHCR. The risky journeys left at least 500 dead. 

The traffickers, the local authorities, are charging 250,000 kyat to 300,000 kyat for the journey to Malaysia. The people will have to join the big boat standby near to Saint Martin by small boat from villages. 

As the journey has high risk for lives and very dangerous for the people, the local Rohingyas want that the central government to stop the human trafficking business by local authorities. The local Rohingyas even want to stop the upcoming journey planned by the authorities.

By Editorial of Oman Tribune

August 18, 2013

Nearly two years after the unprecedented violence against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, six Buddhists are about to be tried. The six are responsible for the lynching of 10 Muslim bus passengers that sparked the violence. Although the trials are being held a bit late in the day and is the result of a lot of international pressure, there is a degree of satisfaction that at least a few of the guilty are being punished at last. The fact, however, is that many more Buddhists are evading the law for the killing of Rohingyas. More than 200 Rohingyas were killed in the violence in the country’s western Rakhine state and about 50 in Meikhitila that led to thousands fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh and other nearby countries like Thailand. Even today, scores of Muslims are leaving Myanmar. 

The reasons for the continuing exodus are straight and simple: the persecution of Muslims is continuing. And this was stressed on Thursday by Roble Olhaye, Organisation of Islamic Countries chairman and Djibouti’s permanent representative to the United Nations. He also said that UN authorities in Myanmar had so far failed to end what he described as the genocide of Muslims. The onus now certainly is on the UN. In other words, the international community has to be proactive to force the government of President Thein Sein to end the violence. But that is not happening despite appeals from many quarters. The European Union has tightly embraced Myanmar. The United States too is mollycoddling Thein Sein. Neighbours like India are following the same obnoxious policy. All know that this new love for Myanmar is because of its huge mineral resources. Worse is the silence of Aung Saan Suu Kyi. In fact, Suu Kyi has referred only obliquely just once or twice to the violence against Muslims. This is shocking from a person regarded all over the world as a beacon of freedom and human rights, who fought relentlessly for her people against the country’s military dictators and spent years in detention.

Not many in the modern world have suffered so much as the Rohingyas. Without being given citizenship by the Myanmar government, they are a stateless people and have been subjected to persecution over the years. In the 1990s, as a result of a round of violence, thousands had fled to Bangladesh. Intervention by the international community brought some solace for them. Now, about the two decades later, a repeat of those dreadful days is happening. But this sad and at the same time horrible state of affairs cannot continue. The international community must pressure Thein Sein to respect the inalienable rights of the Rohingyas as citizens of Myanmar and bring all the Buddhists having blood on their hands to trail.

RB News 

August 17, 2013 

Maungdaw, Arakan – In the past, the former Nasaka allowed two bogus doctors to operate clinics in Nasaka Area No. (6), Maungdaw Township of Arakan State. Now, the Hlun Htaine police are allowing them to continue. Although the health department has not certified them, security personnel are allowing them to practice, for a monthly fee. This according to locals. 

The security personnel allowed a bogus Rakhine doctor, Kyaw Zin Htun to operate a clinic in Kyaut Hlay Gar village tract, The Chaung Pyu Su village (Dargar Fara) in Maungdaw Township. The in-charge of security called him captain and introduced with Rohingya residents as military doctor. So the residents in the village thought he could be real doctor and are getting treatments. 

“The patients are not getting better after the treatments of bogus doctor. Especially Hepatitis C is spreading around. So the people need huge amount money for treatments and at the end with many lost lives.” a Rohingya told RB News. 

On May 17, 2013, a Rohingya man, Nazir got a stomach pain. He went to Kyaw Zin Htun’s clinic to get treatment. The bogus doctor gave him an injection of 75mg of Diclofenac. The patient died in a half an hour from the time of the injection. Moreover, the bogus doctor is giving the treatment to people injured related to crimes. Seriously injured people are dying after getting treatments from him. 

Kyaw Zin Htun’s clinic is located at the house of Abdul Razak (a.k.a) Kyaw Win in The Chaung Pyu Su village. The house owner was forced by the former Nasaka to accommodate the bogus doctor. Another bogus doctor is Dainet man, Ba Thaung. His clinic is located at Maungdaw-Kyain Chaung Highway, nearby primary school in Hla Pho Kaung village. 

In Myanmar, even the doctors graduated from Medical Institutions are not allowed to operate the clinic without having Sa-Ma certificate. The slogan of Ministry of Health is “Every human must get their full life” but the situation of Rohingyas is not included in that slogan. 

The villagers said police are allowing the bogus doctors to operate the clinics. They introduced them as military doctors in the region. Many believe they are there to kill Rohingyas silently. It is a tactic of authorities.

Radio Free Asia

August 16, 2013

A leader of the minority Rohingya Muslim community in western Myanmar’s restive Rakhine state has called for a meeting between representatives of his group, local ethnic Buddhists and the government to put an end to deadly clashes in the region.

Abu Tahay, chairman of the Union Nationals Development Party (UNDP), said the three groups should include an international arbitrator to independently judge on issues that have led to clashes between members of his minority group and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, which last year left nearly 200 dead and 140,000 displaced.

“We need a group that can exert influence on both communities, such as an international intermediation group,” Abu Tahay told RFA’s Myanmar Service in an interview in Washington on Tuesday.

“If so, this group could decide on the arguments. It would create a situation in which the two communities can live together if the government, ethnic Rakhine leaders and Rohingya leaders sit together and discuss these issues.”

Abu Tahay arrived in the U.S. on Aug. 10 as one of eight religious and civil society leaders selected by the American Embassy in Myanmar to participate in a three-week program to learn about the role that community leaders play in addressing ethnic and religious differences.

The program includes stops in Washington, Boston, New Orleans, and Los Angeles, and visits to the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as institutes that deal with conflict management and human rights.

Abu Tahay said that addressing the issues of Rohingya citizenship and identity are essential to ending the violence in Rakhine, where tensions between Buddhists and Muslims remain high.

“There are two issues that are not very difficult to solve,” the UNDP chairman said.

“One is identity for the Rohingyas and the other is citizenship for the Rohingyas,” he said, referring to a long-held conviction in Myanmar that members of the ethnic minority—commonly referred to as “Bengalis”—have illegally immigrated from neighboring Bangladesh.

Around 800,000 Muslim Rohingyas live in Rakhine state but most of them, according to rights groups, have been denied citizenship and the social benefits that go with it.

The U.N. considers the Rohingyas to be among the world’s most persecuted minorities.

Citizenship law

Myanmar’s government has said that it will grant citizenship to any Rohingya “who meets legal requirements according to the 1982 citizenship law,” which only recognizes those families which had settled in the country before independence from Britain in 1948.

But Abu Tahay said that the Rohingyas had been officially recognized as a nationality in Myanmar before the law was introduced during the era of the former military junta, which ceded power to reformist President Thein Sein’s nominally civilian government in 2011.

“We cannot say that Rohingyas are not citizens because of the 1982 citizenship law. According to the citizenship law before 1982, Rohingyas had lived in Myanmar as citizens,” he said.

“We can’t amend this retroactively.”

Abu Tahay said that according to previous censuses “there is no proof that Rohingyas came into Myanmar from other countries” and that the government likely assumes that members of the group are from Bangladesh because of cultural similarities that overlap the border region.

He also called on the government of Rakhine state to abolish laws that specifically target his minority, including restrictions on the number of children in Rohingya families, required permission for travel, blocks preventing Rohingyas from certain studies and special approval for marriages, which he said were relics of the junta regime.

Violence between Myanmar’s Buddhist majority and the country’s Muslim minority, which accounts for some 4 percent of the country's 60-million population, have threatened to derail Thein Sein’s plans for national reconciliation and democracy following nearly five decades of military rule.

Earlier this week, ethnic Rakhines protested against a visit by U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar Tomas Ojea Quintana, calling his reports on ethnic violence in the region “one-sided” in favor of Rohingyas.

Quintana, who is in the middle of a 10-day trip to Myanmar that includes tours of areas that were among the worst hit by the communal fighting, responded that he remains impartial and that his work was based on a balanced approach.

Rights groups maintain that the Rohingyas suffered the brunt of last year’s deadly clashes.

Reported by Khin Maung Soe. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

RB News 

August 16, 2013 

Eight and half months ago, Noor Farid, a stateless and oppressed Rohingya was detained by the Japan immigration. It was his good fortune that he was released on August 13, 2013 with the resident visa status. It was very strange news for all Rohingya's living in Japan. It has never happened to any Rohingya who were detained under the refugee recognition procedure. 

“It was a happiest and great moment for all It was a happiest and great moment for all Rohingya celebrating Eidul Fitri together after Eid prayer at Tatebayashi Salamat Mosque. They have been wishing each other happy Eid Mubarak by visiting door to door. Most of the Rohingya community members were consciously worried for the Rohingya brother Noor Farid who is in the Ushiku immigration detention center since last November. All of Rohingya community members prayed for him to be released as soon as possible. While he was in the detention center most of our members frequently visited him including our new president, vice president and secretary general.” Wrote in an e-mail by the Burmese Rohingya Association in Japan (BRAJ) to RB News. 

The President of BRAJ Mr Hasegawa (a.k.a) Haroon Rashid took responsibility to apply “provisional release” for Noor Farid but the immigration officers consecutively rejected three times. And later submitted for forth time. The immigration officer from Ushiku detention centre made a phone call to BRAJ’s president on the Eid festival day and informed him that the application for provisional release is approved but need to deposit Yen 500,000 Yen (5,000 USD). Mr Rashid, president of BRAJ requested the officer to reduce the amount. However the officer advised him to send an appeal letter. 

BRAJ sent an appeal letter to the Director General of Ushiku detention centre, the Ministry of Justice and concerned immigration authority. It was fortunate of the detainee Noor Farid that the concerned immigration authority sympathized and released him with resident visa status. “We are very grateful to the Ministry of Justice and Immigration for granting permission to stay in Japan. Our association’s executive committee and members are very much thankful to the government of Japan.” wrote in the e-mail from BRAJ to RB News. 

“The Rohingya community living in Japan is the most persecuted people of Myanmar under the military regime. We hereby pledge that we will guide the whole Rohingya community living in Japan to abide by Japanese laws, respect Japanese culture, and peaceful coexistence with local people.” added in the e-mail.

Andrew Day

RB News 

August 16, 2013

Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh - 50 year old Haidor Ali from Block-D of the Nayapara refugee camp, was mercilessly beaten by a Police Nike.

The altercation occurred on August 13, when the police came to his home after an unfounded complaint from a 17 year old boy from a different block. 

The Police Nike, who's name is Jahangir, beat the man until he collapsed, then continued to beat him with a shoe.

The unconscious man was brought to the CIC Camp in Charge (CIC) office. The CIC was absent at that time. After waiting, a CIC clerk eventually took him to a doctor. 

The doctor refused his treatment saying that Ali simply had an asthma attack. According to the refugees, This is common practice, doctors writing false reports to protect government forces from abuse cases.

This is one report of many in the wake of a visit from Foreign Minister DR Dipu Moni. She along with UNHCR Country Representatives has a visit planned for August 17-18. 

5 people from each block will be elected to by The Camp Management Committee (CMC) and the Block Management Committee (BMC) to relay to the visiting group, the conditions within the camp. The GOB and UNHCR will elect a geoup to protect the camp for a one year contract.

As usual, a wide berth from the visitors will be enforced to students and other educated Refugees. 

For the occasion of this visit the refugee community within the camp has written a plea to the Foreign Minister. 

RB News has acquired a copy: 

Her Excellency 

To, 

The Honorable Dr. Dipu Moni 

Foreign Affair and Permanent Parliament Members 

Dhaka, Bangladesh 

Subject: Conditions for repatriation. 

We the refugees of Nayapara Camp would like to draw your kind attention to the following conditions of us placed before you on what we will be willing to go back to our native land Arakan Burma. 

(1) To recognize Rohingya as an indigenous ethnic minority of Myanmar and issue full citizenship ID, Cards. 

(2) To ensure safety and full protection of the returnees upon their return to Arakan, Burma.

(3) To ensure our full human rights in our country. 

(4) To return all of the confiscated properties, lands of the returnees and provide compensations. 

(5) To ensure equal rights as political rights, employment’s rights according to his/her qualification like other indigenous ethnic group of Burma. 

(6) To stop human rights violation, racial stubborn discrimination, religious discrimination extortions, force labor and arbitrary arrest especially on Rohingyas. 

(7) To stop brutal oppression against Rohingya Muslims. 

(8) To continue existence of UN office on Human rights Watch, with full power as per p-s wise and district wise. Especially on Rohingya dominated area. 

(9) We urge for a legal durable solution according to 1951 convention and 1967 protocol as well as international law. 

As all above mentioned factors are elements that directory contributes to uproot and displaced hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas from Arakan, unless and until developing the situation in Arakan, the repatriation. 

We therefore pray and hope that your Excellencies would be kind enough to consider and do the needful as mentioned above and obliged thereby. 

Your Excellency sincerely 

Refugee CMC Chairman 

For Banner 

Welcome to the Refugees Camp 

We would like to request your Excellency to continue endeavor for our immediate durable solution according to 1951 Geneva conventions and 1967 protocol and as per 2nd 3rd Refugee option. 

We are very honored upon your visit to our camp and we feel proud as well as happy to have you amid us. We are grateful to you and the Government as well as its kind hearted people for giving shelters to us in your country and continuum assistances. 

We urge you and GOB to talk with the Government of Myanmar on decades-long ethnic violence to the minority Rohingyas. 

We urge you and your Government to have an attempting which could yield a durable solution for the most persecuted Rohingya Refugee. 

We would like to end our miserable lives through your congenial initiatives and entreat your help to build up our lives with dignity and rights. 

Our warmest and hearty thanks to you and your Government for raising your voice to propagate our plight to the world. 

We ask the GOB, UN, EU, OIC, UN, agencies and International Communities to increase constantly the diplomatic discussion to solve refugee issues with the Myanmar. We are very grateful and thanks to Bangladesh; UN; UNHCR; all the donor countries and all the operating organization for supporting us throughout our camp journey. 

For Placard 

1. Raise voice to stop genocide and stubborn discrimination on muslim in Burma. 

2. Raise voice to communal violence and arm force on Rohingya muslim in Burma. 

3. Raise voice to stop discrimination on Rohingya muslim religion and radically opposed in Burma. 

4. Raise voice to stop raping plundering arson arbitrary arrest human rights violation. 

5. Kidnapping and assassination on Rohingya muslim in Burma. 

We are honored upon your visit to our camp. 

Thanks to GOB and its kind hearted people. 

We ask to end our miserable shed lives. 

Thanks to GOB for long time humanitarian assistances. 

We are one of the most persecuted ethnic minorities on earth. 

We are very uncertain with our future. 

Can’t we be given a hope of new life for the sake of humanity? 

We would not like to be any more burden to GOB. 

We need your help to build up our new life.

Rohingyas were ancient settlers of Indo- Aryan descendant converted into Islam in 8th century A.D and new generation of mixed blood of Arab (788 A.D - 801 A.D ) plus Persian (700 AD -1500 A.D) plus Bangali (1400 AD - 1736 AD) plus mogul in 16th century AD.

In page 25 and 27 of Ethnologue, the languages of the world described Myanmar Rohingya Language under the Indo-Aryan’s (225) descendants dialect by SIL international which has special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations and with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO). SIL has also been designated by the International Organizations for Standardization as Registration Authority for ISO 639-3 Standard.

Although some of them are war victims , slaves and farmers, they had settled down before 1823 AD. It was obivious that they were not comers under British Age.

RB News

August 15, 2013 

Sittwe, Arakan – Although Rohingyas in Sittwe are not allowed to be admitted to local hospitals, NGOs are sending emergency patients to the government hospital in Sittwe for better treatment. The Rohingyas in Sittwe said most of the time they receive dead bodies in return after those patients are hospitalized.

A pregnant woman, Noor Begum, daughter of Abdul Rashid (35-years-old) who lived in Ohn Daw Gyi camp in Sittwe was admitted to the hospital after the clinic of AzG (Médecins Sans Frontières, Holland) referred her to be admitted on August 11, 2013. Unfortunately Begum couldn’t deliver her child and died at the hospital on August 13, 2013. Her dead body was sent to her family this afternoon, August 15th 2013.

Noor Begum left three young children. Her body was buried at 5 pm in Mansi graveyard. 

Last Friday, August 9, 2013, the NGOs sent 6 injured Rohingyas to the hospital and 3 of them died after admission. Rakhine Government spokesman, Win Myaing, and Ye Htut of the Union Government issued a statement that only 3 persons were injured, but later Win Myaing changed his statement to 7 and later said 10. Yet, they are not admitting that any Rohingya had died while in the hospital.

According to locals, patients who are sent by NGO's to the hospital are discriminated against racially and religiously by the doctors and nurses. Doctors and nurses are often found to use derogatory terms and act contemptuous towards Rohingya as well. Most of these patients families are receiving back dead bodies instead of a healthy return of their loved ones. Because of this many Rohingya fear a conspiracy against them as patients, or that Rohingya are given especially poor care in the hands of these hospitals. While there are a few clinics in the IDP camps run by NGO's, they are facing difficulty in attempting to treat Rohingya due to lack of medical supplies.

RB News 

August 15, 2013 

Teknaf, Bangladesh – A boat left from Maungdaw Township, Arakan State on it’s way to Teknaf, Bangladesh sank in Naf River today. Reportedly one person died and over 20 missing. 

This evening a boat left from Mingalar Gyi village, Maungdaw Township to Teknaf, Bangladesh. Reportedly the boat sank before arriving at Teknaf. Normally the boat would have the capacity for 10 people but the transporter loaded 25 people onboard to get more money. A Rohingya in Teknaf told RB News that the boat sank because it had been overloaded. 

The transporter of the boat is a Rakhine man, U Thein Oo who is a resident of Bangladesh and Myanmar. He owns a restaurant in Maungdaw Township. From 25 persons on boat, only one woman is dead and three surviving people were found near the shore of Teknaf. The remaining 21 persons are missing. 

The people on-board the boat were on their way to Bangladesh for business and to visit. All of them are Rohingyas according to locals. 

A Rohingya said that two transporters are operating a boat in Mingalar Gyi, transporting people for business. One is a Rohingya man, Abaas and another is a Rakhine man U Thein Oo. Today U Thein Oo did the operations of the boat. Although placing 25 people in the small boat is far too heavy for the vessel, U Thein Oo overcrowded the boat and placed all 25 lives at risk.