By Jim Della-Giacoma

October 11, 2013

Jim Della-Giacoma is the Asia Program Director of theInternational Crisis Group. Its report ‘The Dark Side of Transition: Violence against Muslims in Myanmar’ was published on October 1.

By Lawi Weng

The Irrawaddy

October 11, 2013

RANGOON — Muslims hiding out in Rangoon say they are among more than 100 followers of Islam who fled religious violence in Arakan State’s Thandwe Township last week to seek refuge in Burma’s biggest city.

An argument between an Arakanese Buddhist and a Muslim in Thandwe spiraled out of control on Sept. 29 and eventually led to the spread of violence in surrounding villages over the next three days. Five Muslims were killed and more than 100 houses were burned to the ground.

Zaw Moe Win, a Kaman Muslim, was among those who fled Thandwe last week. He told The Irrawaddy that he booked a flight out of the coastal town, opting not to take the cheaper overland route from Thandwe to Rangoon for fear of his safety.

“There are at least 100 of our Muslims who fled from Thandwe and came to Rangoon. It was crowded on the flight the day I flew [Oct. 1],” said Zaw Moe Win.

“I am hiding my whole family here,” said Kyaw Lin, another Kaman Muslim man from Thandwe who also fled to Rangoon. “I am staying at my relatives’ house. All my property remains in Thandwe. I have almost run out of money now.”

However, many Muslims in Thandwe remain in the town, unwilling or unable to pay for a flight or bus ticket elsewhere. Many of those whose houses were razed are living with friends or relatives in the area.

Following the first outbreak of violence in Arakan State in June 2012, several other townships across Burma were similarly plagued by clashes between Buddhists and Muslims. Often the violence has been triggered by rumors of Muslim men allegedly raping Buddhist women. The Thandwe violence, however, reportedly stemmed from an argument between a Buddhist motorcycle taxi driver and a Muslim man.

About 90 percent of the country’s population of 55 million is Buddhist, and Muslims are estimated to comprise some 5 percent.

Rangoon, Burma’s former capital, is a multiethnic melting pot where Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and Hindus have lived side by side for generations.

Most Muslims who fled Thandwe have taken refuge in Rangoon’s “Mingalar Market” neighborhood, where police occasionally crack down on individuals living there illegally. Several dozen people were detained for unauthorized residency in recent months.

Despite the risk of being arrested, Zaw Moe Win said Rangoon offered a less threatening environment than Thandwe.

“I found in Yangon that there is no discrimination against Muslims. The neighborhood where I stay in Yangon, I find that it is all right. They [Buddhists] do not look down on me or cause problems,” said Zaw Moe Win.

“We can sleep and eat very well here. I feel it is very safe to stay in Yangon,” he added.

The proportion of Muslims in Rangoon is larger than across Burma as a whole, as is the case in Thandwe. Zaw Moe Win and Kyaw Lin are not the first to seek refuge in Rangoon, with the city seeing new arrivals with each new inter-communal flare-up over the last 15 months as Muslims leave conflict-torn hometowns and villages for the prospect of a more welcoming day-to-day life.

Anxiety has nonetheless been stoked from time to time among the Muslim community in Rangoon as anti-Muslim violence has broken out in villages outside of the city, including in Okkan Township in late April and last week in Kyaung Gone, Irrawaddy Division, the latter of which was again reportedly sparked by rumors of rape. An informal Muslim neighborhood watch has sprung up in Rangoon, with an organized group of Muslim men posted at night, on alert for any possible threats.

The situation in Thandwe has stabilized, but bus ticket sales back to the town have reportedly been restricted, according to the Yangon Times. The Burmese-language daily reported on Tuesday that fears that the road to Thandwe from Rangoon might be blocked by instigators of violence had prompted the move to reject Muslim bus passengers.

Zaw Moe Win confirmed the restricted sales, having once been denied the overland travel option by a bus ticket sales associate.

“She asked me if I was a Muslim, and I said I was Muslim, and she was afraid to sell a ticket to me,” Zaw Moe Win said.

“It is safe to be in Rangoon, but some rumors of violence happening near Rangoon, this makes me worry sometimes,” said Kyaw Lin, adding that he would return to Thandwe only when he felt is safety was assured.

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

Inter Press Service

October 11, 2013

Bangkok - An exiled leader of the Rohingyas, a persecuted Muslim minority in Myanmar, is raising the alarm from his London office about the fate of his community. He fears “ethnocide to remove all references to the Rohingyas” if the first census in 30 years goes ahead in the Southeast Asian nation.

Nurul Islam, president of the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO), tells IPS in an interview that he is targeting the United Nations and European governments in the campaign. “We want to put pressure on the Myanmar government to count the Rohingyas in the census, revealing the actual figures of their population.”

Similar concerns about this stateless ethnic group living along Myanmar’s western border have been expressed by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The 12-day census to be held by the end of March next year is expected to cost 58.5 million dollars, immigration and population minister Khin Yi confirmed during a mid-September media briefing in Naypidaw, the administrative capital. The Myanmar government has agreed to commit 15 million dollars, while U.N. assistance is expected to cover five million dollars.

Western governments are expected to fill in the rest, including 16 million dollars from Britain and 2.8 million dollars from Australia. There have been further pledges by Norway and Switzerland.

The concerns dogging the 2014 census arise from a slew of discriminatory policies targeting the Rohingyas for decades. Some, such as forced labour, are human rights violations faced by other minorities.

Others have been unique to the Rohingyas – many are denied proper healthcare and schooling, are prevented from moving out of their villages, and are even stopped from marrying because they are not given approval by local authorities. Local leaders say tens of thousands of Rohingya babies have not been registered.

They are not officially identified as one of the country’s 135 recognised ethnic groups. The last headcount in 1983 put the national population at 35.4 million, while the registered population during the previous census in 1973 was 28.9 million. These two censuses, held when the country was under the grip of an oppressive military regime, did not recognize the Rohingyas as part of the population.

Official statements and the local media often refer to the estimated 800,000 Rohingyas as “Bengalis.” By implication the community are considered “outsiders” from neighboring Bangladesh.

“The term ‘Bengali’ has the connotation of being a foreigner,” says Chris Lewa, head of the Arakan Project, an independent research organization chronicling the plight of the Rohingyas. “Institutionalizing the term ‘Bengali’ is therefore far-reaching beyond simply a rejection of the term ‘Rohingya’ and it is a denial of their rights as Myanmar nationals.”

“The census will not affect the Rohingyas’ citizenship status,” Janet Jackson, head of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Myanmar office, told IPS in an interview. “The controversy around this issue must not be allowed to hamper a complete count of the population, and the conduct of the census should not aggravate tensions around the issue.”

UNFPA has received assurances from the government to conduct the census “in line with international census standards, [where] every person will be counted, regardless of citizenship or ethnicity.” Jackson expects the population profile for a country that has an estimated 60 million people to embrace “inclusiveness.”

Such words jar with the reality on the ground since sectarian violence erupted last year between the ethnic Buddhist Arakanese in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar and the Rohingyas.

Attacks on the Rohingyas in June this year and October last year, which killed nearly 200 people and left 140,000 displaced, earned the Rohingyas some sympathy. HRW described them as victims of “ethnic cleansing” in a report released in April this year.

That grim assessment has worsened. The Toronto-based Sentinel Project for Genocide Prevention describes Myanmar as “a textbook case” for a country on the brink of genocide. “The machinery of genocide – the complex systematic process designed to eliminate the Rohingyas – is already operating in Burma [as Myanmar was formerly known] and has carried ethnic cleansing and isolation to its current point.

“Mounting evidence supports allegations that genocide in Burma is currently going on, and may merely be a matter of scale,” revealed the report ‘High Risk of Genocide in Burma’ released by the group in early September. Among the “key indicators of genocidal intent” is the “forced registration of Rohingyas under a ‘foreign’ ethnic identity, thus attempting to provide documentary denial of the existence of the group.”

By Surveil Amina Rasul

Business World Online

October 11, 2013

LAST WEEK, I escaped the turmoil of Zamboanga City to speak at an interfaith conference on “Security, Peace, and Co-existence” in Yangon, Myanmar. Jointly organized by Dr. Chris Seiple (Institute for Global Engagement) and Sitagu Sayadaw (Sitagu World Buddhist Academy), the conference took place in Yangon on October 1 and 2, attended by over a hundred leaders of Myanmar’s five main religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

Highlighting the urgency of the subject matter, fighting again broke out between the Buddhist Rakhine and the Muslim Rohingya peoples, the day before the conference started. Six Muslims were killed and hundreds of houses burned. According to the news, the Rohingya claimed that government troops supported the Rakhine. Buddhism is the dominant faith among the ethnic Bamar (or Burmans), Shan, Rakhine (Arakanese), Mon, Karen, and Chinese. Islam, on the other hand, arrived thru Rakhine -- on the Arakan coast -- by the 9th century, reportedly prior to the establishment of the first Burmese empire in 1055 AD in Bagan State. Recorded history tells of Muslims in Bagan and Rakhine who were traders, settlers, as well as royal advisers and government men. Most of the Muslims would call themselves Rohingya. Today, the Rohingya are predominantly Muslim mostly found in the Rakhine State, where they have become stateless. Their history has become covered in a different historical frame where they are now called Bengali and seen as illegal aliens from Bangladesh.

How did such ethnic and religious violence become rooted in a Buddhist majority community? I have always had a mental image of Buddhists as a pacifist and gentle people, prevented by their faith from killing any living thing -- even a pesky dengue-carrying mosquito. Even during the Saffron Revolution of 2007, when Buddhist monks joined hands with the citizenry to protest the brutal military government, even as troops fired on monks, the image was still one of Buddhist pacifism and self-sacrifice.

Then I met the Buddhist monk Wirathu, labeled on the cover of Time Magazine (July 1, 2013) as the “Face of Buddhist Terror.” Our host organization arranged for us to meet with Wirathu at his academy. In front of the building where we were supposed to meet, two huge, gory tarpaulins with photos of brutally slain monks -- one with his intestines hanging out -- were posted. I was shocked and nauseated by the photos, posted inside a Buddhist academy! No wonder monks have become violent.

Wirathu is the spiritual leader of the 969 Movement, a nationalist Buddhist group opposed to what it sees as Islam’s expansion in Myanmar. He explained to us that 969 is a numeric symbol representing the three Gems of Buddhism: 9 special attributes of the Lord Buddha; 6 special attributes of his Dhamma or Buddhist Teachings; and 9 special attributes of Buddhist Sangha or monks.

I failed to comprehend how a symbol of Buddhism could be associated with hate of another faith. But it has. 969 Movement is now the lead of the anti-Muslim violence in Rakhine State, particularly against the Rohingya.

Wirathu noted that the Muslims, because the men can have four wives, are breeding too fast, a strategy to become the majority faith of Myanmar. In a previous interview, he was reported to have said: “We must keep Myanmar Buddhist.”

He is also reported to have said: “Taking care of our own religion and race is more important than democracy.”

Unfortunately, Wirathu is charismatic -- with his serene face, soft voice, and gentle smile. His message resonates strongly with the Buddhist majority, fearful of the global marketing of Islam, post 9/11, as a religion that condones violence on its way to become the faith of the world.

While at the conference, I received the recent analysis of the Myanmar situation from the International Crisis Group. ICG stated: “Unless there is an effective government response and change in societal attitudes, violence could spread, impacting on Myanmar’s transition as well as its standing in the region and beyond.”

Luckily for Myanmar, there are influential Buddhist monks, such as the Sitagu Sayadaw, who call for leaders of faith to unite and resolve the ethnic divisions among the peoples of Myanmar. Sayadaw is a Burmese term for “royal teacher” or abbot. Sayadaw Ashin Nyanissara is one of the most prominent in Myanmar, who had founded the Sitagu International Buddhist Academy with a branch in the United States, a hospital, and monasteries. While Wirathu hid behind a placid mask, the Sitagu Sayadaw exuded life in full bloom. He was a real person, who laughed and connected to each of us in the delegation on a personal level.

Very charismatic and fluent in English, he has been able to reach out to the international community to, perhaps, neutralize the image of militant monks. His many social projects -- such as the hospital which provides services for free -- show how firmly he believes that Buddhists must be part of the community, and not just be inward looking while in search of nirvana.

Led by the Sitagu Sayadaw,the conference participants unanimously called on government and leaders of faith to work together to address the ethnic and religious conflicts between the Buddhist majority and the Rohingya Muslims.

Echoing the call of the Sayadaw, President U Thein Sein’s message cited the fundamental teachings of all faiths conflicts should be settled with truth, love, kindness and tolerance. The President could not join the influential Sayadaw, proceeding instead to Rakhine State to intervene in the conflict. U Thein Sein reminded that the ethnic conflict and the image of Buddhist Myanmar oppressing the Rohingya tarnishes the image of the nation as well as obstructs the path of reform. The situation hampers the transition of Myanmar to a strong and economically stable democracy, noting that only an”all-inclusive democracy can guarantee long-term progress and peace and stability of a country like Myanmar formed with numerous indigenous people of different races, religions and culture.”

The Myanmar participants of the conference were anxious to preserve the image of Myanmar as the land of gentle people, indigenous groups co-existing in harmony. Myanmar kings of old had welcomed different faiths into the empire, welcoming Islam and allowing the imams to construct mosques hundreds of year ago.

The conference participants agreed to pursue regular and frequent dialogue, particularly at the local level. The conference statement, focused on the urgency of the worsening religious conflict, expressed the belief that “peace and security are the two indispensable factors, to which all faiths contribute, and without which all religion cannot co-exist to prosper.”

Further, the faith leaders stressed that “we cannot co-exist practically without the security of mind. To have the security of mind, efforts should be made to maintain the teaching of all professed faiths. We will strive to find common ground by adopting the concept of unity in diversity.We will endeavour to build bridges of practical cooperation in our multi-religious and multi-ethnic societies for better understanding of other religions and reduction of tension.”

I mused about the similarities and differences between Myanmar’s ethnic conflict and the situation in Zamboanga City. While discrimination between majority and minority is common in both conflicts, Myanmar is enmeshed in a people to people struggle while that of Zamboanga is between an armed ethnic group and the state. I thought: in spite of the severity of the crisis, how much easier it is to resolve the Zamboanga predicament as compared to the Rohingya situation. And counted myself lucky, if that was at all possible.

However, at the end of the day, as I shared during my talk, we are all in the same boat. Whether it is the ASEAN boat, the Myanmar boat, the Mindanao boat. United we sail together; disunited we sink -- still together.

By Al Jazeera
October 11, 2013

As the government signs an agreement with Kachin rebels, we ask if a new political culture is emerging. 

By AFP
October 10, 2013

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei: US Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that Myanmar’s dramatic political reforms were still “incomplete,” a day after the former military-ruled country released dozens more political prisoners.

“I think what is happening in Myanmar is very exciting, but it is incomplete,” Kerry said during a meeting with students in Brunei, where he was later set to meet Myanmar President Thein Sein at a regional summit.

“We have to see that the political transformation continues,” he added. “Our hope is that the democracy will continue to evolve,” Kerry added.

Myanmar on Tuesday freed around 56 political prisoners, following a vow from Thein Sein to release all “prisoners of conscience” by the end of the year.

Kerry will meet with the former general in Brunei to discuss the “next steps in ongoing political reforms in Myanmar,” a US State Department official said.

He was also set to hold bilateral meetings in Brunei with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, and South Korean President Park Geun-Hye, according to the official.

Thein Sein, who took power in March 2011, has earned international plaudits and the removal of most western sanctions for reforms that include freeing hundreds of political prisoners detained under the former junta.

Relations between the US and Myanmar, a long-time ally of China, have improved markedly since the end of decades of harsh military rule.

US President Barack Obama made a historic visit to the fast-changing country in November 2012.

The Southeast Asian nation has undergone a series of reforms in recent years, including the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from long years of house arrest and her election to Parliament in by-elections held last year.

But the military and its political allies remain in control of parliament while religious violence and the continued arrests of activists have tempered optimism about the political reforms.

By Usaid (Muneeb) Siddiqui

PolicyMic

October 10, 2013

A fresh outbreak of violence in the troubled Rakhine state of Myanmar claimed the lives of five Muslims in the town of Thandwe earlier this month. In addition to that, nearly a thousand Buddhist protestors torched nearly 50 homes of belonging to Muslim residents including a neighbourhood mosque.

A general anti-Muslim sentiment has proliferated in post-military Burma. The Rohingya Muslim sect in particular has been at end of extreme violence from the majority Buddhist population of Rakhine. Coupled with the institutionalized discrimination faced by the Rohingya on a daily basis, their place in Burmese society remains precarious at best. Condemnation from around the worldhas been profound, where even the highest Buddhist authority, the Dalai Lama, has called for an immediate end to Muslim bloodshed.

On a more worrisome note, ever since the conflict took precedence on the international stage, the ruling government has espoused a relative silence over the issue, failing to improve the lives of their native Muslim populace. This deliberate aloofness of the Burmese ruling elite is complex. However, with the recent transition to democracy after decades of military rule, the government’s apathy seems to stem from unwillingness to lose growing support amongst the Buddhist majority.

The present conflict between Buddhists and Muslims was started in mid-2012, when over a 100 people were killed in the western state of Rakhine. As a result, thousands were made to flee from their homes, seeking refuge under the auspices of IDP camps.

Since then, numerous episodes of sporadic violence have taken place with casualties almost exclusively on the Muslim side. Human rights organizations continue to criticize the governmentfor their meek response, both politically and physically.

A comprehensive report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) published last week presents a grim picture of the security apparatus in Rakhine. The majority of the police force is comprised of mainly Buddhists, who the ICG states to be “at best unsympathetic to Muslim victims” and “complicit in the violence against them” at worst. Furthermore, the ICG research reveals a lack of police resources in the failure to handle the brewing violence: limited equipment, vehicles and a general incompetence related to “anti-riot techniques” were cited for the poor security arrangement. 

National hero and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s sheepish reaction to the persecution of Muslims has caught most people by surprise. Commentators and analysts alike have accused herfor betraying her principled stances in the past, decrying her silence and opting for political opportunism.

The government’s apathy in the whole crisis seems to arise from being unwilling to compromise its support amongst the overwhelming Buddhist majority. As anti-Muslim sentiment rises in the country, any strict measures taken to control the violence may result in a backlash. This may, though not imminently, lead to some form of interference from the disgruntled military junta.

As elections are not set to take place in 2015, the opposition party nor the ruling establishment are likely to further the cause of Muslims, knowing the backlash they would face from a sizable constituency.

Further complications arise due to the systematic discrimination faced by Muslims. The Rohingya have denied citizenship in the country and are often referred to as “Bengali immigrants”. Today they face a two child policy, a move first enacted during previous military rule, which severely diminishes their reproductive rights, as many analysts has rightly argued. Suu Kyi has lamented the policy yet many in her movement have shown support for the controversial law. 

In the face of international pressure, the Burmese government now fears a growing isolation in the world community. In addition, denunciation from Buddhism’s highest authority has been a welcome development as well. Nevertheless, unless the establishment is willing to let go of crony politics, and address the deeper rooted issues of discrimination, the Muslims of Myanmar can hope for little.

By Jim Gomez and Todd Pitman 

Associated Press
October 9, 2013

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, BRUNEI — Just a few years ago Myanmar was an isolated dictatorship that embarrassed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations with its dismal human rights record. Now it's poised to take over leadership of the 10-nation bloc for the first time — a move critics say may be premature given conflicts at home that have left hundreds dead and hundreds of thousands more displaced.

The appointment of Myanmar to ASEAN's chairmanship is meant to reward the former pariah's transformation since its military junta turned over power to an elected government two years ago, and some are hopeful that putting the spotlight on Myanmar will serve as further incentive for reform.

But Myanmar still has a long way to go. Last week, smoke and flames rose once again from the twisted wreckage of charred Muslim homes and mosques ransacked by machete-wielding Buddhist mobs, this time in Thandwe in western Rakhine state, where five people were killed — one of them a 94-year-old Muslim woman who was too frail to flee.

"From a human rights perspective, the chairmanship is an honor the government hasn't earned," said Matthew Smith, a Myanmar expert who directs the advocacy group Fortify Rights.

"More than 250,000 people have been forcibly displaced from their homes in the last two years, wartime abuses continue, and there is an ongoing campaign of 'ethnic cleansing' of Muslim communities, creating a regional refugee crisis," he said. "None of that spells regional leadership."

Myanmar will be officially appointed head of ASEAN, which aims to promote regional economic development and cooperation, in a handover ceremony in Brunei on Thursday, but it will not take up its duties until Jan. 1.

From time to time, ASEAN had criticized Myanmar, seeing its former heavy-handed military regime as a roadblock to regional progress. But in 1997, when the country formerly known as Burma won admission to ASEAN despite strong opposition from Western nations, the regional bloc cited its intention to encourage positive change.

Myanmar changed little, however, until 2011, when the long-ruling military junta ceded power to a quasi-civilian government led by retired army officers. Few expected a transformation, but President Thein Sein's government surprised the world with a wave of reforms that have liberalized the economic and politics.

Aung San Suu Kyi — the longtime opposition leader who spent most of the last two decades as a prisoner in her own home — is now an elected lawmaker. Hundreds of political prisoners have been freed. A draconian system of media censorship has been abolished. And the government has signed cease-fire deals with most rebel groups.

But much remains to be done. Anti-Muslim violence that began in June 2012 has spread nationwide, displacing nearly 150,000 people with no end in sight. And in the north, fighting between the army and ethnic Kachin rebels grinds on, with more than 100,000 driven from their homes.

ASEAN's sentiment, meanwhile, remains largely the same — it says it is trying to encourage more reform.

"We acknowledge that issues remain ... and we believe that they are working on them to the best of their ability," Philippine presidential spokesman Ricky Carandang said Wednesday in Brunei. "But we also need to recognize the dramatic changes that have taken place in that country and the reforms that have been undertaken by the president of Myanmar."

"The best thing that the international community can do at this point is to encourage them to continue to move in this direction, so we support Myanmar is taking over as chair," he said.

ASEAN has generally maintained a policy of non-interference in members' internal matters, but Carandang said leaders are expected to quietly push Myanmar on the sidelines to take more concrete steps to resolve the violence.

Speaking to a young woman from Myanmar at an ASEAN young leaders' meeting, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said: "What is happening in Myanmar is exciting, but incomplete. We have to see the political transformation continue and our hope is that democracy will continue to evolve."

Tin Oo, a senior leader of Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy party agreed, saying Myanmar has gradually changed. "It is time they become chairman of ASEAN, even though they have difficulties," he said of the government.

In Cambodia, which labors under its own delicate balance of democracy and authoritarianism, at least one analyst thinks the ASEAN leadership role will drive further reforms in Myanmar. Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said that while Myanmar's bureaucracy remains old and inefficient, "the spotlight is probably going to force Burma to reform a bit more."

But Yan Myo, a Yangon-based political analyst, said that since Myanmar's "leaders cannot yet solve their own domestic problems ... it is questionable how (they) can take the regional leadership role."

Myanmar has responded to international concerns so far in at least making the right gestures over human rights, such as freeing political prisoners before Thein Sein makes high-profile visits abroad, said Panitan Wattanayagorn, an international relations specialist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

"But now that the ASEAN leadership has fallen into their laps," he said, "they may think they don't have to do more."

Pitman reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Aye Aye Win in Yangon, Myanmar, Grant Peck in Bangkok, and Eileen Ng in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, also contributed to this report.

By Kyaw Hsu Mon

The Irrawaddy

October 9, 2013

NAYPYIDAW — Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and women political activists have called for better law enforcement after communal violence in west Burma last week left five people dead and hundreds more homeless.

At a forum of women lawmakers in Naypyidaw last Friday, just a couple days after fighting died down near Thandwe in Arakan State, Suu Kyi echoed earlier statements on the need for rule of law.

“If you ask why violence has erupted in the country, I think it is because of fear—our people are insecure,” the 68-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate and lawmaker said. “We need to have rule of law for our society. Our people need to feel safe and secure through rule of law. This is the only way we can do it.”

Clashes between Buddhists and Muslims last week near Thandwe destroyed more than 100 homes, according to state media.

The fighting followed anti-Muslim riots earlier this year in several locations across Burma, as well as communal violence between both religious groups in other parts of Arakan State last year in June and October. The vast majority of victims last year were ethnic Rohingya Muslims, while the many victims in Thandwe last week were Kaman Muslims.

“Buddhism is not violence,” Suu Kyi said at the forum, organized by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) political foundation of Germany to promote women’s leadership. “We must have rule of law.”

Cheery Zahau, an ethnic Chin rights activist at the forum, said she agreed that violence had created a feeling of insecurity in the country.

“People are partaking in violence because they think there is no rule of law. If they know they can be punished, they won’t do that,” she said. “Communal violence in Burma is based on religion, but as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said, Buddhism is not violence, although some people are using it as a tool.”

Kyi Phyu Shin, a central executive member of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party, said it was important to consider the roots of violence.

“We have to consider who is responsible for the violence, to look back and see how the tensions were created,” she said.

She said women could offer counseling in conflict-torn areas to promote peace, but added that such measures would not be enough.

“The thing we need is rule of law,” she said.

By Francis Wade

Al Jazeera

October 9, 2013

Myanmar's president made his first trip to the violence-hit town of Thandwe last week, days after a 94-year-old Muslim woman was slain by Buddhists in a nearby village. Spurred on by an unrelated argument between a Muslim political leader and a Buddhist taxi driver two days prior, a mob approached her home in a nearby village on October 1. Her daughter managed to escape, but returned to find a charred house and a mother with cuts to her neck, head and stomach. 

The state-run New Light of Myanmar later quoted President Thein Sein as saying that he had suspicions about the nature of the Thandwe attacks, where close to 100 houses were razed. "Ethnic Rakhine [Buddhists] and ethnic Kaman [Muslims] have been living here in peaceful co-existence for many years,” he said. "External motives instigated violence and conflicts. According to the evidence in hand, rioters who set fire to the villages are outsiders.” 

For someone who has demonstrated such ineptness at confronting head-on the anti-Muslim violence over the past 16 months, the statement is surprising. In it, he finally appears to acknowledge that organised networks of Buddhist extremists are operating in Myanmar. 

It's something that observers have long suspected: the method and style of attacks in Rakhine state, Mandalay region, Shan state and beyond, have been eerily similar, with small trigger events causing mobs to form quickly and descend on towns en masse, weapons already prepared. In most cases, police have stood by and watched, and often locals at the scene have claimed the mobs are formed of "outsiders". A photograph taken near Thandwe this week shows a truckload of armed men sporting red bandanas,which appears at odds with the idea that these groups are just rabbles of aggrieved local civilians.

Not a new phenomenon

If there is an organised element to this, then it raises the question of who, and why. There's no clear answer, but powerful forces in Myanmar, particularly the military, would benefit from this unrest. On several occasions in the past few decades, violent clashes directed at an ethnic minority group have coincided with political sensitivities in the country: the 1967 anti-Chinese riots, when the military orchestrated attacks on Chinese-owned properties, in part to distract from General Ne Win's damaging mismanagement of the economy; and in 1988, when attacks on Muslims broke out in Taunggyi and Prome as anti-regime protests swept the country. Many at the time believed the military had sought to inflame ethnic tensions in order to split what could have otherwise been a cohesive anti-regime front.

Can this theory be applied to Myanmar today? Thein Sein's democratic reforms will have unnerved the military, which receives more than one-fifth of the total state budget. With moves towards democratic rule, questions are asked of the colossal resources channeled to the armed forces, and whether its position as the patriarch of Myanmar society is still relevant. This week, the military-backed ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party warned that the country would be in "serious danger and face consequences beyond expectation” if the constitution was overhauled. One of the main reasons the opposition has for revising the junta-drafted 2008 constitution would be to dilute the power of the military. 

Societal unrest, whether it be communal tensions or ongoing conflict with ethnic armies, provides a prime opportunity for any military to reassert its waning influence. Already this has worked to surprising effect in a country where ethnic and political divides run deep. Rakhine, who have long resisted military encroachment on their state, now ask for their protection against what they see as an Islamic tide sweeping the state. Prominent members of the pro-democracy movement have said they would join forces with the army to fight off "foreign invaders”, namely the Muslim Rohingya minority. The role of Buddhist monks in advocating violence against Muslims has also taken many by surprise, although monks were also involved in attacks on mosques during anti-Muslim violence in 1997.

Rohingya, an existential threat? 

There's no smoking gun in all this, but the evolution of the conflict that began in Sittwe last June between the people of Rakhine and Rohingya suggests something beyond a localised tussle for ethnic or religious dominance. Importantly, the latest attacks in Thandwe were directed at Kaman Muslims, while the vast majority of the violence to hit Rakhine state since June last year has targeted the Rohingya, who are distinct from the Kaman. While the Kaman had until then lived peacefully in the state, the Rohingya were long seen by Rakhine as illegal Bengali immigrants, and their presence there considered an existential threat to the Buddhist population. Campaigns of violence against the Rohingya were therefore justified in the eyes of many Rakhine as a means of defending the land and preserving Buddhism.

That narrative shifted somewhat when violence broke out in Meiktila in central Myanmar in March this year. Meiktila has a Muslim population, but they are not Rohingya, as is the case in Lashio in Shan state, Oakkan in Yangon division and Hpakant in Kachin state, where subsequent deadly attacks on Muslims took place. Rather than an issue confined to one ethnic minority in western Myanmar, it has escalated to a campaign against Muslims in general.

As Myanmar academic Maung Zarni noted in a recent email, not every bout of inter-ethnic violence is state orchestrated. Genuine local grievances can and do result in fits of rage. But, says Zarni, there is a history of manufactured ethno-religious mobilisation "aimed at destablising the order in Burma since the British time”, something that independence hero General Aung San had warned of following the departure of the colonial power.

Various analysts have tried to rationalise the evolution of this latest anti-Muslim conflict by likening it to a Yugoslavia-style scenario, where ethnic tensions that were bottled for decades burst to the surface following a shift in the style of rule. This has likely played a role in Myanmar, given attempts by successive rulers since independence to undermine the legitimacy of Muslims as "real" countrymen. Fueled on by the rise of social media, the propaganda and provocation can spread like wildfire, so that Meiktila is now not so distant from Sittwe.

But there is something highly suspicious in the commonalities of attacks across the country. On Saturday, a mob gathered outside a police station in Kyaunggon, near Yangon, and demanded they hand over a Muslim man suspected of an attempting to rape a Buddhist girl a month ago. When the police refused, they torched five Muslim homes. A similar situation triggered the Thandwe riots, with police refusing to hand over the Kaman Muslim leader who was arrested in the wake of the argument. 

Same tactics used by the junta?

It's a pattern that has played out across the country, across disparate ethnic states such as the Shan, Kachin and Rakhine. In Kachin state, anti-Muslim violence is a new phenomenon. Yet the only common thread that unites these ethnic groups' nationalism is a resistance to Burmese designs on their states, not Muslims.There are few other obvious synapses that bridge these vast ideological and geographical divides, and across which this anti-Muslim sentiment could pass with such speed. How then has this violent reaction to the presence of Muslims? The anti-Chinese riots of the 1960s and 1970s followed major influxes of Chinese into Myanmar, and were in part a reaction to local fears that jobs were going to immigrants. This pretext for the violence cannot be applied in the same way to Muslims.

It is not beyond reason to suspect that an entity that is able to operate on a nationwide scale (of which there are few in Myanmar) may have a hand in current events. Only two hold this position – the military, and the Sangha, the religious council that administers Buddhist institutions and which, given the historic importance of Buddhism to societal cohesion in Myanmar, has its own vested interests in stemming the growth of the country’s Muslim population. So rather than being particular to Thandwe, Thein Sein was echoing something that victims of anti-Muslim violence elsewhere have said, essentially that there is a seemingly invisible force orchestrating the early stages of these attacks.

Who, exactly, it isn't clear. The popular anti-Muslim 969 movement has been traced back to the religious affairs minister under the former junta, but the wider 969 sentiment is alive and well in government today: even Thein Sein, considered a comparative moderate, has publicly called for the removal of the Rohingya, and considers the 969 doctrine, despite its intrinsic links with the violence, to be a "symbol of peace". Last week, Shwe Mann, the powerful speaker of the Lower House, said: "I appreciate the attempts of the Rakhine people to protect Myanmar," which feeds the narrative that Bengalis are trying to take over the country's westernmost state, and must be repelled.

Consequently, it's not too giant a leap to suggest the government could at least be accommodating whatever forces are mobilising mobs to torch Muslim neighbourhoods. If that's the case, however, why would Thein Sein himself hint at this? Again, there's no clear-cut answer, but what's been a surprise to many observers is the disunity in government, with even the military-appointed MPs not always voting as one bloc. Thein Sein appears to want the country to move forward, but others in his cabinet evidently want to retain the control they had under military rule. 

Some of the tactics seen in the anti-Muslim violence are similar to those used by the junta, with the "outsider" mobs reminiscent of the plain-clothed civilian militias like Swan Arr Shin, which were used so effectively by the generals to stir up violence and confuse allegiances during peaceful protests. Factor in the numerous reports of police inaction, and even instructions not to intervene until well into the second day of violence in Meiktila, and the picture grows murkier.

Rather than being a case of either/or, what may have occurred is a synthesis between two major interests – those of an embattled military-political elite with willing collaborators in the Sangha and in Rakhine political parties, and those of a civilian population indoctrinated to consider Muslims as lesser or non-citizens.

One feeds the other, and together work in perfect harmony: military or political leaders looking for a pretext to reassert control in a rapidly evolving country would see the undercurrent of anti-Muslim attitudes in Myanmar society as a classic divide and rule opportunity - help manufacture a threat, and jump in to save the day. It serves as both a PR coup in the face of domestic criticism of the security state in Myanmar, and helps split and weaken society - again a boon for the military. This tactic certainly has historical precedence in Myanmar, and may well have been reinvigorated by a military that today has much to lose from democratic reform. 

Francis Wade is a Thailand-based freelance journalist and analyst covering Myanmar and Southeast Asia.

Citing the negative impact of the inter-communal clashes in Myanmar’s Rakhine state on children in the region, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today urged all parties to put an end to the violence.

“In the name of Myanmar’s children, now is the time for this violence to end,” said Bertrand Bainvel, UNICEF Representative in Yangon. “Hate messages and inflammatory propaganda just perpetuate the cycle of violence, and it is children who suffer.”

Rakhine state has been the site of inter-communal violence since June 2012, with clashes between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, which eventually led the Government to declare a state of emergency there. Some 75,000 people were uprooted in the first wave of riots and another 36,000 were displaced by a second wave of unrest in October last year.

The latest wave of violence broke out on 29 September in the southern town of Thandwe. Initial reports soon after suggested that the fighting had been brought under control, but later reports stated that hostilities recommenced on 1 October and subsequently spread to Tha Byu Chaing, Pauk Taw, Shwe Hlay and Me Kyun townships. Deaths have been reported, along with the destruction of some 110 homes.

The violence has also caused a new wave of displacement of families and added to the fears of those displaced last year.

“When violence drives people from their homes, children who are displaced and those in the host communities suffer,” said Mr. Bainvel. “Displacement puts children at greater risk of family separation and domestic violence, they miss out on schooling and too frequently they experience physical and emotional damage.”

UNICEF is also concerned that the polarization resulting from ongoing inter-communal violence could stall or put at risk the many important reform processes currently underway in Myanmar, with negative repercussions for all of Myanmar’s children.

“Peace-building and reconciliation activities must be prioritized if Myanmar’s children are to have the future they deserve, and to which they have a right,” Mr. Bainvel said.

Welcoming recent calls for peace, stability and the rule of law and for the arrest of alleged perpetrators of violence, UNICEF called for all perpetrators of violations of the rights of children – particularly those who commit violent acts against children – to be held to account and brought to justice.

Crimes against Burmese Muslims need to stop now, says human rights organization 

Glasgow, UK: A recent wave of attacks and propaganda against the Muslim communities in Burma is a worrying demonstration of how the Burmese government is doing nothing to protect its minority communities from discrimination and violence, a human rights organisation is warning. 

Global Minorities Alliance (GMA), a UK-based organisation which advocates for minority rights across the world, is urging the international community to act now to stop anti-Muslim human rights violations in Burma which has so far caused the displacement of 140,000 people and nearly 250 deaths since it began in Rakhine State in June 2012. 

Last week, Buddhist mobs armed with machetes attacked villages near the coastal town of Thandwe, burning mosques and non-Buddhist homes. The Muslim minority group in the area, known as the Kaman community, had to hide in the forest to escape the violence. Five died and hundreds were displaced. 

Eyewitnesses reported that Kamans in the village of Thabyu Chai were disarmed by local police when they tried to push the extremists out of the village. Many properties in the village were later burnt down, and some of the people hiding in the forest nearby the village said they could see that the security forces aiding the attackers. 

This is the third upsurge of violence in the last three months but it is said to be the most deadly, destructive, widespread and sustained. The military has now moved in to stop the attacks but many are saying it is too late, and the government has been criticised for not acting sooner.

The government has also been criticised for not publicly denouncing the anti-Muslim group known as the 969 Movement, led by Buddhist monk Ashin Wirathu, which preaches that Burma’s Muslims are trying to destroy Buddhism. He has called for Buddhists to boycott Muslim businesses and wants to bring in a law that would prohibit Buddhist women from interfaith marriage. 

It is thought that the attacks in Thandwe were caused by increased tension following Wirathu’s visit to the area, which led to a spread of anti-Muslim propaganda. Measures which could have prevented the violence – such as the imposition of an emergency curfew and the security forces acting to protect Muslims in the area – were not taken, and as such there was nothing in place to protect the community when the gangs attacked. 

The attacks are a further example of the discrimination that Muslim communities in Burma have been subject to for decades. The Rohingya Muslim community in Rakhine State, which were targeted by Buddhist gangs earlier in the year, are seen as illegal immigrants in Burma by many even though they may have lived in the area for generations. 

Whereas Rohingya Muslims are not seen as citizens under the controversial 1982 Citizenship Law of Myanmar, which effectively denies them Burmese citizenship on discriminatory ethnic grounds, this week’s violence has targeted Kamans, a different Muslim minority group who are officially ‘recognised’ by the government as Burmese. This demonstrates how the violence has spread across the country, meaning that no Muslim groups are now safe. 

Dr Nora E. Rowley MD MPH, a physician and public health specialist in the US who has been a human rights advocate for Burma following relief missions to the country, highlights that the problems in Thandwe are part of a concerning anti-Muslim pattern of violence:

“Overall, Burma’s anti-Muslim violence began 16 months ago and the Burmese government still has not taken effective action to stop it. Anti-Muslim violence continues and has spread across the country of Burma because of this national government’s failure to stop it.

“Therefore the international community should immediately take action with the full and unfettered cooperation of the Government of Burma, regional and local governments and national and local security forces.”

Dr Rowley recommends the establishment of an independent international investigation in the upcoming UN General Assembly resolution on Burma, the increase of UN observers on the ground, and the creation of an independent international task force and funding to tackle prejudice and communal violence. 

She also recommends that political parties involved in spreading racist and anti-Muslim information and inciting and/or organising violence should not be eligible for participation in any capacity building or other kind of assistance being given by the international community.

The reasons why the above measures are needed are highlighted by Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist currently living in Germany: 

“In my personal view, they will put most of the Burmese Muslims into the concentration camps in the very near future and the Muslims will become refugees in their own country.”

He anticipates that Muslims in Burma will become more politically, socially and economically vulnerable in the coming months and years; for example, although the violence in Thandwe was started by Buddhist gangs, the authorities are now allegedly arresting the Kaman Muslims instead. Reportedly around a dozen have been arrested since the violence began including a Kaman woman, Daw Khin May Than. Her photo is now being circulated to highlight the Kaman’s plight. 

In response to this escalation, GMA’s International Director or Faith and Dialogue, Shahzad Khan, called for peace, tolerance and interfaith harmony, and vehemently condemned the most recent wave of violence which is putting all Muslims across Burma at risk of further attack:

“Muslim communities in Burma have been subject to direct, indirect and institutional discrimination for decades, since legislation in the 1970s and 1980s effectively rendered the Rohingya community and many other Muslim communities stateless. As well as putting barriers up in terms of accessing education, employment and healthcare, cycles of violence – perpetrated by both the authorities and the wider Burmese population – has led to thousands upon thousands of Muslims having to flee the country to save their lives. 

“The new wave of violence and the hatred being spread through anti-Muslim rhetoric and propaganda are a worrying development, and GMA calls upon the international community to act now to prevent this escalation becoming an attempt at ethnic cleansing.” 

GMA has been campaigning for the rights of Rohingya Muslims since an incident in May 2013 which saw 70 homes burned after a Muslim girl on a bicycle allegedly collided with a Buddhist monk. 

For more information, go to www.globalminorities.co.uk

About Global Minorities Alliance

Formed in 2012, the Global Minorities Alliance is a Glasgow-based human rights organisation, committed to raising the voice of marginalised minority communities around the world.

GMA advocates for the rights of persecuted minorities thorough parliamentary lobby sessions, awareness-raising projects, education, empowerment of women and interfaith work. 

As stated by GMA’s Vice-Chairperson, Shahid Khan, on the organisation’s website www.globalminorities.co.uk: 

“The absence of fairness, transparency, meritocracy and the rule of law in general in some countries leave minorities more vulnerable to abuse as the mighty and influential in these lawless lands take it as their birthright to mistreat minorities as they choose. In some parts of the world the integration of minorities into mainstream society is restricted by design due to the subjugation forced upon them.

“We call for an end to the systematic discrimination of minorities in any shape or form and urge the governments of such countries to push through reforms aimed at providing equal rights to the poor and the disadvantaged sections of their societies.

“No-one can choose where they are born or who they are born to. To be born into a minority community should not mean that you have to live a life where you suffer at the hands of your own countrymen.

“We say enough is enough and call upon the international community and like-minded organizations and individuals across the world to support us in our commitment to help the minority communities across the world.”

GMA reaches out to different faith communities in the UK and abroad to help promote tolerance and peace. Through presentations and seminars and working with likeminded organizations, GMA hopes to make sure every human being is treated with honour, dignity and respect.

The writer of this press release is Claire Fuller, Press Secretary of GMA, who can be reached at info@globalminorities.co.uk

- ends -

Right Is Might

By Zubair Akram

PolicyMic

October 8, 2013

Religious violence in Burma, also known as Myanmar, has become the new breeding ground for sectarian violence. Much of the violence this past week has been instigated by radical Buddhist mobs belonging to the notorious 969 Movement at Rohingya Muslims, which constitute less than 5% of Burma’s total population, and are of Bengali heritage. The 969 Movement is led by Ashin Wirathu, a relatively unknown Buddhist monk who claims to preach nonviolence but actively loathes Muslims, who he sees as part of a malevolent mission to eradicate the country’s Buddhist majority.

Rohingya Muslims face draconian social and economic restrictions, and they are not entitled to full citizenship. Moreover, they are unable to marry individuals outside their faith. Beginning this year, mosques were heavily looted and destroyed, inciting greater animosity between the two groups.

Many Rohingya Muslims have resided in Burma for many generations but some have recently entered Burma from neighboring Bangladesh, the latter of whom have become victims of social deprivation, sectarian violence, and limited economic mobility.

Thein Sein, current President of Burma, favors the departure and resettlement of Rohingya Muslims. He believes they are contributing to the breakdown of stability in Burma in recent times. This demands some type of greater approach with the Burmese government to reach a resolution.

Why the world must act?

The Buddhist-Muslim conflict is a highly critical moment for the international community to form a unified response against such discriminately based violence. Not only should the UN pledge to end all forms of abuses against humanitarian concerns but also actively make Burma accountable for its actions against a minority people. This should entail both a pro-humanitarian and pro-peace effort for regional stability.

The religiously motivated violence is not confined to Burma but also extends beyond its borders mainly in South and Southeast Asia.

Continued violence against the Muslim minority population has deleterious consequences for Buddhists. Muslims from nearby states have retaliated attacks against them in recent months. 

In India, Muslims have sought revenge against the killings of Rohingya Muslims by destroying Buddhist holy sites, in particular where the Buddha is to have attained enlightenment. This adverse reaction by Muslims in India indicates how intertwined the violence in Burma actually is. In Indonesia, Muslims have provided donations to the Rohingya Muslims to preserve their local population. In May, two Indonesian Muslims were apprehended for attempting to blow up Burma’s embassy in Jakarta.

If tit-for-tat episodes such as these continue to occur, there is a greater probability that this might possibly create a greater spillover effect for Southeast Asian countries. The intra-Burmese conflict is ensuing to become a regional conflict that encompasses Muslims and Buddhists throughout this part of the world.

To decrease the volatility of this phenomenon, the U.S., European Union, and Japan, all of which have been providing financial stimulus to Burma ever since its election in 2011 that ended military rule, should hold Burma fully responsible for the ongoing wave of violence. If not, the violence may well seep through and create a more radical environment for regional instability.

Even more so, the UN should send a team to investigate the background of the situation and set parameters for internal stability to coalesce. Tough measures against Burma will lead to greater recognition of this massive human rights concern. This could bring more educational programs that espouse tolerance and anti-defamation policies. 

Furthermore, states that possess sizeable Muslim populations including Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, and Malaysia should foster constructive and meaningful dialogue with the Burmese government to reach an amenable solution. If not, we can expect even larger attacks on both sides and which would both inevitably inadvertently lead to a greater catastrophe for Burma and beyond.