By Bonojit Hussain

ALIRAN

October 17, 2013

It is time for Burma’s pro-democracy movement to speak out against the targeted attacks on the Muslims in that country, says Bonojit Hussain.

Since the summer of 2012 Burma has seen pogroms, massacres, riots of unprecedented scale against religious minorities, the latest being on the 30th April. A few hundreds have been killed and a few hundred thousands have been rendered homeless.

Much has been talked about how it is a ploy by the hardliners in the army and the post-reform government to stall further reforms. It might be true to a large extend, but the silence of the pro-democracy opposition is intriguing. While many from the “pro-democracy” camp has remained either silent or ambivalent; many others have shown that they actually belong to the ranks of fundamentalist who, in the pretext of unfounded “sense of self-victimisation,” are fomenting a near genocidal situation in the country.

The non-sectarian democratic forces within Burma would do a service to the country and to the world, if they can use their hard-earned moral authority to put a stop to the riots from turning into a full blown genocide. It is high time that all of us understand and recognise religious fundamentalism as a social reaction with fascist potentials and it must be unequivocally opposed and confronted.

Everyday incidents turn into riots

On 30 April, in a small town called Okkan, 100 kms away from Rangoon, a Muslim woman on a bicycle bumped into an 11 year old Buddhist monk who dropped his alms- bowl, damaging it. Soon a Buddhist mob gathered and went on a rampage killing at least one person and destroying several mosques and torching Muslim owned poultry farms and houses.

The authorities later detained 18 people allegedly involved in the riot, including the woman who was involved in the accident with the young monk, accusing her of deliberate and malicious acts that insult religion. Rangoon’s Deputy Police Commissioner, Thet Lwin, while admitting that she had bumped on to monk by accident, told Reuters that “According to our practices, we need to send her for trial since she was involved in the root cause of the incident” and that it was up to court to decide her fate.

Since this latest incident of anti-Muslim riots, it has been reported that Muslim villages have erected bamboo fences around their villages and armed themselves with clubs and swords to protect themselves from possible attacks from the neighbouring Buddhist villages.

On 20 March, a Buddhist woman got into an altercation with the Muslim owner of a gold shop over the price of a gold hairpin in Meikhtila town of Mandalay Division. According to reports, during the altercation, the Buddhist woman was slapped by the shop owner and her husband thrashed by the staff working in the shop. Soon a mob gathered and started attacking Muslim-owned businesses nearly destroying most of them. That very evening four Muslim youth killed a Buddhist monk in an alleged act of revenge.

From the late evening of 20 March, much of the Muslim dominated wards of the town were engulfed in flames. In the following five days, a Buddhist mob led systematic pogrom against Muslims which spread to 15 other smaller towns resulting in numerous charred bodies, buildings and mosques. According to official report at least 43 people were killed and several hundreds injured. 13,000 people, in Meikhtila alone, have been forced into refugee camps guarded by para-military troopers.

This round of anti-Muslim riots in March and April are a bloody reprise of last year’s massacre of Rohingya and Kaman Muslims in the western State of Rakhine where, according to official estimates, 110 people were killed and 125,000 people were forced to flee to refugee camps.

State complicity

In the last week of April, the BBC released a video footage of Meikhtila riots in Central Burma where Buddhist monks in saffron robe can be seen leading the murderous mob while police stood by as onlookers. Various reports have also appeared that hints at State complicity, if not direct involvement, in the recent rounds of anti-Muslim riots.

In a report released on 22nd April, Human Rights Watch alleged that the security forces not only collaborated with Buddhist monks but also actively took part in killing Rohingya and Kaman Muslims in Rakhine State last summer. Further, the report pointed out that the massacre was well planned. And even before it started, for months the:

“… Political parties, monks’ associations, and community groups issued numerous anti-Rohingya pamphlets and public statements. Most of the public statements and pamphlets explicitly or implicitly deny the existence of the Rohingya ethnicity, demonise them, and call for their removal from the country, even sometimes using the phrase “ethnic cleansing.” The statements frequently were released in connection with organized meetings and in full view of local, state, and national authorities who raised no concerns.”

The government has denied that security forces indulged in killing Rohingyas and Kamans in Rakhine in 2012, it has also denied that security forces stood by while people were being butchered and buildings were be torched in the Meikhtila riots. Official communiqué has claimed that security forces were overpowered by mobs in terms of their sheer numbers. As has been question by various close observers, these claims defy logic that a security apparatus that has so ‘efficiently’ and brutally suppressed various widespread uprisings during the 40-year military dictatorship, suddenly lost their nerve to be able to control riots. Even though several dozens people have been arrested for the Central Burma anti-Muslims riots of March and April, they have failed to convict the perpetrators, citing lack of evidence – except for three Muslims.

If the State machinery had the will they could have brought the violence under control without much loss of live and material. In fact senior army officers and government officials have been quoted on various occasions since last year expressing unfounded fears that Muslims would force their religion on Buddhists and try to “steal” Buddhist women.

In reference to Rakhine, a senior minister is believed to have said that if “they” are not deterred, the western gate will break (an obvious reference to the border with Bangladesh), and that human rights don’t apply to Muslims. In an infamous episode, drawing comparison between the “dark brown” complexions of the Rohingyas with the “fair and soft” skin colour of the majority of Burmese population, the Burmese Consul General in Hong Kong, U Ye Myint Aung, wrote a letter to local newspapers and other Diplomatic Missions in which he described Rohingyas as “ugly as Ogres”.

Many liberal commentators from among the Burmese Diaspora have located the roots of the anti-Muslim riots in the challenges that the ruling elite face in the post-reform era. A US-based Burmese political scientist argues that “supporting anti-Muslim extremism could help encourage a multi-ethnic conservative alliance among Buddhists and establishment forces. The state media’s embrace of anti-Rohingya propaganda bolsters this idea, and has helped the violence to spread beyond its origin in Rakhine state”.

He elucidates, that in post-reform era where the army has lost some of its power, it faces a big challenge of re-consolidating by integrating former insurgent fighters from the Chin, Karen, Mon and Shan minorities into the forces, all of whom are mostly Buddhist but hold bitter grievances towards the country’s majority ethnic Burmans.

Similarly, he opines, Burma’s top politicians (with ties to the older dictatorial regime) need to assemble a ruling coalition in the Parliament. But “unfortunately” for them, Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD has stronghold in the Burman dominated area. So, creating a common Buddhist enemy, ie; the Muslims, is in the interest of both the army and the politicians (ex-military officers).

These explanations stand some ground, but remain unconvincing on many accounts. It doesn’t take into cognisance the fact that the history of post colonial Burma coincides with the history of the systematic persecution of Muslims. It fails to even mention the indirect and direct role played by various Buddhist monastic associations in the riots. And it absolves Aung San Suu Kyi, other pro-democracy activists and rights activists in Burma of any ethical responsibility.

A history of anti-Muslim riots

The history of anti-Muslim riots in modern Burma goes back to the colonial period, when, out of economic resentment, anti-Muslim (and largely anti-Indian) riots broke out in Rangoon in 1930 and 1938.

However, it was after the coup of 1962 that State-sponsored persecution of Muslims started. General Ne Win and the military junta that replaced him played the religious ultra-nationalist and racist card to manipulate the masses for the entirety of the dictatorial regime. Muslims and other non-Buddhists were barred from the upper echelons of the army and, almost immediately after Ne Win’s coup, he expelled hundreds of thousands of Indians from the country. He also fostered a sense of a Burmese identity strongly linked to Buddhism, which has been the breeding ground for waves of anti-Muslim violence.

The military regime in Burma, since the early days of General Ne Win, has used xenophobic violence as a tool to bolster its own interests and legitimacy, apart from the 1967 anti-Chinese, it has mostly been anti-religious minority in character.

In 1978 Operation Dragon King was launched which resulted in more than 200,000 Rohingyas crossing over to Bangladesh as refugees; in 1982 Rohingyas were disenfranchised under the amended Citizenship Law.

In 1997, the regime, allegedly, used rising anti-Muslim sentiments and incited riots to deflect criticisms of the regime’s pro-China policy (and “State complicit” influx of Chinese nationals into upper Burma).

In 2001, the regime’s own mass front Union Solidarity and Mass Association was accused of inciting anti-Muslim riots in Taungoo.

Worsening situation in post-reform era

However, the authoritarian regime in Burma, was also capable of preventing and controlling riots if it was not necessary for its own advantage. A case in point is the 2003 riots which was brought under control rather swiftly, and U Wirathu (by now an infamous hate spitting Buddhist abbot) was sentenced for 25 years and put behind bars for inciting anti-Muslim riots. (He was released in 2010 in the general amnesty that was granted to prisoners.)

Even though the recent anti-Muslim riots, as has been pointed out by liberal Burmese commentators, indicate a post-reform power struggle within the ruling elite – the hard-line and moderate forces in the Government, nobody has been able to convincingly establish that the riots were directly orchestrated by the government.

However, what is clear is that the recent riots started at a convenient time for the government. After the reforms undertaken by “reformist” President Thein Sein, public protests and strike action at factories have increased many fold. Under Myanmar’s previous military regime, public gatherings were forbidden, unions were outlawed and protesters were imprisoned.

In late 2012, Letpadaung region saw an eruption of massive protest against a controversial expansion of a copper mining project. More than 3,100 hectares of land had been confiscated to make way for the US1bn expansion of the copper mine run by Myanmar Wanbao Mining, a joint venture between the Myanmar military and a subsidiary of a weapons manufacturer, China North Industries (Norinco).

In November, 2012, security forces resorted to tear gas and smoke bombs to disperse the determined protesters who had surrounded the mines for months. For those (in the corridors of power) who wanted to divert attention from the Letpadaung episode, the recent riots were a blessing.

But, what is new about the post-reform riots?

It is no longer simply a state-sponsored project. The State might still try to reap a harvest out of the riots, and its soldiers might even help the mob to kill the “enemy”, but the security forces is no longer in a position to dictate when, where and against whom the riots should take place.

Once the restrictions and censorships loosened in the post-reform period, the progeny of the seeds of xenophobia that was sown into the monasteries, schools and society at large for the benefit of the military regime has turned out to be beyond any authority’s control. The xenophobic campaign now is out in the public and is transnational in character, orchestrated openly on social media websites.

U Wirathu and the 969 campaign

The Human Rights Watch report gives detailed accounts of the role played by Buddhist monastic association in last year’s pogrom in Rakhine state. Various reports from affected areas in this year’s riots in Central Burma have detailed the leading role that monks are playing in the riot (which is corroborated by the video released by BCC in late April).

Burma’s Buddhist monastic order, the Sangha, drew wide spread admiration from the international community for the peaceful pro-democracy uprising against the military regime in 2007. But the same Sangha now finds its reputation put to question by reports of saffron-robed monks playing a lead role in the riots.

While the Sangha vouches by peace as a central tenet of Buddhism, their approaches to the recent riots have been less than consistent. Thitagu, a prominent abbot, in an interview with a Burmese magazine Voice weekly said that “In ethnically diverse Burma, members of different religions should live together like water flowing together”

But in the same interview Thitagu warned that “just like the Buddhist host has warmly welcomed other faiths into the country, the guests should strive to get along with the host. They should not trespass on the host’s goodwill and take over the home”.

However, in the centre of attention is U Wirathu, the abbot of Ma Soe Yein monastery in Mandalay, who heads 25,000 monks in his monastery. U Wirathu, with much pride, has called himself the Bin Laden of Burma.

Early this year he launch the 969 campaign; and claims that the movement draws upon the nine attributes of Buddha, the six attributes of Buddha’s teaching and nine attributes of the Sangha; hence 969. The campaign urges Buddhist not to transact with Muslims economically or socially and to demarcate their houses and properties from Muslims by putting up the emblem of “969”. “969” stickers have made its way to numerous shops, taxis, buses and houses in several towns and cities.

Since the launch of the campaign, in U Wirathu’s own words, the movement has reached far and wide with its formidable stronghold being in Rangoon, Mandalay, Moulmein and Sittwe. DVDs of U Wirathu’s anti-Muslims vitriol are in widespread circulation, his anti-Muslim sermons on Youtube have been watched tens of thousands of times and there are thousands of followers on Facebook.

U Wirathu denies any direct involvement in the recent anti-Muslim riots. However, as for the case of the anti-Rohingya Muslim pogrom, various observers strongly believe that U Wirathu’s anti-Muslim vitriol did play an important role in the recent riots.

Whither the pro-democracy Opposition?

One of the disappointing facts that has emerged during the Rakhine pogrom and recent riots in Central Burma has been the clouded reaction of the pro-democracy opposition. Many, including Aung San Suu Kyi, have remained either silent or ambivalent.

Some other pro-democracy activists have even openly sided the fundamentalist elements responsible for the mayhem. Ko Ko Gyi, a prominent pro-democracy activist who spent years in jail for his lead role in 1988 student uprising, says that Rohingyas are terrorists and is infringing upon Burma’s sovereignty.

Another pro-democracy activist and former political prisoner is quoted as stating that “if western nations really believed in human rights, they would take the Rohingyas from us”.

Thousands of others from the Burmese diaspora in Australia, US, Canada, the UK and other European countries have jumped on to the bandwagon of hatemongering. Yet, many among them, are pro-democracy and human rights activists who escaped during the military regime as refugees to seek asylum in these countries.

Whither Aung San Suu Kyi?

Aung San Suu Kyi, who is seen as an icon of peace and of the quest for democracy the world over, has maintained utmost silence on the anti-Muslim campaigns and killings. Instead of forthrightly condemning the pogrom against Rohingyas last summer, she commented on Radio Free Asia that people should restrain themselves and should not fight among themselves. This, by any standard, is a gross insult to the 110 dead and 125,000 displaced people. In regards to the recent riots in Central Burma, she has called for rule of law.

Talking to The Week, Veteran Swedish journalist and author of several books on Burma, Bertil Lintner points out that “If she condemned the attacks on Muslims many Buddhists – her main constituency – would turn against her. But if she says nothing, she’ll lose credibility in the international community. She appears to have chosen the latter, and, consequently, criticism against her is growing among international human rights organisations and activists. From her point of view, that may be preferable to having domestic opinion, which is fiercely anti-Rohingya, turn against her.”

U Wirathu, the hate-spitting Sayadaw (venerable teacher), in one of his anti-Muslim sermons, urges his followers to be patriotic and to think about long term outcomes and not be lured by shortterm gains.

The non-sectarian democratic voices within Burma urgently need to urge Aung San Suu Kyi to do the same and use her moral authority to put a stop to the riots from turning into a fullblown genocide, lest the country slides back into history by another 50 years.

Bonojit Hussain is a New Delhi–based independent researcher, and an activist with New Socialist Initiative (NSI).

By Robin McDowell

Associated Press

October 17, 2013

YANGON, Myanmar — Three small bombs went off in eastern Myanmar, killing one person and wounding six, the latest in a series of unexplained explosions in a country that had seen few such attacks since an elected government took over two years ago.

The blasts in Namkham, on the northern tip of Shan state, occurred late Wednesday and early Thursday, said a duty officer at the local police station who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

An investigation, he said, is still underway.

Myanmar has been rocked by at least nine bombs in the last week — with low-intensity explosions in Yangon, Mandalay, Taungoo, Sagaing and Namkhan leaving three dead and 10 others wounded.

The most high-profile, at the luxury Traders Hotel in the heart of the commercial capital, injured a 43-year-old American.

"Acts of violence like those perpetrated and attempted over the past week have no place in civilized society," the U.S. Embassy said in a statement.

"We are confident in the people of this country to confront such acts of terror with strength, determination and a continued commitment to national peace, development, and reconciliation."

There have been four arrests, but it remains unclear who is responsible for the explosions. The Myanmar government is still fighting Kachin and other scattered ethnic groups and the country has been struggling with sectarian violence between Buddhists and Muslims.

The first bomb in Namkham went off at around midnight Wednesday in the center of town, but no one was hurt. The second and third followed in quick succession in the same area at around 7:30 a.m. Thursday.

The officer at the local police station said one man was killed in those blasts and six others wounded, none of them critically.

They appeared to be low-intensity devices, causing little damage to nearby structures, he said. "They may have been time bombs, but we don't know for sure."

Small bombings occurred frequently in Myanmar during 50 years of military rule. But they have been rare since the nominally civilian government of President Thein Sein took office in 2011 and started implementing political and economic reforms.

Many activists and rights groups, however, say Myanmar is still far from free and the government is struggling to contain sectarian violence and long-running ethnic insurgencies.

The government says the perpetrators are trying to tarnish the image of the country.

So far at least four suspects have been detained.

Thein Sein's spokesman Ye Htut told Radio Free Asia's Myanmar Service they were providing information to police that could lead to more arrests.

He said it was not yet clear if the suspects held so far were connected to one another.

By Newley Purnell

Quartz

October 16, 2013

Two people have been killed and several wounded in nine small bomb blasts in Myanmar since Friday, including an American tourist who was injured by an improvised explosive device left in the bathroom of her luxury hotel. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have raised new doubts about Myanmar’s stability at a time when foreign investments are pouring in and the country is taking on a major role in regional diplomacy after decades of isolation.

Other blasts hit a market, a bus stop, and a Chinese restaurant around the country’s main city Yangon, along with other explosions in other regions of the country; four unexploded devices have been found, as well. In the highest-profile incident, police said a homemade time bomb exploded on Monday night at one of the city’s most upscale hotels, the 22-story Traders, which is popular with journalists and international business travelers. A 43-year-old American woman was seriously injured; her husband and two small children were not hurt.

A spokesman at the US Embassy in Bangkok told Quartz that he could not offer additional information on the woman’s status out of respect for her privacy. The US Embassy in Rangoon urged Americans to exercise caution in public spaces. Police have arrested a 26 year old man in connection with the Traders hotel bombing and have detained five more suspects, two of whom were linked to an attempted bombing in the central city of Mandalay. It is unclear whether the blasts are all connected; investigations continue.

Small explosions of this sort were more common during Myanmar’s military rule, but have been rare in the last few years. So what’s going on?

The attackers “intentionally attempted to portray Myanmar as not peaceful, just as more tourists, more investors and other important guests arrive,” a director in President Thein Sein’s office told the New York Times.

One possible motive could be to try to derail talks between the government and minority rebel ethnic groups.

Another theory: the bombings could have been undertaken to try to “discredit the current government” and “put the security forces back in charge,” an ex-dissident told the Times.

Myanmar has experienced repeated outbreaks of Buddhist-on-Muslim violence in recent months; a bomb went off near a radical Buddhist monk in July, wounding five disciples.

“I think there could be a connection with some group outside the country,” a Southeast Asian diplomat in Yangon told Reuters.

The timing of this week’s bombings is also notable: Myanmar will host theSoutheast Asian Games in December and is the 2014 chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, known as ASEAN, meaning it will host the group’s annual event next year. ”These devices were obviously not intended to cause large numbers of casualties,” Anthony Davis, an analyst at global security consulting firm IHS-Jane’s, told Reuters. “They were designed to alarm and destabilize.”

Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning opposition leader, urged the country not to overreact: “These are deliberate acts to create panic, but the people should be cautious not to fall into the trap.”

By Nyein Nyein

The Irrawaddy 

October 16, 2013

Six suspects detained in Thandwe Township have confessed to the murder of seven Muslims and 28 suspects are being charged with setting fire dozens of Muslim-owned homes during recent inter-communal violence in southern Arakan State, the Ministry of Home Affairs said.

A total of 78 people were detained following the recent outburst of anti-Muslim violence by Arakanese Buddhists, state-owned newspaper The New Light of Myanmar quoted the ministry as saying on Tuesday.

A local Muslim villager said 21 of the detained were Muslims.

On Sept. 29-Oct. 3, Buddhist mobs attacked seven ethnic Kaman Muslim villages, killing seven villagers, destroying 112 homes and forcing almost 500 Kaman villagers to flee.

“According to the investigations, four suspects confessed to killing two people in Linthi village, two admitted to killing five in [Thapyu Kyain] village and 28 were found guilty of setting fire to houses,” the newspaper wrote.

“Plans are underway to take actions against the 34 suspects in accordance with the law and remaining suspects are under investigation,” the ministry was quoted as saying, adding that it was investigating the identity of “the mastermind” behind the violence.

Five suspects were released this week due to a “lack of evidence,” the ministry also said.

Thandwe Township police Lt-Col Kyaw Tint from Thandwe told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the five were released as “they are not needed in these cases… Regarding the remaining suspects, the Special Cases investigation team is working on it, and I have no authority to talk about it.”

He added that “the security situation on the ground is stable.”

The five released suspects are Arakanese Thandwe residents Win Ko Lay, Htay Aung, Soe Soe, Kyi Naing and unnamed one youth, said a family member of Win Ko Lay, adding that they were detained for about 12 days.

“We did not know under which charges [Win Ko Lay] was detained, there was no explanation,” said the woman, who asked not to be named. “We were able to provide him with food and medicine when he was in Thandwe Prison as he is under medication for high blood pressure.”

The violence coincided with President Thein Sein’s first visit to the troubled Arakan State since inter-communal erupted in June last year, killing almost 200 people and displacing 140,000 civilians, mostly Rohingya Muslims.

Since the visit, the Home Affairs Ministry’s Special Cases team has become involved in the investigation into the unrest in Thandwe. Shortly after the first violence, two Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP) members were arrested, along with two members of a local nationalist Buddhist civil society organization.

The RNDP and local Buddhist leaders in northern Arakan State have been accused by the US-based Human Rights Watch of organizing the anti-Muslim violence last year, with tacit support from government forces who are viewed as being sympathetic to Buddhist perpetrators.

Kaman Muslim villagers have complained that security forces did little to protect them and stop the recent mob attacks in Thandwe Township.

Kyaw Zwa Oo, a Kaman man from Pauktaw village told the Irrawaddy on Tuesday, that villagers were given safety assurances by the high-level officials following Thein Sein’s visit.

He said the Kaman, nonetheless, were feared returning to their villages, where they were attacked.

“The authorities, including the ministers, told us not to worry and that they will take care of those who committed the crimes,” Kyaw Zaw Oo said. “But, there are still rumors going around and we are living in fear.”

In Pauktaw village, he said, 36 houses where about 150 people lived were burned down, adding that authorities had provided about US$100 per family to support the reconstruction of their homes.

According to Kyaw Zwa Oo, several Kaman villagers were also arrested for their suspected role in the violence.

“As far as I know 21 Kaman are among the suspects, and heard that their trail will begin in October 18,” he said, adding that one suspect had been arrested in Pauktaw, 12 Linthi and eight in Thapyu Kyain village.

By Associated Press

October 16, 2013

MAUNGDAW, Myanmar — The 10-year-old struggles up the hill, carrying buckets filled with rocks. Though he tries to keep a brave face in front of his friends, his eyes brim with tears. Every inch of his body aches, he says, and he feels sick and dizzy from the weight.

“I hate it,” whispers Anwar Sardad. He has to help support his family, but he wishes there was a way other than working for the government construction agency.

The Muslim ethnic group has long suffered from discrimination that rights groups call among the worst in the world. But here in northern Rakhine state, home to 80 percent of the country’s 1 million Rohingya, it is more difficult now for children to get adequate education, food or medical care than it had been in the days of the junta. They have few options beyond hard labor, for a dollar a day.

The Associated Press’ visit to the area was a first for foreign reporters. Local officials responded with deep suspicion, bristling when Rohingya were interviewed. Police meetings were called, journalists were followed and people were intimidated after being interviewed, including children.

In a country torn by ethnic violence over the last 15 months, this is the one region where Muslim mobs killed Buddhists, rather than the other way around. And although only 10 of the 240 deaths occurred here, this is the only region where an entire population has been punished, through travel restrictions and other exclusionary policies.

Muslim schools known as madrassas have been shut down, leading to crowding in government schools, where Rohingya, who make up 90 percent of the population in this corner of the country, are taught by Buddhist teachers in a language many don’t understand.

In the village of Ba Gone Nar, where a monk was killed in last year’s violence, enrollment at a small public school has soared to 1,250. Kids ranging from preschoolers to eighth-graders are crammed so tightly on the floor it’s nearly impossible to walk between them.

“Our teachers write a lot of things on the blackboard, but don’t teach us how to read them,” says 8-year-old Anwar Sjak. “It’s very difficult to learn anything in this school.”

There are only 11 government-appointed teachers — one for every 114 students. On a day reporters visit, they fail to show up — a common occurrence.

Rohingya volunteers try to maintain order. One man circles the room with a rattan cane, silencing the chatter by whacking the trash-strewn concrete floor.

Few kids have chairs or desks. Many are coughing. Others talk among themselves, flipping through empty notebooks. They look up at newcomers with dazed stares.

“If I could be anything, I’d be doctor when I grow up,” Anwar says. “Because whenever someone in my family gets sick and we go to the hospital, the staff never takes care of us. I feel so bad about that.

“But I know that will never happen,” the third-grader adds. “The government wouldn’t allow it.”

Rohingya are not allowed to study medicine in Myanmar. There are no universities in northern Rakhine, and Rohingya there have been barred from leaving the area for more than a decade. An exception that allowed a few Rohingya to study in Sittwe, the state capital, ended after last year’s bloodshed.

“They don’t want to teach us,” says Soyed Alum, a 25-year-old from the coastal village of Myinn Hlut who holds private classes in his home for Rohingya kids.

“They call us ‘kalar’ (a derogatory word for Muslim). They say, ‘You’re not even citizens. . Why do you need an education?’”

Every year, thousands of Rohingya flee northern Rakhine and take perilous sea journeys in hopes of finding refuge in other countries. Because of the recent sectarian violence, in which 250,000 people, mostly Rohingya, were driven from their homes, rights workers anticipate that one of the biggest exoduses ever will begin as soon as the monsoon season ends this month and seas in the region calm.

Some historians say Rohingyas have been in northern Rakhine for centuries, though some living there now migrated from neighboring Bangladesh more recently. All are denied citizenship, rendering them stateless.

“They are all illegal,” state advocate general Hla Thein says flatly.

They remain barred from becoming citizens, or from working in civil-service jobs. No Rohingya birth certificates have been handed out since the mid-1990s. Rohingya children are “blacklisted” — denied even basic services — if their parents are not officially married or previously reached a two-child limit that is imposed only on their ethnic group.

The official neglect commonly stretches into hatred.

A government minder assigned by the central government to facilitate the AP’s trip asks why they are so eager to interview “dogs.”

When young Rohingya girls peer into the open windows of the crew’s vehicle, the minder bitterly mumbles crude sexual insults at them.

One thing the government does offer Rohingya kids is work, even if they are as young as 10. The Ministry of Construction, one of the bigger employers, offers them 1,000 kyat — a dollar — for eight hours of collecting and carrying rocks under the tropical sun.

Early in the morning, giant pickup trucks swing by villages to pick up dozens of sleepy-eyed boys — all of them Rohingya — and deliver them to riverbeds.

“See? They want to work,” says U Hla Moe, the administrator of Lay Maing.

Later that day, he will summon children who were interviewed by reporters into his office — for the AP’s security, he says. The children say he frightens them as he demands to know the questions they were asked and their answers.

Among the kids called in is Anwar Sardad, the 10-year-old stone carrier.

From 8 a.m. until dusk, he works alongside his twin brother and five or six other boys from their village, scooping up river rocks and briskly carrying them up a hill. They look more like little men than boys: No smiles. Each step sturdy and determined. Not an ounce of energy wasted.

Anwar is exhausted but works fast. He even stops to help friends when they struggle with their buckets.

Though the work is grueling, it will help the children and their families eat. The region has some of the country’s highest chronic malnutrition rates, according to a report released last year by the European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Department. That deprivation severely affects mental and physical development.

The work of humanitarian organizations has been greatly limited in northern Rakhine. A lack of vaccination coverage in the neglected area means they are exposed to almost every preventable childhood disease, says Vickie Hawkins, the deputy head of mission in Myanmar for Doctors Without Borders, which has worked in the area for 15 years.

If Rohingya children get critically ill, they might never make it to a hospital, either because their families cannot afford bribes demanded at checkpoints or because of the Sittwe travel ban.

Mohamad Toyoob, a 10-year-old Rohingya, has received medical care, but not the surgery that doctors have recommended.

He lifts up his shirt, pressing on the right side of his stomach, where he has felt sharp pain for the past three years. “I don’t know what’s wrong,” he says. “It feels like there is something inside.”

One diagnosis among the stack he has saved says “abdominal mass,” followed by a series of question marks.

The doctors Mohamad saw at a limited-capacity public hospital are unable to perform the potentially life-saving surgery they recommended. To get it, he would have to go to Sittwe, which is off-limits, or Bangladesh. The latter is possible, if his family pays hefty bribes, but he may not be able to get back home.

Money is another obstacle: His family can’t even afford his medication, let alone surgery.

He digs into a pocket and pulls out two little plastic bags filled with red, pink, yellow and light blue pills. They cost 200 kyat (20 cents) per day.

To get the money, Mohamad works with other village kids at the riverbank, struggling to lift rocks. Sometimes it makes the pain worse.

“My father lost his job after the violence,” he says. “When he was working, we could afford it. But now we have nothing.

“I have to take care of myself.”

AP EDITOR’S NOTE — This story is part of “Portraits of Change,” a yearlong series by The Associated Press examining how the opening of Myanmar after decades of military rule is — and is not — changing life in the long-isolated Southeast Asian country.

RB News 

October 15, 2013 

Maungdaw, Arakan – Maungdaw District Administrator Aung Myint Soe, threatened Rohingya Muslims in Maungdaw that the authorities will shoot anyone who tries to perform congregational Eid prayer in Maungdaw on October 16, 2013. 

Village administrators in Maungdaw Township need to attend the regular meeting at Maungdaw Township administrator office twice every month. Every 1st and 16th of the month. In the meetings, Maungdaw District Adminstrator Aung Myint Soe, Township Administator, the heads of regional authorities and other departmental heads used to attend. The meeting held yesterday instead of on 16th for it to happen before Eid. In yesterdays meeting, District Administrator Aung Myint Soe threatened very rudely that they will take very serious action against any people who try to perform congregational Eid prayer. 

“District Administrator Aung Myint Soe said in the meeting “You Bengalis can’t do anything here as you wish. You can’t pray on Eid day. We will take serious action if you prayed. We will shoot you. You Bengalis came here just recently. You are not citizens. You can’t also become citizens. You have to go back your original place,” He was very rude. Other officers are not rude like him. They are at least polite whenever they talk to us. But this District Administrator Aung Myint Soe is always using bad words in the meeting.” a Rohingya from Maungdaw told RB News. 

“He continued “Don’t think anyone will be able to save you Bengalis. Tell your OIC, Ban Ki-moon, Obama and any NGO can’t save you. You have to stay here as slaves. You have to pay penalties for the Rakhine houses those have been burnt. You guests can’t move freely and live here as hosts. You must remember all of these.” Although he is a district administrator, he is very rude. So how can he respect him? He is destroying the peace and stability in the region.” the local Rohingya added. 

Although the Rohingya residents in Maungdaw were expecting to celebrate Eid day, they are now very upset and sad for being threatened by the district administrator.

By Roger Mitton

The Phnom Penh Post

October 14, 2013

During a recent trip to Mawlamyine, one of Myanmar’s most pleasant cities, it was a shock to discover how many shops and cafes displayed a 969 sign near the entrance.

The little circular sticker, whose three digits allegedly signify aspects of Buddhist philosophy, indicates that Muslims are not welcome.

When queried about it, one restaurant owner explained that it was just a reflection of patriotic sentiment.

When pressed about what banning fellow citizens who happen to be Muslim had to do with patriotism, he frowned and said it was just better “because they have their own places and we don’t like to mix with them”.

In fact, most Myanmar Buddhists, who form three quarters of the population and hold all key posts in government and business, loathe their Muslim compatriots with a passion.

It is a murderous passion that condones burning property, raping girls and beating up Muslim men, women and children – and not only feeling no shame, but actually boasting about it.

That is the awful reality of modern day “reformist” Myanmar.

In a Yangon taxi, the driver, a rare Muslim who retained his beard, skull cap and long shirt outside his longyi, told me: “This is a bad place now. We are all scared.”

He said fellow Muslims have formed watch groups and are preparing to fight back if they are attacked again, as they were not long ago in Meiktila, Lashio, Yangon, and of course Rakhine State.

“We have to defend ourselves,” he said. “The police do nothing. They just stand and watch.”

Even worse than the behaviour of the security forces is the response of the nation’s political leaders, who have done little else than make anodyne comments of concern.

In volatile Rakhine State last week, President Thein Sein said: “It is important not to have more riots while we are working very hard to recover the losses we had because of previous violent incidents.”

Well, yes, but far more important is for his government to take robust action against bigots like the anti-Muslim cleric Wirathu, by delegitimising hate speech that masquerades as cultural nationalism.

In doing so, he must be supported by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose own condemnations of anti-Muslim pogroms have been shamefully muted.

As the International Crisis Group noted earlier this month, unless all Myanmar’s politicians unite and push for a fundamental change in social attitudes, anti-Muslim violence will probably escalate.

The ICG report, which blamed the racist purges on reduced military control and endemic intolerance by the majority Barman Buddhists, pointed out that continued anti-Islamic riots will have regional repercussions.

Already, Myanmar nationals working in Malaysia have been murdered in reprisal attacks and there have been threats of a global jihad against Myanmar.

That is why fellow ASEAN leaders must press Thein Sein and Suu Kyi to get their act together – or else this year’s Southeast Asian Games and next year’s hosting of the group’s annual summit may be jeopardised.

Said Jim Della-Giacoma, ICG Asia Programme Director: “Those who spread messages of intolerance and hatred must not go unchallenged. Otherwise, this issue may come to define the new Myanmar.”

Instead of repeatedly stressing that the constitution must be amended to allow her to run for president in 2015, Suu Kyi should concentrate on preserving racial harmony at home.

Yet during her recent visit to Eastern Europe, she repeated that it was not up to her to stop the anti-Muslim sectarian attacks. “It’s not something that I could learn to do,” she said in Warsaw.

The comment was shocking. Imagine Nelson Mandela or Lech Walesa, confronted with ethnic genocide, standing back and saying they cannot learn how to stop the killings.

No, what can, and must, be done immediately is to outlaw the display of 969 signs and put Wirathu and his ilk in jail. That would send a signal that might nip this evil in the bud once and for all.

By Simon Roughneen 

The Irrawaddy

October 14, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR — Australia’s clampdown on refugees and migrants trying to reach the country’s shores by boat has prompted uncertainty among Rohingya who, facing state oppression and attacks by Arakanese Buddhists, have fled Burma in the tens of thousands in recent years.

Since Australia’s now-ousted Labor government decided in July to prevent refugees traveling by sea from landing in Australia—saying that would-be arrivals would be taken to processing centers in neighboring Nauru and Papua New Guinea (PNG)—some Rohingya who had hopes of making it to Australia are now in a bind.

“We are disappointed, we feel like we are stuck,” said Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani, president of the Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organization Malaysia (MERHOM). “Many of us do not have papers here [in Malaysia] and we have no status in Burma. It is a difficult situation for anyone who hoped to travel to Australia,” Ahmad told The Irrawaddy.

Thousands of Rohingya refugees undertake a treacherous maritime journey from western Burma to Thailand or Malaysia. From there some in turn hope to reach Australia, usually attempting another dangerous maritime crossing through the Indian Ocean.

Between 25,000-30,000 Rohingya are estimated to have fled Burma since June 2012, when clashes between Arakanese Buddhists and Muslims in Arakan State turned deadly, with the Rohingya making up the majority of those displaced by violence in the region. Burma is home to an estimated five million Muslims in all, comprising groups such as the Kaman, who unlike the Rohingya, are recognized by the Burma government.

However, Canberra’s tightening-up on sea arrivals has dampened interest in sailing to Australia among Rohingya in Malaysia, who are estimated to number between 30,000 to 40,000 in all, counting just over 30,000 registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and others unlisted. “The new Australia policy of resettlement to PNG and Nauru has definitely cooled down the Rohingya about taking the risk,” said Chris Lewa, head of the Arakan Project, which documents living conditions for Rohingya in Burma and beyond.

Rohingya arrivals to Australia are difficult to quantify, as those who do make it are listed as “stateless” by Australia, while some others who arrived in Australia over recent years claimed to be Rohingya but were assessed by Australia to be either Bangladeshi nationals or Burmese Muslims, according to Chris Lewa.

Australian government statistics—covering the years from 1998 to 2012—list 2,204 stateless maritime arrivals to Australia, a cohort that includes Kurds, Palestinians and Rohingya. Migrant arrivals by boat to Australia have shot up in recent years, from 6,535 passengers landing onboard 134 vessels in 2010 to 17,202 arrivals on 278 boats last year, according to Australia’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection.

In Australia’s recent national elections, parties competed to offer the most stringent regulations on maritime arrivals. One reason given by Australia is that the boats reaching Australian shores are too often run by people smugglers who extort a high price from their passengers, most of whom travel from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Sri Lanka and some of whom are assessed by Australia to be economic migrants rather than refugees.

“Don’t risk your life or waste your time or money by paying people smugglers. If you pay a people smuggler you are buying a ticket to another country,” reads a notice on the website of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.

A voter backlash against the arrival of over 40,000 asylum seekers since 2007, when policy was relaxed for a time, prompted both of Australia’s main parties to suggest tighter controls. But critics say Australia’s “offshore processing”—referring to the assessing of asylum claims in PNG and Nauru—of maritime arrivals is contrary to the country’s moral obligations. Additional measures aimed at dissuading maritime refugee arrivals, which have been proposed by new Prime Minister Tony Abbott, could contravene Australia’s obligations under international law, according to human rights groups.

Indonesia is a common transit point for refugees trying to reach Australia, Rohingya included. At least 28 Middle Eastern migrants drowned when a boat, which was aiming to reach Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, sank off Indonesia in late September.

That tragedy came just before Abbott visited Indonesia, which like Malaysia and Thailand—two other common destinations or transit points for Rohingya—is not a signatory to the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.

In June this year a group of 99 “boat people,” including some 73 Rohingya, sought to sail to Australia but were forced ashore at East Timor by engine trouble, after which they were taken to Indonesia, where they remain at a detention center in Makassar on the island of Sulawesi.

Some from the group have tried to escape, citing cramped conditions, with 15 people staying in rooms measuring 18 feet by 40 feet, according to an account by Rafi Zaw Win, a Rohingya in the center.

“Please help us to safety to Australia and or to any resettlement country where we would be able to continue our lives for safety,” implored Rafi Zaw Win.

By Robin McDowell

Associated Press

October 14, 2013

YANGON, Myanmar — An explosion struck one of the most prestigious hotels in Myanmar's main city just before midnight on Monday, ripping apart a guest room and wounding one American — the latest in a series of unexplained blasts to hit the Southeast Asian country.

It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion at the 22-story Trader's Hotel in downtown Yangon. But the incident came after unidentified assailants planted several homemade bombs across the country in recent days, reportedly killing two people outside the city and injuring three others in Yangon on Sunday.

There was no visible damage to exterior of the hotel early Tuesday, but the explosion shattered part of one room on the ninth floor of the building, leaving shredded toilet paper, towels and a red purse scattered across the room's entranceway beside a broken wooden wardrobe door that had collapsed.

A 43-year-old American woman was slightly injured and taken to a Yangon hospital, according to a police officer on the scene who declined to be named because he was unauthorized to speak about the incident. He said the blast occurred in or near the room's bathroom, and the woman's husband and two children were unhurt.

An American Embassy official confirmed that one American was injured and taken to a Yangon hospital, but gave no other details and declined to say whether the explosion was caused by a bomb.

A dozen police and soldiers with a sniffer dog entered the hotel. Later, many of them crowded into the destroyed room to inspect the damage. The room was blocked off with security tape, shards of glass littered the road outside.

Traders' general manager Phillip Couvaras said in a statement that the hotel was working with authorities to investigate what happened.

But "because this is an active police investigation we cannot comment further at this time," he said. "The safety of our guests and staff are our highest priority and we are obviously monitoring the situation."

Small explosions occurred frequently when Myanmar was under 50 years of military rule, most often blamed on anti-government student activists or armed ethnic insurgent groups. But such incidents have become rare in recent years.

Myanmar has undergone rapid change since 2011, when the former army junta ceded power to a quasi-civilian government led by retired military officers. Since then, President Thein Sein has embarked upon a series of major reforms, liberalizing the economy and the political sphere, easing censorship and freeing political prisoners.

But many activists and rights groups have complained that country is still far from free, and dissent is frequently stifled. Thein Sein's government has also struggled both to end a civil war with ethnic Kachin rebels in the north, and curb a rising wave of anti-Muslim violence that has killed hundreds of minority Muslims and displaced nearly 150,000 more in the predominantly Buddhist country since last year.

No one claimed responsibility for the recent blasts to hit the country, which came as the country prepares to host the Southeast Asian Games in December.

The first bomb reportedly went off Friday at a guesthouse in Taungoo, a town 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Yangon, according to the independent media outlet, the Democratic Voice of Burma. It said two people were killed, but those casualties could not immediately be confirmed.

On Sunday, two other homemade bombs went off in Yangon. One of the bombs, attached to the bottom of a truck parked outside a market on Yangon's eastern side, wounded three civilians, according to a statement posted on Myanmar's police Facebook page.

Another homemade bomb exploded one at a bus stop in the west of the city, but no casualties were reported in that blast, police said.

Police called on the public to be vigilant and report any suspicious packages found at bus or train stations, or at the seaport.

___

Associated Press writers Esther Htusan and Todd Pitman contributed to this report.

RB News 

October 14, 2013 

Buthidaung, Arakan – Township Administrator of Buthidaung Township in Arakan State warned Rohingya Muslims in Buthidaung that they must not pray the Congregational Eid Prayer on Eid day. The authorities will take serious action if more than five people gathered.

Today Buthidaung Township Administrator Than Shwe held a meeting with 85 village tract administrators and some local elders at Township Administration office. He told them that the Muslims in Buthidaung are not allowed to pray congregational prayer for Eid day at any mosque and madarassa (religious school). He added that they will take serious action if more than five people gathered. 

District Administrator and Township Administrators in Maungdaw District ordered in writing to custodians of mosques not to open mosques. They must keep doors locked. 

Curfew section 144 in Northern Arakan State is just for the Muslims. Buddhists can gather more than 500 people at monasteries at any time and they are allowed to do anything. The curfew section 144 is there to oppress the Muslims only and is legal act to discriminate the Muslims religiously. 

According to locals in Buthidaung the Township Administrator Than Shwe is the worst administrator in Arakan State. He secretly engages with Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP) as an executive member. He has earned more than 200 million Kyats by torturing and extorting Rohingyas in the region. Although the locals sent complaint letters to the President Thein Sein, State Chief Minister Hla Maung Tin and the MPs against him, no any action has been taken. The local people are suffering more, day by day.

Zeya Aung contributed in reporting.

Richard Potter

RB Opinion

October 13, 2013

All people actively participating in their governments, however they disagree with them, know too, almost instinctively, that their disagreements are protected by the institutions that they mean to challenge. The bodies they want to change are made of the people they belong to, the communities they raise their children in. 

It's a luxury. A luxury I have. In my greatest anger, sometimes I’m reminded to be humble. To be grateful. I'm reminded by my betters, of whom are countless. I'm reminded that I am already a part of the things that I want to change. 

I write this not to explain suffering to the people who live through it, but in hopes to remind those who enjoy and continue to enjoy their freedoms of those completely denied any. 

On August 15 Than Shwe was arrested after being beaten in his home by police in front of his wife and daughter. He was charged in connection to a protest that resulted in the death of one and injury of ten. Than Shwe was scheduled to appear before court on these charges on October 4th but the date was postponed to the 9th and 14th of this month. His fate remains uncertain. The fate of his wife and baby daughter are tethered to his. How long he remains incarcerated is how long they will have to find ways to survive without him, how long his daughter will grow up without knowing the touch and kindness of her father. 

What lies under the surface of this is what is most unsettling and most emblematic of the hollow nature of supposed political reform for the ethnic and religious minorities living in Myanmar. The riots that Than Shwe was charged in connection with were in reality, a crowd demanding back the body of a young Rohingya who had died under mysterious circumstances. All the injuries sustained were from police firing live rounds into the crowd. What were Than Shwe's connection to these events? Posting pictures of what happened on social media. Not hiding his face when stating his opinion, a beacon eclipsed by the junta before anyone was could see it. 

Similarly and more prominently, Rohingya lawyer and activist U Kyaw Hla Aung was detained on July 15th and charged shortly after for rioting and inciting protests within Rohingya IDP camps. What U Kyaw Hla Aung had in fact inspired was hope that humanity and reason could peacefully overcome an antiquated cruelty. The day of his arrest fell on the same day Myanmar President, U Thein Sein, announced on his visit to Europe that a major aspect of democrat reforms in Myanmar would include the release of all political prisoners. Thein Sein did not clarify that this reform may not pertain to ethnic and religious minorities, but the events on the ground that day proved sufficiently the hollowness of his word and the limitations of his reform. 

U Kyaw Hla Aung's case has garnered significant global attention. Appeals for his case have been taken by international humanitarian organizations including Amnesty International and Frontline Defenders. Where the easy narrative of ethnic and sectarian strife can pass by many without a second glance the world is increasingly taking notice. The men who were supposed to be forgotten are becoming increasingly exalted. 

Than Shwe and U Kyaw Hla Aung are two of many in Arakan, whom without representation, without government in the world, raised their voices to say “this is what's happening here” and the government responded without hesitation to bring silence to them. For every spark of courage, for every flicker of hope, always comes the foot to snuff it out, the greater the beacon one man creates for the rest. So too is the harshness he brings down upon himself. Effectively hope, if only hope, that the world will learn of the suffering of the Rohingya has been outlawed. Yet still the inspiration one man inspires in another will always remain indestructible. And yet. And yet.

Born To Suffer

Sindhi Khan

RB Poem

October 13, 2013

“What dog of Human Right.
O say, what is that thing called right,
We, Rohingyas, are unknown of the basic rights.
We are treated by kick and fist.”

“We are wondering at midnight,
Without any light.
Before the years of thirty-first,
we feel everything called right.”

“We are losing at present,
everything known as right.
Because of no one to hear our cry,
we have to die in broad daylight without any fight.”

“O say, what is the thing called right,
as well as might.
How can we be strong and fit
and how we will regain our right.”

By Sumit Ganguly

Deccan Chronicle
October 13, 2013

Early this month the International Crisis Group (ICG), a highly respected Brussels-based non-governmental organisation, issued a report on the growth of anti-Muslim and anti-minority sentiment in Burma.

Much of the violence, ironically, stems from Buddhist monks who are scapegoating hapless minorities. The report, intriguingly enough, blamed the bigotry and violence on the years of “frustration and anger built up under years of authoritarianism…”

This explanation, though seemingly attractive and plausible, is a bit too facile. Do we really know that this form of bigotry had been festering all along and the fitful steps toward a more democratic order has suddenly unleashed these lurking passions and deep-seated hatreds? Similar arguments were also made in the wake of the break-up of Yugoslavia and the unleashing of ethnic hatred and fury in the Balkans.

There is little question that the Buddhist monks — who have been implicated in the violence that consumed over a thousand lives in Rakhine state — are engaged in a form of ethnic scapegoating of the Muslim minorities. They have also managed to wrap themselves in the mantle of religious legitimacy and Burmese nationalism.

However, the evidence is inadequate to conclude that this form of ethnic discord and violence is the result of long pent-up anger and frustration, which is now bursting forth.

Instead, as two American political scientists, Jack Snyder and Edward Mansfield, had argued some years ago that rapid democratisation in plural societies from years of colonial rule may well provide opportunities for unscrupulous ethnic entrepreneurs to stoke crude nationalist sentiments, promote ethnic discord and provoke violence.

They can usually get away with these forms of execrable behaviour because of what Snyder and Mansfield referred to as incomplete democratisation.

This concept requires some explication. Simply stated it means that while the repressive institutions of authoritarian rule may have weakened, they have not been replaced with others that provide a framework for the operations of a working democracy.

Accordingly, while press freedoms may emerge, the media may not have become imbued with the norms of fair reporting and avoidance of rank sensationalism. It may have few internal restraints on the use of inflammatory language when dealing with and reporting on potentially fraught subjects.

In the absence of robust norms that guide and undergird a free press, politicians seeking to deflect attention from crucial questions of public policy (as well as policy failures) may well exploit the new openness to castigate, denigrate or otherwise malign political opponents.

They may also seek to exploit existing ethnic cleavages thereby creating conducive conditions for spawning political violence.

Of course, the newly enfranchised press may lack suitable norms of neutrality in reportage. However, more dangerously, critical organs of the state, especially its coercive apparatus may also come under the sway of ethnic activists.

Here the ICG report has indeed highlighted the fact the much of the police, in various parts of the country, have proven to be quite partisan when faced with anti-minority violence. They have shown a marked disinclination to restrain the Buddhist monks and have not displayed much concern about attacks on minority populations.

In a functioning democracy, with well-established norms of police neutrality, they would have been expected to stand as a force that would, at a bare minimum, seek to provide some protection to ill-fated minority groups from the depredations of religious zealots.

Sadly, they have failed to do so on more than one occasion despite President Thein Sien’s professed commitment to a policy of “zero tolerance” of attacks on minorities.

Burma’s limited transition to democracy must be lauded. Obviously, it would be callous to suggest that a return to authoritarianism is in order to ensure that ethnic discord and violence does not wrack Burma.

However, the evidence that Snyder and Mansfield have gathered on the basis of their theoretical argument as well as large-scale analysis underscores the vital importance of building and nurturing certain key institutions that can help avoid some of the potential pitfalls on the pathway toward the creation of a viable democratic state.

As the Burmese seek to shake off the long and squalid legacy of authoritarian rule, a neighbouring state, India, which has ample experience in dealing with ethnic disharmony and enjoys, in considerable measure, the benefits of a responsible and free press, can and should play an exemplary role in Burma.

Beyond simply highlighting its own successes in containing, though hardly eliminating, ethnic tensions and violence it can also quietly advise the present Burmese leadership of the grave dangers of granting leeway to ethnic entrepreneurs to foment violence.

Simultaneously, private press organisations in India can play a vital role in helping train, educate and socialise their Burmese counterparts in the critical role that a free but normatively bounded press can play in a democratic society.

Advice and support of this order could be of inestimable value to Burma as it makes a rocky and fraught move toward a more democratic, egalitarian and just political order.

- The writer is the director of the Centre on American and Global Security at Indiana University, Bloomington.

By Jeff Kingston

The Japan Times

October 13, 2013

Myanmar last week took the baton from the Sultan of Brunei, assuming the rotating chair in 2014 of Asia’s most important regional organization, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

In December the country otherwise known as Burma will also host the Southeast Asia Games, a coming-out party for a nation emerging from a half-century of military repression.

These are stunning signs of Myanmar’s rapid rehabilitation from international pariah status following the slaughter of monks during the Saffron Revolution in 2007. Nonetheless, Myanmar remains convulsed by communal violence and anti-Muslim pogroms, generating risks for ASEAN’s unity and reputation.

ASEAN was established in 1967 and, with its headquarters in Jakarta, it has since become the fulcrum of regionalization, expanding membership, initiating dialogues and packing the annual schedule with numerous conferences that have promoted diplomacy in a region coping with various challenges to peace and stability.

Myanmar joined ASEAN 16 years ago, and was long regarded as the grouping’s black sheep because of its repressive military rule and extensive human-rights abuses. Since 2011, however, there has been significant progress in realizing democracy and easing draconian restrictions on political freedoms, but the surge in Buddhist-Muslim mayhem since last summer is casting a cloud over the entire transition.

So now Myanmar is in the hot seat as ASEAN continues to deal with a festering row with China over disputed territories in the South China Sea.

There was an organizational crisis in 2012 when the ASEAN member countries’ foreign ministers failed to issue a joint communiqué addressing this divisive problem. It appeared that China managed to influence Cambodia, then ASEAN’s chair, to block a consensus, undercutting organizational integrity and unity.

But now the row has gone from bad to worse, as this year the Philippines upped the ante by taking its territorial dispute with China in the South China Sea to United Nations arbitration. Meanwhile, Indonesia publically announced that it, too, has a similar dispute with China; while Vietnam ordered submarines to bolster its naval presence (and claims).

Through all that, Brunei proved to be a deft chair of ASEAN’s 23rd summit, managing as it did to revive ASEAN cohesiveness. But there may be more turbulence ahead.

Myanmar’s relations with China have soured over the past year since police injured monks and other protesters at the site of a controversial mining project where villagers have been displaced. Land grabs have drawn local ire throughout Myanmar, with China also feeling the heat as it has focused on resource-extraction ventures involving shady deals with the Myanmar junta and its cronies that ignore local interests.

However, Beijing now recognizes that it mishandled relations with Myanmar, as arrogant behavior and corrupt practices have stoked long-standing anti-Chinese sentiments. For instance, when Myanmar hosted a World Economic Forum in June 2013, it attracted few Chinese participants. In the corridors, President Thein Sein’s handlers did nothing to dispel rumors about his overall unhappiness with the nation’s largest investor.

Although China recently withdrew from bidding for a major telecommunications contract, its controversial mining projects have, for now, weathered local protests. And with a gas pipeline it financed having just started operations, it remains very much in the picture.

As Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi pointedly said, “We have to get along with the neighboring country, whether we like it or not.”

Nonetheless, handing the chairman’s gavel to President Thein Sein is a high-risk gamble for ASEAN — but not only because of the China conundrum.

Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s newly constructed seat of government, will host a series of ASEAN meetings, and the East Asia Summit, bringing together member nations along with representatives from China, Japan, India, South Korea, the United States and Russia — so stretching its diplomatic and logistical capacity.

Suddenly, Myanmar will be catapulted from isolation to prime time, and can expect even more international media scrutiny. Any outbreaks of sectarian violence during such high-profile events would seriously damage its reputation, with ramifications for its ambitious reform agenda and overall harmony within ASEAN.

The government has not done enough to rein in communal tensions between Buddhists and Muslims and follow through on President Thein Sein’s “zero-tolerance” rhetoric. Reports about recent attacks on Muslim villages indicate that security forces continue to stand by while witnessing acts of violence and arson. More than 140,000 Muslim residents of Myanmar are now languishing in refugee camps after being burned out of their homes by angry crowds of militant Buddhists.

This situation will challenge ASEAN unity and its principle of non-interference. Muslim-majority members Malaysia and Indonesia will expect substantive progress, as this is a potentially destabilizing transnational issue.

Anti-Muslim attacks in western Myanmar initially targeted ethnic Rohingya, not recognized as legitimate citizens by the Myanmar government, but the sectarian violence has spread to others parts of the country and involves other ethnic minorities whose citizenship rights are unquestioned.

The violence targeting Muslims, and the consequent outflow of Rohingya refugees to Thailand and Malaysia, is raising tensions and inflaming Muslim communities in the region. This has led to anti-Buddhist reprisals in Malaysia, Indonesia and India and a foiled bomb attack on Myanmar’s embassy in Jakarta.

Scaremongering militant monks preaching violence and calling for boycotts of Muslim shops find a receptive audience for their hate speech evident in brisk DVD sales, while social and print media fan inter-communal antagonism. The government also seems more zealous about prosecuting Muslims involved in such incidents even though their communities are in most cases the victims of attacks.

Surely more can be done to bring the perpetrators and instigators to justice. Quelling outbreaks requires improved police riot training and equipment, but religious and community leaders must also step up to challenge extremists and dampen tensions.

Tackling sectarian violence will be a litmus test for ASEAN’s low-key approach to promoting human rights, as well as a major challenge for Myanmar’s political and religious leaders. Frustrations have mounted over the usual problems associated with crushing poverty and growing inequalities, as people attempt to challenge land grabs and corruption while seeking improvement in livelihoods, health services, education and the rule of law.

This is the easily ignited kindling of popular unrest. There are no quick or easy solutions to these endemic problems, but as the International Crisis Group concludes in a recent assessment, “Myanmar cannot afford to become hostage to intolerance and bigotry.”

Jeff Kingston is Director of Asian Studies, Temple University Japan.

By Associated Press

October 13, 2013

More than 200 members of the Rohingya minority fleeing Myanmar have been detained in southern Thailand after their boat ran aground, a Thai official said Thursday.

Thai district chief Watcharasak Chulayanon said the 219 men aboard swam ashore after their boat became stuck Wednesday off the coast of Satun province.

The men told Thai authorities they left Myanmar in late August wanting to go to Malaysia but rough seas put them off course.

Muslim Rohingyas face discrimination in Buddhist Myanmar, where sectarian violence over the past year left hundreds killed and more than 100,000 displaced from their homes. Even before the unrest, many sought asylum and work in other countries, especially Malaysia, which has a Muslim majority.

Thailand has already detained more than 1,700 Rohingya who arrived earlier this year. Watcharasak said the new arrivals had been moved from a temporary shelter but refused to give their current location.

“Thailand is giving assistance to them but what we want to focus on is that we want the international community to support us in seeking a solution to the root cause,” Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Manasvi Srisodapol said.

“We know that Myanmar is seriously trying to solve the problem, which is sectarian violence. Once the root cause is solved, the number of people trying to leave the country will decline, leaving only migration for economic reasons,” he said.

Thailand’s treatment of the Rohingya has been criticized by some human rights groups, and there are allegations that Thai officials have been involved in trafficking some of those who landed in Thai territory. They have been housed in crowded conditions, sometimes in local jails, and have made repeated escape attempts.

New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch has called on the Thai government to release the asylum seekers and provide them protection, saying they were living “under inhumane and unsafe conditions.”

“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,” Human Rights Watch’s Asia director Brad Adams said.

Thailand’s government initially said the Rohingya asylum seekers could stay for six months, but extended the deadline indefinitely. Human rights activists have called for authorities not to send the Rohingya back to Myanmar.

New York - The Permanent Mission of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to the United Nations in New York received delegates from International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH - Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l'homme), representatives from OIC Ministerial Contact Group, Director General of the Arakan Rohingya Union, and a delegation of certain ethnic minorities from Myanmar.

The representative of FIDH to the United Nations Michelle Kissenkoetter provided extensive coverage on the violence and discrimination against the Rohingya ethnic minority and Muslim population, violence and attacks against civilians in Kachin and Shan states, and new arrests and re-arrests of prisoners of conscience, and continued serious violations against civilians by Burmese forces with impunity. The representatives of the ethnic minority groups from Myanmar briefed the current situations in their respective regions, highlighting violence, atrocities, internal and external displacement of minority victims, rape cases and sex slaves issues, along with hate speech by radical monks that instigates violence in various regions of the country. Dr. Wakar Uddin, Director General of Arakan Rohingya Union, also briefed the meeting participants on the issues such as the eruption of new waves of violence against Kamen Muslims in Thandwe, attempts by the RNDP leadership and hardliners in the Burmese Government for making IDP camps permanent or semi-permanent, the RNDP’s relentless attacks on voting rights of Rohingya white-card holders, night time raids of Rohingya households in Northern Arakan and arrests of household members, sentencing Rohingya victims to life imprisonment and long jail terms, human smuggling of Rohingya victims by Rakhine cartels through sea routes to Thailand and Malaysia, and other issues. Dr. Uddin also commented on President Thein Sein’s recent brief visit to Maungdaw. “It is a good sign and a warm gesture, but the Rohingya people are anxious to see that more positive actions are taken by the Burmese Government on providing security for Rohingya people, promoting peaceful-coexistence, and facilitating dialogue between Rohingya leadership and the Burmese Government along with moderate Rakhine leadership. “Taking the first step and breaking the tip of the stagnant situation in Arakan by the Burmese Government is pivotal; we are confident that such positive step by the Government will pave the way for more dialogue for reconciliation, eventually bringing Rakhine to the table to be a partner for peace” Dr. Uddin added.

Representatives from OIC Ministerial Contact Groups such as Egypt, Turkey, Djibouti, Bangladesh, Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei expressed their great appreciation for the efforts by the minority women delegates from Myanmar in the process of finding a solution to the ethnic minority issues. The Ministerial Contact Group representatives also discussed a number of diplomatic approaches to find a durable solution to the problems faced by Rohingya, Kachin, and other ethnic minorities in Myanmar. The theme of the two-hour meeting was overwhelmingly voicing the rights of the ethnic minorities during the democratic transition in Myanmar and peaceful co-existence of all people of Myanmar.