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By David Blair
October 24, 2013

I never thought I would write this, but Aung San Suu Kyi sent a shiver down my spine when she appeared on the Today programme this morning. Her equivocal attitude towards the violence suffered by Burma’s Muslim minority was deeply disturbing.

I’m sorry to say that she employed the standard devices used by people who want to play down – and avoid condemning – something utterly reprehensible.

The first common tactic is to draw a parity between perpetrators and victims. Suu Kyi duly said: “This is what the world needs to understand: that the fear is not just on the side of the Muslims, but on the side of the Buddhists as well.”

She went on: “Yes, Muslims have been targeted, but also Buddhists have been subjected to violence. But there’s fear on both sides and this is what is leading to all these troubles and we would like the world to understand: that the reaction of the Buddhists is also based on fear.”

Hang on a moment. Muslims are only 4 per cent of Burma’s population. The Rohingya Muslims, who have borne the brunt of the violence, are a smaller minority still. The idea that we should place the fears of the 90 per cent Buddhist majority alongside those of a small and vulnerable minority – and one that has been “targeted” for violence – is pretty extraordinary.

Suu Kyi then goes further by saying: “You, I think, will accept that there’s a perception that Muslim power, global Muslim power, is very great and certainly that is the perception in many parts of the world and in our country too.”

Global Muslim power? How powerful can a 4 per cent minority be, particularly when the Rohingya are explicitly forbidden from becoming citizens of Burma and therefore have no political weight whatever? What is Suu Kyi trying to say? That Buddhists in Burma are so terrified by “global Muslim power” that we shouldn’t be surprised when they turn on Muslims at home?

Suu Kyi also employs the second common device, namely to change the subject to something irrelevant. When Mishal Husain asked her to accept that 140,000 Muslims have been displaced by violence, Suu Kyi replied: “I think there are many, many Buddhists who have also left the country for various reasons. This is a result of our sufferings under a dictatorial regime.”

This is also completely irrelevant. If many Buddhist Burmese fled during the era of military dictatorship, this has no bearing whatever on the plight of the 140,000 Muslims who live in refugee camps today.

Suu Kyi then used the third standard tactic: uttering words of condemnation so general as to be meaningless. Asked to condemn a notorious Buddhist hate-preacher who compares Muslims to “dogs”, she said only: “I condemn hate of any kind.”

And then Mishal Husain asked her bluntly: “Do you condemn the anti-Muslim violence?” Suu Kyi replied: “I condemn any movement that is based on hatred and extremism.”

How could a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize fail to answer that question with a simple “Yes”?

David Blair became Chief Foreign Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph in November 2011. He previously worked for the paper as Diplomatic Editor, Africa Correspondent and Middle East Correspondent.

A Rohingya child cries outside a displacement camp in Sittwe, Arakan state (AFP)

By Hanna Hindstorm
October 23, 2013

The Burmese government is responsible for fuelling a “profound crisis” in Arakan state, where several bouts of Muslim-Buddhist clashes have claimed hundreds of lives since last year, according to a damning UN report released on Wednesday.

The 23-page document, drafted by the UN’s Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Burma, Tomas Quintana, accuses the government of failing to address local grievances behind the violence, while encouraging a culture of impunity among Buddhist perpetrators.

“There is little evidence that the government has taken steps to tackle the underlying causes of the communal violence or has put in place the policies that are necessary to forge a peaceful, harmonious and prosperous future for the state,” warned the report.

Quintana expressed concern that no public officials have been questioned or arrested, despite “consistent and credible” reports of state complicity in human rights abuses against Muslims. He described the ongoing impunity as “particularly troubling” in light of the social marginalisation of Rohingya Muslims, who are denied citizenship and heavily persecuted in Burma.

The report further backs claims that the government has unfairly targeted Muslim suspects with punitive or criminal sanctions, including the use of torture in Buthidaung prison near the Bangladeshi border.

“[Rohingya inmates] were subjected to three months of systematic torture and ill-treatment by prison guards and up to 20 prison inmates, who appear to have been brought into the prison for the specific purpose of administering beatings to Muslim prisoners,” said the report.

According to government data, 1,189 people including 260 Buddhists and 882 Rohingya Muslims have been detained for their role in the unrest. The rapporteur expressed concerns that many Muslims have been arrested as part of village “sweeps” and subsequently denied access to legal representation or fair trials.

Quintana insisted that the regime, led by President Thein Sein, has flouted its obligations to fully investigate all claims of extrajudicial killings, rapes and arbitrary detentions. He called on the international community to “consider further steps” until Burma meets its human rights obligations.

The rapporteur also highlighted the plight of several detained Rohingyas he considered political prisoners, including community leaders Tun Aung and Kyaw Hla Aung, who have both been arbitrarily detained for several months. He described the cases as a “serious blot on country’s record of reform” and urged Thein Sein to ensure their swift release.

He recommended that the mandate of the state-backed committee established to identify and release all remaining political prisoners in Burma be expanded to include suggestions to prevent future arrests. 

Religious violence first gripped Burma in June last year, when Buddhist Arakanese clashed with Muslim Rohingyas, who are considered illegal Bengali immigrants by the government. Nearly 140,000 Rohingyas have since been confined to squalid camps without adequate food, sanitation, healthcare or education.

Although Quintana welcomed some recommendations made by the state-backed Arakan investigation commission, which published a report into the violence in April, he criticised its failure to address the issue of impunity and systematic abuses against the Rohingya minority.

Quintana also condemned the rise of the so-called “969” movement, an extremist religious group which calls on Buddhists to shun Muslims and has been blamed for the spread of religious violence across the county. The latest riots, which rocked the Arakan town Sandoway [Thandwe] in early October, have been connected to a nationalist organisation with direct links to the movement’s spiritual leader and prominent monk Wirathu.

He urged the government to send a “strong, consistent and unambiguous” message through the media to counter any discriminatory propaganda vilifying Muslims and the Rohingya community, which is deeply unpopular in Burma. The rapporteur also reiterated a call for the government to revise the 1982 citizenship law, which strips the Rohingya of their legal status.

The report was compiled on the basis of a 10-day visit to the Southeast Asian country in August and will be presented to the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday. The UN is expected to pass another resolution on Burma in November, after pressure from the US government and human rights groups who want it to include strict benchmarks for measurable improvement.

By Zin Linn 
October 22, 2013

Burma or Myanmar has received a new great reward on 10 October for its over-the-top political changes, taking the wheel of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) even with critics’ warnings that the step was hasty. A long time ago, friendless rogue was properly granted the rotating chair of the ASEAN routinely for 2014. It won the seat at the end of the group's summit in Bandar Seri Bagawan, Brunei.

When Burma/Myanmar became a member of the Association of Southeast Asian nations in 1997, many countries criticized ASEAN leaders because of its questionable human rights records.

Myanmar has suffered under military’s ruthless ruling since 1962. The regime has earned a reputation as one of the world's worst human rights violators. It brutally suppressed pro-democracy movements in 1988, during the Depayin conspiracy on May 30, 2003, and the Saffron Revolution in September 2007, as well as many other sporadic crackdowns.

It was in 1976 in the Thailand’s Department of Foreign Affairs building in Bangkok, the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) came into existence on August 8, with the signing of 'Bangkok Declaration' by foreign ministers of five original member countries namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.

The five foreign ministers are considered the organization's ‘Founding Fathers,’ and they are Adam Malik of Indonesia, Narciso R. Ramos of the Philippines, Tun Abdul Razak of Malaysia, S. Rajaratnam of Singapore, and Thanat Khoman of Thailand. The ‘Founding Fathers’ envisaged that the organization would eventually encompass all the countries in Southeast Asian region.

Following the founding of the organization, Brunei Darussalam became the sixth member of the ASEAN when it joined on January 7, 1984, barely a week after the country became independent on January 1, 1984. It would be a further 11 years before ASEAN expanded from its original six core members.

Vietnam became the seventh member in July 28, 1995, and Laos and Myanmar joined two years later in July 23, 1997. Vietnam would become the first Communist member of ASEAN. Cambodia was to have joined the ASEAN together with Laos and Myanmar, but was deferred due to the country's internal political struggle. Cambodia finally joined on April 30, 1999, following the stabilization of its government.

Joining of Cambodia brought the completion of ASEAN-10, by which constituting almost all the countries in the Southeast Asia region.

The Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) in Southeast Asia, was signed at the First ASEAN Summit on 24 February 1976, which declared that ASEAN political and security dialogue and cooperation should aim to promote regional peace and stability by enhancing regional resilience. Regional resilience shall be achieved by cooperating in all fields based on the principles of self-confidence, self-reliance, mutual respect, cooperation, and solidarity, which shall constitute the foundation for a strong and viable community of nations in Southeast Asia.

The Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had started facing the first strong challenge from the international community due to Myanmar's human rights violations on 30 May 2003. The Association was called on to address human rights concerns in the region, including allegations of grave human rights violations at Dapeyin in Sagaing Division of Upper Myanmar, where the country's charismatic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, then General-Secretary of the National League for Democracy (NLD), and her entourage were ambushed by the military junta's goons and killed more than 70 innocent people. From that day on, Aung San Suu Kyi and her chief lieutenant U Tin Oo and many others were arrested and kept incarcerated for several years.

As international pressure piled up, ASEAN has to review its non-interference policy. In a departure from the ASEAN policy of "non-interference", the organization issued a statement calling for the early release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD members during the 36th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) (held on 16, 17 June 2003) in Phnom Penh.

ASEAN’s concern followed a Myanmar junta-backed attack on Aung San Suu Kyi and hundreds of other political activists, where scores of people were killed or injured.

The 36th AMM's statement says, “We discussed the recent political developments in Myanmar, particularly the incident of 30 May 2003. We noted the efforts of the Government of Myanmar to promote peace and development. In this connection, we urged Myanmar to resume its efforts of national reconciliation and dialogue among all parties concerned leading to a peaceful transition to democracy.”

Myanmar, which is internationally condemned for political and human rights abuses, including the detention of the Nobel Peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, is due to take the alphabetically rotating chairmanship of Asean in 2006. The United States and the European Union, which have imposed economic sanctions on the country, have been pressuring the regional grouping to block its chairmanship.

Filipino Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo at the Cebu retreat predicted that he expected "vigorous debates" over Myanmar amid continued pressure from the West. Romulo also spoke out Manila's position that Myanmar's ruling junta should implement promised democratic reforms, release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, give access for the drawing of a democratic constitution and allow the U.N. special envoy to visit the country showing cooperation with the world body.

In June 2005, the Indonesian Parliament's Commission on Defense and Foreign Affairs issued a resolution urging the government to boycott the ASEAN meetings if military-ruled Burma or Myanmar is allowed to take over the chairmanship. Indonesia's parliamentarians are urging their government to support the resolution, which the parliamentary commission passed.

Malaysian and Philippine legislators, along with pro-democracy groups, have also opposed Myanmar's chairmanship, warning that ASEAN could lose credibility.

Following ‘the 7 November 2010 election’, the junta released opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest on 13 November. Then President Thein Sein’s government took the office in March 2011. Built upon the military drafted 2008 Constitution and the undemocratic elections in 2010, Thein Sein’s government has continually beleaguered by criticisms of state impunity and military supremacy.

Although the new government did not stop systematic human rights violations, other ASEAN leaders said they had no objections in principle but urged Myanmar to improve its human rights record leading up to 2014.

Myanmar was originally scheduled to chair an ASEAN summit in 2006, but it skipped its turn to chair because of widespread criticism of its human rights record and negative response to implement political reforms. However, President U Thein Sein Government has been reinforcing its troops in several regions where ethnic armed groups said are their territories. Armed forces reinforcements have been reported in Kachin State, Shan State and Karen State in the country since June 2011.

Sporadic armed clashes has been going on recently between the junta’s troops and armed ethnic groups such as the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO/KIA), the Shan State Army–North (SSA-North) and Shan State Army-South (SSA-South).

Consequently, Myanmar has been continuing war against the ethnic minorities who are defending their basic civil rights including self-determination. If ASEAN leaders support offering the chair to Myanmar in 2014, they must pressure U Thein Sein’s government to stop the unjust war on the ethnic people. They ought to push Myanmar to end the civil war ahead of 2014.

Accordingly, they must press on President U Thein Sein to initiate putting into practice the words made in his inauguration speeches without hindrance. The ASEAN leaders particularly need calling for a total amnesty for every political prisoner in the country and the arrangement of an all-inclusive political dialogue in quest of reconciliation.

Rohingya migrants look out from the window of a Thai police van in 2009. AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong

By Adam Pasick
October 22, 2013

Thailand says it wants to clean up its act as a hotbed of human trafficking, but those efforts took a hit this week, after a report alleged that government immigration officials are involved in the sale of Rohingya refugees near the tourist mecca of Phuket.

Journalists Chutima Sidasathian and Alan Morison, writing for the Phuket Wan news site and the South China Morning Post, reported this week that a busload of about 50 Rohingya detainees were offloaded from a Thai government immigration bus with bars on the windows in the southern port city of Ranong and then transported to ships offshore. The Rohingya are an oppressed Muslim ethnic group who have been violently persecuted in Myanmar, sending many refugees fleeing by land and sea into Thailand, India and Bangladesh.

“The transfer could not have been a legitimate deportation of Rohingya back to Myanmar since that country refuses to acknowledge members of the Muslim ethnic minority as citizens and won’t accept their repatriation,” Chutima and Morison noted.

Rohingya in Thailand are sold to middlemen for 10,000 baht ($321) each, then offered for sale back to their families for as much as 65,000 baht ($2,087), according to Chutima and Morison, citing interviews with smugglers. If the families cannot pay, the refugees are forced to work in the fishing industry—which, as Quartz has reported, relies heavily on slave labor. Migrants are forced into debt bondage to harvest and process the shrimp and other seafood that is exported to markets like the United States—a $7.3 billion business. A report last week estimated that there are up to 500,000 enslaved people in Thailand.

“The issue is, why do we have to keep the Rohingya in Thailand? Holding them costs nearly three million baht every month,” Colonel Nattasit Maksuwan, the deputy chief of the Internal Security Operations Command in Satun province, said to Chutima and Morrison. Thai immigration officials declined their request for comment.

The new report may put new pressure on the Thai government as it tries to improve its position on the US State Department’s Trafficking in Person rankings. Thailand has been on the Tier Two watchlist for four years and faces an automatic downgrade to Tier Three—defined as “Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so”—unless it shows significant improvements in tackling human trafficking. Under US law, Tier Three status mandates sanctions that cut certain types of US foreign assistance.

Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra met with officials last week about improving the country’s standing on the US trafficking list, and “emphasized that police, public prosecutors and the courts should now begin to work more closely together in the fight,” according to a spokeswoman.

By Fatimah
October 21, 2013

(Photo: Reuters)

Myanmar’s transition towards democracy is not helping the Rohingya community in any manner, according to a recent report by The Associated Press.

In its latest update on the situation in the Southeast Asian country last week, AP examined the deteriorating effects of Muslim genocide on the lives of children.

Violent riots broke out in Rakhine State in 2012 between Arakanese Buddhists and the Muslim minority, which caused bloodshed and displaced about 125,000 people.

In April this year, Human Rights Watch, an international non-governmental organization released satellite images of Meiktila, a city in central Myanmar, where more than eight hundred houses were torched by monks. A month later, it was reported that Buddhist mobs, armed with sticks and machetes, burned down Muslim homes and mosques. Almost a thousand people were displaced. When fears of further violence began to surface, the Muslims were taken to safer abodes with the help of the army.

The AP report described how the threat of genocide in the northern Rakhine State, home to 80 percent of the country's 1 million Rohingya, affected the lives of children who didn’t have access to adequate education, food or healthcare.

Education:

Islamic educational institutions or madrassas have been closed down while government schools teach Rohingya children in a language different to theirs. Classrooms are packed with students and teachers are mostly absent. Lack of basic necessities like desks, chairs and stationery is also a big problem for the kids who want to study.

An 8-year-old was quoted as saying, “Our teachers write a lot of things on the blackboard, but don't teach us how to read them. It's very difficult to learn anything in this school.”

Rohingya are not allowed to study medicine in Myanmar.

Hard Labor:

The Rakhine Muslim community is officially illegal in Myanmar.

The AP report states, “No Rohingya birth certificates have been handed out since the mid-1990s. Rohingya children are blacklisted.”

(Photo: Reuters)

Consequently, these destitute children resort to hard labor to feed themselves and their families.

Many construction companies in the country offer Rohingya children – as young as eight years old – one dollar for eight hours of collecting and carrying rocks under the scorching sun.

Health:

They have absolutely no vaccination coverage which makes Rohingya children vulnerable to all kinds of preventable diseases. The poor community cannot afford medication. The Rohingya also face a travel ban in Myanmar which requires them to stop at various checkpoints.

“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,” the AP stated.

The distressing facts of the report indicate that the genocide against Rohingya Muslims somehow stems from biased governmental policies.

The world community expects more from Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who fought for human rights and democracy in her country, and was even imprisoned for her fight against dictatorship.

October 21, 2013

Burma ― How would you feel if you were not wanted anywhere? Wherever you went you were rejected and looked down upon. A people group called the Rohingya are just that. They are a people without a country. The United Nations describes them as one of the most persecuted minority groups on earth.

Christian Aid Missions, your link to indigenous missions, has come beside these outcasts, helping and preaching the Gospel to them. “They have no food, no work, no land, no help,” says the spokesman for a ministry in Bangladesh assisted by Christian Aid. “Because they are an ethnic minority and they are unregistered with the Bangladesh government, the Rohingya are caught in a dual trap. The Burmese military will not allow them in their own homeland, and in Bangladesh they have no identity.”

The Burmese government denies them citizenship, despite their migration from Bangladesh two centuries ago. And even though they are Muslim people, traditional Muslims have no use for them. Numbering between 800,000 and one million people, Rohingya have faced persecution from the Burmese government for more than three decades. Even Burma views them as illegal immigrants.

Some Rohingya live in refugee camps. Thousands more flock to government camps but are denied and turned away because they lack legal status. Many have established a makeshift camp nearby the camp in Kutupalong, Bangladesh. “Their camp is a slum community and is devoid of latrines, safe drinking water, and hope,” states a ministry leader.

Less than 10% of Rohingya exiles are officially registered. Even so, they cannot be citizens of Burma, they need permission to marry, they need permission to have more than two children, and they must inform authorities if they want to travel outside of their villages (even if it’s a medical emergency).

With limited education and job skills, the Rohingya typically find employment as rickshaw pullers or in the fishing industry. Christian Aid donors made it possible this summer to provide fishing nets for nine needy families. Those families are now able to provide more for their own family instead of sharing 50% of what they catch with the owners of the fishing nets. They are much happier, and they have hope.

Pray that the Rohingya will find hope in Jesus Christ. Pray for believers who stand beside them to provide their physical needs, especially food, housing, wells, latrines, medical care, and education for their children. To help donate and reach out with grace and love to this people group, click here.



By Andrew Day
RB News
October 21, 2013

Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh - According to refugees within Nayapara refugee camp, as many as 15 people were beaten by police on the evening of October 19, 2013. One sub-Inspector and two Police Constables entered the camp responding to reports of a quarrel. 

Local refugees say that the quarrel started when four local Bengali boys entered the camp at about 7:30pm. The group allegedly attempted to take a Rohingya refugee boy, accusing that he owed them money. Although locals said that the accusations were false and that the boys were merely robbers. 

The police entered the camp at about 8:15pm and "became excited." They headed toward the community centre where the altercation was said to have taken place. They beat any refugees that got within the range of their cane sticks. 

By the time the police reached the community centre the youths had already dispersed. The police approached 45 year old Sayed Ahmed from Block D, Shed #718. He attempted to explain that he was on his way to bring his 8 year old daughter a bowl of rice. She is staying at a small IDP hospital within the camp. This hospital is operated by Ministry of Health (MOH) a Bangladesh based organization. According to locals, the hospital does not give proper care and people die there daily. 

Not hearing or caring about what Ahmed had to say, the police began to beat him with their cane sticks. Once down, they kicked him with their boots. Badly injuring his toe and cutting open his knee. They kicked the backside of his body as he laid on the ground. 

Beatings from police is a regular occurrence for Rohingya refugees. Stories like this have been told since the Bangladesh government controlled camps opened in the early 1990's. Nayapara and Kutupalong camps hold over 30000 Rohingya refugees who fled from Myanmar. To many of the inhabitants it is the only home they ever known. They were born there. Many speak Bengali, not Burmese. A generation of people growing up being treated as nothing by the country that they were born in. Accustomed to senseless beatings by police and terrible living conditions just because of their ethnicity and origin. Common too are local Bengalis taking advantage to abuse and exploit Rohingyas. Knowing that laws are not built to protect refugees. There is nowhere for them to turn to when these abuses happen. All avenues including the UNCHR will have ears that fall back to the Bangladesh government who will certainly not take action against their own officials. 

These living conditions are still considerably better than those of the over 200000 unregistered Rohingya refugees living in the woods and makeshift ghettos just outside Kutupalong camp. Absolute squaller, hunger and disease is life for them.

By Democratic Voice of Burma
October 19, 2013

I travelled to Sittwe in the beginning of July 2013, with the intention of documenting the situation of the internally displaced Rohingya community. When I arrived at the IDP camps, I was struck by the overwhelmingly high number of women and children in comparison to men. Bearing in mind that conflict affects the life of women in a fundmentally different way, I decided to focus on how the Arakanese-Rohingya conflict had affected the livelihoods and role of women within their community. Their stories of humiliation, rape and loss where unbearably hard to listen to, but their strength of character and resilience in face of despair revealed an unparalleled degree of humanity.



Noor Haba, 18, from Boomay, near Sittwe, was separated from her husband during the violence outbreak of October 2012. She arrived at Rabba Garden IDP camp 5 months ago with her son who is now one year old and suffers from a congenital disorder. She is 6 months pregnant with her second child. Rakhine State, Burma/Myanmar, July 2013.

Mehjabeen, 62, from Thandawly, prays surrounded by children. She has become a respected elder in the community of Takeybin unregistered IDP camp where she now lives in the outskirts of Sittwe. Rakhine State, Burma/Myanmar, July 2013.

Aamina, 54, from Thandawly, arrived at Takebyin unregistered IDP camp in the outskirts of Sittwe 5 months ago. 'I saw how Arakan killed my son and burned my village. Protecting our children is the most important task. I wish that our children can go to school and learn, so that they can fight the prejudice against Rohingya and have a better future. Rakhine State, Burma/Myanmar, July 2013.
The inside of a make-shift tent at Takebyin unregistered IDP camp. Rakhine State, Burma/Myanmar, July 2013.
Zara Hadu, 50, from Thandawly Villlage, has lost the ability to walk after breaking her leg and hip when trying to flee from the ethno-sectarian violence of October. She has no shelter and must shift tents every few hours where there is space for her. Rakhine State, Burma/Myanmar, July 2013.
Zohra Bahar, 24, from Aung Mingalar. Zohra sold the little valuables she had left to bribe the local authorities to allow her to reunite with her youngest child, whom she holds in her arms. Rakhine State, Burma/Myanmar, July 2013. 
Rabiyah Hatu, 46, from Thandawly, now lives in Takeybin unregistered IDP camp. 'I do not speak of the grief because I understand the need to give our children hope that this endless punishment will one day be over.' Rakhine State, Burma/Myanmar, July 2013. 
Sadiyah, 5, from Boomay, near Sittwe, holds broken pages of the Qu'ran as she walks home from a make-shift Madrasa set up in Thawepen unregistered IDP Camp, in the outskirts of Sittwe. Rakhine State, Burma/Myanmar, July 2013. 
A group of young Rohingya girls fill their jars with water from one of the few water pumps available to the IDPs living in Rabba Garden IDP camp. Rakhine State, Burma/Myanmar, July 2013.


(Photo: AP)

By Tariq A. Al Maeena
October 19, 2013

The international community must focus its attention on the atrocities unleashed on the minority Rohingya Muslim community in Myanmar

The month of October has been very brutal towards the Muslim minority in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. While most of the media’s attention is focused on the chemical warfare in Syria, or the post-US deficit showdown scenario, very little was being reported on the continuing ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. Perhaps it is because the unfortunate victims happen to be poor Muslims and there are no strategic gains to be garnered by trumpeting their sorry state.

Recently, however, an AP journalist reported that a mob of Buddhists armed with swords and knives invaded a predominantly Muslim village, striking at Muslims as they went along and burned down their homes. Zaw Lay Khar, an eyewitness, said she was petrified when she saw a throng of about 40 armed Buddhists approaching her home. Understanding very well what their intentions were, and with no other options but to flee, she escaped with her daughter but could not take her 94-year-old mother in their haste. When she returned two days later, most of the homes in the village were burned down. She found her mother’s body thrown out on what was once a courtyard with six fatal slashes on her stomach, neck and head. “They set the house on fire. There was nothing we could do but run. We didn’t have time to help her.”

There were similar acts of bloodshed and destruction in nearby villages. One of the victims described the outcome of those attacks. “After most of the villages had been burnt by the Buddhists, the notorious security did not allow us to move from one village to another village to look for lost relatives or allow us to mourn our dead. If the security catches one of us doing that, the police will put the innocent Rohingya Muslim behind bars indefinitely without charges.

“We don’t get enough ration and medical assistance. There are no registered medical facilities for our people, even if there are doctors in our quarters. It has been over 16 months that we have been starved of rations and do not receive a single morsel of rice from the Myanmar government. Some Muslim donors provide rations to us, but it is not enough to cover for all the people here. Many of us have to starve, having just one meal at 3:30pm, in order to cover both lunch and dinner for the whole day. Even if we want to have more we cannot afford.

“Today no one has a job as we cannot go out to work from our village. Most of us were merchants, making our living in the Sittwe Municipal market before the one-sided communal violence. There were 145 thriving shops, which belonged to the Rohingya Muslims, but all of those are closed. We are managing to stay alive by selling our remaining properties.

“We are not allowed to go to buy food from the market, so a truck from our village goes to Dabaing market, which is in the countryside, to buy food for the whole village twice a week, with the police, by paying a bribe of $160 (Dh588) to the state ministry office. Sometimes they hold our supplies back unless we pay more.

“When we give money to the police or military to buy medicines for patients in emergency, they disappear along with the money. When we inform the police or military, they reply that the one who took the money from us was transferred. Sometimes they buy us the things at double or more than double the normal price. When we give money to them to buy 10 items, they just buy seven at double the price and the rest of items go ‘missing’ ... that is what they tell us. The doctors are not allowed to give us treatment. Members of Doctors Without Borders entered our quarters to give us medical assistance on Mondays and Thursdays, twice a week, a couple weeks ago, but they don’t have proper permission from the minister to do so.

“We are very much concerned about any kind of conflict in the future. The government is systematically killing us with continued and periodic outbreak of organised violence, regularly accompanied by either inaction or participation by the government security forces and agents’ provocateurs of unknown government affiliation.”

The trials of these unfortunate Myanmar citizens, who today are viewed as intruders by the Buddhist majority, painfully demonstrate their dire straits. They have no voice to speak on their behalf. On the contrary, there is government support for the ultra-nationalist Buddhist movement which views the presence of any Muslim in the country as a threat. In a thinly veiled form of ethnic cleansing, Myanmar President Thein Sein himself proposed a plan to resettle the Rohingya Muslim population abroad.

In sharp contrast to Myanmar’s attempt to portray itself as discarding its brutal and repressive past and getting on the progressive track, its disregard of unmitigated and unprovoked violence against the Muslim minority is a reminder that not much has changed.

The international community of nations and international human rights organisations, that had so vigorously pursued the democratisation of Myanmar in the past, must now focus their attention on saving of one of its minorities. The safety and security of all minorities in any society must be guaranteed, regardless of faith or belief.

Tariq A. Al Maeena is a Saudi socio-political commentator. He lives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/@talmaeena

By IRIN News
October 18, 2013
(Photo: David Swanson/IRIN) Access to water just got more difficult

YANGON - Water access for tens of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Myanmar's western Rakhine State could worsen after the dry season begins in November, with potentially serious health implications, aid agencies warn. 

"The IDP population that relies on water from ponds will [be affected] as [water supplies] progressively dry up. In other locations, hand dug wells or boreholes will also dry up," Olivier Le Guillon, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) cluster coordinator for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Yangon, told IRIN. 

Myint Oo, senior programme coordinator for Relief International, said the water shortages could lead to cases of acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) and dysentery, both amoebic and bacillary. 

Drinking contaminated water can cause skin infections, along with other infectious diseases of the alimentary system transmitted via the faecal-oral route, such as hepatitis A, he warned. 

"Alimentary system infections caused by acute water shortages in the dry season are equally important issues for non-IDP populations in Rakhine State, especially in rural and remote areas," Myint Oo explained. 

"Serious outbreaks such as cholera also need to be considered as a possible impact." 

Although the prevalence of skin infections and diarrhoeal disease are more severe during the rainy season, drinking water shortages will intensify during the dry season, said Vickie Hawkins, deputy country director for the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Myanmar. "This brings increased risks of water-borne diseases as people resort to untreated water." 

WASH data from June found that 40 percent of IDPs access water from ponds, while 28 percent are using treated water, and 7 percent of those in camps have insufficient access to water, the Rakhine Response Plan reported. 

Who will be worst hit? 

Most IDPs are Rohingya Muslims in and around Rakhine's capital, Sittwe, while those camps outside Sittwe are in low-lying coastal areas accessible only by boat. 

During the dry season, which runs from November to May, access to water will be particularly difficult for those displaced in isolated villages and communities, such as Pauktaw and Myebon, with limited or no access to basic services. 

"The WASH response in the more remote camps of Pauktaw and Myebon is a challenging undertaking and the longer IDPs stay in the camps, many of which are on sites not suitable for large numbers of people, the more difficult it will be to maintain standards," Hawkins said.

(Photo: Stacey M Winston/ECHO) Ponds like these are not always available

Relief International is currently partnering with UNICEF in Myebon Township to renovate ponds, which involves elevating the perimeters of ponds to prevent dirty water draining in. During the dry season, the only source of water for domestic use is from ponds, as supplies of rain water in catchment tanks run out. 

Aid workers need to scale up water distribution efforts in these hard-to-reach areas, Le Guillon said. "In areas without land access, this can be achieved through `water boating.'" 

He acknowledged, however, that transporting water by boat, as well as by truck to camps with road access, is costly and unsustainable. "These methods should be deployed only as the last solution in emergency situations." 

Scaling up 

UNICEF is planning to lead a survey by the national WASH cluster in 2014, which will aim to better evaluate the potential of spring catchments. 

Discussions are also in progress about undertaking a geophysics survey, Guillon said. 

"A better understanding of the hydro-geological environment should be developed in order to identify the possibility of drilling boreholes," said Guillon. 

Mapping the location of water sources, "long houses" (made of bamboo and housing up to eight families in eight rooms), latrines and bathing cubicles (a tank of water and a bucket surrounded by plastic sheeting), will enable aid workers to better monitor and address WASH concerns overall, Hawkins said. 

"WASH activities need to be scaled up and dramatically improved by all aid agencies and government partners working in Rakhine," she added. 

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 176,000 people are in need following two bouts of inter-communal violence between Buddhist ethnic Rakhine and Muslim Rohingyas in June and October 2012, which left 167 people dead and more than 10,000 homes and buildings destroyed. 

Of these, 140,000 IDPs, mostly Rohingya Muslims, are living in more than 70 camps and camp-like settings, with another 36,000 vulnerable people in 113 isolated and remote host communities in Minbya, Myebon, Pauktaw, Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw and Sittwe in Rakhine State. 

Last year aid agencies chlorinated the water in ponds. However, in some instances water quality levels were too low, forcing aid workers to truck water in, and in some cases even bring in bottled water.

"Aung San Suu Kyi has condemned the recent violence against the Muslim community but has remained curiously silent on the suffering of the Rohingya," writes Akins [Reuters]

By Harrison Akins
October 18, 2013

In Rakhine State in western Myanmar, during President Thein Sein's visit to the region earlier this month, a mob of hundreds of Buddhists descended on a Muslim village - more than 70 homes were burnt to the ground and a 94-year-old Muslim woman lay dead from stab wounds. This attack is just the latest in a series of clashes between the Buddhist and Muslim populations around the country.

Despite the democratic and economic reforms in Myanmar over the past year and a thaw in this once isolated authoritarian state's relations with the West, the growing violence against the Muslim population is a tragic reminder that Myanmar is still far from fully relinquishing the problems stemming from decades of military rule. For many Muslims, particularly the Rohingya people of Rakhine State, the hopeful talk of democracy and freedom as the dark shadows of the junta recede, is but empty rhetoric as the oppression and prejudice of the past half-century at the hands of the Burmese- and Buddhist-dominated military government continues unabated.

History of persecution

While many minority groups in Myanmar suffered at the hands of the government, the Rohingya, numbering roughly 2 million, face the denial of their identity and a threat to their mere existence. The BBC has referred to the stateless Rohingya as "one of the world's most persecuted minority groups”.

The Rohingya, the historical inhabitants of what was then Arakan State (which was renamed Rakhine State in 1989 at the same time Burma was renamed Myanmar), remained a part of Myanmar after independence from British rule in 1948, despite early discussions of joining the bordering East Pakistan. After the military junta under General Ne Win rose to power in 1962, the government started a process of establishing a nationalist identity based on the dominant ethnicity and religion - Burmese and Buddhist. This was a shift from the more inclusive vision of Myanmar's Founding Father, Aung San, who included representatives from minority ethnic and religious communities on the short-lived Executive Committee of his interim government, before he was assassinated in 1947.

The Muslim Rohingya, as both non-Burmese and non-Buddhist, were labeled foreigners and incorrectly called "illegal Bengali immigrants” who came to Myanmar under British rule. Beginning in the 1970s, the Burmese military embarked on campaigns to ethnically cleanse the nation of the Rohingya.

The Rohingya were subjected to widespread rape, arbitrary arrests, destruction of mosques and villages, and seizure of their lands. Rubble from mosques was often used to pave roads between military bases in the region.

The first of these, Operation Naga Min or King Dragon, was initiated in 1978 for the purpose of identifying "illegal immigrants” in the country and expelling them. The symbol of the King Dragon is an important aspect of Buddhist mythology. Naga, a mythological dragon, is originally an Indian motif and figures prominently in the legends of the Buddha. A Nagayon, or "sheltered by dragon", temple in Myanmar is closely tied with the idea of the dragon as protector. The temples carry a carving of this dragon, resembling a hooded cobra, protecting a Buddha image with its hood. Identification became the first step in this large scale ethnic cleansing operation of the military "protecting” the sanctity of Buddhism from the "foreigners” who posed a "threat”.

During this operation, the Rohingya were subjected to widespread rape, arbitrary arrests, destruction of mosques and villages, and seizure of their lands. Rubble from mosques was often used to pave roads between military bases in the region. A mass exodus of nearly a quarter-of-a-million Rohingya refugees fled across the Naaf River for neighbouring Bangladesh in a period of only three months. Many of these refugees were repatriated to Myanmar the following year.

In 1991, a second military operation, Operation Pyi Thaya or Operation Clean and Beautiful Nation, was launched for the same purpose of expelling the Rohingya population. Two-hundred-thousand Rohingya refugees fled again into Bangladesh. Nearly 300,000 refugees remain there today in makeshift refugee camps, many without food or medical assistance, with only 28,000 in officially recognised United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) camps. Bangladesh has rejected any proposal for local integration of the Rohingya, citing that the Rohingya are "environmental and economic burdens, social hazards in the village, and breeders of Islamic militancy.”

Bangladesh has impeded or rejected efforts to improve the camps and offer humanitarian aid as they fear this will serve as an incentive for refugees to remain in the country and for further Rohingya to cross the border from Myanmar. In 2011, they rejected a $33m aid package from the United Nations to be used for the Rohingya refugees. 

They are treated with equal contempt by other countries in the region. There have been many media reports of the Rohingya "boat people”, fleeing by sea, being shot at by the Thai navy, being captured and sold by Thai officials to human traffickers, or being held indefinitely in immigration centres in Australia and resorting to suicide rather than continuing to face a hopeless situation.

Genocidal actions?

Within Myanmar, the Rohingya have consistently been denied their identity. Under the 1982 Citizenship Law, they were officially stripped of their citizenship which was reserved for the 135 officially recognised ethnic groups. As non-citizens, the Rohingya were required to have government permission to travel outside their villages, repair their mosques, get married, or even have children, all arrestable offenses if done without a permit. Government permission, however, is procured through bribes which few can afford.

Since 1994, a local policy was implemented for those Rohingya who do gain permission to marry to limit them to only two children, a policy which was given full government support in May 2013. If a woman becomes illegally pregnant, she is forced to either flee the country as a refugee or get a back-alley abortion under extremely unsanitary conditions. Many who choose to have an abortion die due to their inability to receive proper medical care as a result of the travel restrictions.

Many Rohingya have also been forced to labour on various construction projects as modern-day slaves, including building "model villages” intended to house the Burmese settlers encouraged to come to the region to displace the Rohingya. There have been reports of forced prostitution of Rohingya women by the local Burmese security forces.

It is well to remember Article 2 of the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide which states: "Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.”

Myanmar needs to take a firm stand on the side of human rights, pluralism, and security for all of its citizens, promote the rule of law, and, at a more basic level, recognise the existence and the suffering of the Rohingya. Only then can a democratic Myanmar be recognised as legitimate in the eyes of the international community and its own people.

It was this tumultuous history which fed the June 2012 violence against the Rohingya at the hands of the neighbouring Buddhist Rakhine. While the official death toll was 192, Rohingya human rights groups claim that there were over 1,000 killed. Mobs of Rakhine burned entire villages to the ground with over 125,000 Rohingya forcibly displaced without any aid or assistance. A Human Rights Watch report called the incident state-supported "ethnic cleansing”, writing that the government security forces "assisted the killings by disarming the Rohingya of their sticks and other rudimentary weapons they carried to defend themselves”. Many media reports referred to this violence as "sectarian” implying that each party played an equal role in the violence.

President Thein Sein reiterated the following month that, in the eyes of the government, the Rohingya were not citizens of Myanmar and that he wished to hand over the entire ethnic group to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in order to settle them in a different country. Buddhist monks in Mandalay held protests against the Rohingya in which they supported the proposal of the President. 

969 movement

In the past year, while the government has opened up to reform and relations with the West, there has been an expansion of the violence against other Muslim communities. The March riots in Meiktila in central Myanmar which burnt more than 1300 homes in Muslim neighbourhoods and killed 43 people were instigated by Buddhist monks who were part of the 969 movement. The movement, whose spiritual leader is a Buddhist monk named U Wirathu, encourages local people to boycott trade with Muslims and shop only at Buddhist-owned stores which display the number 969, a number which symbolises Buddha's teachings and Buddhist practices. They view Muslims as a threat to the nation. A demonstration in support of U Wirathu saw Buddhist monks carrying banners which read, "Not The Terrorist, But The Protector of Race, Language and The Religion.” The latest violence, in September, has implicated the Kaman Muslims in the Rakhine State, who are recognised as one of the official ethnic groups of Myanmar and granted full citizenship.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the heroine of democracy and human rights, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and daughter of Aung San, has condemned the recent violence against the Muslim community but has remained curiously silent on the suffering of the Rohingya. During a November 2012 BBC interview, when questioned about the Rohingya, Suu Kyi answered, "I am urging tolerance but I do not think one should use one's moral leadership, if you want to call it that, to promote a particular cause without really looking at the sources of the problems." She continues to refer to the Rohingya as "Bengalis”. This is in contrast to remarks by US President Barack Obama at Yangon University during his official visit to Myanmar last November, where he acknowledged the "dignity" and suffering of the "innocent" Rohingya people, a position few inside of Myanmar have been willing to take. 

The continued plight of the Rohingya, both in Myanmar and as refugees abroad, as well as the continued violence against the broader Muslim community stains any democratic reforms in a country which has known little but violence and civil war for the past half-century. The situation is desperate as the violence is only getting worse and expanding to new groups.

Myanmar needs to take a firm stand on the side of human rights, pluralism, and security for all of its citizens, promote the rule of law, and, at a more basic level, recognise the existence and the suffering of the Rohingya. Only then can a democratic Myanmar be recognised as legitimate in the eyes of the international community and its own people.

Harrison Akins is the Ibn Khaldun Chair Research Fellow at American University's School of International Service and assisted Professor Akbar Ahmed on his study, The Thistle and the Drone: How America's War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam (Brookings 2013).

Government restrictions on movement that are imposed only on the Muslim minority population are having a severe impact on the community's health. Myanmar (Burma) 2013 © Kaung Htet/MSF
By Radio Australia
October 18, 2013

In Myanmar's troubled Rakhine state, minority Muslims live under apartheid-like conditions, housed in temporary camps and segregated from the majority Buddhist population.

This has led to a health care crisis as Muslims are subject to strict movement restrictions and local hospitals are known to refuse to treat them.

Presenter:Jared Ferrie

Speaker: Vickie Hawkins, the deputy head of mission, Medecines Sans Frontiers; Myint Aung, villager

FERRIE: In townships around the Rakhine capital of Sittwe, Muslims who need serious medical attention must wait hours and even days before being able to visit the one hospital that will treat them. They are not allowed to visit local hospitals. Instead they must travel to Sittwe General Hospital, which has a special ward for Muslims.

But Muslims are not allowed to travel freely, so aid agencies like Medecines Sans Frontiers must negotiate with local authorities to transport each individual. This can create delays and it's already costed lives, says Vickie Hawkins, the deputy head of mission.

HAWKINS: teams have returned to the field the following day to find the patient has died overnight.

FERRIE: Part of the reason township hospitals won't treat Muslims is that medical staff are afraid.

HAWKINS: We do know of instances where patients have attempted to get into township hospitals or township hospitals have attempted to treat Muslim patients and have been threatened on the basis of it.

FERRIE: Rakhine state has been wracked by clashes between Muslims and Buddhists that first broke out in June last year, and have left more than 140,000 homeless. Most of the displaced are Muslims.

HAWKINS: Important to note that those were communities that had access to the public health care system prior to the violence, but now due to movement restrictions no longer have that access.

FERRIE: The health crisis currently affects only townships around Sittwe, which saw the worst clashes.Mobs started forming in the main town of Thandwe and attacked Muslims in five villages. Police were dispatched but they weren't always successful in protecting the Muslims, according to Myint Aung whose home in Tha Phyu Chai village was burnt to the ground.

MYINT AUNG: Soldier gave the order all of the Muslim have to stay in their home, they will take the action for them, nobody should go out. So all of them, they are hidden in their home.

After that Buddhist mob burnt their houses and destroyed their houses.

FERRIE: Five Muslims were killed in the violence, including an elderly couple in Tha Phyu Chiang who were slashed with machetes.

MYINT AUNG: The man is over 80 years old and the woman over 90 years old. They couldn't run away.

FERRIE: Muslims injured in the violence in Thandwe did receive treatment in township hospitals. But MSF's Victoria Hawkins is worried that they could be denied health care in the future if violence continues.

HAWKINS:: What I would be very concerned about is if health facilities start to come in for the same kind of intimidation or abuse as they do in the areas around Sittwe. The government needs to prevent that from happening.

FERRIE: The government is worried too about the spread of violence in Rakhine. As Muslim homes were burning in Thandwe earlier this month, President Thein Sein visited several communities and pleaded with Buddhist and Muslim leaders to keep the peace.

October 18, 2013

Bangkok - Legislators from across Southeast Asia today called on Aung San Suu Kyi and European Parliamentarians and leaders to use the National League for Democracy (NLD) leader’s visit to Europe to secure greater commitments to tackle persistent human rights concerns in Myanmar, and draw particular focus on growing sectarian conflict and anti-Muslim violence there.

“The underlying tensions that stem from discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities pose a threat to Myanmar’s democratic transition and stability,” said ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) President and Indonesian Member of Parliament Eva Kusuma Sundari.

“There exists an urgent need to address anti-Muslim violence that has spread throughout Myanmar. Calls for action have so far fallen on deaf ears and as fellow parliamentarians in ASEAN, we have consistently offered to contribute in any way possible to help the people of Myanmar resolve this dangerous situation: many of our peers in Europe also feel the same.”

APHR understands that the European Union is in the process of drafting a resolution on the human rights situation in Myanmar to be put before the United Nations General Assembly next month. ASEAN parliamentarians stand behind the effort to again raise important human rights concerns in Myanmar whilst also recognising the political advances made as the country continues its transition to democracy.

Since being elected to Parliament in 2012, Aung San Suu Kyi has come under criticism for failing to tackle serious human rights concerns in her country. But as the de-facto leader of the opposition in Parliament, who also holds considerable sway and respect overseas, she is in a unique position to help broker offers of assistance to the Burmese government, with whom she has developed an effective working relationship, APHR said.

“It is of vital importance that the UN General Assembly resolution on Myanmar not gloss over the great failures of this transition so far: there have been many political advances but the government has systematically failed to improve on almost all of the concerns raised in the UN General Assembly resolution passed in 2012. It’s sincerity in tackling human rights abuses, unfortunately, remains questionable,” said Kraisak Choonhavan, APHR Vice-President.

“Daw Suu and political leaders in Europe must engage with the Myanmar government and ASEAN, through the UN and other international instruments. Thein Sein must be pushed to produce immediate and tangible improvements. Cowered by the threat of the return of military dictatorship and enticed by economic opportunity, the world is allowing ethnic cleansing to take place under its nose. It must stop here. We are all accountable: Daw Suu, Jose Manuel Barossa, David Cameron… everyone.”

Anti-Muslim violence, fuelled by nationalist-Buddhist extremism, has spread throughout Myanmar. On many occasions, security forces have failed to protect Muslim communities from targeted arson attacks and rioting mobs.

The majority of an estimated one million Rohingya Muslims are effectively denied access to citizenship through the controversial 1982 Citizenship Act. The UN General Assembly should press the government of Myanmar to improve access to humanitarian aid to tens of thousands of internally displaced persons across Myanmar, particularly those in Kachin, Shan and Rakhine states, APHR said.

The UN General Assembly must also press the Myanmar government to amend the 1982 Citizenship Act to bring it in line with international standards and to lift all abusive restrictions on ethnic and religious minorities, including Muslims, the organisation of parliamentarians from across ASEAN said.

APHR has received credible reports of continued harassment, arrest and torture of Rohingya populations by state security forces. Some 140, 000 displaced men, women and children are living in makeshift camps with little access to food, healthcare, education and other basic rights and services. Their movement remains restricted and therefore they cannot work to provide for their families, and they are being prevented from returning to the sites of their homes which were destroyed by mobs during communal unrest. Instead, the government is keeping them in camps while developing plans to move them to new areas, segregated from other communities. Also, judicial proceedings in other regions following ant-Muslim riots in Central Burma this year also point to institutionalised racism, with widespread arrests and disproportionately harsh sentences for Muslims.

Aung San Suu Kyi is on her third visit to Europe since being released from house arrest in 2010. She is scheduled to meet officials at the European Parliament in Strasbourg France, before visits to Luxembourg, Belgium, Italy, England and Northern Ireland. The Burmese pro-democracy icon and politician made her first trip overseas in 24 years in June 2012, visiting Thailand and several European countries, including Switzerland, Norway, Ireland, Britain and France.


    • Rohingya Exodus