RB News 

March 31, 2014

Buthidaung, Arakan – The security personnel accompanying the enumerators in Buthidaung Tonwship were very rude, according to locals.

Today the census conducting continued at the village tracts of Watma Kya, Paung Taw Pyin, Say Owe Kya, Wa Ra Kyun, Nga Kyi Daut, Guphi, Guda Pyin, Kyar Nyo Pyin, Thein Taung Pyin in Buthidaung Township of Arakan state. 

The census enumerators asked at least 50 household heads to gather in one house. Once they began they firstly asked the names and second question they asked was the ethnicity. As everyone answered that they are Rohingya, the enumerators stopped asking the questions then. Although they have noted the names of the people, they did so in school writing books and not on the official census forms. In some places the enumerators asked the ethnicity at the doors of the homes and left when the respondents said that they were Rohingya. 

The police who were accompanying the enumerators were very rude and they have used several scolding words while conducting the census. 

“The police were very rude. When we claimed Rohingya, they said “Lee [Penis] Rohingya, don’t you understand that there are no Rohingya in Myanmar? Don’t you understand you can’t write Rohingya here?” They kick the doors, show us the guns and used several scolding words. They took photo of the people whoever claimed Rohingya. Indeed the event was intolerable but we tried our best not to happen anything but the police tried their best to create tension.” a Rohingya told RB News. 

Although the enumerators are against the Rohingyas and they didn’t even sympathize for not counting in the census, they had been served lunch at Rohingyas’ houses. This on top of the fact that the authorities robbed Kyat 2’000 from every household by the name of expenses for the enumerators.

By Richard Potter

Diplomacy Post

March 31, 2014

After much ambiguity and tension it was officially announced by Myanmar’s presidential spokesman, Ye Htut, that Rohingya would not be permitted to identify as Rohingya during the census. This news comes shortly after several NGO offices were attacked in the Rakhine State’s capitol Sittwe, and almost all NGO workers were forced to evacuate. As a result the Rohingya in Sittwe face harsh uncertainty of how they will obtain any of their basic needs, including food rations. Abdul, a resident in the Sittwe IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps, said, “WFP (World Food Program) distributes food for one month here and tomorrow was supposed to be when they distribute, but the Rakhine broke down all the NGO offices in Sittwe. One of our leaders was in contact with WFP staff and they told him they cannot distribute food after attack. Right now all the IDP’s are wondering where they will get food from. Who will help?” The offices were attacked by mobs of the state’s ethnic majority Rakhine, whose political parties have stated that NGO’s favor Rohingya when providing aid. Similarly Rakhine State authorities and the Myanmar Government forced the organization Doctors Without Borders out of Rakhine state last month, effectively cutting off Rohingya from the vast majority of what little medical treatment was available to them. San is a Rohingya woman living in Sittwe’s Aung Minglar Quarter, which is the last remaining Muslim quarter in the city after riots in 2012 displaced Rohingya from the rest of the city into the camps. Aung Minglar quarter is under police and military guard and Rohingya are not allowed to leave without permission and escort from police. San said in regards to Aung Minglar, “MSF (Doctors Without Borders) was here three times a day before they left. Now there are 5,000 people here without them.”

Noor, a man also in Aung Minglar said, “The Government now sends a doctor once a week for four hours. Only the very sick can see him and only on that day. If an emergency happens we will raise money together to have police escort the sick person to Sittwe Hospital, but sometimes there are monks who patrol the hospital and look for Muslims to make them leave.” The expelling of Doctors Without Borders has been decried as an inhumane government policy which was implemented knowingly that it would result in vast numbers of deaths among the Rohingya in the state. On top of withdrawal of aid and medical care Rohingya are also facing tremendous fears over what may happen during the upcoming census. Rakhine have organized protests during the past month over whether Rohingya will be able to self identify in the census. The Rakhine argue that Rohingya are immigrants from Bangladesh and will not acknowledge the term ‘Rohingya’, while Rohingya argue that they are indigenous and they have been in Rakhine State for centuries. There is a strong sentiment that Rohingya do not belong in Rakhine State and should be deported to neighboring Bangladesh.

While protests grew so have reports of intimidation, threats, and harassment by police and Rakhine Authorities against Rohingya to complete the census as ‘Bengali’. On this issue Abdul from the Sittwe camps said “Police contacted the Rohingya in our village, they said you must sign the census as Bengali. When the Rohingya said they would sign their own ethnicity the police said they will be attacked if they do not sign as Bengali.”

Similar reports have been echoed all over the state. Various accounts from the SIttwe camp state that the majority of police in the camps have been replaced or reinforced with Burmese Military. Their willingness or responsibility to protect the camps remains unclear, and has been cause for increased fear among the Rohingya living there.

Arakan Rohingya Union Demands the Government of Myanmar to Enforce the Rule of Law in Arakan and Provide Protection to Rohingya and the Humanitarian Workers

March 31, 2014

Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU) and Rohingya people worldwide demand the Government of Myanmar to enforce its rule of law in Arakan state to the fullest and allow the census process to be completed in a fair and just manner that complies with international standard.

• The Government of Myanmar must not bow to any pressure from radical groups or the state and local officials in Arakan who violate the rule of law.
• The Government of Myanmar must recognize the rights of Rohingya people and allow them to express their ethnic identity just as it recognizes the other ethnic minority groups. Rohingya people have every right to self-determination and the right to retain their ethnic name in the census and the political process.
• The Government of Myanmar must not tolerate violation of the rule of law and intimidation or abuse of Rohingya ethnic groups by the government officials, census enumerators, or any radical groups.
• The Government of Myanmar must explain to the international donors of the census and the international community for not including Rohingya enumerators in census process in Rohingya areas in Arakan state.
• The Government of Myanmar must prosecute the officials and the enumerators who fraudulently and incorrectly fill in or replace the original ethnic name “Rohingya” with Bengali, Kalar, or any other derogatory name.
• The Government of Myanmar must allow all the INGOs and NGOs to return to their respective locations in Arakan state to continue their humanitarian and relief work for all the affected people in Arakan with full security provided to them. The Government must prosecute the mobs that cause harms, security threat, and intimidation to humanitarian workers in Arakan.
• The Government of Myanmar bears solemn responsibility for the safety and well-being of the INGOs, NGOs, and the ethnic Rohingya, irrespective of their race, religion and cultural attributes.

Maungdaw, Arakan – The police and military have been torturing two Rohingyas from Phaung Saik hamlet in Tha Man Thar village tract of Maungdaw Township in Arakan state since 8 am this morning according to locals. 

Today at 8 am a group of enumerators arrived to Phaung Saik hamlet in Tha Man Thar village tract along with 15 Hlun Htaine police and 15 military men. Although the group has to conduct the census by visiting house by house according to the rule of census, they brought all villagers in one place and asked the people to raise their hands up if there anyone who is going to claim Rohingya. All people put their hands up once they were asked. A Rohingya man was then pulled from the crowd by police, and another was pulled by a captain from military. Both Rohingya men were asked who instructed them to claim Rohingya. The men responded that they are Rohingyas by birth, and that their forefathers are Rohingyas. 

Both of the men were seriously beaten by police and military men in front of the crowd. Then they were brought to the high school located in the village and they were placed into wooden stocks. The military captain who beat the Rohingya men is from Battalion No. (536). The men are still being torturing by the military and police as we compile the report. The names of the men are: Bodi Alam S/o Abu Alam and Habas Ahmed S/o Alimodon.

By Shwe Aung & Angus Watson 

Democratic Voice of Burma 

March 30, 2014

Census-taking in Sittwe, Arakan State, will go ahead as of March 31, as a boycott organised by the All Rakhine Committee for the Census (ARCC) has been called off.

The group met with Immigration Minister Khin Yi on Saturday in the wake of last week’s mob violence in Sittwe — where international aid offices were ransacked and looted as an anti-census protest turned ugly.

As per ARCC demands, the Ministry of Information has now instructed census enumerators, who as of Sunday began their task in a selection of townships in Arakan State, not to enter the word “Rohingya” on any census form, regardless of what the subject might indicate.

According to Presidential spokesperson Ye Htut, the term “Rohingya” will not be available to those surveyed.

“It will be acceptable if they write ‘Bengali’,” Ye Htut is reported to have said. “We won’t accept them as ‘Rohingya’.”

Aung Win is an activist and community leader in Aung Mingalar, a Rohingya enclave of 4,000 in Sittwe that exists under strict curfew and 24-hour police protection.

Speaking to DVB on Sunday evening, Aung Win said that enumerators have not yet reached Aung Mingalar but have already interviewed Rohingya families in other areas of Arakan State. He said that in those cases, enumerators have either entered the code for Bengali — 1410 — or left the space blank.

Asked for a reaction by DVB Aung Win said that “we are not boycotting, but we are not satisfied and we have no choice but to move forward with the international community”.

Burma’s western Arakan State is home to the vast majority of the nation’s Rohingya Muslim population, estimated at around 800,000. In Arakan, protests calling for a boycott of the census have been ongoing for several weeks as the government previously rejected calls to forbid the term “Rohingya” from being entered on census questionnaires.

Rakhine Buddhists prefer to use the term “Bengali”, as it reinforces the notion that the Rohingya are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Neither term features on the government’s list of 135 “official races” which provides the basis for citizenship, as per a 1982 ruling.

“As soon as we received confirmation that our needs have been met we stopped our boycott,” ARCC representative Than Htun told DVB on Sunday.

Yet while the shift by the government seems to have facilitated the count going ahead in Arakan state, the government’s new standpoint may now contradict commitments made to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and donor nations.

“In accordance with international standards and human rights principles and as a part of its agreement with the UN and donors, the government has made a commitment that everyone who is in the country will be counted in the census and that all respondents will have the option to self-identify their ethnicity,” the UNFPA stated shortly before the government’s back-flip.

“This commitment cannot be honoured selectively in the face of intimidation or threats of violence,” the UNFPA statement of 28 March read.

The shift by the government has drawn the ire of the UK, who with a contribution of US$16 million is the principle donor to the $60 million census project.

The British Embassy in Rangoon responded to the government’s move by stating that: “The [Burmese] government has committed to run the census in line with international standards, including allowing all respondents the option to self-identify their ethnicity. We are concerned by recent reports that this may not be met.”

Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, believes that the politicisation of ethnicity in Burma is a breach of human rights in itself.

“The problem is not that Rohingya and others are not listed as recognised ethnic groups,” said Farmaner. “The problem is that there is a list at all. All ethnicities should be allowed to self-identify in the census, but this should not be connected with citizenship rights.”

By Human Right Watch

March 29, 2014

New York – Burma’s national government should postpone the planned nationwide census to prevent growing communal violence and attacks on the aid community, Human Rights Watch said today. At greatest risk are vulnerable Muslim communities and aid workers from international organizations.

On March 26, 2014, mobs in Arakan State began attacking international aid organizations, damaging or destroying 14 properties, including offices, residences, and food storage facilities. The organizations quickly evacuated 32 international and 39 Burmese staff from the Arakan provincial capital, Sittwe, on March 28.

“The mob attacks in Arakan State illustrate the risks of proceeding with the census in such a volatile atmosphere,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “The government should suspend the census until it can ensure adequate security and a fair process for everyone involved.”

Burma’s long-awaited census is slated to begin nationwide on March 29, with census surveyors working from March 30 until April 10 to collect basic demographic data on the country’s estimated population of 60 million. Several non-state armed groups have announced they will not permit census-takers access to their territory, including the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), which controls significant swathes of territory along the Burma-China border and is hosting over 40,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the recent conflict. Other ethnic groups, such as the Wa, Pa-O, and Mon, have also expressed concerns over the impact of the census on their areas. Many ethnic minorities have rejected the census as potentially weakening their local political representation or claims to ethnicity if the process undercounts their group.

The census questionnaire includes 41 questions ranging from the number of persons in the household to specifics about age, gender, education level, birth rates, and members of households living overseas. Major controversy has surrounded two categories of questions related to ethnicity and religion: since the initial days of the census planning, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and several key international donors have accepted the Burmese government’s deeply flawed and highly contested classification of its population into “135 national races,” even though listing just the eight main ethnic groups would have given flexibility to a process being conducted in the multi-ethnic country. These ethnic classifications risk exacerbating already vexing identity issues as part of the fragile nationwide ceasefire process, and within very diverse communities in ethnic areas such as Shan State.

Ethnic community groups have also expressed concerns that both the government’s Ministry of Immigration and Population and the UN Population Fund have failed to adequately consult with a broad range of ethnic groups and have conducted the census preparation in a nontransparent, largely unaccountable manner that has discounted critical voices seeking improvements in the process. UNFPA didn’t hold its first consultation with ethnic groups without the presence of government officials until March 17.

“The census is a technical project that has taken on major political overtones and risks inflaming an already tense environment, with particular potential to spark violence against Rohingya Muslims and the foreign aid workers trying to help people in desperate need,” Adams said. “The government and the UN should listen to the concerns of ethnic minorities and go back to the drawing board to make sure they get this process right.”

The national government should act proactively to prevent any renewed violence against the Rohingya Muslim population in Burma’s western Arakan State and against the broader Muslim population throughout Burma, who have been targets of mob attacks since 2012. Many of Burma’s estimated 800,000 Rohingya are stateless because the 1982 citizenship law effectively denies them access to citizenship.

In Sittwe in Arakan State, demonstrations against the census and the government’s agreement to permit the classification “Rohingya” to be put in the ethnic classification box on the census form have been ongoing for several weeks. Community leaders have called on ethnic Arakanese Buddhists to boycott the census, and this call has been spread further by a tour of anti-Muslim extremist Buddhist monks led by U Wirathu, the Mandalay-based leader of the nationalist 969 movement. Demonstrations against Rohingya Muslims being counted in the census have also been held in the commercial capital Rangoon.

Pressures on aid agencies grow

In February, the national government announced the suspension of the international humanitarian aid organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) (Doctors Without Borders), the primary health provider to the Rohingya population since 1992, for alleged breaches of their operating agreement. Human Rights Watch believes the government acted in response to local Arakanese Buddhist pressure to end MSF’s operations providing assistance to Rohingya.

MSF and other humanitarian organizations had been under pressure from Arakanese nationalist groups since the violence in Arakan State in 2012. However, there was an intensifying of criticism following anincident in Du Chee Yar Tan village in Arakan State’s Maungdaw township in January when state security forces killed an unknown number of Rohingya villagers. Despite vociferous denials by Burma’s presidential spokesman, Ye Htut, that the incident took place, MSF publicly stated that their clinic nearby had treated Rohingya with wounds sustained in a violent incident, lending credibility to international media reports. The late March attacks in Sittwe come just days after MSF President Joanne Liu held what she termed an “encouraging dialogue” with national authorities for MSF to resume activities in Arakan State.

“Burma’s government should suspend the census, reformulate its design so that it does no harm, and try again later in a way that won’t fuel communal violence,” Adams said. “Donors have long been privately worried that the census could backfire. They should now be at the forefront of calling for the process to be suspended and then substantially redesigned to assist Burma’s development, not imperil it.”

Background

Burma’s first nationwide census since 1983 is scheduled to be conducted in conjunction with the Ministry of Immigration and Population and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) between March 29 and April 10, 2014. The process will be conducted by approximately 140,000 enumerators and 20,000 supervisors, mostly schoolteachers, throughout Burma in a process that UNFPA has claimed will achieve a “100 percent headcount.”

However, UNFPA and other census supporters have not addressed concerns that after decades of military rule, many people, especially in areas controlled by ethnic minority groups, are highly distrustful of state employees. The Population and Housing Census Act of 2013 makes it illegal to refuse participation in the census or in any way obstruct the process.

The census will ask 41 questions covering basic information about members of each household, and most controversially, questions on ethnicity and religion. Other elements of the census to be collected other than basic headcounts and demographics include: literacy rates, employment levels, disabilities, housing units and conditions, access to clean water, electricity and social amenities, fertility and mortality rates, and internal and international migration. Some critics of the process assert that obtaining data on many of these sensitive subjects should be postponed because of their potential for misuse. More controversial questions could be surveyed at a later date or using different methodology.

Administrators in some parts of the country – such as rebel-controlled areas of Kachin State and special administrative zones controlled by the United Wa State Party – have announced they will not permit census-takers into their zones of control.

The results of the census are scheduled to be released in three stages, with preliminary results being issued in August 2014, the main results being reported in the first quarter of 2015, and subsequent analytical reports being issued in November 2015, which is the planned date for the next nationwide parliamentary elections.

The census is estimated to cost US$74 million, an increase from the original estimate of US$58 million. The Burmese government has committed approximately US$15 million, UNFPA US$5 million, and a consortium of other main donors including the United Kingdom, Australia, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland making up the rest.

Human Rights Watch recommends that the Burmese government:

• Take all necessary steps to prevent further attacks on aid agencies in Arakan State;
• Ensure that local Arakan and national authorities are held accountable for abuses;
• Ensure that security forces protect all communities impartially and ensure that abusive units and personnel are rotated out of the area and replaced with units and commanders who have a proven record of upholding the law and not taking sides in communal violence;
• Take concrete steps to end the culture of impunity prevalent in the security forces, particularly the Myanmar Police Force and including members of the Defense Services, for abuses against Rohingya and other Muslims and other minority groups. Discipline or prosecute as appropriate commanders and security personnel who commit or condone such abuses; and
• Should, if the census goes ahead, release results only if all appropriate action is taken to prevent ethnic or other violence sparked by the results.

Human Rights Watch recommends that donors and others in the international community:

• Call for the suspension of the census until it can be carried out safely and fairly;
• Reduce the number of census questions to avoid sensitive issues of ethnicity and religion that could generate violence and discrimination;
• Call upon the government to only release results of the census if all appropriate action is taken to prevent ethnic or other violence sparked by the results;
• Demand that the authorities take all necessary steps to ensure that humanitarian organizations can operate safely in Arakan State;
• Press the Burmese authorities to immediately rescind local restrictions in Arakan State that limit the rights of Rohingya and other Muslims to movement, work, religion, number of children, and access to health and education; and
• Support the formation of a UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights office in Burma with a full protection, promotion, and technical assistance mandate, and sub-offices in states around the country, including in Arakan State.

By U Ne Oo

March 29, 2014

The Rakhine nationalists' mob attack on international aid workers last week is showing the early signs of genocidal tendency towards Rohingyas. Various international NGOs, including UN World Food Program, had been working in Rakhine State since 1994 refugee repatriation. This is not a simple case of unruly mob randomly attacking INGOs. Clearly, there are underlying political motives on removing/attacking those INGOs. Unless U Thein Sein government put a stop to these mob intimidation and violence, there is potential to escalate into a large scale conflict. Such escalation of conflict will pose a threat to Burma's democratic transitions.

Should such escalation of conflict eventuated to a large scale, it will serve in the interest of RNDP and Rakhine nationalists. Surely, there must be elements within Burmese military who would be watching with intense interest on this situation.

Nationalist Agendas

By removing international aid workers, the Rakhine nationalists think they can silence advocates of Rohingyas. By sabotaging census-collecting process, the Rohingyas will become 'unregistered forever' in the Rakhine State. Should UN WFP were to withdraw from Rakhine State, hardships for Rohingyas will increase and will trigger greater ever flight for them to Bangladesh. These are the kind of simplistic mob agendas which RNDP, Wirathu and PBMU monks are trying to promote.

Some of those who are reasonably well informed about politics, this kind of genocidal agendas are un-thinkable. And some would even say that can never happen in Burma.

Unfortunately, the world's history had proven time and again that such genocides can happen, especially in transition. One example is the rise of nationalist leader Slobodan Milosevic in the 80s in former Yugoslavia. Once this kind of natiolanist leader is in power, it is sure to have much political violence and bloodshed.

Intolerance -- the early signs

What we have repeatedly seen in Rakhine State in particular and in proper Burma at large is the form of racial and religious intolerance against a minority group. As I mentioned before, this kind of intolerance will be resonating with greater majority of Burmese masses. The populist Monk Wirathu and nationalist groups like RNDP will ride on the waves of such intolerance using freedom of speech as a vehicle. Needless to say, there are such populist and racist elements are within even in Australia with the same secenario for riding the tides of intolerance.

Then again, in a democratic and open society, such a freedom of speech MUST be allowed. In comparison to a mature democracy like Australia, Burma in a transitional state does not have a proper balancing powers. In Australia, for example, certain populist leaders within Executive Powers can impose racist laws as measures to margnialise minorities. In such case, there will be opposition by civil society -- reflected in Parliament and Senate, reinforced by regular and periodic general elections -- and a challenge at the High Court (Constitutional Court of Australia). As such, the excesses of Executive Powers can be put on a break by the other balancing powers.

The danger Burma is facing now is not having such balancing powers. At the end of the day, people like Wirathu and group like RNDP which has racist agendas will be Burma in the future. U Thein Sein government, for a short and medium term therefore, should put in place strong protection for international aid workers and their operations. The freedom of speech is to be allowed but incitation of mob violence should not be tolerated. The rights to organize and assemble is to be respected, but those with intent to break the laws and initiate violence must be punished.

For the long term though, Burma will need an independence of judiciary, and especially setting up of a Constitutional Court. For example, the interfaith marriage laws which proposed by PBMU, even if being approved by the Burmese Parliament, should be scrutinized and challenged at the Constitutional Court. As we can see, the democracy is not all about 'majoritarian rule'. And certainly, the democratic political leadership isn't quite the same as populist mob-leadership. In democracy, while the freedom of speech is allowed, the rights of minority must be protected. A true political leadership must rise above those mob agendas. Otherwise, Burma's transition will fail.

Future for INGOs

For the INGOs and UN, I think this is about time to ponder forming a consortium of some sort for their humanitarian work in Burma. Whilst there have been set-backs in their operations, they should not be discouraged. Those who have Burma expertise should now formulate a policy of reintegrating Rohingyas and development of Rakhine State as a whole. 

I also think those community and resistance leaders in exile & resistance should also look for models of reintegration for their respective displaced people. For example, Karen and Kachin community leaders in particular; they should look at finding international assistance when ceasefire and peace previals in Burma. Obviously, for refugees in Thailand and elsewhere, the resettlement option is limited and, definitely, not for everybody: I heard years ago, a Karen refugee individual who took suicide option when resettlement to abroad was for him (He's not insane -- I dare say).

RB News 

March 29, 2014 

Myanmar presidential spokesman is violating the census law, enacted by union parliament on July 29th 2013, and is forcing the Rohingyas not to register as Rohingya, but Bengali. 

Rohingyas responded by saying that the statements by Ye Htut are illegal and Rohingyas will participate in the census according to the census law. Today Myanmar presidential spokesman told the local media in Yangon that if a household claimed the term Rohingya, the enumerator will not register it, but will only register if the household claimed Bengali. 

Many Rohingyas in Arakan State told RB News that they have been living in Arakan for many centuries and they are an indigenous ethnic group of Arakan State. They welcome the census, which starts on March 30th, after three decades since the last time one was taken. Many have said they won’t accept being forced to register as something which they are not. They have said they will not work with the enumerators if they will not register the term Rohingya. They will only answer the questions if the enumerators accepted the term Rohingya. 

What was said by Ye Htut to the media was illegal and it was against the law. The census law article 16 (C) clearly said no one can threaten or persuade the people to write something in the census form. 

Therefore, the Rohingyas are ready to answer according to the census law, but they will not answer if the term Rohingya is not allowed, many said even if they are threatened with guns. 

The authorities are not only violating the census law, but they are collecting money from the Rohingyas in Arakan like robbers for census fees, even though the required funding for the census is sponsored by Myanmar government, UN and western countries. 

Today the meeting with President Thein Sein and 63 political parties in Yangon was to negotiate for the peace in the country and to develop the economic in the nation. And also to dialogue with all parties for the nationwide ceasefires and peace in the country but the president didn’t even mention a word relating to the upcoming census. 

However, Ye Htut had collaborated with the media to fuel the tension in Arakan state and told the media about the census which is not his business and his announcement was contradicted the law.

By AFP

March 29, 2014

Sittwe, Myanmar - Myanmar said Saturday that Muslims would not be allowed to register as "Rohingya" in its first census in three decades despite UN assurances, on the eve of a survey that has fanned sectarian tensions.

The move came as Buddhists in an unrest-hit western state vowed to boycott the census over fears it could lead to official recognition for the Rohingya, viewed by the United Nations as among the world's most persecuted minorities.

"If a household wants to identify themselves as 'Rohingya', we will not register it," government spokesman Ye Htut told reporters in Yangon.

He said people could call themselves "Bengali", a term used by the authorities who view most Rohingya as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

Foreign aid workers fled the restive western state of Rakhine this week after Buddhist mobs attacked their offices as tensions escalated in the run up to the census.

An 11-year-old girl was killed by a stray bullet after police fired warning shots to disperse angry crowds in the state capital Sittwe.

Humanitarian workers in the region have come under increasing pressure from Buddhist nationalists who accuse them of bias in favour of local Muslims.

The United Nations is pulling some 50 international and Myanmar staff from the region, while other major humanitarian groups are also removing their workers temporarily.

Households across Sittwe were seen Saturday bearing signs declaring: "This house is protesting against the census. Do not register".

Myanmar's first census since 1983, which is set to begin on Sunday and last for 12 days, is backed by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and is aimed at plugging an information deficit in the former junta-run country.

The population tally has come under fire for its inclusion of ethnic and religious questions, which critics say will further fan the flames of unrest and threaten fragile peace talks with minority rebel groups.

Buddhist nationalists have reacted with fury to the fact that the questionnaire includes a section for people to self-identify their ethnicity, theoretically allowing the Rohingya to be registered as such and raising fears it could lead to political rights for the group.

But government officials in the state have sought to assure them that the term will not be counted, according to local MP Aung Mya Kyaw.

"They will only write down 'Bengali' because Rohingya doesn't exist," he told AFP. 

Long-standing animosity between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine erupted into bloodshed in 2012, leaving dozens dead in clashes and around 140,000 people displaced.

Muslims in remote parts of Rakhine have reported that the authorities have threatened local people with harsh penalties if they try to identify as Rohingya.

The Rohingya are subject to a web of restrictions on travel, work and even marriage.

By Democratic Voice of Burma

March 28, 2014

The European Union and the United States expressed “deep concern” on Thursday evening after mobs of Arakanese Buddhists attacked homes and offices of humanitarian aid workers in the capital of Burma’s western Arakan State.

Seventy-one aid workers, who provide essential health and other services, have been evacuated; some were flown to Rangoon while others remain under police protection in Sittwe.

“We are very concerned by the wave of hostilities targeting international organisations which provide essential assistance to local communities and the most vulnerable in the Rakhine [Arakan] State of Myanmar,” read a joint statement by Kristalina Georgieva, EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, and Andris Piebalgs, EU Commissioner for Development.

“We call upon the people of Sittwe, and the Rakhine State, to co-operate fully with the competent authorities in order to restore the safety of relief workers and the security of international assistance operations.”

Similarly, the US Embassy in Rangoon issued a press statement denouncing the “lack of adequate security forces and rule of law on the ground in Sittwe, and Rakhine State more broadly, to prevent the outbreak and spread of violence and to protect aid workers, their offices, and other vulnerable populations in the area.”

On Wednesday night, mobs of Arakanese Buddhists gathered around the offices of Malteser International, a Germany-based NGO that provides humanitarian aid, after hearing that a foreign staff member removed a Buddhist flag from the balcony of the building. The crowd began throwing stones at the building, which broke windows and caused other damage to the property.

“All windows were smashed with rocks,” Malteser’s country coordinator, Johannes Kaltenbach, told DVB on Thursday, a day after the initial incident.

Kaltenbach said that as the violence escalated, staff fled the premises and sought police protection, while the mob moved on to other humanitarian aid offices, which received “the same treatment”. 

The crowd was eventually dispersed by security forces, who fired warning shots into the air. Local media has reported that an 11-year old girl was fatally injured by a stray bullet, though this has not been independently confirmed. 

Rioting continued the following morning, and by late afternoon all aid workers in the town had fled their homes and offices, our sources said. 

UN aid agencies such as UNICEF and UNOCHA, as well as the World Food Programme, were also targeted in what rights defenders say is a larger movement against all international aid in the state, which over the past two years has suffered several rounds of communal violence between Buddhists and Muslims, the latter bearing most of the damages. 

Several demonstrations against aid workers in the region illustrate the widespread distrust of foreign aid workers, which many Arakanese believe are favouring Muslims. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) was recently evicted from the state after a series of targeted protests. President’s spokesperson Ye Htut told DVB at the time that MSF’s activities were “fuelling tensions and are detrimental to the rule of law” in the area.

“Arakanese Buddhist animus towards Muslims has reached fever-point,” said David Mathieson, senior Burma researcher for Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, “and seeing as the violence of 2012 cleansed central Sittwe of Muslims the mobs are taking it out on international aid workers erroneously cast as only assisting Rohingya.”

International voices have thus far been unanimous in denouncing the Burmese authorities for weak protection of humanitarian aid workers and vulnerable populations in Arakan State.

“The international community has to stand together and condemn these attacks against humanitarian agencies, as they should have done when MSF’s operations were suspended, and demand the national government take all measures to ensure the safety and integrity of humanitarian operations or abrogate its responsibilities as a rational government,” said Mathieson.

By Hereward Holland

Al Jazeera

March 28, 2014

An upcoming census tracking religious and ethnic statistics could renew unrest.

Yangon, Myanmar - Huddling for shade under parasols and skinny trees, hundreds of people gathered in the searing heat to listen to comedians Zee Thee and Sein Thee in Myanmar's western Delta region.

"A nationwide census, let's all participate," shouted Zee Thee from the top of a wobbling tour bus in the small town of Kangyidong.

Despite Zee Thee's enthusiasm, advanced survey software and legions of trained enumerators, not everybody will participate in the nationwide census aimed to take place on March 30.

Large portions of Myanmar's restive borderlands, home to a constellation of armed ethnic groups, are beyond the reach of census officials and their clipboards.

"Most of the civilians, they don't want it. This is not the right time to collect the data because of our ongoing peace process," said Ja Seng Hkaun Maron, a member of Kachin civil society.

Meanwhile, many, including government officials, are worried the sensitive questions over ethnicity and religion could prompt renewed unrest in parts of the country where little provocation is needed.

As Myanmar rolls back half-a-century of totalitarianism, a thuggish brand of Buddhist chauvinism has been unleashed.

Extremist anti-Muslim monk Wirathu and his followers believe Myanmar's Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group numbering upwards of one million people, should not be allowed to identify themselves on the census.

Earlier this month, the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres was expelled from Rakhine - a coastal area located in the far west of the country - for reporting that it treated victims of an alleged massacre of the Rohingya.

This week, a mob of Buddhists opposed to the Rohingya's participation in the census, attacked offices and houses used by international aid groups.

'Recognition brings power'

The Rohingya are not included in the list of 135 recognised ethnic groups.

The group fears that ticking the "other" box on the census will threaten their eligibility for citizenship, while not being identified as Rohingya will leave their community underrepresented.

Local officials fear the census' ethnic data could provoke further bloodshed because ethnic recognition brings power.

"Putting the name of a people that don't exist will cause violence. But if they're counted as Bengali, there won't be any problems," said the Rakhine Affairs Minister Zaw Aye.

This week state officials told residents of Aung Mingalar, an internally displaced persons' (IDP) camp for Rohingya who have fled sectarian violence, to leave some sections of the census blank.

"They cannot decide what to do… people are frightened," said Kyaw Min, president of the Democracy and Human Rights Party, a political party made up of mainly Rohingya.

Ministerial positions in local parliament are given to constituencies above a certain population threshold. Buddhist nationalists see the Rohingya's census count as the thin edge of the wedge for citizenship.

The government denies the data will be used for that purpose.

"The government asked [the Rohingya] to fill the forms without the race and religion columns. So people are in a dilemma," said Kyaw Min.

Manipulated ethnicity

The United Nations Population Fund and the national government are more upbeat. They say the headcount will help allocate the nation's budget and resources.

At an enumeration-training centre in Kangyidaunt township, dozens of teachers in grey aprons are schooled in collecting census data and asking census-related questions.

Frederick Okwayo, a census adviser to the Department of Population, perused the coding list of 135 ethnic groups.

"For any planning, be it planning for basic education, planning for health services, planning for housing, you need [to know] how many people are there," Okwayo said.

Even so, many are concerned about foul play in a country where the government has a history of manipulating ethnicity for political goals.

Civil society groups and think-tanks agree such sensitive personal questions are unnecessarily divisive in a country fractured by race and religion.

Kyaw Thu, head of the civil society consortium Paung Ku, told the Thailand-based Irrawaddy magazine that only demographic information is necessary for development planning.

"If development is the priority, the data of headcounts - the numbers of people and the age group - is enough to conduct economic projects," he told the magazine.

Divided

Ethnic minority groups constitute some 40 percent of Myanmar's population. Many minority groups say the list of the 135 ethnicities, which dates back to the early 1980s, is arbitrary and inaccurate.

Some major ethnic minority groups, such as the Kachin and Chin people, fear they could be denied political representation because their communities are subdivided, misclassified or clumped together with other unrelated groups.

For the Kachin - a Christian and Buddhist ethnic group in Myanmar's northeast - three of the ethnic classifications refer to geographical areas rather than the ethnic groups.

The Chin people, who primarily reside in the northwest, are divided into 53 categories, many of them using village or clan names.

In Shan State, located in the east, the Palaung, Lahu and Intha are included as subdivisions of Shan ethnicity but they are not related by race or language.

"[People] might be worried about the use of the information," said Khu Khu Ju, from the Karen Human Rights Group. "They will find it difficult to trust the census and what are the benefits to them? There's no clear answer to that."

Call to arms?

According to Brussels-based think-tank International Crisis Group, there are strong indications that at four percent, the percentage of Muslims was heavily underreported during the last census in 1983.

Al-haj U Aye Lwin from the Islamic Centre of Myanmar said the real number was closer to 10 percent.

"The four percent figure is absolutely wrong. They wanted to underestimate everything to prove that Burma is Buddhist," he said.

"We will give them the correct data because it will help to make plans for our nation-building. We hope that the correct data comes out."

However, danger lies in updating this historical fallacy: The corrected figures could be interpreted as a three-fold increase in the Muslim population - a potentially hazardous call to arms for Wirathu's extremist disciples.

Few seem happy about being counted under the present conditions. As the census approaches, comedian Zee Thee has little to laugh about.

RB News 

March 28, 2014 

Maungdaw, Arakan – Although the expenses for upcoming census are sponsored by The Myanmar government, UN and western countries, the local authorities in Maungdaw district are forcing the Rohingyas to pay for what they are claiming are census expenses. 

The village administrator Sayed Alam, of Kan Pu village in southern Maungdaw Township of Arakan, state has asked every Rohingya household to pay Kyat 3’000, as he was ordered by the Township administrator Kyi San. The money he asked for is said to be for census expenses. Moreover, other Rohingyas in other villages also had to pay money for census expenses. In some villages it was reported that only the people who can afford the cost were selected to pay. 

Similarly, Nga Yant Chaung (Taungbazar) village tract administrator of Kaung Sein Hla in Buthidaung Township is asking for 3.4 million Kyat from the Rohingyas of 17 hamlets. He said every hamlet must pay 200,000 Kyat for census expenses. When the villagers inquired about this with him he said he was instructed by Buthidaung Township administrator, Than Shwe. 

The Rohingya people in Kyauk Phyu Thar Thay Kan village tract and Thay Kan Khwa Sone village tract were also forced to pay some money in the name of census expenses. 

Although UNFPA issued a statement that everyone has right to self-identify their ethnicity, the local authorities are still threatening that the enumerators will not collect the data from the people who claimed Rohingya.

Additional reporting by MYARF.

PRESS RELEASE: UNFPA Statement on Myanmar Census and Violence in Rakhine State

UNFPA

March 28, 2014 

YANGON — UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is very concerned about the mob attacks on international NGO and UN offices in Sittwe yesterday, and supports the call by the UN Resident Coordinator/Humanitarian Coordinator (a.i.) on the Government to ensure the protection of the humanitarian and development community in Rakhine State. 

• All UNFPA staff are accounted for and safe. UNFPA will retain essential staff, and will continue to assess the need for any further action as the situation develops. 
• UNFPA is concerned by reports linking the riots to mounting tensions in Rakhine State in relation to the Myanmar census, which is due to begin on March 30. 
• In accordance with international standards and human rights principles, and as part of its agreement with the UN and donors, the Government has made a commitment that everyone who is in the country will be counted in the census, and all respondents will have the option to self-identify their ethnicity. This commitment cannot be honoured selectively in the face of intimidation or threats of violence. 
• Reliable census data can only come from an enumeration in which the safety and security of enumerators and respondents is assured. Respondents must feel safe to answer all questions freely, and enumerators must be able to record the answers faithfully, without fear or intimidation. 
• Official actions to address security concerns during the census must not compromise the commitment to uphold international standards and human rights principles. Any measure adopted must guarantee the right of all people to participate in a census that is conducted in a fair, inclusive and uniform manner in every state and for every community. 

For more information, please contact:

William A. Ryan, ryanw@unfpa.org, mobile +66 89 897 6984; or

Malene Arboe-Rasmussen, arboe-rasmussen @ unfpa.org, tel. +95 1 5429 109 ext. 146, mobile +95 9 2500 26961

By Amal de Chickera

Open Democracy

March 28, 2014

If the production of refugees was an industry, Myanmar would be among the world’s market leaders. And of all its products the Rohingya would be one of the most lucrative. A niche but growing market of global proportions, the culmination of decades of tireless endeavour to hone a specialist craft.

If the production of refugees was an industry, Myanmar would be among the world’s market leaders. In the creation of the product, the Burmese regime has pulled out all the stops and ended up with something unique.

For the Rohingya are more than refugees. They are also stateless, they are considered illegal immigrants (though they are not), they are seen as outsiders, they are feared and hated by other Burmese. The discrimination, persecution and abuse they endure invoke human rights law, humanitarian law and international criminal law. Their history has been denied and so is their future. Their identity, ethnicity and membership have been questioned, scrutinised, erased. 

If we didn’t know better, we’d think they were a fiction, an imagined people, a dream. Their voices have been silenced by denying them the tools of language – education, freedom, information. Those among them who are brave and privileged enough to speak out have been dismissed, their credibility questioned. Their friends are at best notional and their enemies take their job very seriously. They are seen as a problem and behind closed doors, in barely audible whispers, masked men with ulterior motives would admit that they would like to make the problem go away. 

The Rohingya are eternal refugees. Their vulnerability has been designed using state-of-the-art methods, with a universal lifetime guarantee that remains valid across borders and generations. So perfect is the creation that countries to which they flee rarely integrate them, and where they do it is only by accident, with reluctance or solely due to the perseverance of the Rohingya and the kindness of local people, not governments. So perfect, that resettlement doesn’t figure as a solution. 

No one wants them. Not Myanmar, not Bangladesh, not Malaysia, not Thailand, not Australia, not the UK, not the USA, not the EU. The Rohingya are the ultimate refugees: ones with no place to go. If the production of refugees was an industry, Myanmar would not have to plunder its environment to satiate its economic appetite. 

A profitable business

The creation and existence of refugees can be a very profitable business. Profitable to politicians who sell fear and hatred, traffickers who sell escape and promises of a future, state authorities who sell protection and security. The persecution of refugees by repressive states also creates a dilemma for the profit oriented. It tarnishes their image to deal with repressive states; it undermines their geo-political leverage. There is a correlation between refugees and business, but it is not an industry.

Neither is it an issue of national security, although it is increasingly perceived as such. The mighty state demonstrates hysteria and fear at the sight of the vulnerable, starving, hopeless Rohingya woman and her child in a half sinking boat in the middle of the ocean. She is intercepted. She is pushed back. She is helped on. 

She is detained. Not on the territory of the mighty state - that would be far too risky - but on a barely inhabited island. She is detained. She who has lost everything; her nationality, her dignity, her family, her home. She is detained in a detention centre on an island. The production of refugees is not an industry, but detention is.

The production of refugees is not an industry, but perhaps it serves as a test. If so, the production of Rohingya refugees is a very difficult test. It tests our resolve, our integrity, our courage, our humanity. It is a test we are failing. If only we could take a re-sit. If only it were that simple. If only each passing day of inaction, indifference, hypocrisy, exclusion, discrimination and further persecution did not cost human lives. 

They must be a threat

Well over a million Rohingya refugees have been produced. No one knows the exact number. They are not important enough to be counted. Bangladesh boasts a population of 300,000 – 500,000. Saudi Arabia, 400,000 – 700,000. The Malaysian population is in the tens of thousands. Unquantified populations live in India, Pakistan and throughout the Middle East. None of these countries have ratified the refugee convention or the statelessness conventions. To them, this is not a protection issue. There is no protection framework through which it can be approached. 

Thus, the Rohingya are seen through a different lens, a lens which fits the frameworks already in place. Their story is shaped, their credibility undermined, their legitimacy questioned. Just as Myanmar has denied the history of the Rohingya, these countries deny their suffering. There is no refugee protection framework or statelessness determination procedure, so they must be ‘illegal’ economic migrants. They must be opportunistic and conniving. They must be an economic threat, a security threat, a threat. 

Pull factor

The inaction of states, their failure to protect is justified using sophisticated jargon filled arguments. ‘Pull factor’ is possibly the most widely used. ‘We will tolerate them but we cannot protect them – if we do, more will arrive, our kindness will pull them to us like moths to a flame.’ Never mind the persecution they face in Myanmar. Never mind the incredible dangers of the boat journey. Never mind the massive financial burden that drowns them in a lifetime of debt. It is the ‘pull factor’ that counts. 

When the ‘pull factor’ argument is used, the opportunity cost of not protecting the vulnerable is never factored in. What is the cost of having a large, growing, disenfranchised, vulnerable and ‘illegal’ population in country? What is the cost to the individual, and what is the cost to the state? 

The inaction of states receiving Rohingya refugees has caused a regional stalemate. No one is willing to break it. The persecuted individual continues to suffer on new shores as a result. Imported vulnerability becomes home-grown vulnerability with the passing of a generation. Rohingya children born in Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand and other countries are not allowed to access the nationality of these countries. Many are not even registered at birth. The cost of protracted, inter-generational statelessness is profound. Denied the right to work, to access education and healthcare, Rohingya refugee families live vulnerable, insecure and poverty-stricken lives. Illiteracy and poverty grow with every generation. The snow-ball effect of inter-generational statelessness should not be underestimated. 

No dignity is afforded them

Discrimination too follows the Rohingya, remains with them, sticks to them. Their lack of legal status, their lack of a nationality, their foreignness, their otherness – these are all factors that play a role. Discrimination impacts on their access to basic human rights. It also impacts on their dignity. It is not intended that the Rohingya have dignity. They are unwanted, tolerated at best. 

The Rohingya do not have many options. Persecuted in Myanmar, discriminated against and excluded elsewhere, they are not allowed to live normal lives, do normal jobs, have normal dreams. They have been forced into the periphery; unregulated, unprotected, unsafe. 

They are then blamed for living on the margins, as if it were their choice to take a dangerous boat journey, work an unsafe job, live an undocumented existence. As if they turned down the much cheaper and safer economy class plane ticket, the much more secure legitimate job, the much sought after birth certificate. 

The states that receive large Rohingya refugee populations should not be singled out. The Rohingya issue is an international one. We all have a responsibility. The states that can take more Rohingya refugees through resettlement programmes, the states that can use their influence over Myanmar to push for the protection of their rights, the states that are members of the United Nations. They all have a responsibility to protect.

Where there is a will, it should shared

This situation cannot continue. Myanmar must get its act together. It is the source of the problem. The creation of refugees is not an industry. In fact, it must be seen as a barrier to other industry. Economic relations with Myanmar should be conditional upon its treatment of all persons, all minorities, even of the Rohingya. Rohingya-receiving states must take on more responsibility too. Their inaction amounts to complicity. Their failure to protect the Rohingya has a dual impact – Rohingya refugees remain unprotected and their offspring, born in new countries are born into new vulnerability, new statelessness. The international community at large must step up. Their silence, their half-hearted statements, their mixed messages must end. Stronger, more principled intervention is required. 

There are no easy solutions, not because they are not obvious, but because there is no real political will across the boards to resolve this situation; to protect the most vulnerable. States need to accept their individual responsibility but also to push each other into shared responsibility. 

The production of refugees is not an industry, but the protection of refugees is an obligation. It is not a profitable one to undertake, but a costly one to ignore. Costly to the individual, to the state and to our collective humanity.

By Charlie Campbell

TIME

March 27, 2014

Proposed discriminatory laws are the latest escalation in persecution of Muslims and a political ploy to secure Buddhist votes ahead of polls in 2015

Last March, sectarian riots roiled Central Burma and at least 48 people, mainly Muslims, were slaughtered by machete-wielding thugs. Buddhist monks spurred on frenzied mobs in an orgy of bloodshed that will be forever indelible in the minds of the Southeast Asian nation’s Muslim minority. The violence spread to a further 11 townships.

One year on, thousands remain homeless and animosity is entrenched. “It is not stable and conditions are still very dangerous,” says Aung Thein, a 51-year-old Muslim lawyer in Meiktila, a central Burmese town of 100,000 people, where at least five mosques and more than 800 homes were razed to the ground. “Extremists use hate speech every day and Muslims are not safe.”

Adding to this already fraught picture, new legislation threatens to isolate the Muslims further. Proposed regulations will restrict religious conversions, make it illegal for Buddhist women to marry Muslim men, place limits on the number of children Muslims can have, and outlaw polygamy, which is permitted in Islam.

More than 1.3 million signatures have reportedly been gathered in support of this plan, which is spearheaded by a group of extremist Buddhist monks and their lay supporters. The proposals wereforwarded by reformist President Thein Sein to Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann late last month, and have now been submitted to relevant ministries to be drafted as bills. They have been dubbed an “intolerance package” by Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, who says they would be a “recipe for disaster for a multicultural, multi-religious country like Burma.”

As part of the marriage proposal, those of other religions must convert to Buddhism before marrying a Buddhist, and seek written consent of the bride’s parents. (The consent of the groom’s parents is not required, for it is assumed the non-Buddhist party is always the groom.) Any non-Buddhist who ignores the regulations will be hit with a 10-year prison sentence and confiscation of property.

The proposals are merely the latest incarnation of spiraling religious extremism that has gripped Burma (officially known as Myanmar) since quasi-democratic rule was introduced in 2010. In June 2012, pogroms against the heavily persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority in the country’s far western Arakan state led to more than 280 deaths. Even today, some 140,000 Rohingya languish in squalid displacement camps, where they struggle to receive medical care or sufficient food.

The government maintains the fiction that the Rohingya are illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh — when, in fact, they have lived in Burma for generations — and so has painted the carnage as anti-migrant in nature, with Buddhist Burmese merely resisting land grabs from Muslim interlopers. However, the violence that erupted in Meiktila last March — spreading to Shan State and even parts of Rangoon, the former capital and biggest city — did not involve the Rohingya, and therefore suggests that religion rather than supposed land scarcity is fostering this simmering acrimony.

An extremist Buddhist movement known as 969, led by the charismatic monk Wirathu, has been gathering steam in recent years, and portrays Burma’s Muslim population as intent on conquering the nation through rampant propagation. The group’s hate-filled rhetoric speaks of “protecting” Burmese women and it has led calls for the boycotting of Muslim businesses. Naturally, it enthusiastically champions the proposed discriminatory legislation.

“We found on the ground in almost every township that there are [Buddhist] women who were forced to convert to another religion,” Wirathu told The Irrawaddy in January. “We need to have an interfaith marriage law to protect them.”

Ashin Gambira, a former monk who spent four years as a political prisoner after fronting the 2007 pro-democracy Saffron Revolution, believes Wirathu is being used as a political tool. “The Burmese government is always trying to cause unrest among the Burmese people,” he says. “The government supports and donates money to 969.”

Robertson says anti-Islamic feeling must be seen in light of elections in 2015, in the run up to which various elements “are trying to whip up divisive sentiment to garner support, which is really dangerous and ill-advised.”

Tellingly, when Thein Sein told the U.N. that the Rohingya would not be given citizenship and should be deported, his popularity soared and crowds waved banners extolling his steadfastness — adulation previously inconceivable for a former junta general. Presenting himself as the only feasible foil to Islamization would appear to be a naked political ploy on Thein Sein’s part, with his military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party preparing to face off at the ballot box with the National League for Democracy (NLD) of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Compounding matters, a new national census is about to begin, run by the U.N. Population Fund and the Naypyidaw government at a cost of some $75 million. The last official census in 1983 put the Muslim population at 4% of the total, although the many mosques and madrasas to be found in virtually every Burmese urban center indicates this is a significant underestimate. (Experts suggest 10%.)

Unfortunately, the sectarian turmoil “could intensify if the results of the 2014 census shows non-Buddhist populations have markedly expanded since the last national census was held in 1983,” writesprofessor emeritus of Asian Studies at Georgetown University David I. Steinberg in the Asia Times. Such evidence would naturally bolster extremist arguments that social and population curbs on Muslims are needed.

Unfortunately, not even Suu Kyi — a human rights icon after spending 15 years as a political prisoner — appears brave enough to speak out against the proposed legislation or to confront extremist elements. To do so would be political suicide. Last month, the NLD canceled a party meeting at the behest of a group of monks. The reason? Two of the four speakers were Muslim.