By Maung Zarni and Alice Cowley

Abstract: Since 1978, the Rohingya, a Muslim minority of Western Burma, have been subject to a state-sponsored process of destruction. The Rohingya have deep historical roots in the borderlands of Rakhine State, Myanmar, and were recognized officially both as citizens and as an ethnic group by three successive governments of post-independence Burma. In 1978, General Ne Win’s socialist military dictatorship launched the first large-scale campaign against the Rohingya in Rakhine State with the intent first of expelling them en masse from Western Burma and subsequently legalizing the systematic erasure of Rohingya group identity and legitimizing their physical destruction. This on-going process has continued to the present day under the civilian-military rule of President Thein Sein’s government. Since 2012, the Rohingya have been subject to renewed waves of hate campaigns and accompanying violence, killings and ostracization that aim both to destroy the Rohingya and to permanently remove them from their ancestral homes in Rakhine State.

Findings from the authors’ three-year research on the plight of the Rohingya lead us to conclude that Rohingya have been subject to a process of slow-burning genocide over the past thirty-five years. The destruction of the Rohingya is carried out both by civilian populations backed by the state and perpetrated directly by state actors and state institutions. Both the State in Burma and the local community have committed four out of five acts of genocide as spelled out by the 1948 Convention on the Punishment and Prevention of the Crime of Genocide. Despite growing evidence of genocide, the international community has so far avoided calling this large scale human suffering genocide because no powerful member states of the UN Security Council have any appetite to forego their commercial and strategic interests in Burma to address the slow-burning Rohingya genocide.

The Slow-Burning Genocide Of Myanmar's Rohingya

Immediate Changes Needed in U.S. – Burma Policy

United to End Genocide President Tom Andrews Testifies at Congressional Hearing on Disturbing Human Rights Abuses, Signs of Genocide in Burma

July 9, 2014

Speaking today at a U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing, “Spotlighting Human Rights in Southeast Asia,” President and CEO of United to End Genocide, Tom Andrews, urged lawmakers to condemn the disturbing trends in Burma and hold the government and military leaders of Burma fully accountable. 

Andrews said, “The United States cannot ignore the acute risk of genocide in Burma’s Rakhine State, nor the broader anti-Muslim violence that has spread across the country, nor the ongoing serious human rights abuses against ethnic minority groups. 

Holding the government and military leaders accountable, should include establishing a moratorium on any further concessions and rewards – including suspending diplomatic and military visits and trade benefits until urgent issues are addressed including restoring vital health care services, opening a UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and allowing credible investigations that include the international community.”

Andrews praised the Committee, led by Chairman Royce (R-CA) and Ranking Member Eliot Engel, for its leadership in passing H. Res. 418, “Urging the Government of Burma to end the persecution of the Rohingya people.”

He encouraged Members of Congress to support H.R. 4377, the “Burma Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2014” introduced by Congressman Steve Chabot (R-OH), which would restrict security assistance to Burma unless the Secretary of State certified improvements in human rights and civilian oversight of the military.

Andrews concluded, “As we have seen, strong and consistent pressure on those in power in Burma works - it made reform in Burma possible. And it’s needed immediately for the sake of the Rohingya and all ethnic minorities under attack in Burma today.”

Mr. Andrews full written testimony is available at:

http://endgenocide.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Burma-Congressional-Testimony-by-Tom-Andrews-for-House-Foreign-Affairs-Committee.pdf

By Khin Su Wai

The Myanmar Times

July 9, 2014

Many of Mandalay’s Muslims are staying away from mosques – and some have even fled the city – as fear grips their community that further sectarian violence could ignite at any time.

“I don’t know what the situation is for security of the mosques; I haven’t been to the mosque since July 2,” one Muslim man, who asked not to be named, told The Myanmar Times.

The man said many Muslims feel defenceless against the threat posed by Buddhist mobs, particularly after authorities raided June mosque and seized makeshift weapons. State media reported that sticks and swords, as well as seemingly innocuous items like marbles, were found inside the building, which occupies a block between 27th, 28th, 81st and 82nd streets in Chan Aye Thar San township.

Five people were subsequently arrested at June mosque, police said. Police also found similar items inside other mosques, including Ko Yan Taw mosque, which is also in Chan Aye Thar San township.

The man, who prays at Ko Yan Taw mosque, insisted that the items had only been gathered in order to defend the lives of Muslims if there was an attack. “We cannot defend ourselves despite the threats to our lives. Now we are afraid of even holding a piece of brick,” he said.

The unrest broke out after rumours spread that a Buddhist woman had been raped by two Muslim men from a local teashop. It spread quickly through social media, prompting a crowd of hundreds to gather near the business, hurling stones and damaging property.

Clashes on the nights of July 1 and 2 left one Muslim and one Buddhist dead and almost 20 injured, according to police.

Mandalay Region Minister for Border Affairs and Security Colonel Aung Kyaw Moe said on July 3 that police were patrolling areas near mosques to prevent outbreaks of violence but had not posted security.

He said two police battalions along with constabulary police are ensuring security.

But the secretary of the board of trustees of Ko Yan Taw mosque insisted that Muslims should have the means to defend themselves if necessary.

“We are really scared and we dare not go outside,” U Khin Mg Aye said. “We have the right to protect our children but the police took sticks from our mosques. As a result, we’ve posted three men to guard the mosque.”

He said Muslim families who were living inside the compound of the mosque had left Mandalay immediately after the violence broke out.

“All 58 households [between 400-500 people] left the mosque and went to Pyin Oo Lwin and Kyaukme. Some people who can afford it have now gone to Jiegao on the China-Myanmar border,” U Khin Mg Aye told The Myanmar Times from Pyin Oo Lwin.

On the outskirts of Mandalay, however, mosques remain mostly open and there are even signs of interfaith cooperation.

“There are many Buddhist people in our ward, we all lived together for many years,” said U Khin Mg Than, an official from northern Mandalay’s Miba Zey mosque.

“Near our mosque, there is Naga monastery and Hmankin monastery. They told me to come and stay in their monasteries if anything happens,” he said.

Despite the signs of cooperation, the online rumour-mill is still a powerful force. One Muslim man, Ko Zaw Min Tun from the education centre Tip Top, blamed some extremists for attempting to portray Muslims negatively on social media.

In one case, he said a person near Tho-chan mosque, in Chan Mya Tharsi township’s Myothit ward, shouted that there was a fire while Muslims were inside praying.

“When our Muslims came out from the mosque [after hearing] that shouting, the person then shouted, ‘The Muslims are coming out of the mosque with weapons,’” he said.

A cameraman took photos that were later posted on Facebook. Ko Zaw Min Tun said area residents “reacted well”, seizing the man who had yelled that there was a fire. He said the man later claimed to be working for “Muslim media”.

By Associated Press

July 9, 2014

A raid at a palm plantation in southern Thailand exposed a ring that trafficked Myanmar's ethnic minority Rohingya Muslims into the country, police said Wednesday.

The raid on Saturday came two weeks after Thailand was demoted to the lowest level in the annual U.S. rankings of governments' anti-trafficking efforts, principally over abusive practices in the seafood industry.

Acting on a tip-off, police raided a house on a palm plantation and arrested two Myanmar men who allegedly had detained 13 Rohingya for extortion for over a month in Thailand's Chumphon province, said police Maj. Gen. Warawuth Thaweechaikarn. Chumphon is about 380 kilometers (240 miles) south of Bangkok.

The 10 men and three women were part of a bigger group of about 140 refugees traveling out of Myanmar's Rakhine state by boats since May 11, but the rest were sent to different destinations after landing on the Thai shore, Warawuth said, adding that the asylum seekers were attempting to travel to China and Malaysia.

Their relatives were asked to send 50,000 baht ($1,500) to the traffickers to bring the refugees over the border to Malaysia, he said, adding that they lived in poor conditions at the plantation and that some were physically assaulted.

"We are looking for other suspects, including Thais, who have been involved in the human trafficking network. I believe there will be more arrests to come," said Col. Tikamporn Srisang of the Chumphon immigration police.

Rohingya face discrimination in Myanmar, where sectarian violence for nearly two years has left hundreds dead and more than 140,000 displaced from their homes. Many sought asylum and work in other countries, especially Malaysia, which has a Muslim majority.

Since 2013, more than 1,700 Rohingya have been arrested in Thailand after seeing their boats run aground in the country's south.

By John Hudson

Foreign Policy

July 9, 2014

Citing a growing list of human rights violations in Myanmar, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday called for a range of new punitive measures against the government of President Thein Sein, including visa bans, an end to U.S.-Myanmar military cooperation, and a serious look at whether to impose economic sanctions on the former international pariah.

The call for swift action, echoed by some committee Democrats, underscores the extent to which Myanmar, a country President Barack Obama recently touted as a foreign-policy success, has backslid into a routine of authoritarianism and oppression.

"It is time that we take off the rose-colored glasses and see the situation in Burma for what it is," said Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.). "We cannot continue to lavish more incentives on the government of Burma in hopes that it will do the right thing."

The Southeast Asian nation continues persecuting Rohingya Muslims in western Myanmar, also known as Burma, where some 100,000 members of the ethnic minority are denied access to health care and food, and mob violence has displaced some 140,000 people. The parliament of Myanmar, meanwhile, may soon pass a draconian law restricting religious freedom. And in the run-up to the country's elections next year, opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi remains prohibited from running for president.

All this comes ahead of a scheduled visit by Secretary of State John Kerry in August and Obama in November. Although the White House is expected to point to Myanmar as a pillar in the administration's strategic "pivot to Asia," a growing chorus in Congress is urging the administration to get tough with Myanmar.

Royce specifically called on the administration to add the names of the people responsible for the violence against the Rohingya to the State Department's visa-ban list and the Treasury Department's "Specially Designated and Blocked Person" list. "In a country with increasing economic opportunities, cutting off the possibility of relationships with foreign investors could deter those who perpetrate ... violence against the Rohingya," Royce said.

He also wants the United States to end its military-to-military relationship with Myanmar's security forces, calling a recent visit last month by U.S. officials to discuss Myanmar's military training "particularly ill-timed." 

In the late-June trip, Tom Malinowski, the assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor led an interagency delegation to Myanmar that included officials from the departments of State and Defense, and the National Security Council staff. The trip has come under criticism for laying the groundwork for the training of Myanmar military officials by the United States. A State Department official, speaking on background, emphasized that the interaction with Myanmar to date has been limited and focused on discussions about human rights, military justice, and civilian control of the military. "Our approach is designed to build mutual understanding and enhance the military's understanding of international norms of conduct as part of our strategy to support reforms and a successful democratic transition," said the official. 

Republicans aren't the only ones concerned about Myanmar's backsliding. Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia voiced strong concerns on Wednesday about ethnic-based violence in the country: "The plight of the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities in the Rakhine State warrants the attention of Congress," he said, referring to the violence unfurling in the western province.

Experts testifying before the committee, including Thomas Andrews, president of United to End Genocide, asked the administration to impose a moratorium on any further concessions and rewards to Myanmar, such as diplomatic and military visits, until the county makes concrete improvements. Such steps would include restoring health care services to the Rohingya following the expulsion of the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders earlier this year, and allowing the United Nations to open an office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights. 

"We urge the administration and Congress to not only condemn the disturbing trends that are clearly evident in Burma but hold the government and military leaders of Burma fully accountable," Andrews said. "The fact is for millions in Burma things are getting decidedly worse, not better, as respect for human rights deteriorates and the danger of a massive loss of life gets worse."

The State Department official emphasized that U.S. officials regularly have frank discussions with Myanmar about concerns over human rights abuses and the continued role of the military in the country's political and economic activities. "Burma is undertaking dramatic changes and, like all countries in transition, it faces significant problems that will take time to address," said the official. "We are determined to work closely with Burma's reformers to see this process through."

In a speech at West Point in June, Obama acknowledged Myanmar's challenges but still pointed to it as a diplomatic victory. "Look at a country like Burma, which only a few years ago was an intractable dictatorship and hostile to the United States," he said. "We have seen political reforms opening a once-closed society.... [I]f Burma succeeds we will have gained a new partner without having fired a shot."

By Alex Bookbinder

Democratic Voice of Burma

July 8, 2014

It has become a depressingly familiar scene, repeated across disparate parts of Burma over the past year and a half: communities collapsing from within, neighbours attacking neighbours, a clash of existential narratives predicated on mutually exclusive notions of belonging and national identity.

Last week, Mandalay, Burma’s second-largest city, finally succumbed. At around midnight on 2 July, Tun Tun, 36, was hacked to death by unknown assailants, making him the first casualty of the latest round of unrest. A Buddhist and a self-employed metalworker from Patheingyi Township, he was also a volunteer driver for a social assistance group run by a monk, U Ottama, out of the Shwe Kyay Si monastery located at the foot of Yankin Hill in suburban Mandalay. While he was reported to have been involved in the attacks on Muslim targets in the city centre, his friend Htwe Lu, 24, who survived the attack, denies this.

“Tun Tun and I went to pick up our friend at around midnight. There was a group on 84th street that pointed flashlights at us and told us to stop our motorbikes. They asked us where we were going,” Htwe Lu said.

Their assailants – who Htwe Lu identified as Muslims – demanded their money and mobile phones; Htwe Lu managed to run away, and claims to have returned a few minutes later to find Tun Tun lying bloodied and unresponsive on the street.

While the circumstances surrounding Tun Tun’s death might be explained away as a robbery gone wrong, Htwe Lu believes greed played a minimal role in the attack.

“In my view, by killing a Buddhist and leaving his body in the road, it is a challenge for other Buddhist people.” he said.

That this attack came a day after Mandalay’s Muslim quarter was rocked with interreligious violence between Muslims and Buddhists is no coincidence. Catalysed by online rumours that a Muslim tea-shop owner raped a Buddhist employee, a crowd of hundreds gathered outside the Sun teashop in Mandalay’s Muslim quarter on 1 July, demanding revenge on behalf of the alleged rape victim – a figure whose existence remains disputed. The crowd soon dispersed around the neighbourhood, destroying cars and throwing rocks at Muslim-owned businesses.

This marks the latest in a string of attacks on Muslim targets in central Burma over the past eighteen months. Although the violence has subsided for now, the underlying tensions that led to the riots have not diminished, and may yet catalyse another round of violence in the future. With nation-wide elections scheduled to occur next year, Burma’s government is wary of alienating what has become an increasingly militant Buddhist nationalist lobby, and elements within the government may be capitalising on anti-Muslim sentiment in an attempt to bolster the legitimacy of ongoing reforms and deflect attention away from other fundamental issues.

“I think they want to slow down those tensions, and divert the tensions against the Muslim people,” a Muslim interfaith activist, who did not want to be named for his safety, told DVB.

As far as U Ottama is concerned, however, Buddhist anger is a legitimate response to Muslim aggression. When the monk heard about the violence on Tuesday, he claims he went to the scene in an attempt to defuse tensions along with his mentor, the well-known Galon Nyi Sayadaw.

He pins the blame for Mandalay’s troubles squarely on Muslim shoulders.

“It is inappropriate to break Muslim property, but on the other hand, Buddhists have been abused by the Muslim people. They feel it is unfair, and want to fight back,” U Ottama said. “If they can’t fight back, they will let out their anger by breaking property, because they can’t beat Muslim people.”

Tun Tun’s funeral was held on Friday, and his body was transported to the cemetery in a hearse owned by U Ottama’s organisation. Banners picturing his dead body, lying in a pool of blood, and accompanied by an announcement that he had been “killed by Muslims” were hung on both sides of the van.

The funeral procession made a pointed detour away from the cremation ground to Mandalay’s city centre. As it circled the moat around the palace, a crowd of men on motorcycles – brandishing sticks and swords – chanted nationalist and anti-Muslim slogans.

When the procession reached the cemetery, individuals within the crowd migrated to an adjacent Muslim section where they defaced Muslim graves and burned down the home of the Muslim caretaker.

U Ottama does not believe that the inflammatory sign placed on the hearse constitutes rabble rousing, nor does he believe that it could contribute to further violence.

“We don’t intend it [to cause violence]. But everybody should know, to protect themselves. We don’t want things like this to happen in the future,” he said.

Roughly five hours after Tun Tun’s killing, Soe Min, a second-hand bicycle dealer, was bludgeoned to death just before sunrise by unknown assailants as he cycled to morning prayers at a local mosque.

Although Soe Min was well-known for his support of grassroots interfaith initiatives, his friends were dismissive of the notion that he had been singled out by enemies seeking revenge.

“Most of these riots that happen around Burma have many similarities. First, a Muslim guy is accused of rape, and second, a very angry mob comes and the police aren’t taking enough action against them. Then, they search Muslims’ homes, properties, et cetera,” a friend of Soe Min’s, who did not want to be named out of fear for his safety, told DVB.

“You may remember the 2007 Saffron Revolution, and how [the government] cracked down,” he said. “That was a movement against the government, so it was cracked down within an hour, within a day.”

“They have all the information. If they want to prevent these incidents they can. Intentionally, they let it happen.”

In late 2007, tens of thousands of monks took to the streets, initially to protest a massive spike in fuel prices. The protests soon transformed into a broader call for democratic freedoms. In the crackdown that ensued, images of soldiers beating up monks caused the military junta’s already-shaky public standing to plummet, a crisis of legitimacy that in no small part contributed to the timing of the constitutional referendum less than a year later and the process of ongoing reforms that has ensued.

Both Buddhists and Muslims interviewed for this article expressed frustration at the unresponsiveness of the police, who have been criticised for standing idly by while mobs run amok in bouts of communal strife across the country.

U Ottama admits that the police do not want to be perceived as cracking down on Buddhists, although he claims their enforcement of the law is biased towards Muslims – a belief Mandalay’s Muslims vehemently deny.

“If the police were to respond to the rioters by arresting them, it would only make people angrier. That’s why the police don’t crack down, and why this problem keeps happening,” he said. “First, they have to arrest the Muslim people who rape and beat people. After, then, they can go after the criminals who break property; that would be fair. Otherwise, it’s not fair.”

In the wake of the violence in Mandalay last week, a semblance of normalcy has returned to Burma’s second-largest city, despite a curfew imposed on seven townships that has left the streets eerily quiet from nine in the evening to five o’clock the following morning.

The rioters’ motivations and identities remain opaque and disputed. A large number came to the city centre from outlying areas like Patheingyi, with some possibly originating further afield. A Mandalay-based social activist told DVB that he sees the government’s hand in stimulating the latest bout of violence, an allegation that has historical precedence in Burma, but which has proven difficult to verify.

He believes that some of the rioters may have also been involved in anti-Muslim attacks in Lashio last May, a theory implying the existence of a shadowy, state-backed anti-Muslim militia.

“We didn’t see local Mandalay people joining [the attacks]. Most of the Buddhist community is against this violence,” he said “One thing is sure: they are very well-organised. If you have 200 or 300 people just going around, we can’t find them in the town, they just disappear.”

“The Ministry of Home Affairs didn’t order the police to shoot, or control the situation well,” he said. “Even if other ministries [want] them to act, they don’t dare to intervene.”

By Esther Htusan

Associated Press

July 8, 2014

SITTWE, Myanmar — Hours after Shamshu Nahad gave birth to her second child, a beautiful baby girl, her husband was digging its grave.

The tiny corpse, wrapped in white cloth, was placed on a straw mat and lowered into the moist earth, neighbors and relatives bowing their heads as they quietly recited Muslim prayers.

Like the child's life, the ceremony was brief, over in a matter of minutes.

For tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims trapped in displacement camps in western Myanmar, it is a scene that is becoming all too familiar.

The predominantly Buddhist nation of 60 million has been gripped by religious violence since it started moving from military rule to democracy three years ago, leaving up to 280 people dead and sending another 140,000 fleeing their homes. Most of the victims have been Rohingya, who are denied citizenship by national law and are looked upon by much of the population with disdain.

The suffering of pregnant women and sick babies goes on silently in the camps, in dark corners of barrack-style homes and bamboo huts.

They lost their main source of health care when the government kicked the aid group Doctors Without Borders out of Rakhine state in February. The activities of humanitarian workers helping deliver food and clean water were severely restricted after Buddhist mobs attacked their residences and offices a month later.

When complications in childbirth occur, patients cannot go to government hospitals without hard-to-get authorization and hefty bribes. Nearby clinics are usually staffed by just one or two doctors, sometimes for only a few hours a day. Many emergencies are now handled by midwives and workers in ill-equipped village pharmacies.

Nahad didn't even make it out of her makeshift bamboo hut to give birth. The 20-year-old lay on the floor for four days before going into labor, writhing in pain, her body soaked in sweat.

The young family was already deep in debt and could not afford to bribe anyone. And during her pregnancy, Nahad could not afford to eat anything except small amounts of vegetables and rice.

A midwife came, one of just three who serve more than 10,000 Rohingya in Dar Paing camp and surrounding areas. As the contractions intensified, she worked late into the night to finally coax the little girl into the world.

Four hours later, the child was dead.

Nahad was grief-stricken. She broke down into tears with every sideway glance at the small corpse in the corner of the room.

Her only other child, 2-year-old Mohammed Rohim, could not understand why he wasn't allowed to go to his mother, who could barely move because the bleeding wouldn't stop. He looked curiously at the baby, unaware it was his little sister. Finally he was shuttled from the room and placed under the care of neighbors.

When the sun came up, the midwife returned to help prepare the burial. The warm water poured over the little girl's body drained through the slats of the shack's bamboo floor. It was sprinkled with perfume and bundled up in white cloth, as is the Islamic tradition.

Nahad could hardly move. Others took her dead daughter to the mosque, walking along the muddy road between long, bamboo camp homes, sidestepping huge puddles left by monsoon rains. Some neighbors joined the procession, while others peeked out from the windows.

When they reached the cemetery, Mohammed Shafiq, the baby's 25-year-old father, dug into the wet earth with his spade. Other men took over from time to time until the hole was about 1 foot wide, 3 feet long and 3 feet deep.

There were more prayers as the tiny corpse was lowered into the grave and covered with dirt.

Nahad didn't have a chance to say goodbye.

By Gabrielle Paluch

Voice of America

July 7, 2014

BANGKOK — The Muslim stateless residents of northern Rakhine state have long identified themselves as “Rohingya,” a term recognized by the United Nations, and foreign nations, including the United States.

But not by Myanmar’s government. Instead, authorities are asking them to register as “Bengalis.”

Myanmar's immigration department plans to carry out a controversial citizenship verification process in Rakhine state where there have been deadly ethnic and religious clashes since 2012.

The government said the process is aimed at determining who qualifies to become a naturalized citizen. But many of those being asked to participate express concern it will classify them as illegal immigrants.

Shwe Maung, an ethnic Rohingya member of parliament, said those being asked to register are hesitant to do so because they fear registering as Bengali will negatively impact their chances for full citizenship.

He said there is no trust in the process, which he said could officially classify more than 1 million people as stateless, some of whom have been living in Myanmar for generations.

"If they are 'Bengali,' the process will be as for foreigners, according to the 1982 law, I think therefore, Myanmar border police want, as with the census, the people to write themselves in as Bengali," Maung said.

Shwe Maung said he has raised concerns about partial citizenship rights in parliament, but the issue is pending.

Registration with the immigration department begins the citizenship verification process, after which a government committee is sent to weigh evidence of each individual's eligibility for citizenship.

Because most Rohingya do not have government-issued identification, the committees will largely rely on the testimonies of village elders.

Many Rohingyas are skeptical that a government that already classifies them as Bengalis will grant them citizenship based on the testimonies of village elders.

Washington has, in the past, pressured the Myanmar government on the 1982 Citizenship Law. And in its 2014 report on religious freedom, called on authorities to promote the rights of Rohingya Muslims and provide “durable solutions” for refugees outside the country.

Matthew Smith, director of the international human rights group Fortify Rights, says giving Rohingya equal access to citizenship rights is crucial to preventing the conflict in the future. He says foreign nations should press the government more on the issue.

"The fact that the immigration department is handling this issue is indicative of the perception that all Rohingya come from Bangladesh," Smith said. "Immigration is an issue on all of Myanmar's borders, but the wholesale denial of Rohingya citizenship, Rohingya ethnicity, has contributed to these abuses that we've been documenting now for two years."

So far, Rakhine political leaders like Aye Maung, a member of the newly formed Arakan National Party, have been supportive of the citizenship verification process.

In the past, Rohingyas have registered with the government and received "white cards," which conferred the right to vote, but few other significant citizenship rights.

But according to Aye Maung, the Arakan National Party has submitted a bill to parliament that would disallow even national registration card, or "white card" holders to vote in 2015.

"We also accept this process we also demand all Bengali to go with this existing citizenship law for their status, and some percentage will get registration card," said Aye Maung.

So far this year, an estimated 80,000 Rohingyas have fled Myanmar by boat to neighboring Southeast Asian countries.

Since 2012, violence between Muslims and Buddhists have flared up across the country, killing hundreds, and displacing hundreds of thousands living in prison-like conditions in camps.

By Democratic Voice of Burma

July 7, 2014

Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the opposition National League for Democracy party (NLD), condemned the recent circulation of a fake NLD statement about last week’s riots in Mandalay as a political attack on her party. A day after communal violence kicked off on 1 July in Mandalay’s Chan Aye Tharzan Township, the NLD released a statement warning people to be wary of allowing rumours to “trigger the instability of the public” and urged authorities to investigate whether the rumours of a Buddhist maid being raped by Muslim teashop owners are true. Another statement, falsely attributed to the NLD, was also circulated on social media websites. It used derogatory language – such as calling Muslims “Kalars” – and also called for the arrest of Buddhist monks thatit said had instigated the riots. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a parliament session in Naypyidaw on Friday, Suu Kyi reiterated the importance of containing the violence to prevent it from spreading further. However, she hypothesised that the unrest could have been staged to cause problems for her party. “The NLD usually does not comment on such incidents but we tried to be impartial on both sides to prevent further problems,” Suu Kyi said. “We released a statement this time with concern for all parties, and immediately after, someone released the fake version.” “We don’t know who did this but we assume it is a political attack,” she said. “Using religious issues for political gain is against the Constitution and also unethical.” Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate and a former icon for democracy, has remained silent on issues regarding anti-Muslim sentiment and violence, which has displaced more than 140,000 Muslims since June 2012. Her party’s statement on 2 July urged authorities to keep the public informed. It also called for the protection of people and their properties. “It is undesirable to have unconfirmed rumours not only make people fearful, but also have unidentified mobs committing terrorising acts,” the statement said. “The authorities also should take immediate action on such kind of rumours. They should investigate on the rumours and if true, transparent action should be taken,” it said. “If the news is wrong, authorities should let people know what is right.”

However, in stark contrast, the fake statement called for the jailing of the police force and Buddhist monks who failed to maintain public order, and insulted those who took part in the mob killings. Referring to Muslims as “Kalar”, the statement also questioned whether the alleged rape of the Buddhist woman was consensual. “Unemployed and uneducated people in Mandalay who are not capable of logical thinking and who call themselves the ‘patriots’ are the ones instigating the unrest,” the fake statement said, adding that the public should not “oppress” the Muslims. “There would be no grounds for such an incident taking place if Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was the president of Burma.” Burma has been plagued with frequent and deadly bouts of communal violence since June 2012, when riots broke out between Arakanese Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in western Burma. The Mandalay riots were sparked by an unsubstantiated rumour that Muslim teashop owners raped a Buddhist woman. At least two people were killed during the ensuing mob violence.

RANGOON, Burma — President Obama recently singled out Burma as a U.S. foreign policy victory — a country that had emerged from decades of military rule and turned toward the West, thanks in part to American diplomacy.

If Burma succeeds, the president told West Point cadets recently, “we will have gained a new partner without having fired a shot.” But two years after Obama made a historic visit to the Southeast Asian nation, the achievement is in jeopardy.

Burma’s government has cracked down on the media. The parliament is considering laws that could restrict religious freedom. And revered opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who welcomed Obama to her home in 2012, remains constitutionally barred from running for president as the country heads into a pivotal election next year.

The situation is most dire in Burma’s western reaches, where more than 100,000 Rohingya Muslims are living as virtual prisoners, with little access to health care and food. The fast-deteriorating conditions prompted Tomás Ojéa Quintana, a former United Nations special rapporteur for human rights, to say in April that there is an “element of genocide” in the Rohingyas’ plight.

The setbacks have raised the stakes for Obama’s scheduled November visit to a regional conference in Burma, during which the administration had hoped to showcase the country’s progress as part of its strategic “rebalance” toward Asia. Now even some of Obama’s allies on Capitol Hill have begun to question whether the administration has moved too quickly to embrace Burma’s leadership.

“We have a moral obligation despite the political benefits” of improving ties, said Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.), who has introduced a bill to link additional U.S. aid to human rights reforms. “We’re for having a relationship with Burma, but only if they respect human rights and the rule of law.”

To be sure, Burma is no longer the dictatorship it was five years ago, when it allowed no free elections or public dissent. The government has conditionally released hundreds of political prisoners, abolished censorship and permitted a democratically elected parliament. The president’s spokesman, Ye Htut, said critics are not giving the country enough credit for what it has done.

U.S. officials said Obama will make clear to President Thein Sein that his government must address the human rights issues and allow a truly democratic election in 2015 if it expects to maintain good relations with the United States.

“As far as Burma’s come in the last three years, they’re getting to the really hard stuff now,” said Tom Malinowski, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor. “That’s why there are some acute problems and legitimate fears about prospects for full success.”

A change in attitude

Burma, also known as Myanmar, sits in a strategic location between China and India. From 1962 onward, it was ruled by secretive, brutal military regimes. The United States imposed stiff economic sanctions after the Burmese military killed thousands during a student uprising in 1988.

But by 2010, the Obama administration began to see signs that Burma’s generals were looking to open up the country and move away from their close ties with China and North Korea. The generals released Suu Kyi — who had won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her pro-democracy struggle — from house arrest.

By 2011, “the prospects for progress were better than at any time in a generation,” former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote in her recent memoir, “Hard Choices,” which devotes a chapter to Burma. She wrote that “those early days of flickering progress and uncertain hope remain a high point of my time as Secretary.”

The State Department began a policy of matching “action for action,” rewarding the Burmese government’s reforms with a gradual easing of sanctions.

Clinton went to Burma in 2011. The following year, Suu Kyi was elected to parliament, and Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit.

Since then, Burma has changed rapidly. For decades the country retained the aura of a fading colonial outpost, with crumbling buildings and few Western goods available. Now in Rangoon, the country’s commercial capital that is also known as Yangon, construction cranes compete for attention on the skyline with the historic gold Shwedagon Pagoda. Restaurants serving Australian tenderloin and sushi are opening, as are Mercedes and Jaguar dealerships.

The country of more than 55 million people remains one of the poorest in the world. Chinese investment far outpaces that of the United States — about $14 billion compared with about $243 million. Western companies have been slow to arrive because of infrastructure problems and a lack of qualified workers.

Military’s grip endures

Despite the political opening, the Burmese military still holds extraordinary power under a constitution that guarantees the armed forces a quarter of the seats in parliament and reserves key ministry posts for officers.

Burmese and foreign human rights activists worry that the government has slowed or even reversed its progress toward democracy.

In his 2012 meeting with Obama, Thein Sein made 11 commitments to implement additional democratic reforms and human rights protections. But activists and U.S. congressional leaders say his government has delivered on few of them.

For example, the Burmese president pledged to reach a cease-fire in predominantly Christian Kachin state, one of several areas of this majority-Buddhist country where armed ethnic groups have long clashed with the military.

Since a cease-fire in the state fell apart three years ago, the Burmese military has burned churches and destroyed villages, activists say. The human rights group Fortify Rights recently alleged that the military has tortured more than 60 civilians there in the past three years. The government has denied the torture allegations.

Meanwhile, the country’s political situation has become complicated by the rise of a movement of extreme Buddhist nationalists, who are freer to operate in the less repressive environment.

Nationalist monks seeking to protect their religion from the spread of Islam are pushing for laws that would block interfaith marriage and make it more difficult for people to convert. The monks — backed by a petition signed by thousands of citizens — want non-Buddhist men to convert before marrying Buddhist women or face 10 years in prison. The laws are being drafted in parliament with the support of the government, according to Ye Htut.

Then there is the matter of the Rohingya, a long-persecuted Muslim minority who are not considered citizens although many have lived in the country for generations. In 2012, thousands of Ro­hingya were displaced after their villages were torched by Buddhists angry that Muslim men had allegedly raped a Buddhist woman.

Two years later, more than 100,000 Rohingya live in overcrowded camps. Health conditions worsened recently after the government suspended Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups following two more rounds of violence, although some humanitarian workers have begun returning.

Ye Htut said that long-running peace talks continue with ethnic militias, including those in Kachin state, and that the government is trying to ease tensions between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists.

He said Washington should show more appreciation for Burma’s reforms, which include opening up the government-dominated economy and allowing private newspapers to operate.

“Some people in Congress have tried to shift the goal posts again and again instead of recognizing our progress,” Ye Htut said.

Still, the fragility of the reforms has been underlined in recent months as authorities arrested several local reporters on what rights groups call politically motivated charges that include defamation and revealing state secrets. The government has also instituted tighter press registration laws.

“There are a lot of people in Washington who think there is this great success story” in Burma, said David S. Mathieson, senior researcher on Burma for Human Rights Watch. “But there are a lot of indicators that they’re heading south very quickly.”

Obama plans to raise concerns about the Rohingya and the government’s unfulfilled promises when he visits Burma, a White House official said.

“When we talk about our democratization agenda in Asia, Burma is example number one,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivities. “It’s a big play, but it’s a risky play. We know that. And that’s why we are continuing to invest in our relationship.”

Political activism

Suu Kyi’s party launched a petition drive to remove a part of the constitution that gives the military veto power over constitutional changes that could open the door to broader reforms.

On a sweltering day in downtown Rangoon, volunteers sat outside the party’s headquarters collecting signatures, an activity that would have been unheard of in the days of the military junta.

Music praising Suu Kyi blasted from loudspeakers. Nobody seemed to be afraid of speaking out, although one man who was wearing a pro-democracy ­T-shirt asked that he not be photographed.

One democracy campaigner, Zin Mar Aung, said she and other activists were harassed with anonymous text messages and death threats after they criticized the proposed interfaith-marriage law. She worries that the petition drive won’t work because the military does not want to fully give up power.

“We think their reforms have stagnated,” she said. “We think liberalization is over and the regime doesn’t want to give power through democratic elections.”

Nakamura reported from Washington. Khine Thurein in Rangoon contributed to this report.

By Dr. Maung Zarni
July 7, 2014

Myanmar's Nazi Monk Wirathu further inflames anti-Muslim racism

"Muslim race is pitiful while Christians are very admirable and Hindus are a lovely people. I pity the Muslims. Conflicts are always with Islam. It's because of their extremist, superstitions and narrow-mindedness. It's because they lack capacity to adapt and integrate. It's because of their blinding stupidity. I really do feel pitiful towards them."

- Wirathu (until 2 minutes and 53 second)

The monk that spoke after Wirathu:

"we need to investigate and expose the invisible forces behind these attempts to incite religious conflicts in Mandalay."

The Muslim activist in black jacket:

"you know all this violence has diverted public attention away from the push for changing the Article 436 of the military's Constitution (which puts the military at the driver's seat forever)."

the 3rd and last monk:

"Muslims in our country are at heart really gentle and polite Burmese."

By Dr. Maung Zarni

RB Analysis

July 7, 2014

Here is what is in store for Myanmar

Naypyidaw regime will 'tolerate' - dare I say even unleash -- acts of destabilize the social and political environment through its shadow/proxy networks such as 969 and 'League of Defense of Buddhism and Bama Race' - ahead of 2015 elections and in the midst of Aung San Suu Kyi's campaign to change the military's Constitution of 2008.

What is needed is a combination of 1) domestic/popular and effective opposition to this kind of racist mobilization and 2) serious pressure from strategically placed foreign governments and institutions with leverage with Nwa Thein Sein regime.

However, the following factors work in favor of the perpetuation of the military rule, in whatever disguises.

1. anti-Muslim popular racism
2. near complete control of access to natural resources (save a few armed ethnic groups)
3. lucrative business licenses (and conversely corporate greed - such as Norway's Telenor and Statoil and Qartar's Ooredoo - to prey on)
4. the country being strategically important to China (and thus India, Japan and USA) (playing the British Ministry of Defence, the Pentagon, etc. against PLA)
5. the international financial institutions and development funding agencies, whose ultimate missions - however they are framed (for instance, MDG, poverty reduction, economic growth, livelihoods, 3 Diseases, etc.) - are making the emerging post-socialist states work for the international corporations - otherwise known as 'Free Market'
6. Aung San Suu Kyi-led opposition's hopelessly un-strategic and extremely poor organizational and intellectual capacity
7. near-absence of liberal, humanistic thoughts and deeds among average Joes
8. ceasefire deals and negotiations and the IMPOSSIBILITY AND INABILITY of non-Bama ethnic leaderships to gain majority popular support beyond their own respective ethnic circles
9. the irreplaceable UN membership
10. full backing of the regional block - ASEAN - and its equally Neanderthal member states
11. the deeply conservative - some might even say - ideologically and sociologically regressive -- character of the Burmese Buddhist Order
12. the neutered university student bodies that were once officially designated threat to the military; and last but not least,
13. the non-revolutionary character of the Burmese society at large

By Shahana Butt

Press TV

July 7, 2014

Sectarian violence in Myanmar has forced thousands of displaced Rohingya Muslim refugees to leave their homeland and come to Jammu region of the Indian controlled Kashmir.

The refugees mostly fled the Buddhist majority State of Rakhein after authourities failed to stop attacks by extrimist Buddhists. Security forces in Myanmar were at some points accused of involvement in the attacks. The Rohyngya refugees in Indian controlled Kashmir are now living in make-shift tents on government land and fear possible evacuation. India is not a signatory to the United Nations convention on the status of refugees.

There is therefore no law that deals with foreign refugees, and the government decides whether or not to grant the Rohingyas refugee status on a case-by-case basis. And as the fasting month of Ramadan has started in hot summer, this Muslim community is dealing with tougher challenges. It’s not just the umployment, the refugees are denied access to health-care and education even in India. According to the United Nations, the Rohingya are one of the world's most persecuted minorities. They have long been grappling with similar problems, yet international humanitarian organizations have not done much for them and their living conditions are deteriorating. 

By Reuters

July 6, 2014

Myanmar's Muslims say they are living in fear, as inter-religious violence flares in the country's second largest city, Mandalay. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.

By AFP

July 6, 2014

The Dalai Lama Sunday reiterated his plea to Buddhists in Myanmar and Sri Lanka to halt violence against Muslims, in a speech to tens of thousands of devotees to mark his 79th birthday.

In front of the massive crowd that included Hollywood film star Richard Gere in northern India, the Dalai Lama said the violence in both Buddhist-majority countries targeting religious minority Muslims was unacceptable.

"I urge the Buddhists in these countries to imagine an image of Buddha before they commit such a crime," Tibet's exiled spiritual leader said on the outskirts of Leh, high in the Himalayas.

"Buddha preaches love and compassion. If the Buddha is there, he will protect the Muslims whom the Buddhists are attacking," the leader, who fled Tibet for India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, said.

The Dalai Lama also expressed shock at a wave of deadly violence by Sunni militants against fellow Muslims, although he did not refer specifically to Iraq, where such militants have overrun swathes of five provinces north and west of Baghdad.

Gere greeted the Dalai Lama on stage, shaking his hand and praising the leader on behalf of several thousand foreign devotees who had gathered for the speech.

Inter-communal violence in Myanmar has overshadowed widely-praised political reforms since erupting in 2012. It has largely targeted Muslims, leaving at least 250 people dead.

Last month in Sri Lanka, four people were killed and hundreds of shops and homes damaged in the island's worst religious violence in recent decades.

The Dalai Lama celebrated his birthday at his residence on the outskirts of Leh in Ladakh, a mainly Buddhist region.

He was in Ladakh to confer Kalachakra, a Buddhist process that empowers tens of thousands of his disciples to attain enlightenment.

Two years ago, the Nobel Peace Prize winner announced that he was retiring from political duties and upgraded the role of prime minister of the Tibetan exile community.

He devolved power in an attempt to lessen his own totemic status and secure the movement's future after his death.

But he is still the most powerful rallying point for Tibetans, both in exile and in their homeland, and remains the universally recognised face of the movement.

The leader supports "meaningful autonomy" for Tibet within China rather than outright independence. But China accuses the Dalai Lama of covertly campaigning for Tibet's independence, and calls him a "splittist".