By AFP

August 6, 2014

YANGON: Myanmar faces being called to account for stalling reforms when it hosts a top global diplomats at a security forum later this week, with religious clashes and curbs on press freedom taking the sheen off its emergence from military-rule.

The former pariah nation has enjoyed praise since a quasi-civilian government launched ambitious political and economic reforms three years ago, heralding the end of most Western sanctions. But the international community has voiced increasing frustration as Buddhist nationalism appears to tighten its grip on the nation with fresh attacks against Muslims last month, while journalist arrests have also raised uncertainty over the extent of newly-won press freedoms.

Several Western nations have raised concerns over rights issues in Myanmar in recent weeks, but the main message is likely to come from US Secretary of State John Kerry as he tests the water ahead of a possible visit by President Barack Obama later in the year.

Meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which will begin as regional foreign minister talks on Friday (August 8) and widen to include world powers over the weekend, will likely be dominated by ASEAN wrangles with Beijing over the South China Sea, but Kerry is also likely to seek to raise Myanmar's rights record America's top diplomat will urge the government to protect all of Myanmar's people and "put in place greater safeguards for their human rights and fundamental freedoms", according to Danny Russel, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs.

Talks on Sunday for the ASEAN Regional Forum are set to bring the regional bloc together with leading diplomats from global powers, including China, the European Union and the United States, which has touted Myanmar's reforms as a key foreign policy success.

"Many of the Western powers have a lot invested in the Myanmar 'successful transition story', and issues such as the religious violence and the erosion of press freedoms place that narrative in peril," said Sean Turnell, associate professor at Australia's Macquarie University. While pressure on Myanmar would probably be expressed behind closed doors, Turnell said the talks could also hand China an "in" to act as a shield to its smaller neighbour -- a role it often played during the junta era.

LONG ROAD AHEAD

A series of dramatic reforms since 2011 has seen most international embargoes dropped and enticed a horde of foreign investors eager to tap into one of Asia's last frontier markets. Veteran democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi was welcomed into parliament, hundreds of political prisoners were freed and draconian press censorship was lifted.

But the country is still grappling with ongoing insurgency in its far north, muffling hopes for a long-delayed national ceasefire deal. Rights groups have also raised growing fears over religious unrest and signs that the country is backsliding on press freedoms and the detention of dissidents.

"I think Kerry realises he is not coming in for a victory lap, it's going to be pretty tough," said David Mathieson, a researcher with New York-based Human Rights Watch.

The US in July said that jail terms of 10 years -- with hard labour -- handed down to five journalists over a report accusing the military of making chemical weapons sent "the wrong message". One Western diplomat said the country's now boisterous local media could face increasing censure as the government comes under pressure in the run up to crucial 2015 polls, widely expected to be won by Suu Kyi's opposition.

While unsure if the journalist convictions represent "a wholesale regression", the diplomat, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, was braced for similar cases as the election nears.

Deteriorating religious relations "is probably the only area where the Myanmar Government might feel vulnerable", Derek Tonkin, a former British ambassador to several Southeast Asian countries told AFP.

REFORMS VEERING 'OFF-TRACK'

Myanmar has appeared to founder in its response to anti-Muslim violence that began with deadly clashes in western Rakhine state two years ago. Violence has since erupted sporadically across the country, most recently in the second largest city of Mandalay, fuelling fears of a destabilising impact on Myanmar's democratic transition.

Some 140,000 people, mainly Rohingya, remain trapped in miserable displacement camps in Rakhine, which is now gripped by a severe health crisis. And the government's own roadmap for the future of the tumultuous state risks creating permanent segregation there, said United Nations' human rights envoy to the country, Yanghee Lee, after her first official visit last month.

President's Office Minister Soe Thein asked for "understanding" when reforms veered "off track", during a rare briefing with diplomats and United Nations agencies in July. "We are going surely along the path to democracy, we will not reverse," he said.

RB News

August 6, 2014

Sittwe, Arakan -- Police Open Fire on Villagers from Thandawli village, Sittwe IDP camps, in Arakan State, Myanmar. Several Rohingya were arrested and one man has died, after police crackdown on the village for refusing to turn over a woman who reportedly eloped with her husband.

Police arrived at Thandawli village after complaints that a woman there was being kept from a marriage to the son of an inn owner at nearby Manzhi Junction. The owner of the Inn complained to police after the village rejected the marriage between the Inn Keepers son, and brought the woman back to Thandawli, where she was from. Once the police arrived the villagers refused to turn the woman over to the Inn Keeper, and were reported to have protected her from being taken. At 9:40 PM Police shot and killed 29 year old Shomshul Alam, son of Mogul, who had no connection to the woman, or knowledge of what was happening. It was reported that prior to this that false rumors had been spread by police that the son of the Inn Keeper had been killed, and Shomshul was falsely accused of this before he was shot. He died instantly, and photographs suggest he was shot in the head. Shomshul’s body was removed by police and taken with them.

Then, at around 10pm, when Police were unable to take the woman they attempted to do so by force, first firing shots above the villagers, and then arresting beating several villagers. The total number arrested is currently hard to determine as most of the villagers scattered and fled after police fired towards them and then began making arrests. A young man named Yunus, who runs a small internet cafe near Thandawli, was taken from his bed while he was sleeping in his shop and beaten by police, although he had nothing to do with the events prior, and did not even know about them. Another young boy, only 12 years old, was beaten before he escaped police. The boy reported that he witnessed the police killing Shomshul Alam.

Police reportedly returned twice to Thandawli, at 10:30PM and 12AM and shot towards the village in the air. They also returned once more at 1AM. As Myanmar is currently conducting an operation to register Rohingya as Bengali, and attempting to force and intimidate Rohingya to not claim their ethnic name it is strongly suspected by Rohingya that this attack may have been taken as an opportunity to show brute force to the Rohingya in Sittwe IDP camps, and cause them fear of police and government.

Saed Arkani contributed in reporting.

By Radio Australia

August 6, 2014

A court in Myanmar's Rakhine state has extended the detention of a prominent Rohingya human rights activist.

Kyaw Hla Aung was arrested last year by Myanmar police who accused him of instigating protests against government efforts to register Rohingyas as 'Bengali', and not Myanmar citizens.

Human rights organisation Fortify Rights says the case against Kyaw Hla Aung is totally without merit.

Executive director Matthew Smith has told Radio Australia's Asia Pacific the 74-year-old activist's public profile has made him a police target.

"He's been meeting with ambassadors and other people who had visited Rakhine state who were very concerned about the human rights situation there and this, and some of his other activities, exposed him to the Myanmar authorities in a way that we think led to his arrest and detention," Mr Smith said.

"There are some Rohingya who do have connections to the outside world, to areas outside of Rakhine state and internationally, and there are some who have the ability to communicate the plight of Rohingya.

"Kyaw Hla Aung is one of those people."

"He hasn't done anything wrong, hasn't violated any laws, but he's being persecuted because he's a human rights defender."

"We're trying to urge the central government now to intervene because much of the problems with this particular case stem from the local authorities."

How effective that lobbying will be remains to be seen.

Matthew Smith says the Myanmar government routinely denies the very existence of the Rohingya ethnicity, and severe human rights abuses occur daily against the Muslim population, in spite of international condemnation.

But he says Kyaw Hla Aung has been in detention for more than a year and there are concerns for his health and well-being.

"He has suffered from ill-health in the past," he said.

"Rakhine state is a very difficult place to be if you suffer from health problems, and being in prison in Rakhine state is even more difficult.

"This should be reason alone to do something about his incarceration right now."

Fortify Rights says since violence started in 2012, authorities have arrested more than one thousand Rohingya men and boys, and an unknown number remain behind bars.

Matthew Smith says the international community needs to get serious about the severe human rights violations that are persisting in Rakhine state.

"What we're trying to do now is to press upon various actors in the international community to pressure not only Naypidaw, but also the local authorities in Rakhine state, to respect and protect the human rights of the Rohingya community."

By Amjad Saleem

Huffington Post

August 5, 2014

As international community focus centres on the events unfolding in Gaza, in Myanmar, the silent genocide of the Rohingyas is still continuing as it has been for decades previously. Like the Palestinians, the Rohingya are not only stateless or lack citizenship rights, they are officially in the eyes of the Government of Myanmar, identity less. Like the Palestinians with Israel and Zionism, the Rohingya are also dealing with a racist and xenophobic system & culture that links ethnicity to religion, a purist form that ironically saw an emergence in the early 20th century with Nazism.

The entire Myanmar nation is complicit, from the president down to the grassroots, in terms of how the Rohingyas are perceived, accepted and treated. The situation is so bleak that calls for the extermination of the race of the Rohingyas are not uncommon. This intolerance is not just reserved for the Rohingya community, but observers will testify that it exists towards Muslims (and even Christians) i.e. anyone non Buddhist. These anti minority sentiments especially against the Muslims are not as some claim an 'unfortunate social consequence of transition from authoritarianism to democracy'. They are part of a decade long persecution of the community in the country often led by the authorities who have manufactured, endorsed, committed and allowed to be committed such violence. Myanmar's military in particular have played a large part in manufacturing this Burman-Buddhist nationalist ideology and institutionalizing a culture of fear and distrust of minorities. In recent times, the Military have taken a back step largely due to Myanmar's chairmanship of ASEAN as well as planned elections of 2015 as reasons why there has been a restrained effort by the government whilst indirectly proxies have been allowed to perpetuate the violence and keep alive this xenophobic nationalistic rhetoric.

It is this fear of "the other" within Myanmar's society especially when it comes to the issue of the Rohingyas that are the "elephant in the room" for the international community much more adept at black-and-white depictions of Myanmar's history as a struggle between military and "democratic" civilian forces. So far the international community have failed to put pressure on the Government or indeed its famous opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (who has famously remained reticent on this issue). It is also an issue that donors have been reluctant to chastise the government on. If anything, the international community has gone out of its way to avoid unnecessary criticism for the fear that it could jeopardise not only the transition of the country to democracy but more importantly the economic benefits that such a transition could bring.

This can only be the reason to explain the meekness behind certain actions of the international community this year itself. Take for example, the recent apology issued by UNICEF for using the term Rohingya in an official document, something that they tried to deny. Or the violence in March of this year that saw the destruction of millions of dollars of assets of the UN and other INGOs, which caused the agencies to withdraw for a few months from humanitarian operations in the affected areas of the Rakhine State. Despite such wanton destruction, unlike in other country there was hardly an international outcry.

The recent census which took place at the beginning of the year supported largely by the international community against the advice of activists and observers is yet another example of a confused position. Despite the government's undertakings to allow a self-identification of the Rohingya as well as an agreement on allowing Rohingya enumerators to conduct the census, both of these promises were broken. People were not allowed to self -identify while in some cases, officials had to be bribed in order for people to be allowed to participate in the census. The recent violence in Myanmar's second biggest city Mandalay against the Muslim community has sparked fears of a demographic redistribution in the preemption of a census not showing the desired ethnic distribution by the extreme elements of Myanmar.

This reluctance by the International Community to engage on the issue in the hope that democracy will wash away the problems is ideologically problematic. It doesn't fully comprehend the history of community relations; minority existence and ethnic tensions of the country. There are deep seated problems which cannot be solved merely through elections and a legal system. It needs a deeper engagement between faiths and a deeper social understanding of the concept of citizenship. This needs time and patience. It needs to undo the power of the military (and their vision of nationalism) and the influence that they have even within some of Myanmar's Buddhist monasteries.

Building trust and better relationships between ethnic groups from the grassroots level should be a priority for the Myanmar government supported by the International Community. A democratic system is not just about elections, but about citizenship and understanding basic notions of political rights. Much more effort and investment needs to be undertaken to ensure that these mechanisms and institutions are set right at the grassroots level before imposing a top-down electoral process. More must be done to hold the government accountable for the role it has played in supporting organizations and movements responsible for inciting hatred and violence. Its institutions need to understand the basis of the rule of law and ensuring safety and security for all.

Otherwise, there is a great danger of repeat violence prior to next year's elections. Myanmar and its people need to fundamentally understand the roles, rights and responsibilities of citizens in a multicultural, democratic country. This takes time, effort and investment and cannot and will not be solved by prematurely pushing for a census or elections. Programs at all levels of society need to be quickly developed to teach people how they can be part of a democratic process.

If Myanmar is to truly join the global community, the floor must be open to debate the issues of the Rohingya and other ethnicities. Approaching the problem both sensitively and directly, unlike even powerful figures in the pro-democracy movement, has to be part of the international community's much-needed road map for this country. If the foundations of democratic understanding at the grassroots level are not built, the 2015 elections will be a superficial showpiece and Myanmar runs the risk of retreating back into its shell.

By Fiona MacGregor 

Census results on Myanmar’s ethnic populations will not be published until after the 2015 general election, an official in charge of the census has told The Myanmar Times.

The revelation, which comes following concerns that figures on ethnicity and religion could prompt further communal conflict, has prompted some observers to conclude the results are being held back for political reasons. However, those involved in the process say the delay is due to data-input difficulties after a higher-than-expected number of people chose not to identify as one of 135 set ethnic groups on the questionnaire.

“The ethnic information cannot be released [as early as planned],” said Daw Khaing Khaing Soe, director of the Ministry of Immigration and Population’s census technical team.

She said entering the details of those who self-described their ethnicity through the “other” option, rather than choosing one of the listed groups, would be “a very long process”.

The question of ethnic identity was one of the most controversial elements of the census, which was conducted in March and April. Prior to the count, many international experts called for the question to be removed, or the entire census postponed, because of concerns it would exacerbate religious and ethnic tensions.

Those answering the question could choose from one of 135 officially recognised ethnic groups – a classification described by Human Rights Watch as “deeply flawed’’ – or the “other” option, which enabled them to describe their ethnicity in their own words.

While the government had promised to allow anyone to self-describe their ethnicity, at the last minute it bowed to public pressure in Rakhine State and decreed that nobody would be allowed to enter “Rohingya” on the census form. While some Muslims in Rakhine State opted to identify instead as Bengali, most refused and were therefore skipped. In Kachin and Kayin states, some communities were also missed because they were in areas too insecure for enumerators to enter.

Despite Rohingya respondents being excluded, sources close to the census said a far higher number of people than expected had chosen to identify as “other”. The range of ethnic identities people had used to describe themselves was far more diverse and complex than expected.

“The [figures on ethnic identity] were supposed to come out before the election, but it now it won’t be until afterward. Far more people self-identified as ‘other’ than anticipated,” one source said.

Each “other” response has to be entered by hand, which organisers said accounts for the delay in tallying results. However, one source told The Myanmar Times the government “did not seem to be any great rush” to get the information processed and made public before the election.

U Kyaw San Wai, a senior analyst at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said he believed a primary reason for the delay is the government’s desire to “minimise risk ahead of the 2015 elections”.

“I would say that given the sensitivities of ethnicity, especially in Rakhine State with regards to the Rohingya, the government might be trying to pre-empt any possible sectarian unrest or ramifications the data might have,” he said.

However, Rakhine State is not the only area of the country where the results on ethnicity may have important political implications.

“There are many preconceptions and passionate views among ethnic minorities on ethnic identity, and ethnic groups have rough estimates of how big they are and where they are located. If the census data disagrees with these estimates, it might lead to accusations that the government had manipulated the results in favour of the Bamar in an attempt to perhaps undermine ethnic minority parties,” he said.

Tom Kramer of the Netherlands-based Transnational Institute, which published a report condemning the timing and methodology of the count, said many ethnic groups feared the use of the 135 ethnic groups would “further diminish” the political status of minority peoples.

“The scheduling of the census in the year before a key general election – and before political agreements have been achieved in the ceasefire talks – has only deepened concerns,” Mr Kramer said.

“Unreliable data that results from the census could have [a] negative impact on political debate and ethnic nationality representation in the legislatures,” he said.

But delaying the release of the results will only put off the potential for fallout, he said.

“Instead of just delaying the release of the information regarding questions of ethnicity and identity from the census, an inclusive debate about identity and citizenship in the country should first take place, and the failings and difficulties with the census need to be recognised.”

The census cost an estimated $74 million, with much of the funding coming from international donors, notably the British, Norwegian, Australian and Swiss governments.

Matt Smith of Thai-based group Fortify Rights said the delay confirms that the collection of data on ethnicity has political implications.

“Donors, UNFPA and the government repeatedly claimed the census was apolitical and in no way related to the elections, as if they could magically will that to be true just by saying it. Of course the census is political,” he said.

Despite continued criticism of the census process, and an acknowledgment of problems in Rakhine and Kachin, organisers say the count has been an overall success. Officials also say they are working to find ways to include data about people who wanted to identify as Rohingya so that they are not missed completely.

Daw Khaing Khaing Soe also promised there would be “consultations” with ethnic minority groups on the census results before the figures are released.

A report from international observers was given to the government at the end of July and is due for publication imminently.

Initial data on the number of men and women in the country is due to be released at the end of August.

By Associated Press

August 5, 2014

WASHINGTON – More than 70 U.S. lawmakers say conditions in Burma have taken a sharp turn for the worse and want Secretary of State John Kerry to warn its government that could seriously damage bilateral relations.

In a letter to Kerry obtained by The Associated Press on Friday, the House members, both Democrats and Republicans, say that sectarian violence has spread, and that President TheinSein’s government seems to be catering to and stoking anti-Muslim sentiment. They also voice concern about military abuses against ethnic minorities, the recent jailing of journalists, and the need for constitutional reform.

The Obama administration has counted its support for former pariah state Burma’s shift from direct military rule as one of its principal foreign policy achievements, but the letter reflects mounting congressional concern over the direction the Southeast Asian nation has taken after Washington suspended its toughest sanctions in 2012.

The lawmakers call on Kerry to sanction those complicit in abuses and atrocities, and not make further concessions to the reformist government unless there’s serious progress.

“Just as the beginning of the reform process required a calibrated reassessment of U.S. policy three years ago, recent disturbing developments call for a significant recalibration now,” the letter says.

Kerry is expected to visit Burma for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum being held in Naypyidaw on Aug. 10, and also hold bilateral meetings with Burmese officials.

The letter is dated Thursday. Signatories include Democrat Rep. Joe Crowley, a prominent congressional voice on Burma, and Republican Rep. Steve Chabot, who chairs a House panel that oversees policy toward Asia, and the top-ranking members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Last week another key congressional voice, Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, called for Burma to reform its constitution to allow opposition leader Aung San SuuKyi to run for president and for the military to submit to civilian rule. But he also supported U.S. engagement with Burma’s military.

By Joshua Carroll

Al Jazeera

August 5, 2014

Restricted travel, barred attendance, and overcrowding has seriously hampered the Rohingya's educational opportunities.

Sittwe, Myanmar - Just over two years ago, minority Rohingya Muslims and majority Buddhists studied side by side in the capital of Rakhine state in western Myanmar. 

This symbiotic relationship changed drastically after anti-Muslim violence erupted in the town of Sittwe in mid-2012, when authorities banned hundreds of the mostly darker-skinned Rohingya from returning to university, part of a system of racial segregation imposed in the name of keeping the peace. 

Today, members of the Muslim minority group cannot set foot on the campus of Sittwe University and a handful of armed police near the university's main entrance, along with a civilian guard at the gate, make sure no one breaks the rule. 

The rioting in 2012, which has since spread to other parts of the country, leaving as many as 280 dead, forced most of the Rohingya living in the downtown area to flee to makeshift camps on the rural outskirts. They have not been allowed to return, leaving central Sittwe dominated by Buddhists. 

The government-owned university - the only one in Rakhine state - sits in the Rohingya area, which is now considered by many as a de facto open-air prison for hundreds of thousands of the ethnic minority group. 

The barring of Rohingya students from Sittwe University comes from the government - with officials justifying the policy as a way to prevent violence. They claim that if the two religions mix, then clashes could erupt. 

'No ambition'

Khin Maung Myint, a Rohingya and former student, has to keep to his own side of the barbed wire barricades. He was in his third year studying botany before Buddhist rioters raided his neighbourhood and burned houses to the ground. 

After fleeing to an internal displacement camp and realising he would not be returning home, he found out he wouldn't be allowed to sit his final year at university either. He had wanted to be a pharmacist. 

"I have no ambition now," he told Al Jazeera. "I've lost everything." 

In contrast, Khain Nay Min, a Buddhist who is halfway through a law degree, passes freely through a checkpoint on his way to and from lectures. 

"I don't think after the violence the two different religions can study together again in the same class," he said. "We don't seem likely to have a good relationship with them in the future." 

Khain Nay Min plans to finish his law degree in 2016. He said he wants to help the Rakhine state government reform the legal system, long neglected under five decades of military dictatorship that ended in 2011. 

Restricted movements

Western leaders have applauded President Thein Sein's new, nominally civilian government for bringing in sweeping reforms that included releasing political prisoners and relaxing press censorship. But while large parts of Myanmar have become freer since 2011, the Rohingya's suffering has intensified. 

The minority are widely despised in the country, accused of being illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh and mostly denied citizenship. Rights groups believe officials are stripping education rights from the Rohingya as part of a campaign of repression that includes severe limits on movement. 

"It is part of an 'ethnic cleansing package' of restrictions and oppression to compel them to leave," said Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, a Rohingya advocacy group based in Thailand. 

More than 86,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar - many in overcrowded, flimsy boats - since mid-2012, according to the UN. Hundreds die every year during perilous journeys in the hope of reaching a country that will accept them. 

After visiting the camps around Sittwe late last month, Yanghee Lee, the UN's Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, said in a statement that restrictions on freedom of movement are having "a severe impact on basic rights, including access to livelihoods, food, water and sanitation, health services and education". 

Schools and universities across Myanmar crumble with neglect and a lack of funding, and rampant poverty means the Rohingya are by no means the only people denied an education. 

But discrimination has deepened the crisis for the Rohingya, who live mostly in Rakhine. Teachers are predominantly Buddhist, and often shun working in Muslim-dominated areas. 

Travel restrictions against Rohingya across the state also make it difficult for children to attend middle and high schools, which tend to be further away than village primary schools. 

Even before they were barred from attending Sittwe University, the government barred Rohingya from earning degrees in certain subjects, including engineering and medicine. And many from remote areas found it impossible to get travel permits to attend the university. 

Overcrowded

Under the segregation imposed in Sittwe and elsewhere since 2012, Rohingya school children have seen their education deteriorate severely. The village of Thet Kay Pyin has the only government-designated school that Rohingya around Sittwe are allowed to attend. It is desperately overcrowded. 

Zaw Zaw, an English teacher, said the school had about 700 pupils before the 2012 violence forced many to leave their schools in the downtown area. Now there are well over 2,000 from elementary to high school age, with up to 90 children cramming into each classroom. 

Many of the rooms don't have desks, just low wooden benches to perch on. And even the benches can't fit everyone. "Some of the students have to sit on the floor," Zaw Zaw said. 

About two-thirds of the children at middle and high school age don't have textbooks, he added. The only teaching materials available in the dilapidated classrooms are blackboards and the occasional hand drawn chart stuck to the wall. Now that monsoon season is here, rainwater drips through the classrooms' shoddy roofs. 

The school is made up of three small buildings surrounding a courtyard. Each child can only attend for half of the day; one group comes in the morning and another in the afternoon. 

"I think they have no future," said Zaw Zaw, who hasn't received his government salary for two months. "They can pass the matriculation exam, but they cannot join the university." 

Despite these conditions, the children at this school are luckier than most young Rohingya. The Arakan Project said that more than 60 percent of Rohingya children aged 5 to 17 have never been to school, citing poverty and a lack of buildings as key reasons. 

Ten-year-old Kamal Hussain spends his days swinging a hammer to break rocks and clumps of earth. He helps his father, Jamal, fill in a road that runs over a disused railway track. Jamal makes about two dollars each day in goodwill payments from people who use the road. 

"I have no job now, so I need my son's help," Jamal said. 

Anawar Naing, a Rohingya and another former student at Sittwe University, said his younger brothers and sisters often have to miss classes at the Thet Kay Pyin school due to overcrowding.

"If they don't show up early there's usually no room for them and they have to come home… It happens about once a week," he said, adding that he studied chemistry when the riots broke out.

"I haven't seen any of my Rakhine classmates since the violence," he said. "They graduate this year … if there were equality and rights in this country I could also be graduating." 

Rohingya and Rakhines from Sittwe University said students from both religions studied together peacefully. But even there occasional conflicts, reflecting the long history of discrimination that Rohingya have faced in Rakhine, took place. In 2004 a group of students clashed, leaving several people injured, according to Burma Today. 

"After the World Trade Centres were attacked the Rakhines got aggressive towards Rohingyas," said Mohamed Gakid, a Rohingya who was studying at the university when the clash took place.

By Feliz Solomon

Democratic Voice of Burma

August 5, 2014

The detention of a distinguished Rohingya lawyer and rights activist has been extended by a court in western Burma, prompting renewed calls from rights groups for his immediate amnesty.

“What we’re seeing are repeated court appearances without verdict,” said Matthew Smith, executive director of Bangkok-based advocacy group Fortify Rights. “We can’t say with any confidence when we might expect a verdict because the process is opaque and subject to questionable political pressures. The court should move to drop all charges and release him unconditionally.”

Kyaw Hla Aung, 74, has been detained in Sittwe since July 2013, when he was arrested for his alleged involvement in demonstrations against a citizenship verification programme that required ethnic Rohingyas to identify themselves as “Bengali”.

On Monday, the Sittwe district court postponed Kyaw Hla Aung’s proceedings until 18 August and denied him bail. Authorities in Sittwe could not be reached for comment.

“Rakhine [Arakan] State authorities have kept Kyaw Hla Aung locked up for over a year, demonstrating the urgent need for the central government to intervene to free him,” said Smith, adding that the charges are “completely without merit”, and are part of a “broader campaign of persecution” against the Muslim minority.

Kyaw Hla Aung now faces six charges that could land him in jail for up to 20 years if found guilty. Charges include rioting, being armed with a deadly weapon, organising or abetting unlawful assembly, robbery, obstructing the duties of public servants and inciting unrest. The last charge falls under Burma’s controversial article 505(b), an often-criticised part of the colonial-era penal code that loosely defines violations and has been used against a number of activists in relation to public gatherings.

The charges were brought against him shortly after an April 2013 protest against a population survey in Arakan State, which required stateless Rohingya Muslims to “register” as Bengalis. Many of them refused; the Burmese government and much of the general population deny the existence of a Rohingya ethnic identity, claiming instead that they are illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

Burma’s estimated one million Rohingyas are denied citizenship and face severe restrictions on movement, family life and resources. Rights groups, including Fortify Rights, have accused the government of creating unlawful policies of systemic persecution. Burma’s former United Nations rights rapporteur, Tomás Ojea Quintana, left his post in March with the warning that crimes against humanity may have been committed against the Rohingya community.

While harmful policies — which include restrictions on marriage and childbearing — are believed to have been in place for decades, remaining freedoms have deteriorated for Burma’s Rohingyas since deadly riots erupted in Arakan State in June 2012. Several bouts of violence have left hundreds dead and about 140,000 displaced, many still living in remote, crowded, under-resourced camps that are systematically denied life-saving assistance such as medicine and clean water.

At the end of her first official visit to Burma in July, the current UN rights rapporteur, Yanghee Lee, described the situation in Arakan as “deplorable”, emphasising that “the health situation in the Muslim IDP camps is of particular concern”.

Lee also said that she has “received continuing allegations of violations against the Muslim community, including arbitrary arrests, torture and ill-treatment in detention, death in detention, the denial of due process and fair trial rights”. The rapporteur met with Kyaw Hla Aung and several other Muslim detainees in Sittwe, but did not disclose any details about their treatment or discussions. Concerns remain about Muslim prisoners in Arakan’s isolated prisons, precisely because their communications are so tightly controlled.

“It’s important to remember that Myanmar still lacks an independent judiciary, particularly on issues related to the Rohingya,” said Fortify Rights’ Smith. “This isn’t necessarily the fault of the court. There are a lot of political forces at play.”

Kyaw Hla Aung has a long history of political imprisonment; he has been jailed four times since 1986, spending a total of more than ten years in prison for various charges related to his advocacy work.

Upon his arrest last year, numerous rights groups rallied for his release. Amnesty International issued an urgent call for action based on the belief that he was “targeted as an influential human rights defender with connections to the international community”.

By Nang Mya Nadi

Democratic Voice of Burma 

August 2, 2014

The return to Arakan State of international aid agencies such as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is essential for health services in the region at a time when there is a “massive need” for development in both the Buddhist and Muslim communities, British Ambassador to Burma Andrew Patrick told DVB on Thursday.

“The responsibility for health and education in Rakhine [Arakan] State is the government’s responsibility, and the way to facilitate aid is through INGOs. The plan to allow MSF back should improve health services,” he added.

The British ambassador was speaking after returning from a two-day visit earlier this week to state capital Sittwe alongside his US counterpart, Ambassador Derek Mitchell.

A delegation led by the US and UK ambassadors to Burma met on Sunday and Monday with local MPs and community leaders in Sittwe, and were accompanied by Immigration Minister Khin Yi and President’s Office Minister Soe Thein.

Patrick noted that he had paid a visit to the Muslim neighbourhood of Aung Mingalar in Sittwe, which is barricaded into segregation from the rest of the volatile city where tensions between Muslims and Buddhists have resulted in bloodshed on several occasions over the past two years.

The British ambassador described the mood in the Muslim enclave as “depressing”, noting that the residents have “no opportunity to move, to leave or to work” outside the restricted area.

He said the impact of the isolation had been “quite severe”.

Thar Pwint, a community leader who sat at a meeting in the Sittwe Hotel on Sunday, said the ambassadors urged Arakanese leaders to focus on human rights, equality and harmony between the different communities, regardless of racial identity.

“They were here to talk about human rights,” said Thar Pwint. “We, too, support human rights, but they came here saying things like ‘Everyone is a human being, and all human beings are equal’. We told them that this will only be realistic when the whole world is under one government.”

He said the US ambassador urged the Arakanese community to recognise the Rohingya as an ethnicity in Burma, as they face expulsion from the country if they agree to list themselves as ‘Bengali’ in a newly implemented citizenship verification programme.

Thar Pwint said that the community leaders in turn explained the country’s citizenship law to him, and told him that people of any race can become citizens of Burma if they meet the criteria.

While not addressing Ambassador Mitchell’s comments about the status of the Rohingya, the US embassy in Rangoon said, “The delegation consulted with local communities to discuss their concerns and vision for the urgent and long-term priorities of Rakhine State. One clear message from these communities is that more outreach, communication, and transparency from both the government and the international community concerning any plans or activities in Rakhine State is needed to prevent misunderstandings and build confidence for the future.”

On the question of Rohingya citizenship, British Ambassador Patrick said the UK “supports every group’s right to self-identify”.

He acknowledged that it was a divisive issue in the region, and one which the Arakanese Buddhist population sees as a “direct challenge”.

On Monday, the delegation met with leaders of the Rakhine National Party (RNP) at the party’s headquarters in Sittwe. Central committee member Khin Maung Gree said they discussed the resumption of operations by MSF in the region.

“We stressed that MSF must change their ways and ensure transparency, while at the same time respecting our culture and the traits of the Arakanese,” said Khin Maung Gree, adding that the US ambassador promised to monitor MSF operations.

The MSF – after more than 20 years of providing humanitarian aid, healthcare and medical services in Arakan State – was forced to suspend operations in the region after being targeted with hostility by Arakanese Buddhist locals who accused the organisation of bias towards the Muslim minority, and attacked its office last year.

Last week, the Ministry of Health and the Arakan State government released a joint-statement inviting MSF to resume operations.

While the move was welcome by international observers, Sittwe-based nationalist group Arakan Social Network released a statement on Sunday insisting that the people of Arakan do not wish for MSF to return.

On 25 July, MSF said in a statement that they “welcomed” the call from the Arakan State government to resume its operations but remained “cautious”.

The Myanmar Times

August 2, 2014 

By Khine Thant Su

The Irrawaddy

August 2, 2014

RANGOON — President Thein Sein has urged people in western Burma’s troubled Arakan State to accept and cooperate with a central government plan for peace and development in the region.

In his monthly radio address to the nation—first broadcast on Friday—Thein Sein said that his administration had consulted with civil society groups and the local government in Arakan State to come up with the plan. Violence between local Arakanese Buddhists and Muslims has hit the state sporadically since mid-2012, and about 140,000 people, mostly from the Rohingya Muslim minority, are still living in makeshift camps.

“We plan to implement the project systematically and if we can do that, we believe that the Arakan people’s lives will improve,” Thein Sein said, without giving details of the plan.

While the government was doing its best to improve the situation in the state, he said, the state’s people, civil society and international aid organizations must “look forward to development and cooperate open-mindedly.”

Arakanese Buddhist leaders have said they do not agree with the government’s decision, announced last week, to allow Médecins Sans Frontières to return to Arakan State after it was expelled in February for alleged bias in favor of the Rohingya. Other international NGOs have also had access to the state restricted since Arakanese Buddhists rioted in the state capital of Sittwe in March, ransacking their offices and residences.

During his speech, the president also warned that anyone threatening the peace and stability of the country would be severely punished. He gave the example of inter-communal clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in Mandalay early last month, which were triggered by an allegation of rape against two Muslims that was spread on social media but later turned out to have been entirely fabricated.

“We are finding out and penalizing the people responsible for instigating the religious conflicts in Mandalay using concocted accusations,” Thein Sein said.

Giving the example of martyrs in the past who sacrificed for the country’s welfare, the president encouraged Burmese to strive for peace and democracy in cooperation, instead of being divided on lines of race and religion.

He also acknowledged that the political reforms that he initiated when his nominally civilian government took power in 2011 were facing numerous challenges. However, he said, “the taking root of democracy through the continued survival of the political process would be the common standpoint among the political entities of differing views.”

By AA Gill

The Sunday Times

August 2, 2014

NABIN Shona comes into the small room carrying an air of worn ­disappointment.

She offers me her hand. It is limp and light and dry, like briefly holding an autumn leaf. She’s been waiting for over an hour, but in a refugee camp every wait is merely the twig on a tree of waiting. She sits opposite me on a plastic chair and arranges her headscarf. She is dressed with a sober, threadbare modesty and tells me her name and her age: 42. She looks older, her eyes are dark rings; in her nose, the tiniest gold stud. The room is shabby, a clerk’s office made of plaited bamboo and corrugated iron. The air holds its breath and hangs like a hot handtowel waiting for the imminent monsoon. A fan creaks in the ceiling, when the emphysemic generator has the energy.

I say what I’ve said many times today: “All I want to know is what you want to tell me, your story, what happened.” She speaks in a reedy whisper, the translator leans forward: “They came in the night, the army. They wanted to steal my goat. I was beaten.” I think “beaten” may cover a more intimately shaming truth. A lot of the women say the word as if it tasted of bitter medicine. “I was taken to the army camp and my legs were trapped between bits of wood. I was seven months pregnant. I had to leave three small children at home by themselves. My husband had already fled to avoid being used as forced labour by the soldiers.” Her legs still hurt. She shows me the scar. When a bribe was paid she came here to the refugee camp. She was 18.

Nabin starts to cry, rubbing away the tears, collecting them between her finger and thumb because she doesn’t want to leave them to fall alone in this place. She has been here, waiting, for 24 years. They took her 12-year-old daughter to prison for avoiding repatriation. She’s had four more children in the camp. She fades to a halt, sagging under the humiliation of her ­emotion. I ask if there’s anything else she’d like to say. She takes a breath and looks up, fierce in her despair, her voice suddenly clear and brittle: “Why don’t they poison all of us? Or drag us into the sea?”

Nabin’s story isn’t exceptional. I’ve chosen it because it is so typical, so ordinary, so banal. Kutupalong is a refugee camp in Bangladesh on the Bay of Bengal, a couple of kilometres from the porous and fractious Burmese border. It has been here for more than 20 years; so have many of its inhabitants. The camp hides off the main road in a landscape of neat paddy fields, salt pans and fish ponds. Officially there are 12,000 refugees here, and a further 18,000 at another camp, Nayapara, about 30km away. Unofficially there are an additional 200,000 unregistered refugees, many living in makeshift shelters that have mushroomed around the two camps.

These refugees are the Rohingyas, a poor rural minority from Burma. According to the UN, they are the most persecuted people in the world. Think of that: how pitiful your lot must be to contend for that fathomlessly miserable accolade. They have been systematically preyed upon by the majority Burmese: beaten, raped, murdered, abducted for slavery, their goods looted, their crops and land stolen; they have been hunted by mobs, excluded from all social and political life in a systematic and prolonged campaign of intimidation and vilification that is not simply ignored by their government but actually sanctioned, encouraged and inflamed. The most widespread and heinous abuses are perpetrated by the military and the judiciary. It is, though, pretty much ignored by the rest of us. Not only is this the worst, it is the least known and reported pogrom in the world today.

Compared to all the other murderous bullying on Earth, this has one startling and contrary ingredient: the Rohingyas are Muslim, the Burmese are Buddhist. The gravest, cruellest, state-sponsored persecution of any people anywhere is being practised by pacifist Buddhists on Jihadi-mad, Sharia-loving Muslims. It doesn’t really fit in with the received wisdom of how the world works. The Burmese say the Rohingyas are dogs, filth, less than human, that they are too ugly to be Burmese, that they are a stain, a racial insult and that, anyway, they are Bengali – illegally imported coolie immigrants, colonial flotsam from East Bengal, or Bangladesh as it’s now known. In the last census, they were not allowed to call themselves Rohingyas; only if they admitted to being Bangladeshi could they register as existing. Burma does recognise more than 100 other cultural, racial and religious minorities, just not the Rohingyas.

The truth is they have lived peaceably and happily alongside Buddhist peasants for hundreds of years. It is said they derive from early Arab traders who converted the locals to Islam before the Mughals ever got to India. They are very similar to the Bangladeshis along the ­border because, under the British, the border between India and Burma didn’t exist. The current military government, as if wiping dog shit off the sole of its shoe, decreed the Rohingyas were no longer Burmese and they were made stateless. Consider that: what that means. You have no rights; no access to law, to education; no healthcare; no protection from the police, the army, the courts; no passport.

Abu Kassim was beaten by soldiers who took his ID card, confiscated his fields and his house and gave them to a Buddhist. He went to the administrator, the magistrate, and asked for fairness. The judge took him by the neck and threw him to the ground and said: “Your home is in the clouds.” He cries at the memory.

The stateless have no voice, no civil rights. At the tap of the computer key, they were made unperson – vulnerable, despised and loathed; criminals in the only home they’d ever known. Their children are never safe, their daughters are objects of careless lust, husbands and sons are feral beasts of burden. They can’t complain to the law; only God listens. It is a humourless mockery to know that technically making people stateless is illegal.

Amir Hamja is 77, an old man with a long beard, a white skull cap, funereal eyes. He remembers colonial Burma. “Things were better with the British. There was law. When the Japanese came, we Rohingya fought with the British. The Buddhists wanted independence. They thought the Japanese would get it for them.” Amir was beaten and humiliated. Humiliation is a word that comes up repeatedly. For people who have very little, respect and dignity are precious. He too begins to cry.

Orafa Begum is 19. She was born in the camp. A hijab covers her face. More and more girls are wearing full veils and long black dresses; it isn’t their tradition, but fathers are insisting, frightened of the awful humiliation of a molested or raped child, and they are being made to stay in their tiny, dark hovels. Orafa pulls down her veil so she can speak face to face. She has a beautiful young face with dark eyes. She helps in the school here. She had a brother who died from an eye infection, another brother has an untreated urinary tract infection, her mother is deaf, her father, an imam, was beaten and is now mentally handicapped. Orafa supports them all. In her beautiful eye, she has a cataract.

The camp itself is a miserable, stinking sty. I’ve been to dozens of refugee camps all over the world and outside of a natural disaster this is the worst I’ve seen. The huts are tiny, made of mud and blistering corrugated metal with ripped plastic sheet roofs, augmented with leaves. Along each of the little alleys that separate the huts are deep gutters of sewage, in which chickens and mangy ducks dabble for sustenance. Come the monsoon it will be an impassable mire of filth that seeps into every room, clings to every foot.

There is a problem here with water; there’s nothing like enough. The water table is brackish. The women and children spend hours waiting to fill tin gallon jars around an emetic pump. I crawl in through the hobbit door of a hut whose only light comes from a tiny low window and a smouldering wood stove. There is nothing here: a roll of blankets and the dirt floor, a few rags hung from a string slung between nails. These two tiny rooms are each home to a family: one of six, the other of four. As a temporary stop it would be vilely uncomfortable, but the families have lived here for more than a decade.

Khalija Khaeun is 65, her face deeply lined under her hijab. “I have a beautiful daughter; the soldiers came to rape her. My husband died in the military camp, where he was taken to be a slave. He was beaten to death for being too weak to carry bricks. A few months ago, my nephew was hacked to death in Burma. My son was attacked in a bazaar. In my life there is nothing but sorrow and suffering. Even the birds can make a nest. We have nowhere.”

In the rudimentary medical centre I’m shown the birth room: two iron beds with thin, crumbling foam mattresses and a birthing chair with stirrups that looks like a piece of angry feminist art. A baby is born here almost every day; to those with nothing, children are the only hope, their only means of production. The Rohingyas are making children at a cataclysmic rate.

The children born in these camps don’t count as refugees; they are not registered and therefore no provision is made for them. The nurse tells me they have no anaesthetic, no oxygen, no gas. “What do you do if someone needs a caesarean?” I ask. “Well, we have to phone for an ambulance from Chittagong,” she offers hypothetically. “That would be two hours away on a good day.”

She smiles and takes me to meet the doctor, an ebullient man in a jacket and tie. The main medical concerns, he says, are infant diarrhoea, polio, meningitis and cholera, but the biggest problem is respiratory disease. “You know, smoky huts, lots of asthma, bronchitis.” He smells of cigarettes and the pack that was on the desk when I came in has been surreptitiously hidden. “You smoke over the mothers and the children,” I say. It comes out as an accusation rather than a question. He grins sheepishly. “Well, you have to have a little pleasure.”

There is precious little pleasure here for the inmates. There are no amenities for fun; it’s too hot to kick a ball or play cricket. In a dark room, women who have been raped or abused or divorced press cakes of carbolic soap. In another room young girls sit sewing sanitary pads and pants. There is no childhood to be had here.

Before I was allowed to visit this camp I was summoned to Bangladesh’s foreign ministry. I sat in an office for 15 minutes and watched a civil servant in an elaborate sari and coiffured hair with a monochromatically pale face talk on the phone and tap at her computer. “Sorry,” she said with exaggerated politeness. “Let me say that you are the first journalist who has been given a visa to visit the camp. This is a test. What happens in the future depends on what you write. You understand our conditions?”

I’ve been told previously I must never refer to the Rohingyas as Bangladeshi, that I must only visit the two official camps and not mention any of the unofficial ones, that I must be accompanied at all times by two government officials. The two minders never appear, I suspect through incompetence rather than second thoughts. However, I am made aware of secret military policemen who shadow our movements and hang around in the crowd, listening.

Official Bangladeshi policy is that the Rohingyas are Burmese and Burma’s problem; that they should be encouraged to return. Often they are forced back, which international law says is illegal. The camps are kept basic so as to not attract more refugees and because they are sources of irritation for the surrounding ­Bangladeshis, who are not much better off. I have some sympathy for Bangladesh: this is one of the most crowded, beset countries in Asia, and it doesn’t need an influx of new mouths who will undercut the already barrel-scraping wages that Bangladesh pays. “It’s all Burma, Burma, Burma now,” the civil servant told me. “Everyone in the West wants to do business there. There’s so much money to be made. No one wants to confront them over the Rohingyas.”

The unofficial part of the Kutupalong camp, the one I’m not allowed to see, marches right up to the edge of the official one. It is the same but worse. There is no rudimentary medicine, no insufficient food, no carbolic soap or sanitary pads. The stink is fouler, there is less water, the huts are meaner and filthier, the alleys between them narrower. Only the people are the same: stone-faced, ragged, veiled, xylophone ribs and pot bellies, exhausted by boredom and disappointment, doubly stateless, unregistered, unrecognised, hopeless.

It is not difficult to escape the camp. There are no walls and there are Bangladeshi gang masters who, for a cut, will take them to labouring work in Chittagong where they are paid half of what the Bangladeshis get. If they’re caught by the police they’re pushed back across the border. Other gangs promise to take young men to Malaysia, a Muslim country where they can find work. It is a long journey by sea. The Thai navy used to pick up the boats, take them ashore, feed the refugees, give them water, then tow them back out to sea, saying they’d done their humanitarian duty. No one knows how many Rohingyas drowned. It is probably thousands.

What they haven’t done yet, the Rohingyas, is fight back. They pray and they hope and not one of them can tell me why the Burmese turned on them with such violence and hostility.

The Rohingyas aren’t allowed to travel outside their villages without permission, they are forbidden further education, there is a curfew and a ban on groups of more than four people, making worship in mosques impossible, there are restrictions on marriage (they must get permission, which can take years) while living together as de factos is punishable with prison, there are petty laws on things like the cutting of beards and there is a two-child policy that doesn’t apply to the Burmese.

Mustafa Shafial was a photographer for the National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi’s party. Many Rohingyas supported her. Mustafa’s business was burnt by police. In ­desperation she gave her house to a Buddhist neighbour on the understanding they would give her back half of it when things got better. Aung San Suu Kyi’s silence about the plight of the Rohingyas is deafening, shaming and telling. “Aung San Suu Kyi has done nothing for us,” says Mustafa. “Rohingya died for her party, but she can’t even recognise us.”

Narul Hakim is 55. He spent 13 years in a Bangladeshi jail, unable to raise the bribe for enough space to lie down: “We slept squatting in a line.” He organised a demonstration in the camp against forced repatriation. The police falsely accused him of the murder of Rohingyas who were shot in the riot. He has yet to face more trials. “Our lives are over,” he says. “We only fight for our grandchildren, that they can belong somewhere, have a home.”

He takes a little package out of his pocket and says, through tears, “Look here,” and unfolds a handkerchief. Inside are worn and tattered cards and passes, official letters with inky stamps. They are the remnants of his identity. “This is me,” he says, offering me the little slips of card and plastic that accredited his existence: that once connected him to hope, to ambition, to a future, just to belonging. “When I die,” he says, “someone will have to write a certificate, they will have to say that I was here, that I lived.” Later, in the cool of the golden afternoon, I see him in the camp holding his grandson, a little boy born here with huge, solemn brown eyes. Narul hugs him tight and stares at him with a terrible intense love.

(Photo: Paula Bronstein/Getty)

By World Bulletin

July 31, 2014

Buddhist Nationalist circles called for a boycott of Ooredoo amid a wave of anti-Muslim hate speech.

Phone shops in Myanmar have started selling SIM cards made by a global telecoms giant boycotted by Buddhist nationalists ahead of the official launch date, sparking speculation that the much-anticipated launch is imminent.

Nationalist circles have called for the boycott of Ooredoo - which is majority-owned by the Qatari government – amid a wave of anti-Muslim hate speech, spearheaded by radical monks who insist Muslims are trying to take over the country.

Despite this, vendors in the former capital Yangon as well as the country’s second city of Mandalay told local media Thursday that they have already received the company's SIM cards and started selling them for 1,500 Kyats ($1.50).

A vendor in Mandalay said he had been instructed to start selling the cards this Saturday, according to The Myanmar Times.

Myanmar’s mobile phone and Internet services are currently among the least reliable in the world.

Decades of isolation and censorship under military dictatorships left the country with dire infrastructure while ludicrous price controls meant SIM cards remained unaffordable for the majority of Myanmar’s roughly 60 million citizens.

But this has begun to change as the former pariah state opens up to the world. A quasi-civilian government that came to power in 2011 has brought in sweeping economic reform – a key pillar of which was inviting foreign telecoms firms to set up in the country.

Ooredoo has called a press conference for the same day - which a spokesperson described as “special” - adding that there would be an “exciting announcement.”

Both Ooredoo and its rival, Norwegian company Telenor, will spend billions of dollars on transmission towers and other infrastructure in a bold act of frontier investing in one of the last untapped mobile telecoms markets in the world.