By John Zaw, Mandalay

UCA News

September 5, 2014

Myanmar officials have refuted media reports that Myanmar would resettle thousands of Rohingya living in Bangladesh, insisting that the Rohingya were not ethnic nationals of the country.

This comes just days after Bangladesh officials announced an agreement with Myanmar to resume the repatriation process, which has been stalled since 2005.

U Thant Kyaw, Myanmar's deputy foreign affairs minister told state media that while Myanmar said it was considering the return of 2,415 Myanmar nationals, the two countries never used the term "Rohingya" during discussions.

"With regard to the term Rohingya I explained to the state minister for home affairs during our meeting that we have never had ethnic nationals called Rohingya according to the official list of indigenous ethnic groups of Myanmar as well as our historical records," Kyaw was quoted as saying in state media on Thursday.

Myanmar officials said they agreed to form a joint committee to re-examine the cases of the 2,415 refugees. It was not certain Myanmar would accept them, country officials said.

Despite being neighbors, Bangladesh and Myanmar have had thorny relations over the Rohingya people, who are mostly Muslims. When Myanmar last halted repatriations in 2005, it did so without offering any specific reason.

Myanmar considers the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and has strongly resisted offering them citizenship, yet they are equally unwelcome in Bangladesh.

In western Myanmar's Rakhine state, they have frequently been subjected to systematic abuse and violence at the hands of extremist Buddhists. The United Nations Refugee Agency termed Rohingya people "the world's most persecuted minority".

Since 1978, thousands have fled, many to Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district where around 30,000 Rohingya reside in two official camps, relying on government and NGO aid for survival. As many as 300,000 reside in unofficial makeshift camps, under strict restrictions on movement, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

U Hla Win, a Rakhine State Hluttaw representative for Myebon, told The Myanmar Times that he welcomed the government’s decision to resettle Myanmar nationals from Bangladesh. He said members of several ethnic groups are living in poor conditions in refugee camps in Bangladesh.

"The government should not only invite them to come back, but also make sure there is a plan for resettlement and rehabilitation," U Hla Win said.

"The government should also check very carefully whether they are Myanmar citizens because others are waiting to take this chance to become Myanmar citizens," he told The Myanmar Times.

By Saudi Gazette Editorial

September 4, 2014

The United Nations and international donors have allowed themselves to become party to a dangerous fraud in Burma. Using outside funding from these bodies, the country has just conducted its first census in 30 years and has completely ignored the Muslim Rohingya minority in an act of blatant racism that cannot be allowed. 

President Thein Sein’s administration, which is so busy welcoming eager foreign businessmen to the country, has deliberately excluded between 800,000 and 900,000 Rohingya, thus perpetuating a bloody injustice which casts into serious doubt Burma’s right to be welcomed back into the international community. 

Burma has long refused to accept the right of the Rohingya to Burmese citizenship, even as it has generally acknowledged the same rights for the 135 other ethnic groups that make up this extraordinarily diverse country. The result, since the military junta has stepped back into the shadows of power, has been an odious “open season” on the country’s Muslims, led by Buddhist thugs, many of them supposedly peaceable and tolerant monks. Hundreds of Rohingya have been murdered and tens of thousands driven from their homes in ethnic violence which the police and army have done precious little to stop. 

Since the Rohingya are denied their rights as Burmese citizens, they are also unable to access justice. They have been barred from prosecuting their persecutors, just as they have been unable to use the courts to defend their property rights in Arakan province where most of them live.

The deeply inadequate results of this census only continue this atrocious scandal. The census takers visiting Arakan simply did not see the Rohingya. The government’s contradictory explanations for this deliberate blindness are pathetic. On the one hand, it was stated that this sizable minority had been left out because of “a technicality”. This presumably refers to the so-called “household cards” which most Rohingya hold, which identify them as “Bengali”. These cards of course were issued by the Burmese authorities themselves and by no one else. Moreover, the cards are actually a piece of racism, since the word “Bengali” is used in Burma as a term of general abuse.

However, another official came up with a different explanation for the omission of the Rohingya from the count. He said that they had been left out “as a security measure”. This seemed to suggest that local Buddhist ruffians would have rioted had the census been conducted properly. No responsible government should be seen to be bowing to such a threat to law and order. But then the Burmese government is not a responsible government. Yet the international community continues to ignore its naked racism and officially-sanctioned persecution of a helpless and vulnerable minority. Moreover, it has just funded a deeply-flawed national head-count which underpins that racism. 

It is clear that the UN should lead the outright rejection of this sham census and insist it be completed properly. Whatever the arguments about the inadmissibility of the Rohingya as citizens - and they are extremely weak - a proper census must include everyone living in the country. If the UN does nothing, then it will have been party to a racist maneuver that is surely the precursor to greater bloody crimes and injustices against hundreds of thousands of helpless people, whom it seems have no one willing to stick up for them.

By AFP

September 4, 2014

Berlin -- Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday pledged further economic support for Myanmar if it holds fair elections next year and does more to protect ethnic minorities.

After talks with Myanmar's President Thein Sein, Merkel told a joint news conference that Germany was ready to boost investment and development aid but would keep a close eye on human rights in the country, which is still emerging from decades of military rule and international isolation.

"Myanmar is a country with many ethnic groups and for economic growth, peace is of course required, and peace requires compromise and tolerance with regard to minorities," she said.

Merkel hailed "democratic progress" in the Southeast Asian nation, notably in the area of press freedom, but said Berlin was watching preparations for parliamentary elections due in 2015.

"We expressed our hope that the elections will be free, fair and transparent," she said of her talks with Thein Sein, a former general whose quasi-civilian regime is now pursuing reforms.

Merkel said Germany was focusing aid for Myanmar on an overhaul of its educational system and assistance to small- and medium-sized companies "in regions where there are ethnic conflicts".

Thein Sein, whose government has been accused of failing to stem two years of sporadic anti-Muslim violence, remarked he was the first president of Myanmar to visit Germany in three decades.

Speaking through an interpreter, he noted that his country had only been on a path to democracy for three years.

"In this time we had a lot of difficulties" but were able to pursue reforms "without bloodshed".

He said he would support opposition calls to amend Myanmar's constitution before the elections if they receive backing of parliament and voters in a referendum.

Deadly clashes in Rakhine two years ago have left some 140,000 people, mainly Rohingya Muslims, trapped in miserable displacement camps with scant access to basic services and work.

Violence has since erupted periodically across the country, most recently in the second largest city of Mandalay.

Activists have also accused the government of backsliding on press reforms with the introduction of vague media laws and the prosecution of several local journalists.

Opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi warned on a visit to Berlin in April that her country, despite the reforms, "is not yet a democracy".

By T. J. 

The Economist

September 4, 2014

MYANMAR has just found out that 9m-odd people it had thought were living within its borders actually do not. In fact most of them don’t live anywhere at all. The first census in three decades puts Myanmar’s population at just 51m, not 60m.

The dearth of real data always made a nonsense of economic planning. Until recently not knowing the size of the population—the denominator for almost every development index—did not matter. The sad fact was that the dictatorship did not care much at all about such indices. Freshly snatched from China’s orbit, Myanmar has been reconnected to a steady flow of aid and investment from Western countries—whose governments are happy to regard it as a rare and precious example of political and economic development gone right.

Losing 9m people overnight has a nice side-effect or two. On paper the country’s GDP per capita is suddenly 17% higher, breaking $1,000 for the first time. Myanmar’s progress towards a host of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) looks correspondingly better—though in plenty of other cases, it looks worse. More meaningfully perhaps, across the board this census makes plain just how dark a statistical shadow was cast by the country’s half-century under a military dictatorship.

The newest snapshot shows that 15m people or 29.6% of the total population live in urban areas. The average household size is 4.4. Some 7.4m people live in the commercial capital, Yangon—a couple million more people than there were according to the best guess from the past decade.

The headcount has also revealed that there are 1.7m more women than men. The sex ratio of 0.9 speaks to a reasonably favourable status of women. This roots Myanmar firmly in mainland South-East Asia, home to countries where women outnumber men. By contrast, all of South Asia, and China too, produce too few girls relative to boys, a sad consequence of sexism in those societies.

The census was ill-considered in many ways. It cost $75m and its biggest achievement was probably to underscore the fragility of a political transition in Myanmar, an ethnically diverse country with a long history of internal conflict. The 51.4m figure includes 1.2m people whom the government could count or chose not to count. About 100,000 live in bits of Kachin and Kayin states whose territory the central government does not control. But by far the larger number are to be found in northern Rakhine state. There the new census figures revealed a new 1.1m people, most of them Rohingya Muslims. (In Kayin people were asked to count themselves; in Kachin calculations were based on “the demographics of surrounding villages”; and the estimate for northern Rakhine was based on maps made before the census was taken.)

In the past the government has excluded the Rohingyas from the census, for fear of having to acknowledge their existence. The government, like much of the ethnic-Burmese majority, regard the Rohingya as being illegal “Bengali” immigrants and keeps them in an effective state of ethnic segregation. Still to come is the dreaded moment at which new figures will reveal the actual ethnic and religious affiliations of the total population. The fear is that it will trigger violent outrage among Buddhist nationalists if the data turn out to show, as many people expect, a doubling of official estimate of the Muslim population. On the old figures, there are only 4m Muslims in Myanmar today, only a minority of them being Rohingyas. Tallying them, and other minorities too, will be a tricky affair.

Thankfully recalculating the population of Myanmar as a whole poses questions that are relatively academic. How to explain those missing millions? Most countries expect any census to result in an “undercount” of 2-3%. In addition, the official figure of 60m, everyone knew, was a wild guess. It was based on the outcome of a flawed 1983 census which put the population at 35.4m, updated with subsequent guesses about rates of fertility and mortality, in the absence of meaningful data. The initial estimate, or the rates used to update it—or both—might have been wildly off. And those are not the only ways Myanmar’s millions have made themselves scarce.

Janet Jackson, the country representative of the UN’s Population Fund, says factoring in people who were abroad at the time of the census will have to be kept as “the subject of a separate research enquiry”. In part the missing millions may be well be an illustration of the fact that in political systems that forbid basic freedoms and economic opportunities, citizens head for the exit. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has estimated that there are between 2m and 4m Burmese workers in Thailand, perhaps another half-million in Malaysia, more than 100,000 in Singapore, a few thousand in Japan and South Korea, and then a totally unknown number in India and China. Fully 10% of the country may be living abroad (if an estimate made in 2009 is to be believed…).

By IRIN

September 4, 2014

DHAKA -- Bangladesh announced this week that it will send back over 2,000 Muslim Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, stoking concerns about the prospect of returning them to an increasingly dire situation.

"Myanmar has agreed to repatriate some 2,415 Myanmar nationals who are living in the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar [southeastern Bangladesh]," Shahidul Haque, secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dhaka, told IRIN. "We consider it a major breakthrough. They have remained verified [for repatriation] since 2005."

The Rohingyas have long faced persecution and discrimination, including being stateless in the eyes of Burmese law. Myanmar's government claims that historically they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and labels them 'Bengalis', vehemently denying the existence of any people called 'Rohingya'. The Bangladesh government would like the Rohingya refugees on its territory repatriated.

Outbursts of violence - called ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya by some - in Myanmar in 2012 led to 140,000 people (mainly Rohingyas) living in camps in Rakhine State, where they remain today.

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), there are 200,000 to 500,000 Rohingyas in Bangladesh, of whom only 32,355 are documented and living in two government camps assisted by the agency, both within 2km of Myanmar. Most live in informal settlements or towns and cities in what Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has described as "deplorable conditions".

From 1992 to 2005, around 230,000 Rohingyas returned from Bangladesh to Myanmar under an agreement between the two governments, but the repatriation process stopped when the Burmese government refused to extend the agreement. 

The decision to restart repatriation procedures was announced after the eighth round of consultations between the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar in Dhaka on 31 August.

"Both sides agreed to start work on the formation of a joint committee within two months to exclusively deal with the issues of repatriation of refugees and their offsprings," Haque explained, adding that repatriation would begin once the joint committee was in place.

Onchita Shadman, communication and public information associate at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Dhaka, explained: "We have learnt about an agreement between the two countries and are looking forward to finding out more information about the proposed repatriation." 

While details remain for the committee to decide, Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh greeted the announcement with mixed emotions - the prospect of returning home is both a cause for excitement and trepidation. Life as a refugee in Bangladesh is difficult; but the humanitarian situation in Rakhine State, which Rohingyas call home, has worsened in recent months as some aid agencies havewithdrawn following attacks on facilities in March over perceived pro-Rohingya bias.

"Appalling" IDP camps in Rakhine

In March international aid workers fled Rakhine State after being targeted by Buddhist mobs who threw rocks at homes and offices in Sittwe (Rakhine's capital), over perceived humanitarian bias towards Rohingyas. Agencies have been slowly resuming full-scale operations since then.

During a 13 June visit to camps for internally displaced people in Rakhine State, the assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and deputy emergency relief coordinator, Kyung-wha Kang, called the situation "appalling, with wholly inadequate access to basic services including health, education, water and sanitation."

Mohammad Islam, a Rohingya refugee who lives at the Noyapara Rohingya Camp in Cox's Bazar, told IRIN: "I am really thankful to Bangladesh government for the initiative. We would be very delighted even if some of us can go back to Burma, because that's our home." 

However, the 30-year-old said, choking back tears: "Our biggest concern is if we will be safe back in Burma? We don't have any rights in Burma. We don't have any dignity as human beings there. We are not entitled to our identity. Our properties and religious institutions are damaged. How we can be assured that we would be safe out there?"

Problematic returns 

According to Shadman, "UNHCR hopes that any repatriation will be voluntary and in line with international standards thereby ensuring the safety and dignity of refugees." 

However, the deteriorating situation and ongoing tensions in Myanmar's Rakhine State have others worried that any return could be dangerous for Rohingyas.

"We are ready to go back, but we are worried that we might have to face similar persecution again for that we once fled Burma," said Mohammad Zubair, 26, a Rohingya refugee at Noyapara Camp. "Now under these circumstances, if we go back, who will ensure that we will be safe there? I appeal to the Bangladesh government and the international community to create a congenial atmosphere for Rohingyas so that we are safe when we are back in Burma."

According to Islam, between 1992 to 2005 "more than 200,000 Rohingya were repatriated to Burma, but as much as 77 percent of them were forced to do so. They did not want to go back because they feared that they would not be safe there."

Observers have noted that past attempts to repatriate Rohingyas from Bangladesh have been problematic. 

"The Rohingya repatriation, which the Bangladeshi and Burmese governments began in September 1992, was troubled from the outset," Human Rights Watch said, pointing to the December 1992 withdrawal of UNHCR from the joint repatriation programme with the Bangladeshi authorities after just a few months of operation "when it became clear that coercion was continuing".

An attempt in 2011 to repatriate the same 2,415 people (confirmed Myanmar citizens) now slated for return also failed, but Haque told IRIN he was confident that this time the process would be followed through.

Myanmar Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs U Thant Kyaw explained in astatement that Myanmar was prepared to receive the 2,415 Burmese citizens after the joint committee was formed, but asserted: "We have never had ethnic nationals called 'Rohingya', according to official list of indigenous ethnic groups of Myanmar as well as our historical records."

Aman Ullah

RB Article

September 4, 2014

In 1962, General Ne Win led a coup d'état and established a nominally socialist military government that sought to follow the "Burmese Way to Socialism." The Ne Win government nationalized the economy and pursued a policy of autarky, which isolated Burma from the rest of the world. The black market and rampant smuggling supplied the needs of the people, while the central government went down slowly into bankruptcy. Furthermore, political oppression caused many educated Burmese to leave the country.

There were sporadic protests against military rule during the Ne Win years and these were almost always violently suppressed. In 1974, the military violently suppressed anti-government protests at the funeral of U Thant. Student protests in 1975, 1976 and 1977 were quickly suppressed by overwhelming force. 

Following the riots at Rangoon University in 7 July 1962, troops were sent to restore order. They fired on protesters and destroyed the student union building. Shortly afterward, Ne Win addressed the nation in a five-minute radio speech which concluded with the statement: "if these disturbances were made to challenge us, I have to declare that we will fight sword with sword and spear with spear" The Burmese phrase is "dah go dah gyin, hlan go hlan gyin". Like the Code of Hammurabi, the sixth King Of Babylon dating back to about 1772 BC, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth".

In July 1976 opposition appeared within the ranks of the military itself as a number of younger army officers plotted a coup d’état and the assassination of U Ne Win, U San Yu, and Colonel Tin Oo, director general of the powerful National Intelligence Board. Members of the coup group were apparently disgruntled over the resignation of another popular military officer, Defense Minister Brigadier General Tin U, in March and were committed to reforming the socialist economic system, which they saw as condemning the country to ever-deepening poverty. They were put on trial in September along with Tin U, who apparently knew of the plot but did not inform the government. The coup leader was condemned to death, and the others were given prison terms.

Insurgency continued, and activities by more than a dozen major groups were recorded in 1977. These occurred in the north and northeastern border regions, where the BCP continued to pose the greatest threat when allied with smaller groups and posed a lesser threat in Rakhine and Mon states. The gradual withdrawal of Chinese support from the BCP Northeastern Command led it to engage more actively in the lucrative opium trade.

At the Third Congress of the BSPP in February 1977 there was a purge of the Central Committee, and the socialist economist U Ba Nyein and 40 others were obliged to resign. This 'schism' in the BSPP was seen as a power-struggle or in-fighting between the military faction and the 'ex-Communist' faction in the BSPP. Many commented that the power struggle was between pro-Ne Win group and pro-San Yu group and San Yu group get upper hand. Among the thousands that were purged from the party were 'leftists' or 'communist’. The congress concluded that the faulty implementation of policy, rather than the "Burmese Way to Socialism," was responsible for the bad state of the economy. BSPP Secretary General U San Yu called for changes in the management of state and cooperative enterprises and better incentives for private producers. 

Arakan which already is one of the poorest provinces of the country became bad to worse after the military coup. The economical life of the people is intolerable and a large number of Arakanese peoples, Buddhists and Muslim a likes, migrated into Burma Proper such as Rangoon and parts of Lower Burma. When Ne Win Saw a large number of Muslims of Arakan scattered bout in Rangoon and Delta area he imposed a law in 1964, which restricted the movement of Muslims of Arakan especially prohibiting the movement out of Akyab District towards east. Thus, the Muslims of Arakan were put into a sort of imprisonment since 1964.

The authorities, however, could not stop all migration effectively as all routes could not be closed. The late 60s saw a sharp decline in economy; bring about large-scale smuggling across the Burma-Thai border. As Arakan became the poorest province in the country, the Arakanese were forced to leave for the new green pastures which were rising in eastern Burma such as the Shan and Karen States and Moulmein area. 

In 1973 census the authorities again found that Arakanese Muslims had spread up to these eastern borders and other commercially mobile areas such as Mandalay, Pegu, Prome, Maolmein, Bassein, etc. Ne Win did not want that. The Muslims should be in Arakan only so that the Arakanes Buddhists and Arakanese Muslims could use against each other. This was the best way to keep the national liberation movement of the Arakanese checked.

But the scenario was not like that, since 1967 rice crisis where Muslims and Buddhist jointly participated in the anti-junta protest march and lost both of their people’s lives, the Arakanese came to realize that they need to forge unity between Buddhists and Muslims to oppose the military regime together. With this vision many Muslims joined the Arakan National Organization led by Bo Gri Kra Hla Aung during 1967. Similarly the Rohingyas librations groups also made alliance with the Arakan National Liberation Party led by U Maung Sein Nyunt. 

Such an alliance alarmed the Rangoon regime. Meanwhile the emergence of the Arakan Independence Organization/Army and Arakan Libration Party under the collaboration with KIO and KNU receptively added much worry to the junta. In 1977 the Ne Win forces wiped out the main army of AIO and ALP, killing their leaders San Kyaw Tun and Khaing Moe Lung respectively along with about 300 men including Muslims. 

This event spread a cloud of misery over the Arakanese population. At the same time, a coup attempt by the Arakanese was foiled. This coup had been planned by Aung Sein Tha, Htin Lin and Kyaw Hla (a) Mustafa Kamal. The Burmese Intelligence openly implicated the Military Attaché in the Bangladesh Embassy in Rangoon in the plot that was expelled and declared persona non grata. 

General Ne win get a chance for his challenge of 'sword with sword’' to teach a lesson not only to the Rohingya but also Bangladesh Government. He launched an anti-Rohingya military operation in the Code name of King Dragon in the guise of checking illegal immigrant in 1978. About 300,000 Rohingyas had sought refuge across the border in southern Bangladesh amidst widespread reports of army brutality, rape and murder. Under international pressure, Burma agreed to "take back" the Rohingyas in the repatriation agreement with Bangladesh.

However, as the Plan-A of Ne Win was not success then he started with his Plan-B that is a legal instrument which may made all the Rohingya illegal status. Then he tried to draw a citizenship law which later known as the citizenship law 1982.

General Ne Win cent per cent knew that the citizenship issue was a settled issue and the Muslims of Arakan who identify themselves Rohingya are citizens by born. As they, their parents and their grandparents were born and bred in Burma and most of them were indigenous, under the sub clauses (i), (ii) and (iii) of Article 11, of 1947 Constitution of Union of Burma. Being one of the indigenous communities of Burma, the Rohingyas were enfranchised in all the national and local elections of Burma including under the Ne Win also. 

However, according to sub clause (iv) of Article 11, who was not born in Burma but was born in any of the territories which at the time of his birth was included within His Britannic Majesty’s dominions and who has resided in any of the territories included within the Union for a period of not less than eight years in the ten years immediately preceding the date of the commencement of this Constitution or immediately preceding the 1st January 1942 and who intends to reside permanently there in and who signifies his election of citizenship of the Union in the manner and within the time prescribed by law, shall be a citizen of the Union. This category of citizens is relation to the Union Citizenship (Election) Act, 1948. Rohingyas are not related to this Act, they are not need to apply for their citizenship because they are citizens by born. 

General Ne Win in his speech of October 8, 1982 mentioned that, “The Union Citizenship Act, 1948. This Act was promulgated on 4 January 1948, as Act No. 66. The Second Act was the Union Citizenship (Election) Act, 1948. This Act was promulgated on 3 May 1948, as Act No. 26. The aim of the first Act was first to define citizens and their rights. The Aim of the Union Citizenship (Election) Act was to solve the problem of immigrants I had mentioned. These people were already in Burma when we regained independence and they were to elect for Burmese citizenship if they so desired.” 

Ne Win, who is neither purely Chinese blood nor Burmese Blood, told in his speech that, “Racially, only pure-blooded nationals will be called citizens and made it very clearly that these ‘tayoke’ and ‘kalars’ cannot be entrusted with any important positions in Burmese officialdom.” 

Although Ne Win targeted to the Rohingyas but emphasized on the Section 5 of the Union Citizenship Act, which was not related to Rohingyas. Under the section 5 of the Union Citizenship Act, “persons born after the Constitution had come into force were to be citizens of Burma (a) if born in the Union of Burma of parents one of whom is a Union citizen: where the father is a citizen of a foreign country, that person is to make a declaration within one year after reaching the age of majority that he renounced the foreign citizenship and elected to remain as a Union citizen. If he or she did not make such a declaration he or she cease to be a Union citizen at the end of that year; (b) if born outside of the Union of Burma of a Union Citizen father but had registered his birth in the prescribed manner and within the prescribed period at a respective Consulate of the Union; (c) born outside of the Union of Burma of a parent serving as a Government servant: where one of the parents is a foreigner he or she is to make a declaration within one year of having attained the age of majority renouncing foreign citizenship and electing to remain a Union citizen. If he or she failed to do so he or she is to cease to be a Union citizen at the end of that year.”

Ne Win completed this law with the help of Dr. Maung Maung before October 1982. This law was approved and passed by the third session of the Third Pyithu Hluttaw and promulgated by the Chairman of the Council of State, on 15 October 1982. 

RB News

September 4, 2014

Detroit, Michigan, USA -- Over 25,000 people attended the 51st Convention of the Islamic Society of North America. Held at the Cobo Convention Center in Detroit, Michigan, President Jimmy Carter was the keynote speaker. Among the numerous events at the Convention, there were two Rohingya events: The exhibition on the Plight of Rohingya was presented by Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU) in association with GAPROWC (Global Alliance for Protection of Rohingya Women and Children) and ARU’s Global Rohingya Center (GRC) during the 3-day event. A special session on Rohingya political and human rights in Burma (Myanmar) was also convened on August 30th.

The exhibition booth of the Arakan Rohingya Union, was stationed adjacent to booth of the Muslim Aid America (MAA). The Arakan Rohingya Union exhibition was conduction by Sarah Naeem Uddin, the Director of GAPROWC, and Aasma Ahmed, the Country Coordinator of MAA, conducted the Muslim Aid America exhibition. Additionally, information on Rohingya political and human rights issues were displayed at the exhibition booths of Burma Task Force, Islamic Relief, and Helping Hands.

Some of the highlights at the Arakan Rohingya Union exhibition booth were: 

• The background history of the indigenous Rohingya people dating back to several centuries in the Rohang region of Arakan state in Burma
• Ethnic cleansing of Rohingya
• The growing militancy and terror campaigns against Rohingya and Pathi/Myanmar Muslims by the radical groups in Arakan and elsewhere in Burma, and the continuous major human right violations against Rohingya people on Arakan.

Visitors to the exhibition booths were deeply touched by the sufferings of Rohingya people in IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps that are currently under horrendous conditions and open-prison Rohingya villages in various townships in Arakan. Numerous attendees, including young generations American Muslim men and women, signed up for volunteering in Rohingya political and human rights work for the Arakan Rohingya Union in the US.

By Thin Lei Win

Thomson Reuters Foundation

September 2, 2014

YANGON - Wai Wai Nu is a diminutive 27-year-old with pro-democracy activism in her genes and a quarter of her young life spent behind bars.

The former political prisoner is now working to end the persecution faced by her people, the stateless Rohingya Muslims in western Myanmar.

The mistreatment she and her family have suffered is just one example among many of abuse aimed at the Rohingya, a minority of around 1.33 million living mainly in Rakhine State. Most are denied citizenship despite having lived in Myanmar for generations.

Wai Wai is one of Myanmar's brave, articulate and clear-sighted women working on countering the extremist views that tend to dominate the dialogue over religious intolerance and communal violence.

Whether the discussion is about the Rohingya or women's right to marry men of their choice, firebrand Buddhist monks and nationalists have successfully stoked Buddhist-Muslim tensions.

"Right now, the Buddhists are becoming more afraid of the Muslims and vice versa. Everybody feels insecure," she told Thomson Reuters Foundation in her sparsely-furnished office at the top of a six-storey building in Myanmar's main city, Yangon.

"There is little contact, trust or relationship between the communities at the moment so it's easy for an agent provocateur to incite riots and hatred."

Wai Wai's ambitions are long-term: peaceful co-existence of different groups in Myanmar, especially in her home state Rakhine, also known as Arakan, and an end to injustice.

"We would like Rakhine State to be a fair, developed and prosperous state for everyone, regardless of their race or religion," she said.

Her organisation, Women Peace Network Arakan, conducts training to promote better understanding between the communities. She is also one of the few advocating for the rights of Rohingya women, who suffer multiple layers of discrimination.

ELECTION TO IMPRISONMENT

Wai Wai was 18 and studying law when she was arrested in 2005. Her crime was to be the daughter of Kyaw Min, a Rohingya who was elected as member of parliament in the 1990 elections, the results of which were ignored by Myanmar's military rulers.

A former state education official in Buthidaung in northern Rakhine State, Kyaw Min was also a member of the Committee Representing the People's Parliament, a group of MP-elects from the 1990 vote led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The family had moved to Yangon in the early 1990s after Kyaw Min faced repeated harassment from the authorities.

More than a decade later, the whole family was rounded up - Kyaw Min first, the rest two months later - and charged under state security and immigration laws. Activists say the junta wanted to silence Kyaw Min's championing of labour rights.

"Ever since I was young, I wanted understand law to make sense of the injustices that were occurring in the country," Wai Wai recalled.

"When we were jailed, my mother said, 'Well now is the opportunity to do so in a real, practical way,' so I guess I was lucky," she added, laughing.

The trial was held behind closed doors, without their lawyer, and the judge refused to listen to them, she said. Kyaw Min was sentenced to 47 years, and the rest of the family - the wife, two daughters and a son - got 17 years each.

"We were shocked into silence. My father was already 60."

"I remember turning to the judge and saying, 'Thank you for the sentence. Our grandmother lived a very long life so we will be ok.' I also told my dad not to feel bad," she said.

"I only burst into tears when I got back to my cell," she added, losing her composure for the first time and wiping tears from her eyes.

THE PRISON YEARS

Wai Wai spent seven years in Insein Prison, notorious for its harsh regime and squalid conditions.

She found the mental anguish of imprisonment the most difficult thing to deal with, and kept herself busy. One way was to talk to other female prisoners. Most were arrested for prostitution, running small-scale gambling businesses or drugs.

"They were very young. Some were even younger than me," Wai Wai said.

"They had to do these jobs because there is no other choice. Is it their fault they don't have opportunities?"

Hearing their stories turned her into a feminist and made her want to help marginalised women, she said. "I couldn't wallow in self-pity after meeting them. Insein Prison was my university about life."

Still, the privations of prison life left long-lasting scars on the family. Her father's health deteriorated and her sister contracted liver disease that almost killed her.

All the family members were released in January 2012, together with hundreds of other political prisoners, under the new government of President Thein Sein, which took power in 2011 and embarked on a series of political and economic reforms.

Conditions for the Rohingya in Rakhine state, however, have only got worse.

BEING STATELESS

Kyaw Min won the 1990 elections as a Rohingya politician. The term has always been debated but it was not the political lighting rod that it is now, made worse after religious clashes in June and October 2012 left 140,000 people homeless, mostly Rohingya.

The government and ordinary Burmese use the term Bengalis, implying they are illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

"The Rohingya used to lead dignified, respectful lives. They were not always stateless. My parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were citizens," Wai Wai said.

A citizenship law enacted in 1982 back-paddled history, took away the Rohingya's citizenship, and imposed restrictions on travel, education and jobs, she said.

"Not having this little ID card affects the whole community. It allows the violation of basic human rights and takes away people's dignity and mental well-being," Wai Wai said.

On Sept. 15, the world's first forum on statelessness will open at The Hague, focusing on the estimated 10 million stateless people worldwide. Wai Wai hopes it will raise the issue of Rohingya.

"How is it that our fathers were in the government service and able to run in and win elections but that is no longer possible during our time?" she asked.

She blames the negative perception towards the Rohingya - which stereotypes the group as polygamous and criminal - on decades-old propaganda by the military.

The United Nations has said the Rohingya are "virtually friendless" amongst Myanmar's other ethnic and religious communities. Even human rights activists, including Aung San Suu Kyi, have failed to speak up on the Rohingya's behalf.

"We too sacrificed many things for the same cause - democracy - and we too are working towards a better future for our country," Wai Wai said.

"So it really hurts when human rights advocates say Rohingya shouldn't have rights.

"But then, our history has been erased by the junta so it's not their fault. It's the system's fault," she added.

(Editing by Ros Russell)

By Democratic Voice of Burma

September 2, 2014

President Thein Sein flew out of Naypyidaw on Monday evening to begin a 10-day trip to Europe which will include official visits to Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands for the first time.

The president was accompanied by Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin; Information Minister Ye Htut; President’s Office Minister Soe Thane; Minister for Livestock, Fisheries and Rural Development Ohn Myint; Minister for Transport Nyan Tun Aung; and Minister for Electric Power Khin Maung Soe.

No specific details were announced, though state media reported that the trip was “to promote friendship and cooperation” between Burma and the nations involved.

Thein Sein is scheduled to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday, September 2, before travelling to Switzerland and the Netherlands.

Last year, the Burmese president made official trips to Britain, Norway, France, Italy and Belgium.

European nations, and the European Union in particular, have been offering financial support to Burma since it began undertaking democratic and economic reforms in 2011.

In July, the EU funded a 4 million euro programme to tackle climate change in Burma, while in May, theCouncil of the European Union initiated a plan for regular human rights dialogue between the bloc and Burma.

In February, German President Joachim Gauck agreed to halve Burma’s debt to Germany. It now stands at US$740 million to be repaid at low interest over 15 years.

By World Mission

September 2, 2014

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is at a crossroads.

Three months ago, Burma was considering a controversial “Religious Conversion Law.” It bore resemblance to the anti-conversion laws of India with language like “people found to be applying for conversion, with the intent of insulting or destroying a religion, can face imprisonment of up to two years.”

Additionally, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom noted in its 2014 report that “political reforms in Burma have not improved legal protections for religious freedom and have done little to curtail anti-Muslim violence, incitement and discrimination, particularly targeting the Rohingya Muslim minority.”

An August visit proved disappointing as observers noted “state-sponsored discrimination and state-condoned violence against Rohingya and Kaman ethnic Muslim minorities also continued, and ethnic minority Christians faced serious abuses during recent military incursions in Kachin state.”

Being Burmese is synonymous with being Buddhist, so those who deviate have been traditionally seen as traitors or threats. World Mission CEO and Executive Director Greg Kelley says, “Many times when you give your life to Christ, in the Buddhist context here, you are literally losing almost everything.”

Despite the risk of being socially ostracized, Kelley says, “These people are responding to an authentic Christian.” In fact, he adds, “We just received a report from a village that 25 people had given their lives to Christ. Most of them are being baptized now. We’re so excited about the Word of God not returning void in Myanmar.”

The Treasure is World Mission’s digital audio Bible. The palm-sized unit has a built-in solar panel with rechargeable batteries. It brings the gospel to life for these unreached oral learners. “Most of them have never heard the Gospel [even] one time. So we distribute The Treasure. We set up listening groups in the Burmese language. About 100 people will hear the Gospel every time we send inThe Treasure.”

What happens to those who’ve been rejected by their communities? They don’t remain alone, says Kelley. “In many instances, as these Christians mature, they’re able to reintroduce and get re-acclimated into their communities and gain favor with these same people who maybe ostracized them at one point in time.”

In the meantime, Kelley says, “It becomes really critical that there is a community of believers that you are being nurtured in and being discipled in.” World Mission is also responding to that need next month by offering leadership development and training. “We’ll be gathering 50 leaders from about six different key areas of northern Myanmar. They do the heavy lifting, so it’s our opportunity over a couple of days to just really pour into them and encourage them.”

The final point: it takes all of us together to take the Gospel where it has never gone before. “I think it’s important that we acknowledge that God has already positioned strategic people to advance the Gospel to these areas. As we can, lift them up and pray for them to represent the ends of the earth and resource them with things like The Treasure. That’s a great role on our end.”

By Philip Heijmans

The Diplomat

September 2, 2014

By Charlie Campbell

TIME
September 2, 2014

A prominent watchdog accuses Bangkok of serious rights failings

Significant trauma is being experienced by thousands of refugee children being held in squalid detention centers in Thailand, claims a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The 67-page document, Two Years With No Moon: Immigration Detention of Children in Thailand, was published Tuesday and accuses Thailand of violating children’s rights, impairing their health and imperiling their development.

“Migrant children detained in Thailand are suffering needlessly in filthy, overcrowded cells without adequate nutrition, education or exercise space,” says report author Alice Farmer, children’s-rights researcher at the New York City–based advocacy group. “Detention lockup is no place for migrant children.”

Because there is a lack of legal and other mechanisms by which they can be released, many of the children are detained indefinitely, sometimes for years.

There are approximately 375,000 migrant children in Thailand, say experts, the largest number from Burma, officially known as Myanmar, where thousands have fled the world’s longest running civil war as well as recent pogroms against the Rohingya Muslim minority. Other young refugees hail from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Syria and elsewhere.

Unfortunately for them, Thailand has not ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention and does not have functioning asylum procedures. If caught, undocumented aliens run the risk of being put in immigration detention, often in harsh conditions.

HRW researchers say that they found children were being crammed into cells so crowded that they had to sleep sitting up, and that the children were being housed with unrelated adults, risking sexual and physical abuse.

“I interviewed children who were terrified of some of the people they met in detention,” Farmer tells TIME. She claimed that that the conditions violated “the U.N. minimum standards for detention centers.”

“The worst part was that you were trapped and stuck,” says Cindy Y., a refugee detained between the ages of 9 and 12, told HRW. “I would look outside and see people walking around the neighborhood, and I would hope that would be me.” She was one of 41 children interviewed for the HRW report.

Thailand has denied that it is failing refugee children in a seven-page written response to the HRW. “Detention of some small number of migrant children in Thailand is not a result of the government’s policies but rather the preference of their migrant parents themselves (family unity) and the logistical difficulties,” it said.

“The Thai government is trying its best to address and accommodate the needs of migrant children, bearing in mind the humanitarian consideration and fundamental human rights. In addition, it is worth to mention [sic] the Thai officers who work tirelessly amidst all constraints to help sheltering these migrants. Their work deserves understanding as well as recognition.”

The only choice for the refugees is to return to their country of origin — a prospect many cannot countenance for fear of violence, persecution, torture or death — or else wait in the slim hope that they will be accepted for resettlement in a third country. It is a soul-destroying limbo.

“These kids have nowhere to go,” says Farmer, “and ultimately stay in detention indefinitely with no understanding of what will happen to them down the line. It puts a very big burden on the shoulders of some very small people.”

By BDNews24

August 31, 2014

Myanmar will start the process of repatriating Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh’s camps within two months in 'a breakthrough' in bilateral relations, the foreign secretary has said.

M Shahidul Haque said they would start the process of taking back 2,415 of its nationals it verified earlier.

The decision was conveyed at the secretary-level talks on Sunday.

Myanmar’s Deputy Foreign Minister U Thant Kyaw led his side to the meeting, known as ‘Foreign Office Consultation’.

Foreign Secretary Haque told journalists after the meeting both sides agreed on a number of measures to take the relations forward.

The meeting was held in “open, frank, and cordial” manner that he said indicated “greater understanding between the two countries”.

Myanmar side was not present at the briefing.

The Rohingya refugee issue has been the main irritant in the relations.

Bangladesh gave shelter to thousands of refugees who fled the Rakhine province after sectarian clashes over the years.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, put the number in Bangladesh at over 200,000 with 30,000 documented refugees living in two government-run camps –the Kutupalong and Nayaparha – within two kilometres of the Myanmar border.

Some estimates suggest more than 500,000 are living outside the camps in Bangladesh.

According to the foreign ministry, Myanmar took back more than 200,000 of their nationals between 1991 and 2005.

The process has since stalled and Myanmar even declined to recognise those living inside Bangladesh as its nationals.

According to media reports, they did not even count Rohingya in their census.

The foreign secretary, however, believed that by agreeing to take back them again “Myanmar acknowledged that they are their citizens”.

He said both sides wanted to strengthen the relations.

“It’s (start of repatriation) a breakthrough,” he said.

He said a joint working group with members from both sides and international organisations would work on the repatriation process.

Bangladesh sought specific timeline from Myanmar on taking back its nationals in the meeting.

The foreign secretary, however, would not make any “hypothetical comment” on whether Myanmar would take back all of its nationals.

He said they had given the number of Myanmar nationals living in Bangladesh during the meeting.

Both sides also decided to form a joint commission to discuss bilateral issues at the foreign ministers level.

Secretary Haque said the Myanmar foreign minister would visit Bangladesh in January for the meeting.

He said Bangladesh also floated the idea and gave them the draft proposal of “a broader framework” between the two countries to discuss all issues.

There would be eight components under the ‘Framework Arrangement on Trust and Cooperation for Development’, he said.

These are strengthening the trust; security and cooperation dialogue; trade and connectivity; energy, environment and natural disaster; agriculture and rural development; education, health and culture; sub-regional cooperation; and cooperation in the Bay-of-Bengal.

“It’ll be a common platform to discuss the issues,” he said.

He said it would be similar to those that already Bangladesh had with India and America.

The meeting also agreed to release prisoners of both sides.

Official figures show 190 Bangladeshis are languishing in Myanmar jails, while the number is 110 of Myammar nationals in Bangladesh prisons.

The import of gas from the Shwe gas field in the Rakhine state has also been discussed.

A consortium of China, India, Myanmar, and South Korea’s Daewoo has developed the field and about 800 km of pipeline laid to take the gas to Kunming, in China.

Bangladesh has already got a positive response from China for the gas supply while officials said they would try to convince the others.

The foreign secretary said Myanmar also made it clear that they would have no problem in giving gas to Bangladesh provided there was surplus and other partners agreed.

He said the four-hour meeting also felt the home secretaries of the two countries must meet to discuss border issues.

“We all agreed to strengthen the relations,” he said.

Despite decades-old irritants in relations, both Bangladesh and Myanmar work actively at the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) grouping.

The talks on the proposed economic corridor under the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) formation were underway.

A new idea of forming a Bay community with Bangladesh, India and Myanmar, particularly after the resolution of the maritime boundary dispute, is also gaining ground.

Bangladesh is planning road connectivity between Chittagong and Kunming, capital of China’s Yunnan province, through Myanmar.

The foreign secretary said they had discussed the revival of a committee for this road link.

“We’ll also look into the possibility of one more route (of road connectivity),” he said.

They also decided to ratify the treaty signed in 1999 for border demarcation along the river Naf.

The Secretary said they felt it “extremely important” to have people-to-people contacts.

Myanmar is interested in offering tourism packages with Bangladesh and Kunming.

They renewed the cultural exchange agreement that expired in 2012 for the next five years.

The foreign secretary said Myanmar would send a team shortly to learn from Bangladesh’s agriculture, fishery and livestock sectors.

“Overall, I would say it’s a breakthrough in bilateral relations,” he said.