By AFP

October 13, 2014

Bangkok -- People-smugglers kidnapped dozens of Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh after duping them with fake job offers, and trafficked them to a rubber plantation in southern Thailand, officials said Sunday.

The 53 men -- mostly Rohingya refugees from Myanmar but also including Bangladeshi citizens -- were found on Saturday on the plantation in Takua Pa district in the southern Thai coastal province of Phang Nga.

"Two Thai men have been charged with human trafficking," Nappadon Thiraprawat of Takua Pa police told AFP.

The group will be treated as victims of trafficking rather than as illegal immigrants, he added, after interviews revealed they had been kidnapped and put on a boat south.

A local official close to the case said most of the men were abducted around a week ago from a Bangladesh coastal area which is home to a large number of Rohingya Muslim refugees from neighbouring Myanmar.

Many thought they were being recruited for odd jobs in the area, only to end up on the boat heading south.

"Some of them were knocked out with anaesthetic and taken to the boat, some were tricked... but they did not intend to come to Thailand," the official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

The migrants were initially arrested as illegal immigrants and ferried onto the Thai mainland from a small island in the Andaman Sea, the district chief said on Saturday.

Thousands of Rohingya -- a Muslim minority group not recognised as citizens in Myanmar -- have fled deadly communal unrest in Myanmar's Rakhine state since 2012. Most have headed for mainly Muslim Malaysia.

Myanmar views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya -- described by the United Nations as one of the world's most persecuted minorities -- as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denies them citizenship.

Around 300,000 Rohingya have over the years gone to live in Bangladesh, which recognises only a small portion as refugees and regularly turns back those trying to cross the border.

Most of the 53 were Rohingya from UN-run camps in the Bangladeshi coastal area of Cox's Bazar, according to Chutima Sidasathian of the Phuketwan news website who was present during interviews with the group.

"This is a new thing... before, we saw Rohingya displaced by violence who wanted to get to Malaysia, but this wasn't their plan -- these people want to go back to the UNHCR camps," she said.

Rights groups say the stateless migrants often fall into the hands of people-traffickers.

They have also criticised Thailand in the past for pushing boatloads of Rohingya entering Thai waters back out to sea and holding migrants in overcrowded facilities.

Thailand said last year it was investigating allegations that some army officials in the kingdom were involved in the trafficking of Rohingya.

Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division, described the abductions as a "horrifying new twist" to the already "systematic abuses of Rohingya boat people".

By Gabrielle Paluch 

Associated Press

October 13, 2014

By Dr Habib Siddiqui

New Age BD

October 13, 2014

This year, the Myanmar authorities have cracked down even harder, making the situation worse. First, the government expelled Doctors Without Borders, which had been providing health care for the Rohingya. Then orchestrated mobs attacked the offices of humanitarian organisations, forcing them out. While some kinds of aid are resuming, but not the health care! As noted by award-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof, expectant mothers and their children are dying for lack of doctors. They need doctors desperately to save their lives, but the Myanmar government has confined them to quasi-concentration camps outside towns, and it blocks aid workers from entering to provide medical help. They are on their own in Myanmar, where democratic progress is being swamped by crimes against humanity toward the Rohingya.

Many of the Muslim IDPs now live in squalid camps with no provisions and are counting their days hopelessly to be relocated to their burnt homes. And yet, such a provision seems unlikely. In recent months, Rakhine Buddhists have organised demonstrations protesting any resettlement of the Rohingya and other Muslims. Bottom line — they want the Rohingya and other Muslims out of Myanmar, if not totally annihilated.

Many international observers and some experts, including human rights activists, were surprised by such outbreaks of ethnic cleansing drives in the past year against the Muslims, in general, and the Rohingya people, in particular, let alone the level of Buddhist intolerance against non-Buddhists everywhere inside Myanmar. However, such sad episodes were no surprise to many keen readers and researchers of Myanmar’s problematic history.

We all knew that simply a transition to democracy would not and could not solve the Rohingya problem. Instead of a much-needed dialogue for reconciliation and confidence-building between ethnic/national and religious groups, what we recognised was appalling Buddhist chauvinism — outright rejection of the ‘other’ people from such processes by the so-called ‘democracy’ leaders within the Burmese and Rakhine diaspora. As if, their so-called struggle for democracy against the hated military regime was a purely Buddhist one, the Rohingya Muslims were unwelcome in those dialogues between ethnic/national groups.

The level of Buddhist intolerance, hatred and xenophobia has simply no parallel in our time! The chauvinist Buddhists are in denial of the very existence of the Rohingya people in spite of the fact that the latter’s root in Arakan is older than that of the Rakhines by several centuries. While the vast majority of the late-comers to the contested territory were Buddhists, the Rohingyas, much like the people living next door — on the other side of the River Naaf — in today’s Bangladesh had embraced Islam voluntarily. Their conversion had also much to do with the history of the entire region, especially in the post-13th century when the sultans and the great Mughal emperors ruled vast territories of the South Asia from the foothills of the Himalayas to the shores of the Indian Ocean.

As a matter of fact, the history of Arakan, sandwiched then between Muslim-dominated India and Buddhist-dominated Burma, would have been much different had it not been for the crucial decision made by the Muslim sultan of Bengal who reinstalled the fleeing Buddhist king Narameikhtla to the throne of Arakan in 1430 with a massive Muslim force of nearly 60,000 soldiers — sent in two campaigns. Interestingly, the Muslim General Wali Khan — leading a force of 25,000 soldiers, who was instructed to put the fleeing monarch to the throne of Arakan — claimed it for himself. He was subsequently uprooted in a new campaign — again at the directive of the Sultan of Muslim Bengal, by General Sandi Khan who led a force of 35,000 soldiers. What would be Arakan’s history today if the Muslim Sultan of Bengal had let General Wali Khan rule the country as his client?

The so-called democracy leaders in the opposition had very little, if any, in common with values and ideals of democracy but more with hard-core fascism. Their behaviour showed that they were closet fascists and were no democrats. Thus, all the efforts of the Rohingya and other non-Buddhist minority groups to reach out to the Buddhist-dominated opposition leadership simply failed. It was an ominous warning for the coming days!

So, in 2012 when the region witnessed a series of highly orchestrated ethnic cleansing drives against the Rohingya and other Muslim groups not just within the Rakhine state but all across Myanmar, like some keen observers of the political developments, I was not too surprised. Nor was I surprised at the poisonous role played by leaders of the so-called democracy movement. They showed their real fascist colour. But the level of ferocity, savagery and inhumanity simply shocked me. It showed that the Theravada Buddhists of Myanmar, like their co-religionists in Sri Lanka and Cambodia, have unmistakably become one of the most racists and bigots in our world. With the evolving incendiary role of Buddhist monks like Wirathu — the abbot of historically influential Mandalay Ma-soe-yein monastery — and his 969 Fascist Movement, which sanctifies eliminationist policies against the Muslims, surely, the teachings of Gautama Buddha have miserably failed to enlighten them and/or put a lid on their all too obvious savagery and monstrosity.

Myanmar is still locked in its mythical, savage past and has not learnt the basics of nation-building. It uses fear-tactics and hatred towards a common enemy — the Rohingyas and Muslim minorities — to glue its fractured Buddhist majority. And the sad reality is — its formula is working, thanks to Wirathu, Thein Sein, Suu Kyi and other provocateurs and executioners!

On June 20, 2013 twelve Nobel Peace laureates called upon the Myanmar government for ending violence against Muslims in Burma. They also called for an international independent investigation of the anti-Muslim violence. Yet, the Myanmar regime continues to ignore international plea for integration of the Rohingya and other minorities. It proclaims — ‘There are no people called Rohingya in Myanmar.’ This narrative is absurd, as well as racist. A document as far back as 1799 refers to the Rohingya population in Arakan, and an 1826 report estimates that 30 per cent of the population of this region was Muslim.

As I have noted elsewhere, today’s Rohingya are a hybrid group of people, much like the Muslim communities living in many non-Arab countries around the globe, especially South Asia. To say that their origin is a British-era or a Bangladeshi phenomenon is simply disingenuous.

In recent months, Myanmar has conducted a controversial census in which nearly a million Rohingyas were unaccounted. They were denied their basic rights to identify themselves as Rohingya. It was a gross violation according to scores of international laws.

The Rohingya identity is no more ‘artificial’ or ‘invented’ than any other, including the Rakhine identity. The national politics around the Rohingya people of Arakan who are dumped as the ‘Bengali illegal Muslim immigrants’ is not mere bigotry but a viable toxic fruit of Myanmar ultra-nationalism? Bhumi Rakkhita Putra Principle. It is a deliberate act of provocative target-marking in line with YMBA’s (Young Men Buddhist Association) amyo-batha-tharthana (race-language-religion) and is the foundation of the Burma Citizenship Act 1982. It is strong, powerful, and ultra-toxic. This apartheid law allows a Rakhine Buddhist like Aye Maung — an MP and chairman of the RNDP (a religio-racist Rakhine political party) whose parents only emigrated to Arakan state in 1953–54 from Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan) — to be automatically recognised as a Burmese citizen while denying the same privilege to millions of Rohingya and other Muslims whose ancestors had lived in the territory for centuries.

Myanmar espouses neo-Nazi Fascism, ie, Myanmarism — the noxious cocktail of Buddhism, ultra-nationalism, racism and bigotry. It is a farcical ideology, which starts on the false premise that the different groups that make up its complex ethnic/religious mosaic today were always under the authority of a single government before the arrival of the British. It is a dangerous ideology since it promotes the agenda towards genocide of the Rohingya and other non-Buddhist religious minorities. It is a medieval ideology of hatred and intolerance because it defines citizenship based on ethnicity or race, which has no place in the 21st century.

The Citizenship Law of 1982 violates several fundamental principles of international customary law standards, offends the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and leaves Rohingyas exposed to no legal protection of their rights. The 1982 Law promotes discrimination against Rohingya by arbitrarily depriving them of their Burmese (Myanmar) citizenship. The deprivation of one’s nationality is not only a serious violation of human rights but also constitutes an international crime.

This apartheid law is a blueprint for elimination or ethnic cleansing. It has galvanised into genocidal campaign against the vulnerable Rohingya people who have lost everything in their ancestral land and has created outflows of refugees, which overburden other countries posing threats to peace and security within the region. Of the Rohingya diaspora, an estimated 1.5 million now live in Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the UAE, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, and other places where they could find a shelter. Such a forced exodus of Rohingyas is simply unacceptable in our time.

If Myanmar’s leaders are serious about bringing their nation state from savage past to modernity, from darkness to enlightenment and avoiding becoming a failed state, they must abandon their toxic ideology of Myanmarism and revoke the apartheid Citizenship Law. They must learn from experiences of others to avoid disintegration. They must also learn that like everyone else the Rohingyas have the right to self-identify themselves. And it would be travesty of law and justice to deny such rights of self-identity.

Finally, it would be the greatest tragedy of our generation should we allow the perpetrators of genocide and ethnic cleansing to whitewash their crimes against humanity. The UNSC must demand an impartial inquiry and redress the Rohingya crisis. The Rohingya people need protection as the most persecuted people on earth. Should the Thein Sein government fail to bring about the desired change, starting with either repealing or amending the 1982 Citizenship Law, the UNSC must consider creating a ‘save haven’ inside Arakan in the northern Mayu Frontier Territories to protect the lives of the Rohingya people so that they could live safely, securely with honour and dignity as rest of us. The sooner the better!

By AFP

October 11, 2014

Bangkok: Thai authorities on Saturday arrested 53 Rohingya migrants and two suspected Thai traffickers en route to neighbouring Malaysia, an official said.

The migrants were found on a rubber plantation in Takua Pa district in the southern coastal province of Phang Nga, district chief Manit Phianthong told AFP.

"We got a tip-off from an informant that a trafficking gang would be transporting Rohingya people to Malaysia," he said, adding that the migrants came from Myanmar's western Rakhine state and Bangladesh.

Thousands of Rohingya -- a Muslim minority group not recognised as citizens in Myanmar -- have fled deadly communal unrest in Rakhine since 2012, mostly heading for Malaysia.

The migrants arrested Saturday were ferried onto the Thai mainland from a small island in the Andaman Sea, Manit said, adding that one of the arrested traffickers confessed he was part of a bigger gang.

"We are still looking for the real masterminds," said the official.

Twelve Rohingya migrants are thought to have escaped during the raid, he added.

Myanmar views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya -- described by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world -- as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, and denies them citizenship.

They face travel restrictions, forced labour and limited access to healthcare and education.

Around 300,000 Rohingya have over the years gone to live in Bangladesh, which recognises only a small portion as refugees and regularly turns back those trying to cross the border.

Rights groups say the stateless migrants often fall into the hands of unscrupulous people traffickers.

They have also criticised Thailand in the past for pushing boats of Rohingya entering Thai waters back out to sea and holding migrants in overcrowded facilities.

Thailand said last year it was investigating allegations that some army officials in the kingdom were involved in the trafficking of Rohingya.

By Joshua Carroll

Anadolu Agency

October 11, 2014

Dozens of men from Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority have been arrested and tortured because of alleged ties to a militant Islamic organization, according to a rights group.

The Arakan Project, a Thailand-based group that documents abuses against the Rohingya, says one man has been tortured to death in Myanmar’s far north-west, near the border with Bangladesh.

Authorities have rounded up at least 58 men in the last two weeks from several villages in the north of Rakhine state, according to figures compiled by the Arakan Project and seen by the Anadolu Agency.

The wife of the dead man told the group she was forced to sign a statement that her husband died of natural causes. 

Last month, al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri announced plans to expand his terror network to include Myanmar.

The recently arrested Rohingya men were accused of having ties to a group called the Rohingya Solidarity Organization, or RSO.

Despite little being known about the organization’s movements today, sporadic attacks on Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh are often blamed on the RSO. In recent years the organization has also been accused of forging ties to al-Qaeda.

Chris Lewa, the Arakan Project’s founder, told the AA Friday the arrests were “arbitrary” and “clearly a reaction to the al-Qaeda announcement earlier in September.”

She added that the men were picked up at checkpoints or from their villages by members of the Border Guard Police, an organization that Rohingya regularly accuse of human rights abuses.

The RSO is believed to have been formed in the 1990s after the Myanmar army forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya accused of being in the country illegally to flee to Bangladesh.

Its members are understood to have broken away from the more moderate Rohingya Patriotic Front and earned support from extremist religious groups in other countries, including Malaysia and Afghanistan. 

Earlier this year Khin Maung Myint , head of foreign relations for the pro-Rohingya National Democratic Party for Development, claimed "the RSO hadn’t existed for 20 years.”

He said stories about RSO movements in the region had led to conspiracy theories and questioned whether the existence of the group was a government smokescreen.

Last year, photos circulated on extremist Buddhist websites purporting to show armed insurgents inside Myanmar preparing to avenge attacks against Rohingya.

The Rohingya have been persecuted in Myanmar for decades but their plight has gained widespread international attention since the former military-ruled country began democratic reforms in 2011.

While hundreds of political prisoners have been freed, censorship has been relaxed and economic reforms brought in, the Rohingyas' suffering has intensified.

In 2012, extremist mobs of Buddhists attacked Rohingya villages in Rakhine's state capital Sittwe. The initial riots killed up to 140 and forced tens of thousands of Rohingyas into squalid camps.

The violence has since spread amidst a wave of hate speech targeting all of Myanmar’s Muslims, led by extremist monks bolstered by the country’s newfound freedoms of expression.

Presidential spokesman Ye Htut has described accusations of Rohingya persecution as "baseless."

By Associated Press

October 10, 2014

Yangon, Myanmar -- Thailand's coup leader made his first official overseas trip Thursday to neighboring Myanmar for meetings with another former general who has steered his country to democracy after a half-century of dictatorship.

The visit by Prayuth Chan-ocha, who retired from the army last month and is now Thailand's prime minister, comes at a sensitive time for both countries.

Thailand recently arrested two Myanmar migrants for the killings of two British tourists on a popular resort island last month, and the rights group Amnesty International has alleged the suspects were tortured by police, charges authorities in Thailand deny. Protesters in Myanmar's main city Yangon were organizing a demonstration Friday to denounce the torture allegations and call for an independent investigation of the two Myanmar suspects.

Prayuth's government, which came to power after the army overthrew a popularly elected administration, has also grappled with hundreds of thousands of Myanmar refugees who fled fighting between their army and ethnic rebels and concerns about the trafficking of large amounts of Myanmar-produced heroin and methamphetamine into Thailand.

Flying directly to Myanmar's capital, Naypyitaw, Prayuth was scheduled to meet first with President Thein Sein, who retired from the military and became head of state in 2011. His quasi-civilian government is holding elections next year, but has resisted changes to the military-drafted constitution that would allow opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to run for president.

Prayuth, too, has spoken about holding elections next year.

Myanmar also has been criticized for bouts of anti-Muslim violence against the minority Rohingyas in the predominantly Buddhist nation.

According to the official schedule, the two leaders will witness the signing of a series of development projects and discuss bilateral ties.

Prayuth also will meet with Thai investors in Yangon on Friday. Thailand is Myanmar's second largest trade partner after northern neighbor China, with a total trade volume of $5.7 billion for the fiscal year of 2013-2014.

By Lawi Weng

The Irrawaddy

October 10, 2014

MYEBON TOWNSHIP, Arakan State — Similar to other camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Arakan State, tales of suffering are in no short supply here in Myebon, where the displaced have languished in hardscrabble living conditions for nearly two years.

But these Rohingya Muslims have a little more hope than most. Here, at least, some members of the persecuted minority have had an opportunity that many others have not: the chance to receive government-issued ID cards, affording some of the rights of citizenship for the first time.

All they have to do, the government says, is renounce any claim to an ethnic Rohingya identity.

The Myebon IDP camp was selected by the government to pilot a national verification plan, the implications of which remain unknown for those formerly stateless individuals who, on Sept. 22, received citizenship cards. During a visit to the camp this week, residents showed The Irrawaddy their newly issued cards, admitting to their own uncertainty about what the cards might mean for them.

For now, one thing is clear: 40 people out of more than 1,200 who have applied under the verification program so far have received pink cards, theoretically entitling them to the rights of full citizens of Burma. Another 169 people have received green cards, denoting their status as “naturalized citizens,” which can be revoked.

Min Aung, a 42-year-old Muslim in the camp, showed The Irrawaddy his green ID card, explaining that with it, he was told rights previously denied would now be his to enjoy.

“During our swearing-in ceremony, where they [immigration officials] offered the ID cards, they told us that we had become citizens of the country,” he said. “We can travel anywhere and can run our own businesses, but we cannot serve in Parliament as an MP, nor can we join the military.”

This is true, according to Khin Soe, the immigration officer in Sittwe who issued the initial batch of ID cards for the Muslims in Myebon. He added, however, that travel restrictions would remain in place for the time being out of fear that the situation remained unstable, given the local Arakanese community’s opposition to the pilot project.

“They have become citizens of our Myanmar,” he said. “They have the rights of citizenship. But, there have been problems between these two communities. They can travel, but we are worried that there will be more problems. This is why we do not let them travel yet.”

He said it would be the duty of state- and Union-level resettlement departments to assist the newly minted citizens with housing and other measures to help restore their livelihoods.

A total of 1,218 people living in the Myebon camp have applied for ID cards, according to the state Immigration Department, out of just over 3,000 camp residents in total.

Those who can show that they are at least the third generation to live in Burma could receive pink cards.

“Those 40 people who we granted full citizenship were found to have been born here before 1982. … They have full documents. We could not say that they came from another country,” Khin Soe said.

He said even people who could not provide documents might qualify for citizenship, subject to a ruling from “board members,” a seven-person panel that has a major say in determining whether applicants in Myebon qualify for citizenship

“There are people who can prove where they have been staying in the town, and even board members who knew their parents. In such cases, the board will approve it if they are found to be telling the truth,” he said.

Ethnic Arakanese leaders are not happy about the pilot project, which they say has lacked transparency. The Arakan State Immigration Department counters that two Arakanese community leaders were appointed as board members ruling on the citizenship applications.

The Arakanese Buddhist population and the state’s Rohingya minority have been embroiled in a sometimes violent communal conflict, with about 140,000 of the latter having been displaced by violence since 2012.

Aye Maung, a senior member of the Arakan National Party (ANP) serving in the national Parliament, said that state and Union governments shared blame for the opposition that the pilot has stirred among the Arakanese.

“They discussed with us their project, but they did not show their plan when they implemented it,” the lawmaker said. “There should be transparency regarding the action plan for the national verification pilot.”

He said local grievances should be addressed before any effort by the governments is made to implement the verification program statewide.

“They should show our people all information about why they gave those 40 people citizenship, or they should have copy papers and posted information about the 40 people—why they got ID cards—so our people will understand why these people got ID cards,” he said, adding that it remained unclear what would happen to those who failed to qualify for citizenship.

‘They Told Me All Muslims in Arakan Are Bengali’

Ma Shee, who calls herself a Kaman Muslim, said immigration officials refused to accept her ethnic claim and forced her family to identify as “Bengali” during the application process. Burma’s government does not recognize the term Rohingya and insists they are Bengalis, implying that they are illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.

“I told them [immigration officials] that we are Kaman, but they responded to me that all Muslims in Arakan are Bengali,” Ma Shee told The Irrawaddy.

Aung San had a similar experience.

“My father is Kaman, but they [immigration] disregarded this and forced us to be Bengali,” he said, showing an Irrawaddy reporter a document testifying to his parents’ ethnic Kaman identities, which he took with him before fleeing his home in the 2012 violence.

“We do not need a lot of opportunities. We only want to be able to travel freely, so we can do some businesses for our family,” he said.

Daw Cho, while lamenting the government’s decision to reject many Kaman Muslims claims, said she was nonetheless grateful for the chance to receive a degree of citizenship.

“If we can travel freely, our people will be very happy even though they were recognized as Bengali. It is very important, freedom to travel. We wanted to have equal rights,” said the Muslim woman.

Regarding to case of complaints about Bengali, Khin Soe, the officer from immigration said that the government only recognized Bengali, and the government did not recognize Rohingya, therefor his immigration has to it according to the order from the government.

Asked about any Myebon resident applying for citizenship as a Rohingya, Khin Soe repeated an oft-uttered government line that no such group existed, and that any applicant applying as such would not be recognized under the national verification pilot.

Regarding the complaints of Kaman Muslims like Aung San, Khin Soe said that his Immigration Department would allow Kaman designations to individuals providing full documentation to support the claim, and that those failing to do so would be required to accept “Bengali” in order to have their application considered.

More Applicants in the Pipeline

As more citizenship applications are considered, stories of ethnic reclassification look likely to continue to underpin the national verification process.

“We have 124 people that have newly applied, they applied recently. We cannot force them to apply, but if they accept Bengali, we will accept more if they come,” said Khin Soe.

“We are worried a lot about what we will get,” said Hla Myint, who is awaiting word on the status of his application.

Adding to the uncertainty, a “Rakhine [Arakan] Action Plan” recently publicized has revealed a government plan that would effectively force Rohingya to identify as Bengali or risk internment in temporary detention in camps. The plan has been condemned by human rights groups, who say it represents a continuation of systematically discriminant government policy.

The government chose Myebon for its pilot because of the positive relationship between IDPs and local officials, according to Hla Myint.

“The people who are here are polite. They have cooperated with the government,” he said, adding that he believed the community’s cooperation with authorities during census enumeration earlier this year was a factor in Myebon being selected for the pilot project.

Not only are they polite. They are willing, it seems, to accept the government’s terms when it comes to ethnic identity, if it means hope for a better future.

“We need to agree to whatever they recognize us as, because we have two children … who have not been able to continue their education for the last two years,” said Daw Cho. “They have lost educational opportunities. We have to worry for them. We are staying in a prison now.”

By Bill O’Toole

Myanmar Times

October 9, 2014

Less than two weeks after being convicted of rioting in a Sittwe court, Muslim community leader U Kyaw Hla Aung was released under a presidential amnesty on October 7.

U Kyaw Hla Aung was arrested on July 15, 2013, following a clash in the Baw Du Pha IDP camp when a group of young Muslims refused to fill out an immigration department form that identified them as “Bengali”.

The situation escalated to the point where the youths allegedly attacked several immigration police.

Shortly afterward, U Kyaw Hla Aung was arrested and accused of inciting the group to attack the police. Many observers said the charges were directly related to U Kyaw Hla Aung’s longstanding political activism and legal assistance on behalf of detained Muslims in Rakhine State.

While 3073 prisoners were freed on October 7, Yangon-based attorney U Robert Sann Aung said U Kyaw Hla Aung was one of just a handful who could be described as a “political prisoner.”

News of his release was welcomed by both his family and local civil society groups that have taken up his case. However, all were quick to point out that the president’s pardon has done nothing to address the larger issue of human rights activists, including Muslims, being targeted for imprisonment and harassment.

During his incarceration, a wide array of international groups spoke out in support of the 74-year-old former lawyer. The former UN special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, Tomas Quintana, even met U Kyaw Hla Aung in prison. He regularly called for him to be released from what he described as “arbitrary detention”.

However, local groups were more circumspect in their support. U Bo Gyi, a member of the Remaining Political Prisoner Scrutiny Committee, said he and other civilian members had been attempting to raise U Kyaw Hla Aung’s case but were told by government officials that the situation in Rakhine State was too “sensitive” for the committee to examine it.

Some groups dedicated to the rights of political prisoners were hesitant to take up U Kyaw Hla Aung's case, U Bo Gyi said, because they consider the conflict in Rakhine State a religious rather than political conflict.

However, U Bo Gyi said that over the past 18 months there has been a growing acceptance that U Kyaw Hla Aung did not belong in prison.

"Not everyone agree to regard [U Kyaw Hla Aung] as a political prisoner but everyone agreed to regard him as a special case."

He said he thought that the amnesty showed “the government feel confident about the [situation] in Arakan”, referring to Rakhine State by its former name.

While U Bo Gyi said he was “not surprised” that U Kyaw Hla Aung was chosen for release, he and other committee members had hoped it would occur through the scrutiny committee. He said they had also expected the amnesty to include many more political prisoners.

“We expected more, therefore we are really upset and frustrated,” said U Bo Gyi, adding that the committee has not met since July.

U Kyaw Hla Aung’s son, Ko Aung, said he believed his father’s pardon was a “political” tactic aimed at placating the international community without upsetting Rakhine nationalists.

He pointed out that when U Kyaw Hla Aung was sentenced to 18 months’ jail at the end of September, the judge included time already served, meaning his father only had three months left to serve.

Ko Aung said it was a tacit admission that the government was willing to release his father after holding him for more than a year.

Matthew Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights, said even with the pardon U Kyaw Hla Aung’s legal troubles are not over.

“He was released with conditions, and his sentence can be reinstated if he's charged with a subsequent offense, so in that sense this is not a true amnesty,” he said.

“That said, we are tremendously happy for Kyaw Hla Aung and his family. They've endured abuses for decades.”

When contacted by The Myanmar Times, U Kyaw Hla Aung said he was happy to be home but declined to comment out of concerns for the safety of himself and his family.

Aman Ullah

RB Analysis

October 9, 2014

On Burma attaining independence on 4th January 1948, it ceased to be a part of the British Commonwealth which it left of its own choice. However, at that time the inhabitants of the country consisted of persons of indigenous, mixed and foreign stock. Citizenship was partly defined by the Constitution thereby assuring citizenship rights to the indigenous and mixed races, but the task of defining citizenship more completely was left to the parliament. Laws were promulgated by the Parliament from time to time to define citizenship and to provide for its acquisition and anyone who was not a citizen was classified as a foreigner. 

The “Residents of Burma Registration Act” was enact in 1949 as Act No.41, 1949 and a nine members committee was formed June 1950 to draft it’s rules in the name of ‘National Registration Rules Drafting Committee’ headed by U Ka Si, Secretary for Home Affairs. After finalizing the draft the committee submitted it to the Government for approval and the Parliament approved the Rules in the February 1951 session. It was circulated by the Ministry of Homes on February 23, 1951 as Gazette notification No. 117 in a name of , ‘Residents of Burma registration Rules, 1951’. 

In order to carry out the provisions of the Act and Rules, the President may appoint the Chief Registration Officer for the whole country in order to maintain the Registration List. The President may appoint Registration Officer, Assistant Registration Officer and other staff in order to perform duties conferred under this Act. Duties, powers and functions of the Chief Registration Officer, Registration Officer, Assistant Registration Officer and other staff are in the manner as prescribed in the rules made under this Act. 

Headmen of the wards appointed under the Town Act and/or village headmen appointed under the Village Act shall perform the duties and responsibilities of the record keepers in their respective jurisdiction. Chief Registration Officer or any officer empowered by the Chief Registration Officer may appoint any volunteered data collector for any registration area or part of the area. The Chief Registration Officer may direct any data collector to produce a testimonial admitting that he has performed his duties properly and empower any assistant registration officer in this regards. 

Every person residing in Burma shall furnish, for registration purposes, (his/her) particulars as required under this Act or its rules made there under. The Registration Officer or Assistant Registration Officer shall, in accordance with the rules made under this Act, issue to every person who has registered as such, a registration card as a proof of identity and containing prescribed particulars. 

The data collector shall make the registration list relating to the persons residing within his jurisdiction by preparing three sets of Form 1 recording the personal particulars mentioned in it. Whoever when required by the record keeper or data collector to reduce the signature on registration forms, registration card and identity card, is responsible to do so accordingly. Should the said person be illiterate, he shall place his fingerprint in lieu of signature. Record keeper or data collector shall endorse the authenticity of signature or fingerprint.

Notwithstanding anything in the above rules, the foreigners shall be exempted from the application of the said rules other than rule 29 and 31. The foreigners who were registered under 1940 Foreigner Registration rules shall be deemed that they are being registered under these rules. For the matters in the rule 29 and 31, the registration card issued under 1940 Foreigner Registration Rules shall be deemed that the card is issued under these rules.

Registration and issuing these cards was commenced on March 1, 1952 by visiting door to door in every nock and corner of the area in Rangoon District and in other 7 towns including Akyab on April1, 1952 (1953 Burma gazetteers vol.1, page-819). The tasks of Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Rathedaung and others 20 townships were commenced on August 1, 1953 (1954 Burmese gazetteers Vol.1, page-197).

All NRC issued in earlier years bear no additional remarks. A remark stating, “Holding this certificate shall not be considered as a conclusive proof of as to citizenship” was sealed later on NRCs. The reason behind this extra remark sealed later was the best known to the authorities. Perhaps one of the objectives of 1978, Dragon King Operation was to stamp the above remark on all NRCs.

NRCs were issued to all residents (mainly citizens) whilst registered foreigners (under Foreigners Registration Act and Rule of 1948) were issued FRCs. There was no third category of people in Burma, then. As a result, NRCs were used as a proof of nationality or citizenship. This is the most authentic document concerning Rohingya’s citizenship. 

NRC is a bona fide document that allowed one to carry on all his national activities, without let or hindrance: -- to possess moveable and immovable or landed properties, pursue education, including higher studies and professional courses in the country’s seats of learning, right to work and public services, including armed forces, and to obtain Burmese passport for travelling abroad, including pilgrimage to Holy Makkah. 

According to the 1973 census, the population of Akyab Township was 140,000; Maungdaw 223,320; Buthidaung 163,353; and Rathedaung 95,270. FRC holders in Akyab were 841, Maungdaw 109, Buthidaung 203 and Rathedaung 55. There were also 1528 people without any documents. That’s means that there were 619, 195 persons NRC holders, 1, 208 persons FRC holders and 1528 persons undocumented in these townships, where more than 60% of total population was Rohingyas at that time.

However, since 1970 no NRC cards were issued to the Rohingyas, whereas, as per the regulation every person above the age of 12 years would have to have NRCs. In addition to this, the government launched a military operation since 1974 in the name of ‘Sabe Operation’. During that operation thousands of Rohingyas’ NRCs were seized without any legal authorities, on various pretexts which were never returned. In these ways thousands of the poor and natural born Rohingyas were classified as foreigners, alleging filtrated from Bangladesh. Thus, the system of issuing the NRCs was directed to fit into a well-planned policy of de-nationalizing the Rohingyas of Arakan.

Moreover, following the promulgation of the 1982 Citizenship Law, all residents in Burma had to reapply for citizenship, exchanging their old identity documents for new one. In 1989, a further change was made and all residents had to apply for new Citizenship Scrutiny Cards, (in Burmese ‘naing-ngan-tha si-sit-ye kat-pya’), rather than the Identity Cards (in Burmese 'amyu-tha hmat-pon-tin kat-pya’). The new cards are colour-coded for essay identification of the citizenship status of the bearer. Pink cards were given to full citizens, blue for associate citizens and green for naturalized citizens. 

The cards must be carried at all the times, the cards number has to be given when buying tickets; registering children in schools; staying overnight with friends or relatives outside one’s own council area; applying for any professional post, including all civil service posts; buying or exchanging land and other every days life.

Thus, denying the right to citizenship in Burma is denying all the civil rights in Burma, such as the right to freedom of movement, the right to education, the right to own property, the right to be employed as civil servants’, and so on. 

One of the key points of the Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs), on the repatriation of Rohingya refugees, between Burma and Bangladesh and between Burma and UNHCR was that returnees be granted “appropriate identification”. In practice, however, this initially meant that the returnees received “returnee identification cards” yellow colour cards which only identified them as persons having returned from Bangladesh by giving them no legal status.

In July 1995, in response to UNHCR’s intensive advocacy efforts to document the Rohingyas, the regime moved to regularize the population of northern Arakan by issuing new cards to all Rohingya residents. The new card, which is called Temporary Registration Card (TRC), was issued under the 1949 Residents of Burma Registration Act and the 1951 Residents of Burma Registration Rules, both of which acts were superseded by the 1982 Citizenship Law but were reintroduced in order to be used solely for the registration of Rohingyas.

Under the 1951 Residents of Burma Registration Rules, The record-keeper may issue "Temporary registration certificate (TRC)” for any of the following reasons:

· If record-keeper suppose that entry in the registration record has been done completely in a proper way. 

· If an application is submitted to issue another card in lieu of the card, which is lost or damage or faded out? 

· If there is specific reasons by general or special order.

TRC means a certificate issued in lieu of the registration card and a proof of identity valid for a certain period specified in the certificate. The TRC must be in accord with form (3) attached to the back of this rules. The validity duration of TRC may be restricted by fixing a deadline. The holder of TRC shall surrender his card to record-keeper within 7 days after validity of the card expires. The record-keeper may reissue that card endorsing it for validity extension as and when necessary or he may issue new TRC.

The TRC carry a number, as well as the bearer’s name, photograph, year of birth, ethnicity and religion, colour of hair and eyes, father’s name and father’s ethnicity and religion, and there was nothing on the card to show place of birth or residence.

On the 32nd day of the second regular session of the first Pyithu Hluttaw, on October 4, 2013, U Maung Maung of Thayawady Constituency asked whether there was a plan to issue citizen scrutiny cards to persons born of parents of foreign-blood on recommendation of district level authority in a same period of time it took when the cards were issued to those born of parents both of whom are nationals citizens.

Union Minister for Immigration and Population U Khin Yi replied that Section 6 of the 1982 Myanmar Citizenship Law stated that “A person who is already a citizen on the date this law comes into force is citizen.” 

Therefore, those persons of mixed blood were approved as citizens by October 15, 1982, had been applied to become citizens in accordance with the rules and regulations. It would take time to issue citizen scrutiny cards to persons of mixed nationalities as it needed to inspect whether they made false representation to get the citizen status.

Therefore, the process of issuing citizen scrutiny cards took time and only region/state head of Immigration and National Registration departments were vested with authority to issue the citizen scrutiny cards to persons born of parents of foreign-blood. Not to make mistakes in the process, the citizen scrutiny cards were issued to persons of mixed blood by the director-general of the Immigration and National Registration Department as from November, 2005, in accordance with the directive. To avoid delays in the process, the directive was relaxed as from 4, April, 2007, and region and state head of the immigration and national registration departments had issued the cards to them. The ministry would consider to relax the rules and regulations concerning issuing the citizen scrutiny card to persons born of parents of foreign-blood if it became necessaries.

However, till to-day those Rohingyas who applied proving that they have Burmese nationality back to all eight great-grandparents were either rejected or were still waiting for decision. In addition to this, almost all Rohingyas were exclude from UN founded nation-wide census earlier this year, the first in three decades, because they did not want to register as Bengalis. And with a controversial so-called Rakhine Action Plan, the present Thein Sein Government is going to make almost all the Rohingyas not only ineligible for citizenship but also possible detainment or deportation until and unless they themselves identify as Rohingya not Bengalis.

By Khaleej Times Editorial

October 8, 2014

The news from the politically desolate South-east Asian country is encouraging from the perspective of human rights. Myanmar’s civilian-military junta has decided to release more than 3,000 prisoners of conscience to further its agenda of what it calls peace and stability. 

It is a promising development and should be lauded. Some of the people to be released are former military intelligence officers, who were close to former prime minister Khin Nyunt who was shown the door a decade ago, and others who were convicted of minor crimes. It is not known how many of them are from the political opposition, especially that of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Buddhist-populated state has seen many ups and down during the last few years, especially after the return of civilian rule. The prime among them is the speed with which the society was segregated on communal lines, and the callous manner in which riots against the minorities were allowed to go ahead. Even today hundreds and thousands of Rohingya Muslims are in a state of despair and the tragic tribulations that they faced in the recent past is almost a forgotten affair.

President Thein Sein can serve the purpose of reconciliation much better if he looks at the broader picture, and dispenses justice at the grass root level. What is instantly required is to knit together the diverse mosaic of Myanmar and broker a new social contract between the Buddhists and minorities, including Muslims in the Rakhine state. As a remedial measure — and one that would also be politically correct, the regime in Yangon should impartially investigate into the mayhem and massacre of Rohingya Muslims and take lawful measures to heal their wounds.

United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay had already demanded a “full, prompt and impartial” investigation to fulfil the requirement of justice and fair play. Since 2011, the Rohingya people have suffered clashes that led to death and destruction that were seldom reported. The government also has to look into this despicable affair.

The bizarre talk in the corridors of power that the Muslim minority in Myanmar is not entitled to citizenship and is in a state of unlawful diaspora is contemptuous to say the least. The fate of more than 800,000 Rohingyas, who are now stateless, is a case in point. This is essentially important as Myanmar evolves into a democratic and pluralistic nation-state. What is surprising is the fact that the champions of democracy, especially Suu Kyi, had maintained discreet silence, and that has to end in the larger interests of the people and the state.

By Lawi Weng

The Irrawaddy

October 8, 2014

MYEBON TOWNSHIP, Arakan State — In Myebon camp, there were few signs on Monday that the roughly 3,000 Rohingya Muslim residents were celebrating Eid al-Adha, one of Islam’s most important religious holidays.

There was no music, nor a festive atmosphere. Yet, some low-key ceremonies were taking place and for residents of the camp in northern Arakan State it was a rare chance to observe their traditions and rejoice.

“This is first time that they [Arakan State authorities] allowed us to do it. We could not do it since violence broke out here” in 2012, said Kyaw Thein, the camp committee’s chairman. “But we celebrated it quietly as we are living in the camp.”

During Eid al-Adha, Muslims honor the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael on God’s command, before God intervened and gave him a lamb to sacrifice instead. Traditionally during the holiday, an animal is sacrificed and divided among the family, relatives and friends, and the poor.

At Myebon, the Rohingya managed to collect some money from camp residents and donations from slightly better off Muslim villagers in the area so that they could afford to sacrifice 21 cows.

Around 3 pm, the men gathered below some plastic tarpaulins that provided little relief from the blistering mid-day sun to quietly slaughter the animals and divide them into pieces of meat for distribution among families in the camp.

Groups of excited children ran around, with some of them wearing new clothes and cheap sunglasses. Among many parents in the camp the mood was subdued, however.

“Brother, you are lucky to see our children in their new dress today. We do not have money to buy it for them. Some people [in nearby villages] donated it to the children to wear during Eid,” said Hla Myint, a camp resident and father of five.

Some residents said they would roast the beef as they lacked the ingredients to prepare a meat curry as they would normally have done before they fled from their villages.

The Rohingya in the camp are among the roughly 140,000 Muslims who were displaced by an outbreak of clashes with the Arakanese Buddhists in northern Arakan State in 2012, where tensions between communities have since remained high.

In Myebon Township, violence erupted in October 2012; 22 Muslims were killed and three Buddhists died. A reported 3,010 Rohingya fled and their villages were burned down, while several hundred Arakanese were displaced.

International human rights groups have accused Burma’s Buddhist-dominated government of carrying out severe rights abuses against the roughly 1 million stateless Rohingya, such as limiting their freedom of movement and access to education and health care, while also blocking international aid from reaching the Muslim camps.

Kyaw Thein said the displaced Rohingya at Myebon camp were suffering from poor living conditions and government restrictions that ban them from leaving the site, a piece of rocky land about the size of two football pitches crammed with ramshackle bamboo and tin-roofed huts.

“We are living as if we are staying under house arrest. We could not move outside the camps,” he said.

About a dozen armed police are stationed around the camp, which is situated between a paddy field and a hill, while a police check point controls the only road leading to the site. There is no local water source and aid organizations have to regularly supply water for drinking and washing, along with regular food rations.

Not far from the Rohingya camp, on the other side of the road, there is a small camp for about 100 Arakanese Buddhists displaced by the violence. Residents of this camp are free to move in and out during the morning and they could be seen leaving for Myebon market to buy or sell goods.

In Myebon town, about a 15-minute drive to the south of the Rohingya camp, loudspeakers were blasting Buddhist chanting on Monday afternoon, while monks collected rice donations during a ceremony that attracted hundreds of Arakanese worshippers.

At the Rohingya camp, residents said they wish they could go back to their homes and rebuild their villages, something that is being prohibited by the authorities who believe that permanent segregation of Buddhist and Muslim communities is the solution to the conflict.

“I want to say: ‘Let’s forget what happened in the past and let us go back to our home places.’ We are human beings; we need nutrition and ingredients to make our food sweet or sour. Please do not let us stay in this place any longer,” said Hla Myint.