By Stanley Weiss

Huffington Post

November 13, 2014

Given the five decades it spent as one of the most repressive countries in recent history, it's hard to imagine that Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, was once considered an empire. But 190 years ago this past March, after the Burmese Empire conquered two large Bengali territories across its western border and undertook a series of raids into British-held lands, the British Empire had had enough. British India launched a counter-insurgency that would drag on for two years and take thousands of lives. With some of the heaviest fighting concentrated in Islamic border communities, thousands of Muslims were forced to flee, eventually settling along frontier areas in India and Myanmar.

The Muslim families driven into Burma as a result of Burmese aggression -- known as Rohingya Muslims -- never left, despite being persecuted ever since. A grisly modern chapter began in 2012, when the alleged rape and murder of a young Buddhist woman in western Rakhine State led to mob violence that took the lives of hundreds of Rohingya over the next two years and saw 135,000 Rohingya held in squalid camps for their own "safety." Seemingly oblivious to global concerns sparked by the persecution of this Muslim ethnic minority, the Myanmar government last week announced a repulsive new policy: All Rohingya must prove that their families have lived in Myanmar for at least six decades. For those we cannot, the penalty is either a refugee camp or deportation. For those we can, the prize is second-class citizenship, but with a catch: They must first renounce the term "Rohingya" and agree to be classified as a "Bengali." It's little wonder that more than 100,000 Rohingya have reportedly escaped Myanmar the past two years.

Coming on the eve of President Barack Obama's trip to Myanmar this week for the East Asia Summit, the new policy set off a round of stories about how the country was backsliding on democracy and human rights just two years after it held parliamentary elections and began to open itself up to the world. But when it comes to the way that the ethnic Burman majority treats the 135 different ethnic minorities that make up roughly 40 percent of Myanmar's population, "backsliding" is not the right word -- because that would presume that progress has been made in the first place. In Myanmar today, the new war is the same as the old.

In reality, the brutal civil war that has raged since 1948 between many of Myanmar's ethnic groups and the ethnic Burman military -- a war that has left 600,000 dead and a million homeless -- continues to rage deep in the jungle where most journalists don't travel. One journalist who did was freelance reporter Aung Kyaw Naing. While covering the fighting between the army and ethnic Karen rebels along Myanmar's southeastern border a few months ago, Naing was captured and murdered by the Burmese military, which accused him of acting as an "insurgent communications officer" for the Karen rebels. He was left to rot in the jungle.

Naing's death received global attention. But receiving far less attention in recent years were the 7,800 acres seized from ethnic minorities to build a Chinese-financed copper mine. Or the 15-year-old ethnic Kachin girl who was reportedly gang-raped by government troops. Or the one ethnic killed, five wounded, and 1,000 ethnic Shan villagers forced to flee their homes this past June after the Burman army, according to one report, left "temples, vehicles, houses and other properties destroyed... and farmers' crops set on fire."

Just this week, Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic released the results of a four-year investigation that found that "the Myanmar military committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2005-2006" and that those responsible "continue to serve at the highest levels of the country's government." In areas presumed to have ethnic minorities hostile to the Burman majority, one former soldier recalled being told to "do whatever you want" -- which included "mortar attacks on villages, the destruction of civilian property, 'shoot-on-sight' incidents, and the placing of land mines in locations that indicate a clear intent to cause civilian casualties."

The findings echo the conclusions of similar study by the Karen Human Rights Group, which found thousands of incidents of "abuse, destruction of property, pollution, theft, and confiscation of land" in southern Myanmar from 2011 to 2012 -- six years after the focus period of the Harvard report.

The continuing atrocity isn't just what the military is doing outside the law, but what the government is doing within the law. The Rohingya are a good example of the institutional dehumanization of ethnic minorities at work in Myanmar today. But the discrimination isn't limited to the Rohingya: The largely Christian inhabitants of Chin State, for instance, can't build their own churches or attend college within Myanmar.

There is a reason why ethnic minorities were excluded from the referendum that produced the 2008 constitution -- a constitution that gives few if any of the rights of citizenship to minorities, while mandating central government control over all ethnic lands. In a country where the most lucrative trade routes and natural resources -- from rubber to jade and timber -- rest along the border areas where ethnic minorities live, the constitution itself is designed to keep ethnic minorities indefinitely subservient. Since the very military that benefits most from the illegal sale of natural resources also has a constitutionally-mandated 25 percent of parliamentary seats -- and since it requires greater than 75 percent approval to change the constitution -- the system locks in place a vicious cycle in which the same army that has tormented ethnic minorities for more than half a century are also their judge and jury.

It is, by any definition, a slow-motion ethnic apartheid in the making -- one that Western nations, eager to tap into a market of more than 50 million potential consumers, tacitly endorse every day they remain silent.

This week, as President Obama participates for a second time in his tenure in meetings in Myanmar, the U.S. and its Western allies should use every bit of leverage in their power -- working through its allies in the Association for Southeast Asian Nations, for which Myanmar is the current chair -- to focus on three necessary changes.

First, Western leaders should insist that the Myanmar constitution be changed to represent all citizens of Myanmar, and not just the 60 percent who are ethnically Burman. Western leaders should make clear that any future Western aid, development and business investment -- as well as any future trade agreements between the U.S., the EU and ASEAN -- will rest in part on equal rights for all ethnic tribes. The last thing Western businesses want is to be perceived as supporting a new apartheid for the 21st century.

Second, the West should insist that Myanmar recognize land rights, including the ancestral land of ethnic minorities. For Western investors who have are already shying away from investing in large swaths of Myanmar for fear of having their investments and property stolen out from under them, it will help ensure that Myanmar is a place worth investing their time and resources -- both of which are crucial to Myanmar's future growth.

Third, the West should accelerate its military-to-military ties with Myanmar -- including both ethnic Burman and ethnic minority leaders. For decades, Western sanctions meant that China and Russia were the only role models for Myanmar's military leaders. With the Obama Administration already committed to rebuilding ties, fast-tracking their exposure to Western ideals and democratic leadership can only help move Myanmar's military in the right direction.

In the end, the country is called Myanmar, not Burma. Every single time we in the West insist on calling it Burma, as many publications and governments still do, it simply reinforces the notion that the only people who count in that southeastern Asian nation are the six in 10 who are ethnic Burmans. It's long past time for the world to also stand up for the four in 10 who are not.

Stanley A. Weiss, a global mining executive and founder of Washington-based Business Executives for National Security, has been widely published on domestic and international issues for three decades. Tim Heinemann is a retired Special Forces officer and a mobile training team leader at the U.S. Department of Defense for counterterrorism professional development of U.S. allies around the world.

By Jessica Meyers

Boston Globe

November 13, 2014

Rohingya family members rode a trishaw at Thet Kel Pyin Muslim refugee camp near Sittwe, Rakhine State, this week as Myanmar awaited President Obama’s visit. (Photo: Nyunt Win/European Pressphoto Agency)

By Charlie Campbell

TIME
November 13, 2014

The country's future may depend on it

When U.S. President Barack Obama visited Burma, officially known as Myanmar, in November 2012, he found it abuzz with promise. Sanctions had been eased, political prisoners released and Rangoon hotels were teeming with foreign executives eager to harness the nation’s abundant natural resources, cheap workforce and enviable location between regional titans India and China.

So giddy was the postdictatorship atmosphere that Obama planted an agonizingly inappropriate kiss on Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. Not that any of the traditionally conservative Burmese minded, however, because the democracy icon was finally free after 15 years of house arrest and relishing life as an elected lawmaker.

But on Wednesday, Obama returned to a very different Burma. Economic liberalization has proved woefully inadequate and human-rights abuses continue unabated. Journalists must once again muzzle their criticism or face persecution. The military continues its assaults on ethnic rebels and, as Suu Kyi said last week, the democratic transition is “stalling.”

“Progress has not come as fast as many had hoped when the transition began four years ago,” Obama told the Irrawaddy magazine before his arrival in Naypyidaw for the East Asia Summit, a meeting of the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations members plus other world powers including China, Russia, India and the U.S. “In some areas there has been a slowdown in reforms, and even some steps backward.”

Visitors to Burma may find this surprising. Rangoon is a cacophony of building work, and the battered death-trap taxis of yore have been replaced by Japanese and South Korean imports. Illicit money changers have been swapped for ATMs. Cellphone SIM cards are no longer restricted or prohibitively expensive, meaning the once ubiquitous phone kiosks, where ordinary Burmese queued up to pay for a few minutes’ use of a fixed-line handset, lie largely idle — an anachronism for tourist snaps.

Yet this progress is a mere facade. “Aung San Suu Kyi may say that reform has stalled, but the reality is that it has regressed,” says Khin Ohmar, coordinator of Burma Partnership, a network of civil-society organizations. Like many longtime democracy activists, she still complains of “surveillance, scrutiny, threats and intimidation.”

Burma is unusual amongst authoritarian states embarking on reform, in that the same figures who ran the previous military dictatorship remain in charge today, and so practically all changes have benefited this coterie. Foreign direct investment, for example, has been confined to the extractive industries that are the purview of tycoons with military connections.

“The changes put in place by the [President] Thein Sein administration are not, for the most part, liberal market reforms, but simply expanded permissions and concessions, often given to the crony firms that dominate parts of the economy,” says Sean Turnell, a professor and expert on Burmese economics at Australia’s Macquarie University. In fact, he adds, “protectionist and antireform sentiment is building.”

Certainly, there is no significant economic legislation pending. Foreign banks have been allowed to set up shop, but can only work with other foreigners, using foreign currency and cannot offer retail services. This means the industry remains plagued by crippling inefficiencies.

Meanwhile, some 70% of Burma’s 53 million population toil in agriculture, where there have likewise not been any meaningful reforms. Poverty, exploitation and land grabs are rife. “The economic circumstances of Myanmar’s majority rural population are now marginally worse than before the reforms were launched,” says Turnell.

The media is once again manacled. The death of noted journalist Aung Kyaw Naing in military custody last month has been the nadir of a year that has also seen 10 reporters jailed. “Obama’s got to see it as another indication of sharply deteriorating press freedoms,” says David Mathieson, senior Burma researcher for Human Rights Watch. In fact, of the 11 reformist pledges Thein Sein made to Obama back during his last visit, says Mathieson, “only about half of them have been met.”

Political reform is also backsliding. Suu Kyi will most likely romp home in next year’s national polls, provided they are as unfettered as the by-election that saw her enter the national legislature amid a landslide for her National League for Democracy party in April 2012. However, she remains constitutionally barred from the nation’s highest office. Negotiations to amend these restrictions — owing to her marriage to a Briton and sons who are foreign nationals — have broken down. Asked what the response would be should Obama try to press the issue, a Burmese government spokesman deemed constitutional reform “an internal affair.”

But it is the plight of the locally despised Rohingya Muslim population that is most pressing (not even the 69-year-old Suu Kyi has the moral fortitude to speak up for them). More than 100,000 of this wretched community fester in squalid displacement camps following attacks by radical Buddhists. They suffer restrictions on movement, marriage and education and thousands are planning to flee during the current “sailing season” on rickety boats to perceived safe havens like Malaysia, as thousands have before them. Many die every day.

However, analysts believe there is a political element to this humanitarian catastrophe. Resentment toward Muslims is a relatively recent phenomenon, with sporadic attacks on Muslim communities punctuating the past three years. Some say the unrest is being inculcated and encouraged in order to give the military continued justification for its wide-ranging powers. Government complicity in recent sectarian clashes has been alleged by the U.N. and Human Rights Watch (though furiously denied by Naypyidaw). And the tactic has been used before: anti-Muslim violence also curiously erupted amid the 1988 pro-democracy rallies.

Discontent is also brewing over myriad issues domestically: garment workers strike over pay and conditions; victims of land grabs are descending on the capital; activists protest Chinese-owned mines; farmers rally against dams that ravage the environment. But sectarian violence, or the threat of it, would be the trump card that would allow the army to suspend reforms. Military spending has already increased in absolute terms during Thein Sein’s time in office. Now there are rumors that army chief Min Aung Hlaing is maneuvering for a run at the presidency. If so, there will be precious little hope for reforming the military, which is the single greatest impediment to tackling Burma’s abysmal human-rights record.

The Rohingya crisis is a gift to Burmese generals hoping to shore up their positions and the military’s, and for that reason the Rohingya lie at the core of the Burma’s economic and political transition. Obama “is dealing with a time bomb,” says Khin Ohmar. “He may face resentment for saying something about the Rohingya, but he has to.”

By Tom Andrews

Huffington Post

November 13, 2014

When President Obama steps off Air Force One in Burma today, he will have an opportunity to do something effective about the escalation of human suffering since his visit two years ago. 

He can start by speaking up for the 1.3 million members of the Rohingya ethnic community who are under siege verging on genocide by the military dominated government. Denied citizenship, all members of this Muslim minority are forced to live in apartheid conditions where they are unable to work, travel, marry or have children without permission. 

Having lost their homes and villages to violence, 140,000 have been forced into what can only be described as concentration camps. Untold numbers have died because of the government expulsion of their principle source of health care, Doctors Without Borders. 

Now the government is denying their very existence, prohibiting the use of their name in public discourse, and pressuring foreign officials not to utter the word, as the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Burma has noted with alarm. 

President Obama must recognize that, however well intended, his administration miscalculated when it lifted most sources of economic and diplomatic pressure on the regime two years ago. It was precisely this type of pressure that led to reforms that the administration and Congress celebrated two years ago, including the release of Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and her election to the Parliament. 

The reforms have stalled, however, and conditions for ethnic minorities like the Rohingya have gotten alarmingly worse. In one of the largest boat exoduses in Asia since the Vietnam War, over 100,000 Rohingya, Asia's new "boat people," have attempted to escape in rickety boats. Most of those who survived the perilous journey became victims of human traffickers in Malaysia or Thailand. 

The Early Warning Project at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum places Burma at the very top of the list of countries most likely to see state-sponsored mass killings. 

The UN Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide has expressed deep concern for targeting of the Rohingya and warned of a "considerable risk of further violence." Hardly surprising given Burmese President Thein Sein's statement, two years ago, that the "only solution" for the Rohingya was deportation or camps. Quite surprising, however, was the U.S. announcement, hours later, lifting investment sanctions.

The slowing or reversal of reforms since President Obama's last visit to Burma is striking. The constitution still bans Aung San Suu Kyi from running for President. Political prisoners continue to be arrested. Attacks on civilians, rapes, and other severe human rights abuses continue to be reported against ethnic minorities in Kachin, Shan, and other states. Attacks on the press are on the increase, as highlighted by the recent killing of a prominent journalist while in military detention. 

Last week Aung San Suu Kyi noted: "We do think there have been times when the United States government has been overly optimistic about the reform process." Of 11 reform commitments Thein Sein made to President Obama, only one has been fully met.

The Rohingya Muslim minority continues to suffer mightily. Earlier this year, Thein Sein expelled Doctors Without Borders, their primary source of health care. Last month, he declared, "[T]here are no Rohingya among the races [in Burma]" and stipulated that their only path to citizenship required that they renounce their identity and call themselves "Bengalis,' thereby accepting status as illegal aliens. 

Too often foreign officials comply with this effort to "disappear" the Rohingya. When Secretary of State John Kerry visited Burma in August he did not utter their name, at least in public. President Obama reportedly mentioned the Rohingya in a call with the Burmese President on October 31, but whether he will use that word while in the country remains to be seen. 

In addition to saying the forbidden word, President Obama should address the root causes of the crisis by urging the Burmese government to reform its outdated laws that base citizenship on ethnic identity. He should hold more Burmese officials accountable by increasing the targeted sanctions list. He should also push the Burmese government to open a UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, perhaps the easiest of the remaining 10 commitments that President Thein Sein made to him.

President Obama is up against a formidable challenge and is understandably reluctant to give up what he hoped would be a great foreign policy success. But while responding to the promise of Burmese reforms is understandable and appropriate, turning a blind eye to the warning signs of genocide against the Rohingya would be indefensible.

'Rohingya' is not just a name, it is 1.3 million people and a culture at risk of being erased. Join those urging President Obama to http://JustSayTheirName.org.

Tom Andrews is President of United to End Genocide. 

By Kyaw Hsu Mon

The Irrawaddy

November 13, 2014

NAYPYIDAW — Burmese government officials on Thursday criticized UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon over the use of the term Rohingya, after the visiting leader had called for better treatment of the stateless Muslim minority.

The secretary general said in a reaction later on Thursday that the government’s focus on the terminology was “unnecessary” and could “lead to entrenched polarization.”

Shortly after arriving for the Asean and East Asia summits on Wednesday, Ban had told journalists that he “encouraged Myanmar leaders to uphold human rights, take a strong stance against incitement, and ensure humanitarian access to Rohingya living in vulnerable conditions.”

This irked the government, however, and prompted a response from Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Thant Kyaw, as well as from Arakan State Chief Minister Maung Maung Ohn.

“We’ve repeatedly explained that we’re not happy with the use of the word Rohingya by the United Nations, or by neighboring countries, including Bangladesh,” Thant Kyaw told journalists at the Asean conference center I Naypyidaw.

“We duly understand the humanitarian issue facing this minority and we’ll keep supporting them,” he said, adding, “[But] whenever the United Nations has used the word Rohingya, we keep telling them we do not accept it.”

Arakan Chief Minister Maung Maung Ohn sent a letter to the secretary-general, which was distributed among journalists at the Asean Summit.

Maung Maung Ohn wrote that Ban’s use of the term Rohingya “can have lasting detrimental impact on our ability to do the work needed on the ground to bring the [Muslim and Buddhist] communities together.”

“The term ‘Rohingya’ has fostered distrust and further led to a greater divide between the [Arakanese] and the Bengali populations as well as between the Myanmar people and the international community,” he wrote, adding that use of the term “has alienated the [Arakanese] population and further fueled their distrust of all the United Nations agencies and international organizations.”

Since 2012, Arakan State has been wracked by outbreak of deadly inter-communal violence between Arakanese Buddhists and the Rohingya that have displaced 140,000 people, mostly Muslims.

Burma’s Buddhist-dominated government is accused of imposing a range of human rights-violating restrictions on the stateless Rohingya, who are not allowed to travel and lack access to basic government services such as education and health care.

The government and the Arakanese population reject the group’s claims to citizenship and right to self-identify as Rohingya—the government insists on calling the group “Bengalis” to suggest they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Asked by The Irrawaddy about the government’s criticism, Ban said, “There should be no misunderstanding on the conditions of the United Nations on this terminology; I’m appealing to you, let us overcome this issue of terminology, if you continue to talk about terminology it may lead to entrenched polarization, this is not necessary.”

“Whatever the terminology, Rohingya or Bengalis, what is important is that we create the conditions where two communities can live harmoniously and where the United Nations can give assistance for communities to develop… That is more important,” he told a press conference.

Maung Maung Ohn is a former Burma Army general who was put in charge in Arakan State in recent months. Since then, the government has put forth a controversial Action Plan for Arakan State that involves permanent segregation of the communities, and internment of Rohingya who refuse to register as “Bengalis.”

A United States official said on Thursday that Washington calls for a completely new Action Plan.

Ban also said on Thursday that he met with President Thein Sein, Parliament Speaker Shwe Mann and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, to discuss Burma’s peace process, the Arakan crisis, and next year’s general elections.

He urged all parties to push the stalled nationwide ceasefire negotiations forward as such a ceasefire is “a pillar of the reform process.”

“Compromise will be critical as the parties reach the final stage of a nationwide ceasefire agreement and the framework for political dialogue. The reappearance of clashes shows that the mindset of the past needs to be overcome by a leap of faith on both sides,” he said.

“The status and lives of the people of Myanmar, especially those of the minority communities, who face daily discrimination, oppression and injustice, is a core concern of the United Nations.”

By Jared Ferrie

Naypyidaw -- The United States on Thursday urged Myanmar to draft a new plan to allow the ethnic Rohingya minority to become citizens and to scrap a proposed plan to send them to detention camps if they decline to identify themselves as Bengalis.

Most of Myanmar's 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims are stateless and live in apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine state in the west of the predominantly Buddhist country. Almost 140,000 were displaced in clashes with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in 2012.

The Rakhine State Action Plan will require Rohingya to identify themselves as Bengali – a term most reject because it implies they are immigrants from Bangladesh despite having lived in Myanmar for generations – in order to possibly get citizenship. 

According to a draft of the plan obtained by Reuters, the government has proposed that authorities build camps "for those who refuse to be registered and those without adequate documents".

The plan violates "universal rights" and challenges Myanmar's reforms, said U.S. deputy national security adviser for strategic communications Ben Rhodes.

"We would like to see a new plan that will allow the Rohingya to become citizens through a normal process without having to do that type of self-identification," he told reporters in Myanmar's capital where U.S. President Barack Obama is meeting leaders at a regional summit.

On Wednesday, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he had expressed his concern to Myanmar about the Rohingya "who face discrimination and violence".

That prompted a backlash from Myanmar officials, many of whom reject the term Rohingya, insisting the population was historically known as Bengali.

Rhodes said the Obama administration understood there were "contested views of history" but they should not interfere with human rights.

Obama will travel to Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, on Friday to meet opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi at her home where she spent more than 15 years under house arrest because of her opposition to the former military junta.

Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, has been notably quiet on the plight of the Rohingya.

Rhodes urged her to speak out.

"Her voice is obviously critically important," he said.

Myanmar emerged from 49 years of military rule when a semi-civilian government took power and initiated reforms.

Obama told the Irrawaddy magazine in an interview published on Wednesday Myanmar was "backsliding" on reforms, citing issues including a crackdown on journalists and the treatment of Rohingya.

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence, Robert Birsel)

Washington Post

November 12, 2014

By Sean Gleeson & Kyaw Hsu Mon

The Irrawaddy

November 12, 2014

RANGOON/NAYPYIDAW — United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has used a press conference in Naypyidaw on Wednesday to call for greater protections for ethnic minorities in Burma.

While his earlier address to the 6th Asean-UN Summit praised the steps taken by the Burmese government to foster a democratic transition in the country, the UN chief told journalists that he had raised human rights issues in a meeting with the Vice President** and senior government leaders.

“I encouraged Myanmar leaders to uphold human rights, take a strong stance against incitement, and ensure humanitarian access to Rohingya living in vulnerable conditions,” he said.

Ban says he will reiterate this message when he meets with President Thein Sein Thursday morning.

Reiterating concerns expressed by Ban in an earlier report to the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee, the Secretary-General said that the plight of stateless Rohingya in Arakan State was of the utmost concern, adding that concerns remains over the government’s unilateral efforts to offer conditional citizenship to some members of the Muslim minority

“Myanmar authorities are carrying out a verification exercise in Rakhine [Arakan] to process the granting of citizenship to people in Rakhine. While the process is being carried out in accordance with national law, it should also be in line with international standards and guidelines,he said.

Ban also said the UN would stick to using the term Rohingya, despite objections by the Burmese government and Arakanese Buddhist community.

“The affected population—referred to as Bengalis by the government of Myanmar but known as Rohingya in the United Nations and in much of the international community—the United Nations uses that word based on the rights of minorities. I also urge the authorities to avoid measures that could entrench the current segregation between communities… Efforts must be made to foster interfaith dialogue and harmony to bring communities closer together, he said.

Asked about the case of shot journalist Par Gyi, Ban said that he would make representations to the Burmese government about the necessity of protecting freedom of expression during the country’s transition period.

“Myanmar is making progress in strengthening its democratic institutions and achieving rapid economic development and national reconciliation,” he said. “In the course of that, when they have a political reform process, I have been asking leaders to fully guarantee freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.”

The United Nations cautiously welcomed the adoption of a human rights declaration by member countries in the aftermath of the 21st Asean Summit in Phnom Penh in 2012.

Navi Pillay, the then-High Commissioner for Human Rights, has expressed concern that the declaration fell short of international standards.

Addressing the opening of the 6th Asean-UN Summit in Naypyidaw earlier on Wednesday, the Secretary-General praised the Burmese government’s reform efforts while restating the UN’s call for regional partners in protecting human rights.

“I congratulate Myanmar on its achievements, including ambitious reforms aimed at improving the lives of its people,” he said. “As the country prepares for a general election in 2015, it will face a critical benchmark. The government and people of Myanmar can count on the support of the United Nations as they continue the process of democratisation, development, and national reconciliation.”

“Discrimination against minorities and vulnerable groups and violence against women are serious challenges in the region… We rely on the support of member states and regional organisations to enact this ambitious agenda,” he added.

By Khin Ohmar

The Irrawaddy

November 12, 2014

As President Obama prepares to make his second visit to Burma, it is worth looking back at the promises made to him by Burma’s President Thein Sein on his last visit in November 2012 and to assess the worth of these promises. Burma, after all, is largely seen as a foreign policy success by the current administration amid the mess of Ukraine, Libya and the threat of ISIS—yet it does not take much to realize that the normative narrative of optimism on Burma’s reforms is mistaken, and the country is in real danger of regressing into all too familiar territory.

Since the government of President Thein Sein took power in March 2011, life has become miserable for two substantial minority populations: the Kachin in the north and the Muslim Rohingya in the west of the country.

The decades-old civil war continues, currently at its most extreme with the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and Ta’ang National Liberation Army in the northern part of the country, with a promised nationwide ceasefire agreement yet to come to fruition as the Burma Army remains obdurate and reluctant to compromise.

In fact, just one month after Thein Sein pledged to establish a ceasefire with the KIO during Obama’s visit in November 2012, the Burma Army launched one of the biggest offensives in the country’s history, using helicopter gunships and airstrikes for the first time. It beggars belief that such a large and involved operation did not get a green light from the highest levels of power, including Thein Sein. Needless to say, fighting continued and ultimately left more than 100,000 civilians displaced.

It is not just civil war that is plaguing Burma. The Muslim Rohingya in Arakan State have been at the sharp end of sporadic bouts of religious violence, killing hundreds and leaving more than 140,000 in apartheid-like conditions in squalid camps for internally displaced persons. They are seen as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, with severe discriminations and heavy restrictions on marriage, religious activity, health, education and opportunity. Even worse, they are not even allowed to self-identify as “Rohingya,” and are instead labeled as “Bengali”.

Not only have local security forces been complicit in violence, but state-level policies have facilitated hate and violence against this vulnerable population. It is estimated that another 100,000 Rohingya have fled Arakan State in rickety boats, of which thousands have drowned and thousands more ended up in slave labor plantations in Thailand, such is their desperation to leave.

During Obama’s last visit, in regards to concerns expressed over this violence, Thein Sein pledged to take “decisive action to prevent violent attacks against civilians,” and “address contentious political dimensions, ranging from resettlement of displaced populations to granting of citizenship.” This has not happened. Instead, the Rakhine (Arakan) Action Plan will force the Rohingya to accept ethnic classification as Bengali, while those who refuse to do so will be kept in segregated camps away from urban areas. The plan falls far short of Burma’s obligations to meet international human rights principles.

The acts of spreading hate speech and inciting ethnic and religious conflict across the country have been undertaken with near-complete impunity under the full view of the Burmese government. Religious tension in Burma, particularly in Arakan State, remains high and is a time bomb gravely threatening the so-called democratic transition.

Other promises, such as committing to release all political prisoners by the end of 2013, have also turned out to be hollow, as more people are jailed for political activity while some 27 political prisoners remain from the previous regime’s rule, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Human rights defenders—including farmers, land rights activists, political activists, human rights workers, women’s rights activists, lawyers, journalists and peaceful protesters—continue to be subjected to judicial harassment, arrested and sentenced under bogus criminal charges as well as more controversial and flagrant political charges under repressive laws that do not comply with international human rights standards.

Oppressive laws, such as Article 505(b) of the Penal Code, Article 18 of the Peaceful Procession and Peaceful Assembly Law, and Article 17 of the Unlawful Association Law, are being used as tools to oppress and intimidate activists, human rights defenders, and local communities across the country. Furthermore, the recent killing of freelance journalist Aung Kyaw Naing (aka Par Gyi) has shed light on the reckless, unreconstructed and criminal nature of the Burmese military.

In spite of a public pledge from Thein Sein, the government refuses to allow the UN to open an office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, some people are still blacklisted from entering the country, and the commitment to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to conflict areas controlled by non-state actors is inadequate due to restrictions by Burmese authorities.

Burma is going through a pivotal stage in its history and while decades old challenges remain, emerging issues have served to complicate the reform process. The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burma, Yanghee Lee, warned in her report to the 69th UN General Assembly of “signs of possible backtracking”. At a press conference this week, Aung San Suu Kyi warned that the Burmese government’s reform process has stalled and that the United States may be taking an “overly optimistic” approach in its political and economic engagement with the government.

The question now is whether Obama will raise these issues and commit to take concrete actions before, during, and after his trip. Words are not enough. The Burmese government is sensitive to the West, and in particular the US, which still holds substantial leverage.

With every high profile visit or international event, a timely release of some political prisoners or signing of an international convention occurs in an attempt to appease critics. This adds credence to many analysts’ hypotheses that Burma’s transition is motivated by the desire to step away from China’s influence, and the US is all too happy to welcome Burma into its sphere of influence. If the US can set aside economic and geopolitical interests and set human rights at the forefront of its Burma policy, they could immediately improve the situation for the country’s people and help bring Burma’s reform process on the right track to democracy.

President Obama’s phone calls last week to Thein Sein and Aung San Suu Kyi, and the addition of former General and current USDP lawmaker Aung Thaung to the US sanctions list, are not enough. Wilful ignorance of the realities on the ground, or paying lip service to human rights through diplomatic showcases will not benefit the people of Burma.

This is President Obama’s chance to acknowledge that the situation in Burma has regressed since his last visitand to tell the people of Burma that the US will stand with them for human rights and democracy with concrete actions that reflect the challenges facing Burma’s reform process.

The United States has been a good friend to the people of Burma for years in their struggle for freedom and there is a high expectation that it will continue to support the people’s struggle for a genuine democracy, peace, human rights and the rule of law in this country. Otherwise, Burma will not be the foreign policy legacy that the Obama administration hoped for.

Khin Ohmar is the Coordinator of Burma Partnership, a network of regional and Burma civil society organizations supporting the collective efforts of all peoples working towards democracy, peace, justice and human rights in Burma.

By AFP

November 12, 2014

Yangon -- Myanmar faces uncomfortable scrutiny this week over fears its reforms have hit the buffers as Barack Obama joins global leaders in Naypyidaw, with the country's transition towards democracy entering a pivotal phase.

The former pariah state, which currently holds the chairmanship of Southeast Asia's regional bloc, has come under fire from opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi who sought to temper US "over-optimism" in comments just days before the American leader's arrival.

The US president, making his second trip to the country since it shed full junta rule, has invested heavily in Myanmar's opening up as he hunts a prized foreign policy win from a two-term presidency dogged by turmoil on the international stage.

Obama, who will meet both Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein during his visit, will highlight America's commitment to "keep reforms on track", according to National Security Adviser Susan Rice.

"The United States recognises the progress that Burma has made but notes that real challenges remain and missteps have been made in the course of this transition," she added, using Myanmar's former name.

Activists have urged the US president to toughen his stance amid worries Myanmar is backtracking on reforms as elections slated for late 2015 loom.

Wrangles over the nation's constitution, the cramping of media freedom as well as tinderbox issues such as burgeoning Buddhist extremism and anti-Muslim violence, have taken the sheen off its emergence from isolation after decades of iron-fisted army rule.

Last week Suu Kyi said reforms had been "stalling" for almost two years, although she stopped short of saying they were in reverse.

She is campaigning to change a junta-era constitution that bars her from becoming president and earmarks a quarter of parliamentary seats for unelected soldiers.

Washington remains sensitive to the opinions of Myanmar's renowned democracy activist, who spent 15 years under house arrest during the junta but was released after a controversial 2010 poll that heralded the start of a quasi-civilian rule that has seen her enter parliament for the first time.

"Aung San Sui Kyi's view of the election will be enormously important to ensuring that it is seen as credible by the people of Burma and the international community," Patrick Ventrell, a spokesman for the US National Security Council, told AFP.

Encouraging reform

Suu Kyi's "exasperation will be noted" when Obama meets her in Yangon on November 14, said Nicholas Farrelly of Australian National University.

But the US leader would be wrong to "mimic" her downbeat stance as fears of backsliding were "mostly overblown" -- as are expectations that Myanmar would undergo a relatively painless transition to democracy, he added.

Obama, who is on an extended tour of Asia including a trip to China, also travels with Washington's so-called "pivot" to Asia in mind as the superpower seeks to counterbalance Beijing's regional dominance.

Myanmar, a resource-rich nation of more than 50 million strategically nestled between China, India and Southeast Asia, has long been under the influence of Beijing, whose support shielded the former generals from the full force of international sanctions.

Myanmar's Information Minister Ye Htut said his country was satisfied with "improving" US ties, but would not "give sole priority" to the US at the summit.

'Trying times'

Obama will receive a warm welcome in Naypyidaw for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting from November 12 to 13.

But behind the bright face Myanmar will present to the world, troubles are mounting.

Journalists have been jailed, one reporter shot dead while in army custody and dozens of activists arrested in recent months, mainly for protesting land disputes.

Myanmar is also struggling to win peace after years of ethnic minority insurgency, while grappling with waves of deadly anti-Muslim violence and accusations of state complicity in the plight of tens of thousands of stateless Rohingya Muslims in desperate displacement camps.

Authorities have promised a free and fair vote in the first general election fought by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy since its decisive win in 1990, which was ignored by the generals.

Parliament will then choose a president, but the 69-year-old is ineligible because of a constitutional clause bans anyone with a foreign spouse or children from top office.

Her late husband and two sons are British.

US officials said Washington would not specifically support Suu Kyi's presidential bid, but stands behind the principle that people should be able to choose their leaders.

Thein Sein sought to strike a tone of inclusivity in a speech following a landmark meeting with Suu Kyi, military top brass and other parties in late October, citing the need to "find common solutions together".

But he conceded the country was facing "trying times", as it tries to build a "free society".

By Amy Sawitta Lefevre

Reuters

November 12, 2014

BANGKOK — More than 200 boat people held in southern Thailand will be pushed back out to sea, police said on Monday, despite calls by rights group to stop a policy that puts would-be asylum seekers at risk.

Around 259 people were found at sea on Saturday and were arrested for illegal entry.

Their discovery around 3 km (1.86 miles) from the coast follows what one NGO said was a “major maritime exodus” from neighboring Burma of Rohingya, a mostly stateless Muslim minority group from the country’s west.

“On average around 900 people left by boat from the middle of last month. We saw a major maritime exodus of nearly 10,000 people,” said Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, a Rohingya advocacy group, adding that increasing desperation was one reason for the departures.

Authorities in Thailand’s Kapoe district said it was unclear whether any of the group were Rohingya but interviews with some of the group showed they were heading for Malaysia to find work or, in the women’s’ cases, join their husbands.

The 259 will be put back on boats and sent back to Burma, said Police Colonel Sanya Prakobphol, head of Kapoe district police.

“They are Muslims from Myanmar … They are illegal migrants,” Sanya told Reuters by telephone.

“If they come in then we must push them back … once they have crossed the sea border into Myanmar then that’s considered pushing them back. What they do next is their problem.”

Tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled Burma’s Arakan State since 2012, when violent clashes with ethnic Arakanese Buddhists killed hundreds and made about 140,000 homeless.

Many were Rohingya, who now often live in apartheid-like conditions and have little or no access to jobs, schools or healthcare.

The boats often sail from Burma and Bangladesh to Thailand where, as Reuters reported last year, human trafficking-gangs hold thousands of boat people in brutal jungle camps until relatives pay ransoms to secure their release.

Testimonies from Bangladeshi and Rohingya survivors in an October Reuters Special Report provided evidence of a dramatic shift in human-trafficking tactics.

Sanya said the 259 people were currently being held at a community hall and that his team were “looking after them like relatives” but that they would soon be put back on boats.

“Who will feed them? I’m struggling day to day to feed them,” said Sanya.

“No country wants an outsider to come in to their house.”

Thailand was downgraded in June to the lowest category in the U.S. State Department’s annual ranking of the world’s worst human-trafficking centers, putting it in the same category as North Korea and the Central African Republic.

The same month, the Thai military vowed to “prevent and suppress human trafficking”, after having seized power from an elected government on May 22.