By Aileen Thomson

OpenDemocracy.net

December 12, 2014

The rare conviction of a soldier in civilian court shows how, case by case, the criminal justice system is slowly taking a stand against the country's still-powerful military. 

In November, a civilian court in Myanmar’s Shan State did what few courts in the country have ever done–it sentenced a soldier in the Myanmar military to prison for a crime committed against a civilian. It did so after the military court overseeing the case, under intense pressure from local human rights groups and media, agreed to transfer the defendant to a civilian court. The Burmese law governing courts martial allows such a transfer to civilian courts when a soldier is accused of violating civilian criminal law, including sexual violence and murder.

The victim in this case was a 14-year-old mentally handicapped girl of Kachin ethnicity. The perpetrator, Private Kaung Bo Bo, attacked her while she was on her way to the market, dragged her into some bushes, and raped her. The court found the soldier guilty of kidnapping and rape, and sentenced him to 13 years in prison. Before his civilian trial, a court martial had found him guilty of another crime, leaving his barracks without permission, and sentenced him to a year in prison.

The case in question was particularly horrifying, but it sadly fits a well-documented pattern of sexual violence committed by soldiers against ethnic civilians. 

For many years, women’s groups and human rights organizations have documented the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war in areas of ethnic conflict in Myanmar. Sexual violence is used to terrorize ethnic civilian populations into submission and as punishment for their assumed support of ethnic armed groups. The Women’s League of Burma and its member organizations have gathered documentation showing that over 100 women have been raped by members of the Myanmar Army since the country started on its path to peace and democracy in 2010. Nearly half of the attacks were gang rapes. Most cases were linked to military offensives in Kachin and Northern Shan States.

The push for civilian justice for military abuses is not limited to sexual violence. Torture and killings of ethnic civilians by the Myanmar military are also well-documented. While common in areas of ethnic conflict in Myanmar over the past decades, they have been more frequent in Kachin and northern Shan States in the past few years. Torture is used in and outside of detention. Villagers in areas of ethnic conflict report being tortured by members of the Myanmar military as punishment for their perceived support of armed groups, as revenge for a recent military defeat, or to instill fear. Villagers and displaced persons also face arbitrary arrest and detention because their ethnicity or place of residence puts them under suspicion of being members or supporters of an ethnic armed group. 

Almost none of these victims of sexual violence, torture and killings—and their families—will likely ever have their day in court. They face numerous obstacles to seeking justice in Myanmar’s criminal justice system.

A primary challenge is Article 445 of the 2008 Constitution, which forbids legal action against members of past governments for actions undertaken by those governments. Although it is unspecific about who may be charged, and in what kinds of proceedings, it is widely interpreted as an amnesty provision guaranteeing impunity to members of the military and government for past and future violations. Yet, it has not completely barred judicial and non-judicial bodies from considering some violations.

Another challenge is that military courts have jurisdiction over all Defense Services personnel, and the decision of the Commander in Chief on issues of military justice is final and conclusive. Myanmar’s military justice system is not open to the public, and civil society activists find it difficult, if not impossible, to obtain reliable information about pending or completed cases. Civilians, including victims and their advocates, have no right to be present at the trial or to obtain any information about the charges, findings, or sentence. A recentreport by the Women’s League of Burma details the challenges in pursuing military justice, including the transfer of the accused to new jurisdictions, lack of transparency, and intimidation.

Even when civilian courts gain jurisdiction over military personnel, victims’ rights are impeded by institutions that should support them. Police often cooperate with the military to pressure victims to stay silent, sometimes offering compensation in exchange for agreements not to press charges or inform the media. Human rights defenders face threats of retaliation and experience difficulty gaining access to victims.

The rape conviction in Shan State demonstrates that it is possible, at least in some cases, to obtain justice for crimes committed against civilians. There are also reports that last year a soldier was sentenced by a criminal court to life in prison for the rape of a young girl, and other advocates have mentioned three to four other similar cases. 

The Myanmar National Human Rights Committee recently recommended that a civilian court take up another high-profile case of military abuse in a conflict area—the killing and alleged torture of journalist Par Gyi, who was allegedly killed while in military custody in Mon State’s Kyeikmayaw town.

These cases represent some of the first efforts to deal with the past and obtain justice for victims of human rights violations in Myanmar. The work of civil society, politicians and media on these cases is admirable. However, the current ad hoc approach is not sustainable. Groups such as the Women’s League of Burma and its member organizations struggle to provide the necessary support for the growing number of victims who approach them for help in seeking justice.

The military and government can take steps in the short term that would make a significant contribution. The military courts should authorize more transfers of cases of sexual violence, torture, and killings to civilian criminal courts when requested—starting with accepting the recommendations of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission in the Par Gyi case and taking steps to ensure the trial is fair and effective. A policy that directs all military courts to transfer these cases automatically, or at the least on the request of the victim, should be adopted. In a recent interview with Voice of America, Commander in Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing confirmed that, although the military would decide in most cases, civilian justice is an option in some cases when soldiers are accused of human rights violations. 

Further, the military leadership should publicly affirm that violations against civilian populations, particularly rape and sexual assault, can never be excused or tolerated. Military training should be revised to ensure that human rights violations, particularly sexual violence, are no longer perpetrated, if they are, they must be thoroughly prosecuted. Establishing accountability for the security forces will not only increase their professionalism but ultimately demonstrate that they can and shall be devoted to the protection of civilians. These actions, to avoid recurrences, should pave the way to larger reforms aimed at introducing civilian oversight over the army

The responsibility to provide a remedy for violations goes beyond criminal justice. The Myanmar government should take responsibility for the medical, psychosocial and other needs of survivors of sexual violence and torture, as well as the family members of victims of killings. The government should also reform its laws governing these crimes to meet international standards and undertake an investigation of institutional factors that enable or encourage systematic use of sexual violence, torture, and killings as weapons of war, with a view to recommending reforms to prevent their recurrence.

International actors engaged in rule of law assistance also have an important role to play. In their work with the judiciary, police, and lawyers, they should help to build their capacity to handle cases of sexual violence, torture, killings and other serious violation of human rights. These courts must also be able to act independently, both from institutional pressure and from threats or bribes by the accused.

At a time when building trust and reconciliation at all levels—from communities to leaders of armed groups—is a high priority for the Myanmar government, it is important to take steps to address the abuses that civilians have suffered in conflict. Without accountability for perpetrators, and without recognition or support from the government to remedy these violations, the survivors of sexual violence and torture and the families of victims killings cannot be expected to have any trust in reforms.

About the author

Aileen Thomson title is Head of Office, Myanmar for the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ).

By AFP

December 12, 2014

YANGON -- A New Zealand bar manager is due to appear in a Myanmar court on Thursday after he was arrested for allegedly insulting religion by using an image of the Buddha wearing headphones in a promotion, the police said.

The promotional poster, which appeared on the bar's Facebook page, sparked outrage on social media in the predominantly Buddhist nation, which has seen a surge in religious nationalism in recent months.

General manager Philip Blackwood, 32, owner Tun Thurein, 40, and manager Htut Ko Ko Lwin, 26, were detained for police questioning on Wednesday and the bar was shuttered after a complaint by an official from Myanmar's Religious Department, the police said.

The posting for the newly opened V Gastro bar, a tapas restaurant and nightclub in a Yangon embassy area, showed a psychedelic mock-up of the Buddha wearing DJ headphones to trail a cheap drinks night this Sunday. "According to Mr Philip's statement, they were trying to promote the bar. Buddha grabs people's interest... however Buddhists cannot accept it," a police official in Yangon's Bahan township told reporters late on Wednesday.

By Muhamed Sacirbey

Diplomat Artist

December 10, 2014

Burma monk Saydaw Wirathu says to BBC that the “kalar“ (a derogatory term for Muslims) must be plucked out of society like a bad seed, regardless that they are part of the same Myanmar ethnic fabric. Now, thousands have been killed and/or forced to flee age-old homes. In one central town of Myanmar a whole city section was burnt down. In just one incident, 20 young Muslim children were killed and dismembered, (as reported by Buddhist town residents/witnesses). In Burma’s major cities Muslim businesses are boycotted at the urging of Wirathu and associates’ orchestrated campaign. In a form of reverse “Yellow Star of David” campaign reminiscent of the Nazi pogrom against Jews, Buddhist owned businesses are marked with a form of label denied to those owned/managed by Muslims to facilitate the boycott and efforts to force out the Muslims. Myanmar government officials, police and ample military have largely stood back as the riots and killings escalated. To the contrary, there are credible reports of complicity and that the campaign is effectively sponsored by the dictatorial junta to rationalize its hold upon absolute power along ethnic labels and fears of the “other.” It does remind a bit of the start of the Holocaust and more recently the ethnic cleansing/genocide campaigns in the former Yugoslavia. 

Political Ambition Trumping Principled Response? 

Some Buddhist Burmese have sought to curb the pogroms. Others have spoken out and provided evidence of the brutal and shameful acts of their coreligionists. Aung San Suu Kyi has been notable by her silence, especially shrilling in view of recognition afforded her: the Nobel Peace Prize, audience before the US Congress, hosted by the White House and guest of Bono, (as I have been). The campaign to disenfranchise, disown and finally cleanse and/or kill the Rohingya has been now ongoing for several decades. Persecution of Karen and Kachin minorities, particularly Christians, appears to have only mutated into a more populist effort by Burma to rid itself of bad seeds. The military junta has cleverly cloaked itself in Buddhist nationalism. Rather than challenge, is Aung San Suu Kyi adopting a similar strategy in pursuit of personal political ambitions as party leader, Parliament member and future candidate? 

Silence of Convenience? 

Hanna Hindstrom of the Democratic Voice of Burma has specifically singled out Aung San Suu Kyi (ASSK) as authority who must speak out – silence may be interpreted as acquiescence especially when ASSK has effectively been imposed as authority on all democratic and progressive in Myanmar. Several political dissidents who were imprisoned in Myanmar’s brutal prisons out of sight and earshot have courageously now risen to speak on behalf of those who do not have a voice, including the targeted Muslims and other minorities. On the other hand, as noted by the New York Times, ASSK has opted to attend junta-sponsored military parades even as Burmese women demonstrated against the expropriation and poisoning of their land by a Chinese mining conglomerate. Has ASSK become part of the establishment in Myanmar that still needs much change to become a more open and progressive state? 

Another Genocide(s) under UN Watch? 

General Vijay Nambiar, UN Special Envoy for Myanmar, (the Indian diplomat/former UN military commander of UNPROFOR during the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia & Herzegovina and ex-Yugoslavia) has been largely cautious in his dealings with Myanmar junta, President Thein Sein, and demands for needed political/human rights evolution. However, there is ever greater concern even in his words regarding the military campaigns directed at Kachin, to the unabated ethnic cleansing directed at the Rohingya, and Burma’s Muslims. This is not a Muslim issue, although those targeting them in Burma probably view the current global environment as leaving them particularly vulnerable to demonization and dehumanization within Myanmar’s borders and beyond. Adherents to each of the world’s major religions have been both victims and victimizers depending on time and place. Rather, this is a fundamental human rights issue and necessary challenge to those who are connected by their exploitation of differences and labeling of “the other” as a tool and/or weapon. April is “Genocide Awareness Month” and we must be cognizant especially to such occurring now with the opportunity to save lives as well as judge and learn lessons. 

Heroes for Oppressed & Truth Become the Patriots for own Nation: 

Natasha Kandic and Sonja Biserko are two Serbian women who seek to inform their fellow citizens, hold their government accountable, and ultimately have provided key evidence with respect to the human rights abuses/genocide committed under the Milosevic regime. Bosnians and Herzegovinians, but also the world, owe a debt of gratitude to these courageous women. Serbia will also move toward a more open, tolerant and democratic country as accountability drives change. ASSK could learn from Natasha and Sonja, but then it is the former that appears to be secure in the personal recognition accorded her while the abuses and despotism continue in her country. 

Blessing/Obligation of Recognition & Platform Accorded: 

Recognition is a blessing but also an obligation towards those marginalized, oppressed, and ultimately targeted/victimized. Voices are now literally and figuratively being silenced by killings on one hand and a desire to only see the best in a new Myanmar, (which in fact may be mutating into a new fascist approach towards its minorities and poor.) When the UN was my platform to speak on behalf of Bosnia & Herzegovina and its victimized citizens, I was blessed with being able to garner media and diplomatic attention while many were sentenced to suffer injustice and personal loss in silence. I understood that their suffering and drowned out voices amplified my own voice, but only if I opted to speak, and with factual, ethical clarity. Obligation though did not end with those who I directly represented. Rather, it extended to victims and those whose voice deserved being heard well beyond the time and space of our own identity. Privilege of recognition and voice accorded is not merely personal — it is a blessing and obligation. Those political prisoners who suffered in anonymity in Myanmar’s gulags and the religious and/or ethnic minorities who now appear the focus of a new despotism have not chosen their spokesperson. The fortune of recognition accorded ASSK though has delivered to her the obligation and blessing to be unambiguous even if not perhaps compatible with political ambition.

Muhamed Sacirbey 

Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey currently lectures on Digital-Diplomacy. "Mo" has benefited from a diverse career in investment banking & diplomacy, but his passion has been the new avenues of communication. He was Bosnia & Herzegovina's first Ambassador to the United Nations, Agent to the International Court of Justice, Foreign Minister & Signatory of the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court. He also played American football opting for a scholarship to Tulane University in New Orleans after being admitted to Harvard, oh well!!

By Lawi Weng

The Irrawaddy

December 9, 2014

RANGOON — Twenty Burmese Muslims remain in prison awaiting a verdict almost five months after they were detained and accused of links to terrorism, with a lawyer representing some of the defendants saying odds for a fair trial look slim despite a dearth of credible evidence against the accused.

The detained men and women are from Taunggyi, Kyaukse and Naypyidaw, and were arrested in August in Konhein Township, Shan State, while they were traveling to a wedding in the town of Konhein.

“They were charged with Article 5(j) and 5(l)” of Burma’s Emergency Provisions Act, said Khin Moe Moe, a lawyer for 12 of the detained. “They did not have any contact with insurgent armed groups, they were just traveling for a wedding. … They are just normal people. Even the police bringing charges could not provide evidence at court about links to an armed group.”

Win Khaung, the national police chief, has disputed that claim, telling Radio Free Asia that the 20 detainees had links to an unspecified armed terrorist group and were planning to carry out an act of terrorism, allegations to which the police chief said the accused had confessed.

Both charges carry a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.

“I do not think that these victims will get fair justice,” Khin Moe Moe added. “I believe that there are instructions for the court in Taunggyi from top officers about how to punish these victims. The judge will sentence the victims even though the victims are innocent and even though police do not have [sufficient] evidence.”

The 20 Muslims are all Burmese nationals, and some are even members of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), according to their lawyer.

The accused have been held in a prison in Mandalay since August, with their lawyer objecting to their incarceration while the investigation is ongoing.

“Prison is for those who have been sentenced. These people are not guilty yet,” she said. “An investigation is ongoing. They should not be in prison.”

She said prison authorities have refused to let the families of the detained Muslims visit them. The four women and 16 men have appeared in court 20 times already, according to the lawyer.

Khin Moe Moe also claimed that monks aligned with the Buddhist nationalist 969 movement were interfering in the case. A group of 969-affiliated monks has attended every court hearing convened, and Khin Moe Moe said she had received a threat from a 969 member on Facebook.

“They come to show their power whenever the victims appear in court. They were waiting in front of the court during the victims’ trial. They showed their power to create trouble sometimes. I told the victims’ families not to come to the court out of concern,” she said.

Members of Burma’s Muslim minority are severely repressed in western Arakan State, but elsewhere in the country they have largely managed to avoid discriminatory treatment by authorities, despite rising interreligious tensions in recent years.

More than 200 people, mostly Muslims, have been killed in clashes between Buddhists and Muslims that have broken out sporadically since mid-2012. The most recent violence erupted in Mandalay in July, when one Buddhist and one Muslim were killed during rioting that lasted two days.

In Arakan State, more than 100,000 Muslims remain confined to displacement camps after they fled their homes in the 2012 violence.

In this investigative documentary, Johnny Miller takes us to Myanmar. In 2012 violence erupted in Myanmar’s eastern province of Rakhine between Muslims Rohingyas and Rakhines Buddhist, two ethnic groups that used to live in peace for generations. 

This “Community Violence” has led to ethnic cleansing of the entire Rohingya population, referred to by the United Nations as one of the world's most persecuted communities. 

Johnny sits with both conflicting sides in an attempt to peel back causes of the bloodshed as well as stances adopted by Myanmar’s government and the international communities on this brutality.

International Center for Ethno-Religious Mediation's 1st Annual International Conference on Ethnic and Religious Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding, New York, U.S.A., October 1, 2014. The theme of this conference is: "The Advantages of Ethnic & Religious Identity in Conflict Mediation and Peacebuilding".

By Simon Lewis and John Zaw

UCA News
December 9, 2014

Border camps see blockade of assistance convoys as skirmishes continue

RB News 

December 8, 2014 

Saed Arkani contributed in reporting.

By Ko Htwe

Democratic Voice of Burma

December 8, 2014

A Burmese army officer was jailed for two years after he signed a petition to amend Burma’s Constitution.

Maj. Kyawzwar Win was sentenced by a military court on 5 December after photos emerged of him signing a petition to amend Article 436.

The ruling is believed to be the first case of its kind within the three years Burma has undergone transition from military to civilian government.

Kyawzwar Win, an army engineer, was officially court-martialled for insubordination and breaking military rules.

“I was sentenced to jail because I signed the petition while the NLD [National League for Democracy] was collecting signatures for the constitutional amendment,” he said before being taken to prison, Radio Free Asia reported. “There is an order in the army to not get involved in amending Article 436.”

Article 436 is controversial among pro-democracy activists. The article states that constitutional amendments require approval of 75 percent of parliament, and as the military controls 25 percent of seats it effectively allows the military power to veto constitutional amendments in Burma.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD and civil society movement 88 Generation Peace and Open Society ran a petition calling for amendments to the article from May to July, claiming around 5-million signatures in support. Both claim the petition represents Burmese people from all sectors of society.

Kyaw Thiha, an NLD MP from Mandalay Division, said the Kyawzwar Win was sentenced the same day military commander-in-chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing came to the Defence Services Academy graduation in the town.

“We heard from his wife that he [Kyawzwar Win] was sent to Obo prison – we are exploring options to help file an appeal for him,” Kyaw Thiha said.

By Azril Mohd Amin

Astro Awani

December 7, 2014

Somewhere between the end of the World Wars, Russian, American, Chinese and European victors carved up the defeated world according to their view of an equitable distribution of valuable natural resources, and NOT according to the wishes of the populations themselves.

The vested interests thus created have controlled global mineral and other resources and have defined any resistance to these borders as "sedition" or else "terror tactics".

Specifically, Muslim minority populations in Southeast Asian countries have suffered these pejoratives and been penalised.

One result of disenfranchising such ethnic groups as the Rohingya in Myanmar is that in the absence of access to good education and resource-control, they become quite backward and survival-oriented.

Muslim Rohingya -- labelled by the United Nations as the world's most persecuted minorities -- have for years braved the dangerous passage down the Andaman Sea and Thai coast to Malaysia and Indonesia.

The Rohingya flee discrimination and repression in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, where government authorities view the roughly 1.3 million Rohingya as foreigners, denying most of them citizenship and placing restrictions on their movement, religious practices, marriages, education and economic opportunities, in which case they should simply have redrawn their own borders in favour of the Rohingya.

According to recent reports by NGO activists, the flow has accelerated into a growing exodus two years after deadly clashes erupted between Buddhists and Rohingya in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

The South Thailand population, who are mostly of the Malay race, might also prefer to belong to Malaysia as they did prior to the 1900s, or independence, and not be subject to a Buddhist government in Bangkok that is totally irrelevant to their beliefs and aspirations.

Similar to the Rohingya, many of those in the South Thailand have been kept in a condition of such total impoverishment that they are hardly able to express their political wishes short of the violence we see there now.

A ride on a Thai railroad from the border across from Kelantan's Kota Bharu to Hatyai, through Yala and Pattani, will shock any well-meaning visitor who witnesses the impoverishment of many of the people in these areas, which is almost as extreme as the similar degradation suffered by the Rohingya.

There is no mechanism in the United Nations Charter that would help a re-drawing of national borders, partly because of the powerful interests still vested in easy access to the natural resources of these areas. And so "freedom fighters" perforce become "terrorists".

How can Muslims confine themselves to debates about freedom of expression or equal rights for women, when thousands of Muslims in neighbouring Myanmar, South Thailand and China are dying at the hands of government authorities who seem to wish to commit genocide against them? A clear example of inaction is the almost complete destruction of both the Cham and Islāmic cultures under the Khmer Rouge during the 1970's in Cambodia.

Even in Thailand, matters have taken a turn for the worse. Bangkok feels that executing South Thailand separatists is going to solve the problem of public security. What the separatists are trying to tell this rather thick-headed government is that the only security for South Thailand's Muslim majority is some form of autonomy, if not real "merdeka".

Latest media reports show credible proofs that violence in Thailand's Muslim-majority south has until recently left thousands dead. Since 2004, many innocent civilians have been murdered across Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces, which were annexed more than a century ago by Thailand in 1904.

It is a pity that Thailand and Myanmar are both completely repudiating the former Buddhist reputation as the world's most peaceful religion. If ever there was a need for reconciliation dialogue, it must be now.

Uyghur Muslims in North China have had their Muslim fasting prohibited in various ways by Beijing, not to mention credible information of real public massacres. And these are reported as "penalties", and do not include issues such as relocation and denial of human rights.

How far can Muslims allow some central government to mutilate the human race's final revealed religion?

Surely our Creator will not allow such disfigurement of the work of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.). And yet, they go on. Let us not forget the Quranic directives to speak up for Islam, in the face of attacks on it, and to do so reasonably and strongly. The jihad Allah (s.w.t.) directs us to follow need not be violent, but it should at least eclipse all the lies of wrongdoers.

The Muslim ummah has a monumental task ahead, in trying to restore Islam's reputation as a religion of peace, a reputation that has been lost to other religions, in part due to the more radical religious political movements of recent years. And that is also our Allah-entrusted opportunity. We owe to ourselves and our nation to speak up, lest on the Day of Judgment we do not pass muster, for indeed we are judged not just as individuals but as a nation. And we owe our good witness to our regional Muslim brothers and sisters. That is our life mandate. And Allah help us all.

AZRIL MOHD AMIN is a Kuala Lumpur-based lawyer, and founder/ Chief Executive of Centre for Human Rights Research & Advocacy (CENTHRA)

By Brian Pellot

Religion News Service

December 7, 2014

In an article originally published in early 2012 and titled “Word power,” renowned Myanmar human rights advocate, politician and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi wrote:

“Words allow us to express our feelings, to record our experiences, to concretize our ideas, to push outwards the frontiers of intellectual exploration. Words can move hearts, words can change perceptions, words can set nations and peoples in powerful motion. Words are an essential part of the expression of our humanness. To curb and shackle freedom of speech and expression is to cripple the basic right to realize our full potential as human beings.”

Yet in Myanmar, one word remains largely off-limits, even to Daw Suu (as she’s known here): “Rohingya.”

“Rohingya” is the self-identity of a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority group in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State. More than 140,000 of the estimated 800,000 to 1.1 million Rohingya there were pushed to dire displacement camps in 2012 during regional conflicts. An estimated 100,000 Rohingya have since fled the country to escape violence and persecution.

Myanmar’s government systematically denies Rohingya access to basic public services, education and health care. The term “Rohingya” was absent from this year’s landmark census, and most Rohingya have been denied citizenship.

Myanmar officials chastised United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and President Obama for using “Rohingya” last month when the ASEAN Summit came to town. Officials prefer the term “Bengali,” used to legitimize denial of citizenship and rights to the group.

This word, “Rohingya,” clearly has power. So why won’t Daw Suu use it?

A political analyst with access to the Nobel Peace Prize laureate relayed one of their recent conversations to me:

“I am not silent because of political calculation,” she reportedly told him. “I am silent because, whoever’s side I stand on, there will be more blood. If I speak up for human rights, they (the Rohingya) will only suffer. There will be more blood.”

The situation in Rakhine State and across much of Myanmar is indeed volatile, tense and uncertain. More blood will be spilled, whether she speaks out or remains silent. But silence is not the answer.

In March, Daw Suu told a roomful of journalists that “a politician thinks of the next elections. A statesman thinks of the next generation.”

Daw Suu’s political ambitions remain limited by parliament’s unwillingness to amend a flawed constitution that bars her from running for the presidency. It’s reasonable to assume that as a politician, Daw Suu will still prioritize her party (the National League for Democracy) ahead of next year’s elections. But then what?

Daw Suu has done incredible things for her country and inspired generations of global thinkers. To remain silent on one of today’s gravest humanitarian crises — one that is within Myanmar’s borders and control — risks fully compromising her credibility and status as an internationally respected stateswoman.

Daw Suu’s global stature offers her the unique potential to transcend, or rather circumvent, national politics. If the military won’t let her change policy from within to improve the Rohingya’s plight and the status of other ethnic and religious minorities, she has a moral duty to attempt to do so from the sidelines. She must capitalize on her Nobel Peace Prize in order to bring lasting peace to disenfranchised minorities and a diverse, divided, yet still fledgling democracy.

If Daw Suu cares about her country (and her legacy), she must speak out against the atrocities unfolding within it, atrocities that the government flat-out denies. In short, she must embrace her role as a global stateswoman.

No global statesman shone brighter in recent years than Nelson Mandela. His leadership helped South Africa and the world confront difficult challenges and unpopular truths, including post-apartheid racial reconciliation and HIV/AIDS. Mandela’s legacy is not flawless, even on these issues. He was a human plagued by misjudgments, mistakes and regrets. Yet he died last year with a noble legacy intact.

The Economist’s obituary of Mandela concludes: “Hard though much of his life had been, Mr. Mandela lived long enough to see his work through. That gave him his great achievement, and his story a happy ending. And the modern world loves a happy hero even more than a tragic one.”

Mandela’s legacy as a politician was forged in his 70s, but his legacy as a statesman was secured in his 80s and 90s. Daw Suu is 69 and seemingly in excellent health, but her political aspirations remain blocked by an uncompromising military. Her continued silence on the Rohingya crisis now puts her legacy as a global stateswoman at stake.

More seriously, it leaves the lives and destinies of unprotected minorities in jeopardy.

Mandela once said that “there are times when a leader must move ahead of his flock.” For Aung San Suu Kyi’s legacy, for Myanmar’s future, for the fate of the Rohingya, this is certainly one of those times. If she fails to do so by the end of next year, after the elections, her disappointing place among her flock will be secured.

By Al Jazeera

Stuck in a country that does recognise their citizenship, minority Muslim group forced to find a better life elsewhere. 

Close to 1.3 million Rohingya Muslims live an isolated existence in Myanmar. At the receiving end of government policies described by human-rights groups as ethnic cleansing, those who survive often live in absolute poverty. Thousands have fled the country, trying to find a better life. 

Al Jazeera's Florence Looi reports from Sittwe in Rakhine state.

Mohamed Farooq

RB Article

December 7, 2014 

The recent communal unrest to the Rohingya Muslims by majority Rakhine Buddhists in Rakhine (formerly Arakan) province of Burma has attracted global attention in the past few years, the latest action being the United Nations General Assembly’s human rights committee has approved a resolution urging Burma to allow its persecuted Rohingya minority "access to full citizenship on an equal basis" and to scrap its controversial identity plan. 

But Burma rejected the U.N. resolution urging it to grant citizenship to the Rohingya, a stateless minority group, and accused the United Nations of impinging on its sovereignty. 

There are more than one million Rohingya residing in Burma, mostly in the province of Rakhine. According to several UN reports, Rohingya is one of the most persecuted ethnic minorities in the world. 

The dictator military junta striped Rohingya off all the rights of citizens through a law called Citizenship Law in 1982, therefore making Rohingya one of the only stateless communities in the world. 

Who are the Rohingya people? 

The history of Rohingya community in Burma goes back to 8th century as they claim to be original settlers of Rakhine (Arakan) province in the country, while tracing their ancestry to Arab traders. Rohingya practice Sunni Islam. Because the government restricts educational opportunities for them, many pursue only basic Islamic studies. 

As of 2012, there are more than one million Rohingyas residing in Burma, most of them in the province of Rakhine. 

Rohingya persecution by Dictators Burmese Buddhist Regime 

This is not the first time that Rohingya Muslims were persecuted in Burma. In their history, such mass killings and exodus have happened several times. The annexation of the independent province of Rakhine in 1784 by the Burmese government came with discriminatory policies and persecution of Rohingya. They were marginalized and the Burmese government put several restrictions on their movement, their marriage, and constantly confiscated their land and drove them to annihilation. It is said as many as 35,000 Rohingya people fled to the neighboring Chittagong region of British Bengal in 1799 to avoid Burmese persecution and seek protection from British India. The Burmese rulers executed thousands of Arakanese men and deported a considerable portion of the Rohingya population to central Burma, leaving Arakan as a scarcely populated area by the time the British occupied it. 

During World War II, Japanese forces invaded Burma, then under British colonial rule. The British forces retreated and in the power vacuum left behind, considerable violence erupted. This included communal violence between Buddhist Rakhine people and Muslim Rohingya villagers. The period also witnessed violence between groups loyal to the British and Burmese nationalists. The Rohingya supported the Allies during the war and opposed the Japanese forces. The Japanese committed atrocities toward thousands of Rohingya, including rape, torture, and murder. In this period, some 22,000 Rohingya are believed to have crossed the border into Bengal, then part of British India, to escape the violence. Some 40,000 Rohingya eventually fled to Chittagong after repeated massacres by the Burmese and Japanese forces. 

The prominent one was “King Dragon Operation" which took place in 1978; as a result, many Muslims in the region fled to neighboring country Bangladesh as refugees. Over 200,000 Rohingya are said to have fled to Bangladesh following the ‘King Dragon’ operation of the Burma army. Officially this campaign aimed at “scrutinizing each individual living in the state, designating citizens and foreigners in accordance with the law and taking actions against foreigners who have filtered into the country illegally.” This military campaign, in effect, directly targeted civilians, and resulted in widespread killings, rape and destruction of mosques and further religious persecution. 

During 1991-92 a new wave of atrocities forced over a quarter of a million Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh. They reported widespread forced labor, as well as summary executions, torture, and rape. They said they were forced to work without payment by the Burmese army on infrastructure and economic projects, often under harsh conditions. Many other human rights violations occurred in the context of forced labor of Rohingya civilians by the security forces.

The present situation of Rohingya 

Since June 2012 ethnic violence, thousands of vulnerable Rohingya were brutally killed, more than 1500 innocent Rohingya sentenced to long term imprisonments with no legal crime, many Rohingya women and girls were critically gang raped in several villages of different localities, about 140,000 people were displaced forcibly under open sky, vandalism and arson to the houses, religious schools and Mosques etc. Human strategy is continued by Thein Sein’s junta in Arakan and other areas of ethnics. 

The violence has since spread amidst a wave of hate speech targeting all of Burmese Muslims, led by extremist monk, Wirathu and his followers around the whole Burma. Racist Wirathu leads a 969 anti-Muslim campaign which is certified by government. 

The increasing human rights abuses and arbitrary detention of Rohingya in Rakhine state of Burma. 

It is the duty of security forces to defend the rights of everyone without exception or discrimination from abuses by others, while abiding by human rights standards themselves, said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International's Burma Researcher. 

The group accused both security forces and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists of increasing attacks on the Rohingya Muslims, killing, rape, arbitrary detention of Rohingya and destroying their properties, urging the Burmese authorities to put an end to the violent action. Amnesty International has also received credible reports of other human rights abuses against Rohingya and other Rakhine Muslims including physical abuse, rape, destruction of property, and unlawful killings carried out by both Rakhine Buddhists and security forces, said the group in its report. 

Right groups have called on Burmese Parliament to amend or repeal the 1982 Citizenship Law to ensure that Rohingya are no longer stateless. 

Under international human rights law and standards, no one may be left or rendered stateless. For too long Burma human rights record has been marred by the continued denial of citizenship for Rohingya and a host of discriminatory practices against them, concluded the report. 

Decades of discrimination have left the Rohingya Muslims stateless, with Burma implementing restrictions on their movement and withholding land rights, education and public services, according to another report released by Turkish charity group the Humanitarian Aid Foundation. 

Rohingya are seen as foreigners by nationalist Burma leaders and extremist Buddhists and are denied citizenship by the government because it considers them illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh, do not have the freedom to travel. In order to travel from one village to another, they have to pay money to the government. 

There is a great number of Rohingya Muslims who are detained, subjected to torture and raped, adding that it was difficult to accurately determine their identities or numbers. 

Rohingya are not allowed to renovate their mosques or schools, adding that anyone caught renovating these buildings would be sent to jail. A new mosque or school has not been built in over 40 years. 

Rohingya cannot benefit from the social services provided by the state, including health services, adding that Rohingya do not have the right to work in government offices. Rohingya can be forced to work for Buddhists or the government without any payment. A human catastrophe is happening in Burma which needs immediate attention of the world community. The world community should intervene into this inhuman genocide that has been happening in Burma for a long time. 

Lee Yang-hee, a UN Special envoy to Burma said, “I thought there could be no other hell." She was describing her first visit to the Rohingya camps for IDP people in Rakhine state. In the wet season, the water floods up to knees in the camps. They don't have any freedom of movement. The children there don't have food rations, so the adults would starve and give their rations to the children. Despite having lived there for generations, Rohingya are denied citizenship. They face constant persecution and discrimination. 

"The problems facing the Rohingya are among the most desperate human crises in Asia today," said Murray Hiebert, deputy director of Southeast Asia Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "With thousands of Rohingya fleeing on boats for Thailand and Malaysia, this problem stretches far beyond the borders of Burma." 

The deteriorating situation in the camps along with increasing reports of arbitrary arrests and detainment in northern parts of Rakhine have led to a rapid increase in Rohingya fleeing the country, according to Chris Lewa, director of the advocacy group Arakan Project. Lewa said that hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled since Oct. 15. The exodus by boat is one of the largest in Asia since the end of the Vietnam War. The situation is getting worse and worse, degenerating all the time, Lewa said. 

Some Rohingya who flee Burma encounter situations worse than those back home. An extensive human-trafficking ring emerged to exploit the desperate migrants, and many who do arrive safely to Thailand or Malaysia report that finding steady work and fair pay is becoming harder. 

Mohamed Farooq is a Rohingya activist, lives in Norway. He can be reached at mfqmyint@gmail.com

By Ruhani Kaur

Live Mint

December 6, 2014

At a time when India-Myanmar relations are improving, Rohingya refugees in the Capital are struggling to rebuild their lives

By Todd Pitman 

Associated Press

December 5, 2014

Bangkok -- A leader of ethnic Kachin rebels fighting in Myanmar said Friday that trust in the country's military-dominated government was at an all-time low despite years of peace talks aimed at resolving the conflict in the country's jade-rich north.

But rebel Gen. Sumlut Gun Maw told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview that the insurgent group was still committed to dialogue because it is "the only way forward."

Fighting between the army and Kachin insurgents flared anew in 2011, ending a 17-year-ceasefire and forcing more than 120,000 people from their homes. Since then, Myanmar President Thein Sein's administration has agreed to tentative truces with 14 insurgent factions, but it has been unable to secure a deal with the Kachin or broker a broader, nationwide ceasefire with a rebel alliance that top government negotiators have met with regularly since last year.

"Our trust in the government and the army is lower now than when we started talking," Gun Maw said during a visit to Bangkok. "But the lack of trust is why talks are necessary."

Already strained negotiations were dealt a severe blow on Nov. 19 when the army fired a pair of 105mm artillery shells at a Kachin military academy just north of their headquarters in Laiza on the Chinese border, killing 23 people and injuring 20. Only four of the wounded were part of the Kachin rebel organization, however. The rest were members of other allied ethnic groups who had come for training, said Gun Maw, who serves as vice chief of staff of the Kachin Independence Army.

Both sides have accused each other of initiating firefights in recent months, and rebels say Myanmar's army is still firing shells sporadically at Kachin outposts from hills they seized during a weeks-long offensive that ended in January 2013.

Gun Maw said the rebels' main aim was to achieve equal rights and autonomy within a federalist system, an idea first enshrined in the so-called Panglong agreement of 1947 ? which was sealed with ethnic groups who make up about 40 percent of the population. The deal fell apart after national independence hero Gen. Aung San was assassinated the same year and has been generally ignored by the authoritarian military regimes that followed.

A major stumbling block to any deal, Gun Maw said, is the army's insistence that rebels accept the military-drafted 2008 constitution, which deprives ethnic minorities the right to self-determination. The charter also ensures military domination over the government, giving the armed forces chief more power than the president ? including the extraordinary "right to take over and exercise state sovereign power" if an emergency is deemed to threaten the union. It also ensures that 25 percent of lawmakers are military appointees who retain veto power over all constitutional amendments.

"Ultimately they don't want to change the 2008 constitution because doing so would reduce their power," Gun Maw said. "Their approach to negotiations has been, 'You have to listen to our demands.'"

Another sticking point is the future of the ethnic armies who control a vast patchwork of territories along Myanmar's northern and eastern borders. There has been no agreement on whether they would lay down their arms or join a federal army, and Gun Maw said that would only be discussed after a general political agreement is eventually reached.

RB News 

December 5, 2014 

Maungdaw, Arakan – A pregnant Rohingya woman died at Maungdaw hospital and her dead body was abused by Myanmar’s Border Guard Police (BGP) while on the way to her village for burial. The men accompanying her body were extorted and tortured. 

On December 3rd, a pregnant Rohingya woman named Hasina d/o Fazal Ahmed, age 35, from Kyauk Pando village of Maungdaw Township had difficulty delivering her baby at home. Her family sent her to Maungdaw Township hospital to assist with delivery and complications. But as the discrimination against Rohingyas is pervasive, she did not get proper treatment. She died at the hospital. 

On the next day, Abdur Raukeem s/o Fazal (Age 45) and Abu Halam s/o Sirazu (Age 38) took her dead body from the hospital to Kyauk Pando village which is in southern part of Maungdaw Township. Their car was stopped by BGP police at Oo-Daung village and the men who are accompanying her body were tortured without questioning. Later they were extorted Kyat 150,000. 

In an especially inhumane and cruel act the BGP police kicked the dead body of Hasina like a football three times, according to locals. 

Myanmar’s BGP police in Maungdaw district have been behaving as licensed robbers and thugs since the time it formed. Although the union government led by Thein Sein is well informed, recently Thein Sein said accusations against the BGP are media fabrication. As tortures and extortion are increasing day by day, it is clear that persecution against Rohingyas is state policy and the police and military in Maungdaw district were instructed to persecute the Rohingyas.

By Joshua Carroll

Anadolu Agency

December 5, 2014

President Thein Sein passes draft laws that stops Buddhist women marrying outside their religion

YANGON -- Myanmar is set to adopt marriage laws that rights groups fear will trample women’s rights and fuel religious discrimination.

A group of ultranationalist Buddhist monks, known as Mabatha, have spearheaded a campaign to require Buddhist women to seek permission to marry men of other religions.

The monks – who have been accused of inspiring sectarian violence against non-Buddhists, particularly Rohingya Muslims – claim interfaith marriage leads to forced conversions and is eroding Myanmar’s national identity, which many people consider deeply entwined with Buddhist faith.

The package of laws has been approved by President Thein Sein and is due to be debated by parliament next month.

The bill also proposes limiting the number of children people can have in certain regions and require anyone wishing to change religion to get government permission, a process that would take months.

In an interview with The Anadolu Agency on Thursday, Tun Tun Oo, a Christian campaigner, said: “No-one should be able to control another person’s faith. The Interfaith Marriage Law goes against international human rights law and our own constitution.”

Myanmar's 55 million population is 89 percent Buddhist with Muslims and Christians both making up around 4 percent of the population.

The draft law places no restrictions on Buddhist men who wish to marry outside their faith while women must seek permission from local authorities and post a public notice of their engagement.

The couple must cancel their marriage if there are any objections or face two years in prison.

“The proposed law is based on discriminatory beliefs that women are generally physically and mentally weaker than men and therefore need to be supervised and protected,” an alliance of civil society groups stated earlier this year.

Observers say Sein has submitted to religious nationalists in a bid to gain popular support before next year’s election.

The president won praise from foreign governments for introducing sweeping reforms in the former pariah state in 2011 but Monday’s decision to approve the draft laws is the latest apparent example of Sein courting extreme nationalist sentiment.

Hundreds have died and more than 140,000 have been displaced in sporadic outbursts of mostly Buddhist-led rioting since 2012. The majority of the victims have been Muslims.

Human Rights Watch called on Myanmar’s parliament earlier this year to scrap the law, which it said was “stoking communal tensions” and would “politicize religion.”