Kachin Alliance Statement on the Gang-rape and Killing of the Two Teachers

Jan 22, 2014

The Kachin Alliance, a network of Kachin communities and organizations in the US, is appalled beyond words by the premeditated rape and murder of teachers Maran Lu Ra (20) and Tangbau Hkawn Nan Tsin (21) which occurred at Shabuk Kawng Hka village in Muse Township, northern Shan State, on Jan 19, 2015.

The teachers were volunteers of the Kachin Baptist Convention’s (KBC) mission program, set up to provide education opportunities for disadvantaged children in remote areas.

The crime occurred at the Kawng Hka Kachin Baptist Church Compound, which is only about 100 yards from the Burma Army’s 503rd Light Infantry Regiment (LIR) outpost. No other armed groups are present in this area.

Overwhelming circumstantial evidence points to the fact that 503 LIR soldiers, under the command of Maj. Aung Soe Myint, are the perpetrators of this horrendous crime.

The Burma army’s historic use of rape as a weapon of intimidation in conflict areas, has meant that countless Kachin women have been raped, tortured and killed with impunity.

We therefore, demand the Burmese government and army to stop state-sponsored sexual violence in Kachin communities, and bring to justice those guilty of such crimes.

We echo the demand of the Kachin public and other rights groups that a thorough and just investigation be made to bring the rapists and murderers of the 2 young teachers to justice.

We also demand the government or army not to resort to intimidation or scapegoating to avert the course of justice. 

We petition the US, the UN and others who champion human rights to condemn the Burmese government’s policy of intimidation through sexual violence in conflict areas, and press upon them that such acts amount to war crimes and are liable for prosecution under international criminal law.

In addition, we urge the UN and the US to introduce legislative actions and policies which promote peaceful coexistence and deter utilization of rape and torture as weapon of choice in conflict areas in Burma.

We pay tribute to the 2 teachers for the service and dedication they rendered others during the course of their young lives, and offer our deepest condolences to their families and friends.

We commend the KBC for taking steps to honor the memory of the 2 slain young teachers, and the opportunity provided Kachin communities from all walks of life to pay their respects as the funeral cortege makes its way from Muse to the Kachin State Capital of Myitkyina.

January 22, 2015 (#20JR15)

PRESS STATEMENT

Arakan Rohingya Union Warmly Welcomes the Release of Rohingya Community Leader, Dr. U Tun Aung

Arakan Rohingya Union warmly welcomes the release of Rohingya physician and community leader, Dr. U Tun Aung, after a prolonged period of unjust imprisonment by the Government of Myanmar.

Dr. U Tun Aung was arrested by the Buddhist Rakhine police following the violence against Rohingya by the Buddhist Rakhine mobs in Maungdaw, Arakan State, in June of 2012, on false allegation of inciting the riots. On the contrary, Dr. U Tun Aung was trying to intervene and stop the violence as per the request of the authorities. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison that was grossly unfair and racially motivated.

The Arakan Rohingya Union unequivocally endorses Dr. U Tun Aung’s statement on his continuous efforts to bring peace, stability, and communal harmony in Arakan State, during his interview with media groups following his release.

Rohingya people expresses their deep gratitude to the international community, particularly US Congressman Aaron Schock, Assistant Secretary of State Tom Malinowski and the US State Department team, UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee and the UN officials, OIC Officials, and a number of NGOs and right groups worldwide, for their relentless efforts that have resulted in the release of Dr. U Tun Aung.

Arakan Rohingya Union greatly appreciates the just and fair decision made by President Thein Sein for the release of Dr. U Tun Aung. This is a positive step forward to bring peace and stability back to Arakan state. The Rohingya people appeal President Thein Sein to take immediate steps for the release of hundreds of Rohingya prisoners in Arakan who are unjustly imprisoned. Rohingya people also call on the Government of Myanmar to address the political and human right issues of the Rohingya ethnic minority and reinstate their full citizenship.

By Mizzima

January 22, 2015

A commentator with America’s influential Council on Foreign Relations has written a column that expresses concern over opinion that the coming national elections could be “waylaid.”

Mr Joshua Kurlantzick, the CFR’s Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia wrote in a January 20 commentary entitled, “The US-Burma Human Rights Dialogue: Frank Criticism but No Action,” that it was refreshing to see a US official “be quite blunt” about Myanmar’s problems.

The assessment comes after US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Mr Tom Malinowski joined with US Ambassador to Myanmar Mr Derek Mitchell and a group of other US officials from State, Defense and USAID for the second U.S.-Burma Human Rights Dialogue in Myanmar.

Mr Kurlantzick suggests there is a need for tougher talk.

“The dialogue came at a time when Myanmar’s rights record is backsliding, more than one-hundred thousand Rohingya Muslims remain internally displaced in Myanmar, and there are concerns, both within Myanmar and among outside countries, that this year’s critical national elections will be waylaid, not allowing the vote to go on freely and fairly,” writes Mr Kurlantzick, a senior fellow for Southeast Asia with the CFR. Mr Kurlantzick was writing in his personal capacity, not on behalf of the CFR.

As Mr Kurlantzick notes, US officials up until recently have tended to avoid significant public criticism of Myanmar’s faltering reforms. But Assistant Secretary Malinowski was open in his government’s concern over whether the reform process is continuing, with fears about tensions and problems that might arise in this crucial election year.

As was widely reported, Mr Malinowski spoke of his concern that Myanmar’s government was “playing with fire” by not taking a tough approach toward people using religion to divide society.

Mr Kurlantzick said Washington should not only offer criticism in public and private but should also use its “significant leverage in Myanmar,” particularly given the desire by the Myanmar armed forces for a much closer relationship.

Mr Kurlantzick said Washington should “freeze” certain aspects of its engagement “to signal to the still-powerful Myanmar armed forces that they need to allow the election to go forward freely, even if the opposition National League for Democracy party is to triumph.

He added the freeze on military-to-military relations also should be utilised to apply more pressure on Nay Pyi Taw to investigate links he alleges may exist between uniformed military and Buddhist paramilitary groups.”

The Council on Foreign Relations' "think tank” includes more than seventy fellows, its board of directors include Former US Secretary of State Retired General Colin Powell.

By Abdul Hannan Tago

Arab News

January 22, 2015

Myanmar Ambassador, Ko Ko Latt, told his guests on Tuesday that his country is actively participating in international affairs based on the principle of peaceful co-existence. Further, speaking at his country’s 67th Independence Day reception at the Diplomatic Quarters, Latt said that since the opening Myanmar Embassy in Riyadh in 2007, the embassy has been getting excellent assistance. 

The event was attended by Azzam Al-Gain, deputy foreign affairs minister and chief of protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs along with members of the diplomatic corps.

“I would like to express my deep appreciation to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah and the royal family, the government and the people of the Kingdom for excellent assistance since the opening of Myanmar Embassy in Riyadh in 2007,” he said.

“I arrived here in 2013 and deeply believe that these developments are reflected in the good relations and cooperation between our two countries and hope to further enhance our cooperation and friendly relations in all spheres,” Latt observed.

“On behalf of the government and the people of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, I would like to extend our sincere wishes for the personal well-being and good health to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and Crown Prince Salman, the deputy premier and the minister of defense,” he said.

By Saudi Gazette Editorial

January 22, 2015

One of the bigoted Buddhist monks who are spearheading the murderous persecution of Burma’s Muslim Rohingya majority has called a top UN official a “whore” and said that since she liked the Rohingya so much, she should go to bed with them.

The outrageous outburst by the thuggish Ashin Wirathu, leader of the racists 969 organization, came after the South Korean UN rapporteur visit last week to Burma. During her stay Lee protested that the Rohingya were living in abysmal conditions in the concentration camps into which they have been herded “for their own safety”.

She was also scathing about the proposed legislation on race and religion, which is clearly targeting Burma’s Muslims, which includes the Rohingya community. Lee’s trip to see for herself what was being done to the Rohingya was the more infuriating to the ultra-nationalist monks, because she arrived backed by a UN resolution condemning the Burmese government’s treatment of its minorities, in particular the unfortunate Rohingya.

The administration of military place-man and former general, president Thein Sein continues to insist that the Rohingya are not Burmese citizens. Despite their historic communities in the northwest of the country, successive Burmese governments have denied these unfortunates not only passports, but also any legal, political or social rights. This has left the Rohingya prey to hate-filled racists like the appalling monks of the 696 group.

It has also meant that police and army who have been involved in the savage conflict, which has seen hundreds of Rohingya murdered and tens of thousands forced from their homes and livelihoods, have at best stood by and done nothing or at worst have actively joined in the savagery.

The behavior of the security forces reflects that of Burma’s emerging democratic political establishment, which is still nervous of a return of the brutal military junta. Too many people in positions of responsibility have stayed silent about the crimes being perpetrated against the Rohingya. And even the highly-regarded Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Ky has been extremely muted in her criticisms whenever she found herself obliged to comment on these race crimes. 

There is a general fear of antagonizing the country’s Buddhist monks who are seen as having considerable influence among majority Buddhists in the 49 million population. There has for instance so far been no official apology over the “whore” insult and only vague promises that the rabid monk, Wirathu, is to be investigated for his inflammatory comments.

If Burmese themselves will not tackle this evil race-hate cancer, it falls to the international community to take action. The UN now heads up the wave of disgust and despair worldwide that is felt at the deeply discreditable conduct on the Thein Sein government. 

However, disgust by itself, will achieve nothing. What is needed is action. The UN’s Lee said during her visit that Burma was in danger of slipping back in its transition to democracy.

What she did not spell out were the consequences if this continued. The Obama White House is increasingly disturbed at events in Burma. The US president could lead a move to reinstitute sanctions and freeze the foreign investment that has flooded into the country since 2011. There, are many, not simply in the Islamic world, who would now back such a trade and finance crackdown with considerable enthusiasm. The Burmese can no longer be permitted to get away with such naked racism and Islamophobia.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 22, 2015 | USCIRF 

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) strongly condemns the package of race and religion bills that Burma’s parliament is considering. These bills would further restrict religious freedom and discriminate against all non-Buddhists, particularly male Muslims, in religious conversions and marriages. USCIRF criticized a May draft of one of these bills, the religious conversion law, as “irreparably flawed” and in contravention of “Burma’s international commitments to protect freedom of religion or belief.” 

“Discrimination against non-Buddhists through law, regulation and practice already is pervasive in Burma. Instead of countering prejudices, these bills would further entrench and legalize discrimination,” said Katrina Lantos Swett, USCIRF Chair. “The bills risk fanning the flames of intolerance and violence against Muslims and other religious minorities. If they become law, Burma will be taking a major step backward.” 

During USCIRF’s August trip to Burma (click here to read the report), Commissioners M. Zuhdi Jasser and Eric P. Schwartz raised concerns about these bills in meetings with Burmese parliamentarians and representatives of the Union government. 

“Rather than protecting individuals’ rights to peacefully practice their faiths, the government of Burma is promoting restrictive, discriminatory measures that violate religious freedoms,” said Lantos Swett. “The right to change your beliefs and marry a partner of your own choosing are personal decisions not in the scope of government.” 

Specific concerns include: 

• The Religious Conversion Bill would force those seeking to convert to give to the newly created Registration Boards an extensive list of personal information, answer intrusive questions, and wait 90 days for approval. 
• The Interfaith Marriage Bill imposes restrictions on marriages between non-Buddhist men and Buddhist women, including a 14-day waiting period during which time anyone can object to the marriage, and the court reviewing the objections has the power to deny the marriage. Non-Buddhist men are denied numerous rights in the case of divorce and face criminal penalties if they ask their Buddhist wife to convert. Under the bill, non-Buddhist men also bear most of the financial and/or criminal penalties, including prison sentences. 

USCIRF concluded in its 2014 Annual Report chapter on Burma (Burmese translation here) that political reforms have not improved legal protections for religious freedom and have done little to curtail anti-Muslim violence, incitement, and discrimination, particularly targeting the Rohingya Muslim minority. For more than a decade, USCIRF has recommended that Burma be designated as a “country of particular concern” (CPC) for its systematic, egregious and ongoing religious freedom violations. The U.S. Department of State has designated Burma as a CPC repeatedly since 1999, most recently in July 2014. 

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at media@uscirf.gov or 202-786-0613.

By Maung Zarni

January 22, 2015

Is Myanmar Tatmadaw (or feudal army) re-embracing its Fascist origin?

Burma's army was the sole creation of Southeast Asia unit of Japan's Naval Intelligence. With full blessings from PM General Tojo , Japan's Fascist strategists in the Japanese Navy Intelligence recruited Aung San - Aung San Suu Kyi's father - and his young anti-British nationalist colleagues, in desperate search for arms, funding and other forms of support from an anti-imperialist source. Their initial hope was Mao's Communists. But Communists were in no position or mood to help the young Burmese. The Japanese fascists stepped in and offered the promise of Burma's independence from Britain in exchange for fighting in effect as a 'proxy army' for the Japanese. Japan's fascist vision during WWII was to expand its control all the way to Australia and New Zealand via what US strategic command then called "South East Asia" - the invented origin of the region that now came to be referred to as ASEAN. Burma was crucial as a launching pad for Japanese Armed Forces to invade British India. 

The allure of independence and having no real alternative forced the Burmese nationalists to collaborate with the Fascists in Tokyo beginning in 1942. Come Christmas young nationalist activists had morphed into military-men, soaked in authoritarianism and the old Bama feudalist values. 

Seventy two years after the founding of the Myanmar feudal army, all the signs are pointing to the resurgence of Fascism - this time with Bama and "Buddhist" characteristics! . As a matter-of-factly speaking, everything Myanmar Tatmadaw (or feudal army) is doing indicate that it has re-embraced and re-institutionalized Fascism. Here are SOME of the most disturbing signs. 

1. Troops fired at land-robbed farmers. 

2. Anti-Chinese mine Buddhist monks get fire-bombed. 

3. Kachin volunteer teachers got raped and murdered. 

4. Muslims as religious minorities and non-Bama ethnic peoples are second class citizens. 

5. Rohingya in particular are starved, brutalized and forced out. 

6. Nazi-inspired Rakhines are promoted as 'leaders' and being used as 'local proxies'. 

7. Generals & cronies have been robbing the public openly.

8. Myanmar Tatmadaw is widely accused - and justifiably - of raping religious and ethnic minority women, including Rohingya women, with blanket impunity for decades. 

9. Journalists are killed and/or otherwise persecuted. 

10. Anti-Muslim hate-mongers and violent hate groups such as 969 and Ma-Ba-Tha have official backing by the Government and Legislature (the same thing, different names). 

11. The highest level of authorities, including Nwa Thein Sein's Presidential Office, propagates racism and religious bigotry - while Nwa President talks about 'inclusion and tolerance' to please the ears of his marketiing agents and business partners in US and other Western governments. 

12. The Tatmadaw feudal generals since 1979 have presided over the slow genocide of nearly 2 million Rohingya (including the Rohingyas who have fled the country as the direct result of several major waves of terror which began in February 1979). 

13. Military feudalism is being pursued. (Only the army-bred officers are now entrusted with top positions, from the Commander in Chief to the head of military intelligence to other strategic positions). 

14. The military has institutionalized and consolidated its signature neo-Fascist Militarism - Generals and ex-Generals, "Pure Patriots" but dissidents and civilians, not patriotic enough or capable.

Where are the much-hyped up 'reforms'? Are these signs of a regime that is merely back-sliding from those 'reforms'?

By The Nation

January 21, 2015

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) would coordinate with related parties to move some Rohingya refugees in Thailand on a voluntary basis to a third country, initially set as the United States.

The information was revealed during the UNHCR Thailand officials' visit yesterday to a shelter in Nakhon Si Thammarat's Hua Sai district to provide 90 Rohingya people there with commodity items as well as toys and education tools.

In related news, Hua Sai Police yesterday summoned Rohingya representatives, as the damaged party in human trafficking, to identify five cars used to transport them.

The Rohingya people were rescued earlier this month while being transported in Nakhon Si Thammarat, but one woman died in the crowded conditions.

The provincial court earlier issued arrest warrants for three human-trafficker suspects identified as Sawat Phadungchat, Warachai Chadathong and Suriya Yodrak.

By Louis Charbonneau

Reuters

January 21, 2015

UNITED NATIONS -- (Reuters's Editors note: The third and fourth paragraphs contain language that some readers may find offensive.)

United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein sharply criticized a prominent Myanmar monk on Wednesday for what he said were sexist and abusive public comments about a U.N. special rapporteur.

According to the website of Irrawaddy magazine, the Buddhist monk U Wirathu condemned human rights rapporteur Yanghee Lee at a public rally on Friday held to denounce a recent U.N. General Assembly vote calling for minority Rohingya Muslims to be granted citizenship in the country, also known as Burma.

"Just because you hold a position in the United Nations doesn't make you an honorable woman. In our country, you are just a whore," Wirathu told a cheering crowd of several hundred people in Yangon on Friday.

"Can this bitch really be from a respectable background?" Irrawaddy magazine quoted U Wirathu as saying in the speech, which was posted on YouTube by the Democratic Voice of Burma.

Zeid condemned the remarks.

"The sexist, insulting language used against the U.N.'s independent human rights expert on Myanmar ... by an influential monk during Ms. Lee's official visit to the country is utterly unacceptable," he said in a statement.

"It is intolerable for U.N. special rapporteurs to be treated in this way, and I call on religious and political leaders in Myanmar to unequivocally condemn all forms of incitement to hatred including this abhorrent public personal attack against a U.N.-appointed expert," Zeid said.

He added that instead of attacking Lee, religious and political leaders in Myanmar should tackle the substance of concerns she has raised.

Another prominent monk said on Tuesday that U Wirathu had violated his monastic code and could damage his religion but was unlikely to face censure.

Lee, a South Korean, visited Myanmar earlier this month to assess the current rights situation there.

In her latest annual report last year, Lee warned that "the Rohingya community continues to face systematic discrimination." She said abuses suffered by the Rohingya population include executions, torture, forced labor, displacements and rape.

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

Myanmar's government says it should no longer be subjected to special scrutiny by U.N. rights bodies. Its U.N. mission did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Leslie Adler)

By BDNews24

January 21, 2015

A visiting US Assistant Secretary of State has said Rohingyas deserve Burmese citizenship to end their statelessness, which she identified as a root cause of their plight and displacement.

Anne Richard of the Department of Population, Refugees and Migration made the observation in a seminar in Dhaka on Wednesday.

She said the Rohingya population remained stateless as “they are not recognised as a distinct ethnic group in the country’s citizenship law”.

“Statelessness is… a key reason they flee to neighbouring countries,” she said.

The Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) organised the seminar styled ‘US policy on refugee, migration and population dynamics’ for the visiting official.

Richard arrived in Dhaka on Tuesday from Myanmar on a four-day tour, her first after she joined the post in Washington in 2012, “to learn from the Bangladesh perspective” of the situation of the refugees here.

Both Bangladesh and the US deal with the issues of refugees, migration and population dynamics.

Migration and population dynamics are the two issues Bangladesh is pressing for inclusion as separate development factors in the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Rohingya refugee issue is a major irritant in Bangladesh-Myanmar relations.

Bangladesh has given shelter to thousands of refugees who fled the Rakhine province following sectarian clashes spread over the years, but Myanmar refused to grant them citizenship.

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

Bangladesh government says more than 500,000 of them are living outside the camps here.

Chairman of the BIISS Board of Governance Munshi Faiz Ahmed said the US, as the most powerful country, also had the responsibility to help resolve the problem.

He said given the density of its population “it is difficult for Bangladesh to welcome new migrants”.

“We hope arrangements should be made inside Myanmar,” he said, hoping that “the US is aware of the problem and its solution as well”.

Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque, who worked for 11 years with the International Organisation of Migration, however, lauded the US role on the issue.

He said the US had been “extremely vocal and strong in suggesting to the Myanmar government to address effectively the issue of Rohingya refugees”.

“In fact, President Obama was very categorical in saying ‘please give (them) the citizenship back.”

He termed Richard “a passionate, experienced and committed” assistant secretary “to bring about a difference in the world of migration and refugees”.

Assistant secretary Richard thanked Bangladesh for hosting “hundreds of thousands” of Rohingyas for decades.

She also appreciated Bangladesh for giving 300,000 Urdu-speaking people citizenship that, she said, provided “a shining example” of giving stateless people nationality.

She said last year witnessed the forcible displacement of over 50 million people globally – the highest since World War II.

Each crisis in different settings was “unique”.

In Burma, Richard said, “hopes for the future are threatened by ethnic and religious rivalries and violence”.

Since 2012, fighting in the Rakhine state between ethnic Rakhine and Rohingya communities has displaced 140,000 people.

Before arriving in Dhaka, she visited both of these areas and participated in a high-level Human Rights Dialogue.

The State Department official said the US had been urging the Burmese government “to take steps to end hostilities, build mutual confidence and establish a political dialogue”.

“At the highest levels, we have repeatedly pressed the government of Burma to take decisive action to address the root causes of conflict.”

Richard was asked whether Bangladesh could expect solutions in the near future since the US was engaged at the highest level.

She said the focus was “to try to ensure that they (Burma) recognise that many of the Rohingyas do in fact deserve the papers to show they are citizens of Myanmar”.

In coming months, a lot would be happening “to try to pin down the actual status of the people of the Rakhine state”, she said.

She, however, suggested that the same energy and productive thinking devoted to deal with the ethnic groups along the Myanmar-Thailand border should be given to the situation in the Rakhine state.

“The time is I think now.”

She said the US was also looking forward to expanding its partnership with Bangladesh in the coming years.

By Thin Lei Win and Andrew R.C. Marshall

Reuters

January 21, 2015

BANGKOK -- A Myanmar Buddhist monk who called a U.N. human rights envoy a "whore" has violated his monastic code and could damage his religion, another prominent monk said on Tuesday, but he is unlikely to face censure.

Wirathu denounced Yanghee Lee, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, in a speech in Yangon on Friday, after she questioned draft laws that critics say discriminate against women and non-Buddhists.

"Just because you hold a position in the United Nations doesn't make you an honourable woman. In our country, you are just a whore," Wirathu told a cheering crowd of several hundred people in Yangon on Friday.

The monk also accused Lee of bias towards Rohingya Muslims, a stateless minority in the western Myanmar state of Rakhine.

"You can offer your arse to the kalars if you so wish but you are not selling off our Rakhine State," he said. Kalars is a derogatory word for people of South Asian descent.

His speech was condemned by Thawbita, a leading member of the progressive Saffron Revolution Buddhist Monks Network in Mandalay, where Wirathu is also based. 

"The words used that day are very sad and disappointing. It is an act that could hurt Buddhism very badly," Thawbita told Reuters.

The network was formed by monks who helped lead the 2007 Saffron Revolution, a nationwide democracy uprising brutally crushed by the military. It is influential among educated Buddhists, but has little power.

A senior official at the Ministry of Religious Affairs told Reuters there were no plans to act against Wirathu.

"Of course, he has the right to express his opinion but he shouldn't have used these terms," said the official, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. "It can tarnish the image of our religion among those who don't really understand its essence."

Famed for his fiery speeches, Wirathu belongs to a radical anti-Islamic group whose monks preach that Muslims will one day overrun Myanmar. Buddhism is the country's predominant religion and its monks are revered.

A quasi-civilian government now runs Myanmar after nearly half a century of hardline military rule. But its reforms have been marred by deadly religious clashes, with rights activists warning that hate speech could foment further violence.

Lee responded indirectly to Wirathu's remarks in a statement released by her office on Monday.

"During my visit I was personally subjected to the kind of sexist intimidation that female human rights defenders experience when advocating on controversial issues," she said. 

(Additional reporting by Aung Hla Tun in Yangon; Editing by Simon Webb and Nick Macfie)

By Reuters

January 21, 2015

YANGON -- An international medical group has resumed work in an area of northwest Myanmar after a nine-month government ban on its presence in one of the poorest parts of the country over allegations of bias.

Médecins Sans Frontières-Holland (MSF) said Tuesday it was allowed to resume work on Dec. 17 in Rakhine State, where it has provided health and emergency assistance since 1992.

The government ordered the international medical group out of Rakhine in February 2014 after the group said it had treated people it believed were victims of sectarian violence.

The government denied an attack had taken place and accused MSF of being biased in favour of members of the minority Muslim Rohingya community.

Aid groups have drawn the ire of some Buddhists who accuse them of favouring the Rohingya. Humanitarian groups reject accusations of bias in favour of Muslims.

Almost 140,000 of Myanmar's 1.1 million Rohingya, most of whom of whom are stateless, remain displaced after deadly clashes with Buddhists in Rakhine in 2012.

The withdrawal of the agency, which had operated in the area for more than 20 years, left half a million Rohingya without access to reliable medical care.

"We hope to continue this dialogue with the authorities to ensure that those who need it most in Rakhine state are able to access the healthcare they need," Martine Flokstra, MSF Myanmar operational adviser in Amsterdam, said in a statement.

The organisation said that since restarting its clinics last month, it had done more than 3,480 consultations, mostly with people with diarrhoea, respiratory infections, and chronic conditions.

MSF is the largest provider of HIV/AIDS care in Myanmar, currently treating more than 35,000 HIV patients nationwide, as well as 3,000 people for tuberculosis.

(Reporting by Paul Mooney; Editing by Alison Williams)

By OHCHR 

January 21, 2015

GENEVA -- "The sexist, insulting language used against the UN's independent human rights expert on Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, by an influential monk during Ms. Lee's official visit to the country is utterly unacceptable. It is intolerable for UN Special Rapporteurs to be treated in this way and I call on religious and political leaders leaders in Myanmar to unequivocally condemn all forms of incitement to hatred including this abhorrent public personal attack against a UN-appointed expert. 

Ms. Lee, as required by her mandate, was addressing key human rights issues and the situation of minorities in the country, particularly the Rohingya Muslim community. Indeed she expressed admiration for the commitment of inter-religious leaders to work together in the town of Lashio in Northern Shan State towards maintaining peaceful relations between communities. Ms. Lee raised serious concerns about the situation in Rakhine State and the plight of internally displaced Muslims living in camps in very difficult conditions. She also warned that a package of four bills proposed, if passed, would institutionalise discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities. 

Instead of attacking Ms. Lee personally, I invite community, religious and political leaders in Myanmar to tackle the substance of her concerns." 

ENDS

For more information and media requests , please contact Rupert Colville (+41 22 917 9767 / rcolville@ohchr.org) or Ravina Shamdasani (+41 22 917 9169 / rshamdasani@ohchr.org ) 

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By AFP

January 20, 2015

Yangon -- Myanmar's most high profile radical nationalist monk on Tuesday defended calling a UN rights envoy a "whore" over her objections to controversial draft bills seen as discriminatory to women and minorities.

After joining hundreds of monks rallying against United Nations Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Yanghee Lee Friday, firebrand cleric Wirathu told supporters that the human rights expert was a "whore in our country" in a fiery speech shared widely on social media.

The monk, who has been accused of fanning religious tensions in Myanmar, told AFP that he stood by his comments.

"That was the harshest word (I could think of), so I used it. If I could find a harsher word, I would have used it. It is nothing compared to what she did to our country," said the monk, who has accused the UN of trying to "interfere" in the nation's affairs.

His speech generated a flurry of comments on social media, with many people expressing shock at his language.

"It's very shameful," said one Facebook user, while another blamed Myanmar's government for allowing the controversial monk to carry on his activities unchallenged.

Wirathu declined to respond in detail to the criticism, only saying that it was "their right" to comment.

In his boisterous address to supporters on Friday, the monk had slammed Lee over her criticism of a set of religious "protection" bills that have been championed by hardline clerics.

Lee said the draft legislation -- including curbs on interfaith marriage, religious conversion and birth rates -- would be a further sign that Myanmar was "backtracking" in its democratic reforms if passed by parliament.

Activists say the laws are particularly discriminatory against women and religious minorities in the Buddhist majority country.

High-level government support for the bills has raised fears over growing politicisation of religion in the diverse nation as it heads towards crunch elections later this year that are seen as a key test of its emergence from outright military rule.

Religious violence has erupted sporadically across the country since 2012, when unrest between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists ignited in Rakhine state.

Lee also faced protests in Rakhine during her Myanmar visit, over perceived UN bias in favour of the Rohingya.

Before leaving Myanmar Friday, Lee said that protesters were entitled to air their views. United Nations spokesman Aye Win said he did not having anything to add when contacted by AFP Tuesday.

"These people have availed themselves of their freedom of expression," he told AFP.

Myanmar president's office spokesman Zaw Htay said that no official complaint about Wirathu's remarks had been received.

By Bangkok Post Editorial

January 20, 2015

Credit a top US diplomat for raising the issue of fast-growing religious intolerance in our region. Tom Malinowski, an official of the human rights office of the US State Department, made his comments last week in Myanmar. It was the perfect spot. It also drew the expected reaction: nothing. His message that hate and calls for violence were surfacing among some mainstream Buddhists in Myanmar and in Sri Lanka was overdue and bears strong repetition and opposition. 

It is a sad fact that monks in these two countries of the Theravada Buddhist tradition have become deeply involved in violent events. In Thailand, we know that so-called "Buddhist nationalism" lies behind some, if not most of the recent religious riots in Myanmar. A campaign of hatred, unbelievable and unacceptable to true Buddhists, began first against the Muslim people of western Rakhine state, the Rohingya. Similar campaigns and violent attacks have been seen against the Myanmar mainstream Muslims, and against the Muslim community of Sri Lanka.

Last week, the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, visited the country. Her brief covers all types of human and civil rights in the country. Ms Lee, a South Korean, has been generally positive in her reports about the new, politically "reformed" Myanmar. But monks in maroon robes did their best to make her visit to the golden Shwedagon pagoda as unpleasant as possible. They shouted at her, goaded the UN official, and proved their protest was planned and well-financed by displaying professional signs.

The real target for the wrath of the monks was the Rohingya minority. Monks have declared support for the Buddhist-organised 969 group. They have wrapped themselves, piously, in the sanctity of their own religion. The "969" name refers to the nine special qualities of the Lord Buddha, six of his teachings and nine qualities of the monkhood. From that viewpoint, they have assailed the Rohingya specifically, Muslims in general, and have directly caused violence by their hate speech.

In Sri Lanka, the parallel organisation is Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), which translates from Sinhalese as Buddhist Power Force. A recent investigation published by the Financial Times says the BBS was formed in 2012 by "hardline monks", meaning anti-Muslim. As in Myanmar, speeches by BBS leaders have resulted in violence against Muslims and their communities.

A major cause for concern is that the leaders of the BBS and the 969 have come together. The FT report said the Myanmar hate-group monk Ashin Wirathu travelled to Sri Lanka four months ago. There he signed a pact purporting to promise "protection for global Buddhism". BBS co-founder Galagoda Gnanasara has recently been in Myanmar, fomenting the same type of hatred.

If the monks are misguided, acting in an un-Buddhist manner — which they are — the same, somewhat feeble excuse cannot apply to the governments. They have failed to take decisive action against those who directly caused murders and destruction.

In this, they can be accused of complicity in the intimidation and killing of minority people, those who are most defenceless in any country.

One hopes to hear more from Mr Malinowski, Ms Lee and other supporters of national and international civil and human rights. Buddhist leaders and right-thinking people throughout the region should already be condemning such harmful hate speech and threats.

Thailand, as a world leader in Buddhism and its Theravada teachings, could do more to combat such unacceptable actions. National and Buddhist leaders alike should remember that the actions of a few such hateful Buddhist "leaders" can hurt the image of the most peaceful religion.

By AFP

January 20, 2015

YANGON -- A senior US diplomat on January 20 criticised Myanmar's policies which impose severe restrictions on the Muslim Rohingya community in Rakhine, saying they "oppress" people in the strife-torn state. 

Violence between Buddhists and the Muslim minority community tore through the western state in 2012, leaving over 200 people dead and sparkling outbreaks of religious violence across the country that have overshadowed its democratic transition. 

Assistant Secretary of State Ms Anne Richard, a senior envoy on refugees, said after a visit to Rakhine that it had a "very repressive" atmosphere, with both communities suffering from the fallout of the violence three years ago. 

She highlighted a rare example of communities trading with each other at one market in the state, which otherwise remained almost completely segregated along religious lines. 

"That's really what we would like to see happen, but it is structurally impossible for that to happen now, given the policies that are being carried out there that really oppress people," she told reporters. 

Some 140,000 people, mainly Muslims, are trapped in miserable displacement camps around the state capital Sittwe after losing their homes in the 2012 unrest. 

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya living in isolated northern Rakhine are also subject to a web of restrictions governing where they can travel, what work they can do and how they can educate their children. 

The Rohingya are seen by the Myanmar government and many local people as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh, and the vast majority are denied citizenship.

Ms Richard said both Buddhist and Muslim communities were being "pulled down" by the situation, adding it was "lose-lose" for everyone in the impoverished state.

Hostility and mutual fear have permeated every level of society, she said, but added that it was up to the national government in the capital Nay Pyi Taw to solve the crisis.

"In order to fix this it is not going to be fixed locally, it has to be fixed with Nay Pyi Taw involvement," she said.

The United Nations has recently passed a resolution urging Myanmar to grant the stateless Rohingya access to citizenship; stoking controversy in the Buddhist-majority country.

On January 16, the UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, Ms Yanghee Lee, said acute tensions between Muslims and Buddhists in Rakhine could have "far-reaching implications".

Ms Lee was speaking at the end of a visit to the country dogged by monk-led protests accusing her of pro-Rohingya bias.

By Associated Press

January 20, 2015

YANGON, Myanmar — Rights groups are welcoming the release of a prominent Rohingya Muslim doctor who was arrested while trying to calm rioters during sectarian violence in western Myanmar.

But they say scores of political prisoners remain behind bars.

The case against Tun Aung, sentenced to 17 years in prison following what was considered an unfair trial, garnered widespread international attention.

He was accused of inciting riots between Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists in 2012, though activists and witnesses say he as a community leader was asked by authorities to try to intervene.

Myanmar has released more than 1,000 political prisoners since former military rulers handed over power in 2011.

But Equality Myanmar Executive Director Aung Myo Min says that jails continue to be filled with peaceful protesters, journalists and other 'dissenters.'

By Katey Hearth

Mission Network News

January 19, 2015

Mixed signals surround Burma at the start of 2015.

First of all, the top U.S. human rights official, Tom Malinowski, just wrapped up a six-day visit that included talks with Burma’s government.

“His visit could signal a more decisive change in the United States’ posture toward doing business with Burma, and that in turn could mean increased access, and perhaps increased movement, toward freedom,” notes Partners Relief and Development founder and CEO Steve Gumaer.

Malinowksi’s tour coincided with a ten-day visit by the UN Special Rapportuer for Myanmar (also known as Burma), Yanghee Lee. According to some experts, Lee’s visit holds great importance for the country’s ethnic people as she’s the only one who can “speak out, condemn, and prevent” grave human rights abuses.

Whatever positive potential the officials’ visits held for Burma dimmed quickly following comments issued by Malinowski.

International concern

“We expressed a concern that the use of religion…to divide people– whether it is done for political or any other purposes–is incredibly dangerous, particularly in an election year,” Malinowski said, as reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Buddhist nationalism is reportedly rising rapidly, presenting a new threat to democratic progress and religious minorities in Burma. In addition, a new law that could limit evangelism is in the works.

The Associated Press reports that new legislation–which forbids interfaith marriage and limits religious conversions–has been introduced to the parliament and is soon expected to pass into law.

In addition, nothing about the government’s current human rights violations is changing or being addressed.

“The consistent denial of fundamental justice to the people of Burma continues to this day,” shares Gumaer.

“The regime is really trying to erase from the planet an ethnic group called the Rohingya people.”

Regardless, Partners has big plans for 2015.

The silver lining

The work of Partners Relief and Development is poised for Gospel growth in 2015, Gumaer reports. With God’s blessing and the support of a dynamic national and international network, Partners helped 250,000 marginalized people last year in the areas of relief, sustainable community development, and child trafficking prevention.

“2014 was a tremendous year for us, and we expect to build on that to reach an increasing number of people in 2015,” he says.

“[The] Rohingya people [were] a massive part of our efforts in 2014 and will continue to be in 2015.”

Right now, Gumaer is in the U.S. raising support for Partners’ work and awareness of the plight Burma’s ethnic groups face daily.

The Rohingya people’s dilemma is perhaps the most dire; Gumaer describes some of the abuses issued by Burma’s government:

• Burning down entire villages and cities to erase any evidence that the Rohingya had been there
• Denying right of marriage/travel/childbirth to the Rohingya
• Forcing 150,000 Rohingya people to live in barbed-wire enclosures

“That is, for lack of a better word, genocide,” Gumaer states. “That is not ethnic cleansing: that is genocide.”

This year, Partners wants to increase their ministry efforts and reach more of Burma’s ethnic minorities.

“These are people, made in the image of God, who are suffering–not just because they’re poor. They’re suffering because of the country that they live in,” says Gumaer. “In two of the ethnic states, these are Christian people.

“All of them require, according to the words of Christ, our compassion. And,all of them compel us to engage, to get involved, and to demonstrate the lordship and love of Christ–not just with our words, but with our actions.”

Buddhist monk Wirathu, pictured at Tamwe on Friday, 16 January 2015. (PHOTO: DVB)

By Democratic Voice of Burma
January 19, 2015

Controversial nationalist monk Wirathu lambasted the UN’s special rapporteur for human rights in Burma, Yanghee Lee, in a speech on Friday at the Kyeikkasan Grounds in Rangoon’s Tamwe Township. He called her a “whore” for her alleged bias towards the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority.

“We have already made public our Race Protection Law, but without even studying it, this bitch [Burmese: kaungma] keeps on complaining about how it is against human rights!” he shouted to hundreds of supporters on Friday afternoon.

“Can this whore really be from a respectable family background?” he thundered, to which the audience responded, “No!”

“Don’t assume you are a respectable person, just because you have a position in the UN,” he continued. “In our country, you are just a whore.

“If you are so willing, you may offer your arse to the kalar [racist term meaning ‘blacks’]. But you will never sell off our Arakan State!”

The UN had not responded to the insult at the time of press.

On Friday morning, a group of some 500 monks and lay supporters, led by hardliners Wirathu and Parmaukkha, marched from Kyay Thon Pagoda, near Shwedagon Pagoda, to Tamwe Township east of the city centre, holding placards reading “UN decisions cause problems in Burma – we don’t want that!”

Among the marchers were members of the Arakan National Network, which has condemned the UN’s call for Burma to grant citizenship to members of the Rohingya community who were born in the country.

Wirathu’s speech coincided with Yanghee Lee’s press conference in Rangoon on Friday when she concluded a 10-day trip to Burma, her second official visit to the country.

“Fundamental rights are not hierarchical – they aren’t conditional upon one another. They’re inalienable,” said Lee on Friday. “You can be assured that in all my meetings with government interlocutors, I use the word ‘Rohingya’. The rights of Rohingya people must be protected, promoted and upheld.”

In December, the UN General Assembly approved a non-binding resolution, drafted by the European Union, that called on Naypyidaw to extend citizenship rights to the Rohingya and remove the mobility restrictions placed on them. The resolution also urged an investigation into rights abuses in Arakan State, equal access to essential services, and reconciliation between Buddhist and Muslim communities in the region.

The Straits Times 

January 18, 2014

In an exclusive interview at the presidential palace in Naypyitaw, he told The Sunday Times: "Our people have shown great religious tolerance; we co-exist side by side. In Yangon, around the vicinity of Sule Pagoda, you can see churches, temples and mosques.

"But nowadays, we have seen some quarters domestically and internationally spreading extremism based on religion and ethnicity. They have used the media in spreading extremism. It is quite dangerous. We have established interfaith groups to spread the message of religious tolerance."

He was replying to a question on the rise of right-wing Buddhist nationalism, which has seen some firebrand monks spreading anti-Islamic messages, and outbreaks of violence between Buddhists and Muslims threatening to undermine the country's still shaky transition to democracy from decades of oppressive military rule.

But he avoided mentioning any particular community or religion.

There are tension and a humanitarian crisis in Myanmar's Rakhine state, where well over 100,000 minority Muslims were driven from their homes by Rakhine mobs in 2012 and still live in squalid camps. These Muslims identify themselves as Rohingya but are widely seen as illegal "Bengali" immigrants by local Buddhist Rakhines and not officially recognised as citizens.

The President said it would take some time for the two communities to live side by side again. "We need to change the mindset of the two communities so it is in their best interest to live side by side and in harmony," he said.

The United Nations' special rapporteur on Myanmar, Ms Yanghee Lee, wound up a 10-day visit to the country last week saying that while there had been "some advancements" in Rakhine state since her last visit in July last year, "the situation remains at crisis stage".

"Efforts are being made to address certain issues, but much more is needed," she said.

She called on the government to "urgently… protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all inhabitants of Rakhine state regardless of legal status, to allow full and immediate access for humanitarian agencies across the state and to allow the safe return of all IDPs (internally displaced persons) to their communities of origin, including to their land".

In Naypyitaw, the President told The Sunday Times: "To prevent further communal violence, we have to beef up rule of law and security. Our government has done so, and because of this beefing up, we can say today we have been able to restore peace and stability in Rakhine state."

The government was also making efforts to improve socio-economic conditions in the state, he said. Basic infrastructure was being improved, electricity provided, and two major projects - the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project with India, and a Special Economic Zone in Kyaukpyu - would create more jobs in the impoverished state.

The government would also try to move the internally displaced persons in camps this year, and build them "permanent houses in permanent resettlements".

"We will work with the international community in constructing these permanent houses and we will then let the villagers choose of their own volition the places where they want to resettle," he said. 

RB News 

January 18, 2015 

Yangon – United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, Ms. Yanghee Lee recently visited Myanmar for 10 days and left on January 16, 2015. 

An extremist monk, U Wirathu, who is well known to the world as Burmese Bin-Laden, organized a protest against Ms. Yanghee Lee’s fact-finding mission on January 16th in the afternoon. The protest took place at Kyae Thun Pagoda, on the east side of Shwedagon Pagoda, Bahan Township in Yangon. In the protest there were a few anti-Muslim monks led by U Pamaukkha and anti-Muslim activists led by Nay Myo Wai. There was also a Burmese pro-democracy activist from the United Kingdom, Sindi Thin Mar Oo, who joined as guest speaker, according to a post on Wirathu’s official Facebook. 

In his Facebook post, he worte “The public remarked that my [Wirathu] speeches were most severe, roughest and toughest amongst all of the speeches [given on that day].

Those who create [activate] Rohingyas are our enemy.
Those who support Rohingyas are our enemy.
Those who propose Rohingyas are our enemy.
Those who discuss and support Rohingyas are our enemy.” 

He added very rudely that “Mrs. Yanghee Lee, you may be a big shot in UN but for our country, [we regarded that] your standard is just of a whore. If you like, you could give your ass to Kalars but we could not give our country to Kalars. Ban Ki-moon, you are [just] an Asian like us; don’t be arrogant on us as we are both Asians.”