By Soe Myint

Mizzima

February 19, 2015

Last week two seemingly unrelated events attracted the attention of this writer. The first was the announcement in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar that the temporary ID documents known as white cards will expire at the end of March and those who hold them will lose their voting rights.

As a result about 1.5 million residents, most of whom are Muslims, will become illegal overnight. They will become subject to a national verification process that has been widely criticised by the international community because it requires Rohingya Muslims to identify themselves as Bengalis. If the verification process is to be based on a proposal in the draft Rakhine Action Plan released last year that was used in a pilot program at Myebon in Rakhine State, only “Bengali” will be acceptable to the government.

In a further sign that the government means business, Rakhine State Chief Minister U Maung Maung Ohn warned non-government organisations not to become involved in the white cards issue.

His statement and the unrestrained and unsanctioned verbal attack on UN human rights envoy Yanghee Lee by the Venerable U Wirathu reveal a broader electoral strategy.

Five years ago, the Rohingya were courted by the Union Solidarity and Development Party and issued with white cards ahead of the 2010 general election. This time around the government seems bent on pleasing the nationalist movement. The Rohingya are deeply unpopular with the Bamar electorate and are being excised from the political theatre that will unfold later this year.

The second event that struck this writer was the announcement that Luxembourg academic Dr Jacques Leider, who has specialised in research on ancient Rakhine kingdoms, has been hired as an advisor by the UN resident coordinator, Ms Renata Lok-Dessallien. There’s a widely held perception that Dr Leider is biased against those who identify as Rohingya. In interviews, in The Irrawaddy for example, and in his writings he claims the Rohingya ethnicity does not exist as such, a statement that made him the darling of Rakhine nationalists overnight.

A group of nationalist monks, A Myo Thar Yay, Doe A Yay (the Nationalist Cause is our Cause), last week welcomed Dr Leider’s appointment on Facebook and asked citizens to send a message to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to stop using the R-word.

Ms Lok-Dessallien has arranged for Dr Leider to brief diplomats on the historical context of the conflict in Rakhine, including at the US embassy earlier this month. Why Dr Leider, who is not a specialist in human rights, development or humanitarian issues, should address diplomats on a current day conflict in which these three topics are key is unclear.

The UN resident coordinator may hire whoever she wants. But Dr Leider’s perceived bias against the Rohingya makes this an unwise appointment. It strengthens the image of the UN in Myanmar as being pro-government, a notion that took hold when it became the only international organisation in the country that failed to criticise the Rakhine State Action Plan. The UN in Myanmar also declined to sign a European Union statement that was critical of the four so-called protection of religion draft laws that involve breaches of international treaties.

Furthermore, the UN’s stand will alienate the Rohingya community. Rohingya politicians have already threatened to boycott the UN over Dr Leider’s appointment.

And what for? In a sense the historical roots of the term “Rohingya” are irrelevant and the discussion moot, because any ethnic group has the basic right to self identify. It is one of the human rights the UN is supposed to uphold. Trying to influence the diplomatic community to spurn the Rohingya word and accept the Bengali label ahead of a massive and frankly, dubious, national verification process is the complete antitheses of what the UN stands for.

If we want a genuinely united Myanmar, we must respect the fundamental rights of all people in the country. We have to stand up for marginalised and minority communities. Politics is one thing, but we need to build Myanmar based on principles that will unite us all. The same applies to the international community. No double standards can be practised on principles and guidelines that are cemented in various international charters, convenants and treaties.

(Soe Myint is the Editor-in-Chief of Mizzima Media)

By Shwe Aung

Democratic Voice of Burma

February 19, 2015

By Hein Ko Soe

Mizzima

February 19, 2015 

The Democracy and Human Rights Party has expelled more than 1,000 members who are temporary identification card holders because the right of these “white card” holders to be political party members has been removed, the party chairman U Kyaw Min told Mizzima on February 17. 

“We have had to expel more than 1,000 members due to the new law. In the 2010 general elections and in the 2012 by-elections, many white card holders could vote. Now we have to expel them,” he said. 

In September 2014, the Upper House approved a bill amending the Political Parties Registration Law, so that white card holders can no longer be a member of a political party. 

There are estimated to be about 1.5 million white card holders in Myanmar, half of whom are Rohingya or Bengali, as the government refers to them, as well as members of ethnic groups, including Chinese and Indians. 

U Kyaw Min said his party does not have members who live in Rakhine State, where most of the Rohingya live. 

“Most of our party members are Muslims living in Yangon. Due to security reasons, we did not go to Rakhine State to canvass for our party,” he said.

U Kyaw Min said that all of the members who have been expelled from his party are living in Yangon. 

The Union Election Commission has announced that political parties need to scrutinize their party members and expel white card holders according to the new law, and then the parties will have to submit their new list of party members to the UEC by March 9. 

National Democratic Force secretary U Nay Min Kyaw told Mizzima that his party does not have white card holders, so it does not need to expel members. 

Rakhine National Party’s central executive committee member U Aye Tha Aung said: “Our party comprises of only citizens who have national ID cards. Our party does not have temporary ID card [white card] holders. So we don’t need to change [the formation of our party], and we don’t need to submit a new list of party members to the election commission.” 

So far a total of 71 political parties have officially registered in Myanmar in the lead up to the 2015 general elections planned for near the end of the year.

Mohamed Farooq

RB Article

February 19, 2015

Rohingya is a Muslim ethnic minority living mainly in Arakan state, Burma. Their language is Rohingya. They ruled Arakan as a kingdom that lasted for 350 years by fifteen different Rohingya Kings. They have been living in Arakan state, Burma since 8th Century CE.

In 1799, Francis Buchanan published a book of historical documents of Rohingya. The Arakan kingdom was gone to the British territory in 1825. They have been facing systematic discrimination and inhumane harassments for many years by Burmese regime. 

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon used the term “Rohingya” during his visit to Nay Pyi Taw, which prompted a strongly worded rebuke from Arakan State Chief Minister U Maung Maung Ohn. In every township of Arakan State, Rakhine racists demonstrated against his usage of the term Rohingya. Moreover, a Burmese representative to the UN objected to the use of “Rohingya” during discussions over the annual resolution on its human rights situation.

The UN, USA, EU, OIC, Right Groups and other Western countries have accused for decades that Burma has been breaching the human rights of the Rohingya community in Arakan State. The Burmese government and local authority have not done enough to resolve these allegations. After the 2012 violence in Arakan State, more than 140,000 Rohingya were displaced and have been staying in isolated refugee camps. They have not been allowed to return to their homes.

Every country has its own rules and laws and each individual has their own rights. The UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that a person is entitled to reveal or announce or express their own ethnicity. Therefore, Rohingya in Arakan State has the right to say their own name. It is their right and if it is forbidden it could be a transgression of human rights. President Thein Sein said that the Rohingya are not consisted in list of 135 official ethnic groups and are not an ethnic group of Burma. He did not say that there is no Rohingya in Arakan state, Burma. Rohingya has many strong evidences and documentaries having race name ' Rohingya' issued by Burmese government earlier than this conspiracy of masking the whole vulnerable Rohingya community.

Rakhine extremists endanger to boycott if enumerators allowed Rohingya to list themselves as Rohingya.

But, the government had already made agreements with the international community on how to collect census data. As per agreement was that a person had the right to freely state whatever ethnicity they like and this would be noted by the enumerator.

The authorities had to decide whether to break their agreement with the international community or give in to Rakhine concerns and avert a boycott. Ultimately, they regime prefer to the demand of Rakhine people that made 1.5 million Rohingya living in Arakan State were not included in the census. Collecting no Rohingya into Census is also one of the conspiracies of Burmese regime.

The Burmese government is entitled not to recognise those people as Rohingya for its official processes.

But that doesn’t mean it should deny citizenship and the rights that come with it, to those who are eligible. Especially, it needs to take steps to end the use of temporary Identity cards, known as white cards, which it began issuing to the Rohingya community in 1993. Every single Rohingya belongs to Arakan, Burma. So, they are citizen of Arakan, Burma. The fabricated phenomenon to driving out an ethnic community is not constantly lasted in the history of the world.

The government should make sure that the human rights of all Rohingya people in Arakan State are respected. This means scrutinising whether they are eligible for citizenship and if so granting it, and then allowing them the right to live, marry, travel and do business like a normal citizen. The upper-level government officials and some Rakhine racists have disputed the allegations from the international community, including the UN, about the living conditions of the Rohingya community. The problem will most definitely not be resolved by saying things like, “Don’t use the term ‘Rohingya’,” “You are interfering in our country’s internal affairs,” and “You are breaching our country’s sovereignty.”

It must be recognised that the Rohingya in Arakan State have no power, no rights and no big businesses. They are poor and are not allowed to travel. The Burmese government does not allowed Rohigya students to study and acquire education; Medical, Engineering, Business Administration, Laws, and also required basic education. 

On the second week of February 2015, a bill was enacted with a clause that would give 'white card' holders Rohingya the right to vote in a proposed referendum on the country's constitution.

After a couple of days, the office of President Thein Sein issued a new statement saying that the white cards would expire at the end of March and cancelled the voting right of Rohingya.

In December 2014, the UN passed a resolution urging Burma to give full citizenship to the Rohingya, many of whom are subject to extreme discrimination.

The anti-Muslim monk Wirathu lambasted the UN’s special rapporteur for human rights in Burma, Yang-hee Lee, in a speech in January 2015 in Rangoon. He called her a “whore” for her word towards Rohingya right. It is clear that Burmese regime uses some racist monks and Rakhine extremists to insult and boycott UN delegations and INGOs who rise voices against Human Right Violation in Burma.

The Burmese regime is a military regime but changed her name to 'Republic of the Union of Myanmar' as a falsified-reforming of democracy nation to withdraw all the business sanctions against her from various developed countries.

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

By Mang Suan Kim 

Religion News Service

February 18, 2015

Yangon, Myanmar -- Despite democratic reforms and international pressure that have pushed Myanmar to improve its human rights record in recent years, religious freedom remains heavily constrained across the country. 

The persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority in this majority Buddhist country has attracted much international media and foreign policy attention. But in Chin State, along Myanmar's northwest border, a predominantly Christian population faces its own challenges and restrictions. 

"There is no improvement with regard to religious freedom in Chin State," said Pu Zoe Ram, chairman of the Chin National Democratic Party. "Authorities destroyed crosses during the military regime and continue to do so." 

Teak and steel crosses atop clocktowers, hillsides and Chin State's nearly 2,000 churches have long identified the local majority religion. Area Christians consider their destruction, at the behest of government agencies, a direct attack on their faith community. 

The Chin Human Rights Organization documented 13 incidents of large crosses being destroyed by order of the Ministry of Religious Affairs during the country's half-century military regime, which formally ended in 2011. Since then and under nominally democratic rule, at least four more large crosses have been destroyed.

"The previous regime repressed the Christian religion. The army pulled down crosses, which are sacred. The new government is doing the same and is refusing permission to build new churches," said Daw Zar Tlem, a member of Myanmar's House of Representatives, who represents Thang Tlang township in Chin State.

In July 2011, shortly after Myanmar's military junta was officially dissolved, two crosses were burned in the townships of Kyin Dawe and Kan Pat Lat. Local Christians in Hakha and Falam were ordered to replace crosses with Buddhist shrines, and a cross in Tiddim Township was removed to make way for a new road, officials from Myanmar's ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party told villagers.

"Religious symbols should be built for people in that area. They should not be misused for political purposes," said Saya Mya, who is Buddhist and secretary of the Chin Progressive Party.

According to data from Myanmar's Ministry of Religious Affairs, there are 108 Buddha images and shrines in Chin State, compared with 1,958 churches -- a close reflection of the state's Christian majority.

The Rev. Thang, a pastor at an Assemblies of God Church in Tiddim Township, said the rate of cross destruction has slowed since 2011 and some are now being replaced. At Kennedy Mountain in Tee Tain township, steel crosses were erected in 2012 and 2013 to replace a teak cross destroyed in 1985.

Pu Zozam, a member of parliament from Chin State, said that although army and local authorities have tried to block the replacement crosses, "it is our belief and our responsibility" to continue to replace them, with or without government permission.

"There are 13 crosses that still need to be replaced. We put up the crosses on our land originally, so we do not think it necessary to ask permission to replace them," he said.

Cross destruction isn't the only problem plaguing Chin State's Christians.

Salai Ling, program director of Chin Human Rights Organization, said that youth development schools in border ethnic regions have been set up to convert Christians to Buddhism.

There are 29 border development schools around the country, established under President U Thein Sein's current 30-year plan. One-third of these schools are in Chin State.

"Thirty years is a generation. This project is targeting us. The government's plan is to intentionally change our beliefs and mindsets," Salai Ling said.

Some say the discrimination goes both ways. Although Buddhists do not face official discrimination in Chin State, Saya Mya, a Chin Buddhist teacher, said they feel it indirectly.

"When Christians hold youth gatherings or public forums, they start or close the ceremonies with prayers, which makes non-Christians uncomfortable," he said.

[This story is part of a series on religious freedom and conflict in Myanmar, brought to you with support from Religion Newswriters and the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office.]

By Jake Flanagin

Quartz

February 18, 2015

They call her “the Iron Orchid.”

It’s a sobriquet inspired by the dichotomy of her ironclad convictions and quiet grace. In many ways, Aung San Suu Kyi—recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize in 1991—is the consummate freedom fighter. As the uncontested and near-universally beloved leader of the Burmese democratic opposition, she endured 15 years of house arrest for her criticism of Myanmar’s military junta. This, despite massive popularity abroad and the prospectively attractive comforts of political asylum in the West.

But these days, the Iron Orchid seems to have wilted. Heretofore unafraid of speaking out against the perennial human-rights violations perpetrated against her people by the junta, Ms. Suu Kyi has remained lamentably silent on the plight of Myanmar’s viciously oppressed Muslim minority.

The Rohingya, who are concentrated in the western Arakan (or Rakhine) state, bordering Bangladesh, differ from the ethnic Burmese in a number of ways. The Burmese are, of course, a largely Buddhist people; their language of Sino-Tibetan origin, a family which includes Mandarin. The Rohingya are, as mentioned, primarily Muslim, and they speak a dialect of Bengali-Assamese — part of a family that includes Hindi and Urdu.

The stark cultural, religious, and genetic differences between these two groups have precipitated fraught inter-ethnic relations; an ongoing conflict in which Myanmar’s 1.3 million Rohingya have indisputably come off the worse. Tensions came to a head in 2012 when Arakan was briefly engulfed in a bout of sectarian violence. According to the office of the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, these clashes, often instigated by ultranationalist Buddhist monks, left more than 200 dead and 140,000 (mostly Rohingya) homeless.

Those Rohingya driven from their homes have been deposited in prison-like internal-displacement camps, where food is scarce, fresh water is even scarcer, disease runs rampant, and medical care is virtually inaccessible. Foreign aid workers, who, as it is, already walk a tenuous line in Myanmar, are frequently met with open hostility from ethnic Burmese when they intervene on behalf of the reviled Rohingya — because, despite having resided in western Burma since as far back as the 14th century, the Rohingya are generally perceived as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and eastern India; cultural invaders and public-service leeches.

Yet, for a brief moment, (relatively) better living appeared to be obtainable for some. Roughly 850,000 Rohingya hold what are known as temporary-registration cards, or “white cards.” A resolution passed by the Myanmarese parliament on February 2 would have allowed white-card holders to vote in the proposed constitutional referendum scheduled for later this year. This incensed ethnic Burmese MPs in Arakan who, like many of their compatriots, do not recognize the Rohingya as a legitimate nationality of the Myanmarese state, and are staunchly opposed to the idea of non-citizens participating in possible elections. (The only way for the Rohingya to become naturalized Myanmarese citizens is by providing extensive documentation of transgenerational residency — paperwork that simply does not exist for most — and to renounce the very term, “Rohingya,” submitting to alternate ethnic classification by the government in Naypyidaw.)

The decision incited demonstrations across Arakan state. “The government must officially announce that white card holders will not be allowed to vote in the referendum,” one protester demanded, according to the Democratic Voice of Burma, “this is an utmost right, reserved only for citizens.” According to reporter Pho Thiha, the president’s office has “since announced that the cards will expire at the end of March and must be handed over to authorities, effectively undermining any granting of voting rights.”

“If the government wants to take my white card, what can I do?” said a 23-year-old mother living in the Thae Chaung resettlement camp in Arakan. “I’ll just have to give it to them,” she told Reuters.

Reuters also spoke with Richard Horsey, a political analyst and expert on Myanmar based in Yangon. “It is unlikely that white card holders in displacement camps will give these up voluntarily,” he warned. “Any attempts to enforce the order to surrender the cards could spark violence.”

And yet, Ms. Suu Kyi is reticent. Perhaps because some of her fiercest supporters, Buddhist clerics known as “the Saffron Monks,” are among the most unapologetic champions of anti-Rohingya apartheid, and among its most savage enforcers. A Human Rights Watch report from 2013 found the local Buddhist monkhood to be a primary inciting force of an attack on Yan Thei village and eight other townships in Arakan. Thousands of ethnic Burmese men descended on the primarily Muslim settlement, armed with machetes, homemade firearms, and Molotov cocktails, massacring 70 Rohingya and driving the rest from their homes. Such a politically willful and readily murderous mob would likely turn on any politician, regardless of status, who betrays even the slightest of sympathies for the Rohingya.

But the reality of the situation can likely be distilled to simple political cynicism.

“It seems as though she aspires to become president of Myanmar,” Nicholas Kristof wrote in his column for The New York Times last June. “Speaking up for a reviled minority could be fatal to her prospects. The moral giant has become a calculating politician.” And it’s possible this does not all together spell doom for the Rohingya. More than anything else, the Iron Orchid is known for her patience — a stubborn 15 years under house arrest is proves as much. Is she biding her time, awaiting her chance at real executive leadership before coming to the rescue of Myanmar’s most vulnerable community?

If so, another nickname might be in order. “The Iron Creeping Charlie,” perhaps. In any event, the Rohingya cannot wait for the possibility of imminent constitutional reform — which is by no means guaranteed, even as Ms. Suu Kyi is permitted to openly campaign for it. And the sad fact is, many aren’t. As Kristof reports, “in the absence of schools, Wahhabi madrassas are popping up” in Rohingya camps, aimed at instilling fundamentalist values, and which may ultimately devolve into breeding grounds for an Islamist insurgency.

In the end, the fate of the Rohingya is inextricably tied up with the fate of greater Myanmar. And as an activist who is definitively concerned with the future of Myanmar, Ms. Suu Kyi appears to be willing to put that future at risk by choosing silence over speaking out.

By Usaid Siddiqui

Al Jazeera America

February 18, 2015

On Feb. 11, Myanmar’s President Thein Sein rescinded a voting rights offer to the country’s Rohingya community amid intense pressure from far-right Buddhist groups. Last week hundreds of Buddhists took to the streets to denounce the continuation of a 2010 law that extended the right to vote to the country’s more than 1 million ethnic Rohingya. Myanmar does not regard the minority group as citizens. 

The violence directed toward the Muslim Rohingya community has been characterized in the media as Buddhism’s terrorism problem. However, the faith-based portrayal of the Rohingya crisis devalues the political and social nuances necessary to understanding the conflict. 

The ‘Burmese bin Laden’ 

The Rohingya are one of the most persecuted groups in the world. Stripped of citizenship in the 1980s, the Rohingya have been a subject of frequent racist propaganda and blistering violence. For years numerous human rights organizations have documented the persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state. The community continues to live under constant threats, with few legal rights. 

The campaign against the Rohingya and Muslims in Myanmar is spearheaded by controversial monk Ashin Wirathu. Once referred to as the “Burmese bin Laden,” he is the leader of an ultranationalist group called 969, which opposes the growth of Islam in Myanmar. He was jailed in 2003 for inciting hatred and stirring sectarian clashes and released in 2010. 

Wirathu has warned against an impending Muslim takeover of Myanmar. In 2012 the rape of a Buddhist woman in northern Rakhine led to violent attacks that left dozens of civilians dead and more than 125,000 Rohingya and other Muslims displaced. Human Rights Watch described the humanitarian crisis as “ethnic cleansing.” 

Myanmar’s government and local authorities have long been complicit in the violence against the Rohingya and other minority groups. “Burmese officials, community leaders and Buddhist monks organized and encouraged ethnic Arakanese backed by state security forces to conduct coordinated attacks on Muslim neighborhoods and villages in October 2012 to terrorize and forcibly relocate the population,” HRW said in a detailed report in 2013. “Included in the death toll were 28 children who were hacked to death, including 13 under age 5. ” 

Wirathu justified the violence saying the Rohingya were planning to establish an Islamic state in Rakhine. He has since urged non-Muslims to boycott Muslim shops and avoid doing business with Muslims. “Your purchases spent in their shops will benefit the enemy,” Wirathu said in a 2013 YouTube video. “So do business with only shops with 969 signs.”

The Telegram

February 17, 2015

By Yen Snaing

The Irrawaddy

February 17, 2015

RANGOON — Burma’s Constitutional Tribunal informed Parliament on Monday that the articles of the recently passed Referendum Law that granted white card holders voting rights are in violation of the Constitution.

Union Parliament Speaker Shwe Mann read out the Tribunal’s verdict stating that “white card holders are ineligible to vote in a referendum on amendment[s] of [the] State Constitution,” as it violated the charter’s Article 4, Article 38(a) and Article 391, state media reported on Tuesday.

According to Article 391, only those with citizenship can be granted voting rights, the verdict stated.

The verdict of the Tribunal had become a moot point after President Thein Sein last week decided to backtrack on the implications of the Referendum Law he had sent to Parliament by issuing a directive that let all temporary identification cards expire per March 31.

The decision automatically revoked the voting rights of the approximately 750,000 card holders, which for the most part comprise members of the stateless Rohingya Muslims in western Burma’s Arakan State. An unknown number of ethnic Chinese, Kokang and Wa minorities are also white card holders.

Before the president’s directive was issued, opposition lawmakers of Arakanese and other ethnic parties, and the National League for Democracy asked the Tribunal to review the Referendum Law as they oppose enfranchising the holders of the cards, who are not granted citizenship rights under Burmese law.

Although the verdict had lost much of its importance after the directive was issued, opposition lawmakers said they were pleased with the Tribunal’s decision, which meant that the Referendum Law will have to be amended and again be put to a parliamentary vote.

Khin Maung Swe, a lawmaker of National Democratic Force Party, said it would have been “non-sense if those who granted are citizens’ [voting] rights are holding white cards—whether they are Muslims or Buddhists.”

The 1982 Citizenship Law disqualified the Rohingya from any citizenship claims they might have had—despite the fact that many have lived in Arakan State for generations—after which the government required them to take white cards instead.

Despite their unclear status, the former military government granted the group voting rights and let members from Muslim-majority constituencies in Arakan State represent the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party in Parliament.

The government has said that its recent decision to let white cards expire will require the Rohingya population to undergo citizenship verification by local authorities. The process is obscured by a dearth of information, however, and has only been piloted for a brief period before running into opposition of the Arakanese community, which considers most of the Muslims in northern Arakan illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Pe Than, a Lower House lawmaker with the Arakan National Party, said parliamentary discussions should now focus on how the citizenship verification process should take place. “It’s important to examine accurately and fast according to the 1982 Citizenship Law—the government needs to do it with transparency,” he said.

The decision by Parliament is likely to anger the Muslim group, whose plight has rapidly worsened in recent years.

Shwe Maung, a USDP lawmaker representing a Muslim-majority Buthidaung Township in Arakan State, expressed concern over the fact that the stateless Muslims would be without any legal documentation after the white cards expire.

He said the verification process should be conducted in a fair manner before the holders are required to handover their cards on May 31. “Otherwise, they will be paperless human during identification process,” Shwe Maung said.

The international community has long criticized the government’s treatment of the Rohingya and has called on Naypyidaw to grant them citizenship. A top US State Department official said last week that the government’s decision to revoke the group’s voting rights and cards was “counter reconciliation.”

By Andrew RC Marshall 

Reuters

February 17, 2015

THAE CHAUNG, Arakan State — Burma’s decision to revoke temporary identification cards for minorities is raising tensions among its 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims, who have effectively been disenfranchised just days after parliament approved a law affirming their right to vote in a referendum.

Last week, the government of the Buddhist-majority nation announced that the temporary identification, known as white cards, would be revoked on May 31.

The people who hold them are mostly Rohingya, a much resented minority in Burma, where many people consider them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

In Thae Chaung, a squalid fishing village in western Burma that has become a settlement for thousands of Rohingya, the decision was still to fully sink in, but was being met with a mixture of defiance, mistrust and resignation.

“If the government wants to take my white card, what can I do?” said Minara, 23, a housewife who gave only one name. “I’ll just have to give it to them.”

Mohammad Ayub, 28, said he would only surrender his white card if granted the same citizenship rights enjoyed by “all other ethnic minorities.” He doubted this would ever happen.

“I don’t trust the government,” said Ayub, who like many men in Thae Chaung is jobless.

The village is a 15-minute drive from Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, where most of the country’s Rohingya live.

Violence between Rohingya and ethnic Arakanese Buddhists in 2012 killed at least 200 people and made 140,000 homeless, mostly Rohingya.

Experts warned the hostility to the government plan could result in renewed violence.

“It is unlikely that white card holders in displacement camps will give these up voluntarily when it is not clear whether they will get any form of ID in return,” said Richard Horsey, a Rangoon-based independent political analyst.

“Any attempts to enforce the order to surrender the cards could spark violence,” he said.

As well as the right to vote, white cards also entitle Rohingya to health and education services, but with certain restraints: their movements are severely restricted, and white card holders are barred from civil service jobs and some degree courses.

It also represents the link to political life for Burma’s minorities.

The country’s Parliament voted earlier in the month to grant white card holders the vote in a possible constitutional referendum, paving the way for their participation in a general election later this year.

But Buddhists protested against the plan in Rangoon, the biggest city in Burma, arguing many of the white-card holders were illegal aliens. Shortly after the protest, the government announced it would revoke the white cards.

‘Incendiary’

Another 400,000 people outside of Arakan State, mostly of Chinese and Indian descent, also hold white cards.

The government said on Feb. 11 the cards will be revoked in a “fair and transparent manner” by local officials, but didn’t explain what would replace them.

A pilot project to verify the citizenship of Rohingya and other Muslims has foundered on Arakanese objections and the government’s insistence that Rohingya identify themselves as “Bengali.”

Rohingya reject the term because it suggests they are illegal migrants from neighboring Bangladesh, when many have lived in Burma for generations.

Few Rohingya are Burmese citizens, but most carry white cards, officially known as “temporary registration certificates.” This enabled them to vote in a 2010 general election, which was rigged by the military junta which then ruled Burma.

The Rohingya currently have five representatives in the national and state legislatures.

Disenfranchising white card holders in Arakan State could be “incendiary,” the Brussels-based think tank Crisis Group warned in an Oct. 2014 report.

“It would be hard for [Rohingya] to avoid the conclusion that politics had failed them, which could prompt civil disobedience or even organized violence,” said the report.

Arakanese Buddhists also mistrust the government. On Sunday, they staged a large protest in Sittwe, a city purged of its sizable Rohingya population after the 2012 violence.

Led by hundreds of Buddhist monks, the crowd waved placards reading “Never accept white card” and shouted “Anyone who allows foreigners to vote is our enemy.”

Thar Htun Oo, 75, a retired businessman who joined the protest, said he still didn’t believe white cards would be revoked. “The government is lying,” he said.

Another protester, Saw Thein Mya, 55, believed Rohingya might lose their cards but somehow retain voting rights.

“That’s why were protesting today,” she said. “We can’t depend on the government.”

By Financial Times

February 16, 2015

Five years after Myanmar’s generals set off on their road to the ghastly sounding “discipline-flourishing democracy”, the country is preparing for elections that could actually be worth the ballot paper they are written on. To be fair, the carefully orchestrated elections held in 2010 were far more significant than many believed then. Though conducted according to a constitution that guaranteed the military a quarter of seats in parliament and despite being boycotted by The National League for Democracy, the main opposition party, the poll marked the beginning of real change. Hundreds of political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, were released. Censorship was eased and Thein Sein, a general turned president, embarked on genuine, if inevitably circumscribed, reform. Ceasefires were negotiated with armies representing ethnic minorities. By-elections were held in which Ms Suu Kyi and 40 other NLD candidates won parliamentary seats.

Cynics would say the generals still call the shots, religious tensions have escalated and crony capitalism is alive and well. But that is not the whole story. Myanmar is a different place than it was a few years ago. The legislature has become a force to be reckoned with. Cracks have been created in which the first shoots of a more genuine democracy are taking hold.

Still, several things must happen if Myanmar’s transition is to regain momentum. Crucially, the military needs to be confident enough to step back further from power. That would mean renouncing its bloc of seats in parliament and effectively giving up its veto on constitutional change. It would also mean removing a clause, written specifically with Ms Suu Kyi in mind, barring her from becoming president on the grounds that she has children who hold a foreign passport. The military may well decide that to give up its veto and to unshackle Myanmar’s most popular politician would be too risky. It should reconsider and cut a deal before the election, which will probably be in November. Any poll from which Ms Suu Kyi is excluded from the top office would lack legitimacy.

That is not to say Myanmar’s fate hangs entirely on Ms Suu Kyi. There are concerns about whether the Nobel laureate, 69, has the necessary qualities to run the country. Being an icon of democracy and leader of a nation with political and economic problems are two different things. She is surprisingly vague about what she would do if she became president. It is still conceivable that she may choose a behind-the-scenes role rather than go for the presidency herself.

Constitutional matters are just the tip of the iceberg. Whoever becomes president will confront a multitude of dangerous issues. Three are worth singling out. One is reaching a settlement with the ethnic minorities. Without genuine federalism the project of building what is essentially a new country after half a century of sporadic civil war will be doomed. Second, more effort must be made to spread the fruits of economic growth. The perception — and most likely the reality — is that the lion’s share of impressive growth is going to a few businessmen, many of whom got rich during the military era. Third, the authorities must get a firmer grip on rising religious tension, most of it directed against the Muslim minority. In Rakhine state, Muslims continue to be treated abominably. Instead of pandering to Buddhist chauvinism, the new government must set a more tolerant tone and ensure that Muslims are not treated as second-class citizens in their own country. Myanmar could yet be seen as a model transition. Much depends on what the generals do next.

By Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Dhaka Tribune

February 16, 2015

Muslim Aid, a UK-based non-government organisation, is going to close down its Rohingya project in Teknaf in phases, as the European Union has stopped funding it.

“The NGO has dubious operations in Teknaf, and the government has requested the EU not to fund it,” said a senior official of the Foreign Ministry.

When contacted, the European Union embassy in Dhaka confirmed in an email that, from February this year, their contract with Muslim Aid has expired.

The government in 2008 allowed Muslim Aid to manage a make-shift camp for undocumented Rohingyas in Teknaf. The government scrapped its permission in 2012 but did not force the NGO to leave Teknaf.

Taking advantage of the administration’s lax grip, the NGO is still managing the camp where over 15,000 undocumented Rohingyas are residing.

Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, a convicted war criminal for killing Bangali intellectuals in collaboration with the Pakistan Army in 1971, was a former chairman of Muslim Aid.

“We do not want them to operate in Teknaf as the government has no knowledge of where and how they spend their fund,” said another foreign ministry official.

Last year, the EU alone provided 2.857 million Euros to Muslim Aid. The NGO also receives funds from other donors. The government has signed an agreement with International Organisation for Migration to train and equip local NGOs to provide humanitarian services to undocumented Rohingyas.

About 30,000 Rohingya refugees are residing in two camps in Cox’s Bazar, whereas about three to five lakh undocumented Rohingyas, whom the government does not recongnise as refugees, are residing in Cox’s Bazar, Teknaf, Chittagong, and other adjacent districts.

These undocumented Rohingyas pose serious security, economical, and environmental threats to Bangladesh, according to National Strategy on Undocumented Rohingya. 

By Casey Hynes

Asian Correspondent 

February 16, 2015

After a brief window of hope earlier last week, Rohingya in Burma’s Rakhine State were once again shut out of the political system after protesters demanded they be barred from participating in an upcoming referendum. The Rohingya are among the most persecuted people in Burma, and are frequently the targets of anti-Muslim sentiment and violence. Despite the fact that many Rohingya were born in Burma and that their families have lived in the country for generations, the government refuses to recognize them as citizens, insisting that they are refugees from Bangladesh and must therefore identify as Bengali.

Things were looking ever-so-slightly up for the persecuted minority last week, when the government said it would issue Rohingya white cards, documents that would allow them to vote. However, the government backtracked on that after Buddhist nationalist protesters demanded that they reverse course.

Anti-Rohingya sentiment has simmered and occasionally reached a boiling point in Rakhine State since 2012. The situation for Rohingya is dire, as many are forced to flee the country or live in crowded, sparse camps. The lack of recognition of their citizenship is a huge barrier to them defending their rights. Buddhist-Muslim violence has also spread to other parts of the country, but tensions are particularly concentrated in Rakhine state.

“Many Rakhine feel that if Rohingya are legally recognized, then they’ll encroach on Rakhine culture, land, and resources,” said Matthew Smith, co-founder and executive director of the organization Fortify Rights. “It’s a genuine fear.”

As noted in the Washington Post, Burma has made rapid, significant progress in recent years, welcoming foreign investment and paving the way for groundbreaking innovations in the country. But it is still a nation rife with human rights violations, and the Rohingya continue to suffer regularly, particularly due to what Smith describes as a “base discrimination against Muslims” that “permeates everything in Rakhine State.”

Reuters described the dark situation faced by Rohingya in a June 2014 piece that addressed a nationalist campaign to constrict the amount of humanitarian aid provided to the community of one million, including 140,000 displaced people.

Smith criticized the government’s lack of action on protection for the Rohingya.

“Thein Sein is playing politics in all the wrong ways,” he said. “The sign of a great leader is a willingness to take principled positions on unpopular issues, and we’re just not seeing that from [Burma’s] political elite. That’s because some actually believe the nonsense they preach on this issue, while others demonstrate political cowardice.”

Human rights groups and advocates have condemned the treatment of the Rohingya, and Human Rights Watch described the appalling situation as an ethnic cleansing campaign. Nonetheless, they have so far been left behind when it comes to official policy and the government often seems on the side of nationalists who resent and oppose the Rohingyas’ place in Burma. Indeed, Smith said, “the government has been fanning anti-Rohingya flames for years and continues to do so. It’s irresponsible.” The situation in Rakhine is far from stable, with locals nervous about the potential for violent flare-ups.

“Local Rakhine in Sittwe have told us they’re nervous there will be more violence, and the protests are a worrying sign,” Smith said. “If anything, the protests are representative of the simmering anger and unchecked misunderstandings in the state.”

Smith said that the Rohingya crisis has already given pause to some foreign investors and is a concern for some in the diplomatic community. But a sustained campaign of documenting violence and abuses against the Rohingya, and consistent, widespread pressure for their recognition is the only way to ensure these criminal behaviors will stop.

It’s up to the government to take a firm stand in favor of the Rohingya and “combat deep-seeded discriminatory and hateful attitudes,” but it’s also up to the international community to hold the government accountable, Smith said. U.S. President Barack Obama urged the Burmese government to act on behalf of the Rohingya, but little has improved since that visit. Even iconic leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been reluctant to explicitly take up their cause.

“There’s a well-founded fear that the Rohingya will be sacrificed by the international community on the altar of political reform, and we’re already seeing that from some corners,” Smith said. “There’s not nearly enough outrage in the international community about what’s happening in Rakhine state, and there’s a trend of compromise on Rohingya rights in the name of pragmatism. That’s truly detrimental to long term stability in the region.”

By Editorial

Carbonated.TV

February 16, 2015

Aung San Suu Kyi is an icon of democracy. Why isn't she speaking up for 1.3 million oppressed in her own country?

Myanmar’s government remains helpless to Buddhist nationalists as temporary voting rights given to the country's persecuted Rohingya minority were revoked by President Thein Sein last week.

Following the passage of a law that allowed temporary residents who hold "white papers" to vote in the upcoming elections, hundreds of Buddhist extremists took to the streets of Yangon.

Nearly 1.3 million Rohingya, a Muslim minority, live in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. However, they are regarded as “outsiders” or migrants from Bangladesh. The situation for the community became worse worse in 2012 when the “969 Movement” was initiated by "Buddhist Bin Laden" Ashin Wirathu.

The genocidal campaign has caused hundreds of deaths and displaced more than 140,000 Muslims in almost three years. Wirathu and his followers have also endorsed and proposed several legislative measures and policies against the Rohingya which include the revoking of voting rights – if ever granted.

As the Burmese government stripped the Rohingya people of their fundamental rights, Myanmar's democratic icon Aung San Suu Kyi paid tribute to her late father, General Aung San, on the 100th anniversary of his birth on Saturday.

While she called for unification and development of her country, Suu Kyi yet again failed to remember the plight of the local Muslim community.

The inexplicable silence and inaction over the genocide from world leaders, human rights organization and Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader is just as frustrating as the perpetrators’ crimes.

Suu Kyi, it seems, has decided to avoid the issue and take a neutral stance over the blatant violation of human rights. For instance, on her first trip to the U.S. in 2012, she remained curiously silent on the plight of the Rohingya people. Similarly during her visit to the United Kingdom in 2013, she repeatedly avoided giving an unequivocal condemnation of the anti-Muslim violence that is engulfing her country.

Keeping the latest decision to revoke temporary voting rights for the Rohingya community, it looks like Myanmar’s newfound democracy under Aung San Suu Kyi is nothing but just a mirage.

By Kay Zue

Mizzima

February 14, 2015

Rakhine State Chief Minister U Maung Maung Ohn has warned international NGOs in Rakhine State not to interfere in affairs related to the “anti-white card campaign” and the process of revoking the temporary identification cards. 

The chief minister summoned representatives from foreign NGOs to his office on February 12 to warn them not to interfere in the sensitive issue, after issuing a public statement saying ‘white card’ holders must hand over their cards to the authorities. 

The Nay Pyi Taw government has called on all white card holders in the country, who are said to number around 1.5 million people, to hand in their temporary ID cards by March 31. 

“I warned NGOs not to interfere affairs related to the white card. I told them just to focus on their aid operations,” U Maung Maung Ohn told media on February 13. 

There are more than 20 foreign NGOs carrying out aid operations in refugee camps in the Rakhine State under agreements with the Union government, according to U Maung Maung Ohn.

“This is a period when residents and NGOs are trying to build understanding, therefore, as Chief Minister, I warned them in advance to be careful. That is not to say I am making allegations against those NGOs,” he said.

Meanwhile, some people believe that white card holders in Rakhine State who hand over their cards to the authorities and meet the requirements will get national ID cards.

According to U Aung Win, a temporary ID holder, some white card holders identify themselves as Rohingya and are not willing to accept being labeled Bengali, so the process is likely to be complex.

The Myanmar government does not accept the label Rohingya, instead calling the people Bengali, in effect implying they are illegal Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh.

Foreign NGOs have run into difficulties in Rakhine State. Medicins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors Without Borders, was forced to leave in March 2014, after years of running programmes. In the same month, residents in Sittwe accused a foreign NGO worker of handling a Buddhist flag in an impolite manner, leading to demonstrations and angry mobs attacking the buildings of foreign NGOs.MSF were allowed to return to the state in December.

By Mann Kyaw and Brian Pellot

Religion News Service 

February 13, 2015