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Student protesters look out from a prison vehicle as they are transported to a court in Letpadan March 11, 2015. — (Photo: Reuters)

By AFP
March 14, 2015

WASHINGTON — Former US president George W. Bush yesterday hit out at a crackdown on student-led protests in Myanmar which have sparked international alarm, calling for the swift release of those arrested.

In a joint statement with his wife, ex-first lady Laura Bush, the former US leader urged Myanmar to free student leader Phyoe Phyoe Aung, who is a part of a forum run by the Bush Institute.

“We are deeply concerned about the recent arrests of peaceful demonstrators in Burma by local authorities,” Bush said, describing Phyoe Phyoe Aung as a “passionate advocate for education” in the Southeast Asian nation.

“Education is vital to the political, economic, and social well-being of every nation and people,” Bush said.

“We hope that those arrested will soon be released.”

Myanmar authorities detained some 127 demonstrators—including students and monks—in a frenzied crackdown on a protest in the central town of Letpadan on Tuesday, drawing condemnation from the opposition and Western nations.

Scores remain behind bars facing unknown charges and without access to their families, although authorities released a handful of students yesterday.

A file picture shows a woman and child waiting to cross from Kokang in Burma to China after fighting restarted in 2009 when a truce between rebels and the Burmese government broke down. Photograph: AP

March 14, 2015

Beijings summons Burmese ambassador and Chinese aerial patrols increase as tensions rise over operations against rebels in border region

China has summoned Burma’s ambassador for a meeting after a bomb from a Burmese aircraft fell in Chinese territory and killed four people, the foreign ministry in Beijing said on Saturday.

Burmese government forces have been battling rebels in the country’s north-east, on the border with China, since last month and China has urged Burma to “lower the temperature”.

The bomb fell on Friday in a sugarcane field near the city of Lincang, in the south-western Chinese province of Yunnan. Nine other people were wounded, state media reported.

The incident came a few days after a stray shell from Burma flattened a house in Chinese territory, prompting condemnation from Beijing.

Chinese vice-minister for foreign affairs Liu Zhenmin urged the Burmese ambassador, Thit Linn Ohn, to investigate the bombing and take steps to ensure the safety of the border area.

Tens of thousands of people, many of them ethnic Chinese, have fled the fighting in Burma’s Kokang region into Yunnan.

The rebels are from a group called the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, which is led by ethnic Chinese commander Peng Jiasheng.

The MNDAA was formed out of some of the remnants of the Communist party of Burma, a powerful China-backed guerrilla force that battled the Burmese government until it splintered in 1989.

The MNDAA struck a truce with the government which lasted until 2009, when government troops took over their region in a conflict that pushed tens of thousands of refugees into China.

Burma has accused Chinese mercenaries of fighting with the rebels, and has urged China to co-operate in preventing “terrorist attacks” being launched from Chinese territory.

China has denied that any attacks into Burma have come from its side.

China and Burma share a border 1,250 miles long (2,000km).

Shen Jinke, a spokesman for China’s air force, said in a defence ministry statement on Saturday that the air force had dispatched aircraft to patrol the border and would step up activities to protect the sovereignty of China’s airspace.

March 14, 2015

End Ongoing Persecution of Rohingya

SITTWE — The government of Myanmar should immediately and unconditionally release a group of five Rohingya prisoners of conscience being held in Sittwe prison, Rakhine State, Fortify Rights said today. The group includes three prominent Rohingya community leaders imprisoned earlier this week.

Criminal charges against the individuals stem from tensions in Rakhine State in April 2013 when government officials attempted to force stateless Rohingya to identify as “Bengali,” a term implying they are natives of Bangladesh rather than Myanmar. Local residents protested, chanting “Rohingya! Rohingya!,” and violence ensued, leading the government to suspend its controversial “citizenship scrutiny” exercise. Shortly thereafter, the state filed trumped-up charges against Rohingya community leaders and others. 

“The authorities are sending a clear message to Rohingya that any form of resistance will be met with reprisals,” said Matthew Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights. “This is a thinly-veiled attempt to undermine the community’s social and political structures. It’s a textbook example of persecution.”

On February 27, the Sittwe Appellate Court sentenced three of the men—Ba Tha, 63; Kyaw Myint, 61; and Hla Myint, 31—to eight years in prison. On March 8, the authorities transferred the group from their homes near an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp to the Sittwe police station and later to Sittwe Prison. Two others—Solemon Begum, 50, female, and Mohamed Hashim, 22, male—have been imprisoned in Sittwe Prison since June 2013, and on February 27, the court added an additional five years to the three-and-a-half year sentence they are currently serving. The Court also sentenced a sixth Rohingya community leader, Kyaw Khin, 45, male, to five years in prison on February 27. He is currently in hiding.

The charges against the Rohingya community leaders relate to sections 147 (rioting), 333 (injuring a public servant), and 395 (armed robbery by a gang) of the Myanmar Penal Code.

Fortify Rights met with Kyaw Myint and Hla Myint in an IDP camp in Rakhine State on March 7, the day before the court remanded them to Sittwe prison. They told Fortify Rights that the authorities accused them of organizing the Muslim population in Rakhine State to self-identify as Rohingya—an allegation they deny.

“The government thinks that if we’re free, we’ll advise the people to call themselves Rohingya, so they want to lock us up,” said Hla Myint, who has been involved in humanitarian relief for displaced Rohingya. “We have people who are dying, and we are just trying to help them.”

District Court Judge Aye Thein, an ethnic Burman, heard the initial charges against the six Rohingya on June 2013 in “criminal regular trial #36/2013.” On June 24, 2014, she acquitted and freed Kyaw Myint, Hla Myint, Ba Tha, and Kyaw Khin. On the same day, Judge Aye Thein convicted and sentenced Solemon Begum and Mohamed Hashim to three-and-a-half years in prison. Rakhine State Attorney General Oo Hla Thein later appealed the acquittal, and Judge Thein Aung, an ethnic Rakhine, oversaw the trial in “criminal appellate case #69/2014.” The appellate court in Sittwe heard arguments on January 4, 2015, found them all guilty, and sentenced them on February 27.

The group intends to appeal their convictions at the Supreme Court in Naypyidaw.

Hla Myo Myint, an ethnic Burman human rights lawyer with decades of legal experience in Myanmar, represents these prisoners of conscience. He told Fortify Rights that local “extremists” previously threatened him in Sittwe for representing Rohingya clients and that plain-clothed persons on motorbikes often follow him when he is in the Rakhine State capital.

Rohingya, and particularly Rohingya community and political leaders, are subject to arbitrary arrest, detention, and harassment in Myanmar. Prisoners of conscience in Myanmar remain at risk of torture and other forms of ill-treatment and are subject to conditions in detention that fall short of international standards, as articulated by the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. Myanmar lacks an independent judiciary and trials throughout the country often fail to meet international standards. The right to a fair trial is a human right recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and legally binding on all states as part of customary international law.

Ahead of the elections scheduled to take place later this year, Rakhine State authorities are preparing to confiscate “white cards”—identification cards that do not provide any legal status but enabled Rohingya to vote in the 2010 elections. This follows a February 11 statement from President Thein Sein’s office declaring that white cards will expire on March 31, effectively revoking voting rights of white-card holders. Some displaced Rohingya told Fortify Rights they believe authorities deliberately timed the imprisonment of their community leaders ahead of the revocation of white cards.

Myanmar has released more than 1,000 prisoners of conscience since 2011. Working estimates of remaining prisoners of conscience in the country exclude Rohingya, indicating the depths of anti-Rohingya sentiment at all levels in Myanmar. Since 2013, Fortify Rights interviewed Rohingya from Rakhine State who said Myanmar authorities dragged family members away in recent years. Fortify Rights believes there are potentially scores of Rohingya prisoners of conscience in Myanmar, particularly in northern Rakhine State.

Fortify Rights calls on the government of Myanmar to release all remaining prisoners of conscience in the country, including Rohingya. Fortify Rights also calls on the international community to respect and protect human rights in Myanmar, including the right of Rohingya to self identify.

“Some want to believe the situation in Rakhine State has stabilized, but in reality it has been a steady downward spiral of abuse,” said Matthew Smith. “The government has pitched its ethnic re-classification efforts to the international community as a pragmatic solution. It’s important we all see it for what it is—a strategy to eradicate the Rohingya identity.”

For more information, please contact:

Matthew Smith, Executive Director, Fortify Rights +66.85.028.0044;

Background:

The government of Myanmar explicitly denies the existence of the Rohingya ethnicity. The 1982 Citizenship Law effectively stripped Rohingya of equal access to citizenship, rendering more than one million stateless in Myanmar and making the Rohingya the world’s largest stateless population within any single country’s borders, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Since 2012, the government has conducted “citizenship scrutiny” exercises to verify the ethnic identity of Muslims in Rakhine State, forcing residents to register as “Bengali” and refusing to register anyone as Rohingya.

In June and October 2012, civilians and state security forces in Rakhine State carried out targeted attacks against Muslim communities in 13 of 17 townships in the state. As a result of this violence and subsequent abuses, more than 150,000 people, mostly Muslims, remain confined in squalid ghetto-like camps, where they are denied freedom of movement and face avoidable deprivations in humanitarian aid.

In November 2014, Fortify Rights reported on how Myanmar state security forces are complicit in the human trafficking and smuggling of Rohingya Muslims from Rakhine State. Myanmar state security forces in Rakhine State have collected payments from Rohingya asylum seekers fleeing Myanmar by boats operated by transnational criminal syndicates. In some cases, the Myanmar Navy escorted boats operated by criminal gangs out to international waters.

In February 2014, Fortify Rights reported on internal government “population control” policies targeting Rohingya Muslims and giving rise to abuses that amount to crimes against humanity under international law. The 79-page report, Policies of Persecution: Ending Abusive State Policies Against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, is based on the analysis of 12 leaked official documents and a review of public records as well as interviews with Rohingya. The documents published in the report reveal restrictions that deny Rohingya basic human rights, including the rights to nondiscrimination, freedom of movement, marriage, family, health, and privacy. All the restrictions and enforcement methods described in the report remain in effect in Rakhine State until today.

Passengers disembark from a ferry at a pier on Rangoon river in Rangoon, Burma, in 2011. Photograph: Khin Maung Win/AP

March 14, 2015

At least 21 people have been killed in sinking of boat carrying more than 200 passengers off western Burmese coast, officer states

At least 21 people have died and 26 others are missing after a ferry sank off the coast of western Burma with more than 200 passengers on board, police have said.

The Aung Takon went down late on Friday after leaving the town of Kyaukphyu on its way to Sittwe in western Rakhine state.

A police officer in Sittwe, who asked to remain anonymous, said on Saturday: “We have got 21 dead bodies, two men and 19 women. About 26 passengers are still missing.”

He added that 167 people had been rescued, and no foreigners were believed to have been on board.

Three navy boats and a host of private vessels were sent to scour the area after news emerged that the ferry had gone down shortly after 8.30pm local time (1400 GMT).

“We suspect that the boat sank because it was overloaded with goods,” the police officer said, adding that rescuers were still searching for survivors.

Many Burmese citizens live along the country’s lengthy coastline, where river systems prone to flooding mean they rely heavily on poorly-maintained ferries for transportation.

Sinkings are not uncommon. Ten people were killed in 2010 when a ferry capsized in the Irrawaddy delta region, while 38 died in 2008 when a ship sank in the Yway river.

In recent years, Rakhine state has been the departure point for thousands of desperate Rohingya Muslims, who crowd on to small and dangerously overcrowded boats to escape persecution, often aiming for Thailand and Malaysia.

Communal violence between Buddhists and Rohingyas swept through the region in 2012, leaving at least 200 dead.

About 140,000 people, mainly Rohingya, are trapped in displacement camps around Sittwe after losing their homes in the unrest.

Referred to by the government as Bengali, they are largely seen as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even if many can trace their ancestry in the country back for generations.

The Arakan Project, a rights group monitoring departures, estimated in October that about 100,000 Rohingya have fled by boat since 2012.

Many of these vessels are barely seaworthy and some are known to have never reached their destinations.

UNDP Administrator Helen Clark (wearing blue cap) and WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin (wearing yellow) visit the Thet Kae Pyin settlement for internally displaced people in Sittwe, Rakhine State, Myanmar. Photo: UNDP/Shobhna Delcoitre

March 13, 2015

The United Nations remains committed to helping Myanmar achieve its humanitarian and development needs in order to boost living standards for all its citizens, top UN officials have declared during their visit to the Asian country.

“Myanmar is in the midst of a number of complex political, administrative, and economic reforms and peacebuilding processes. There are many challenges, and the country has experienced both progress and setbacks in recent years,” the Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Helen Clark, stated in a news release.

“UNDP is committed to its work on strengthening governance and to working through its rights-based approaches to support the attainment of higher levels of human development for all in Myanmar.”

During a two-day visit to Myanmar this week to emphasize the importance of ensuring the delivery of humanitarian assistance and support for sustainable development, Ms. Clark and the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Ertharin Cousin, met with Government officials in the capital of Nay Pyi Taw.

The two UN officials also travelled to the city of Sittwe in Rakhine state where communities remain polarized amid ongoing sectarian tensions. The area is the scene of continuing inter-communal conflict and internal population displacements where “humanitarian and development needs are most acute,” according to the news release.

In Rakhine, UNDP is providing development assistance and working with communities in 63 villages to improve livelihoods and strengthen social cohesion while also investing in developing the capacity of local governments to improve public administration and people-oriented service delivery. Meanwhile, as the world’s largest humanitarian organization, WFP has been providing life-saving food assistance to over 128,000 internally displaced persons in the state since 2012.

“The path to development runs through the achievement of zero hunger,” Ms. Cousin said. “WFP is committed to working with the Government and our partner organizations starting with UNDP to support Myanmar’s transformational goal of reaching middle-income country status by 2030.”

Meanwhile, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) today voiced concern about the arrest of more than 100 students and other protestors following their demonstrations in Latpadan, in the southern Bago Region on Tuesday. Although many have since been released, the majority still remain detained in Tharawaddy prison with an estimated 60 of them charged under various laws.

In Geneva, OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told reporters that the UN was concerned about reports that the police had used “excessive and disproportionate force” against the protestors.

“We urge the Government to unconditionally release all those detained for the exercise of their rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression and to amend the laws that place unnecessary and disproportionate restrictions on people’s rights,” Ms. Shamdasani said.

By Marte Nilsen
March 13, 2015

It’s election year in Myanmar, the big test for the country’s aspiring democratic transition. Among the spirited national debates there are four controversial pieces of legislation currently under consideration in Myanmar’s Assembly of the Union parliament (the Pyidaungsu hluttaw). These reportedly aim to protect race and religion. But in truth, the bills represent a setback for religious freedom and women’s rights and — if adopted — are likely to deepen existing religious divides, threaten the reform agenda and stir violence prior to the elections.



A rising Buddhist nationalist movement has lobbied for the bills, in particular the ‘Organisation for the Protection of Race and Religion’ (known in Myanmar under the Burmese acronym ‘Ma Ba Tha’), a group related but not identical to the infamous 969 movement. The organisation has collected more than a million signatures in support of the laws meant to protect Buddhism against a perceived threat from Islam.

Since 2012, Myanmar has been marred by ethno-religious violence, particularly against the Muslim Rohingya population in Rakhine state but also against Muslim communities in other parts of Myanmar. More than a hundred thousand people have fled their homes, hundreds have been killed and thousands of Muslim owned houses and businesses have been torched and destroyed. The proposed Ma Ba Tha laws must be viewed in light of this violence.

Anti-Muslim sentiments are not new to Myanmar. Since colonial times, when Myanmar saw massive immigration from India, there have been numerous attacks on Hindu and Muslim communities, and Buddhist nationalism has been able to equate itself with national identity.

The danger today is that Buddhist nationalist agitation appears at a time where political interests wish to exploit anti-Muslim sentiments for political gain. Emphasis on religious cleavages during the election year may take the focus away from the democratic deficit within Myanmar’s constitution and the armed forces (the Tatmadaw) and serve the interests of undemocratic forces.

The proposed legislative package consists of four bills: a Buddhist women’s marriage bill; a religious conversion bill; a population control bill; and a monogamy bill. These Ma Ba Tha laws have received much criticism from rights groups and women’s organisations in Myanmar and abroad. 180 Myanmar civil society groups have voiced their opposition to the bills in a signed statement to the parliament.

The marriage bill is particularly criticised for its disempowerment of Buddhist women. While it purports to protect them, it stands out as a paternalistic attempt to control them. It states that a Buddhist woman must seek the permission of her parents or a legal guardian to marry a man of a different faith. The township authorities must also approve the marriage after it has been publically announced for two weeks, allowing for objections to the interfaith marriage.

Also problematic from a human rights point of view is the conversion bill, which forbids conversion to another religion for people under the age of 18. Even an adult convert must apply for permission from the authorities, who will then interview the convert several times over a few months to check if the person in question is familiar with and genuinely believes in the religion being converted to, before any conversion can take place.

The population control bill, already passed by the parliament’s upper house, will allow the implementation of strict population control measures among certain groups if they have considerably higher population growth than others. It is likely to be enforced largely among the already vulnerable Muslim Rohingya population in Rakhine State.

The monogamy bill is less controversial because the ban of formal polygamy, a practice accepted by Islamic jurisprudence, occurs widely elsewhere. But if implemented and actually applied to the entire population, the bill would potentially have a significant impact on Myanmar’s society, as it criminalises living with a person other than one’s spouse.

The current Union parliament session in Myanmar is a busy one, and it is not certain that all four bills will manage to make their way through both houses in time for the end of the session in mid-March. The bills are nonetheless causing a deepening of Myanmar’s damaging religious conflicts at a fragile time of democratic transition. At worst, they will result in more anti-Muslim violence prior to the elections.

With these bills, Buddhist nationalist movements have managed to inject religious cleavages into Union-level politics and shift the focus away from issues like employment, education, health care, land rights, democratisation, power-sharing and constitutional amendments. This will benefit the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party as well as the Tatmadaw, both of which lack credibility on these issues, while the National League of Democracy (NLD), which enjoys high credibility on the same issues, will suffer. In light of the widespread anti-Muslim sentiments among Bamar Buddhists in Myanmar, the NLD risks losing votes if its opponents are able to project the party as being ‘soft on Muslims’.

In the run up to the elections there is therefore a risk that powerful political actors will exploit this undercurrent of Buddhist nationalism and the distrust between religious and ethnic groups. At worst, they may seek to stir up violence for the purpose of winning swing votes. With this dangerous confluence of interests, the 2015 elections may well see renewed religious violence in Myanmar.

Marte Nilsen is a senior researcher at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO).

Members of Arakan State's two largest political parties, the ALD and the RNDP, pictured at a ceremony in Rangoon in June 2013 when they merged to form the Arakan National Party. (PHOTO: DVB)

March 13, 2015

The Union Election Commission (UEC) has announced an enrolment deadline of 30 April 2015 for those who wish to form new political parties to contest this year’s general election.

The UEC said would-be party leaders must apply for permission to form their party no later than 30 April, a date set to allow sufficient time for the next steps of party registration and election campaigning.

According to the Political Parties Registration Law, a minimum of 15 persons must sign any application to establish a political party. All must be at least 25 years of age. Citizens, naturalized citizens and temporary certificate holders may apply, though members of a religious order, members of insurgent groups and foreigners may not.

Seventy-one political parties are currently registered with the UEC across Burma.

The UEC’s chairman, Tin Aye, announced late last year that general elections will be held at the end of October or beginning of November 2015. In response, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi told reporters that the government must ensure “not only free and fair, but timely elections” if Burma is to progress on the path to democracy.

President Thein Sein subsequently stated on 1 March during his monthly radio address to the nation that the 2015 general election will be held in the month of November.

The campaign period ahead of the election is another matter to be resolved. While the UEC maintains that a 30-day period for campaigning is ample, several political parties, including the ethnic-based Federal Democratic Alliance, have stated that 60 days is required to allow each candidate to conduct an effective campaign drive.

No mention has yet been made about the registration of independent candidates or a timeframe for the formation of coalitions.

In November, the UEC began compiling new voter lists for the 2015 general election after last year’s census uncovered a gaping discrepancy in the actual versus the predicted number of people in the country.

The March census tallied 51.4 million people within Burma, as opposed to 60 million, an officially held figure that had been cobbled together by projected birth rates and disparate demographic studies.

The UEC is now tasked with calculating how many people are eligible to vote in this year’s election. The commission said in November it would take eight months for it to construct a new list, likely to be very different from the one used as recently as the 2012 by-elections.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants from impoverished Myanmar are estimated to be working — many of them illegally — in more-developed Malaysia. — Picture by Choo Choy May

By AFP
March 13, 2015

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak pledged to improve protection for migrant workers from Myanmar during talks with the country’s President Thein Sein today.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants from impoverished Myanmar are estimated to be working — many of them illegally — in more-developed Malaysia.

“Malaysia acknowledged the contribution of Myanmar labour force in Malaysia’s economic development and agreed to expand and improve the cooperation,” the Malaysian government said in a statement after the talks.

It will issue memorandum of understanding to formalise its intention to “safeguard the rights and interests of Myanmar workers in Malaysia”, the statement said.

It did not provide any further details.

The talks were held on the second day of Myanmar president’s two-day trip to Malaysia, his first state visit to the country.

Tens of thousands of workers in Malaysia are Muslim ethnic Rohingya who have fled what they describe as decades of oppression in majority-Buddhist Myanmar.

The Rohingya exodus has gained pace since Muslim-Buddhist bloodshed erupted in 2012 in the western Myanmar state of Rakhine.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Myanmar President Thein Sein leave the Prime Minister’s Department after holding bilateral talks in Putrajaya March 13, 2015. — Bernama pic

Police say that a number of killings in Malaysia last year involving Myanmar nationals are linked to the ethnic strife back home.

Muslim-majority Malaysia has no laws to protect refugees though it accepts them temporarily. Those who are un-registered face arrest and languish in detention unless granted coveted UN refugee status.

Activists have complained that low-wage foreign workers are conned by recruitment agents and mistreated at work, with little recourse for legal action.

The two nations also agreed to cooperate on other sectors include bilateral trade, oil and gas, tourism and education.

Myanmar is only Malaysia’s 38th-largest trading partner globally, and seventh-largest within Asean, according to Malaysian data.

Total bilateral trade in 2014 reached US$864 million (RM3.2 billion), based on current exchange rates.

But Malaysian officials have said the nascent trade relationship is growing fast and have expressed a desire for Malaysian firms to take advantage of Myanmar’s opening-up by moving into its markets.

Myanmar is gradually emerging from decades of authoritarian rule and has embarked on democratic reforms that have won praise abroad, though some observers warn they appear to be stalling.

Myanmar President Thein Sein (Photo: Agence France-Presse)

By AFP
March 13, 2015

KUALA LUMPUR: Myanmar President Thein Sein arrived in Kuala Lumpur today for a two-day stay, his first state visit to Malaysia.

He will hold talks on Friday with his counterpart, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Malaysia's government said the two leaders would discuss the state of bilateral relations as well as issues of regional concern, but otherwise has offered few specifics.

Malaysia is this year's chair of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and host of its annual summits, having assumed the mantle from 2014 chair Myanmar.

Myanmar is only Malaysia's 38th-largest trading partner globally, and seventh-largest within ASEAN, according to Malaysian data.

Total bilateral trade in 2014 reached $864 million, based on current exchange rates.

But Malaysian officials have said the nascent trade relationship is growing fast and have expressed a desire for Malaysian firms to take advantage of Myanmar's opening-up by moving into its markets.

Myanmar is gradually emerging from decades of authoritarian rule and has embarked on democratic reforms that have won praise abroad, though some observers warn they appear to be stalling.

Hundreds of thousands of Myanmar migrants are estimated to be working, many illegally, in more-developed Malaysia.

Tens of thousands of those are Muslim ethnic Rohingya who have fled what they call decades of oppression in majority-Buddhist Myanmar.

The Rohingya exodus has picked up since Muslim-Buddhist bloodshed erupted in 2012 in the western Myanmar state of Rakhine.

A number of killings in Malaysia last year involving Myanmar nationals are suspected by police to be linked to the ethnic strife back home.

OIC Special Envoy for Myanmar Dr. Albar

March 13, 2015

New York – The Special Envoy of Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for Myanmar Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar is currently visiting the United States for extensive meetings with officials to mobilize support for the OIC initiatives to resolve the Rohingya issue, an OIC statement reported Thursday.

The statement said Albar, the former Malaysian Foreign Minister, held a meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The OIC office in New York has also arranged a number of bilateral meetings for Albar with UN Secretary General’s Special Advisor on Myanmar Vijay Nambiar, representatives of the Non-Violent Peace Force, Amnesty International, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as well as meetings with Director General of Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU) Dr. Wakar Uddin, Adem Carroll of the Burma Task Force USA, and Dr. William Vendley, Secretary General of Religions for Peace.

The OIC Special Envoy is due to meet with Prof. Abu Nimer, Senior Adviser to the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID), for talk about the Buddhist-Muslim dialogue event, to be hosted by Non-Governmental Organization, Humanity Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur in April, read the statement.

It added that Albar and the OIC Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Ufuk Gokcen will meet with U.S. Congressman Chris Smith, the Chairman of Human Rights, and International Organizations Subcommittee of the US House Foreign Affairs.

It is worth noting that the last meeting held in New York in September 2014 by the OIC Contact Group on Rohingya, has adopted the plan of action recommended by the OIC Special Envoy for Myanmar, which called on the Myanmar government to take action against people promoting hate speech and instigating violence in the country.

The plan also called for holding inter-community and interfaith dialogue, allowing the internally displaced people to return to their homes, invest in the socio-economic development of the Rakhine region, and open up for international humanitarian assistance to access the communities affected by the ethnic violence, which broke out in 2012.

The OIC continued to call on the Myanmar government to restore the citizenship of the Rohingya Muslims, which was revoked in the 1982 Citizenship Act, and to adopt an inclusive transparent policy towards various ethnic and religious communities, including the Rohingya Muslims.

Rohingya people, some crying, video-chat with a big group of their relatives in Bangladesh, from an internet hut in Thae Chaung village, home to thousands of displaced Rohingya Muslims near Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State in western Myanmar January 30, 2015. (Photo: REUTERS/MINZAYAR)

By Tom Miles
March 11, 2015

GENEVA: Myanmar is sliding toward conflict as the government backtracks on pledges to protect human rights and "fear, distrust and hostility" spread, a U.N. investigator said in a report published on Monday.

Yanghee Lee, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, saw "no improvement" for displaced Rohingya Muslims since her previous visit last July to investigate allegations of mistreatment of them by the Buddhist majority in Rakhine state.

She observed "a growing atmosphere of fear, distrust and hostility" during her latest visit in January, when she was publicly denounced as a "whore" and a "bitch" by a prominent Buddhist monk.

Lee witnessed "abysmal" conditions at a camp where displaced Muslims were being held "for their own security", Rakhine's chief minister told her.

"Many people told the Special Rapporteur that they had two options: to stay and die or to leave by boat," said Lee's report to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Human rights violations in Rakhine were causing a "domino effect" in the region as people were smuggled or trafficked out to Thailand or Malaysia.

The mostly stateless minority was likely to be the main loser from a new law initiated by the Rakhine National Party that restricts political party membership to full and naturalized citizens, she said.

Moreover, Myanmar's Constitutional Tribunal had stripped voting rights in an upcoming constitutional referendum from all temporary registration card holders. President Thein Sein has said these cards would expire this month.

Lee said this was a backward step for reform and called for "all habitual residents ofMyanmar" to be able to vote in the election and referendum.

"The government should focus on creating an empowered population, including the youth and women, to ensure that a new generation can work together to create a prosperous and stable country and reverse the current slide toward extreme nationalism, religious hatred and conflict," Lee wrote.

Ethnic tensions could worsen because of draft bills on religious conversion, inter-faith marriage, monogamy and population control, she added.

There was also an alarming escalation of violence near the Chinese border, prompting a state of emergency that Lee said must observe "strict accountability and safeguards for human rights".

She cited information that Myanmar's security forces were still recruiting children and that the number of political prisoners in Myanmar could be "much higher" than the official total of 27.

She also cited the use of live ammunition by the police, restrictions on media and evictions of farmers protesting against a proposed copper mine.

Ethnic Myanmar Rohingya refugees hold placards during a protest outside the Myanmar Embassy in Kuala Lumpur on March 11, 2015. (Photo: AFP/Manan Vatsyayana)

By Melissa Goh
March 11, 2015

Myanmar Buddhist activists staged a protest alongside Rohingya Muslims in Kuala Lumpur, calling for an immediate end to the violent crackdown against student protesters in Myanmar. 

KUALA LUMPUR: Scores of Myanmar Buddhist activists have staged a protest alongside Rohingya Muslims in the Malaysian capital.

The Buddhist activists were calling for an immediate end to the violent crackdown against student protesters in Myanmar. This comes just a day before Myanmar President Thein Sein is scheduled to arrive for a two-day state visit.

Rohingya Muslims and the Myanmar Buddhist community do not usually mix in Malaysia where both groups have sizable numbers in residence. That is why the police and special branch were taking no chances when both groups decided to protest and hand over memoranda to the Myanmar government.

The Chin National Front group and the 88 Generation leaders' representatives were demanding an immediate release of the students taken into detention after clashes with police in central Myanmar. Over 100 students fighting for educational freedom were arrested in Letpadan as a result of violent clashes with the police.

"If (Thein Sein) could hear us, he should make the situation in Myanmar positive, and not handle it like in a dictatorship," said Alfred Aung Myin Myint from the Chin National Front.
The Rohingya community, too, was condemning the use of violence. There are some 80,000 Rohingya Muslims in Malaysia, mostly refugees. President Thein Sein will visit Malaysia on March 12 and they will be using the opportunity to call on him to recognise their basic human rights.

Mohammad Sadek, program coordinator for the Rohingya Arakanese Refugee Committee Malaysia, said: "We are part of Myanmar and we must have voting rights to support the government for the democratic process."

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are over 130,000 Myanmar refugees in Malaysia and regardless of their ethnicity, many do not feel safe in Malaysia.

"We are not safe at all here, because we are foreigners, we are not documented people," said Alfred Aung Myin Myint.

Mohammad Sadek added: "We are also afraid of Malaysia's enforcement law. The Malaysia immigration penal code does not allow anyone to escape any country."

It is a plight that many in the Myanmar diaspora can relate to. They feel that Thein Sein’s self-styled reformist government is now letting the country's reforms slip backwards.

Many, like Yaw Han, the Chairman of the Chin National Front, still believe in pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is their only hope. "We trust in her than anyone else in Myanmar because she is Aung San's daughter and we trust him alone."

Student protesters confront police officers preventing them from joining another group of students in a monastery in Letpadan, north of Yangon, Myanmar, March 2. 2015.

March 11, 2015

It was a relatively small student demonstration in a town 90 miles north of the former Burmese capital Yangon. But it was the continuation of a significant outburst of anger among the country’s young people which represents a potent challenge to the quasi-military government of former general Thein Sein. 

Some 44 percent of the 56 million Burmese are aged under 25 and they are increasingly impatient with the failure of promised change. Indeed since last November, they have been protesting a draft law that will centralize education, in particular taking much control of universities away from their governing bodies and placing it in the hands of the minister of education.

But the students are angry about more than this government interference in their education. The bill to which they are objecting largely ignores the use of the country’s many minority languages. By extension this is an attempt to undermine the position of the minorities themselves, not the least of whom are the savagely-repressed Rohingya Muslims. The government’s attempt to write the Rohingya out of Burmese history, even as these unfortunate people are herded into concentration camps, is a clear demonstration that far too little has changed since the military junta pretended to step down and marched their soldiers back into their barracks.

Last year’s census completely ignored the more than one million Rohingya. It made a mockery of the cohesiveness and unity that Thein Sein likes to talk about. It would be wrong of course to think that the angry students were protesting specifically about the Rohingya. But there can be no doubting that the appalling treatment of this minority by the police and army as well as by bigoted Buddhist thugs has added to the general despair among young people that virtually nothing has changed fundamentally in this country which has claimed, and been granted, readmission to the international community. 

This new student demonstration in Letpadan may have been a modest affair but it is the latest in a series of protests that will worry the government. Ordinary Burmese have also been disturbed by the attempt to prevent the Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from standing in this year’s presidential election on the grounds that her late husband was a foreigner. The iconic politician who has attracted widespread popular support certainly has some big battles to fight, but her limited protests over the treatment of the Rohingya have been regrettable. Put bluntly, a regime that can behave with such murderous violence toward a defenseless minority is not one that can be trusted. Aung San Suu Kyi should have gone front and center and told the international community that it should still not be doing business with Burma, business, moreover, which is enriching the generals and their cronies. 

And there is an irony here. The protests that followed the 1990 refusal of the junta to acknowledge the overwhelming victory of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy were spearheaded by Buddhist monks. Now part of that same religious establishment is at the head of an anti-Muslim, anti-Christian drive whose violent demonstrations are countenanced by the government. It is surely time for the majority of moderate Buddhists to join the students and renew their protests against military repression. And they should make one of their key demands the recognition and active support of Burma’s many minorities, not least the Rohingya Muslims.



By Min Khant
RB Article
March 11, 2015

Professor Dr. Jacque P. leider, who has been one of the staunchest and anti Rohingyas giant, being cooperated with Dr. Aye Chan, was appointed as the advisor to the United Nations Coordinator in Myanmar by Ms. Rentals Lok Dessallen.

The said pessimistic intellectual has firstly held a seminar at France cultural centre, Yangon, Myanmar in the year 2012, advocating the beauty and impressive of Mrauk Oo periods and on the other hand demeaning Rohingyas as immigrants from neighboring country in his articulation in that mini-work shop together with a handful Rakhine hardliners audience.

In that discussion, he has earned a lot of pledges from the audience and round of applause to continue the job which could consequently disgrace the Rohingyas people into risk by his skilful fake and mixed mythical invention with the help of insincere coordinated Rakhine chronicle tellers.

Again, on 09 March 2013, professor Jacque has participated at a seminar in Bangkok, at Mahidol University in regards “Rakhine culture and historical background” in which U Aye Chan, a Rakhine professor from Kanda University of Japan, has delivered a speech in a short history of Rakhine about the second world war and later on he has got encountered to questioner U Htay Lwin Oo, who has brought and presented a pile of books which are all full of primary documents rather than secondary in regards Rohingyas. U Htay Lwin Oo has been advocating the Rohingyas affairs as well as general Muslim suffering of Myanmar.

Moreover, date on February 7, 2014, at Chula Lanker University of Bangkok, there was a lobby which was sponsored and initiated by a Canadian Professor under the banner of “Rohingya consequences and implication”, where the freelance photographer; Mr.Creg Constantine has demonstrated all the miserable photos of oppressed Rohingyas which has actually heartened the audience how an amount of ‘men made mess’ the Rohingyas being suffered in the hands of Myanmar central government and Rakhine people. 

But when rotate came to Dr. Jacque around he has started to twist all the historical background existence in regard Rohingyas. He has concluded that Rohingyas are immigrants to Arakan, Rakhine state and the Rohingya identity itself has been the creation of the third generation of Chittagonians, particularly Mr. A. Gaffar and Mr.Ba Thar, after the birth of Burma’s independence in around 1950s. 

So, Professor Dr. Jacque P. Leider is a proven bias intellectual guise against Rohingyas people and their existence in Arakan, Rakhine state. Rakhine and Myanmar government have completed a master-plan to eradicate Rohingyas which was approved recently by the parliaments & the Presidential office as a disenfranchised people who have nowhere to go on this earth apart from Rakhine state. He, Jacque has academically and intentionally chosen a way of Rakhine people and the central government which has openly wedged the “annihilation plan” against Rohingyas amidst from the international regular pressure and that of gradual excellent mediation. 

Knowing all Rakhine inhumane conspiracies against Rohingyas by the international community or the United Nations body, selecting such a crooked bias intellectual as an advisor to advocate Rakhine sentiment and attitude to the world highest body is totally contradictory to the original nature of the United Nations characteristic & existence and such a selection strikes entire Rohingyas people ‘bogged down’ and unfortunate. 

Owing to his prejudice nature, Mr. Leider’s future attempt or the consultative mechanism due to “Rakhine & Rohingyas unsolved problem” will not produce any good results in the way ahead instead the already achieved some agreements between the United Nations body and government of Myanmar for many years in the past will be perished or restarted from the position horrific beginning. 

If Dr. Leider starts the work from the point the United Nations has already achieved some pledges which are unknown in public, then it is not a problem. But while he was chosen by the UN body under the covert arrangement of high level Rakhine conspirators who favor Rakhine desire only, how could he start his UN assigned job from the right point? No way at all. Now, the entire United Nations works concerning Rakhine state are in the wrong direction. 
Was he hired by the organization to design Rohingyas as Bengali immigrants (or) to persuade Rohingyas in the grassroots level to be confessing as Bengali through one way or another meeting after meeting with them (Rohingyas) in township after township? What a conspiracy and how dare he is to champion this disgusted employment at this serious condition?
As a matter of fact, he doesn’t have knowledge nor take ever a small step to try to expose the ancient history of Arakan or the great Arakanese History of before 10th century. If he goes as back as 10th century then the history of the region will prove exactly that the ancient inhabitants of Arakan are nowadays Rohingyas people. Or Rohingyas are anyhow earlier settlers than Rakhine Maugh or Arakanese Buddhists i.e. Rohingyas are the senior citizens and they are not immigrants in Arakan state as accused by Rakhine but of course Rakhine are the later settlers in Arakan.
Let’s not mistake with the religions that nowadays Rohingyas who believe Islam once had been for a periods as Hindu believers after that Buddhists until 12th century. Rakhine Buddhists aren’t bloodily inter-related with the Danyawadi or Vaseili Periods inhabitants. 
Rakhine people (Mongoloid descendants) just believing the religion of Buddhism, genealogically they aren’t interrelated with “Chandra dynasty” of Vaisali period’s populace (Indo-Aryan descendants) in Arakan before 10th century who once had believed in Hindu religion and afterward some converted to Buddhism. 
Ordinary Rakhine are simply confused that because of their born religion as Buddhism, and while the religion they first found in Arakan was Buddhism at a time in their entry into Arakan in 12th century, they thought that Buddhism only belongs to them. In reality, in old days, Rohingyas, who had believed at first Hinduism and then Buddhism, have started to practice Islam after abandoning both religions since the year 1202. 
To settle down this outstanding hitch, my idea to Dr. Jacque P. Leider is to dispose of illicit mentality which does not allow you to agree all the time to believe the identity ‘Rohingyas’, please try to understand and accept universal acceptance which prescribed in “ first year text book Module No. geog. 1004 Geography of Myanmar, Code No. (48) B” by the native intellectual professor Daw Htay Htay, Head of Department, Department of Geography, Yangon University of Distance Education. 
In that book, page on 61, it stated that “Along the border of Myanmar where mountain barriers do not hinder movement of population, minority groups are found on either side of the boundary. A small ethnic group named ‘Young’ who lives in northern Thailand, Laos and northern Vietnam can be found in Kyaington of southern Shan State. The Kokant Chinese group is found east of the Thanlwin River at Kokant Township. In northern Rakhine State close to the border with Bangladesh at Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships are where the Rohingyas and Chittagonians live. These minority ethnic groups had settled in the border regions since early days”. This is the strongest message for those who persistently deny the existence of Rohingyas and shame for the ones who do not want to accept the reality yet. 

Raising the slogan of influx of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh some of the extremist Arakanese and Burmese leaders and foreign officials have wrongly represented that the Rohingyas of Arakan are Bangladeshi. They also insist that there are no words like Rohang and Rohingya found in Arakanese and Burmese histories. The Arakanese and Burmese chronicles derogatorily mentioned the Rohingyas as Kala.

The Rohingyas are not an outcome of some sudden occurrences. It was the result of an age long intercourse between Arakan and Muslim countries that dates back to the periods of Arabs contact with Arakan which came into contact with the Arabs as early as the 7th century A.D. The Arakanese chronicles mention the first Muslim settlements in Arakan during the rule of Mahatainchandra (788-810 A.D), the king of Vaisali.

For one’s easy reference, a simple record of more than 200 years ago Dr.Francis Buchanan wrote an article entitled “A comprehensive Vocabulary of some of the languages spoken in the Burma Empire”, published in 1799 in the fifth Volume of Asiatic Researches. This article provides one of the first major western surveys of the languages of Burma. In this article he mentioned that there are the Rooingyas (Rohingyas), the natives of Arakan and he also gave ‘50’ words of Rohingya language. 

Therefore, as the anti- Rohingya campaign has been continuously escalating the unfound accusation in regard Rohingyas continuation, neither Mr. A. Ghaffar nor U Ba Thar invented the word Rohingya but they researched it and found it.

Until British first initiative for a permanent demarcation between Bengal and Arakan state, the southeastern Bengal and Arakan state had been a single state and that of the people have had a dynamic interconnection in terms of culture, custom, trade, art, literature and so on for a long periods.

To have correct historical background regarding southeastern Bengal and the state of Arakan, the book “Chattagram Rosain Tattva”, written by Abdul Rashid Siddique and “Arakan Rajsabhaya Bangla Sahitya” compiled by Dr. Enamul Haque & Adbul Karim Sahitya visharad may provide a sensible source for any hardworking scholar.

Whereas the United Nations organization commitment stands for permanent justice, equality, prestige, safety and security of the people of the world, and if Dr. Jacque is verified for the part of Arakanese Buddhist people advocacy in the UN, then to have an equal balance there should be a fair minded professor from the world body to be hired for the betterment of the faultless project.

March 10, 2015

The world must move more decisively to save the lives of Rohingyas in Myanmar.

The latest UN report on ethnic strife in Myanmar is a damning indictment of the country’s leadership. Yanghee Lee, a UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said she saw no improvement for displaced Rohingya Muslims since her previous visit last July to investigate allegations of mistreatment of them by the Buddhist majority in Rakhine state. She observed a growing atmosphere of fear, distrust and hostility during her latest visit in January. She was showered with abuse during that visit by the country’s hardline Buddhists. The condition of Rohingya Muslims is pathetic that many people told the Special Rapporteur that they had two

options: to stay and die or to leave by boat, said Lee’s report to the UN Human Rights Council.

The international community and UN have been baffled by the situation in Myanmar where the majority Buddhist government and Buddhists are on a campaign to kill or force out Rohingya Muslims from the country. It’s a unique situation in that the government is unwilling to act or answer international concerns. Even Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been criticized for her stunning silence on the issue. Western pressure hasn’t worked. Buddhist leaders inciting tension and killings are not controlled or brought to justice. Police and army who are supposed to protect the victims align themselves with the attackers. And President Thein Sein speaks for Buddhist extremists than support the underprivileged. And to make matters worse, the mostly stateless minority is likely to be the main loser from a new law initiated by the Rakhine National Party that restricts political party membership to full and naturalised citizens. Moreover, the country’s Constitutional Tribunal has stripped voting rights in an upcoming constitutional referendum from all temporary registration card holders. President Thein Sein has said these cards would expire this month. Expectations were high for Myanmar when the country emerged from military dictatorship to embrace democracy. Instead of focusing its energies on economic development and progress of the nation, and in rebuilding relations with the world, the government got embroiled in the ethnic tensions in the country.

The events in Myanmar will have a spillover effect. It’s leading to human trafficking as people are smuggled or trafficked out to Thailand and Malaysia. Tension is also escalating near the Chinese border, prompting a state of emergency. It’s time for the UN and international community to do a rethink of their Myanmar policy. The government of Thein Sein has been dismissive of international criticism and it’s time for tough action, like introduction of sanctions. The world’s silence on the ethnic cleansing in Myanmar is dangerous and deplorable. The world must take up the responsibility for protection of Rohingyas.

Police forcefully disburse students protesting for education reforms, in Letpadan, 140 kilometers north of Yangon, Myanmar, March 10, 2015. (Sithu Naina/VOA)

By Steve Herman
March 10, 2015

BANGKOK— Myanmar riot police dispersed student protesters by force Tuesday, ending a standoff with activists who are demanding education reform.

Police wielding batons at Letpadan dispersed about 200 protesters, primarily students and sympathetic monks, who had been trying to march to Yangon. Some of the student leaders were detained, putting a halt to the nearly one-week standoff.

Protest leader Thiha Win Tin told VOA at least 32 people have been arrested. He said many protesters were injured during the clashes.

"So many people are injured. And also some of the students are bleeding (on) their heads. They hit the students' heads. They used their sticks and they threw some of the bricks," he said.

A reporter on scene for the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) said Buddhist monks were among those arrested.

The group set off last month from Mandalay. They were trying to reach Yangon, Myanmar's main city, where they intended to press the military-dominated government to scrap a new education reform law.

Since last week, the march has been stalled in the central city of Letpadan, about 130 kilometers north of Yangon, where marchers were surrounded by police and ordered to stop.

Student demonstrators

The clashes came hours after student leaders told VOA the government agreed to let activists continue their protest march to Yangon. It is not clear why the reported deal broke down.

European Press Photo Agency (EPA) staff photographer Nyein Chan Naing, who also was on the scene, said, “The student protesters tried to break through the police line and police stood against the student protesters. Suddenly someone threw a water bottle or something, then the violence started."

Police were also seen destroying the loudspeaker truck of the protest group and attacking an ambulance in which some protesters took refuge.

Chan Naing said journalists initially were unhindered but then also became targets of the police.

“They also tried to attack the journalists. They shouted at us 'journalists also get out! You cannot stay here.' They tried to use their rubber sticks to hit the journalists so we also had to run away from there," Chan Naing said.

The Irawaddy news outlet quoted one of its photographers describing a “complete breakdown of police discipline” with one group of security personnel attempting to restrain another that was indiscriminately attacking protesters.

Witnesses said authorities also went into nearby houses looking for those who had fled.

University students in Myanmar, also known as Burma, have been conducting on-and-off protests for months against an education bill adopted last year. They said it stifles academic freedom. The students also want the government to spend more money on education and allow them to have unions for students and faculty.

'Entirely predictable'

Mark Farmaner with the Britain-based Burma Campaign UK told VOA that Tuesday's events were "entirely predictable."

"We're seeing students protesters, demonstrations being banned. They're being attacked by the police and pro-regime thugs. We're seeing huge numbers of arrests taking place," Farmaner said. "It's all the kind of thing we saw before in 2007, when there was the crackdown in protesters then that we saw a decade before. It's the same old regime behavior that we've come to know happens so often in Burma."

The government had for days threatened to arrest the students if they continued their march, which authorities have said is "harming the peace and stability of the country."

Protests are tightly restricted in Myanmar, which is recovering from decades of a harsh military dictatorship. Democratic freedoms have improved slightly since 2011, when the country's military leaders handed power to a nominally civilian government.

But activists such as Farmaner say the pace of reform has slowed, and that many rights have even been reversed after Western governments loosened sanctions on Myanmar.

Previous history

There are growing fears that authorities in Myanmar could choose to return to tougher actions against not only student demonstrators but also factory workers who have been on strike, seeking higher wages.

Military leaders in 1988 brutally suppressed protests. Although a reformist government took over in 2011, ending nearly a half-century of military rule, the army still plays a powerful role in the government.

The police action on the students comes a day after a United Nations investigator published a report warning that Myanmar is sliding back toward conflict because the government has not kept promises to protect human rights.

Yanghee Lee, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar wrote "fear, distrust and hostility" are spreading in Arakan state, home of the displaced mainly Muslim Rohingya.

Her report also chastizes Myanmar's security forces for continuing to recruit children and for using live ammunition against those who protested a proposed copper mine.

William Gallo contributed to this report from Washington.


    • Rohingya Exodus