By Dr. Habib Siddiqui

RB Article

March 29, 2015

In a country that has been infested with the blight of unfathomable racism ad bigotry for decades, rumors are enough to trigger communal riots. And if the press, priests, public servants and people’s representatives are all working in cahoots as a party to a very sinister program – which I have been calling a ‘national eliminationist project’ – one does not have to be Einstein to understand the impact of such false rumors. And that is what happened to Mandalay in central Myanmar (formerly Burma) in July of last year when we witnessed anti-Muslim violence there. It was all part of a highly orchestrated criminal program with deep support at every level of the local and central government. 

On July 3, 2014, U Soe Min, a Muslim man, was walking to morning prayers (Fajr) at a nearby mosque when a man with a machete struck him dead with a deep blow to his skull. The 51-year-old Mandalay resident, who ran a bicycle shop, was one of two innocent victims that day of communal violence sparked by reports – later proven to be false – that a Buddhist woman had been raped by two Muslim brothers.

Since May of 2012 starting with the gruesome lynching to death of ten Tablighi Muslims by a Rakhine mob, we have witnessed how the Buddhist mob and criminals have often been empowered by such false rumors to terrorize and exterminate Muslims, which sadly have been led by Buddhist monks and security forces. 

The May (2012) ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims started under a similar pretext: a Rakhine woman - Ma Thida Htwe - was raped and murdered by 3 Rohingya (the so-called Bengali) Muslims. The dead body was found, rather conveniently, in a Rakhine village – not too far from a Rohingya locality. Interestingly, the lead accused - named Htet Htet - was not a 'Bengali' – and not even a Muslim. He was a married Buddhist Bama who in his childhood was adopted by a Rohingya Muslim family. As we have seen in many such incidents under police and NASAKA custody, Htet Htet was found dead in his prison cell. The police announced that he had killed himself. 

Dr. Maung Zarni, a Burmese human rights activist, says that “the rape narrative of the Rakhine woman - the late Ma Thida Htwe - raped by 'Bengali men' was patently false, but spread by President Thein Sein's men the likes of Major Zaw Htay (Hmu Zaw), Colonel Ye Htut (now deputy information minister) as a trigger event to set the fire of genocidal hatred towards the Muslims. Ma Thida Htwe was NOT raped but was simply murdered - the doctor who examined her body told Ko Zaganar [a popular comedian], in no uncertain terms, that there was absolutely no evidence of rape on Ma Thida Htwe's dead body. The doctor was forced to sign the medical report which claims falsely she was raped. The rape story was spread by government agents on the social media and was used as a launching pad to start waves of mass killings against the Rohingya and the Muslims across Burma or Myanmar.”

“Within a month of his death - when [Maung Thura] Zaganar attempted to meet Htet Htet's wife,” writes Dr. Zarni in his blog, “she was found dead in a village well. How convenient!” It is believed amongst the independent analysts that NASAKA security forces killed Ma Thida Htwe and possibly Htet Htet’s wife. 

For years I have been saying that if one is serious about finding the origin of race/ ethnic/ religious riots and pogroms inside military-controlled Myanmar that inquiry should start with the government itself. As subsequent inquiries have revealed I was not wrong: most of the anti-Muslim pogroms and genocidal activities inside Burma (or Myanmar) owe their origin to the government – central and local. These crimes are sometimes scripted and often times sanctioned by the government. True that we sometimes see the faces of angry Buddhist mob taking the lead in such heinous crimes, but these low-lives are often used as pawns in this chess game of ethnic cleansing of the targeted victims. And no one can deny the powerful influence of the Sangha in agitating and mobilizing Buddhists. The terrorist Buddhist monks have been employed by the regime to polarize public opinion against Muslims and aid in its sinister plan. 

It is no accident that after his release from prison in 2010, Wirathu – the head abbot of the Masoyein monastery in Mandalay - with a large following has now become the face of Buddhist terrorism. His 969 (fascist) Movement provides the foot soldiers for Nazi-like blitzkrieg against unarmed Muslims. He led a rally of monks in Mandalay in September, 2012 to promote President Thein Sein's controversial plan to expel Rohingyas to a third country. A month later more violence was directed against Muslims in the Rakhine state resulting in displacement of some 140,000 Rohingyas. His fascist movement has been behind all the subsequent pogroms directed against Muslims (and not just limited to Rohingyas) all across Myanmar. His disciples have also been behind all state-managed protest rallies against the NGOs, UN and OIC reps, including the Doctors Without Borders, worsening the humanitarian crisis affecting the Muslims of Myanmar.

With the vast support Wirathu and other racist and bigoted Buddhist monks enjoy within the broader Buddhist community, they have been able to rally hateful Buddhists to attack and kill Muslims and burn their properties with impunity. Police and other security forces, if they did not participate in such heinous crimes themselves would often time stand unperturbed, as if nothing had gone wrong, or that they have no business to stop such horrendous crimes of fellow savage Buddhists. 

According to multiple corroborated eyewitnesses, the Mandalay riots of July 2014 were carried out over two straight nights by a small group of Buddhist terrorists on motorcycles carrying clubs and swords who rampaged through Muslim neighborhoods destroying homes, businesses and mosques. This took place in plain view of fully armed riot police, who followed the rioters and watched the mayhem unfold without taking action. As hinted above, Mandalay – the second largest Myanmar city – is home of the terrorist monk Wirathu. The local Panthay (Chinese) Muslims were forced to hide or keep a very low profile. 

Justice Trust - an international human rights organization that partners with lawyers and activists in Myanmar to strengthen local communities fighting for justice – investigated the matter. It found ‘hidden hands’ (read: government hand) in the attack. In its released report, “Hidden Hands Behind Communal Violence in Myanmar: Case Study of the Mandalay Riots,” it documented the use of organized gangs of armed men to commit anti-Muslim riots under the guise of spontaneous mob violence.

The NGO held a press conference in Bangkok on March 23, 2015 to release the report.

“This report shows what most Burmese have known for a long time – that religious hatred between Buddhists and Muslims is being stoked by hidden hands and manipulated as a pretext for maintaining their grip on power,” said U Thein Than Oo, a Mandalay lawyer who serves on Justice Trust’s steering committee. “We have seen this script many times before – the deployment of plainclothes forces [Swah Ah Shin] rather than uniformed soldiers to commit national-scale political violence, and the scapegoating of minorities to divert public attention away from the country’s real needs.”

Drawing on six months of research by a team of local and international lawyers, the report analyzes the riots that shook Mandalay in July 2014 and places these riots in the context of previous waves of communal conflict carried out under past military regimes.

The Mandalay riots closely followed every element of this pattern, starting with a false charge of rape spread on Facebook. But unlike in previous riots, where large mobs developed and the violence spun out of control, local people in Mandalay refused to participate despite the best efforts of outside agitators. In fact, local monks, activists and journalists arrived and tried to contain the situation. Without the protective cover of a sympathetic crowd, the outside agitators were exposed, the stage-managed nature of their violence was made visible to the public, and the overall damage was limited.

“The Mandalay riots were designed to appear as a spontaneous outbreak of mob violence, but in fact were perpetuated by an organised gang of armed men brought in from outside Mandalay to enact a pre-determined script written and stage-managed by hidden hands for political ends,” the report says.

The report states that: “The case of Mandalay therefore provides the clearest evidence yet of a deliberate political strategy to foment anti-Muslim violence, as well as the best example of countering this strategy through a local early warning system to mobilize an immediate on-the-ground response.”

The report says they follow a similar pattern of events, including rape allegations, speaking tours by Wirathu and visits by gangs of fomenting outsiders. “Lots of people recognise that the 969 movement has a history of inciting riots … and once Wirathu posted the [rape] allegation to Facebook, the local civil groups alerted others to the coming storm,” said Roger Normand, executive director of Justice Trust.

Mandalay is far from the only orchestrated incident inside Myanmar, which has a long history of military regimes employing the “dual threat of external intervention and internal disintegration” to ensure control, according to the report. Notable examples of such diversions include General Ne Win’s anti-Chinese riots in the 1960s to distract from a countrywide rice shortage, and Buddhist-Muslim tensions after democratic mass uprising in 1988. 

Anti-Muslim pogroms in Myanmar are not new. They have surfaced periodically in recent decades. The fascist elements within the Buddhist country have exploited their deep-seated racism and bigotry against ethnic minorities and non-Buddhists to glue the fractured Buddhist majority. Their propaganda encourages a blind racist nationalism and an unparallel bigotry, full of references to ‘protecting the race and religion’, meaning that if the national race Burmans (Bama) do not oppress other nationalities then they will themselves be oppressed and if the Buddhist majority likewise does not expel the non-Buddhists (esp. the Muslims) then they will become a minority, ‘national reconsolidation’, meaning forced assimilation, and preventing ‘disintegration of the Union’, meaning that if the Army (Tadmadaw) falls then some kind of ethnic chaos would ensue. In this new Myanmarism, ethno-religio-fascist Buddhism (coined first by self-exiled researcher Dr. Shwe Lu Maung), monks have become the regime’s pit bulls that are aided from center to the local level politicians. Even Suu Kyi is a silent partner.

As noted by Human Rights Watch in its report “All You Can Do Is Pray”, immediately after the first wave of anti-Muslim genocidal activities in Arakan in June 2012, local Rakhine Buddhist monks circulated pamphlets calling for the isolation of Muslims. For instance, on June 29, monks in Sittwe (formerly Akyab) distributed an incendiary pamphlet telling all Arakanese Buddhists that they “Must not do business with Bengalis [Rohingya],” and “Must not associate with Bengalis [Rohingya].” It implored the Rakhine people to follow the demands to socially and economically isolate the Rohingya to prevent the “extinction of the Arakanese.” 

On July 5, 2012 monks representing the Sangha in Rathedaung Township, 30 kilometers north of Sittwe, held a meeting and subsequently issued a 12-point statement. The preamble unabashedly presents a plan for the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya: ‘Arakan Ethnic Cleansing Program’. It called for the establishment of a “rule to control the birth rate of the Muslim Bengali community living in Arakan”; it advocated forced relocation by demanding the government “remove some Bengali villages located near Sittwe University and beside traffic communication roads throughout Arakan State”; and it expresses opposition to any reintegration plans that would “put Buddhist and Muslim people together.” Furthermore, the statement called for a “peoples’ militia in all ethnic villages along the border and [for the government] to supply sophisticated arms to the people’s militia.” The statement called for strict adherence to the 1982 Citizenship Law, which effectively prevents Rohingya from obtaining Burmese citizenship. The Rathedaung statement was sent to President Thein Sein, leaders in parliament, and the presidential commission established to investigate the situation in Arakan State.

The statement also called on the Rakhine Buddhists in Rathedaung Township to avoid employing Rohingya in a range of jobs, including day laborers, carpenters, masons, and in farming. It also said that the Rohingya should not to be employed in government offices or by NGOs operating in the township, and that all NGOs providing aid to the Rohingya in the township must withdraw. On July 9, 2012 the monks' association in Mrauk-U (once the capital of Arakan) released a similar statement: “No Arakanese [Rakhine Buddhist] should sell any goods to Bengalis, hire Bengalis as workers, provide any food to Bengalis and have any dealings with them ...”

The ruling RNDP in the Rakhine state also played an instrumental role in stoking fear and encouraging isolation of and violence against the Rohingya. One of the racist provocateurs by the name of Aye Chan depicts Rohingya as ‘Influx Virus’ which needs extinction. Members of the Buddhist sangha and the RNDP have also called for changes to the demographic makeup of Arakan State and Burma, such as the expulsion of all Rohingya from the country, in interviews with the international media. The monk Sandarthiri likewise told BBC that Rohingya have no right to stay in Burma: “Around the world there are many Muslim countries. They should go there. The Muslim countries will take care of them. They should go to countries with the same religion.”

The RNDP leaders issued orders to the Rakhine people to deny food entering the Rohingya part of the villages. “If any food comes, take it, crush it, and destroy it” was a notice on the corner of the road in front of the food market with orders saying no one could allow any food to reach the Rohingya village. On that paper it said that any Buddhist taking money from the Rohingya for rice or other things would be killed.

The HRW report directly implicated "political and religious leaders in Arakan State" in the planning, organization, and incitement of attacks against the Rohingya and other Muslims in October of 2012. 

Buddhist monks were again in the headlines in June 2013 when it was reported that participants at a monastic conference were preparing a draft law that would put severe restrictions on inter-faith marriage and penalize Muslim men who married Buddhist women without converting. 

The fact-finding reports from multiple NGOs have confirmed what we suspected for a number of years about who these ‘hidden hands’ are that are responsible for genocidal crimes against Muslims and other vulnerable minorities inside Myanmar. It is high time for the world community, esp. the UNSC, to try these fascists in the ICC for their crimes against humanity for surely the strongest antidote to genocide is justice. And nothing will sober the culprits of Myanmarism except such punitive measures.

By Mizzima

March 28, 2015

The government has criticised a European Union resolution adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on March 27, saying it amounts to an infringement of Myanmar’s sovereignty and interference in its affairs.

“The resolution does not adequately and objectively reflect and apprise of the efforts and achievements in promoting and protecting of human rights of the people of Myanmar,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a news release issued in Nay Pyi Taw.

“In addition to this drawback, some facts amount to infringing on the sovereignty and interfering in the internal affairs of Myanmar,” the ministry said in the release, published in the state-controlled Global New Light of Myanmar on March 28.

It said the resolution had criticised and prejudged the holding and the outcome of the general election due later this year and had ignored efforts to ensure the vote is free, fair and transparent.

The resolution was also criticised for containing “a terminology which is not accepted by the nation and its entire people”, though the news release did not make clear if it was referring to the use of the term “Rohingya”.

It also said references in the resolution to Myanmar’s cooperation with United Nations agencies and the international humanitarian community were “misleading”.

“At this critical juncture, only constructive contributions and advices (sic) should be made for further progress towards reaching the goal of the whole [reform] process rather than focusing on and criticising some incidents,” the news release said.

Myanmar would maintain its efforts to promote and protect the human rights of its people, the foreign ministry said.

“In so doing, cooperation with friendly nations and the international organisations which support Myanmar with constructive views will be continued,” it said.

By Radio Free Asia

March 28, 2015

An armed ethnic group battling government troops in Myanmar’s Shan state has denied reports it is recruiting Chinese nationals to serve as mercenaries in its fight to reclaim territory in the country’s remote Kokang border region.

Tun Myat Lin, spokesman for the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) under aging leader Peng Jiasheng, refuted claims by an RFA source earlier this week that the group had been offering a sign-up package to former soldiers demobilized from China's People's Liberation Army (PLA).

“Our Kokang Army MNDAA does not use mercenaries [obtained] from hiring Chinese people,” he said in a statement written in English.

“The Chinese government also would not allow this,” he said, adding that the high cost of recruiting meant that “we cannot afford to hire Chinese people as mercenaries.”

In an accompanying statement, written in Chinese, Tun Myat Lin said the MNDAA had “never recruited people from outside of Myanmar to join our army.”

“We have stressed time and again in our official blog that we do not accept volunteers from China, so why would we use money to hire ‘mercenaries’?"

Tun Myat Lin asserted that government-aligned Kokang region chairman Bai Suocheng—the former deputy commander of the MNDAA—was spreading rumors to undermine support for Peng faction across the border in southwestern China’s Yunnan province.

“Bai Suocheng and other human scum, in order to serve the interests and the plots of the Myanmar military, has fabricated false evidence, and used all kinds of tricks to deceive Chinese friends who sympathize with us, then lured them to areas controlled by Myanmar government troops to be interrogated while under detention,” he said.

“Then photos and recordings [of the interrogations] are used as evidence that China is providing mercenaries to our troops.”

Tun Myat Lin also bristled at the term “rebel group” used by some in the media to describe the MNDAA under Peng, instead referring to it as “an armed militia” carrying out a fight “for the right to survive and the dignity of our [Kokang] people.”

Claim of recruitment drive

On Tuesday, military recruiter Lu Wei told RFA’s Mandarin Service that Chinese mercenaries were being offered 30,000 yuan (U.S. $4,830) to sign up for periods of at least a month with the MNDAA and allied military groups.

Lu, who is based in Yunnan’s Nansan township, said the recruitment drive didn't seem to be working, as not many Chinese were taking up the offer to risk their lives in the conflict.

However, other sources cited strong sympathy for the Kokang cause among China’s military and armed police forces. The people of Kokang are ethnic Han Chinese and speak a dialect of Chinese similar to that spoken across the border in Yunnan province.

The MNDAA on Feb. 9 launched a bid to retake the rugged and mountainous Kokang region, which it had controlled until 2009, beginning in the Kokang regional capital Laukkai.

Tens of thousands of displaced civilians in Kokang and across the Chinese border face worsening conditions and uncertainty over whether cease-fire talks will take place, sources have said.

The MNDAA was formerly part of a China-backed guerrilla force called the Communist Party of Burma (CPB), and became the first of about a dozen factions to sign a bilateral cease-fire agreement with the government after the group broke apart in 1989.

However, the agreement faltered in 2009 when armed groups came under pressure to transform into a paramilitary Border Guard Force under the control of Myanmar’s military—a move the MNDAA resisted.

Bai, who was put in charge of the Kokang army after Peng was deposed following the 2009 Kokang fighting, left the region shortly after Peng's offensive began in February.

Since driving MNDAA forces back from Laukkai, sources say Bai’s son has run plainclothes security operations in the city and maintained police patrols on its streets.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar and Mandarin Services. Translated by Jennifer Chou and Paul Eckert. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Myanmar Times

March 28, 2015

A girl holds an infant in an unofficial camp for displaced Muslims on the outskirts of the Rakhine State capital Sittwe in January. (Yu Yu/The Myanmar Times)

RB News

March 27, 2015

According to the mandate given by the "First European Rohingya Conference" held in Denmark last December, a delegation of 3 Rohingya representatives travelled to Brussels to lobby the European Commission, European Parliament and other related institutions. The delegation was comprised of Tun Khin, President of Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, Sazaat Ahammed from Netherlands, and Sayed Hussein, Chairman of Rohingya Organisation Norway. 

On the first day of the event the delegation briefed the Swedish permanent representative to EU, Netherlands permanent representative to the EU, and the US mission delegation.

On the second day the European Rohingya delegates briefed Top Officials from South East Asia European External Action Service, Officials from Foreign Affairs External Policies European Parliament, Sub Committee on Human Rights and Director General from External Policies, Jean Lambert Member of European Parliament.

During the third day the delegation met MEP (Member of the European Parliament) Afzal Khan MEP David Martin, Director General from European Commission Humanitarian aid Office (ECHO).

The European Rohingya delegation strongly emphasized updates of the situation of the Rohingya people of Arakan. The delegates specifically highlighted in particular the revoking of white cards (resident IDs) and lost rights of the Rohingya. They urged the European Union to put pressure on the Burmese government to stop its plan to subject the Rohingya to the so-called national verification process which requires them to identify themselves as Bengalis. They also stressed the need to allow them continue their right of integration by granting them full citizenship with their ethnic identity as ‘Rohingya’. 

The delegation pinpointed that the humanitarian crisis in Rakhine State and impoverishment of the Rohingya is part of a long-term policy of repression of the ethnic Rohingya which has been stepped up since the reform process began in 2011. As a result of Burmese government policies, actions and inaction, almost one million ethnic Rohingya are in dire need of humanitarian assistance. 160,000 of these are living in squalid camps in Rakhine State. The delegation stressed that as the EU is a major aid donor to also provide more aid to Rohingya IDPS and urged the European Union to support Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to personally take the lead in negotiating international humanitarian access. A similar effort in 2008 after Cyclone Nargis succeeded in increasing humanitarian access.

The delegation brought to the attention of the European Parliament members how the commission established by the Burmese government of Burma failed to address issues of accountability and justice. It is clear that the government of Burma is not willing to conduct a genuine investigation into the cause of the violence, to establish who was responsible for inciting and organizing the violence, and to hold those who organized and took part in the attacks to account. An independent international investigation will not only help establish the truth, but also help prevent further attacks by ensuring for the first time that those responsible will fear being held accountable. Recommendations can also be made to prevent further violence.

Moreover the delegation suggested that those inciting hatred and violence are well known in Burma, but no action has been taken against them. President Thein Sein has supported those individuals who are also inciting violence. The Delegation Urged the EU to put strong pressure to stop hate speech against Rohingyas and other minorities of Burma. The Delegation also spoke of how 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. The delegation urged the EU to put pressure on President Thein Sein and the Burmese government immediately and unconditionally to release a group of five Rohingya prisoners of conscience being held in Sittwe prison.

The Delegation stressed that Rohingya people are leaving Arakan in hundreds every day by taking extremely dangerous sea-journeys to escape persecution by Burmese authorities. Currently 10% of population have been driven out by the government of Burma and the crisis should stop by EU pressure immediately. Rohingyas are facing a slow burning genocide and international presence is immediately needed to protect the Rohingyas of Arakan, The delegation also urged European countries to resettle those Rohingyas refugees to their countries.​

By Stephan Uttom & Rock Ronald Rozario

UCA News

March 24, 2015

For Dil Mohammad and his family, a cramped refugee camp on the edge of southeastern Bangladesh has become a reluctant home for almost a quarter-century.

The 61-year-old Muslim Rohingya refugee brought his family here 23 years ago from neighboring Myanmar, fleeing persecution and discrimination at the hands of the majority Buddhist population of Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

Conditions in the two camps at Nayapara and Kutupalong, in Cox’s Bazar district, are often squalid, packed with more than 30,000 registered Rohingya. Their lives have become largely dependent on aid from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Bangladesh government.

Compared to the strife in his homeland, however, life has been relatively peaceful. Back in Myanmar, Mohammad says the government exploited members of the Rohingya community, forcing many like him to work in the fields or carry stones from quarrying sites without pay. He says he was physically beaten two or three times. When Rakhine mobs burned down homes in his village for a third time, he decided it was time to leave.

Now, Mohammad and other refugees are wondering if their lives will again be thrown into chaos. Fears have been spreading since November last year, when Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced that the government was planning to relocate Rohingya refugees to a “better place” — though details of any relocation plan have been scant.

“We have left everything in Rakhine and have gathered life here bit by bit over the years,” Mohammad told ucanews.com during a recent visit to the camp. “We fear that we might lose what we have if we are relocated and start everything all over again.”

With no official announcement of the relocation plans, refugees can only resort to rumors to predict their futures. One has it that the refugees will be relocated to separate districts in southern and central Bangladesh that are said to be prone to disasters.

Mohammad worries that life will become even more difficult for him and his family than it is now. However, he knows he is in no position to make demands.

“Being in a foreign land, we must accept what is in our fate,” he said.

Life is even more uncertain for non-registered Rohingya living in Bangladesh; they are, in the eyes of the government, illegal.

The UNHCR estimates that there are at least 10 times more unregistered Rohingya in Bangladesh — more than 300,000 people.

Some 15,000 of the undocumented Rohingya live in an informal settlement just beside Nayapara camp, including Harez Mohammad Tayub, who left Rakhine state eight years ago.

For Tayub, 32, it is the registered refugees who are the lucky ones.

“Registered refugees have good housing, food, security, and are able to fulfill basic human needs,” he said. “We have heard they will be moved to an even better place. They are lucky people. We are not.”

Bangladesh government officials declined to talk about the relocation plan when approached by ucanews.com. Farid Ahmed Bhuiyan, commissioner of the Rohingya Refugee Repatriation Committee under the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, said the relocation plan includes registered refugees only and is still at a preliminary stage.

The country office of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) also declined to comment on the issue.

Persecution

Often described by human rights groups as one of the most persecuted peoples in the world, Rohingya refugees have effectively been rendered stateless. Though many have lived for generations in Myanmar, they are commonly viewed as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The government frequently refuses to recognize Rohingya citizenship or even use the term when referring to Rohingya.

Rohingya have felt the brunt of a recent uptick in clashes between Buddhist and Muslim civilians, which has sent a new wave of refugees fleeing, by boat to other countries in Southeast Asia, or across the border to Bangladesh.

In the past, Bangladesh has been relatively accommodating, but in recent years has taken a harder line.

In 2012, Bangladesh closed its borders to Rohingya refugees, and the ruling Awami League government has remained defiant in the face of heavy international criticism on the issue.

Professor Imtiaz Ahmed of Dhaka University’s International Relations Department said the government must do more to protect persecuted Rohingya — particularly given Bangladesh’s own history as a source country for refugees during its own war for independence in 1971.

“We have always been positive when it comes to sheltering persecuted people. So, it was a blunder by the government because our image really went down,” he said, calling the Rohingya situation a “humanitarian issue”.

In 2012, the government also ordered three international aid groups — Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Action Against Hunger and Muslim Aid UK — to halt operations in Cox’s Bazar and stop providing aid to undocumented Rohingyas. Authorities said the presence of NGOs in Bangladesh effectively encouraged refugees to pour in over the border. The NGOs have maintained a low profile since the government order, but still continue aiding refugees quietly.

Local media reported at the time that Bangladesh had begun drafting a plan to address the issue of undocumented Rohingya refugees. That scheme, which has not been made public, reportedly contained 25 proposals, including forming a dedicated taskforce to stop illegal entries and installing an embankment as a barrier along 50 kilometers of the Naf River, which divides Bangladesh from Myanmar.

It also reportedly proposed a specific law that would make it illegal to offer shelter to undocumented Rohingya refugees.

Recent events suggest Bangladesh authorities are continuing their tougher policies against Rohingya.

On February 4 this year, officials in Cox’s Bazar district forcibly evicted about 35,000 undocumented Rohingya refugees from makeshift refugee camps near Shamlapur, a fishing village about 50 kilometers from Cox’s Bazar town, leaving them homeless.

Officials said the eviction was an attempt to reclaim the area from illegal encroachers along Marine Drive Road, which runs through the country’s most popular tourist destination.

Going home

Rights groups say that any government relocation plan that excludes unregistered refugees will fail.

“Over the years, it’s become abundantly clear in Bangladesh’s interactions with this group that Dhaka wants to get rid of them but doesn’t know how to make that happen,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at New York-based Human Rights Watch.

“Many of these unregistered Rohingya live in the so-called ‘makeshift’ camp right next door to the official camps that the Bangladesh government wants to move. So then what happens to that still unrecognized group? Without a solution also for the unrecognized group, none of this will work.”

Robertson stressed that any attempt to relocate Rohingya, registered or not, must be done voluntarily.

For Tayub, the 32-year-old living in the unregistered camp, any future in Bangladesh remains precarious, with or without a relocation. He says he’s thankful that Bangladesh has given him shelter, willingly or not. But all things being equal, he knows his home lies not in Bangladesh, but in Myanmar.

“We don’t want to remain as refugees here forever,” he said. “If the Myanmar government provides us with rights, security and citizenship, we would like to go back to our country.”

The Irrawaddy

March 24, 2015

Myanmar Times

March 24, 2015

Daw Phyu Win at her home in Mandalay. (Stuart Alan Becker/The Myanmar Times)

By Joshua Lipes

Radio Free Asia

March 24, 2015

Hard-liners in Myanmar’s government are deliberately instigating communal violence in the country in a bid to derail democracy and maintain their grip on power, according to a report released Monday by a U.S.-based rights group.

In its report entitled “Hidden Hands Behind Communal Violence in Myanmar: Case Study of the Mandalay Riots,” Justice Trust documents what it said was the use of organized gangs of armed men to commit anti-Muslim riots under the guise of spontaneous mob violence.

“This report shows what most Burmese have known for a long time—that religious hatred between Buddhists and Muslims is being stoked by hidden hands and manipulated as a pretext for maintaining their grip on power,” Thein Than Oo, a Mandalay lawyer who serves on Justice Trust’s steering committee, said in a statement.

“We have seen this script many times before—the deployment of plainclothes forces … rather than uniformed soldiers to commit national-scale political violence, and the scapegoating of minorities to divert public attention away from the country’s real needs.”

Based on six months of research by local and international lawyers, Justice Trust’s report analyzes the July 2014 riots in Mandalay and compares them to previous waves of communal violence.

The anti-Muslim violence over two nights in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar’s second largest city left two people dead and about a dozen wounded, as well as motor vehicles and shops ablaze, following online rumors that a Muslim man had raped a Buddhist woman.

The riots followed a common pattern found in previous instances of communal violence, the report said, including allegations of honor crimes, violence incited by gangs believed to be outsiders, the failure of law enforcement to prevent violence and the legal system to punish perpetrators, and suspicious timing of the incident to divert attention from popular demands for justice and democracy.

Agitators exposed

But unlike previous riots, where large mobs developed and violence spun out of control, Justice Trust said residents in Mandalay refused to participate, while local monks, activists and journalists tried to contain the situation.

“Without the protective cover of a sympathetic crowd, the outside agitators were exposed, the stage-managed nature of their violence was made visible to the public, and the overall damage was limited,” the group said.

“The case of Mandalay therefore provides the clearest evidence yet of a deliberate political strategy to foment anti-Muslim violence, as well as the best example of countering this strategy through a local early warning system to mobilize an immediate on-the-ground response,” the report said.

Justice Trust cited eyewitnesses to the riots who said they were carried out by “a small group of men on motorcycles” who “rampaged through Muslim neighborhoods.” The violence took place “in plain view” of armed riot police who watched the mayhem unfold “without taking action.”

It said the failure of police to act against the rioters was mirrored by the government’s failure to address the hostile environment created by the ultra-nationalist Buddhist 969 movement, which claims Myanmar’s minority Muslims are threatening the Buddhist majority.

Deadly violence between Buddhists and Muslims throughout Myanmar has left at least 280 dead and tens of thousands homeless since 2012, and rights groups say Muslims have borne the brunt of the violence—many of them ethnic Rohingyas in Rakhine state.

Muslims account for about 4 percent of Myanmar's roughly 60 million people.

Religious extremism

Justice Trust said 969 leader Wirathu played “a direct role” in inciting the violence by personally engaging in anti-Muslim preaching events or social media campaigns just prior to major outbreaks of rioting against Muslim communities in Rakhine, Meiktila, Lashio, and Mandalay.

“The close nexus between his speech and ensuing criminal violence in these specific events is prima facie evidence of incitement,” it said.

“Failure by the Government to conduct an impartial investigation and take appropriate legal action will further encourage extremists to break the law.”

But the group also cautioned against suggestions from the international community which places blame for the violence on Buddhist chauvinism.

“Latent religious divisions certainly exist and are being exploited and exacerbated by hate-mongering nationalists and opportunistic politicians,” it said.

“But to make the leap from hate speech to wanton murder and destruction requires an additional factor—armed groups funded and trained to commit criminal violence for political ends.”

Influence of hardliners

Those political ends involve undermining progress towards democratic reform and maintaining the behind-the-scenes influence of hardliners linked to the country’s former military junta, which handed power to President Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government in 2011, the report said.

So far, these “hidden hands” have been successful in widening communal divisions, fostering insecurity that threatens elections set for later this year, and shifting the narrative of Myanmar’s political opening from reform to reaction, it said.

“The incitement of religious violence, from Rakhine state in 2012 to Mandalay in 2014, has revealed the power of former junta hardliners to control the script of Myanmar’s political transition,” said Roger Normand, executive director of Justice Trust.

“The Government must fulfill its public promises to protect all people and hold accountable those forces who are instigating communal conflict for political ends.”

In its report, Justice Trust called on civil society to develop local responses to counter the strategy of instigating communal conflict, and for the government to fulfill its duties to uphold the rule of law and protect all people equally, regardless of race or religion.

RB News

March 23, 2015

UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Provides Compelling Report on Human Right Violations in Arakan State

Geneva, Switzerland -- The 28th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) was held in Geneva March 2-27, 2015, and the Rohingya Human Rights session was programmed for the afternoon session on March 16, 2015. At the main session, UN Special Rapporteur, Yanghee Lee, provided an astounding report on the human right violations committed by the Government of Myanmar against Rohingya ethnic minority in Arakan state in Myanmar. Director General of Arakan Rohingya Union, Dr. Wakar Uddin, along with the members of The European Rohingya Council and the ARU’s Global Rohingya Center attended the conference.

The UN Special Rapporteur, Yanghee Lee, provided all the aspects of the plights of Rohingya people in Myanmar based on her personal experiences where she witnessed the daily suffering of the Rohingya people during her visits to Arakan state. Ms. Lee described the situation in Rohingya IDP camps as ‘abysmal ’. She provided the details of the violations of human rights committed by the Government officials and armed forces in Arakan state fueled by the policy of the Government of Myanmar. She also spoke about ‘White Card’ and voting rights of the Rohingya. The Special Rapporteur stressed the continuous instability in the country caused the hate speech by the radical Buddhist monks instigating the violence against Rohingya by Buddhist Rakhine. She has also highlighted the abusive and insulting language against international dignitaries used by the leader of the radical Buddhist ‘969’ movement. The Special Rapporteur has called on the international community and the Government of Myanmar to find a solution to the Rohingya issue in an expedient manner.

Over 40 countries and several NGOs made statements on the Rohingya issue where almost all of them shared the view of the UN Special Rapporteur. Amongst them, the Government of United States, several European countries, Saudi Arabia, OIC, and Human Rights Watch expressed the strongest support for the cause of Rohingya. The Myanmar representative refuted most of the testimony by the Special Rapportuer and often used ‘transition to democracy’ as a pre-text for all the violations by the Government of Myanmar. The Myanmar representative bluntly rejected the ethnic identity of Rohingya and disregarded the indigeneity of the Rohingya people in Arakan. 

In the side event, Dr. Wakar Uddin, DG of ARU, and GRC Representative Dr. Mohammed Taher Siraj spoke on ethnic cleansing of Rohingya in Myanmar. Their presentations covered the situation on the ground in Arakan, the Government’s hostile policy towards Rohingya that is triggering the violence by Buddhist Rakhine, verification process as a tool for second-class citizenship or internment in camps, and several other issues. Their speech vastly reflected the reports of the Special Rapporteur. The Arab League meeting at the session also discussed the Rohingya issue, and ARU-DG stressed the need for the Arab League and all the OIC member states to increase their efforts and speak out through all multi-lateral and bilateral relations with Myanmar. The resolution on Rohingya human rights at the 28th HRC is due to be released shortly.

By Reuters

March 22, 2015

Yangon -- Myanmar's military will maintain its role in politics in order to support a transition to democracy but will eventually submit to civilian rule, President Thein Sein said in an interview broadcast on Friday.

Myanmar was ruled by the military for 49 years before a semi-civilian government took power in 2011 and initiated widespread political and economic reforms.

But under a 2008 constitution drafted under military rule, a quarter of parliamentary seats are reserved for unelected serving officers, along with some key cabinet posts, giving the military an effective veto on any constitutional reform.

The opposition National League for Democracy party, led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has called for the military to step away from politics.

Thein Sein, a former general, said the military initiated the reform process and still needed to play a political role in order to support the transition to democracy.

"In fact, the military is the one who is assisting in the flourishing of democracy in our country," he told the BBC.

"As the political parties mature in their political norms and practice, the role of the military gradually changes."

Thein Sein did not say when the military would transition out of politics, but said it would be done according to the "will of the people".

Parliamentary elections are scheduled for early November, and the parliament that emerges from the vote will choose the next president.

Suu Kyi's party swept a 1990 vote that the ruling generals ignored, and she remains hugely popular but the military-drafted constitution bars her from the presidency because she has two sons with British citizenship. Her late husband was a British academic.

Thein Sein denied that the clause was written in order to exclude Suu Kyi from the presidency, and said the requirement was actually drafted in 1947 when the country, also known as Burma, was preparing for independence from Britain.

Thien Sein said he was not opposed to changing the constitution, but said it would be up to parliament to support an amendment, which would then require a referendum.

Such an amendment would require more than 75 percent approval in a parliament dominated by military representatives and their allies in the ruling United Solidarity and Development Party, which is made up mainly of former officers.