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Thai policemen take notes behind human remains retrieved from a mass grave at a rubber plantation near a mountain in Thailand's southern Songkhla province on May 6, 2015. Malaysian police have discovered 30 mass graves in Perlis, believed to be linked to the mass graves found earlier this month in southern Thailand. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

By Praveen Menon & Trinna Leong
May 24, 2015

Mass graves and suspected human trafficking detention camps have been discovered by Malaysian police in towns and villages bordering Thailand, the country's home minister said on Sunday.

Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said officials are determining whether the graves were of human trafficking victims, but did not say how many dead bodies were discovered.

"This is still under investigation," he told reporters at the sidelines of an event in Kuala Lumpur.

According to media reports, the mass graves were believed to contain bodies of hundreds of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Police discovered 30 large graves containing the remains of hundreds of people in two places in the northern state of Perlis, which borders Thailand, the Utusan Malaysia newspaper reported.

The Star newspaper reported on its website that nearly 100 bodies were found in one grave on Friday. 

"I reckon it was a preliminary finding and eventually I think the number would be more than that," Ahmad Zahid said when asked about reports of the number of mass graves discovered.

Ahmad Zahid said that the camps identified are in the areas of Klian Intan and villages near the border.

"They have been there for quite some time. I suspect the camps have been operating for at least five years," he said.

A police spokeswoman declined to comment saying a news conference on the issue would be held on Monday.

A police official who declined to be identified said police commandos and forensic experts from the capital, Kuala Lumpur, were at the site but it was not clear how many graves and bodies had been found. 

"Of course I believe that there are Malaysians involved," Ahmad Zahid said, when asked on possible involvement of locals in the incident.

Northern Malaysia is on a route for smugglers bringing people to Southeast Asia by boat from Myanmar, most of them Rohingyas, who say they are fleeing persecution, and people from Bangladesh seeking work.

Smugglers have also used southern Thailand and Utusan Malaysia and police believe the discovery had a connection to mass graves found on the Thai side of the border this month.

Twenty-six bodies were exhumed from a grave in Thailand's Songkhla province, over the border from Perlis, near a camp with suspected links to human trafficking. 

More than 3,000 migrants, most of them from Myanmar and Bangladesh, have landed on boats in Malaysia and Indonesia this month after a crackdown on trafficking in Thailand.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Thursday pledged assistance and ordered the navy to rescue thousands adrift at sea. 

A Rohingya Muslim woman in Myanmar with a picture of her daughter, who she says is being held by a human trafficker. Photo: Reuters

By Editorial Board
May 23, 2015

The world has closed its eyes to the agony of Myanmar's Rohingya for too long. Despised, impoverished and facing what some call slow genocide, life for the Muslim Rohingya in their home state of Rakhine is dire. Buddhist-majority Myanmar refuses to recognise its 1.3 million Rohingya as citizens, and the threat of state-sanctioned sectarian violence is constant. From such misery comes a desperate stream of human cargo for traffickers, whose trade in the Bay of Bengal is estimated to bring in $250 million a year.

And so it would have continued, if not for the discovery of mass graves near holding camps in southern Thailand earlier this month. Probably the remains of those who died or were killed while held captive, waiting for their families to pay smugglers more money to take them to Malaysia, the gruesome finds made it impossible for Thai authorities to ignore the business – and the involvement of their own corrupt officials in it. They cracked down.

Unable to land their passengers, smugglers abandoned rickety boats loaded with thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshis – but little food or water – to the ocean. And so we witnessed the unedifying game of "human ping pong" as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand pushed the boats back towards each other.

It is a relief that action is finally being taken to tackle the immediate humanitarian crisis, with Indonesia and Malaysia agreeing to take survivors, as long as they can be resettled elsewhere in a year, and Malaysia establishing a search and rescue operation, which the US looks set to aid.

But it is an indictment on the region, including Australia, that it has taken so long, and that a regional framework for dealing with irregular migration is not already in place. It worked with the Vietnam refugee crisis and it can work again.

Asian nations did not need the Abbott turn-back policy as a blueprint for their actions this month (Thailand has pushed back Rohingya vessels before), but the exercise has illustrated the cul-de-sac into which it drives us. If everyone is turning back boats, desperate people will die. While the Abbott policy has stemmed the tide of boats to Australia, what will be Indonesia's attitude if they restart, especially if we persist in refusing to take survivors of this emergency?

Australia's blunt language and refusal to more actively involve itself in solving the crisis is further straining our relationship with our important neighbour. Is mercy only for Australian drug smugglers and not for boat people? Will our requests for future cooperation be met with "nope, nope, nope" in Bahasa?

But the Abbott government is right that Myanmar is the key to a long-term solution to the Rohingya exodus. The Association of South-East Asian Nations should use the carrot rather than the stick: offer to partner with Myanmar and Bangladesh, where many Rohingya refugees live in squalor, to build and fund an international investment zone in Rakhine state in return for both countries improving the Rohingyas' human rights.

If it won't offer hope of resettlement to Rohingyas here, Australia should offer hope of a better future at home, by putting bold proposals to the crisis meeting in Thailand this week and to ASEAN in future. We cannot turn a blind eye again.

(Photo: Irrawaddy)

By Robin McDowell & Jocelyn Gecker
May 23, 2015

Navy ships were scouring Southeast Asian waters for boats believed to be carrying thousands of migrants with little food or water, and a top U.S. diplomat said Myanmar needs to shoulder some responsibility for the crisis. That's something it has been reluctant to do.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Friday that Rohingya Muslims fleeing the predominantly Buddhist nation were risking perilous journeys and putting their lives in the hands of human traffickers because "they are in despair and don't see a future" at home.

They have been denied citizenship and chased off their land in the latest bout of ethnic violence that left them with little access to education, medical care or freedom to move around.

The persecution has sent them fleeing to neighboring Southeast Asian countries, but recently, the exodus has erupted into a humanitarian crisis. Because of arrests after a crackdown on human trafficking networks in the region, captains earlier this month started abandoning boats that were packed with Rohingya Muslims as well as Bangladeshis escaping poverty.

More than 3,600 migrants have washed ashore in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand since May 10, and thousands more are believed to be trapped at sea. The United Nations has warned that time is running out to save them.

"The root of the problem for those leaving Myanmar is the political and social situation on the ground," Blinken told reporters at a news conference in Yangon.

He said Rohingya Muslims "should have a path to citizenship," adding: "The uncertainty that comes from not having any status is one of the things that may drive people to leave."

He said he made that point when he met with President Thein Sein, the army commander-in-chief and other top officials.

At first, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand were reluctant to help, worried that accepting even a few refugees would open the floodgates for more. But on Wednesday, Indonesia and Malaysia agreed to shelter new arrivals as long as the international community promised to help resettle them to third countries within a year.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday also called for addressing the crisis that causes the flight of the migrants.

"At the same time, it's important to save human lives," he said on a visit to Hanoi, Vietnam. Ban said he has been in discussion with regional leaders in Myanmar, Malaysia and Thailand, among others, to urge them to provide search and rescue operations and options for resettlement and reintegration.

Ban said it was important "not to send them back to a dangerous circumstance or situation."

In the first official rescue operation, four Malaysian navy ships started searching for boats Friday, said navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar. He said three helicopters and three other ships were on standby.

Myanmar's navy found two fishing trawlers filled with 208 men during a patrol off Rakhine state, the main point of departure for fleeing Rohingya.

Zaw Htay, director of the presidential office, said the men were identified as Bangladeshi and would be sent to the neighboring country.

Rohingya, numbering at around 1.3 million, have been identified by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.

By Surin Pitsuwan
May 23, 2015

Thailand must turn the Rohingya crisis into an opportunity to rid itself of the human trafficking stigma. So much is at stake if it fails to grasp this moment.

The Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) is hovering precariously in Washington and the European union's (EU) accusation of illegal fishing and human rights violation and threatens Thai fishery exports to Europe further. The damage to the country’s reputation and profile is becoming more difficult to repair.

Thailand should take the lead in galvanising international attention to focus on the countries of origin of this crisis, while leaving no stone unturned in its own war against human trafficking where its own citizens and officials have been involved. A zero tolerance for such a heinous crime and no impunity for any black sheep in the racket of a modern day slave trade must be adopted.

The world and the Thai people know too much for any thought to be given to whitewashing the shameful crimes.

The highest level of the United Nations must be engaged. The UN secretary-general has already made his opening gestures of concern; it is for the Thai leaders to return the favour by inviting the UN secretary general's highest representative on the issue, the highly charismatic and extremely effective UNHCR High Commissioner Antonio Guterres to join those who have already called for the high-level meeting.

All the countries involved in the region should be persuaded to show up to share the burden equally. Only those immediately concerned, affected and involved should attend such as Myanmar, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Apart from a personal plea to the Thai leaders by Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State John Kerry called his Thai counterpart to convey the same passionate message. The collective will of the world to address this tragedy is behind Thailand and the region. Empty chairs at the meeting will not embarrass Thailand, but it will instead glaringly show where the larger proportion of responsibility and blame should rightly be placed in this painful humanitarian crisis.

It is a strategic game that would require Thailand’s stable diplomatic finesse. If we do it right, and conduct it well, we have nothing to fear, but we would have a lot more to gain. As Asean proclaims itself as a community of caring and sharing societies at the end of this year, all 10 Asean member states must collectively demonstrate to the international community that they indeed will abide by their own credo of collective human responsibility. Malaysia, as chair, must be consulted, and should provide much-needed leadership in our united response to this man-made crisis.

Thailand as the main country of transit and host to criminal networks preying on these unfortunate and “most persecuted people in the world” must not waste time in drumming up global support for short-term relief and for long-term solutions to this legacy of exploitation and oppression.

While the region is engaged in apportioning blame upon each other for this shocking crime, it takes our collective will to help us navigate the troubled water of the Andaman Sea, where hundreds of thousands more Rohingya will risk their lives on a precarious journey for a more secure livelihood in a more caring world.

Thailand and Asean must act now to avoid the judgement of future generations that, instead of acting nobly and decisively in the face of this conscience-shocking crisis, we would be perceived to be complacent and reluctant to save even the lives of our own fellow Asean citizens. The verdict of history will be harsh on us indeed.

Surin Pitsuwan is a former secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), and a former foreign minister of Thailand.



By Mustafa Caglayan
May 23, 2015

Without global action against Myanmar, humanitarian response will fall short of tackling crisis, say experts

NEW YORK -- A decision by Indonesia and Malaysia to offer temporary shelter to thousands of migrants stranded at sea appears to have eased a deteriorating humanitarian crisis, but some say a short-term solution to the problem may mushroom into more tragedies.

Concerns grow mainly around the lack of meaningful action taken to address the "root cause," which has become synonymous with the country from where many of these migrants flee.

Myanmar has been under pressure to help stem the flood of migrants - many of whom are Rohingya Muslims - who have been attempting to land on Malaysian, Thai, and Indonesian shores following Thailand's efforts to clamp down on smuggling rings in its south.

Rohingya -- who the United Nations consider to be the world’s most persecuted ethnic minority – have fled the predominantly Buddhist country in droves since 2012, in fear of violence that some human rights groups consider to be state-sponsored.

According to Wakar Uddin, who directs of U.S.-based Arakan Rohingya Union, humanitarian efforts by the international community are a short term approach, albeit important.

"Without addressing the root cause of the problem, it will only add to the misery of the Rohingya people," he told Anadolu Agency.

An estimated 1,700 Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants have landed in Indonesia and another 1,100 in Malaysia since the crisis began in early May, according to the UN.

Officials from both countries have since clarified that they would shelter Rohingya for one year, while the Bangladeshis would be returned to their country. A number of countries, including Turkey and the U.S., have also come forward to join efforts to help.

Uddin, however, warned that current rescue efforts could trigger subsequent flows of more Rohingya boat people from Myanmar to the Andaman Sea.

"I think that the international community should be well prepared for this possible dramatic rise," he said.

He added that Rohingya prefer the issue being resolved through diplomacy and dialogue, but "if that does not work, then the strategy should be shifted toward international jurisprudence at the International Criminal Court, International Court of Justice, and the UN Security Council.

"There should be reinstatement and widening of sanctions against the Myanmar, and blacklisting the criminal perpetrators and masterminds in Myanmar including those from Rakhine Nationalist Party, the responsible senior officials in the central government, and those radical monks preaching hate just to commit violence against Rohingya."

After violent clashes with local nationalist Buddhists in the summer of 2012, tens of thousands of Rohingya joined an exodus from Myanmar’s Rakhine state toward Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia, sparking what has now been called the region’s largest exodus of boat people since the Vietnam War.

Anti-Muslim violence across Myanmar has since killed hundreds, blighting the country’s shift from military dictatorship to a more open and democratic society.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, does not recognize the Rohingya, preferring to refer to them as Bengali, which suggests they are from neighboring Bangladesh.

According to Brianna Oliver, director of communications at U.S. Campaign for Burma, humanitarian efforts to rescue those currently stranded at sea is only one of the necessary steps needed to help the Rohingya.

"Unfortunately, the United States has lifted nearly all of its sanctions on Burma, which in turn has removed the ability to leverage effective pressure for legitimate democratic reforms," she told Anadolu Agency.

"The U.S. should deny Burma admittance into the Generalized System of Preferences trade program and add those most responsible in the Burmese government for the persecution of the Rohingya to the Specially Designated Nationals list, as well as demand the government to end its ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya."

She warned that the Rohingya would face “genocide” as long as the Myanmar government continues its “policies of persecution” and “ethnic cleansing.”

On Thursday, Myanmar said it will attend a June 29 meeting in Thailand to address the region's growing migrant crisis.



The attendance had been in doubt, despite growing diplomatic pressure
Migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh arrive at the Langkawi police station's multi purpose hall in Langkawi, Malaysia on Monday, May 11, 2015. (AP Photo/Hamzah Osman)

By Eline Gordts
May 23, 2015

Over the last three weeks, more than 3,000 refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh have arrived on Southeast Asia's beaches, stranded after smugglers abandoned their rickety boats on the way to Malaysia. The United Nations estimates that about 3,500 more refugees are currently adrift in the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal, either lost at sea or blocked by Malaysian, Thai and Indonesian authorities from reaching land.

Those who survived the journey told reporters about months spent cramped aboard wooden fishing boats, often lacking food, clean water and medicine. Passengers on some of the ships recounted being forced to turn around after being intercepted by coast guards despite inhumane conditions aboard.

Many of the refugees undertaking the journey to Malaysia are Rohingyas from Myanmar, a group facing so much discrimination and persecution that its members are willing to undertake the treacherous trip. Tomás Ojea Quintana, a former UN special rapporteur on human rights for Myanmar, even said that the systematic violence against the group may amount to crimes against humanity.

A majority of Rohingya Muslims live in Rakhine, a Buddhist majority state in western Myanmar. The group says its members descend from Arab traders and have lived in the area for hundreds of years. Many people in Myanmar, however, including prominent political and religious leaders, consider the Rohingyas Bengalis who migrated to Myanmar illegally and have no right to live in the country.

In 1982, Myanmar approved a law that officially restricted citizenship to members of ethnic groups it said had settled in modern-day Myanmar prior to 1823. The Rohingya were not considered one of those groups and its members effectively became stateless.

The lack of citizenship deprives Rohingyas of basic rights, including access to education, freedom of movement, land rights, the protection of their property and the right to marry freely.

Tensions between Buddhists and Royingya Muslims in Rakhine state have lingered for decades but intensified in recent years, partly fueled by the hate-mongering rhetoric of extremist Buddhist monks. The International Crisis Group explains that decades of discontent among Rakhine's Buddhists over discrimination by the government, economic marginalization and human rights abuses have morphed into a general anger and fear toward the state's Muslim communities -- particularly Rohingyas. As ICG noted in a 2013 report, people's hatred for the Rohingya in Rakhine state stems from "considerable pent-up frustration and anger under years of authoritarianism that are now being directed towards Muslims by a populist political force that cloaks itself in religious respectability and moral authority."

But the anti-Rohingya sentiment transgresses Rakhine state's border and is widespread among Myanmar's Buddhist population. Myanmar's president, Thein Sein, said in 2012 that the “only solution” to the sectarian strife between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine was to expel the Rohingya to other countries or to camps overseen by the United Nations refugee agency. The issue is so sensitive that even Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner from Myanmar, has failed to speak out about it.

The tensions between Buddhists and Rohingyas led to major violence in 2012 and 2013, when clashes left hundreds dead and forced 140,000 Royingya people to flee their homes for temporary refugee camps outside the state capital, Sittwe.

The camps are known for horrible conditions; they lack adequate housing, sanitary provisions, access to food, education and health care. Aid organizations have been refused access to the sites several times in the past years. The Associated Pressdescribed the living situation as "apartheid-like."

“I witnessed a level of human suffering in the IDP camps that I have personally never seen before ... appalling conditions .... wholly inadequate access to basic services including health, education, water and sanitation,” UN Assistant General-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs Kyung-hwa Kang said after visiting the camps in 2014.

“No one should have to live in the conditions that we see in Nget Chaung,” Pierre Peron, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Myanmar, concluded after visiting that particular site in October 2014.

For the hundreds of thousands living outside the camps, conditions are similarly dire. Many are barred from leaving their villages. Unable to pursue education or employment, the future looks bleak.

Consequently, many Rohingyas are desperate to leave the country. About 300,000 members of the group are believed to have crossed into neighboring Bangladesh. But there, too, survival is a struggle.

Refugees International's Sarnata Reynolds explained that Bangladesh hopes that by keeping life difficult for the refugees, "at some point they will just give up and leave." Only 30,000 Rohingyas are officially registered in the country as refugees and live in UN-supported camps, Reynolds said. The others live in constant fear of deportation, often relying on the registered refugees for essential supplies.

The Rohingyas thus have become an easy prey for smugglers trying to fill boats trafficking migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh to countries like Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Smugglers typically charge about $2,000 per journey to Malaysia, the AP notes -- forcing the migrants to sell everything they have. Some traffickers have been accusedof holding refugees in detention camps in Thailand until families pay a ransom to secure their release. Faced with a recent crackdown on smuggling networks by Thai authorities, traffickers often abandon their ships before reaching land in order to avoid detection.

As the number of refugees reaching South Asia's shores rose and the reports about abandoned migrant boats steadily increased, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand initially refused to shelter new migrants and even pushed back boats entering their waters.

However, faced with a growing global outcry, Malaysia and Indonesia agreed at a summit on Wednesday to temporarily shelter 7,000 migrants. While Myanmar refused to participate in Wednesday's meeting -- arguing it would not accept blame for the crisis -- it reversed course later in the week and announced it would participate in an emergency meeting set to be held in Thailand next week.

On Friday, Malaysia launched the first search-and-rescue mission for migrants trapped at sea.


Oslo Conference on 
Myanmar’s Systematic Persecution of Rohingyas


Tuesday, May 26, 2015
(To be webcast LIVE) 
The Norwegian Nobel Institute & 
Voksenaasen Conference Center in Oslo

End Myanmar’s systematic persecution, deprivation and destruction of the Rohingyas. George Soros, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Mairead Maguire, José Ramos-Horta and Dr Mahathir Mohammad will join the call to be made by genocide scholars, human rights researchers and activists at the Oslo Conference on May 26.

The conference will push for an end to Myanmar’s “slow genocide” in the Western commercial, diplomatic and military engagement with the SE Asian country.

Oslo, Norway: Over the last 10 days, the world has watched with horror and disbelief the news reports about mostly Rohingyas from Myanmar drifting in over-crowded vessels in the Andaman Sea, half-starved, disease-stricken and dying. 

On 26 May, a high-profile international conference will be held at the Norwegian Nobel Institute and Voksenaasen to bring the Norwegian and EU publics closer to the reality of the Rohingyas. This Muslim minority in Myanmar (Burma) has been so systematically persecuted that they would rather risk lives – including those of their infants and children - than die a slow, collective death.

George Soros, the iconic billionaire and philanthropist, is among the international figures who will offer solidarity and compassion for the Rohingyas. He will join the call for an immediate end to Myanmar’s official policy of discrimination, persecution and destruction of over one million Rohingyas an ethnic group in Western Myanmar. In his pre-recorded address prepared for the conference, Soros states that he too was a Rohingya. “In January, when I visited Burma for the 4th time, I made a short visit to Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State in order to see for myself the situation on the ground… a section of Sittwe called Aung Mingalar, a part of the city that can only be called a ghetto. (There) I heard the echoes of my childhood. You see, in 1944, as a Jew in Budapest, I too was a Rohingya. Much like the Jewish ghettos set up by Nazis around Eastern Europe during World War II, Aung Mingalar has become the involuntary home to thousands of families who once had access to health care, education, and employment. Now, they are forced to remain segregated in a state of abject deprivation. The parallels to the Nazi genocide are alarming,” Soros says.

At the conference, a team of researchers from the International State Crime Initiative, Queen Mary University of London will be presenting their latest findings. In a recent article in The Independent (20 May), the lead researcher Penny Green writes: “The Rohingya have now faced what genocide scholar Daniel Feirestein describes as ‘systematic weakening’, the genocidal stage prior to annihilation. Those who do not flee suffer destitution, malnutrition and starvation, severe physical and mental illness, restrictions on movement, education, marriage, childbirth, livelihood and the ever present threat of violence and corruption.”

Such acts compelled former UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar (2008-14), the Argentine legal expert Tomas Ojea Quintana, to observe at the London School of Economics a year ago that in the case of the Rohingyas, “genocidal acts” have been committed by Myanmar. Quintana will be sharing his perspectives in Oslo. 

Nobel Peace Laureate, the Archbishop Emeritus Desmond M. Tutu of South Africa, will also address the Oslo conference. He places the responsibility for the Rohingyas’ plight squarely on the Myanmar government. While the government has characterized this as sectarian or communal violence and sought to absolve itself of responsibility, Tutu says there is evidence that anti-Rohingya sentiment has been carefully cultivated by the government itself. “I would be more inclined to heed the warnings of eminent scholars and researchers including Amartya Sen, the Nobel laureate in economics, who say this is a deliberately false narrative to camouflage the slow genocide being committed against the Rohingya people,” Tutu says.

Bishop Tutu will make an impassioned call in Oslo: “As lovers of peace … we have a responsibility to persuade our international and regional aid and grant-making institutions, including the European Union, to adopt a common position making funding the development of Myanmar conditional on the restoration of citizenship, nationality, and basic human rights to the Rohingya.”

The 3-day conference is sponsored by the Oxford University Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), the Harvard University Global Equality Initiative, Parliament of the World’s Religions, Burma Task Force USA, Justice for All, Refugees International, and the International State Crime Initiative at Queen Mary University of London. 

Among the Norwegian participants are former Prime Minister of Norway Kjell Magne Bondevik and Morten Høglund, The State Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway.

The Oslo conference is the culmination of a series of conferences – the two previous ones were held at the London School of Economics and Harvard University in 2014 - designed to call attention to the plight of Rohingyas and their decades-long persecution by successive governments in Myanmar.

“As a Buddhist and an ethnic Burmese, I am devastated and ashamed that my own country of birth has been committing mass atrocities that can only be described as a genocide, as spelled out by the 1948 Geneva Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” says Dr Maung Zarni, exiled scholar and activist. “The UN and Western democratic governments failed Cambodians, Rwandans, Bosnian Serbs and Tamils previously. They are now failing the Rohingyas. Once again, these entities are ignoring an unfolding genocide. It is outrageous that they are mis-framing the Rohingya issue as a “migration” problem, a “communal conflict” or a “humanitarian crisis”. This is because calling Myanmar’s genocide a genocide will disrupt their “business as usual” approach with the Burmese military and ex-military leaders,” he observed. 

“As hate, anger and fear is rising around the world, it is important that people of compassion feel the pain of peaceful Rohingyas who have become stateless and homeless in their own ancestral land”, said Imam Malik Mujahid, Co-Chair of the Conference and chair of the Parliament of the World’s Religions. 

Press Contact: Dr Maung Zarni



INFO FOR THE LIVE WEBCAST from 0900 – 1730 hr (Norway time) (GMT +2)


Check the following sites for the web address for to watch the live webcast:






BACKGROUNDER

The Rohingyas are a borderland people who have indigenous roots in the pre-nation state border region along the present day borders of Bangladesh and Western Burma or Myanmar. Their long-standing roots in Myanmar’s Rakhine region run contrary to Myanmar’s official denial and the Burmese public perception. There are an estimated at 1.33 million in Myanmar, and an estimated 1 million in diasporas (in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Australia, Japan, Europe and US.) Their ethnic identity has been fluid over the centuries – just like any other ethnic community in the heartland or border regions of Myanmar. In relation to today’s Rohingya identity, it is notable that British Colonial censuses, colonial anthropological accounts and other colonial official records are typically characterized by categories and groupings that were anchored in the prevailing European racism and pseudoscientific understanding of ‘races’, thus their use to deny or discredit Rohingya identity today is highly problematic. The Rohingyas as any ethnic community have the right to self-identify under international law, as was officially pointed out by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon at the ASEAN Summit in Naypyidaw in November 2014. Importantly, successive Burmese governments after independence from Britain in 1948, both the parliamentary government of Prime Minister U Nu and the military governments of General Ne Win – had officially recognized the Rohingyas as one of the constitutive and indigenous national races of the Union of Burma. The official ethnic identity was chosen by the Rohingya leaders themselves and conferred official recognition by the Burmese governments – as evidenced in the fact that the Rohingyas were allocated thrice-weekly Rohingya language radio program on the sole national radio broadcasting station until 1964, allowed to form associations bearing the name ‘Rohingya’, represent their own community in the national Parliament, allotted a separate entry in the official Myanmar language Encyclopedia published by the Government in 1964, and to have a Special District in Northern Arakan or Rakhine State – known as Mayu District - where the population has always been predominantly Rohingya. 

Noteworthy is the fact that both the radicals among the Rohingya Muslims and the nationalists among Rakhine Buddhists took up arms and clamored for secession from the Union of Burma, upon independence from Britain. Confronted with the rebellion on two ethnic fronts, Burmese military and the central government of PM U Nu played divide-and-rule vis-à-vis both Rohingyas and the Rakhine throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Rohingyas armed revolt died down as the result of lack of popular support both amongst the Rohingyas themselves and on the part of the then East Pakistan (before Bangladesh). The central government of Burma made concessions to the Rohingya’s demands including the official recognition of the group – both its identity and its native-ness to the pre-nation-state western borderlands of Burma. Rakhine nationalism – a direct product of the Rakhine’s status as a people colonized by the central Burmese kingdoms – remains strong, continuing to vie for greater autonomy, a fair and equitable share of resources and revenues from the hydro-carbon rich and militarily and commercially strategic Rakhine coastal region.

The official persecution of Rohingyas began in earnest in the late 1970s when the Burmese military leadership – once a multi-ethnic and non-discriminatory – turned anti-Christian and, more potently – anti-Muslim. The Armed Forces of Burma or Myanmar has pursued its un-written, but common policy of ‘purifying’ or ‘cleansing’ the military, especially of higher echelon and strategic positions, of Muslims and Christians. The military leaders openly came to view non-Buddhists, mixed ethnic communities or individuals as ‘untrustworthy’ as evidenced by the special address by General Ne Win to the 1982 Citizenship Act drafting committee in the fall of 1981. The Rohingyas have both historical and cultural ties with what was known as East Bengal (latterly part of East Pakistan and since 1973 Bangladesh) and are the only Myanmar Muslim community with a single geographic concentration along the 170-mile stretch of the Bangladesh-Myanmar borders. As such, the military has, since 1970s, come to perceive them as a “potential threat to national security”. Since then, the Myanmar military has adopted the pre-emptive strategy of characterizing the Rohingya presence in Rakhine State as ‘illegal migration’ of Bengalis from neighbouring Bangladesh[1]. This is the narrative the Burmese national public has been deliberately exposed to over the past 40 years and has become the justification for the systematic destruction of the Rohingya as a group. 

The Buddhist majority’s largely anti-Muslim sentiment and the historical animosities between Rakhine and Rohingya that peaked during the years of World War II, have been mobilized by the military and policy makers to support and facilitate the destruction of the Rohingya by the State. Anti-Muslim and other forms of xenophobia are deep-rooted with the Burmese society. Particularly, there is pervasive popular racism towards other Muslim communities. However, only the Rohingyas as a distinct ethnic group have been singled out for systematic, sustained and most severe forms of state-directed repression and annihilation. 
____

[1] In fact, in his now published, formerly ‘top secret’ lecture to the National Defense College in early 1990s, ex-General Khin Nyunt, then Chief of Military Intelligence and the 3rd ranking general, had stated the Muslims from Rakhine state were fleeing across over to Bangladesh, in other words, there was only out-flowing of Muslims from Rakhine to Bangladesh, not the other way around.








Rohingya women and children from Myanmar sit at a new confinement area in Bayeun, Aceh province on May 21, 2015 after being rescued (AFP Photo/Romeo Gacad)

By Olivia Rondonuwu
May 22, 2015

Boat people who have come ashore in Southeast Asia after harrowing journeys are delighted that Indonesia and Malaysia will give them temporary shelter -- although some were baffled by an offer of sanctuary in a tiny African nation they had never heard of.

Nearly 3,000 Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants have been rescued or swum to shore in recent days in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, after a Thai crackdown on long-established human-trafficking routes threw the illicit trade into chaos.

The three nations had sparked outrage by turning away some vessels, but on Wednesday Indonesia and Malaysia relented, saying they would no longer drive boats away and would give migrants temporary shelter.

Thailand did not sign on fully to the initiative, saying only that it would no longer push boats out of Thai waters.

In Indonesia's western Aceh province, where around 1,800 Rohingya -- a persecuted Muslim minority from predominantly Buddhist Myanmar -- and Bangladeshis have landed since the crisis began, the news was greeted with joy.

"I am happy now that Indonesia and Malaysia are accepting Rohingya," said Muhammadul Hasson, a 17-year-old who was rescued last week along with hundreds of other desperate people.

"Everything will be better now. People in Arakan are tortured continuously and they will keep on coming," he added, referring to the Rohingya's home state of Rakhine in western Myanmar.

But there was some confusion over an offer from the impoverished West African nation of Gambia to take in all Rohingya migrants as part of its "sacred duty" to alleviate the suffering of fellow Muslims.

Asked about the offer, Hasson simply responded: "What is the meaning of Gambia?"

Muhammad Jaber, a 27-year-old Rohingya, was another migrant who was puzzled when confronted with the idea of going to live in a country thousands of miles away that he knew nothing about.

However, he concluded: "If it is a Muslim country and they accept us as their citizens, why not?"

Gambia's offer stands in stark contrast with iron-fisted President Yahya Jammeh's professed disdain for the thousands of African migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea, including many from his own country.

- 'Everything will be better now' -

The migrants' joy at the decision by Malaysia and Indonesia was untempered, however.

The stateless Rohingya suffer constant abuse in Myanmar, with the government insisting they are illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

They have long been boarding rickety boats to cross the Bay of Bengal, normally headed for relatively affluent, Muslim-majority Malaysia, and have in recent years been joined by Bangladeshis seeking to escape grinding poverty.

Jaber said he did not feel any anger towards Indonesia or Malaysia, despite their previous hardline stance.

Both countries are now offering to accept the boat people for one year, or until they can be resettled or repatriated with the help of international agencies. Jakarta is not obliged to resettle migrants as it is not a signatory to the UN refugee convention.

"We are ready to go to any country where they can accept us as citizens, but we will not go back to Myanmar," Jaber said.

The migrants normally spend months at sea before making it to land and grim tales have emerged, with Rohingya and Bangladeshis on one boat telling how they fought fierce battles over dwindling supplies that left at least 100 dead.

Some of the latest arrivals, from a group of 400 Rohingya rescued off the Aceh coast Wednesday, were being housed in a hastily erected tent village in the ruins of an old building in the village of Bayeun.

They told of a horrific voyage, drifting helplessly in the final days as they were pushed away by Thailand and then Malaysia, and said sending them back to Myanmar would be a death sentence.

"If the government of Indonesia returns us to Myanmar, it is the same as killing us," said Sohidullah, 45.

Hasson said he was happy to go to any other nation, but he had one condition: "I never want to go to another country by boat. Never again."

Rohingya children receive haircuts by Indonesian volunteers at the newly set up confinement area for migrants at Bayeun, in Indonesia's Aceh province on May 22, 2015 (AFP Photo/Romeo Gacad)

By Kelly Macnamara
May 22, 2015

Sittwe (Myanmar) - A senior US diplomat on Friday urged Myanmar to extend "citizenship" to the oppressed Rohingya minority to address an ongoing migrant crisis that has hit Southeast Asia, leaving thousands stranded at sea.

More than 3,500 migrants have swum to shore or been rescued off the coasts of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh since a Thai crackdown in early May on human-trafficking threw the illicit trade into chaos.

Myanmar, where many of the migrants start their journey, has faced increasing international pressure to stem the exodus from its shores and deliver urgent humanitarian relief to thousands still trapped at sea.

On Friday Myanmar said its navy had carried out its first rescue of a boat stacked with around 200 migrants in the Bay of Bengal, in a sign of compromise after widespread criticism for not taking any responsibility for the crisis.

The widespread persecution of the impoverished Muslim community in Myanmar's western Rakhine state is one of the primary causes for the current crisis, alongside growing numbers trying to escape poverty in neighbouring Bangladesh.

"They should have a path to citizenship," Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Yangon, referring to the Rohingya -- 1.3 million of whom live in Myanmar yet are dismissed as Bangladeshi illegal immigrants by the authorities.

In comments a day after talks with Myanmar leaders, Blinken added "the uncertainty that comes from not having any status is one of the things that may drive people to leave".

Blinken said the fact that Rohingya were willing "to put their lives in jeopardy" on deadly sea crossings was a "reflection of conditions in Rakhine state that are leading people to make this choice".

"Even if we address the immediate crisis, we also must confront its root causes in order to achieve a sustainable solution," Blinken said.

Myanmar's government however has reiterated its refusal to recognise the stateless Rohingya as an ethnic group, preferring to call them "Bengalis" -- shorthand for illegal migrants.

"We do not accept that term (Rohingya) here," said Zaw Htay, director of the presidential office said on Thursday.

- Monsoon looms -

The rescue by Myanmar's navy was welcomed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which said it was helping local authorities provide assistance to the migrants.

But fears remain for many more still left on boats in the Bay of Bengal with monsoon rains looming.

"We hope that this recent positive development will be followed by other disembarkations in Myanmar and across the region, well in advance of the coming monsoon rains," UNHCR spokeswoman Vivian Tan told AFP.

The imminent monsoon season, when heavy rains and cyclones lash the region, usually lead to a significant drop off in regional boat migrant numbers.

But a recent crackdown on the people smuggling trade in Thailand led to scores of migrants being abandoned by gangmasters on stricken boats just as the weather is set to change.

In the Bay of Bengal, the UNHCR believes up to 2,000 migrants are still stuck on vessels controlled by people smugglers who have been unwilling to begin the journey south because of the crackdown.

Giving updated figures the International Organization for Migration said that over 3,600 people had disembarked in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh since the beginning of the crisis.

A trickle of would-be migrants have also recently returned to Myanmar after relatives raised funds to buy them back from smugglers.

On Thursday the foreign ministers of Malaysia and Indonesia -- whose countries are destination points for Rohingya fleeing persecution -- met Myanmar officials as pressures mount to stem the migrant exodus from its shores.

Earlier this week, Malaysia and Indonesia relented on a hardline policy of pushing back the boats, and said their nations would accept the migrants for one year, or until they can be resettled or repatriated with the help of international agencies.

Myanmar has seen surging Buddhist nationalism in recent years and spates of violence targeting Muslim minorities have raised doubts over its much vaunted reforms after decades of harsh military rule.

A raft of laws are being considered spanning interfaith marriage, religious conversion and birth rates, which are seen by activists as particularly discriminatory against women and minorities -- with the already marginalised Rohingya likely to be affected.

Both the US and UN have raised particular concerns about the laws proposed by President Thein Sein, seen as a response to campaigns by hardline Buddhist monks in a key election year.

Noble Peace Prize winning opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is yet to comment on the current crisis, a silence that observers attribute to fears over alienating a swathe of the electorate just months ahead of the polls.

(Photo: Reuters)

By Robin McDowell 
May 22, 2015

Many of the thousands of migrants abandoned at sea in Southeast Asia this month are Rohingya Muslims who fled their home country of Myanmar. Here are facts about the history and persecution of the ethnic and religious minority:

———

WHO ARE THE ROHINGYA?

The Rohingya are a Muslim minority in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, also known as Burma. Numbering around 1.3 million, they are concentrated in western Rakhine state, which neighbors Bangladesh.

The Rohingya have been in Myanmar for centuries. Some historians say they are indigenous to Rakhine state, while others say they originally migrated from the west. In 1826, when the country was under British India rule, Muslims from Bengal were encouraged to move to the then-depopulated state of Rakhine —or Arakan — fueling ethnic tensions with local Buddhists that continue to this day. The numbers of Rohingya increased dramatically over the next few decades, further polarizing the two communities.

Denied citizenship by national law, the Rohingya are effectively stateless and have limited access to education, adequate health care and the right to freely practice their religion. Their movement is severely restricted. In some cases they cannot travel between villages without paying hefty bribes to police and other authorities. If they want to go to the main city of Yangon — even for emergencies — they can expect to pay up to $4,000.

After the country moved from dictatorship to democracy in 2011, newfound freedoms of expression gave voice to Buddhist extremists who spewed hatred against the religious minority and warned Muslims were taking over the country. The attacks that followed left up to 280 people dead. Another 140,000 Rohingya were driven from their homes and are now living under apartheid-like conditions in crowded displacement camps.

———

WHAT DO THEY WANT?

The Rohingya want the same rights as others in Myanmar, starting with citizenship.

Soon after President Thein Sein came to power in 2011, he stated the Rohingya do not exist and advocated for their deportation.

The government says they are "Bengali," a term that implies they are all illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. They are not eligible for citizenship under the country's military-drafted 1982 law, because they are not on an "official" list of ethnic groups that had permanently settled in Myanmar since at least 1823.

The legislation does provide an alternative, "naturalized" citizenship for Rohingya, but only for those willing to identify themselves as "Bengali." They also have to be able to prove their families have been in the country for at least three generations. That's difficult for members of the religious minority, who have little in the form of documentation and are frequently uprooted.

Even those who gain alternative citizenship would continue to be discriminated against. The status falls short of full citizenship, and would continue to deny Rohingya the right to own land, to run for office, to form or lead political parties and to enter professional fields like law, medicine and engineering.

The Rohingya have little say in their future. They will not be allowed to vote in upcoming general elections. And a controversial "action plan" warns they could face eventual deportation or indefinite internment.

———

WHY THEY ARE FLEEING?

With little left for them in Myanmar, the Rohingya have for decades set their sights abroad, most hoping to reach Muslim-majority Malaysia where they can find under-the-table jobs and security.

The number of men, women and children who fled the country skyrocketed after the 2012 violence, with more than 120,000 Rohingya and Bangladeshis boarding boats in the last three years. Many sold everything they had — land, cattle, gold — to get to a third country. They give human traffickers a little money upfront, the rest coming while they are in transit. Urgent calls are made to their families demanding $2,000 or more before they can continue on their way. Until recently, the first stop along the route was neighboring Thailand, where they were held in secret jungle. Those unable to come up with ransoms risked being held for months, sometimes longer, enduring beatings and getting little food, water or medical attention. Many died; in recent weeks authorities have discovered dozens of shallow graves in abandoned camps.

The tactics of smugglers changed in November following a crackdown by Thai authorities on human trafficking networks. Instead of bringing their "passengers" to land, they held them on large boats that were effectively offshore camps. They shuttled them to the Thai-Malaysian border on smaller, rickety vessels once they were paid off.

When the heat turned up — not only traffickers but also politicians and police were getting arrested — brokers and agents got spooked. People were no longer allowed to disembark. Still more boats kept coming until there were up to 8,000 migrants stranded at sea — both Rohingya, fleeing persecution, and Bangladeshis, who fled their country largely for economic reasons.

This month, some alarmed traffickers started abandoning their ships, leaving their human cargo at sea without fuel, food and clean water. More than 3,000 people have so far washed to shores in Southeast Asia. The United Nations estimates an equal number are stranded at sea.

———

WHAT'S NEXT?

After weeks of inaction — and in some cases exacerbating the crisis by pushing boat people back to sea — foreign governments have in recent days started to step in. Indonesia and Malaysia have offered to give temporary shelter to thousands of migrants. And the United States and the tiny, African nation of Gambia have offered to resettle some of the Rohingya.

Search-and-rescue operations have begun, with Malaysia deploying four ships and putting helicopters on standby. The Pentagon says it's preparing to send maritime aviation patrols throughout the region.

Foreign governments, right groups and activists say much more needs to be done, starting with addressing the root cause of the problem: Myanmar's treatment of the Rohingya.

——

Sources: Arakan Project, Center for International and Strategic Studies, the United Nations.

A fishing boat carrying Rohingya and Bangleshi migrants is pulled to shore by Achenese fisherman off the coast of Julok, in Aceh province on May 20, 2015 in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Reuters/Syifa/Antara Foto

By Kukil Bora
May 22, 2015

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has estimated that more than 3,000 Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi migrants could still be adrift in the Andaman Sea. The latest estimate comes even as Myanmar reportedly carried out its first rescue of a migrant boat on Friday.

The U.N. agency said that it had evaluated media reports and information gathered from other sources to estimate that the current number of migrants still adrift in the sea could be over 3,000, or more that no one knows of, the Associated Press (AP) reported. The Malaysian navy said that four of its vessels are currently searching for any migrant boats that could still be stuck at sea.

In the last three weeks, over 3,000 people -- including Rohingya minority Muslims from Myanmar and several Bangladeshi economic migrants -- have landed in Indonesia and Malaysia. While the Rohingyas, who accuse Myanmar's government of religious persecution, are being offered a one-year temporary shelter by both countries, the Bangladeshi migrants face repatriation, AP reported.

On Friday, Myanmar, which had previously denied responsibility for the Rohingyas stranded at sea, conducted the first rescue of a migrant boat, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported, citing a Myanmar navy official. The country’s government said Thursday that it would provide search and rescue for “boat people” in its territorial waters.

The Buddhist country, which has refused to recognize the Rohingyas as its citizens, changed it stance on the issue after U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with officials in the capital, Naypyidaw, on Thursday, and urged the government to cooperate with regional partners to deal with the migrant crisis in Southeast Asia, CNN reported.

The U.S. military also said Thursday that it would help countries in the region to tackle the humanitarian crisis.

The Department of Defense “is responding to this crisis and taking this seriously. We are preparing to stand up maritime aviation patrols throughout the region and working with local partners to help with this issue,” Lt. Col. Jeffrey Pool, a Pentagon spokesman, told AP.

Earlier on Thursday, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, speaking about the stranded migrants, said it was “basic human compassion” to give food to the hungry and medical aid to the sick, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Muslim Rohingya people shelter in Myanmar's Rakhine state, May 17, 2015. (Photo: AFP/Soe Than Win)

By Trevor Wilson
May 22, 2015

Efforts to find a regional solution to the Rohingya refugee crisis will fail unless members of the international community such as Australia lend their full support, writes Trevor Wilson.

Seeking a regional solution for the problem of unauthorised arrivals by Rohingya in South-East Asia is a sensible approach for what has become a truly regional problem.

But a "regional solution" is not necessarily an easy goal to achieve; and it is probably not an easy matter for Australia to participate in finding an effective "solution".

The Rohingya are in reality a stateless people: they are not allowed to be citizens (as "Rohingya") in Myanmar, where most of them currently live, or in Bangladesh, where their ancestors came from. They are the subject of gross discrimination in Myanmar - where they were long segregated from the main population, where they were the object of severe restrictions by successive governments (restrictions which were not applied to other residents of Myanmar), and where they were forced to live in appalling conditions.

The United Nations does not use the word persecution in relation to the Rohingya, and says they are not necessarily the object of genocide or ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, although their human rights are certainly not being respected. There were even three Rohingya elected to the current Myanmar parliament, but they are not able to identify themselves as "Rohingya".

Australian governments have supported regional solutions for unauthorised people movements in South-East Asia in various ways over the years. They have contributed to efforts by relevant international agencies (such as the UNHCR and the International Organisation for Migration) to process and resettle such people via orderly resettlement arrangements.

In recent years, Australian governments have also funded capacity building programs to counter people trafficking in several South-East Asian countries, including Myanmar. But these programs may not have been designed for the current Rohingya situation.

Meanwhile, Australian governments have over many years provided substantial humanitarian assistance to Rohingya living in Northern Rakhine State in Myanmar, as well as some living in Bangladesh. This assistance was delivered through UN agencies and international NGOS working inside Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Australia has also for a several years accepted limited numbers of Rohingya as asylum seekers. There are a few hundred Rohingya in Australia, who are working, studying and living normally in the Australian community. Why couldn't Australia take some more?

However, it may take more than this to find a "solution" for the current Rohingya problem. For example, the Myanmar government may not want to change its internal policies on Rohingya, at least until there is a domestic consensus, which at the moment does not exist. But the Myanmar government must stop forcing Rohingya to make dangerous and life-threatening boat trips from Myanmar, confronting all regional governments with awkward political decisions.

Myanmar's fellow ASEAN members - Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia - may not want a solution which means they accept more Rohingya than they have already, without firm prospects of their resettlement. ASEAN itself does not have the mechanisms or the experience to coordinate a program for the Rohingya influx, but ASEAN could possibly play a useful facilitating role.

A regional solution will need relevant international agencies such as the UNHCR or IOM to coordinate responses. Members of the international community such as Australia must lend their full support to such efforts, which will otherwise fail.

Expectations of Australia making a generous and humanitarian contribution are gathering pace quickly. Relocating these Rohingya to Nauru or Manus Island detention centres, even temporarily, would not necessarily be seen as an appropriate "humanitarian" response.

Trevor Wilson is a former Australian ambassador to Myanmar (2000-2003). He is a visiting fellow at ANU's College of Asia and the Pacific.


    • Rohingya Exodus