Opening of the 29th regular session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. UN Photo/Pierre Albouy

A​dopted without a vote (by consensus). Myanmar rejects the resolution in its entirety. 

India, Russia, and China distanced themselves from the resolution.

India which officially and unsuccessfully pushed for ending annual human rights resolutions on Myanmar gave Myanmar regime's genocidal point man - ex-Major General Maung Maung Ohn, (now Chief Minister of Rakhine) who headed the military's Army Psychological Warfare Directorate and counter-intelligence division - a free mic. 

http://www.maungzarni.net/2015/07/myanmars-official-lies-as-told-by-ex.html

Human Rights Council

Twenty-ninth session

Agenda item 2

Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner

for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the 

High Commissioner and the Secretary-General

Pakistan (on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation): draft resolution

29/… Situation of human rights of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar

The Human Rights Council,

Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,

Reaffirming the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,

Recalling President’s statement PRST 23/1 of 14 June 2015,

Noting all relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council, the latest being Council resolution 28/23 of 27 March 2015,

Stressing that States have the primary responsibility for the promotion and protection of human rights,

Condemning all violations and abuses of human rights in Myanmar, in particular against Rohingya Muslims and other minorities, resulting in their socioeconomic exploitation, including forced displacement,

Noting with concern the irregular migration in the Andaman Sea of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar and their exploitation by criminal rings, and welcoming the commitments by Governments in the region to provide temporary shelter and protection to them,

Acknowledging that the denial of citizenship status and related rights to Rohingya Muslims and others, including voting rights, is a serious human rights concern,

Reaffirming the importance of cooperation with the Government of Myanmar in taking all necessary measures to promote and protect human rights in its territory without any discrimination, including against Rohingya Muslims and members of other communities in Myanmar,

Condemns the systematic gross violations of human rights and abuses committed in Rakhine State, in particular against Rohingya Muslims;

2. Calls upon the Government of Myanmar to ensure the protection of human rights of all persons in Myanmar, including of Rohingya Muslims;

3. Also calls upon the Government of Myanmar to take the necessary measures to address the spread of discrimination and prejudice against Muslims and members of national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities across the country, and to put an end to the incitement of hatred against Muslims by publicly condemning such acts;

4. Calls upon political and religious leaders in the country to work for a peaceful resolution through dialogue towards national unity;

5. Calls upon the Government of Myanmar to take all necessary measures to ensure accountability and to end impunity for all violations of human rights, including in particular against Muslims, by undertaking a full, transparent and independent investigation into reports of all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law;

6. Urges the Government of Myanmar to take all necessary measures to prevent the discrimination and exploitation, including through trafficking, of Rohingya Muslims and others by addressing the root causes compelling them to be more vulnerable and exposed to such acts;

7. Also urges the Government of Myanmar to protect places of worship belonging to all religions;

8. Calls upon the Government of Myanmar, in conjunction with the international community and in accordance with international law, to ensure the return of all refugees and persons displaced from their homes, including Muslims;

9. Urges the Government of Myanmar to grant full citizenship rights, in keeping within a transparent due process, to Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State, including by reviewing the 1982 Citizenship Law;

10. Calls upon the Government of Myanmar to ensure full cooperation with all parties and to allow full access of humanitarian assistance to affected persons and communities, and in this regard urges the Government to implement the various cooperation agreements not yet implemented made between the authorities of Myanmar and the international community for the distribution of humanitarian aid to all affected areas, including Rakhine State, without any discrimination;

11. Requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to present an oral update to the Human Rights Council at its thirtieth session and a report at its thirty-second session, on the human rights violations and abuses against Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar, particularly the recent incidents of trafficking and forced displacement of Rohingya Muslims.

UN Human Rights Council adopts a strongly worded resolution on Myanmar's systematic rights abuses, per...

By Bangkok Post Editorial

July 6, 2015

An agreement was signed in Yangon less than two weeks ago for Thai Buddhists to provide equipment and expertise for Myanmar's first Buddhist radio station. The National Thai Buddhism and Culture Mass Media Association produces radio and TV programmes in Thailand. But the Thais have chosen to ignore the Myanmar Buddhist mainstream and basic Buddhist tenets. The small group they are helping, the Committee for the Protection of Nationality and Religion, is a nationalist movement whose chief concern is divisive and destructive attacks on Myanmar's Muslims.

The Myanmar group is better known as Ma Ba Tha, from its Burmese-language initials. It has been implicated in every act of violence against Muslims in the past three years. That includes clashes involving Rohingya people in western Rakhine state, and against Myanmar Muslim communities in other parts of the country. Ma Ba Tha is a prime backer of the movement for so-called "protection of religion" laws. It states clearly that Muslims deserve and should expect discrimination because they are "enemies of Buddhism".

Like most pro-violence religious groups, Ma Ba Tha represents neither Theravada Buddhism in general, nor the Buddhist community of Myanmar. Because of the ethnic attacks spurred on by Ma Ba Tha, whole villages have been burnt to the ground. Most of the country's Rohingya now live in camps. More tragically for Myanmar, the Ma Ba Tha militants have attacked all Muslims, including peaceful communities in Yangon and other major cities. The 1.5 million baht worth of equipment to be donated to Ma Ba Tha will, in the words of the Irrawaddy magazine, help the hard-line group "trade bullhorns for broadcast towers". Instead of preaching to a crowd, the group will be able to reach entire regions with every speech. This will only multiply the hateful messages of Ma Ba Tha. It will crush messages of peace from the mainstream of Myanmar Buddhism, which has no broadcasting ability.

Significantly, and sadly, one of the prime backers of this poorly considered aid agreement is prominent Buddhist lay leader Pornchai Pinyapong. Dr Pornchai is serving his third consecutive term as president of The World Fellowship of Buddhist Youth (WFBY). At the Yangon ceremony to sign the agreement, he claimed the troubles of Rakhine state and the Rohingya are "the same problem as the southern part of Thailand".

This is false on virtually every level. So is Dr Pornchai's poorly thought-out support of Ma Ba Tha. They "just want to protect Buddhism for the next generation", he told the media. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. They want to destroy Islam and get rid of all Rohingya for their own generation. Every such move risks harming the religious tolerance and peace that Thailand has worked to earn. Thai Buddhists and the Muslim mainstream often reject so-called hardline groups that want to create religious strife. Thai Muslims in general refuse to support the southern insurgency. Thai Buddhists have never accepted so-called "leaders" of rogue mosques calling for less tolerance and more confrontation.

Buddhists, Muslims and other great religions have plenty of problems within the ranks of their faithful. At least in Thailand, there is no legitimate group that supports antagonistic messages aimed at other religions. Thais deserve to be proud of this. Religious figures abusing freedom of speech to call for strife and even violence deserve to be shunned and ignored. The Buddhist mass media experts would do the religion and their nation a favour by rethinking the Myanmar venture.

By Arab News

July 5, 2015

JEDDAH: The UN Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution calling on the Myanmar government to protect the rights of all people in its territory including Rohingya Muslims. 

The council also urged the government to take all necessary steps to stop discriminatory practices against Muslims and members of national, ethnic and religious groups across Myanmar.

The resolution was proposed by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan on behalf of Islamic countries in an effort to ensure accountability and to bring an end to human rights violations, in particular against Muslims. It demanded transparent and independent investigations into alleged atrocities committed against Rohingyas.

The resolution also calls on the Myanmar government to stop its discrimination and exploitation, and to begin to resolve the root causes of such discrimination. 

The Myanmar government has been called upon to protect all places of worship of all religions, and to help refugees and displaced people return to their homes, including the Rohingya Muslims in cooperation with the international community, as per the resolution.

Saudi Arabia has condemned the ongoing violence and hate speeches inciting racial discrimination against the Muslim community in Myanmar. 

Faisal bin Hassan Trad, Saudi Arabia’s permanent representative at the UN in Geneva, said the Rohingya community was going through a grave human tragedy.

He called on the international community to take urgent steps to protect Rohingyas’ rights.

The Myanmar government does not recognize them as citizens and is restricting their freedom of movement and denying them their most basic human rights, including food and health care, he pointed out.

At the same time, he said the government must uphold transparent and comprehensive policies to stop the persecution of Muslims.

The UN resolution calls on the government to grant full citizenship rights to the Rohingya Muslims of the Rakhine province, and to review the Nationality Act of 1982. 

It also stipulates that full humanitarian assistance access to the people and communities affected by the conflict should be granted.

Aman Ullah

RB Article
July 5, 2015

“I think one of the most important things is to put an end to discrimination against people because of what they look like or what their faith is. And the Rohingya have been discriminated against. And that’s part of the reason they’re fleeing.” Obama

In November 2012, when President Obama became the first sitting US president to visit Burma also officially call Myanmar, President Thein Sein made 11 specific commitments to strengthen human rights protections, including provisions related to religious freedom, political prisoners, ethnic reconciliation, non-proliferation, good governance, and human trafficking. These commitments include taking decisive action in Rakhine state and allowing international humanitarian access to conflict-affected areas. (Thein Sein’s 11 Promises to Obama,” United to End Genocide, November 19, 2013) In a May 2013 visit to the United States, President Thein Sein and his senior ministers reaffirmed their intention to uphold these commitments, though many of them remain only partially fulfilled.

Despite Myanmar’s failure to follow through with these commitments, the US under President Barack Obama has not leveraged the full weight of its influence on Myanmar to protect the Rohingya.

Rather, the US has pursued only limited measures to hold Mr. Thein Sein’s government accountable. Washington has engaged in direct talks with Naypyidaw, urging the state to end human rights abuses against the Rohingya. For example, on May 20, 2013, during a bilateral meeting in Washington, President Obama “urged President Thein Sein to take strong action to combat sectarian violence and to ensure respect for religious freedom.” On October 10, 2013, Secretary of State John Kerry reiterated President Obama’s message to President Thein Sein on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Bandar Seri Begawan. Senior former and current US officials, including former Presidents Carter and Clinton and former Secretary of State Albright, raised similar concerns during their visits to Myanmar. US embassy officials at all levels discussed the importance of addressing sectarian violence and religious freedom with high-level Myanmar government leaders and religious leaders throughout 2013. For example, US Ambassador Mitchell hosted an interfaith event in September “for leaders of all major religious groups to discuss ways to promote religious freedom and respect for religious diversity.” On October 1, he also “spoke out against sectarian violence at an interfaith conference in Myanmar.”

However, these actions have not effectively influenced Naypyidaw to protect its Muslim Rohingya population. Since the US prematurely removed most of its sanctions against Myanmar in 2012, the Obama administration’s leverage to improve human rights in the country has been diminished. Rather, the human rights of the Rohingya have since deteriorated dramatically with no movement in sight for progress. (“U.S. Can’t Ease up on Burma Now,” The Washington Post, August 4, 2014) On May 7, 2014, the US House of Representatives passed a Resolution with bipartisan support calling on the Myanmar government to end persecution of the Rohingya and to recognize the human rights of all religious minorities. It also called on “the United States Government and the international community to put consistent pressure on the Government of Burma to take all necessary measures to end the persecution and discrimination of the Rohingya population.” (H.Res. 418, 113th) This Resolution represents growing concern in Congress with the Obama administration’s engagement with Myanmar despite its continued human rights violations. 

Despite the US House of Representatives’ call for action, the Obama administration has not discussed a return to sanctions. The normalization of relations with Myanmar is viewed as a vital foreign policy success for the White House.

Furthermore, Myanmar is a significant partner in the Obama administration’s “pivot to Asia” foreign policy, as this partnership is an important element of President Obama’s goal to increase US military presence in Southeast Asia. To this end, the US is pursuing military-to-military cooperation with Myanmar. (Patrick Barta, “Why the U.S. Needs Myanmar,” The Wall Street Journal, November 19, 2012) The US government is also focusing on the support Myanmar can provide in its role as the 2014 chair of ASEAN in mediating territorial disputes in the South China Sea. In addition to the political and strategic gains that partnership with Myanmar represents, the US also seeks to benefit economically from positive relations by enabling American firms to invest in the country. American oil firms are particularly keen to explore Myanmar’s offshore oil and gas reserves, which foreign experts estimate to be on par with Brazil’s reserves. (The Economist, March 19, 2014)

For all these political, strategic, and economic reasons, President Obama has not held President Thein Sein accountable to his commitment to protect the Rohingya. The Washington Post’s “Fact Checker” column assessed that the US government had not effectively stood up against atrocities in Myanmar, because “attacks have continued almost unabated with little or no consequences for the killers.”(December 31, 2013)Thus, the US has not pursued all peaceful means to end the human rights abuses against the Rohingya as required by the R2P till today.

However, when more than 3,600 migrants had washed ashore in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand since May 10, and thousands more was believed to be trapped at sea. The United Nations has warned that time is running out to save them. Navy ships were scouring Southeast Asian waters for boats believed to be carrying thousands of migrants with little food or water, and a top US diplomat said Myanmar needs to shoulder some responsibility for the crisis. That's something it has been reluctant to do.

The United State voiced concern and lambasted Burma, officially called Myanmar, for failing to address the root cause of the crisis, which observers say stems largely from the government’s refusal to recognize the Muslim minority as lawful citizens.

“What needs to change here is that the Rohingya need to feel welcome in the country of their birth, in the country of their parents’ birth, of their grandparents’ birth,”.... “They need to be treated as citizens with dignity and human rights.” Tom Malinowski, Assistant Secretary of State for democracy, human rights and labor, told CNN during his recent interview.

After reports of the negative consequences of Thailand’s crackdown on trafficking–first the discovery of mass graves in Thailand then the stranding of migrants at sea--came to light in early-May, the U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson Jeff Rathke said, “we urge the countries of the region to work together to save lives at sea,” a statement which places the responsibility for the boat people squarely on the shoulders of countries in the region. 

“This is an emergency that we believe needs to be addressed with appropriate speed and resolve through a regionally coordinated effort to save the lives of the thousands of vulnerable migrants and asylum seekers,” he added. When asked whether the United States was doing anything more than just pointing at the region, Rathke responded, “Well, we’re not asking countries to do things when we’re not doing something ourselves. We have been putting resources into this effort. As we’ve talked about earlier this week, since Fiscal Year 2014 and into this fiscal year we’ve provided $109 million in humanitarian assistance for vulnerable Burmese. That includes Rohingya, and that money has gone to programs in Burma and in the region.”

On May 20th, with international attention mounting, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf held another press conference where she unveiled a potentially more prominent role for the United States. She stated that the United States was prepared to take a leading role in organizing a multi-country effort to resettle the most vulnerable refugees. After Indonesia and Malaysia agreed to take in the refugees temporarily, the United States pledged $3 million in assistance.

Deputy Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also pledged to bring up the Rohingya issue on his already-scheduled visit to Burma. His stated goal was to pressure the government to improve conditions for the Rohingya and cooperate with Bangladesh and other regional actors to help those adrift in the sea. According to him, ‘the 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. 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.''

The United States, which initially insisted it was a regional problem, has in recent days also become involved. Washington has been urging governments in the region to cooperate on search and rescue operations and sheltering the migrants and they also sent "maritime aviation patrols throughout the region," Pentagon spokesman Lt Col Jeffrey Pool told that the Department of Defense "is responding to this crisis and taking this seriously".

On May 21, Reps. Joe Crowley (D-NY) and Steve Chabot (R-OH) along with 21 other bipartisan members of the House of Representatives, announced they sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry urging the United States to take additional actions to help save Rohingya migrants stranded at sea as well as address the underlying root of the crisis, including the discriminatory religious laws and official policies championed by Burma’s current government that contribute to the persecution of the Rohingya Muslims.

The letter calls on the U.S. to deploy humanitarian assistance, which would include aerial imagery and sea assets if necessary, to rescue the migrants. It also urges the U.S. to implore allies in the region to accept the refugees and provide them safe harbor.

“We believe it is time for a decisive and public response from the United States and like-minded countries. Specifically, we strongly urge the U.S. to provide search and rescue support and humanitarian assistance in coordination with regional partners to ensure the safety of the thousands in danger at sea,” wrote the lawmakers in the letter.

The letter continues: “We urge the U.S. government to make every effort to prevent the Andaman Sea from becoming a graveyard for thousands more if further steps are not taken to address this crisis.”

In the letter, the members urge the State Department to address the root of the current crisis, including speaking out against Burma’s current government’s championing of religious discrimination legislation that has helped fuel the persecution of the Rohingya. The letter also urges consideration of downgrading Burma’s status in the State Department’s Trafficking in Person report which would make it subject to penalties and denial of benefits. 

“For too long, the international community has accepted limited, easily-reversed progress on human rights in Burma while the underlying persecution of the Rohingya continues. Action must be taken to address the immediate crisis, and comprehensive action needs to be taken to address the policies in Burma that are at the root of this crisis,” wrote the lawmakers.

The top-ranking Republican and Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee are among the signatories of the letter, which was provided Thursday to The Associated Press. Lawmakers provide oversight, but don't set U.S. foreign policy. (Matthew Pennington, Washington)

Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed US concern over the “urgency of the Rohingya humanitarian crisis” in talks with President U Thein Sein in Nay Pyi Taw, on that day (May 21) and urged Myanmar's government to work with its regional partners to address the migrant crisis in Southeast Asia.

At the same time the US has made clear it will continue to engage with Myanmar and support its transition from military rule. The US embassy tweeted that Mr Blinken expressed backing for the president’s democratic reforms and the upcoming general election.

The embassy in Yangon posted on Facebook that Blinken shared the U.S. government's concerns about the migrant crisis. State Department officials in Washington said earlier that the U.S. was willing to lead multi-country efforts organized by the U.N. refugee agency to resettle the most vulnerable migrants.

Blinken said earlier on his trip to Southeast Asia that the only sustainable solution to the problem was addressing the conditions that led the Rohingya to flee.

Earlier, Myanmar hinted it might skip the May 29 meeting in Bangkok in neighboring Thailand , which will bring together more than a dozen governments from Southeast Asia and beyond. They want to discuss the root causes of the exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar as well as Bangladeshi migrants, thousands of whom have been stranded at sea. 

In response to pressure, Myanmar has abandoned its hard-line rhetoric of denying any role in the crisis unfolding in the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal, where the UN believes some 4000 people are still stranded in desperate conditions. Myanmar has confirmed that it would attend the conference in Thailand.

Myanmar's presidential office director, Zaw Htay, said on that day (May 21) that his government will take part in talks about human smuggling and illegal migration. (Robin McDowell, Yangon) 

Diplomats said there would be continued pressure on Myanmar to deal with the “root causes” of the crisis in Rakhine State, where stateless Rohingya have no freedom of movement and limited access to schooling and healthcare. Many live in camps that a UN special rapporteur this year described as “abysmal”.

During the May 29 Special Meeting in Bangkok, United State announced that, they will contribute $3 million to IOM in support of its appeal to address the irregular migrants as sea crisis. This assistance to vulnerable migrants will complement the nearly $109 million in humanitarian assistance that the U.S. Government is providing for vulnerable Burmese, including the Rohingya, in Burma and the region since Fiscal Year 2014.

As a lead to both resettlement and refugee assistance worldwide, the United States is --- and has always been -- prepared to take a leading role in any UNHCR-led multi-country resettlement effort for the most vulnerable.”

U.S. President Barack Obama said on the 1st June, that Myanmar needed to end discrimination against the Rohingya people if it wanted to succeed in its transition to a democracy. Obama has sought to make Myanmar’s transition to democracy a legacy of his presidency, and Washington is stepping up pressure on the Southeast Asian nation to tackle what it sees as the root causes of an exodus of migrants across the Bay of Bengal that the region has struggled to cope with.

“Rohingyas need to be treated as citizens of Burma,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Anne Richard told reporters at a press briefing in Jakarta on 2nd June, using the country’s former name. “They need to have identity cards and passports that make clear they are as much citizens of Burma as anyone else.”

Politicians in Myanmar were focused on a historic general election scheduled for November, Richard said, which was hindering political discussion of the status of the Rohingya, who are deeply resented by many of Rakhine’s Buddhist majority.

Richard said she would like to see all Myanmar’s political leaders address the issue. Opposition leader and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has faced international criticism for failing to speak out on behalf of the nation’s many ethnic groups, including the Rohingya.

“We would love to see all Burmese leaders speak up on human rights and to realize that they should help the Rohingya,” Richard said. “The boats are not going to wait until December - the people on the boats need help right now.”

Richard said that the United States was not considering imposing sanctions on Myanmar over the issue, but that sanctions were always “in the diplomatic toolbox”.

Obama has invested significant personal effort and prestige in promoting democracy in Myanmar, which emerged from 49 years of military rule in 2010, travelling there twice in the past three years.

The U.S. president said in a routine note to Congress last month that Washington - while not curtailing engagement with Myanmar - would maintain some sanctions on the country.

“We really hope we are working with a Burma that is on a path to being a more responsible member of the international community,” Richard said.

According to the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, the U.S. military has begun conducting maritime surveillance flights off the west coast of Malaysia, supporting efforts to search for thousands of migrants believed stranded at sea on rickety wooden boats.

"In consultation with governments in the region, the U.S. on May 24 began conducting maritime surveillance flights off the west coast of Malaysia," said embassy spokeswoman Melissa Sweeney in a statement sent via e-mail to VOA News.

"The flights are consistent with our offer to assist governments in the region to improve their understanding of the situation in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal."

In the first series of surveillance missions, the U.S. Pacific Command directed a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft, operating out of Subang, Malaysia, to fly over the Andaman Sea and adjacent waters, searching for vessels, a Pentagon official told VOA. Additional flights may occur as necessary, the official said.

The United States has been urging governments in the region to cooperate on search and rescue operations and sheltering thousands of vulnerable migrants.

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jeffrey Pool told The Associated Press Thursday (May 21) that the Defense Department "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." He provided no further details.

Dr. Habib Siddiqui

RB Article

July 4, 2015

The Outlook India magazine has recently conducted an interview of General Maung Maung Ohn, the chief minister of the Rakhine state of Myanmar. In that he shared his opinions about the Rohingya people who are recognized as the most persecuted people in our planet. During his tenure in office we have seen the exodus of tens of thousands of Rohingyas who have fled the country and have become the ‘boat people’ of our time. He has been a major player in implementing Myanmar government policies that has led to such genocidal activities against the Rohingya people. 

General Ohn epitomizes racism and bigotry and his replies to various questions show once again his hideous criminal mind and deplorable bias against the persecuted Rohingya people. Here is a sample of his lies: 

1. He denies that there is any discrimination or persecution of the Rohingya people. 
2. He says that the term ‘Rohingya’ was not mentioned anywhere before the ’50s or ’60s. And that his objection to the use of the term stems from the perception that granting such special status has other significant implications. It would entitle them to special social, political and even legal benefits. If they are given this privilege, their next step will be to demand separate statehood. 
3. He claims that in Myanmar, minorities coexist harmoniously. 

And here is a sample of half-truth from General Ohn's mouth: 

• There has been communal violence in the state. Not just 2012 but in 1942 they had carried out a genocide in north Rakhine state. 

Only a liar or a propagandist can afford to lie like Maung Maung Ohn. Lest we forget, soon after taking office in June last year in Arakan, when the entire world community was highly critical about Myanmar government policy and the lack of supplies and humanitarian aids getting to the Rohingya IDP camps, he audaciously claimed, “When we visited IDP camps [for Rohingyas], there were food, good toilets, and good living conditions. But in some ethnic Rakhine villages, there is no toilet, no electricity, and no drinking water.” He definitely has perfected the art of lying. If the Nazi criminal propagandist Joseph Goebbels were alive today, he would have been very proud of his brain child! 

Maung's views on the absence of persecution of the Rohingya people and that they are living securely and that the minorities are coexisting in harmony are simply ludicrous. His bloated claims are not shared by any independent observer, international NGO and human rights group, let alone the UNHCR. According to reliable UN estimates, some 150,000 Rohingyas are now living in Nazi-like concentration camps, while more than a hundred thousand have fled the country and many have died in the seas while trying to do so in recent years since the genocidal activities of 2012.

Contrary to Maung's claims that the term 'Rohingya ' is an invention dating only from the 1950s, facts are that the term was in vogue since at least the days of Bodaw Paya's rule in the late 18th century, and that any curious researcher may find the mention of the term in history books and travelogues of Europeans who had visited the region. 

Consider, for instance, the account of Francis Buchanan, a surgeon with the British East India Company, who had traveled to imperial Burma in 1799 and met members of a Muslim ethnic group “who have long settled in Arakan [Rakhine], and who call themselves Rooinga, or natives of Arakan.” That would indicate there were self-identified Rohingya living in Rakhine at least 25 years before the 1823 cut-off for citizenship of modern day Myanmar [Burma]. 

Gregory Poling who is a fellow with the Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. writes, "Even if the name “Rohingya” is too taboo to be accepted inside Myanmar, the historical record is clear that the ethnic group itself has existed in Arakan, or Rakhine State, for centuries. A significant Muslim population lived in the independent Kingdom of Mrauk-U that ruled modern-day Rakhine State from the mid-fifteenth to late eighteenth centuries. Many of the Buddhist kings of Mrauk-U even took Muslim honorifics. The evidence suggests that this community is the origin of today’s Rohingya. The group likely assimilated later waves of immigrants from Bangladesh during and after British rule, but it did not begin with them."

Bengali poets and writers of Arakan of the Mrauk-U dynasty that ruled the region since 1430 had called the territory Roshang and Rohang in their literary works. As I have pointed out elsewhere, people in lower Bengal and Arakan add the partial word - iya - at the end of a district or region to identify its people. Thus, the people of Chatga (Chittagong) came to be known as Chatgaiya, and so is the case with the people of Rohang or Roshang who came to be called Rohingya. [Note that in southern Chittagonian dialect, the sound -sha - is often transformed to - ha – without 's'; as such, what is Roshang in pure Bengali would be sounded as Rohang.]

Now let me get back to Maung's half-truth. He fails to provide the full picture about the 1942 pogroms that saw deaths of tens of thousands of Rohingya people. The casualty was almost one-sided, and it was the Rohingya and not the Rakhine people that suffered enormously during the Japanese occupation of Burma. 

Some historical background may suffice here to understand the event. When the Second World War broke out, the territory of Burma was under British occupation. To many Burmese, cooperating with the Japanese fascist army was preferable to living under the British rule. Aung San, father of Suu Kyi, and his group of comrades belonging to the BIA (Burma Independent Army) were at the forefront of that alliance with the fascist Japanese army when Japan entered the war on December 8, 1941. Japan captured Rangoon (Yangon) on March 7, 1942 leading to the exodus of an estimated half a million Indians and Muslims. “Thousands are reported to have died of starvation, disease or during sporadic military attacks in one of the darkest but least reported incidents in modern Burmese History,” writes Syed Ashraf Alam, a Rohingya historian.

Japan dropped bombs in Akyab (the main town of Arakan) on March 23. 24 and 27 leading to the withdrawal of the British administration. Since the Muslim population, in general, and the Rohingya people, in particular, in the Arakan (Rakhine) region were deemed collaborators of the British regime, they were targeted for elimination soon after Japan occupied the region in late March of 1942 by fascist Rakhine Buddhists. A genocide of Muslims followed. According to Alam, “The Rakhine communalists in connivance with Burma Independence Army (BIA) led by Bo Rang Aung brought about a pogrom massacring about 1,00,000 innocent Rohingya Muslims, driving out [another] 80,000 of them across the border to East Bengal, devastating their settlements and depopulating the Muslims in some parts of Arakan.”

To quote Professor Abid Bahar, a foremost authority on the Rohingya people having studied the subject since the mid-1970s, "In 1942 Japan occupied Burma and the ultra-nationalist Buddhists jointly massacred the Karens, the Mons and in Arakan the Rohingyas. Feeling the threat of extinction, and certain Rakhines determined to drive out the Muslims of Arakan, Muslim leaders officially took the already existing name for their suffering community as the Rohingyas. However, Rohingyas were conveniently identified by the Rakhine extremists as being the Chittagonians. During the time of Japanese occupation, the number of Rohingya death in Arakan was staggering to be over 100,000. Rohingyas call the event as the “Karbalai Arakan,” the bloodshed in Arakan.”

What happened in Arakan in 1942 was truly ethnic cleansing and nothing short of that. In his speech at the Burmese Parliament, Sultan Mahmud, former Health Minister and Member of Parliament from Akyab district, said, “I refused to accept that there was a communal riot in Arakan in 1942. It was a pre-planned cold-blooded massacre. On March 28, 1942 a group of 37 soldiers who are trekking their way to Burma was intercepted, persuaded and prevailed upon to attack and loot the Moslem villages. The cold-blooded massacre began with an uncontrollable fury in the Moslem village of Letma on the western bank of the Lemro River in Maybon townships. It spread like a conflagration in all directions and the unsophisticated villagers with the prospect of gain joined with guns, dahs, spears and all other conceivable contrivances of destruction. Some high-minded and far-sighted Arakanese gentlemen intervened at the risk of their lives to prevent the deadly onslaught. But all their pious efforts were in vain. There was absolutely no attempt at retaliation even by way of self-defence by the Moslem and it was simply one-sided affair. Not a single Rakhine suffered even a scratch. Maybon Township in Kyaukpru District and the six townships of Minbya, Myohaung, Pauktaw, Kyauktaw, Ponnagyun and Rathidaung in Akyab district were depleted of Moslem by murder and massacre and those who escaped evacuated through long tortuous and hazardous routes across mountains to Maungdaw. Twenty Two thousand Moslem reached Subirnagar Camp in Rangpur District in India but very large number had stayed behind in Maungdaw owing to lack of facilities, disease and destitution. These refugees in Maungdaw who had lost their dearest one and all their property now turned against the Rakhine and fell upon them in retaliation. This is what exactly happened in 1942 and I leave it to your impartial readers to judge whether it could be term as communal riot. There were Moslem too who saved a good number of Arakanese Buddhists from the wrath of the Moslem and brutality of the Japanese but modesty forbids me from mentioning their names. I give below the number of Moslem villages totally destroyed in the various townships in 1942. They are: (1) Myebon in Kyaukpru District 30 villages; (2) Minbya in Akyab District 27 villages; (3) Pauktaw in Akyab District 25 villages; (4) Myohaung in Akyab District 58 villages; (5) Kyauktaw in Akyab District 78 villages; (6) Ponnagyun in Akyab District 5 villages; (7) Rathedaung in Akyab District 16 villages; and (8) Buthidaung in Akyab District 55 villages. Total 294 villages. All the villages in Buthidaung Township were re-occupied and rehabilitated by the original inhabitants and refugees after the War but not a single one in other townships.” [Sultan Mahmud, Muslims in Arakan, THE NATION, Rangoon, Sunday, April 12, 1959]

Soon the Rakhine Buddhists were streaming in droves from the north as the Rohingya Muslims were streaming from the south, and Arakan stood divided into two distinct territories, a Muslim north and a Buddhist south one. Since then, the traditional relation between the two sister communities deteriorated.

According to historian Moshe Yegar, “When the Japanese advanced into Arakan in 1942, the Buddhists instigated cruel measures against the Muslim population. Thousands of Muslims (their exact number is unknown) were expelled from regions under Japanese rule in which Buddhists constituted a majority. The Muslims fled to eastern Bengal, or to North Arakan, seeking refuge in territories under British military rule. As they fled, many were killed or died of starvation. For their part, Muslims conducted retaliatory raids from British controlled territories where they were the majority, particularly in the vicinity of Maungdaw. In short order, these acts of mutual slaughter caused the Buddhist population of North Arakan to flee just as the Muslims had abandoned the South. In effect, Arakan was divided into Buddhist and Muslim areas. From December 1942 until April 1943, the British waged an unsuccessful counteroffensive, and the Japanese were able to expand their hold over most Muslim regions in Arakan including Maungdaw. The situation continued to deteriorate, and communal strife grew worse impelling more Muslims to abandon their homes.”

As can be seen in much contradistinction to Maung's assertions, facts are that it was the Rohingya people who were the major victims of 1942 pogroms, and not the Rakhine Buddhists who had collaborated with the fascist forces to drive out and/or kill the Rohingya and other Muslims not just inside the Arakan region but all across Burma.

After the British forces reclaimed the territory in January of 1945, thanks to the sacrifice of the Rohingya Muslims of British Force V to turn the tide of the war, many of the refugees who had fled to Chittagong and other parts of today's Bangladesh returned only to find their homes and properties occupied by the usurping Rakhine and other Buddhists. This led to a series of lawsuits filed in the courts to establish ownership of ‘disputed’ properties. 

In the post-World War II era, due to sensitivity of the situation when Britain had promised to get out of India and Burma, and had also been cooperating with Aung San's group (which just before the fall of the Japanese army had switched the side again being betrayed by the Japanese army, which did not grant the promised independence) the British administration was, however, reluctant to bring back the displaced Rohingya from today's Bangladesh. [It also betrayed on granting them a ‘Muslim National Area’ in the northern Arakan as a reward for their loyalty.] Some 13,000 Rohingyas were not able to return from refugee camps inside India (and today’s Bangladesh). Nevertheless, some Rohingya refugees did resettle in the Northern Arakan State, later to be called Mayu Frontier Administration Area. Some Rakhine usurpers were forced out of Muslim-majority areas in the north. But the southern Arakan, which saw ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya and Muslim population by the hostile Rakhine Buddhists, was off-limits to the returning refugees. Many of them continued to live as refugees in the north. This event has led to permanent souring of the relationship between the two dominant groups of Arakan - the Rakhine and Rohingya.

In the last days of the British rule of Burma, Aung San, who had been negotiating for independence of Burma, tried to bring harmony in a fractured country through dialogue with ethnic and religious minorities. This was unacceptable to Buddhist fascist elements. Soon, before Burma would achieve independence from Britain on January 4, 1948, his entire team of democracy leaders were assassinated by powerful quarters who sought to control Burma by force. Rohingya and other Muslims felt very insecure and severely discriminated, which led to exodus of many to Chittagong district of East Pakistan. 

As noted above, Rohingyas began to feel insecure in independent Burma. According to the Pakistan Times (August 26, 1959) some 10,000 refugees had by then taken shelter in East Pakistan. In 1959, Burma agreed with East Pakistan governor Zakir Hossain to take back Rohingya refugees who had taken shelter in Chittagong in 1958. When questioned “why refugees were pouring into Pakistan from Burma, the Governor replied that the government of Burma had nothing to do with it. Actually the Moghs [i.e., Buddhist Rakhines] of Arakan were creating the trouble.” (Pakistan Times, 27 August 1959) Governor Zakir Hossain's reply once again underscored the deep hostility of the racist Rakhines against the minority Rohingya people. On October 27, 1960, the Daily Guardian, Rangoon, reported that Burmese “Supreme Court quashes expulsion orders against Arakanese Muslims,” which once again shows that the Arakanese [Rohingya] Muslims faced much problems in their reintegration. [In today’s Myanmar, the Rohingyas are treated as ‘Bengalis’ – or intruders from Bangladesh - denying them the right to self-identify as Rohingya.]

The above brief analysis disproves unproven assertions and claims made by Maung Maung Ohn. His views reflect his deep hostility and racism against the persecuted Rohingya people whom he wants to see totally eliminated. But such views cannot hide the facts of the on-going genocide against the Rohingyas of Myanmar to which crime he is a party to. 

Notes in the margin (U Nu and early Ne Win era – 1948-75):

During U Nu’s period (1948-1962), there was much unrest throughout Burma as many minority groups - ethnic and religious - felt betrayed by the constitutional provisions about their status. Several rebellions broke out. The most serious of these was by the Communists who had been denied membership in the government coalition; four other rebellions were on an ethnic basis—the Karens, Kachins, Mons, and Rohingyas of Arakan [the so-called Mujahid Revolt] all of whom hoped to realize their separatist aims in opposition to the central Burmese government in Rangoon. As armed Rakhine nationalists seized control of many of the towns throughout Arakan, hundreds of Rohingya armed supporters flocked to join the Mujahid Party in Buthidaung Township to press for a Muslim Autonomous State in north Arakan. According to Moshe Yeger, the fighting between the Mujahid and Burmese army led to exodus of some 20,000 Rohingya Muslims escaping to Chittagong in East Pakistan by early February of 1949. The Burmese army used repressive measures, which included destruction of Rohingya villages and mosques, further escalating the refugee crisis in East Pakistan. In 1950, a memorandum by the public of Maungdaw, which is close to southern tip of East Pakistan (today's Bangladesh), demanded the protection of fundamental rights and an unconditional repatriation of Rohingyas from Chittagong. 

When the Rohingyas armed resistance movement gained momentum in 1950’s against the tyranny of the Burmese regime, the Burmese government appeased the Rohingya public by offering some governmental positions and a special district called “Mayu Frontier District” encompassing Buthidaung, Maungdaw and western part of Rathedaung, which was to be centrally administered. [After General Ne Win came to power in 1962, the plan was cancelled. He quickly nationalized business, which led to forced exodus of some 300,000 Indians, mostly Muslims, and 100,000 Chinese.]

During the military crackdown in East Pakistan in 1971, an undetermined number of Bengalis took shelter in Arakan. Subsequently, 17,000 returned to Bangladesh. In early 1975, some 15,000 Muslims from Arakan were forced to leave their homes to cross to Bangladesh because of persecution by Rakhine Buddhists. 

By Associated Press

July 2, 2015

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian minister says Southeast Asian countries will establish a humanitarian fund to help boatloads of Rohingya Muslim and Bangladeshi immigrants who have recently landed in Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand. 

Malaysian Home Affairs Minister Zahid Hamidi also says Singapore has pledged $200,000 to the fund at a special regional meeting Thursday on the refugee crisis. 

Since early May, more than 4,600 boat people from Myanmar and Bangladesh have come ashore in Southeast Asian waters. The United Nations estimates some 2,000 migrants could still be at sea after human smugglers abandoned their boats amid a regional crackdown. 

Zahid says he has proposed that each Southeast Asian nation contribute $100,000 each to the fund. 

By Syed Jaymal Zahiid

The Malay Mail Online

July 2, 2015

SERDANG — As the fasting month of Ramadan kicks in, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak told Malaysian Muslims today that their prayers will not guarantee them a spot in paradise after death if they commit slander and cause disunity among their community.

In a reminder of Islam’s key teachings, Najib cited a hadith that promised heaven to those who can respect each other.

“Even if you never miss your prayers, but you are an instigator, slanderous, inciteful and cause disunity, you will not be guaranteed heaven,” Najib said in his speech after handing Aidilfitri donations at a charity event here.

“And carrying a big badge on your chest will also not guarantee you paradise,” he added smilingly, a statement seemingly made against his political foes.

Najib’s leadership has been dogged by several major controversies like the RM42 billion 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal, which has become a central point to a concerted campaign by the opposition and those from within his own party to push for his resignation.

The prime minister’s family members have also been targeted in the corruption allegations.

Najib has vehemently denied the claims, calling the attacks slanderous.

Pointing to the ethnic Rohingya refugees fleeing persecution from their homeland Myanmar, the Pekan MP said today that these immigrants appeared to be more appreciative of Malaysia than some Malaysians themselves.

“The Rohingyas risk their lives to come here and when they arrive here they bow to kiss this land, to show how appreciative they are.

“But we locals go and tarnish the country’s reputation. Instead we are the ones unaware (of we have). We are not grateful that we live in a peaceful and prosperous country,” he said.

A February poll released by Merdeka Centre saw Najib’s popularity rating dropped to 44 per cent in 2014, and analysts believe the prime minister would fare worse now after the 1MDB scandal blew up earlier this year.

The backlash worsened after his government introduced the unpopular Goods and Services Tax in April, causing inflation to skyrocket while Malaysians were already paying high prices for goods due to the depreciating ringgit.

By Greg Yoder

Mission Network News

July 2, 2015

Indonesia — Over the last couple of months, we’ve reported stories of the Rohingya: people without a country, driven out of Myanmar. Refugee camps struggle to support their needs. Many are desperate, including young girls who begin searching for hope through prospective jobs. Many of them end up victims of human trafficking.

Partners Relief and Development is intimately involved in helping them.

Two weeks ago, a Partners team was in Aceh, Indonesia to see how they could help the Rohingya refugees who had just arrived by boat. They were heading to Thailand at the mercy of human traffickers. When Thailand closed their border to refugees landing on their shores, the traffickers were left with few other options. After abandoning their human cargo at sea, they fled to safety in speedboats.

The Rohingya refugees were left stranded, floating at sea with no food or water. Eventually they were found by Acehnese fishermen and brought to shore. Among the Rohingya refugees were 6 teenagers from the village Partners has been helping the most. One of them was killed at sea and his body thrown overboard. The other five arrived in Aceh and were living in a warehouse near the pier where they came ashore.

For three long years, Partners has been working with the displaced Rohingya living in camps outside Sittwe in western Myanmar. Much of their work has been with one particular group of unregistered people. They have become friends. This is the reason they searched among the refugees in Aceh for anyone from this group. This was how they found the five teenagers.

Through a translator, the Rohingya told their story. They had spent more than four months at sea. Many were were beaten and killed on the way. They were crowded in the hold below deck with hardly any food or water. They were forced to live in their own filth. They described how their friend had been killed. They shared the story without emotion. One of the girls was only fourteen.

The Partners team had very little to offer the refugees. They showed them pictures of their families and friends in the camps back in Myanmar. They then asked if they’d like to talk with them and let them know they were safe. They were given a phone and watched as they showed emotion for the first time. As the call was connected, the Partners team watched as they laughed and screamed as they heard their family members on the other end. It wasn’t clear what they were saying, but it was clear they were enjoying the moment: their first moment of joy in a very long time.

Today the Partners team is back at the camps near Sittwe. While here, they visited their families and showed them pictures of their children so far away in Aceh. They met the mother and sister of the 14-year-old girl, showing them pictures and also a video. Both began to sob.

Five months earlier, the 14 year-old was going to visit her uncle, just down the street. Instead, she left the camp with her 5 friends on a boat for Malaysia. Her mother didn’t see her again until she saw the video today.

What causes six teenagers to steal away and risk their lives at sea, at the mercy of human traffickers? Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have no rights, no hope, no future. Young people are taking risks to find hope. Those leaving know the risks. You know it’s hopeless when a 14-year-old girl would rather run away from home and risk torture and death at sea than to stay in a camp.

It’s enough to make a mother cry.

By Shibani Mahtani

The Wall Street Journal

July 2, 2015

The Rohingya minority has become a political tinderbox for democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi

SITTWE, Myanmar — As opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi makes her way across Myanmar, campaigning for her party ahead of this fall’s national election, she is noticeably skipping at least one state: Rakhine, home to the Rohingya Muslims at the center of Southeast Asia’s refugee crisis.

The Rohingya have become a political tinderbox for Ms. Suu Kyi. Outside Myanmar, the Nobel Peace Prize winner has been denounced for not condemning the conditions that drove thousands of Rohingya to flee on human-trafficking boats.

But inside Buddhist-majority Myanmar—which is preparing to hold its freest elections in decades—Ms. Suu Kyi risks losing voter support if she appears too sympathetic to the Rohingya. That could deny her National League for Democracy party enough seats in parliament to shape Myanmar’s democratic future.

Already, some Buddhists here think she has shown too much support for the minority group.

“We in Rakhine state hate Aung San Suu Kyi,” said San Thar Aung, a Buddhist driver in Sittwe, the state’s capital. “She has spoken out too strongly for the Muslims, and blamed us unfairly.”

Such sentiments are echoed by some nationalist monks in other parts of Myanmar, who say Ms. Suu Kyi’s party would favor Muslims and other minorities at a time when explosive religious divisions are at a high.

San Shwe Tun, chairman for the NLD in Rakhine state, says Ms. Suu Kyi “has no plans” to visit the state, and the party is keeping local campaign activities to a minimum. “We are not strong here, because of [Ms. Suu Kyi’s] words on the conflict. She has said that the majority should not discriminate against the minority, and that has upset people,” Mr. San Shwe Tun said.

The stakes are high for Ms. Suu Kyi, who at age 70 is an icon for democratic reform but who is barred from seeking the presidency in her home country. Last week, Myanmar’s parliament voted against a measure that would remove that constitutional restriction—a ban on anyone with foreign family members from becoming president. Ms. Suu Kyi has two foreign-born sons from her British husband, who died in 1999.

The NLD must win a majority of seats in parliament to form a government without resistance from military generals who, under the constitution, control a quarter of the parliamentary seats.

A big victory for her party could catapult Ms. Suu Kyi into other powerful positions besides the presidency, such as speaker of the House of Parliament, which carries huge sway over the legislature. And her party would be in a stronger position to force constitutional changes for a possible Suu Kyi presidency down the road.

Richard Horsey, a Yangon-based analyst, said Ms. Suu Kyi would bring further scrutiny to her views on the Rohingya if she even visited Rahkine.

But neither Ms. Suu Kyi nor her party have called for better treatment of the Rohingya—a subject Ms. Suu Kyi carefully avoids discussing at all on the campaign trail.

For the past three years, about 140,000 Muslims here have lived in squalid camps after deadly clashes broke out with Buddhists. Ms. Suu Kyi has declined to visit the camps, even as the Rohingya plight gained international attention with visits from philanthropist George Soros and actor Matt Dillon.

In fact, she isn’t known to have publicly used the word “Rohingya”—a controversial term in Myanmar, where many call the group “Bengalis” to cast them as foreigners from neighboring Bangladesh. In the rare instances she has addressed the subject, she speaks guardedly, saying she wouldn’t want to “aggravate the situation” by blaming one community, for example, or that “both sides”—Buddhists and Muslims—have been victims and victimizers.

She has also said that the clashes highlight the need for rule of law in Myanmar, something she has continued to push for as a politician.

The NLD hasn’t advocated for citizenship for the Rohingya, nor has it gone into specifics about what rights they should be entitled to.

But even couched remarks on the Rohingya, or simply the symbol of the NLD as defenders of human rights, are enough to anger Buddhists in Rakhine, said Mr. San Shwe Tun, the regional party head. People here “think the NLD represents the Muslims,” and party members have faced threats and harassment from local Buddhists, he said.

Myanmar’s government has been widely criticized for doing little to improve conditions for Muslims in Rakhine state.

Maung Maung Ohn, the chief minister of Rakhine state, said officials have started resettling Muslims displaced in Rakhine to better homes. But these new homes are temporary, he says, since Buddhist communities won’t accept Muslims being reintegrated into their communities. He encouraged Rohingya to adopt the government term “Bengali” as part of a program aimed at upgrading their citizenship status.

In the muddy camps and other Muslim areas across the state, however, few Muslims know the NLD or see Ms. Suu Kyi as a defender of their rights. Most voted for the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, which took control after general elections in 2010, because government officials promised them a clear path to citizenship. This year, the government revoked their voting rights amid rising anti-Muslim sentiment.

Violence and government policies have left the Rohingya without identification documents, freedom of movement, access to education or health care. As monsoon season approaches, the ghettoized districts and camps they live in are filling with knee-high water and mud. Muslims there who once were on track to getting college degrees are now left isolated, without the prospect of jobs.

“We don’t trust anyone in Myanmar to help us, not the government or the NLD,” said Sadek Hussain, 20. “Only the international community gives us hope.”

MEASURED RESPONSE

Public statements by Aung San Suu Kyi on the Rohingya issue

June and October 2012 Riots in Rakhine state leave nearly 100 dead and more than 140,000 displaced. When asked about the violence, Ms. Suu Kyi says it highlights the need for rule of law in the Myanmar

June 2013 Ms. Suu Kyi criticizes a proposed policy by local leaders in Rakhine to impose a two-child policy on Muslims. Buddhists in Sittwe, Rakhine’s capital, try to destroy the NLD party’s sign at its office there, party officials say.

October 2013 In a BBC interview, she says ‘both sides’ have been targeted by the violence, and that both Buddhists and Muslims are responsible.

June 2015 Thousands of Rohingya are abandoned by smugglers after fleeing Myanmar. The NLD releases a rare statement saying that the safety of migrants should be guaranteed and the problem of human trafficking addressed.

By Betsy Nolan

The Jakarta Post

July 2, 2015

Indonesia should do all it can to help Rohingya refugees through bilateral and regional mechanisms, and play an active role in assisting Myanmar to become an inclusive, pluralistic democracy, experts say.

In May, thousands of Rohingya made the treacherous journey to neighboring countries to flee persecution in Myanmar. They were rescued or swam to shore in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. While several thousand more are believed to still be trapped on boats with little food or water in a crisis sparked by smugglers abandoning their human cargo after a Thai crackdown on regular human-trafficking routes.

Despite giving temporary shelter to Rohingya already in their territory, Indonesia and other countries in the region should pursue a more comprehensive solution to resolve the issue.

“For humanitarian reasons, Indonesia should do all it can to rescue Rohingya refugees and give them temporary shelter until they can return home or be resettled elsewhere,” said Dewi Fortuna Anwar, political advisor to the Vice President recently.

The Rohingya stranded at sea as a result of persecution in Myanmar are growing in number. Not accepted as citizens in Myanmar and fleeing because of fear of death, the stateless Rohingya have been steadily flowing out of the country since the Rakhine state riots of 2012. 

However, the conflict began much earlier. Violence between the Muslim Rohingya and some Buddhist militias first broke out during British involvement in the former Burma during World War II.

In 1982, the government of Myanmar officially denied the Rohingya legal citizenship. Many of those who fled moved to slums and refugee camps along Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh and Thailand. 

Others live in internally displaced person camps within Myanmar, from which the government will not allow them to leave. Now, many are leaving by boat, but wherever they migrate to in the region, poor health and nutrition, continued conflict and fear of persecution seem to follow. 

Dewi also believes that Indonesia should play a part in encouraging Myanmar to deal with the current refugee crisis. “Indonesia should encourage Myanmar bilaterally, through ASEAN, and other regional and multilateral forums, to give full citizenship to the Rohingya and treat them without discrimination. Indonesia should play an active role in assisting Myanmar become a fully inclusive, pluralistic democracy,” she suggested. 

Meanwhile, international relations expert at Paramadina University, Dinna Wisnu, told The Jakarta Post that although Indonesia has started this process, “Indonesia’s encouragement of Myanmar to treat the Rohingya as citizens needs to continue.” 

Indonesia has granted some Rohingya people temporary shelter for up to a year in Aceh province and has reportedly received an additional US$49 million from Qatar to support their stay in the country. Acehnese fishermen were some of the first to help bring the refugees ashore after seeing them stranded at sea. 

However, problems relating to their citizenship still lie with Myanmar, which may be slowly warming to the idea of reassessing its stance on the Rohingya, with Indonesia’s help. 

“This needs to continue,” said Dinna.

“Too much cornering and pressuring without sufficient support and encouragement would do more harm than good. Indonesia can elevate its support to Myanmar by building a network based on peace building. The network provides options for countries to help because Myanmar will need financial as well as technical assistance for quite a few years ahead.” 

The first "European Rohingya Conference" was held in Esbjerg, Denmark on 27-28 December 2014

Dear Rohingya Brothers and Sisters,

Assalaamu Alaykum Wrt. Wbt. 

We are organising 2nd European Rohingya Conference on 1st and 2nd of August 2015 in Esbjerg, Denmark. It will be the continuation of 1st European Rohingya Conference held in December last year. All the Rohingyas living in Europe are cordially invited to join the conference. Rohingyas living outside Europe are also welcome as guests.

We are aware that there are many Rohingya organisations in Europe today. We are also aware that many of the organisations are doing their best, but individually, in their respective countries. It is not enough, we need to do much. We need to work collectively. Our collective work will make our voice stronger and strengthen our unity.

We hope you will join the conference in the best interest of the suffering Rohingya people. If you decide to join, please confirm to us not later than July 20, 2015. You can confirm either by writing to eurohingyaconference@gmail.com or contacting one of the following persons. 

1. Zakaria Abdur Rahim (Denmark) +45 22556897

2. Monawara Jamil (Denmark) +45 4225 4828

3. Sazzat Ahmad (Netherlands) +31 615033663

4. Tun Khin (UK) +44 7888714866

5. Nay San Lwin (Germany) +49 1796535213

6. Mv. Azizul Hoque (Switzerland) +41 762982367

7. Sayed Hussein (Norway) +47 95795575

8. Mv. Ali Ahmad (Sweden) +46 725722472

9. Bolu Mohammad Siddique (Finland) +35 8442835756

You are requested to provide the following information on confirmation. 

1. Your name 

2. Country of residence 

3. Arrival date, time and place 

4. Contact number and/or email address 

Please be noted that food, accommodation (not hotel) and pick-up service from the nearest airport (Billund) or nearest bus/train station (Esbjerg) will be provided. You are required to make your own travel arrangement. Your travel expenses will not be reimbursed. 

Please forward this invitation to all of your contacts so that no one is left uninvited. 

Hope to see you all in the conference. 

On behalf of conference organisers,

Sayed Hussein

Norway