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Rohingyas celebrating Hari Raya at the office of Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organisation Malaysia (Merhrom). — TRP pic by Ahmed Syahril

By Ahmed Syahril Zulkeply
July 21, 2015

Rohingya refugees here are thankful for the opportunity to celebrate Raya in peace, although having to do so thousands of miles away from their hometown.

For hundreds of the refugees that are temporarily seeking shelter in Cheras Baru here, Raya has been celebrated every year in the office of Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organisation Malaysia (Merhrom).

The organisation’s president Zafar Ahmead Mohd Abdul Ghani said that every year, Raya would be celebrated in great merriment by the refugees especially with the help of the locals.

“Usually we will perform Raya prayer in Surau Al-Islah located near the office, along with the locals around the area.

“Then we will eat together with many of them bringing along their special dishes,” he said to The Rakyat Post.

Although admitting grief due to the inability to celebrate the special day with his loved ones that are still in Myanmar, Zafar said the sadness was made a little bearable when surrounded by those in the same boat as he was.

“We are just happy to be able to celebrate Raya in peace here and to have everything go so well.

“Every year I, my wife and our three children will celebrate with the other Rohingyan refugees.”

Mohd Hussein Jalal Ahmad, 46, expressed sadness for having to be alone the past eight years, without any of his family to accompany him in the celebration.

“I miss my parents, my sisters, my siblings and my relatives and what is more saddening for me is that I can’t even contact them.

“I don’t know what is going with them, if they are still alive or if they are dead. Their mobile number is uncontactable.”

Abdul Manaf Anah Hat, 50, considered himself luckier than the other refugees as unlike most of them, he has almost all his family members out of the uncertainties that surrounded the lives of those still living in Myanmar.

“My family are mostly safe and sound, with some living in Malaysia and others in Thailand, India and Indonesia.

“Every year we will call each other but sadly, I still haven’t had the opportunity to contact my parents who are in Myanmar.

“I constantly worry for their well being,” he said, recounting the tragic Raya incident in Myanmar, 20 years ago.

“It was the saddest Raya and I still remember it to this day. A lot of the Muslims were arrested and imprisoned for no reason and when I ran to Thailand before heading to Malaysia, I got news that a friend of mine was killed on his way to visit his relatives.”

For 21-year-old Mohd Hassan Syed Hussein, Raya was normally celebrated with those who walked in the same shoes as he did.

“After the celebration in the Merhrom office, I would go to the city center and meet others just like me. We would then spend the day by visiting the other Rohingyans around Selangor.

“Last year I celebrated with my friend’s family in Perlis. The celebration in Malaysia is much merrier and peaceful as the people here respects each other despite the different race and religion.”

Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Volker Türk (left) speaks with an elderly woman in a Rohingya village near Maungdaw, northern Rakhine State, Myanmar, on 12 July 2015. Photo: UNHCR/K. Rochanakorn

July 21, 2015

Wrapping up a five-day mission to Myanmar, Volker Türk, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection in the United Nations refugee agency called for more concerted support to resolve the plight of displaced people and those with undetermined citizenship in the country.

After visiting Yangon, as well as the capital of Nay Pyi Taw and Sittwe and Maungdaw in Rakhine state, Mr. Türk said “the future of the country depends on the future of all of its composite parts,” and he noted in a press release issued late last week that everyone should have the opportunity to benefit from the transformation currently under way.

Rakhine state is one of the least developed areas of the country. It is home to internally displaced people (IDPs) along with an estimated one million others of undetermined citizenship. Living in the state's northern townships, the predominantly Rohingya populations is affected by restrictions on freedom of movement, and access to livelihoods and services, such as health and education.

Travelling to a small village an hour's drive from Maungdaw, Mr. Türk said he had seen first-hand the impact of restrictions on the Rohingya population and the damage caused by their lack of citizenship. "Local orders" in place prevent them from moving easily from one village to another, severely limiting their livelihoods.

They are also deprived higher educational opportunities. Since June 2012, Rohingya students have been prohibited from attending Sittwe University – the only university in the state.

Mr. Türk spoke directly with the affected populations in Rakhine state, where 140,000 people are still internally displaced after the outbreak of inter-communal violence three years ago.

In a positive development, when breaking the Ramadan fast together with Rakhine and Rohingya community leaders in Maungdaw, he was told that while challenges remain in building trust, the communities have a long history of co-existence.

“We have been living together since before Maungdaw town existed,” said one Rohingya leader. His comment was then affirmed by a Rakhine representative.

Traveling to Nay Pyi Taw, he held discussions with U Khin Yi, Minister for Immigration and Population, and other government officials and parliamentarians.

Following up on the issues raised in Bangkok in late May during a regional meeting on irregular migration in the Indian Ocean, Mr. Türk noted that the recent “boat crisis” in the region and the long-term situation in Rakhine state. He reiterated UNHCR's readiness to assist all governments in the region, including Myanmar, to address the movements of people from Bangladesh and Myanmar.

At the end of his visit, the Assistant High Commissioner shared his findings at a briefing with diplomats and representatives of international organisations in Yangon. Describing the regional dimension of the maritime movements in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, he emphasized that the key to finding solutions is to work with all of the communities and the authorities to promote peaceful co-existence in the Rakhine state.

By Emanuel Stoakes Chris Kelly and Annie Kelly
July 20, 2015

Guardian investigation uncovers extensive role of authorities, fishermen and traffickers in enslaving thousands of Rohingya, who were held in deadly jungle camps



Thai fishing industry turns to trafficking: ‘We witnessed girls being raped again and again’ – video


Rohingya migrants trafficked through deadly jungle camps have been sold to Thai fishing vessels as slaves to produce seafood sold across the world, the Guardian has established.

So profitable is the trade in slaves that some local fishermen in Thailand have been converting their boats to carry Rohingya migrants instead of fish.

A Guardian investigation into Thailand’s export-orientated seafood business and the vast transnational trafficking syndicates that had, until recently, been holding thousands of Rohingya migrants captive in jungle camps, has exposed strong and lucrative links between the two.

Testimony from survivors, brokers and human rights groups indicate that hundreds of Rohingya men were sold from the network of trafficking camps recently discovered in southern Thailand.

According to those sold from the camps on to the boats, this was frequently done with the knowledge and complicity of some Thai state officials. In some cases, Rohingya migrants held in immigration detention centres in Thailand were taken by staff to brokers and then sold on to Thai fishing boats.

Other Rohingya migrants say Thai officials collected them from human traffickers when they arrived on the country’s shores and transported them to jungle camps where they were held to ransom or sold to fishing boats as slave labour.

Thailand’s seafood industry is worth an estimated $7.3bn a year. The vast majority of its produce is exported. Last year, another Guardian investigationtracked the supply chain of prawns produced with slave labour to British and American supermarket chains.

Though the Guardian has not irrefutably linked individual Thai ships using Rohingya slaves to specific seafood supermarket produce, the likelihood is that some seafood produced using this labour will have ended up on western shelves.

The scale of the profitable and sophisticated human trafficking networks making money from the desperation of hundreds of thousands of stateless Rohingya “boat people” has been emerging over the past weeks.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya fled state-sponsored ethnic cleansing in Burma in the first three months of this year. Stateless and unwanted, their only option was to take to the seas in their desperate attempt to reach the relative safety of Malaysia.

In March, the special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Yanghee Lee, told the UN Human Rights Council that Rohingya people in camps for internally displaced people had only two options: “stay and die” or “leave by boat”.

The plight of the victims recently attracted international attention following the discovery of several abandoned vessels containing hundreds of starving Bangladeshi migrants and Rohingya refugees, which Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia all initially refused to allow ashore.

In May, officials in Thailand and Malaysia also discovered a number of jungle prisons and mass graves used as holding pens for the traffickers’ operations.

These jungle camps were used as open-air prisons in which the inmates were held captive while they were ransomed to their relatives for sums often exceeding a thousand pounds. Many of those held in the camps were raped, tortured or beaten to death. 

Camp survivors and brokers, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, said that those who could not raise the money demanded by their captors would be sold into slavery in return for a fee paid by the boat captains. Their testimonies corroborate the accounts of rights groups investigating Rohingya trafficking.

A young Rohingya migrant described how he was sold by traffickers from the jungle camps on to a boat carrying the Thai national flag in Songkhla, southern Thailand, before escaping at the end of last year.

“We were taken [from the camps] by boats and cars, we arrived in Songkhla and were put on to the fishing ship,” he says. “We were forced to work there. We had to work on the sea for about four years. During this time the ship never came back to shore.”

Matthew Smith, executive director of Bangkok-based Fortify Rights, said the link between the camps and the fishing industry was well-established and had a long history. “When men or boys [held in traffickers’ camps] are unable to pay … to secure their freedom they are often sold to fishing boats for use in slave labour. This has been happening for decades. It’s a situation in the Thai fishing sector that’s been going on since the 90s, at least as far as we can tell,” he said.

A broker interviewed in Bangkok acknowledged the use of Rohingya slaves in the fishing trade, recounting how he had sold around 100 people from the jungle camps over the past year, some as recently as early this year, making around 30,000 Thai baht ($900) per sale.

Unloading trashfish at Ranong port, Thailand. Photograph: Chris Kelly

“They [the migrants] were bought by the Thai boat captains,” he said, adding, “they could never leave the boats because they might run away, and then [the captains] would lose their labour. I’ve heard that if they can’t work [the captains] throw them into the sea.” In addition to Rohingya, he sold Laotian, Burmese and Cambodian migrants as slave labour to the ships.

Despite a crackdown on the use of slave labour by the Thai government, evidence suggests that the sale of Rohingya kept in jungle camps was happening as recently as early this year.

Thailand is facing unprecedented pressure to tackle human trafficking and clean up its fishing industry. This April the EU gave Thailand six months to crack down on illegal fishing and labour abuses or face a trade ban, which could see Thailand lose up to €1bn a year in seafood exports.

In recent months, Thailand has claimed to have taken decisive action, shutting down all active Rohingya trafficking camps and pushing through a series of hasty reforms in its seafood sector, including requiring boat owners to register migrant workers and undergo new licensing and registration of all boats and equipment to try and stave off the EU ban.

“The government does not mean to hurt anyone. But we have to adjust the country’s fishing system,” said Minister Peetipong Phuengbun, agriculture and cooperatives minister, last week.

Seafood prices are reported to be rising across the country and according to the Thai Overseas Fisheries Association, about 3,000 fishing ships will not go to sea because of fears of fines imposed for not complying with the new regulations. In the first week in July this year, fishermen in 22 provinces across Thailand went on strike, protesting about the hastily imposed reforms,which they say are costing the industry $444m a month.

Fishermen in Ranong say that that these reforms, coupled with decades of overfishing and ecological destruction that has pushed fish stocks to the brink, mean they are increasingly unable to make a living. Instead, they are increasingly turning to another line of business: people trafficking.

“Right now ... it’s really hard to find fish in the Gulf of Thailand. When this kind of job comes along it can make me money,” said one boat owner. “The more people I bring, the more money I make … and to be honest, I want to make money. We can transport 300 to 400 people, because we have a big boat.”

Another local boat owner told the Guardian that he knew of 10 boats operating from the same port, carrying 12,000 Rohingya migrants a month. These migrants could be worth around $24m in ransom money.

“I earned 30,000 baht ($900) [through fishing], but if they [transport people] they earn 100,000 baht ($3,000),” the boat owner said.

Thailand will be hoping that its public effort to tackle its trafficking problems will earn it an upgrade in this year’s US State Department Trafficking in Persons report(TiP), which evaluates countries based on their success in combating the activities of traffickers in their jurisdiction, which is due to be published this week . In 2014, as the Guardian revealed Asian slave labour was producing prawns for supermarkets in the US and UK, Thailand was relegated to tier three, the lowest possible ranking.

Since last year’s Trafficking in Persons report demotion, Thailand has announced tougher legislation, but there has been little evidence of improvement … Ranong port and fish market. Photograph: Chris Kelly

Anti-trafficking groups say the changes made by the Thai authorities are insufficient to make any real difference. “Since last year’s TiP demotion, Thailand has announced tougher legislation to address trafficking, but we have seen little or no evidence of real improvement,” says Melysa Sperber, director of theAlliance to End Slavery and Trafficking, a coalition of anti-trafficking organisations.

“Our partners on the ground report that these changes are mainly cosmetic, and we shouldn’t assume that any changes made are anything more than propaganda. We continue to hear reports from our members of debt bondage, slavery and violence in Thailand’s export-orientated fishing activities.”

The Guardian made multiple attempts to contact the Thai government but received no reply.

By Early Warning Project
July 20, 2015

“We fear we will be wiped out.” – Tun Khin, Rohingya human rights defender



Many people around the world first heard of the Rohingya community in Myanmar – and the repressive policies they face in their homeland – when traffickers and smugglers left entire ships of Rohingya on the open sea without adequate food, water, or fuel to reach safety. Images of women, men, and children in this desperate situation led people to ask why so many people would embark on such a dangerous and often deadly journey in order to seek a new home. Why were they fleeing?

The Rohingya are a religious and ethnic minority in Myanmar who have faced state-led discrimination and violence for several decades. The Burmese government stripped the entire ethnic group of their citizenship, rendering most Rohingya stateless, and imposed discriminatory policies against Rohingya in some parts of the country that restrict movement, family size, and marriage. Recent restrictions have been installed to keep Rohingya from voting, which will keep them from participating in national elections slated for November 2015. While these laws and policies are directed only at Rohingya, these acts are carried out within a larger context of nationalism and discrimination against other minorities throughout the country.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center traveled to Rakhine State, in western Myanmar where many Rohingya live, to investigate a situation the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar has called possible crimes against humanity against the Rohingya community. Simon-Skjodt Center staff spoke with human rights activists, survivors of violence, politicians, women’s rights leaders, and other community representatives from a variety of backgrounds. Those we interviewed told the Center’s staff about outbreaks of violence against Rohingya in 2012. The violence was led by their Buddhist neighbors and often with the support or acquiescence of government officials, and left many Rohingya displaced. Center staff spoke with people living in deplorable conditions in internment camps far from their homes with no means of returning, or supporting their families. The Center’s findings were stark – that these early warning signs of genocide had come together to create a situation so tense, and so untenable, that a single spark could ignite mass violence. Rohingya were taking to the seas in vast numbers – double in spring of 2015 compared to the same time period in 2014 and 2013 – to flee the threat of genocide.

It is unsurprising then that the Early Warning Project’s Statistical Risk Assessment currently places Myanmar, also called Burma, first out of 162 countries most at risk of a new episode of mass killing. Myanmar’s risk is driven mostly by the “bad regime” theory of why mass atrocities occur, which includes factors like authoritarian rule, an exclusionary elite ideology, and state-led discrimination.

Rohingya activists and survivors of violence remind us that these factors are more than parts of a statistical risk assessment; they have profound and lasting impacts on basic freedoms and everyday life. To go beyond the numbers, the Early Warning Project interviewed Tun Khin, president of the Burmese Rohingya Organization UK and well-known Rohingya human rights activist, to hear his perspective on the risk of mass atrocities in Myanmar.

Why is the Burmese government enacting discriminatory policies against Rohingya? What is the government's goal?

The government has an overall policy to wipe out the Rohingya minority from Burma. This is because of ultra-nationalism in the country and because Rohingyas are ethnically and religiously different. Politically, they are unwanted. That feeling gives rise to ethnic and political persecution.

For how long have these policies been in place? What were things like before?

This has been going on for many decades. My parents along with 200 other Rohingya fled the country into neighboring Bangladesh in Spring 1978 during the first large-scale campaign against Rohingya. They were forced back to Burma in the same year, and a few years later I was born in northern Arakan State, Burma. Since then, my family and I have lived in legal limbo. Even though my grandfather was a parliamentary secretary, British educated and a Burmese national, I am now a refugee who is denied citizenship from the government of Burma. In my grandfather’s time, we had Rohingya social organizations in Rangoon, but not in my time.

What is the impact of discriminatory policies against Rohingya? What does this mean for Rohingya people living in Burma?

A discriminatory citizenship policy keeps us from going to university, it makes us stateless, and keeps us from working as civil servants. We face restrictions on movement, a two-child policy, and restrictions on marriage. A secret marriage can lead to 5-7 years in jail, which impacts our social life and creates an unbearable situation. With restrictions on movement, people cannot get medicine or go to a clinic. Even when my friend’s father passed away, my friend couldn’t go to the funeral because of restrictions on his movement – just because he was Rohingya.

Why are we seeing even more Rohingya fleeing Burma now? And what do you think is the most important thing the Burmese government can do right now to address this problem?

The fleeing is nothing new. In terms of a timeline, over the past few decades the Burmese government has stripped ethnic rights, our citizenship, and imposed local restrictions. When those policies first came about, Rohingya were fleeing even more. Then came popular violence against Rohingya and an anti-Rohingya propaganda campaign, and people were pushed from their homes into camps. With all of this happening now, how can people stay in camps without food, starving to death? They feel like they have to leave.

The Burmese government can address the problem by protecting people and restoring their full citizenship. Things will only get better when the government treats Rohingya as citizens with dignity and equality of other people in Burma.

What do you think other countries in Southeast Asia can do?

Other Southeast Asian countries should see that thousands of people are coming to their country because 1.3 Rohingya in Burma are fleeing an unbearable situation. It’s a regional issue. Other countries need to focus on the root cause of the problem because otherwise more people will flee and come to their countries.

Are there individuals or groups within the Burmese government who support Rohingya rights? Are they there, but afraid to speak out?

Unfortunately, we have not seen anyone. We have supported human rights and democracy in Burma – campaigned for them, but they are not speaking out. I don’t think they are afraid. I think they are taking advantage of things politically. But in the case of inhumanity and injustice, no one should be silent. What’s happening to us requires a serious kind of humanity – this is a very important moment for Rohingya.

What do you think policymakers in the United States and other countries can do to help the Rohingya community?

I appreciate that the US government has been raising concerns about Rohingya with the Burmese government, but there has been little practical action since 2012. The US government and others in the international community should call for an international investigation and for humanitarian aid to get in. The Burmese government needs to be warned that they will face consequences if this continues, and the US should give clear timing and benchmarks for these consequences.

Tun Khin, president of the Burmese Rohingya Organization UK

Is there anything that gives you hope that the situation will improve for Rohingya in Burma?

I would like to be hopeful. We have been hoping for many decades for this nightmare to end. We hope for the best, but we are worried that if the international community doesn’t save us, we will be wiped out.

We recently heard from George Soros, who said that in 1944 he was a Rohingya too. With this kind of grave situation, the world needs to be more actively involved in this issue. Sadly, the government is succeeding in its policies. How much more will we have to suffer before there is action?



Press Release

An interfaith and peace activist has been arrested

A Burmese Muslim activist, Zaw Zaw Latt, who has been working tirelessly for interfaith peace building in Burma, has been arrested.

Zaw Zaw Latt was arrested at 8 pm, on 14th July in Chan Aye Thar Zan Township, Mandalay. He was arrested in a café by police officer U Soe Naing, who arrested him without an arrest warrant. Zaw Zaw Latt is charged under section 17/1 of the penal code for unlawful association with a blacklisted organisation.

Zaw Zaw Latt is a member of an organisation called Thint Myat Lo Thu Myar (Translation: Peace Seekers). A Buddhist abbot known as Asha Alinn Yaung Sayadaw from Pyin Oo Lwin founded the organisation in 2013, in the aftermath of the Meikhtilar anti Muslim pogroms. The organisation is formed with members from diverse faiths including Buddhists, Christian, Muslims, Hindus and Baha’i. He is also a member of NLD party. 

The arrest is related to Zaw Zaw Latt's involvement in a peaceful march to Kachin State in 2013. During the visit to Kachin State he took pictures with the member of Kachin arms group and posted on his Facebook account. The pictures were posted two years ago. He is only now having action taken against him because recently members of Mabatha have been targeting him and spreading rumours that he has connections with armed groups. This shows that authorities in Burma react swiftly whenever the extremist groups demand and pressure them. He has been portrayed as a terrorist on social media.

Zaw Zaw Latt has been working tirelessly for interfaith peaceful coexistence at the grassroots level. His peaceful message is spreading among youth very effectively. Therefore, it is clear that he has become an obstacle for the Buddhist extremist group Mabatha and they have been plotting against him. Since a few months ago the extremist group Mabatha has been spreading rumours against him. He has been accused as being a member of terrorist organisations through postings on Mabatha Facebook pages.

On the other hand, U Wirathu has been travelling and meeting with armed group around the country and posted several pictures but he has never been questioned or arrested. Moreover, there are many journalists, who frequently travelled to the rebel areas, took pictures wearing uniforms and holding arms but they were also never been questioned or arrested. Member of 88 Generation students also visited Kachin state and took pictures but they were never been questioned or arrested. It is also clear that Burmese government never takes any action against Buddhist extremist group that spread hatred among the citizens of Burma whereas they harass and arrest the people who are dedicated to build a peaceful coexistence among diverse faiths in Burma. 

BMA strongly urge the international community to put all possible pressure on Burmese government to release Zaw Zaw Latt immediately. The international community should be committed to interfaith peace building in Burma and to protect those who are dedicated to this cause. Activists like Zaw Zaw Latt should be encouraged, not threatened or framed and punished. Peace activist like Zaw Zaw Latt should not be subjected to arbitrary arrest simply for their involvement in peace building. Noticeably, since the election is closer, the current sensitive situation could easily trigger anti Muslim pogroms. Burma needs more people like Zaw Zaw Latt. Therefore, international community need to address this issue seriously. 

Zaw Zaw Latt has been remanded for two weeks but is expected to be sent to Obho jail on 21st July. He is currently still in Chan Aye Thar Zan Police station. The punishment for the breach of the section 17/1 shall not be less than two years imprisonment or could be more than three years and shall be liable to fine.


Burmese Muslim Association
17th July 2015

Media contact

Kyaw Win, UK, Kyawwin78@gmail.com +44 740 345 2378
Daw Molly, Canada, law4women@gmail.com +1 416 516 7383
Ms. Yasmin, USA, yasnohana@gmail.com +1 408 250 6227



By Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal
July 19, 2015

Racism sponsored or promoted by a state, like terrorism of all sorts, remains an ugly embodiment of modern corrupt civilization. Today, in the post Sept-11 hoax setting, Islamophobia and media targeting of Muslims serve the racial cause for brutality in many anti-Muslim nations.

All racist states use Islamophobia as the most useful tool to advance their anti-Islam and anti-people agenda by splitting the populations on religious lines.

Asian racism

A global phenomenon, racism in Asia exists for similar reasons like elsewhere in the world. In general, racism exists in these countries due to historical events that occurred either recently or even thousands of years ago. Overall, racism exists in Asia because of ethnic conflicts that existed in the region for thousands of years. Racism leads and is very similar to apartheid.

A few examples would illustrate the point. Myanmar, Thailand, Australia and Israel practice this evil as state policy. In 1991-92, South Asian Bhutan is said to have deported between about 100,000 ethnic Nepalis (Lhotshampa). In March 2008, this population began a multiyear resettlement to third countries including the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia.

In Israel, racism exists between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians, both Muslim and Christian. Racism in Israel stems from the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict created with the founding of Israel. In Cambodia, one of the biggest genocides in history occurred, with the Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot persecuting ethnic Chinese and other foreigners living in Cambodia. This conflict stems from Chinese involvement in Cambodia before the Vietnam War.

Organizations such as Amnesty International, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and the United States Department of State have published reports documenting racial discrimination in Israel. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) published reports documenting racism in Israel, and the 2007 report suggested that racism in the country was increasing. Most of Israeli teen consider Arabs to be less intelligent, uncultured and violent. Over a third of Israeli teens fears or hates Arabs all together. 50% of Israelis taking part in March 2007 ACRI's racism poll said they would not live in the same building as Arabs, will not befriend, or let their children befriend Arabs and would not let Arabs into their homes. The report says the trend of increasing racism in Israel is continuing.

Anti—Muslim policy of Chinese government, like other Western powers, is well known. Anti-Japanese sentiment in China is an issue with old roots but anti-African mindset is a new phenomenon. Japan started off by annexing land from China towards the end of the Qing Dynasty. 

Dissatisfaction with the settlement and the Twenty-One Demands by the Japanese government led to a severe boycott of Japanese products in China. Bitterness in China persists over the atrocities of the Second Sino-Japanese War, such as the Nanjing Massacre and Japan's post-war actions. Several clashes between African and Chinese students have occurred since the arrival of Africans to Chinese universities in the 1960s. Many African students come to China on a scholarship through the government to study at a university. A well-documented incident in 1988 featured Chinese students rioting against African students studying in Nanjing. In 2007, police anti-drug crackdowns in Beijing's Sanlitun district were reported to target people from Africa as suspected criminals.

The Varna system in Hindu India became hereditary and a Shudra's son would remain a Shudra, and became to known as caste system. During the British Raj, Racist views against Indians based on the systemic scientific racism practiced in Europe were popularized. India has known racialism in all its forms ever since the commencement of British rule. The idea of a master race is inherent in imperialism. India as a nation and Indians as individuals were subjected to insult, humiliation and contemptuous treatment. In the post Independent era, Indian rulers and allies ill-treat and discriminate Muslims in a manner worse than even racist. Hindutva forces now target Muslims for Hindu votes and power. Hindutva mindset was discernible in their ghastly destruction of historic Babri mosque in India a cultural heritage of Mogul era that created whole range of architectural marvels, including world famous Taj Mahal. 

Interestingly, some RSS historians claim Taj Mahal to be a Hindu treasure while most Muslims working as vote bank agents for political parties for survival money are busy minting easy money. 

Burmese racism

Burmese military hates Islam and Muslims. During the second wave of violence, however, it was not only the Rohingya, but also Kaman Muslims from coastal fishing villages in southern Arakan were forced to flee as their communities were attacked. Although the Kaman are a recognised ethnic group with full citizenship rights, those rights did not protect them from racist state-sponsored violence that destroyed homes and livelihoods.

Nor has citizenship protected those thousands of Muslims currently subjected to a vicious wave of anti- Muslim violence across Myanmar - in Meiktila, Yamethin and in the Pegu townships of Zigon and Nattalin. These attacks, which left many dead and thousands displaced, demonstrate that citizenship is no protection against the communal violence and Islamophobia.

The targets of these attacks were not the Arakan Rohingya as much as Muslim citizens, their mosques, businesses and homes. State-sponsored violence against Muslim communities has been orchestrated by Myanmar's security forces - specifically the NaSaKa border force and assisted by Arakan nationalists, paramilitaries and extremist Buddhist monks. They have been able to act with impunity. 

Ne Win's rise to power in 1962 and his persecution of "resident aliens" (immigrant groups not recognised as citizens of the Union of Burma led to an exodus of some 300,000 Burmese Indians from discriminatory policies, particularly after wholesale nationalization of private enterprise a few years later in 1964. Some Muslim refugees entered Bangladesh, but continued to suffer there as the Bangladeshi government provided no support as of 2007
Myanmar's Rohingya suffer brutal state crime because of deeply entrenched and unchecked Islamophobia. It is the story of the Rohingya: rendered stateless at the hands of the military junta, brutalized by armed Buddhist nationalists, abused, dehumanized and displaced by the current Myanmar state and now fleeing the country which refuses to recognize them. It is the story of the Rohingya: rendered stateless at the hands of the communalized military.

The Rohingya are surely entitled to Myanmar citizenship and ethnic minority recognition. 

Instead, theirs is a "bare life" in which every aspect of social and political life is restricted and diminished. The racist violence experienced by the whole Myanmar Muslim community is drawn into arcane legal debates around the rights and wrongs of immigration and citizenship policy which pertain most specifically to the Rohingya.

There are an estimated 800,000 Rohingyas living in Arakan state, but the number is dwindling fast. Thousands have fled and continue to flee on boats into the Bay of Bengal to escape the anti-Muslim state-sponsored violence which took the lives of nearly 200 in late 2012. Tens of thousands of Rohingya people were displaced in the terror that ensued, and 130,000 were forced into detention camps near Sittwe after their homes were destroyed in June and October. 

According to UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, Tomás Ojea Quintana, the camps in Sittwe, Myaybon and Pauk Taw evidence a "dire humanitarian situation" and are characterised by overcrowding, a lack of access to clean water and sanitation, a high risk of disease, food insecurity, child malnutrition, and "harsh and disproportionate restrictions on the freedom of movement".

Expelled refugees

There are also between 200,000 and 300,000 unregistered Rohingya refugees living outside camps in Bangladesh, in addition to 29,000 registered in camps assisted by UNHCR. In Thailand, the coordinator of the Arakan Project and Rohingya expert, reports that conditions for the 1,600 or so Rohingya men in immigration detention centres are appalling. "They are jails," she says, "where people cannot even lie down."

Recently, Malaysia has detained more than a thousand Bangladeshi and Rohingya refugees, including dozens of children, a day after authorities rescued hundreds stranded off Indonesia's western tip. There has been a huge increase in refugees from impoverished Bangladesh and Myanmar drifting on boats to Malaysia and Indonesia in recent days since Thailand, usually the first destination in the region's people smuggling network, announced a crackdown on the trafficking.

Over 100 refugees from Burma were found wandering around in southern Thailand last week, apparently having been abandoned by smugglers. An estimated 25,000 Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar boarded rickety smugglers' boats in the first three months of this year, twice as many in the same period of 2014, the UN refugee agency UNHCR has said. Most land in Thailand, where they are held by the smugglers in squalid jungle camps until relatives pay a ransom.

Police on the northwest Malaysian island of Langkawi, close to the Thai border, said three boats had arrived in the middle of the night to unload refugees, who were taken into custody as they came ashore. The boats contained 555 Bangladeshis and 463 Rohingya, who were being handed over to the immigration department.

Malaysia, one of Southeast Asia's wealthier economies, has long been a magnet for illegal immigrants. On July 05 this year, nearly 600 migrants thought to be Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshis were rescued from at least two overcrowded wooden boats stranded off Indonesia's Aceh province. 33 bodies, believed to be of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh were found in shallow graves in the south, near the Malaysian border. Of those rescued off Indonesia, around 50 were taken to hospital. "In general, they were suffering from starvation and many were very thin," said North Aceh police chief Achmadi. They came onshore and found out it wasn't Malaysia."

In Bangladesh, where the authorities are trying to stamp out the crisis at its source, police say they have arrested more than 100 people traffickers in recent months. Mohammad Ataur Rahman Khandaker, a senior police officer in Teknaf, close to the Myanmar border, said that four "notorious" traffickers had been killed in gun fights with police. Mohammad Kasim, a 44-year-old Bangladeshi migrant on one of the boats, said that each passenger paid 4,400 ringgit ($1,200) for the journey. Three people died on the way and were dumped in the sea. Kasim said he had left the Bangladesh town of Bogra a month ago on a small boat with 30-40 others in the hope of finding a job in Malaysia.

Neo-Nazi Buddhist racism

Myanmar has been plagued by neo-Nazi Buddhist racism and organized mob violence targeting the country's minority Muslims of diverse ethnic and historical backgrounds. The military-controlled state which has long institutionalized racism as its guiding philosophy causes the sudden and deeply troubling eruptions of mass violence against Myanmar's Muslims. At the very heart of Myanmar's Islamophobic campaign lies the state and its successive leaderships, which continue to operate within a concrete set of political economic relations wherein they pursue their typically sinister Machiavellian politics in defense of corporate, clique and personal agendas. 

Time magazine's cover story discussed on Buddhist terror as elaborately as possible. The various cliques of generals and ex-generals, and their instruments of power - the state and its security and propaganda apparatuses - have been directly and indirectly involved in the brutal attacks on Muslim communities and then in the actual mob attacks against them, including the slaughter, destruction, looting and burning of Muslim communities and their sacred mosques. 

The 1982 Citizenship Act of Ne Win spelled out his official justifications for enshrining racism in law and pursuing it as a matter of "national security''. His speech sheds light on the deeply racist nature of the Act, which in the wake of the pogroms against Rohingya Muslims last year has become a focus of international concern and controversy. 

Ne Win unequivocally put it that all immigrants with foreign roots, referred to by him as "mixed bloods", were in Myanmar due to the legacy of British colonial rule. From that fateful day in 1982, successive military government leaderships have as a matter of policy purged their power base - the 400,000-strong armed forces - of officers of Chinese and Indian ancestry, notwithstanding a few exceptions. 

Yet one contradiction in Ne Win's policies favoring "pure bloods" and "true children of the land" is that Ne Win himself could be characterized as "non-pure" ethnic Bama, as were many of his racist deputies and ideological heirs

Over the past 50 years, successive military leaders - from General Ne Win to the recently retired despot Senior General Than Shwe - have not only played the race and faith cards as a matter of political and military strategy, but they have also enshrined Buddhist racism as a key foundational pillar of what is known to many as the Golden Land of Buddhists, reference to the country's many gilded temples and gold-colored, harvest-time paddy fields. 

The unfolding process of Myanmar's nightmarish slide towards "ethnic and religious purity" stands in sharp contrast with the multiculturalist perspective of martyred independence hero Aung San, the father of current opposition leader supporting military racism Aung San Suu Kyi, and his multiethnic and inter-faith comrades. 

State prejudices

Islamophobia vitiates societal environment in non-Muslim nations. State prejudices are responsible for the poor fate of Muslims in Myanmar and elsewhere and core media feed the populations with hatred against Muslims and Islam. 

The Burmese military state security forces have terrorized the entire Myanmar population for five brutal decades. The more pervasive violence is corrupting Myanmar's transition from dictatorship. 

The ethno-economic nationalism has long been a pillar of Burmese nationalism throughout both historical and post-independence eras. Unfortunately, Buddhism and violence have always been an empirical paradox and historical oxymoron. Empirically, the state and its military leaderships are at the very least guilty of negligence of the unfolding racist "Buddhist" campaign against Myanmar's Muslims.

The sectarian dimensions of the racial conflict and rule of military and monks does not let the issue to get solved. It is really the state and its leaderships that have modulated, mobilized and facilitated multiethnic and multi-faith communities' prejudices against Myanmar's peoples of Chinese, Indian and mixed ethnic origins, as well as religious minorities.

Institutionalised Islamophobia, deeply embedded and historically informed is the cause of the ethnic cleansing of Myanmar's Rohingya community in Arakan. The state racial policy has created deep-seated prejudices among Myanmar's different communities.

The "reforming" government of Thein Sein has shown no sign of affording the Rohingya anything but continued persecution, dehumanization, discrimination and violence. Unconscionable, therefore, that the International Crisis Group chose to honour Thein Sein with its peace award this year, in fact made a complete mockery of international peace awards. 

It is Myanmar's icon of freedom and democracy and Nobel peace winner Aung San Suu Kyi's refusal to speak out against the crimes endured by the Rohingya that has provided cover for the international community's failure to intervene. At the outset of the recent waves of anti-Muslim violence, rather than stand up against Buddhist-led racism, she has pegged her colors firmly, not to the oppressed Rohingya, nor to the increasing victims of Islamophobia, but to her former military jailors, for whom she shares a "great fondness" and whom she now charges with the task of implementing the rule of law. 

State racist prejudices are harmful to peaceful environment of any modern state. However, neither the so-called civilized Western nations nor the UN, committed to solve the racist issues, have taken up the issue of racism seriously. Islamic world is not powerful enough to help minority Muslims living particularly in non-Islamic world to regain their human status, let alone Islamic way of life.

By Azeem Ibrahim
July 18, 2015

The Rohingya have been described as "the most persecuted minority in the world" by the United Nations. The following is based on extensive interviews conducted by the author in the Rohingya IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps in Myanmar earlier this year.



Adam is 34 years old. He lives in a 10 sq. ft. bamboo hut in the Thet Key Pyin camp for internally displaced persons (IDP camp) in Sittwe, Myanmar. Just over three years ago he used to be a construction worker, living a life of relative comfort in downtown area of Mansi Junction Village. But that may as well have been an entire lifetime ago. 

It was June 2012 when his pleasant, peaceful life was torn to pieces - along with the lives of 35-40,000 other people just like Adam. Their village was attacked on all sides by mobs of people. And not just thugs or gangs on the loose. Military and police too - entire local sections of Myanmar's security services. They burned down the houses and forced residents to leave. Some people wouldn't leave. Or couldn't leave in time. They were burnt alive. Some others who tried to resist the attack were hacked to death by the mobs. 

Why were Adam and his neighbors attacked? Simply, because they were born. Or to be specific, because they were born in the Rohingya minority ethnic community, in Myanmar. And this was not an isolated attack. Similar acts of violence flared all across the state of Arakan (Rakhine) in Myanmar that June. And again that year in October. And again a few months later. And ever since. Roughly twice every year since 2012, the state of Arakan goes up in flames. 

Not that these attacks have been out of the blue. The Rohingya have been at the receiving end of discrimination, hostility and occasional violent attacks ever since Burma (as Myanmar was previously known) gained independence from Britain in 1948. But the developments in the last three years - they are something new. 

We are in the middle of a full-blown ethnic cleansing campaign, and according to several of the most respected international observers, including UN bodies, the Rohingya are the group most at risk of genocide at this moment in time. Half of the Rohingya population of around 2 - 2.5 million has been displaced - the majority to neighboring countries such as Bangladesh and Thailand. This is what triggered the South-East Asian migration crisis we have heard about in the news. But over 150,000 Rohingya people have been internally displaced. Like Adam, they live in IDP camps. They cannot leave and they cannot find employment. They are under constant guard by security agencies, ostensibly to "protect them from further attacks" - in effect they are living in prison camps, where even Medicins Sans Frontieres have been banned from operating.

I recently returned from Myanmar, where I undertook research for my forthcoming book on the Rohingya minority. Whilst there, I had to ask: who is actually instigating these vicious attacks against the Rohingya? It is difficult to point the finger unequivocally to the government, even as there is evidence that at least some elements of the state administration have either enabled or even participated in certain attacks. And it is equally difficult to pin down any group or population, even as it is clear that many, many people in Myanmar are extremely hostile to the Rohingya.

Dr Aye Maung, President of the ANP party, was named by multiple sources as one of the main instigators of the violence against the Rohingya. He is now aiming to become Chief Minister of Rakhine State which many believe could be the trigger to full scale genocide

But one name that repeatedly came up and in the case of which there is very little ambiguity is Dr Aye Maung, leader of the Arakan National Party (ANP), previously known as the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP) . To put this into its proper context, the stated ideology of the ANP is to "represent the interests of Rakhine people in Rakhine (Arakan) state and the Yangon region". In other words, it is a self-declared ethno-centric, xenophobic and racist party. And they hate the Rohingya with a burning passion - for having a different color skin and most of all for having a different religion (Islam) .

One of my sources personally witnessed Dr Maung enter a restaurant in Sittwe in May 2012, only to storm out again furiously when he saw that the Rakhine locals were sitting and eating happily with their neighbors, "the Bengalis" (the term used for Rohingyas, in order to de-legitimize their existence in the country). Another witness in June of the same year saw about 10 people from Dr Maung's party distributing leaflets claiming that a Rakhine girl had been raped by Rohingya men and urging the Rakhine to protect their dignity.

As numerous villages were being burnt to the ground that June, in what appeared to be coordinated attacks, as evidence mounted of state complicity and suspicions arose that the ultimate strategy of the attackers is to force the Rohingya out of their communities into IDP camps where they would be at the mercy of their enemies, Dr A Maung told the BBC that "the Bengalis" (Rohingya) were burning their own homes and businesses. 

Dr Maung went on to be part of the investigation launched by the Myanmar government into the events of June, which started in October 2012. This investigation cheerfully concluded that "both sides are to blame", and no serious measures have since been taken to prevent a repeat of the atrocities, which accounts for the regularity with which they recur. 

Of course, Dr Maung is but one man. He may be the most visible political character in this odious spectacle, but there are many, many others. There are local leaders of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party which are equally hostile to the Rohingya, such as Hla Maung Tin, Chief Minister of Rakhine state till 2014, whose "handling" of the situation in Arakan was so patently lacking that it forced the President of Myanmar to remove him - despite the president himself being no big fan of the Rohingya. To say nothing of leaders of the local military units, police, and the notorious border agency NaSaKa, which has long been in the eye of the UN for decades of human rights' abuses. And then there are a whole host of extremist Buddhist monk leaders who insist that the Rohingya pose a threat to the state because of their Muslim faith. Hence the reason why mosques are some of the more frequently targeted buildings for arson, when the attacks happen.



All these political actors, usually Rakhine Buddhists with some kind or other of axe to grind, have very much to gain by constantly victimizing and attacking the Rohingya. And by now the situation is to a large extent self-perpetuating. That is how we have come so close to genocide. The worry now is what happens if there is some kind of trigger - something that pushes the situation over the precipice from brutal violent and sustained oppression to outright calculated extermination. Today, Dr A Maung is still very much at the forefront of the situation. And he is looking to become Chief Minister of Rakhine. One cannot but shudder at what the consequences might be if someone like him and his associates are given free reign over the fate of the Rohingya. 

Dr Azeem Ibrahim is an International Security Lecturer at the University of Chicago and author of the forthcoming Rohingya: Inside Myanmar's Hidden Genocide (Hurst UK) 



RB News 
July 17, 2015 

Taung Pyo Let Wal, Arakan – On July 15th midnight, five Myanmar Army and Border Guard Police Officers forced two Rohingyas who were village administration personnel to drink alcohol. As this incident occurred during Ramadan it was considered to be seriously attacking the men for religious reasons, local Rohingya villagers said. 

On July 15th, about 12 midnight, an officer and two police from Border Guard Police outpost under No. (2) Zone based in Zee Pin Chaung village of Taung Pyo Let Wal sub-township in Maungdaw North, along with a Captain and a soldier based from the same village came to Kyun Pauk Pyu Su village tract, Bawtali (1) hamlet. 

They started beating Kyun Pauk Pyu Su village administrator Mr Noor Mamed and 100-houses head Mr Nurul Huda for no apparent reason. They pointed at them with their pistols and used many insults against the religion that the two Rohingyas practice, Islam, and at the end the two Rohingyas were forced to drink alcohol. 

After that they beat two sentry guards named Mr Aabuu (s/o) Mr Sayed Ahmed (Aged 40) and Mr Jamal (s/o) Mr Nurul Hussein (Aged 30). As a result of beating the sentry guards inhumanely Mr Jamal’s two teeth were broken and Mr Aabuu is also confined to his bed now as he is suffering serious internal injuries. 

As alcohol is prohibited in Islam, most of the Rohingyas avoid it, and feeding by force during the holy Ramadan month is clearly a serious and intentional attack on their faith, and although the villagers abhorred what the gun-men did to them, they are helpless to take legal action against them as the laws in Myanmar do not protect the Rohingya people.

The 2013 picture of Zaw Zaw Latt holding an assault rifle, which he posted on Facebook.

By Joshua Carroll 
July 16, 2015

A Muslim interfaith activist has been arrested after posting online a photo of himself holding a gun during a visit to conflict-torn Kachin State in 2013, his friends have said.

Zaw Zaw Latt, who is also a member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, was apprehended in Mandalay on Tuesday evening by plain-clothes officers from the Criminal Investigation Department, a friend and fellow activist told DVB on Thursday.

Known only be the name of Shine, the fellow activist said Zaw Zaw Latt is being held under Section 17(1) of the Unlawful Associations Act, which prohibits interaction with groups declared illegal by the government. He added that the activist was invited for a meeting at a café near the Mandalay Palace moat before being led away in handcuffs.

Section 17(1) has been criticised by rights groups as a tool for stifling dissent.

“The police tried to take him and he refused,” said Ki Ki, a friend who witnessed the arrest. “They were all pulling him.” A struggle ensued, he added, as Zaw Zaw Latt held hands with one of his colleagues, but officers eventually prised the two apart.

But his friends say the picture is being used as a pretext to arrest him because of his activism. Shine said he believes the real reason the activist was arrested is because of his work promoting dialogue between Buddhists and Muslims.

“For the last two months there have been lots of online attacks against him,” he said. “Extremists don’t like him being close with the Buddhist community. He has a beard and is standing next to monks in pictures.”

He added that Zaw Zaw Latt, who works alongside monks at a Mandalay-based interfaith group called Thint Myant Lo Thu Myar [translates as ‘People who want to live in harmony’], tried to calm rioters during inter-communal violence in the city last year.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights group that tracks political prisoners in Burma, said it was looking into the arrest.

Zaw Zaw Latt “made a mistake” by posting the picture of himself with such a weapon, said Shine, but he added that the post was harmless. “Burmese people, we have never seen a real gun … When we get the chance to hold one, we want to just for posting,” he said.

The assault rifle in the picture is thought to be an MA-1, a Burmese-made version of the Israeli Galil rifle.



The Criminal Investigation Department, a special arm of the police force, could not be reached for comment on Thursday, nor could the NLD.
REC Kuantan was set up by the Future Global Network (FGN), funded by the Albukhary Foundation and is monitored by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It has 130 Rohingya students of various ages encompassing children from four villages in Kuantan and REC uses the national school curriculum and even the teachers are Malaysians. — Bernama pic

July 15, 2015

KUANTAN -- Rohingya refugee, Shobirahman Amir Hossin, 18, and his two sisters braved a month-long dangerous journey from Myanmar to join his parents in Penang to seek a better life.

Although the journey from their home village in Myanmar was filled with dangers and various uncertainties, it was nothing compared to the oppression the faced in Myanmar.

Shobirahman who is now studying at Rohingya Education Centre (REC) in Indera Mahkota, near here, said life in his home village in Narekoh, Rakhine, Myanmar was very different compared to the environment here.

"In 2008, when I was nine years old, my parents had already moved to Penang then and they paid certain parties to bring me and my sisters from our village as the situation was getting unsafe for Muslims," he said when met by Bernama.

He said in Myanmar he was prevented from going to mosque and school and they were frequently victimised by the authorities in Myanmar.

"The adults were not allowed to go out to work and life was miserable," he said.

Shobirahman and his family have since moved to Kuantan where his mother is working in the vegetable section of a supermarket.

Asked if he still wanted to return to his home village in Narekoh, he was silent for a while.

"My relatives and friends are still there and I pray the situation in the village is getting better and I hope to return one day," he said.

In this regard, REC headmaster Amran Talib@Talip said Rohingya children needed to be educated to ensure a bright future for them.

He said the Rohingya children are clever and learn fast and should be able to go far.

REC Kuantan was set up by the Future Global Network (FGN) and is funded by the Albukhary Foundation. It is monitored by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The school has 130 Rohingya students of various ages encompassing children from four villages in Kuantan and REC uses the national school curriculum and even the teachers are Malaysians.

Photo: UNHCR/M.Murphy

July 15, 2015

A plan by officials in Myanmar to issue new identity cards in Rakhine state has fallen short, with only 1,600 Rohingya applying for the green cards according to a report by VOA on 13 July.

The cards, aimed at providing legal documentation while people go through the citizenship process, are meant to replace the nearly 400,000 white identity cards that authorities revoked earlier this year.

But Maung Maung Than, Director General of the Rakhine State Immigration and Population Department, says some will not accept the new cards if the government insists they identify themselves as Bengali.

“New documents for those who want to seek citizenship are being issued and some have applied and already received it," he said. "Others are also being advised to do so. In the meantime, there are some instigators [who say] that [they] will only accept [the cards] if the term Rohingya is recognized.”

Authorities want the Rohingya to first identify themselves as Bengalis before the government will determine whether they can become citizens. Officials say the term “Rohingya” implies an ethnic claim that involves territory and is much more complicated than just citizenship.

File photo of a crowd gathering around a mass grave with the remains of unidentified Rohingya migrants found at a traffickers camp in Wang Kelian last month. — Reuters pic

July 15, 2015

KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 — Police have arrested three more kingpins in connection with human trafficking at the Malaysia-Thailand border in Wang Kelian, Perlis where mass graves of Bangladeshi and Rohingya victims were found in May.

This was confirmed by Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, who, however, declined to comment further on the arrests.

He said operations to nab other culprits were still ongoing especially for another kingpin who goes by the name of ‘Yassin’.

“We will leave no stone unturned until all the masterminds involved are caught.

“We are sharing information with our Thai counterparts and will track down all

the main suspects,” he told reporters after attending a “Pinning of the Rank” ceremony for senior police officers at the Officers Mess at Bukit Aman here today.

Khalid said police also seized all the properties belonging to the suspects. On May 25, Khalid announced the discovery of 139 graves in 28 temporary camps of human trafficking syndicates in Bukit Wang Burma, Wang Kelian. A total of 106 skeletal remains believed to be victims of the syndicate were found, and the operation to dig and remove the remains was terminated on June 8.

The first burial, involving the remains of 21 victims, was conducted on June 21, followed by the remains of 30 others a few days later.

The third and fourth batches of 24 remains respectively were buried on July 4th and 6th.

Migrants, who were found at sea on a boat, arrive at Mee Tike temporary refugee camp located near the Bangladesh border fence at Rakhine state on June 4, 2015. AFP PHOTO / YE AUNG THU


By  Tim McLaughlin and Aung Hla Tun
July 14, 2015

Bangkok -- Myanmar's navy has discovered more than 100 Bangladeshi migrants stranded for nearly a month on a southern island, state media said on Tuesday, following a regional migrant crisis in which people smugglers abandoned thousands at sea.

It was the first major rescue reported by Myanmar since May, when its navy found a boat packed with more than 700 migrants in the Andaman Sea at the height of Southeast Asia's migrant boat crisis.

The crisis blew up after a crackdown by Thailand on trafficking camps along its border with Malaysia made conditions too risky for people smugglers to land their human cargo, so they simply set them adrift.

The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar said the most recent group of 102 migrants was found late in June, after spending nearly a month on the island in Taninthayi, the southernmost region of Myanmar bordering Thailand.

The migrants, all men, were rescued between June 30 and July 12 and hailed from neighboring Bangladesh, the paper said. They had been left on the island in early June.

"The navy is searching the areas and the victims will be sent back to their home country," it added, but gave no details of where the men were being held.

Officials at the Bangladesh embassy in Yangon said the Myanmar government had not contacted them about the migrants.

"We have just received the news from the media," Tareque Mohammed, the deputy chief of mission, told Reuters. "We have received no confirmation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

The military-owned Myawaddy newspaper said officials in Myanmar found a man on June 30 around two miles off the coast of Saung Gauk Island, prompting a search of the island early in July, which led to the discovery of the rest.

It said the men had left Bangladesh after being persuaded they could earn more abroad and that those who refused were forced aboard a vessel.

They were among the thousands, many Bangladeshi or Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar, who ended up in dangerously crowded boats run by people-traffickers, heading for other southeast Asian countries.

Previously, Myanmar has said nearly all the migrants were Bangladeshis seeking better economic prospects, rather than Rohingya, a group who complain of severe discrimination and mistreatment at home.

Most of the castaways landed in Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar, their passengers sick and thirsty. At least 1,200 remained adrift, the United Nations said in a report on June 16.

(Additional reporting by Hnin Yadana Zaw; Writing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)


    • Rohingya Exodus