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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)

Ethnic Rohingya Muslim migrants from Myanmar are transported on a truck to a confinement area in Bayeun on May 21, 2015 after they were rescued by Indonesian fishermen off the coast of Aceh province (AFP Photo/Sutanta Aditya)

By Preeti Jha
AFP
July 14, 2015

Two journalists, including an Australian editor, went on trial in Thailand Tuesday over a report they published implicating the navy in human trafficking, as the United Nations urged the junta-ruled nation to drop the case.

The trial comes after the region's grim people-smuggling trade was dramatically highlighted in May when thousands of migrants were abandoned at sea and in foetid jungle camps by traffickers following a Thai crackdown, a crisis that eventually forced Southeast Asian governments to respond.

The charges against Alan Morison and his Thai colleague Chutima Sidasathian, of the Phuketwan news website, relate to a July 2013 article quoting an investigation by the Reuters news agency which said some Thai navy members were involved in trafficking Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar.

The pair could face up to two years in jail for criminal defamation and five years for breaching the Computer Crimes Act if they are found guilty.

The trial at Phuket Provincial Court began with a testimony from R.N. Pallop Komlotok, a navy captain, who confirmed he filed the defamation case on behalf of the navy, Siriwan Vongkietpaisan, a lawyer for the accused, told AFP.

"He also confirmed that the Phuketwan quotes were lifted from Reuters article," she said.

Reuters has not been charged over its reporting -- part of a series honoured with a Pulitzer Prize last year -- and rights groups have accused the navy of trying to muzzle the smaller Phuket-based English-language media outlet.

Speaking to AFP ahead of the trial, Morison said: "We do not understand why the military government has not withdrawn the case.

"The initial pursuits against Reuters were dropped. We quote exactly the same paragraph... (They are pursuing us) for only one paragraph reproduced word-to-word from Reuters."

After the hearing closed for the day Chutima said she felt "confident" the pair would be cleared and that she and Morison were due to give their testimonies when the trial resumes Wednesday. A verdict is expected within 30 days.

- 'Body blow' to Thailand's reputation -

On Tuesday the United Nations Human Rights Office urged Thailand to drop the charges against the two journalists.

"Freedom of the press, including freedom for journalists to operate without fear of reprisals, is essential in promoting transparency and accountability on issues of public interest," it said in a statement.

Phil Robertson, from Human Rights Watch, called the trial a "scathing indictment of the Thai government's unwillingness to respect media freedom".

"Prime Minister General Prayut should have ordered the Navy to stand down and withdraw the charges -- but instead he effectively endorsed their effort to gag media critics, and in doing so, administered another body blow to what little remains of Thailand's international rights reputation," he said in a statement.

Tens of thousands of the stateless Rohingya, one of the world's most persecuted minorities, have fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar's western Rakhine state since 2012, when deadly unrest erupted.

In recent years they have increasingly been joined on dangerous sea crossings by economic migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh with their rickety wooden boats mainly headed for Malaysia.

In May a Thai crackdown on the lucrative smuggling industry saw traffickers abandon their human cargo at sea, sparking a regional migrant crisis.

Around 4,500 Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants were stranded in Southeast Asian waters and ping-ponged between countries reluctant to accept them until they eventually landed ashore on Malaysian, Indonesian, Bangladeshi, Myanmar and Thai soil.

Thailand has seen a rapid erosion of civil liberties -- including a ban on political protests and any criticism of the ruling regime -- since the military seized power from an elected government in May 2014.

Its southern provinces have long been known as a nexus for people-trafficking and rights groups have accused Thai officials of both turning a blind eye to the trade -- and even complicity in it.

Dozens of people have been detained in the recent crackdown including some local officials and a senior military officer accused of being a major smuggling kingpin.

(Photo: Andrew Day Photography)

By C R Abrar
July 13, 2015

Over the last several months there have been sporadic media reports that the government was mulling the idea of relocating the Rohingyas from the Teknaf-Cox's Bazar region. The reports inform that 500 acres of state land have been identified in island sites of Hatia and Subarnachar of Noakhali district. The District Commissioner (DC) of Noakhali who has been assigned the responsibility for selecting the site has told the media that “a plan to relocate them (the Rohingyas) to an isolated area is under process” and that the project is being implemented under the supervision of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief. He added “law and order” and “social harmony” would be important considerations in choosing the camp site/s. The DC claimed that relocating the Rohingyas would lead to a reduction of crime rate in Cox's Bazar by 80 percent.

In May 2015, the Head of the Government's Rohingya Refugee Cell confirmed such media reports by emphatically stating, “The relocation of the Rohingya camps will definitely take place”. He stated that the government wants tourism to flourish and this move was prompted by concerns that the camps were holding back tourism in Cox's Bazar. “It is being done for the sake of the refugees' betterment and for the benefit of the country's economy”, he asserted.

The decision to relocate the Rohingyas did not receive favourable response from any quarter. One may say at best the move elicited skepticism to negative response from different stakeholders.

The Rohingya refugees reacted sharply to the proposed plan. They claimed that it would only make life worse for them; as it is, they have been languishing in the camps for decades. They urged the Bangladesh government and the international community to focus on the root causes of their plight so that they could return home in Myanmar.

The UNHCR, the mandated agency for the protection of refugees, has been cautious in its response. It insisted that such a scheme has to be voluntary if it were to succeed. “The success of the plan would depend on what will be on offer in the new location (for the refugees) and if the refugees would like to be there”, observed a spokesperson of the refugee agency. The UNHCR representative in Bangladesh has firmly stated that her agency would not want to be associated with any forced relocation. “We have no idea about the plans, whether there will be camps or not, whether it will be voluntary or forced, or whether the refugees will be given work activities or not”, she noted. She observed that if the refugees gave informed consent to the idea and were happy to move then she saw no problem in the execution of the project. However, “If the refugees do not want to go, it would be very contentious”, she stated.

The UNHCR acknowledged that the unregistered Rohingyas have “a valid claim to international protection” and were also “persons of concern” to the agency. The government has thus far declined to grant the agency's request for “unrestricted access to the unregistered Rohingyas”. The UN agency head in Dhaka stated that she had recently made a verbal request to the government seeking permission to provide assistance to the “most vulnerable of the undocumented Rohinyga population”.

The Rohingya relocation plan has come under fire from the inhabitants of the proposed sites. In June, an alliance of Noakhali residents including Children of Hatiya and Hatiya Students Welfare Association held a demonstration and human chain at the Hatiya Press Club premises. They opposed the plan to relocate the Rohingyas and instead demanded the rehabilitation of the local landless people. It was reported that they chanted xenophobic debasing slogans such as 'Riot monger Rohingyas have no place in peaceful Hatiya' and 'We do not want transfer of the carbuncle called Rohingyas to Hatiya'.

The decision to relocate the Rohingyas raises an important question. It has been premised on the perception that the Rohingyas are at the core of criminal activities and their presence in Cox's Bazar–Teknaf region is undermining the development of tourism. So far, little evidence has been furnished in support of such allegation. No independent study has validated this much-circulated impression. The claim is very much in tune with the general propensity to blame migrants and refugees for all ills that may exist in a host community and the Rohingyas are no exception.

Like that in mainstream local Bangladeshi community, criminal elements may be present among the Rohingyas. However, if one takes into consideration the conditions the undocumented Rohingyas are made to endure, one would be aware why some members of the community may take recourse to wrong doing. The absence of identity documents and inability to access education, healthcare, livelihood and legal procedure, have created a situation of extreme vulnerability to exploitation and ill-treatment. The RMMRU-RPC 2014 study on the unregistered Rohingyas has documented cases highlighting how protection needs of this community get severely compromised. In one instance, the fear of a 5-year sentence for violating the Passport Act and possible deportation had deterred parents to file a complaint against a group of locals who had raped their teenaged daughter.

One would argue that Bangladesh authorities' failure to appreciate the protection needs and its unwillingness to conduct status determination of the unregistered Rohingyas have created a condition in which a section of the Rohingyas might have gotten drawn into undesirable activities. That does not in any way justify branding the whole community as criminally oriented and consequently their transfer to “an isolated island”.

Over the years, investigative reporting of Bangladeshi media has amply demonstrated that kingpins of drug and human trafficking and smuggling syndicates operating in the region are the Arakan-based Rohingyas, locally powerful Bangladeshis and their international patrons. Most enjoy political patronage of powerful quarters and thrive on the support of errant law enforcers. If the administration is genuinely committed to improving the law and order situation of Cox's Bazar–Teknaf region to develop tourism, then time has come to decisively act against these syndicates. Relocating the Rohingyas would amount to nothing more than whipping the wrong horse. Such a move will also send a wrong message to the international community at a time when focus is on Myanmar for committing "crimes against humanity" on the Rohingyas.

The writer teaches International Relations at the University of Dhaka. He researches and writes on migration and rights issues.

By Neil Elkes 
Birmingham Mail
July 13, 2015

Almost all councillors sign letter to Foreign Secretary calling for United Nations intervention in Burma

Councillor Mariam Khan speaking at Birmingham protest for Rohingya minority

More than 100 Birmingham City Councillors have signed a letter calling on the Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond to take a lead in the fight against human rights abuses in Burma.

The letter calls on the British Government to use its influence on the United National Security Council to intervene in Burma and put a stop to the genocide and persecution of the Muslim Rohingya people of Burma.

The Rohingya people have been described as “one of the world’s most persecuted minorities” and are denied basic citizenship in Burma, have been herded into ghettos.

Recently many have fled persecution to neighbouring countries where they are being housed in refugee camps. Others have been abandoned by human traffickers and in May mass graves were found along the borders. 

Rohingya migrants sit inside a temporary shelter at Kuala Langsa Port in Langsa, Aceh

Now Birmingham’s councillors want Britain to back a United Nations resolution demanding the Burmese Government grant citizenship to Rohingya people, allow UN observers and peace keeping forces in and bring to justice those responsible for the genocide.

Two Labour councillors Waseem Zaffar (Lozells and East Handsworth) and Mariam Khan (Washwood Heath) composed the letter and secured the signature of almost all of their colleagues.

Coun Khan said: “I am pleased that 101 Birmingham City Councillors, including the three party leaders, signed and supported my letter to the Foreign Secretary highlighting the genocide in Rohingya people in Burma.

“This genocide must stop and our Government should be taking a lead at the United Nations Security Council to call for an end to ethnic cleansing of the innocent Rohingya people.

“As someone who is passionate about human rights, it is important for me to highlight this atrocity especially as we mark the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrinica.”

The Srebrinica massacre of July 1995 saw the deaths of 8,000 Bosnians and was the worst human rights atrocity in Europe since the Second World War.

Birmingham protest in support of the persecuted Rohingya minority in Burma
By Zaidul Haque
July 12, 2015

Kolkata: A protest rally was organised in Kolkata on July 10, under the banner of United Muslim Council demanding from the Myanmar government to stop atrocities on the Rohingya Muslims. The Social Democratic Party of India also organised a separate demonstration in the city.

The demonstration was held at Park Street-AJC Bose Road Junction (Mallickbazar).

A protest rally against Myanmar Government held on 10 July, 2015 by United Muslim Council

The Rohingya people are Indo-Aryan peoples from the Rakhine State, Burma whose citizenship rights have been revoked by military Junta.

Shia cleric Maulana Athar Abbas Rizwi alleged that while the Buddhist radicals have been continuing massacres, the Myanmar government has tacitly looked the other way. He urged the United Nations to intervene immediately.

General Secretary of All India Minority Youth Federation Muhammad Kamruzzaman said that the Myanmar government cannot shy away from the responsibilty as the world focus is now on them.

Several other Muslim leaders participated in the demonstration.

Another demonstration against Myanmar Government held on 10 July 2015 organised by SDPI

On the same day, after prayer, state unit of the Social democratic Party of India also organised a protest convention. State president Taidul islam and Vice president Shaktipada Badyakar alleged that the Myanmar government has violated all international charters on human rights.

Muslim leaders urged the state government to raise the issue in the parliament and put pressure on the Myanmar government. SDPI leaders Dr Satish Mahato, Aftab Alam, Sarur Alam, Dr Mainuddin Chisty led the protest.

They also marched to the Mayanmer Embassy in South Kolkata after separately meeting the Secretary of Deputy Consul General of Myanmar in Kolkata and submitted memorandums.

(Photo: EPA)

By Aubrey Belford
July 12, 2015

NYAUNG CHAUNG, Myanmar - The bamboo-and-thatch village of Nyaung Chaung in Myanmar's Rakhine State is typical of the places from which Rohingya Muslims flee. The fields don't provide a living, locals say. Jobs are scarce. Daily life is a series of humiliations from Myanmar's government, which officially considers them intruders and denies them citizenship.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled Rakhine since the start of the year, joining perilous journeys on the boats of human traffickers through the Bay of Bengal.

But local officials say no one has been arrested for trafficking in the Myanmar state that supplies the vast majority of victims to this brutal trade.

"There have been no trafficking cases in Rakhine State so far (this year). There is a police unit to track down human traffickers, so it's very rare in this area," Hla Thein, the Rakhine State Attorney General, told Reuters.

LOCAL MIDDLEMEN

Villagers give a very different account, linking local middlemen to a regional network that has been the subject of arrests abroad.

They say the link is a local man, Soe Naing - widely known as Anwar. His arrest in southern Thailand on April 28 led to the discovery of dozens of migrant graves along the Thailand-Malaysia border.

For years, Rohingya have fled poverty and persecution in Rakhine, boarding boats to Thailand, Malaysia and beyond to seek work and asylum. But clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in 2012 saw an explosion in the exodus, amid violence that killed hundreds and displaced more than 140,000.

As more than 100,000 fled, traffickers began holding migrants for ransom in jungle camps in Thailand and Malaysia. Untold numbers died on the journey.

In early May, Thailand began a sweeping crackdown on the trade after discovering scores of graves in abandoned trafficking camps along the Thailand-Malaysia border.

"BACK AND FORTH"

Since the crackdown, Anwar's family home – a rambling structure of bamboo and corrugated iron, slathered in sky blue paint – has stood empty behind a metal fence.

Local police have not yet paid a visit.

Police Lieutenant San Min, the head of the anti-human trafficking unit in Maungdaw township, whose office is a 10-minute drive away. "As far as I know, there hasn't been action against any human traffickers here."

The reason for that may be that police have not regarded Rohingya fleeing the country as being trafficked, said Police Lt. Col. Thet Naung, the national head of the police Anti-Human Trafficking Team. They "were just going back and forth between regional countries, including Thailand, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia and Myanmar," he told Reuters.

He said Thai police had requested assistance in taking DNA samples from Rohingya in Rakhine state, as part of their efforts to investigate alleged murders inside Thai camps, including those linked to Anwar. Myanmar authorities are ready to cooperate with the request, Thet Naung said.

(Additional Reporting by Hnin Yadana Zaw in Yangon; Editing by John and Bill Tarrant)

Greg Constantine, a self taught award-winning photographer has an exhibition in Istanbul on the Rohingya Muslims, hoping to provide a better understanding of plight of Southeast Asia’s stateless Muslim group

– Exhibition in Istanbul – previously in Washington, Bangkok, and Geneva – promises better understanding of plight of Southeast Asia’s stateless Muslim group

By Handan Kazinci 
July 12, 2015

ISTANBUL – An award-winning photographer who has an exhibition on Rohingya Muslims currently running in Istanbul says Turkey has a particular relevance to his work.

“Istanbul is very strategic because Turkey is one of the few countries in the region that has actually shown a considerable amount of concern for what is happening to the Rohingya community,” Greg Constantine told Anadolu Agency this week.

“Inside Burma [Myanmar], the conditions the Rohingya live in are quite like apartheid… They are confined to one geographic area; they can’t come, they can’t go… They receive very little medical assistance or education for their children,” he adds.

Exiled to Nowhere: Burma’s Rohingya is a collection of photographs from Constantine’s 12 visits to Myanmar.

It focuses on persecution and human rights violation against the Rohingya community, and was previously held in Washington, Bangkok, and Geneva.

Constantine says he made his first visit to Rohingya communities in Myanmar’s volatile Rakhine state in 2006, and has made eight subsequent trips.

Rakhine is the home to most of Rohingya community. Since June 2012, the predominantly Buddhist country has been grappling with sectarian violence, outbreaks of which have left hundreds dead and more than 140,000 Rohingya confined to internal displacement camps in Rakhine.

In recent years, around 130,000 Rohingya have also fled the country by sea, according to the United Nations.

“I was so shocked by the situation that the Rohingya were living in there,” says Constantine, accusing the international community of paying little attention to the community.

“I knew it was a story I want to dedicate a lot of time to.”

Constantine’s haunting images show families confined to bamboo shacks, malnourished potbellied children walking among slums, and Rohingya gathered in impoverished conditions, trying to eke out an existence from the land.

One image shows three covered Rohingya women staring out of the darkness. It’s as if the suffering those eyes have seen reaches out to you.

As a freelance photographer, Constantine – who says he covered most of his costs through grants – had the freedom to spend long periods of time with the Rohingya.

“I like to talk to people quite a lot. And I always ask people if they are compatible with me taking pictures [so as not to invade their privacy],” he says.

He says getting people to talk with the aid of a translator, however, was not hard. 

“The Rohingya community has been so oppressed for so long they want their stories to be told,” he says.

Constantine says that his visits took mainly 2 to 3 weeks, although his last trip – in Nov. 2014 – took just three days.

“There was a big demonstration by the local Rakhine Buddhist community,” he recalls. “There were several thousands of people demonstrating through the streets of Sittwe [the capital of Rakhine State], all protesting the existing of the Rohingya.”

My trips chronicle “the starting point of that hatred,” he adds

No matter how stark and thought provoking the images – some, it has to be said, hauntingly beautiful in their capture of suffering – Constantine says he is not in Turkey to sell his images.

“The purpose of this exhibition is not to celebrate the photography, it is the last objective of all of this. It is actually to use photography as a way to engage people and promote better understanding [about the Rohingya.]

“I focus on the root cause of the problem and that is the oppression that they face in their homeland – which is Burma,” Constantine says.

“Unless things change there, you are continually going to have this flow of Rohingya out of Burma to other countries.”

Exiled to Nowhere: Burma’s Rohingya, runs until July 30 at Galata Fotografhanesi in Istanbul’s Beyoglu district.


    • Rohingya Exodus