For Immediate Release

Date: September 1, 2015

ASEAN parliamentarians denounce election ban appeal decision in Myanmar, call for equal rights to stand for office

SITTWE, MYANMAR – Parliamentarians from Southeast Asia denounced as a sham an appeal process by the Rakhine State Election Commission here today, which upheld an earlier ruling disqualifying Myanmar MP U Shwe Maung from standing for reelection later this year.

Myanmar is set to hold national elections on 8 November, and a number of candidates have been banned by election authorities from running based on unfounded grounds that contravene basic democratic principles and human rights, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) said.

Shwe Maung, an ethnic Rohingya politician who was elected in 2010 as an MP representing Buthidaung Township in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, lodged the appeal following a local election commission’s 22 August decision to reject his candidacy on the specious grounds that his parents were not citizens at the time of his birth.

Cambodian Member of Parliament and APHR board member Son Chhay travelled to Sittwe to support Shwe Maung at the appeal hearing, which took place at the headquarters of the Rakhine State government. Son Chhay criticized the verdict, arguing that it contravenes democratic principles and basic human rights.

“This was not a fair appeal. Our honorable colleague was not allowed to speak or present any evidence to defend his position,” Son Chhay said following the announcement.

“The right to stand for election is as fundamental as the right to vote itself. Rejecting Shwe Maung’s candidacy directly undermines the credibility of the upcoming elections, the success of which is crucial to Myanmar’s continued democratic development.”

Another ethnic Rohingya candidate, Daw Khin Khin Lwin, was also denied the opportunity to run for office by the State Election Commission today. Her independent candidacy for an Upper House seat in Myanmar’s National Parliament representing Buthidaung was rejected based on similarly absurd citizenship grounds.

“The fact that these decisions appear strongly motivated by ethnic and religious discrimination is particularly concerning,” Son Chhay added.

Despite the urging of international groups, including APHR, to overturn the initial decisions, the Rakhine State Election Commission chose to uphold the verdicts at today’s hearings. U Shwe Maung and Daw Khin Khin Lwin now have seven days to appeal the state commission’s decisions.

“This was not a hearing; it was like hegemony. This is not democracy; it looks like a hegemony,” said Shwe Maung. “I am confident that I have the documents to prove I am a citizen, and that my parents are citizens. But what took place today was not a proper hearing or appeal; it was just an announcement of the decision. They did not take into account any of my explanations. This is not legal. This is not democratic.”

“I will take my appeal to the Union Election Commission in Naypyitaw on September 3,” he added. “Perhaps there I can present my evidence that clearly shows there is no basis to the disqualification on citizenship grounds.”

Parliamentarians on the ground in Sittwe and throughout the region publicly called on the Union Election Commission (UEC) and its Chairman U Tin Aye to intervene.

“The UEC has the power to reverse these decisions and strike a blow for the integrity of the democratic process in Myanmar,” Son Chhay said.

“We urge the UEC Chairman, who has expressed his commitment to ensuring the success of elections, to make the right decision. Grant Shwe Maung the freedom to stand for reelection, and allow all candidates their right to run for office.”

APHR MPs also raised the case of Shwe Maung and other MPs facing disqualification on citizenship grounds with the UEC Chairman when they met in Yangon on Monday, 31 August.

By Ye Mon

Myanmar Times

September 1, 2015

State and region election sub-commissions have rejected almost 50 candidates from contesting the November 8 election, officials told The Myanmar Times yesterday.

Rakhine State had the highest number rejected with 19 (see related story, "Election commission rejects Muslim candidates en masse"), followed by Bago and Yangon regions and Shan State. A total of 49 candidates were blocked from running across eight states and regions, although some have announced plans to appeal.

The National League for Democracy has so far lost six candidates, while the Union Solidarity and Development Party has not had any rejected.

Officials from some sub-commissions said the number could possibly rise further, although most scrutiny of candidates has been completed. More than 6000 candidates registered to contest the election by the August 14 deadline.

Candidates were rejected for a range of reasons. But the requirement that both parents be citizens at the time of a candidate’s birth topped the list, particularly in Rakhine State.

Nine candidates from the Democracy and Human Rights Party, six candidates from the National Development and Peace Party, and three independents were all blocked on citizenship grounds “in accordance with the election laws”, an officer said yesterday. All of the candidates are Muslim.

One NLD candidate was also rejected on the grounds he had not lived in the country for 10 years continuously.

The second-highest number of axed candidates was in Bago Region, where the commission rejected eight for not living in the country for 10 years continuously or for being members of more than one party.

U Nay Zin Latt, head of the National Development Party, said yesterday one of his party’s candidates in Bago Region had been blocked because he was still a member of another party.

In Kachin State, meanwhile, two NLD candidates – U Zaw Tan, running for a state hluttaw seat in Tanai, and U Naung Nar Jartan, who registered for Amyotha Hluttaw constituency 4 – were knocked back because of alleged links to an armed ethnic group.

“They have appealed to the state commission. We haven’t decided on their appeal yet,” said election officer U Tun Aung Khine. “We don’t look at the party name; we just look at the candidate.”

NLD spokesperson U Nyan Win confirmed that the pair had been rejected for relations with an armed ethnic group and were waiting the outcome of an appeal.

“The candidates didn’t send a report to the party’s central executive committee so I can’t give any further details,” he said. “But altogether six of our candidates have been rejected.”

In Kayah State, a sub-commission official, U Kyaw Sann Win, said two candidates had been rejected. An NLD candidate for the Amyotha Hluttaw was below the age threshold of 30, while a Kayan National Party representative for the Amyotha Hluttaw was also blocked.

“KNP candidate U Risi Nyein was rejected because he didn’t live for 10 years in the country continuously. He was living in Thailand illegally so he is not eligible,” U Kyaw Sann Win said.

A further five candidates were rejected for the Shan State, including U Yin Myo of the NLD and a Shan Nationalities Democratic Party candidate, who were both blocked on citizenship grounds.

In Yangon Region, at least six candidates have been rejected, but commission officials said the number could rise further.

Among those blocked was a Yangon Region Hluttaw representative for Thingangyun, Daw Sann Sann Myint. She was rejected on citizenship grounds, despite having been cleared to contest the seat in 2010. U Thein Nyunt, head of the New National Democracy Party, said the decision was “unfair”.

“She contested the 2010 election, the commission approved her to run then and her parents are both Myanmar citizens. Now the commission has rejected her,” he said.

In Mandalay Region, four candidates were rejected, included two NLD members. One Federal Union Party member was rejected for citizenship reasons and an independent was rejected for not living 10 years in the country continuously.

U Kyaw Kyaw Soe, an officer from the regional commission, said the NLD candidate for the Shan ethnic affairs minister post was rejected because he is Bamar rather than Shan.

A member of the Sagaing Region election sub-commission confirmed one region hluttaw candidate had been rejected, but declined to give the name, party or constituency of the candidate.

No candidates were rejected in Kayin, Mon and Chin states, Ayeyarwady, Tanintharyi and Magwe regions, and Nay Pyi Taw, according to election commission officials.

By Timothy Mclaughlin and Hnin Yadana Zaw

Reuters

September 1, 2015

By Editors

Carbonated.TV

September 1, 2015

The flow of boats eventually subsided but the UN warns the crisis will resume before the end of the monsoon season in Southeast Asia.

Since January, European leaders have been stymied over how to fix what's been described as the worst refugee crisis since World War II.

Destitute migrants escaping countries like Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq in a bid to reach Europe via land and sea have been well-documented by the mainstream media over the past couple of months.

However, an equally bigger humanitarian emergency is about to erupt – again – in the Southeast Asia and the international community remains as negligent as ever about it.

The United Nations has issued a warning over an expected surge of mostly Rohingya and Bangladeshi refugees heading out into the Andaman Sea in September.

The last time these asylum-seekers, mainly hailing from Myanmar, made headlines was in May when police in Thailand discovered dozens of graves of suspected Rohingya migrants in an abandoned jungle camp. Subsequently, thousands of refugees were discovered stranded in Southeast Asian waters; they were initially denied help from neighboring nations, including Indonesia and Malaysia.

The refusal to rescue these "boat people" – as they were collectively dubbed by international media – led to protests by human rights activists. After much outrage,several countries, including Japan, finally offered asylum.

The flow of boats eventually subsided but now the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has warned the crisis will resume before the end of the monsoon season in the region.

"We expect this to resume again in about a month,” said UNCHR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming. “There are appalling conditions on these boats and a bit of ping pong, and real concerns about access to territory.”

Thousands of Rohingya have tried to escape atrocities by Buddhist extremists in Myanmar by risking their lives on dilapidated vessels. Since the conditions in the country remain the same, members of the persecuted minority will yet again attempt to flee violence.

According to the agency, around 31,000 Rohingyas and Bangladeshis left from the Bay of Bangal on boats since the beginning of the year; that’s almost 34 percent more people from the same period in 2014. A total of 94,000 people are believed to have embarked on similar perilous journeys since 2014. At least 1,100 more have reportedly drowned in the same time period.

The migrant crisis in Europe is undoubtedly one of the biggest humanitarian challenges of this decade. As world leaders continue to work on a possible solution to the problem, it’s important that they do not leave out the refugees fleeing Myanmar and Bangladesh since they too deserve to be rescued and saved.

By Coconuts Jakarta

September 1, 2015

Thousands of Rohingya migrants fled violence in Myanmar earlier this year and ended up in Indonesia, most of them taking refuge in Aceh. But it seems some of the poor migrants made their way to the capital and are calling it home for the time being.

The presence of Rohingya migrants in Jakarta came to the attention of government officials recently when the Satpol PP (civil service police) apprehended two Rohingyas wandering the streets of Jakarta. One of them was carrying a letter addressed to Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, pleading for the provincial government to assist Rohingya migrants in the city.

“To ensure their safety [in the city], we’re going to keep coordinating with authorities. The role of the provincial government is to ensure migrants can carry on with their lives,” said Ratiyono, head of the Jakarta International Unity and Politics Agency, as quoted by BeritaSatu yesterday. 

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNHCR) confirmed that there are 36 Rohingya migrants who have settled in Jakarta.

“Some of them live in Community Houses that are spread across four regions in Jakarta. One of them is in Tebet, South Jakarta. They all possess UNHCR cards confirming they’re refugees, and we’ve informed them to respect the rules that exist in Jakarta,” said UNHCR Indonesia representative Jefri.

The Rohingya refugees endured many harrowing journeys to make it as far as Indonesia. We hope they can eventually reach wherever they are headed. And if it’s Jakarta, then we hope this city can be a good home to them.

By Kayleigh Long

IRIN

September 1, 2015

BUTHIDAUNG, Myanmar - In the 2010 general elections, about 150,000 Muslims in this isolated township in western Myanmar were able to cast ballots. When the country returns to the polls in November the number of Muslim voters here is likely to be about a dozen.

There’s a simple explanation for the dramatic decline: the government has disenfranchised almost all of Myanmar’s approximately one million minority ethnic Rohingya Muslims. 

The decision means that Rohingya are unlikely to have any political representation anywhere in Rakhine state, because MPs from that community were elected in 2010 only in a few areas like Buthidaung township where Rohingya outnumber Rakhines, who are the majority elsewhere.

When the ballots are counted after the 8 November polls, it’s likely that voters from the ethnic Rakhine group will elect representatives from parties that have publicly pushed to remove voting rights from those with undetermined citizenship, which includes almost all Rohingya.

The dynamic will be particularly odd in Buthidaung, a sleepy township that hugs the muddy banks of the Mayu River, which is the only route to transport goods and people from the state capital of Sittwe. In Buthidaung, a minority of 40,000 Rakhines will elect representatives to parliament, while 150,000 Rohingya will have no say in the decision.

The loss of political representation is only the latest in a long list of rights stripped from the Rohingya, who have little access to healthcare and education and are even prevented from travelling outside their villages without permission from local authorities.

“People have already lost freedom of movement, and now they cannot vote,” said Shwe Maung, an MP for Buthidaung who is Rohingya and was elected in 2010 under the banner of the ruling United Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

Nationalist pressure

The decision to revoke voting rights came amidst pressure from nationalist politicians and Buddhist monks who regard the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh, despite the fact that Rohingya families have roots in the area going back generations.

Rohingya advocates say many were full citizens upon independence from Britain in 1948, and they point out that members of their community have voted in each election since then. But their citizenship status has been gradually eroded over half a century of military rule.

By the time the 2010 election rolled around, most Rohingya had “white cards”, which are temporary identification papers. Holding white cards kept them suspended in stateless limbo, but it did allow them to vote, and that enraged nationalists who argued that only bona fide citizens should have that right.

The Rakhine National Party played a crucial part in lobbying against white card holders’ voting rights.

“My party submitted in parliament to reject white card holders – it (is in line with) our constitution,” said Aye Maung, leader of the RNP. “Citizens can vote and citizens can be members of parliament. This is not for non-citizens.” 

People with white cards can, in theory, take part in a citizenship verification process, and if they are deemed to be citizens of Myanmar they could participate in the November poll. But the process has been excruciatingly slow and it is unlikely to be completed in time.

Part of the problem is that Rohingya who want to acquire citizenship must agree to identify themselves as Bengali, which implies they are from Bangladesh. The vast majority refuse to do so.

Only about 10 Rohingya in Buthidaung have gone through the process and been given citizenship papers, according to a local official who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to media.

Ruling party forfeits Rakhine

Removing the Rohingya's right to vote may have appeased nationalists in this Buddhist-majority country, but it also eviscerated the government’s voting base in Rakhine state.

Most Rakhines support their own ethnic parties rather than opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) or the USDP, both of which are dominated by members of the ethnic Bama majority, which has had a troubled relationship with the Rakhine people.

The NLD boycotted the 2010 poll, which was widely condemned as fraudulent. So the Rohingya found themselves in an awkward position: they could either support Rakhine nationalist parties that opposed their right to vote, or they could cast ballots for the USDP, which is the reform-era incarnation of the previous military government that marginalised them and is comprised largely of former officers.

Most Rohingya voters chose the latter.

“We were thinking the military government party would give our rights back. We wanted to work together,” said Rafi, a 25-year-old Rohingya from Buthidaung. “We thought we were going to get a chance, and it would be easier for us to communicate and sort out the problems we have been encountering.”

Without the support of voters like Rafi this time around, the USDP will elect very few if any MPs in Rakhine state. Aye Maung said he expected his party to win because Rakhine voters “want their ethnicity to be the government of Rakhine state”.

The national government has not only undercut its electoral support; its decision to revoke the voting rights of the Rohingya also prompted condemnation from rights groups as well as the United States, which has been a major backer of political and economic reforms implemented by the quasi-civilian government that took power in 2011.

“Upcoming elections should provide an opportunity for all the people of this country, including in Rakhine State, to have a say in their people’s and country’s future,” a US embassy spokesman told IRIN.

The embassy also expressed “concern” over the decision of the Election Commission to bar Shwe Maung from running again.

Shwe Maung told IRIN he is appealing the decision and he rejected the Commission’s allegation that his parents were not full citizens, which would make him ineligible to hold office. He said he had resigned from the USDP and intended to stand as an independent candidate.

“I want to continue as an independent politician as well as work with the NGO I have founded, which works for all the people of Rakhine state,” he said. “I want to live together with all people regardless of race and religion.”

(Additional reporting by Jared Ferrie in LONDON)

By Ei Ei Toe Lwin

Myanmar Times

September 1, 2015

Nineteen election candidates in northern Rakhine State have been barred from running by the district sub-election commission, which called into question their residency status and the citizenship of their parents.

Applications were submitted by 378 potential candidates representing a range of political parties across five districts in Rakhine State – Kyaukpyu, Sittwe, Maungdaw, Thandwe and Mrauk Oo.

Of these, 19 candidates were rejected in Maungdaw district, where the majority of the population is Muslim Rohingya, who are officially referred to as Bengalis.

“Most [of the disqualified nominees] are Bengalis,” district election officer U San Win Tun told The Myanmar Times yesterday.

Among them, nine are from the Democracy and Human Rights Party, six are from the National Development and Peace Party, one is from the National League for Democracy, and three are independents.

“We rejected them according to sections 8(a) and 10(e) of the elections laws,” said U San Win Tun. Section 8(a) says a person is ineligible to run for office if their parents were not citizens of Myanmar at the time of his birth, while section 10(e) stipulates that a candidate must have lived in the country for the past 10 years continuously.

U Kyaw Soe Aung, general secretary of the Democracy and Human Rights Party, said his party proposed 11 candidates: nine from Maungdaw and two from Sittwe.

“All of our Maungdaw candidates were rejected because the sub-commission said their parents were not citizens when they were born,” U Kyaw Soe Aung said, adding that the party has not received any information about its Sittwe candidates.

U Kyaw Min, one of the rejected Democracy and Human Rights Party candidates, said he did not understand the sub-election commission’s decision, especially since he was elected to parliament in the 1990 election.

U Kyaw Min won the seat of Buthidaung for the National Development and Democratic Party, and later became a member of the Committee Representing the People’s Parliament. He has now been rejected from running for the Buthidaung seat in the Pyithu Hluttaw. “I think the commission rejected us under orders from the Union Election Commission because we are Rohingya,” he said.

“When I was a candidate in the 1990 election my parents were recognised as citizens, but now I have lost my citizenship rights under this so-called democratic government,” U Kyaw Min said, adding that all the rejected nominees plan to appeal and show citizenship evidence to the Rakhine State election commission. “We don’t want to lose our basic rights,” he said.

Meanwhile, NLD candidate U Tun Min Soe, who had planned to contest Rakhine State Amyotha Hluttaw constituency 2, which encompasses Maungdaw, was dismissed because he lived in Bangladesh in 2006.

On August 22, the election commission office in Maungdaw also sent a letter to U Shwe Maung – a sitting Pyithu Hluttaw representative who self-identifies as Rohingya – notifying him that he was ineligible to run because his parents were not citizens when he was born, a claim he denies.

Also known as Abdul Rezak, the MP said a Muslim candidate for the Amyotha Hluttaw, Daw Khin Khin Lwin, had also been disqualified.

The sub-commission said they had no specific intentions when they scrutinised the candidate selection process.

“The candidates were rejected according to the law. We sent letters to them on August 29. If they are dissatisfied with our decision, they can appeal to the state election commission within one week,” said U San Win Tun.

By Moe Myint

The Irrawaddy
September 1, 2015

The Democracy and Human Rights Party sees 17 of its 18 candidates fail a vetting process that has barred several Muslims from contesting the election.

RANGOON — The Democracy and Human Rights Party, which claims to represent Burma’s Islamic constituents, looks likely to become one of the first institutional casualties of a candidate vetting process that has disproportionately seen several Muslims barred from contesting a general election due Nov. 8.

Of the 18 Muslim candidates put forward by the party for scrutiny by the Union Election Commission (UEC), 17 have failed to pass muster, according to DHRP chairman Kyaw Min. If its appeals are rejected by the UEC, the party would be left with only one contesting candidate, slating it for deregistration under a Political Parties Registration Law provision that stipulates a party must field at least three candidates or face official delisting.

Most of those rejected were told that they did not meet citizenship requirements, including that both parents of a candidate be citizens of Burma at the time of the candidate’s birth. Kyaw Min, who was one of the DHRP’s rejected candidates, said the purported explanation was “ridiculous,” given that he was allowed to contest Burma’s 1990 election.

“I think it’s a strategy that intends to keep Muslims out of politics,” he said, describing his party’s election prospects as now “hopeless.”

Last week, sitting parliamentarian Shwe Maung, a self-identified Rohingya Muslim, was similarly told that his application to run for re-election was rejected on grounds that his parents were not citizens when he was born. Shwe Maung currently represents the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in Parliament’s Lower House, but had opted to run as an independent in the November poll.

On Tuesday, Shwe Maung appeared at the Arakan State election subcommission in the state capital Sittwe to appeal his rejection. But Matthew Smith, director of Bangkok-based Fortify Rights, said Shwe Maung was “further disqualified” this week, with officials apparently having made the decision without first hearing his appeal.

Smith, who accompanied Shwe Maung to the subcommission office on Tuesday, said the spurned parliamentarian plans to take his case to the UEC in Naypyidaw.

“Sadly, this reflects a broader anti-Muslim trend in the country, and it’s going to leave an unfortunate stain on the upcoming election if citizens of Myanmar are not allowed to participate freely in the political process,” Smith told The Irrawaddy by phone.

At least 19 candidates have been rejected by the Arakan State election subcommission, with a large concentration of the rejections in Maungdaw District where many Muslims reside, according to Khin Maung Than, who is head of the Arakan National Party’s Maungdaw branch.

Nyi Phu, head of the Arakan State chapter of the National League for Democracy (NLD), told The Irrawaddy that one candidate from Burma’s largest opposition party had his bid disallowed because the individual had failed to meet a residency qualification mandating that prospective candidates must have lived in Burma for the last 10 years.

The Myanmar Times on Tuesday reported that 49 candidates in total had been rejected by the UEC, indicating that Arakan State accounted for at least 40 percent of candidate rejections nationwide. The disproportionate share of rejections both reflects the western state’s complex ethnic dynamics and highlights the thorny issue of unresolved citizenship for much of its Muslim population.

In addition to the DHRP, the National Development and Peace Party (NDPP) and National Democratic Party for Development (NDPD) are also known to court the Muslim vote and have both reportedly had candidates rejected.

The DHRP’s Kyaw Min, whose party is in contact with the NDPP, said he was told that six of the six candidates submitted by the NDPP in Arakan State were denied election commission approval. Kyaw Min said he did not believe the fellow Muslim party had planned to field candidates elsewhere in Burma, meaning it too could be deregistered for failing to meet the three-candidate threshold.

NDPP chairman Ali Hussein declined to comment when contacted by The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.

The chairman of the Arakan State election subcommission, Aung Mya, told The Irrawaddy that he could not provide figures statewide on the number of candidate rejections, but he confirmed that 19 applications had been turned down in Maungdaw. He said more information on the state’s other districts was expected in the coming days, delayed by transportation difficulties arising from flooding in the region.

NDPD chairman Maung Ni said his party had submitted six candidates and saw two rejected, while the secretary of the Kaman National Development Party, Tin Naing Win, said his party’s four candidates had all successfully cleared the UEC vetting process.

Unlike the Rohingya, Kaman Muslims are recognized as one of 135 official “national races” in Burma’s 1982 Citizenship Law.

Many stateless Rohingya Muslims were allowed to vote in Burma’s 2010 election on the basis of their holding temporary registration certificates, commonly known as “white cards.” At least two Muslim candidates were elected to the Lower House, and the NDPD saw two of its candidates elected to the regional legislature.

But earlier this year, a presidential order invalidated the white cards, disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of Rohingya and other minorities who also lacked full citizenship.

The Washington-based Carter Center, an INGO that will monitor the Nov. 8 vote, said in a report last month that white card holders’ disenfranchisement constituted “a serious contravention of political rights.”

By The Guardian Editorial

August 31, 2015

Let Myanmar be called by the name its rulers prefer, but let them also make good on their promises of democracy

What’s in a name? The Guardian has been until now one of a dwindling number of newspapers and broadcasters using the term Burma rather than Myanmar, the regime’s official name for the country. What has divided the media on this issue is that the name Burma is associated with the democratic movement there, while the name Myanmar is associated with the army-dominated government which decreed its use in 1989, a year after troops had shot down thousands of demonstrators.

The choice of name was thus a way of indicating, or at least of hinting at, approval or disapproval. We will from today be using the name Myanmar, partly because it has become almost universal and partly because colonial names should be part of the past, along with the empires that gave rise to them. True, with Burma, that argument is a blurred one. Burma is the name of the country in spoken Burmese, Myanmar the name in written Burmese. Still, the choice was made by a government that wanted to distance itself from the British era, and that is an understandable motive, one that has rewritten the names of many countries, provinces and cities around the globe.

The argument is clearer with Rangoon, a British mispronunciation of Yangon, which will now be our choice when referring to the former capital. It would be pleasing to add that the problem that lay behind the controversy over the country’s name, namely its lack of progress toward democracy, is also a part of the past, but that is far from the case. In recent months, the government of Myanmar has signally failed to advance that progress, in spite of its supposed commitment to do so.

Constitutional amendments that would have set aside the notorious clause that prevents Aung San Suu Kyi standing for the presidency and reduced the seats reserved for the military in parliament failed in the legislature, the fundamental reason being that the generals and ex-generals who still call the shots in Myanmar refused to take the steps without which a true transition to civilian government is impossible. These failures alone made it unlikely that the general elections due in November, even if free and fair in process, can have a genuinely democratic outcome.

Then, earlier this month, a further blow fell when the regime summarily removed Shwe Mann, the speaker of the lower house, from his position as head of the government party. He too is a former general, but one who had identified himself with reform and formed an alliance with Aung San Suu Kyi, whose support could have secured him the presidency in the indirect elections for that post after the November vote. Some doubted his sincerity. Nevertheless his alliance with the woman who embodies the democratic cause in Myanmar did represent a way forward after other avenues had been blocked, and one which might have struck a better and fairer balance between elected representatives and an officer class reluctant to cede its power and prerogatives.

The next development could be that the government party, widely expected to be trounced in the elections, will be pumped up by one dubious means or another. While a country can easily alter its name, moving to democracy requires a real readiness for change. Sadly, Burma’s generals so far seem to lack that essential qualification.

By Phyu Zin Poe

PortalKBR.com

August 31, 2015

Portrait of Yar Yar Kan, one of the many Rohingya Muslim minority rejected by the Burmese — and shunned by other Asian countries in an attempt to emigrate.

SITTWE — Yar Yar Kan is feeding his baby in a small bamboo shelter in Myanmar (the country also known as Burma), where his family of six has been living in a refugee camp for the past three years. He has no job, no opportunity and can't legally leave the camp's confines, leaving him struggling to find enough food for his wife and children.

He recently returned here after struggling in the sea for three months, a failed voyage to Malaysia, which won't accept these desperate Rohingya Muslims who are among the most persecuted people in the world — rendered stateless by their own government, rounded up and effectively jailed in camps without jobs or schools.

"I knew if I had told my wife, she would have cried, and I was afraid that I wouldn't have been able to go," he recalls of his decision to escape. But he was and is desperate to find a way to support his family. "My family would have a better life if I had reached Malaysia. And I could have sent them some money."

His friend had introduced him to a smuggler. "I told him that I wanted to go to Malaysia," Kan says. "He agreed and asked me to pay $2,000 in advance. But I didn't have the money. He said I could pay him back with my salary for the next six months once I got a job there. After that, I could be a free man."

At midnight several months ago, without telling his wife, he managed to escape the highly guarded camp.

"The boat crew took all of our belongings — mobile phones, food," Kan recalls. "And they pointed guns at us. That's when I realized that I had made a mistake. I thought I might never see my mother again, my wife, my brothers and sisters."

There were 400 people on board, 100 of them women. "They gave us a handful of rice, one or two meals a day. There was also a small portion of curry, not enough drinking water ... They beat us if we asked for more food and water."

Brutal conditions

The women had to deal with bigger dangers. "There was screaming at night, and we asked the women what happened," he recalls. "They said that they had been raped. They refused and shouted for help, but they were beaten. The crew drugged them so that they felt dizzy and could not move."

After two months, the boat finally reached Thai water. Malaysian authorities were inspecting the area, so the smugglers left the refugees and went by another ship.

"The crew ordered me to watch over the boat and taught me how to drive it," he says. "Then they left. We drove the ship back toward Myanmar. It took us a month to arrive in Myanmarese waters."

There is no official record available about how many people have tried to escape from the refugee camp. But an immigration official from Araken state, where Sittwe is located, says nearly 200 people have returned. The government has arrested nine smugglers and charged them with criminal trafficking.

"There are 14 gates that they can use to escape the camp," says Khien Soe, chief immigration officer at Sittwe. "We check everyone who passes through these gates. Our navy checks those who try to go by boat."

But there's not much they can do to stop trafficking, says Arakan State Speaker Hla Thein. "We formed a group and we've started campaigning among those people as much as we can. We can't do anything for those who try to go illegally because we don't know their route."

Tens of thousands of Rohingya live in the Sittwe refugee camp — cramped and without electricity. The Myanmar government moved them there in 2012 after violence broke out between Buddhists and the Muslim minority.

Yar Yar Kan's wife Nu Nar Balcon says she now knows where her husband had been for those few months. She says she wishes that he could have reached Malaysia. "I dreamed that he would make it abroad and escape from the smugglers, then our family would get money," she says. "Now, my dream has vanished."

But Yar Yar Kan is planning another escape — soon. "I'm very disappointed with my life," he says. "I can't live without a job. I want to escape from the camp again."

By Hanna Hindstrom

The Irrawaddy

August 31, 2015

A prominent member of the NLD claims the opposition party has succumbed to pressure from Buddhist nationalists by refusing to field a single Muslim candidate in upcoming elections.

RANGOON — A prominent member of the National League for Democracy (NLD) claims the opposition party has succumbed to growing pressure from Buddhist nationalists by refusing to field a single Muslim candidate in Burma’s upcoming general elections. 

Ko Ni, a well-known Muslim lawyer and opposition party member, said the NLD leadership intentionally excluded over a dozen Muslims from its candidate list—presented to the country’s election commission with over 1,000 names earlier this month—to placate Buddhist hardliners. 

“There are no Muslim candidates,” Ko Ni told The Irrawaddy. “Around 15-16 Muslim people applied to be candidates but the central committee did not choose them.” 

He added that while the party leadership did not offer a formal explanation for its decision, it appeared to be linked to the rise of an aggressive nationalist movement, the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion, whose supporters have been keen to brand the opposition party led by Aung San Suu Kyi as anti-Buddhist. 

The association, known locally by its Burmese acronym Ma Ba Tha, has spearheaded efforts to impose fresh legislation discriminating against Burma’s Muslim minority and repeatedly rallied against political parties deemed “unpatriotic.” 

“If the NLD chose some Muslim candidates, those campaigning groups can point out that the NLD is a ‘Muslim party’,” said Ko Ni, who stressed he was not speaking in any official capacity as a party member. 

But the decision has provoked dismay among many of the NLD’s Muslim supporters, who feel alienated and marginalized by the pro-democracy opposition party. 

“The NLD is a democratic party,” said Mya Aye, a former political prisoner and prominent Muslim member of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society, who briefly sought NLD candidacy earlier this year. “Democratic means accepting multiculturalism but the NLD didn’t accept Muslim candidates. That is very wrong. Muslim people feel discriminated [against] by the NLD.” 

Mya Aye suggested the move could lead to a number of Muslims abandoning the opposition party in November’s election,turning instead to independent candidates. One Rangoon-based Muslim resident, who asked not to be named, said he was losing faith in the party but he remained wary of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). 

“I never supported the USDP—it is a military legacy and not good for Muslims—so I have [previously] supported the NLD,” he said. “But now I am thinking I may support some individual in my constituency.” 

Sources say that those excluded rank among some of the most prominent figures within the party and the broader democracy movement. 

Among those whose candidacy applications were rejected are Sithu Maung, a former political prisoner and founding member of the Confederation of University Student Unions; Myat Thu, a veteran of the 88 Generation student group; Win Mya Mya, a leading member of the NLD’s Mandalay Division office jailed during the 2007 Saffron Uprising; and Kyi Lwin, chairman of the party’s Rangoon Eastern District office, according to party insiders. 

“I don’t want to comment directly, but I can say that there were no Muslim candidates selected by the NLD,” Sithu Maung told The Irrawaddy. 

Sithu Maung confirmed the exclusion of Win Mya Mya and Kyi Lwin, neither of whom could not be reached for comment on Friday.

Mya Aye told The Irrawaddy that he preemptively withdrew his candidacy application at the end of July because the NLD was not cooperating with the country’s ethnic groups, reflecting a trend of growing disillusion with the party leadership.

“Ninety percent of Muslims are now upset with the NLD,” said Myo Win of the Burmese Muslim Association. “Even Muslims inside the NLD are disappointed.”

The NLD is expected to make significant gains in the Nov. 8 elections, hoped to be the first free and fair poll since the party’s landslide victory in 1990 was annulled by the military junta. A number of Muslim candidates were reportedly overlooked in the 1990 election as well,a reflection of deep-seated religious and ethnic divides in the Buddhist-majority country.

Religious tensions and outbursts of violence have escalated since the end of military rule in 2011, threatening to overshadow Burma’s landmark election.

Last week, prominent Rohingya Muslim lawmaker and former USDP member Shwe Maung was struck off the candidacy list after the Union Election Commission determined his parents were not Burmese citizens at the time of his birth. Hundreds of thousands of voters from the beleaguered Rohingya minority—who had been permitted to cast ballots in the 2010 election—were stripped of their voting rights earlier this year.

Some activists fear that members of the NLD leadership, most of whom came of age under the xenophobic dictatorship of Gen. Ne Win, tacitly agree with Ma Ba Tha’s virulent anti-Muslim sentiments.

“I’m not sure yet how much racism there is at the NLD top level because the majority of those people were[educated] under the socialist era,” said Myo Win. “I am not sure about [Suu Kyi] and who the decisions go through. She is a Nobel laureate and human rights defender. But I think she is now a power player.”

“We have no hope yet—neither for the NLD nor the USDP—to change the policy for minorities. They are thinking [about] their own power,” he added.

The party has also come under fire for excluding numerous popular figures, including 88 Generation Student Leader Ko Ko Gyi and independent Rangoon Division lawmaker Nyo Nyo Thin, from its candidate list. But Suu Kyi herself has dismissed the backlash as a “blessing in disguise” and urged people to vote for the party instead of hinging their support on individual NLD candidates.

When contacted by The Irrawaddy, NLD central executive committee member and party spokesperson Nyan Win denied that there were no Muslims representing the party.

“There is no discrimination,” he said, before admitting that he could not name any Muslim candidates “off the top of my head”.

Nyan Win clarified in a later conversation that he was unaware of specific decisions on candidate applications, which were ultimately decided upon by the party’s central executive committee. He denied that the party’s candidate decisions had been influenced by Ma Ba Tha.

“We never accept these Ma Ba Tha requests,” he said.

Nonetheless, in the last year the NLD has at times sought to placate Buddhist nationalist sentiment, including on one occasion an incident involving Ko Ni and Mya Aye.

The party cancelled a public event in Rangoon to mark Union Day in February last year, after a group of 40 nationalist monks objected to the planned inclusion of the pair on a discussion panel.

The following week, both men were forced to withdraw from a literary event in Mandalay, after complaints from the 969 Buddhist nationalist group led by senior Ma Ba Tha member U Wirathu. At the time, Mya Aye suggested that the complaints were motivated by the 88 Generation and the NLD’s pledge to cooperate on a constitutional reform campaign.

Ko Ni, who is adamant that no Muslim candidates had been nominated by the NLD, still defended the decision as a political necessity and urged voters to rally behind the party.

“We need to understand this situation and support the NLD,” he said. “If the NLD gets a lot of seats in parliament, at that time we can change the current situation and promote freedom of religion.”

At present, no political party has an official policy on the representation of religious minorities in the diverse country, where Muslims are estimated to comprise between 4-10 percent of the population.

An NLD lawmaker previously told The Irrawaddy that his party had no Muslim MPs in the current Union Parliament, while only three of the USDP’s 336 Union Parliament lawmakers belonged to the Muslim faith.

It is not yet clear how many Muslim candidates, if any, the USDP is fielding in November’s election.

Additional reporting by Moe Myint.

By John Zaw

UCA News

August 31, 2015

Question of citizenship again haunts minority group

Fifteen Rohingya candidates have been barred from running in Myanmar's upcoming elections, adding to fears it is part of the mass disenfranchisement of a long-embattled ethnic minority group ahead of key Nov 8. polls.

The country's election commission ruled Aug. 29 that the 15 parliamentary hopefuls from the Democracy and Human Rights Party, which is predominantly Rohingya, were ineligible to run because their parents were not citizens when they were born.

"The decision does not make sense and it lacks a detailed explanation," Kyaw Min, the party's chairman and one of the 15 disqualified candidates, told ucanews.com in an Aug. 31 interview.

The move comes despite the fact that Kyaw Min, a former school teacher, secured a seat during Myanmar's 1990 election, which was won by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party before the military junta refused to recognize the results.

Kyaw Min said his party planned on contesting the election commission ruling, but said he feared it was part of an attempt "to target the specific Rohingya community," ensuring the Muslim minority group would not play a significant role in the Nov. 8 election.

The ruling comes after Shwe Maung, a prominent Rohingya member of parliament with the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, was recently barred from running in the election because his parents were not Myanmar citizens when he was born. Nevertheless, Shwe Maung's father was a career policeman and Shwe Maung himself ran and won a seat in Rakhine's Buthidaung constituency in 2010.

Pending the result of the planned appeal, the commission's ruling leaves the Democracy and Human Rights Party with only three remaining candidates out of the 18 it had put forward to run in Yangon, the country's largest city, and Rakhine state.

'They can't vote'

Rights groups have long warned of a mass disenfranchisement of persecuted Rohingya Muslims ahead of the election, which is seen by many observers as a test of the country's quasi-civilian government's democratic reforms.

Earlier this year, the government effectively disenfranchised about 700,000 people, mostly Rohingya, when it declared holders of “white cards” ineligible to vote. The cards had been issued as temporary identification documents, and white-card holders had been permitted to vote in the 2010 election.

During that election, the quasi-civilian government led by President Thein Sein did particularly well in areas with many white-card holders, including Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships. This year, however, Buddhist-led groups protested against the policy and Thein Sein announced that white-card holders would not be allowed to vote.

Likely to benefit from such moves are candidates supported by ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, who have long-standing enmity toward the Rohingya and a distrust of the national government.

The Arakan National Party comprises predominantly ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and is expected to win a majority of the state's allotted seats in parliament. Khine Pyi Soe, the party's vice president, said his party has urged its candidates to file an official complaint if non-citizens attempt to contest the election.

"For those who are eligible for citizenship under the 1982 citizenship law, they can vote in elections but for those who aren't eligible, they can't vote," he said in an interview.

The government and the Buddhist Rakhine community do not recognize Rohingya as one of the country's official ethnic groups, and instead require them to identify as "Bengali" because they are often viewed as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh. Under the 1982 citizenship law, any path to citizenship would require identifying as Bengali.

In August, Yanghee Lee, the U.N. special rapporteur for human rights, expressed "grave concern" about the disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of potential voters.

"More must and can be done to address the legal status of the Rohingya and the institutionalized discrimination faced by this community," she said in a statement.

By bdnews24.com

August 30, 2015

Police will get five days to question three persons held from Rangamati over the Aug 26 shootout between a border guard patrol and Myanmar separatists in Bandarban.

Ong Owong Rakhain, who the police claim to be an accomplice of the separatist 'Arakan Army', was arrested the same night from a house at Rangamati’s Rajsthali Upazila.

On Aug 28, the caretaker of the house Mongsoang Marma and the former caretaker Chosui Ong Marma were arrested.

On Sunday, police produced them in a Rangamati court and sought ten days to question them. The court granted five days.

On Wednesday morning, a patrol boat of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) came under attack by guerrillas of the ‘Arakan Army’.

The separatists moved back into Myanmar territory after five hours of joint operations by the army and BGB.