By Tetsuo Shintomi

KYODO

Feburary 2, 2016

University student Shiori Suzuki visited Myanmar in 2013 as a tourist. What she did not notice there was the plight of the Muslim minority Rohingya — and only learned about them and their situation from a newspaper article upon her return.

“What did I see in Myanmar?” the 22-year-old Keio University student recalls asking herself after reading the news piece about the persecution of Rohingya and the human trafficking they undergo to seek better conditions in other countries.

Suzuki decided to do something. She bought a secondhand video camera and began chronicling the lives of members of the ethnic group who have sought refuge in Japan.

She and her friends started making frequent visits to a community of Rohingya refugees in Tatebayashi, Gunma Prefecture. Over the course of about 18 months they followed the lives of 50 out of some 200 residents there.

Suzuki made a 20-minute film, titled “Hikari” (Light), which focuses on everyday life for the migrants in Japan rather than what they have left behind.

She filmed children playing together as their fathers look on smiling.

“We want the audience to know the true face of those labeled ‘refugees’ in Japan,” she said. Typical scenes include activity in a kitchen at the home of a refugee family and at a school athletic field.

Suzuki made the film as part of her activities with S.A.L. (Send Out, Aid, Learn), a student group that aims to deepen understanding and raise public awareness about international issues.

The film was completed in fall 2014. It began attracting attention and has been screened at a youth event hosted by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Suzuki said she is willing to screen the film at other events upon request.

One of the Rohingya she documented said he had been tortured and showed her his scars. He has failed to obtain a work visa in Japan and remains unemployed.

Suzuki expresses frustration at being unable to do anything to help the Rohingya migrants.

They keep smiling and supporting each other,” despite the reality facing them, she said. “I was impressed.”

The student hopes her film will help viewers in Japan feel close to the Rohingya living in the country.

By Nirmal Ghosh, Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja & Eunice Au

The Straits Times

February 2, 2016

A woman walks past a row of container homes at a container village for migrant construction workers on the outskirts of Bangkok on Dec 4, 2015.

Rohingya Muslim minority children pass time in a refugee camp outside Sitttwe, Rakhine state, on Nov 7, 2015. PHOTO: REUTERS

By AFP

February 1, 2016

NAYPYIDAW -- Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's party has taken an unprecedented public mandate into Parliament.

But popularity and power are only the beginning for the Nobel laureate and her hundreds of new MPs, many of whom have no experience of public office.

Here are a few of their main challenges:

1. WHO WILL BE PRESIDENT?

Ms Suu Kyi's party can form a government, but who will lead it?

The Nobel laureate is barred from the presidency by a clause in the junta-drafted Constitution because her children are British.

Many believe it was scripted specifically to block her path to power.

She has said she will rule "above" a puppet president, who will replace outgoing President Thein Sein in late March.

If she does, that position is not covered in the Constitution and could rile the powerful military, who have ceded some powers but retain 25 per cent of seats in Parliament - and with them an effective veto on major charter change.

2. PLACATING THE MILITARY

Given the presidency issue, Ms Suu Kyi may need to sweeten up an army which held her prisoner for some 15 years.

Observers say good relations between Ms Suu Kyi and the military will be crucial to get anything done.

That is because the military's political powers are not limited to Parliament.

The 2008 Constitution that was scripted under former dictator Than Shwe hands the army chief control over three key ministries: home affairs, defence and border affairs.

Home affairs is a bureaucratic juggernaut, and includes the police force and the sprawling General Administration Department (GAD), a vast network that forms the backbone of the civil service.

3. WARS AMONG ETHNIC MINORITIES

Civil wars continue to rage in parts of Myanmar's ethnic minority borderlands.

Myanmar's ethnic minorities have fought for greater autonomy for more than 50 years.

Mr Thein Sein signed ceasefires with several of the country's major ethnic armed groups, but heavy fighting continues, particularly in Kachin and Shan states.

As a member of the ethnic majority Bamar, Ms Suu Kyi has sometimes been viewed with suspicion by these groups.

But her National League for Democracy (NLD) won handsomely in ethnic states, and Ms Suu Kyi has pledged to work towards a federal system.

4. PLIGHT OF THE ROHINGYA

Ms Suu Kyi must also tackle the scourge of anti-Muslim sentiment that has fomented since an explosion of unrest in Rakhine state in 2012 between Buddhists and minority Rohingya communities.

Tens of thousands of Muslim Rohingya are still trapped in bleak displacement camps and the next government faces pressure from the international community to find a solution for them.

But they will be wary of enraging Rakhine Buddhists, who largely see the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

5. THE ECONOMY AND POVERTY

Myanmar's economy has surged under reforms by Mr Thein Sein's government. Foreign investment swept in as most Western sanctions were lifted.

Mobile phones are now ubiquitous, car imports are rising fast and several special economic zones are in the pipeline.

The economy grew at 8.5 per cent in the 2014/15 fiscal year, but the World Bank expects this to moderate to 6.5 per cent this year.

But poverty is still a problem for huge swathes of a country that relies on agriculture.

With many of the previous government's so-called "quick win" policies already enacted, the NLD has said it will focus on luring more international investment.

Speedy development is held back by patchy electricity supply, poor road and rail networks and an unskilled workforce.

Graft is also endemic. Myanmar ranked in joint 147th place out of 168 in Transparency International's 2015 corruption perception index.

There is also the question of febrile relations with China - Myanmar's biggest trading partner.

By Al Jazeera

Inside Story - Is Myanmar's transition to democracy tainted by the persecution of Rohingya Muslims?

Myanmar's first democratically-elected parliament in decades is being called historic. But it's also the first Parliament that does not include a single Muslim legislator. More than a million Muslim Rohingya, who do not have citizenship, were prevented from voting in November's election.They are among the most persecuted people on earth. Hundreds were killed during violence between Muslim and Buddhist communities in 2012. Muslim-owned businesses and homes were burned.Since then, 140,000 Rohingya have been forced into refugee camps. Tens of thousands more have fled from the country on overcrowded boats.So, what will Myanmar's new mainly civilian government mean for the Rohingya?Presenter: Jane Dutton Guests: Kyaw Zwa Moe - The Irrawaddy News Magazine in Naypyidaw. Adam Cooper - Myanmar Country Representative at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Yangon.Tun Khin - President of Burmese Rohingya Organisation, UK.

By Phyo Thiha Cho

Myanmar Now 

February 1, 2016

YANGON -- As the National League for Democracy (NLD) prepares to take over from the army-backed government of President Thein Sein it faces the challenge of getting a handle on government institutions and possibly reforming them.

One such institution is the General Administration Department (GAD), which functions as the backbone of local administration throughout the country. The GAD falls under the Home Affairs Ministry, which is controlled by an army general in accordance with the Constitution. It pervades Myanmar’s civil service from the state and region level, down to the district, township, village and ward levels.

Created in 1972, the GAD grants Myanmar’s army chief direct, centralised control over government administration down to the lowest level. This mechanism raises questions over whether the NLD can wield effective control over government machinery. The GAD will also have to be reformed and civil service control decentralised to states and regions if ethnic minorities’ demands for a federal union are to be met.

Ko Ni, a Supreme Court lawyer who is a legal advisor to the NLD, spoke to Myanmar Now reporter Phyo Thiha Cho about the importance of bringing the GAD under civilian control and decentralising its powers.

Question: What needs to be done to address the decades-old problem of bad governance in Myanmar?

Answer: The former military leader Ne Win formulated a general administration system that is controlled by a single government agency (the GAD). All the 14 states and regions’ civil services are under the management of Ministry of Home Affairs. The same practice was kept up by the military government after the 1988 coup.

In accordance with the 2008 Constitution, there are 15 governments - the central government and the 14 state and region governments. It is a seemingly liberal administration system for respective states and regions without obvious controls of the central government.

But actually the whole country is administered by the General Administration Department and the Myanmar Police Force, which are under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Its minister is appointed by the military chief. So, all the levels of the administration system are under the authority of the military chief.

Q: There are elected officials in some of the local government units, such as on village level, working alongside the GAD, but it seems the GAD handles most of the governing and has the most authority. Is that correct? 

A: Yes, this is a highly centralised system of government. Actually, the state and region parliaments elect their government members and have their own chief ministers (appointed by the president). 

States and regions should be able to appoint their civil service staff, as well as police members. And then they would not have to depend on the central government and could control a lot of administration processes. Their respective ministries could find budget for their own government.

But as the central government is currently taking power on these processes (through the GAD), the (state and regions’) local ministries have no authority in their own areas.

Q: What should the new government do with regards to reforming the GAD if it wants to create a real federal union?

A: Most of the military members, the government and our NLD party now want to develop our country with a federal administration system. In doing so, the whole administration system must be changed. The control of General Administration Department on all the government procedures is contrary to the federal system and should be abolished.

Q: Some say at least parts of the 2008 Constitution meet the norms of a federal system. Is that right?

A: It cannot be said the 2008 Constitution has some norms of a federal system. It completely lacks federal practices. It is just a fake ‘federal constitution’ because it does not grant full authority of administration to state and regional governments. 

The Constitution said the local governments are responsible for supporting the central government’s efforts to ensure peace and rule of law. In fact, (in case of a federal union) the central government must not intervene in the administration of local governments at all. But the central government now has full authority over the whole country and the local government lacks real power.

Aung San Suu Kyi arrives at the opening of the new parliament in Naypyitaw as hundreds of MPs from her NLD will form Myanmar’s ruling party. Photograph: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

By Sara Perria &  Oliver Holmes

The Guardian

February 1, 2016

That moment when we learned Aung San Suu Kyi was coming through a side entrance to #Myanmar's NLD-led parliament. pic.twitter.com/AoVHmCAuTS

— Coconuts Yangon (@CoconutsYangon) February 1, 2016

@JonahFisherBBC happy to see red

— Hein Htet Zor (@heinhtetzor) February 1, 2016

By Syed Azahedi Syed Abdul Aziz

New Straits Times Online

February 1, 2016

In May last year, Southeast Asia saw a massive flow of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh making their way across the Andaman Sea to Malaysia.

To be sure, migrants have been making the journey across the sea for years. But the scale of last year’s exodus was unprecedented, and thought to be sparked by the closure of the overland people-smuggling routes through Thailand and into Malaysia.

A humanitarian crisis unfolded as thousands of migrants were left adrift in the sea because the people smugglers literally jumped ship to avoid an ever-tightening vice around their operations. 

Meanwhile, governments in the region, including Malaysia’s, and international agencies, such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), struggled to adequately respond to a high-seas drama that had grabbed the world’s attention.

The burden of receiving these migrants fell on Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, but there was initial reluctance to take them in. Part of the problem was, who were these people? The first conclusion was that these people were asylum seekers of the persecuted Rohingya minority in Myanmar. 

But, mixed among them were economic migrants from Bangladesh. Telling them apart is difficult as they are of similar ethnic stock, and compounded by the fact that a sizeable number of Rohingyas from Myanmar are undocumented in the country of their birth because the government does not recognise them as an indigenous ethnic group. 

So, the first challenge is to screen all the migrants and to sort out their claims. It bears repeating here that there is a distinction between economic migrants and asylum seekers. Economic migrants, of which there is an abundance of in Malaysia, are people who left their homelands purely to seek more opportunities. Asylum seekers are seeking protection in another country but their status as a refugee has yet to be processed by an official body, the most prominent of which 

is UNHCR.

Myanmar claims Rohingyas are “Bengali migrants” from Bangladesh, which, in turn, denies this is so and has been reluctant to do more for this group after taking in 250,000 people in the 1970s. Consequently, both Bangladesh and Myanmar say they are affected by this problem as much as anybody else.

The crisis raises questions on the willingness and preparedness of governments in the region to respond to such crises now and in the future. 

Understandably, there were security and domestic implications that countries had to consider when a sudden surge of unskilled and undocumented people suddenly turned up in their waters.

Indonesia and Thailand are having economic problems of their own, and could barely afford the cost of housing, feeding and caring for these migrants while their claims of seeking asylum are being determined. 

Malaysia has been grappling with a migrant inflow problem for years. And, while there has been much improvement over the years, up to two to three million undocumented people are thought to be in the country. There are also about 150,000 asylum seekers registered with UNHCR in Malaysia. 

There were reports of boats being turned back while patrols in the sea stepped up to prevent the boats from entering territorial waters. Eventually, as international pressure mounted, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia relented. Malaysia and Indonesia had agreed to house 7,000 migrants with the condition that their asylum seeker status be processed within a year, while Thailand agreed not to turn away boats. 

But, be they economic migrant or asylum seeker, the response to last year’s crisis was ad hoc and struggled to achieve cohesion at the regional level. And, with more countries wracked by strife while climate change is predicted to lead to more mass displacement of people in the future, experts believe the time is more urgent than ever to put in place contingency plans for these eventualities. 

This was the focus of the Track II Dialogue on Forced Migration in the Asia-Pacific, which gathered experts and stakeholders on the matter from Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, New Zealand and Thailand, as well as international aid groups, to deliberate, in a casual and depoliticised atmosphere, on viable responses to future crises.

The dialogue will meet six times over three years, and the second meeting was held in Bangkok over the weekend, while the third is slated to be held in Kuala Lumpur later this year. 

It will behove Malaysia to engage with such expert groups, as the country’s stability and prosperity make it a tempting destination for migrants.

The capacities to manage and screen the flow of people will need to be enhanced, as whether we like it or not, the region’s destitute and poor will flock to our shores. 

Foreign labour contributes a major portion of Malaysia’s economic output, and it is common knowledge vast numbers of illegals work in jobs that Malaysians find dirty, dangerous and difficult. 

This leads to an economic imperative to ensure that foreign labour here are not victims of trafficking. There are provisions under the Trans-Pacific Partnership that require countries to ensure workers are not victims of trafficking. In fact, before the TPP agreement was finalised, Malaysia’s participation in the trade pact hung by a thread as the United States evaluated the country’s efforts to fight human trafficking. 

Malaysia has long had a tolerant attitude towards asylum seekers, despite them not having legal status. 

But, this is not enough. If Malaysia wants to be recognised as a developed country, it must contribute to humanitarian efforts. It’s not just about economic development.

Note: The writer was invited to participate in the second meeting of Track II Dialogue on Forced Migration in the Asia-Pacific, which was convened by the Centre for Policy Development, Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies, Mahidol University; and Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia.

NST’s Foreign Editor Syed Azahedi breaks down overseas happenings

By The Irrawaddy

February 1, 2016

RANGOON — A local media report on Sunday suggested that Aung San Suu Kyi, chairwoman of the National League for Democracy (NLD), is negotiating with the military to make a move for the presidency.

Voice Weekly reported that NLD central committee member Win Htein spoke to the press in Naypyidaw on the weekend, announcing that the hugely popular party leader has discussed the possibility with Burma Army Chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing.

Suu Kyi’s party will assume a majority of both houses of Parliament on Monday after its landslide win in the Nov. 8 general election, though she herself is constitutionally barred from the nation’s top executive post.

The military-drafted charter disqualifies anyone with a foreign spouse or children, a clause that is believed to have been written expressly to exclude Suu Kyi. Her late husband was a British citizen, as are her two sons.

Win Htein said the party leader will seek amendments to the Constitution, but that such changes are unlikely to be achieved within the first year of her government’s term.

In the months since the election, Suu Kyi has met twice with the powerful army chief, most recently in late January. The office of the commander-in-chief issued a statement shortly after the meeting that talks centered on “matters related to a peaceful transition in the post-election period, parliamentary issues, formation of the next government and measures to be taken to build permanent peace after the signing of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement.”

With Suu Kyi barred from assuming the presidency and the military controlling three powerful ministries, relations between the NLD chairwoman and Min Aung Hlaing are seen as a critical indicator of the extent to which the party will be able to govern effectively throughout its five-year term.

By Aung Kyaw Min

Myanmar Times

February 1, 2016

Myanmar migrants were among the 39 people who drowned in the Mediterranean on January 30, according to Turkish state media.

A boat ferrying migrants and asylum seekers to Lesbos, Greece, sank just a few miles from Turkey’s Aegean coastline, according to the Turkish Coast Guard. A patrol leading the rescue effort saved 62 people, but at least 39 – including five children – drowned, Turkish newspaper Hurriyet Daily reported. Many of the rescued were hospitalised for hypothermia.

As the search continues, the number of casualties is expected to grow. Among the deceased were nationals from Syria, Afghanistan and Myanmar, the coast guard said.

The Myanmar government could not immediately confirm the report, but said it is investigating whether Myanmar citizens were involved in the accident.

“We asked our Myanmar embassy representatives in that country to check whether the deceased really do include Myanmar citizens. It is possible that even though the news said they are from Myanmar, they may not be,” said U Zaw Htay, director of the President’s Office. “If they are Myanmar citizens, the embassy has the responsibility to provide support.”

The Myanmar embassy in Ankara did not return request for comment yesterday.

The accident over the weekend is not the first time that Myanmar migrants have been onboard boats of asylum seekers being smuggled to Europe via the Mediterranean, although a spokesperson from the UNHCR said yesterday it was fair to say that Myanmar nationals are in the minority. Of the over 1 million migrants fleeing to Europe by sea last year, half were Syrians escaping war.

Media reports of the accidents punctuating the perilous sea journeys throughout last year did include references to Myanmar passengers, however. In May, a rescue of over 600 asylum seekers trying to cross the Aegean Sea included 200 people identified as fleing Myanmar, Iraq and Afghanistan. In August, Turkish security forces detained 435 migrants before they embarked on an attempted crossing of the Aegean Sea; 19 of them were from allegedly from Myanmar. And in November, the coast guard said they rescued 27 migrants of Afghan and Myanmar origin who were trying to cross in an inflatable boat.

It is unclear whether any of the Myanmar nationals identified by the Turkish authorities include Rohingya – officially called “Bengali” by the Myanmar government, and largely denied citizenship rights.

U Zaw Htay said the government has “no right to say whether [those in the accident] are Myanmar citizens or not” until an investigation is completed, and added that the government does not have a responsibility to those who are not citizens.

Myanmar was internationally criticised for failing to take responsibility for its part in the regional smuggling crisis that flared in May last year when boats full of migrants and asylum seekers from Rakhine State and Bangladesh were stranded on the Andaman Sea. Hundreds were estimated by the UN to have died as Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand started a “push-back” policy that prevented the boats from disembarking.

In order to stem its own unprecedented influx of migrants and asylum seekers, the European Union has begun drafting legislation that would criminalise volunteers or holidaymakers who assist asylum seekers. In the first month of 2016, more than 52,000 people arrived by sea in Greece and 218 have died off the Turkish coast, according to the International Organisation for Migration. A nationality breakdown involving Myanmar was not available.

Additional reporting by Laignee Barron

By Timothy Mclaughlin and Hnin Yadana Zaw

Reuters

January 31, 2016

By Michael Gordon

The Sydnye Morning Herald

January 31, 2016

Australia and Indonesia should consider vacating their leadership roles of the main regional forum to combat people smuggling after failing to respond to last year's crisis in the Bay of Bengal, according to former Indonesian foreign minister Dr Hassan Wirajuda​.

Dr Wirajuda, who played a critical role in establishing the Bali Process to deal with people smuggling, has suggested it is time to rotate the co-chair roles the two countries have monopolised since 2002.

His call to dramatically strengthen the Bali Process to deal with forced people movements has been backed by an unprecedented gathering of government and non-government experts in Bangkok.

The gathering has warned that, unless forced migration is managed under a comprehensive regional plan, it will have "permanent and intensifying negative impacts on countries in our region".

Called the Asia Dialogue on Forced Migration, it has asked the Bali Process to review its response to last year's crisis, to share lessons with countries in the region and "work to implement necessary improvements".

The recommendations will be considered by officials this week before Foreign Minister Julie Bishop co-chairs the Bali Process ministerial meeting next month in Jakarta.

The 34-member Dialogue included past and present senior officials from governments in the region, the United Nations refugee agency and the International Organisation for Migration, all participating in a personal capacity.

Among them were Australia's ambassador for people smuggling issues, Andrew Goledzinowski, who co-chairs the Bali Process officials' meetings; senior bureaucrats Muhd Khair Razman bin Mohamed Annuar, from Malaysia, and Pak Andy Rachmianto​, from Indonesia; and former ASIO head and diplomat David Irvine.

Dr Wirajuda was Indonesia's foreign minister from 2001 to 2009. He told the Dialogue: "The Bali Process did nothing to respond to the issue of Rohingya, because of the different degree of interest, including the co-chairs of the Bali Process.

"It illustrates that Rohingya migrants were not within the purview of the Bali Process, and in fact, a series of ad hoc meetings were initiated by Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, outside the framework of the Bali Process."

The crisis last May saw thousands of asylum seekers abandoned in boats in the Andaman Sea and about 300 Rohingya from Myanmar and Bangladeshis drown or die of starvation, dehydration or injuries inflicted by those who abandoned them.

When the boats sought refuge in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, they were initially turned away, prompting a humanitarian crisis and international condemnation that forced the three countries to think again and offer temporary haven.

When then prime minister Tony Abbott was asked if Australia would contribute to a solution by agreeing to re-settle some of those found to be refugees, he delivered his signature three-word slogan: "Nope, nope, nope."

Convened by Australian, Malaysian and Thai policy institutes, the Dialogue was told the crisis was unresolved, with 317 of those rescued still in detention in Malaysia, 415 in detention in Thailand and about 280 in camps in Indonesia.

Dr Wirajuda suggested one way to strengthen the Bali Process, which has more than 40 members, would be to rotate the co-chair roles.

"We do not need to reinvent the wheel. We need to strengthen the available process and mechanism, such as the Bali Process, and ASEAN mechanism process and procedures on migration," he said.

"A major handicap would be the lack of habits among countries in the region to work rigorously on political and security issues, as they do on the economic co-operation dimension in the overall community-building process in the region."

The two-day Dialogue in Bangkok was the second of six planned meetings aimed at developing a regional architecture that delivers "a more effective, durable and dignified approach to forced migration". It made no recommendation on the structure of the Bali Process.

In a letter to Bali Process officials, participants said a "collective, co-ordinated response to challenges associated with both sudden and ongoing episodes of displacement, regardless of cause, is vital to ensure continued regional security, harmony and prosperity".

Michael Gordon took part in the Dialogue at the invitation of the Centre for Policy Development.

By Dr Maung Zarni
January 31, 2016

Myanmar's "Nazi monk" Wirathu (and networks), plot to unleash new Islamophobic waves of violence against Myanmar's Muslims and Rohingya.

Watch this 5-minutes clip portraying men with beards and/or Indian physical features as rapists and murderers - posted on Wirathu's site. 

The ultimate goal is to destabilize the society with the aim of preventing the election winning NLD and Aung San Suu Kyi from bringing any meaningful change. 

Meaningful change involves significant reduction in the military's economic, institutional and political control of the country.

The underlying and deep-seated anti-Muslim racism is there for political mobilization. 

Themselves led by anti-Muslim racist generals and ex-military officers, the military-controlled state organs - especially the entire security sector and the vast general administration - will continue to provide the anti-Muslim attackers and hate-monkers a blanket impunity while leaving Muslim minorities - including the Rohingya extremely vulnerable to all kinds of organized-mob attacks including arsons and further displacement. 

The weak discourse of human rights and democracy - which has not really been widely internalized even by the NLD leaders and former student activists themselves such as "88 generation group" - will be overwhelmed by another wave of crude, but powerful mass racism.

Watch this 5-minutes clip portraying men with beards and/or Indian physical features as rapists and murderers.

By The Financial Express

January 30, 2016

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) arrested 32 Burmese Rohingyas and one Bangladeshi human trafficker trying to enter Bangladesh at Shapuridip in the early morning of 27 January, according to Sayed Hossain, a Teknaf local.

He said that they had crossed the Burma Bangladesh border by motor-boat to go and visit relatives. According to BGB officials, after a tip-off a BGB team led by Company Commander Gulam Rabbani from Shapuridip BGB outpost under Teknaf Battalion No. 2 arrested the Burmese nationals trying to enter Bangladesh after carrying out an operation in the border area. Of the passengers who were arrested 12 were children, six were female and eight were male. Six Burmese Rohingya crew members and the Bangladeshi trafficker were also arrested. Lieutenant Colonel Md. Abuzar Al Jahid from BGB Teknaf Battalion No. 2.said that the six crew members and the trafficker were handed over to to the police at Teknaf Police Station so that the police could investigate further. He said that the remaining 26 Rohingyas will be kept in custody at at the Shapuridip BGB outpost and will be repatriated to Burma after the BGB have carried out an investigation. Mohammed Ataur Rahaman, the Office-in-Charge (OC) at Teknaf police station, said that the police charged the Bangladeshi trafficker and the six crew members with illegally trafficking people into Bangladesh. The case was due to be heard in the Cox's Bazar Court on 28 January.

By Bennett Murray

DPA International 

January 30, 2016

A new opposition-led government augurs hope for many in Myanmar after decades of military dictatorship, but a stateless ethnic minority has seen no signs of change in their situation.

Sittwe, Myanmar -- Adu Lakim says he has nothing to do these days but to while away the time sitting outside his shack in an internment camp Myanmar's Rakhine state.

The recent national elections meant nothing to 61-year-old member of the stateless Rohingya ethnic minority, who has been denied citizenship and confined to the camp after his house was torched during sectarian violence between Buddhists and Muslims in 2012.

"We don't know about the NLD or other parties, because we don't believe in them," said Lakim, referring to the National League for Democracy led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi that won November's national elections by a landslide.

"I don't know anything about change, it's decided by Allah," he said.

With the first NLD-dominated parliament set to convene on Monday, hopes are high across the country that five decades of military dictatorship are coming to an end.

Among Rohingya Muslims in the south-western region, Suu Kyi's victory was met with optimism by some but apathy by others, who doubt that it will lead to much of an improvement for their community.

Suu Kyi has been regarded as a defender of democratic rights, especially in the West, after spending more than a decade under house arrest. But she has been silent on the plight of the stateless.

Around 140,000 Rohingya have been living in a guarded complex of squalid camps outside Rakhine's state capital Sittwe since conflict erupted almost four years ago. Barred from leaving by armed guards, the residents are given little access to food or medicine.

Suu Kyi, whose party was under pressure from anti-Muslim nationalist groups aligned with the former ruling party on the campaign trail, has barely mentioned the group's plight.

Nevertheless, some Rohingya still hope that Suu Kyi's reputation as a civil rights activist will be realised in Rakhine.

Omar Sidik, 44, said he was encouraged by the legacy of Suu Kyi's father Aung San, who is nationally revered as Myanmar's founding father.

"The NLD may take action for us, because her father did good things for both communities, and gave full rights to humans," he said.

Although Aung San was assassinated in 1947 just prior to independence, the Rohingya enjoyed citizenship rights under his successors until a new law took effect in 1982.

Sidik said he was hopeful that the new parliament would return to the relatively harmonious days of Myanmar's early independence. But he cautioned that Buddhist nationalists could influence the party against the Rohingya's interests.

"We've never expected the Bamar to take action for us," he said, referring to the nation's ethnic majority, also known as Burmans.

"If extremists interfere, then the UN must take action."

Kyaw Hla Aung, a 76-year-old retired court stenographer and Rohingya community leader, said he took the NLD's silence as evidence that the party had sided with the anti-Muslim camp.

Suu Kyi "wants to hand over this problem to her party, and Win Htein is denying that all Rohingya are from this country, that we are from Bangladesh," said Aung, referring to comments made by a senior NLD official to media shortly after the election.

The citizenship law excludes the Rohingya from the 135 legally recognised ethnic groups, and the camp dwellers were not permitted to vote in November.

"She is avoiding this problem," Aung said, noting that the Rohingya have resided in Rakhine for generations.

Ronan Lee, a researcher at Australia's Deakin University, said the Rohingya have reason to be impatient.

"Circumstances in the camps have barely improved for the Rohingya, who have lived like this since the time of the 2012 violence - that's a long time to wait for changes that might bring your human rights," he said.

At the On Daw Gyi West camp on the coast of the Bay of Bengal, 44-year-old Abu Sidik said the situation had become hopeless.

"I'm thinking we have no future here, only darkness, just because we are Muslims," he said, adding that local police had recently tried to rape his daughter while she was collecting firewood.

Hobir Ahamand, 22, said he would take any opportunity to leave even if it meant risking his life fleeing across the ocean.

"It would be better for us to drink poison and die than stay here," he said.

By Hnin Yadana Zaw & Antoni Soldkowski 

Reuters

January 29, 2016

Naypyitaw -- After sweeping a historic election in November, Myanmar's democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday bid farewell to outgoing lawmakers and prepared to form the country's first democratically elected government since the 1960s.

The parliament dominated by members of her National League for Democracy - which won about 80 percent of elected seats last year - will convene for the first time on Monday, in another step of what has surprised experts as a remarkably stable - if drawn out - transfer of power.

Suu Kyi's camp will start the formation of a government after decades-long struggle against the junta that had ruled Myanmar for 49 years. In 2011, it gave way to the semi-civilian government of President Thein Sein.

Celebrating the transition and the end of the first term of parliament, the outgoing and incoming lawmakers from all parties, as well as a military bloc, performed traditional dances, shared food and took pictures in an emotional ceremony in the capital, Naypyitaw.

"I am very excited to be here. I will work very hard to promote female rights and to create more opportunities for our women," said Myint Myint Soe, a newly elected NLD member of parliament.

Even though the politicians are generally optimistic, the months ahead are likely to be tense.

A junta-drafted constitution bars Suu Kyi from becoming president, gives the military control over three security ministries and a quarter of seats in parliament, which will force the NLD into constant negotiations with the armed forces.

NLD leaders have reassured the army, stressing their focus is on the future and the will to put the past behind them. They have also said they would not push for an immediate overhaul of the constitution.

"If they agree to amend the constitution earlier, it would show their faith in the country and their sympathy toward the people," said Tin Oo, one of the party's most respected leaders.

"But the NLD policy toward the military for now is not to put any pressure on them," he said.

ABOVE THE PRESIDENT

The new lawmakers will pick parliamentary speakers next week and the chamber will then turn to elect a president.

Suu Kyi has already said she would defy the constitution by staying "above the president", and leading the country.

This has started speculation over who would be nominated for president. But that has remained a closely guarded NLD secret.

One of the most public faces of the transition, parliament speaker Shwe Mann urged the military and the NLD to work together. The former third most senior member of the junta who became a Suu Kyi ally, said he expected the Nobel Peace Prize laureate to "use me well" in the new administration.

Over the next few weeks, the upper house, the lower house and the military bloc in parliament will put forward one presidential candidate each. The combined houses will then vote on the three candidates.

The winner will become president and form a government and assume power by the end of March.

"The military and the NLD should work together closely and transparently to bring down the divide and promote trust," said Tin Htwe, an outgoing lawmaker from the junta-linked Union Solidarity and Development Party.

"I couldn't take care of my children and my family for the last five years, so I look forward to seeing them more often once the parliament is over," he said.

By Moe Myint

The Irrawaddy

January 29, 2016

RANGOON — In a rare bright spot for ethnic political parties, Arakanese politicians from two camps managed to patch up their differences ahead of Burma’s 2015 election and merge into one political entity, the Arakan National Party (ANP), which proved to be the country’s best-performing ethnic electoral force in the Nov. 8 poll. Less than three months on, however, that Arakanese unity appears strained as jockeying continues over precisely what form Burma’s new political order will take.

In early 2014, the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP) and Arakan League for Democracy (ALD) merged to form the ANP, in hopes of preventing vote-splitting as the two sides looked ahead to the 2015 election. The move paid off, with the new Arakanese incarnation securing 45 seats out of the 77 constituencies it contested.

Success in the Arakan State legislature was viewed as particularly crucial to the party’s goal of going into 2016 with the political leverage it needed to convince the National League for Democracy (NLD), which emerged victorious by a landslide in all but Arakan and Shan states, to appoint an ANP parliamentarian-elect as state chief minister. So it was no doubt with dismay that the Arakan party’s leaders learned last month that the NLD fully intended to choose one of its own MPs-elect for the post, which is presidentially appointed.

“Maybe the ANP can obtain the regional parliament speakership post but the state chief minister will be from the NLD,” Nan Khin Htwe Myint, an NLD central committee member, told The Irrawaddy.

And in mid-January, fellow NLD central committee member Nyi Pu, who has been tipped by some for the chief minister position, visited the state capital Sittwe to meet with civil society organizations and ANP representatives, reportedly reiterating Nan Khin Htwe Myint’s assertion.

Despite this being mere recitation of constitutionally enshrined ruling party prerogatives, the local CSOs and ANP members in attendance urged Nyi Pu to push for his party to make an exception in the case of Arakan State.

Official backlash came about a week later, when on Jan. 19 the ANP said in a statement that it “won’t join any government organization, but stand as an opposition party for the interests of Arakan people,” unless it was allowed to form its own government.

By all accounts, the incoming NLD government and one of Burma’s strongest ethnic political parties looked headed for confrontation—except that the “official” ANP statement appears to have taken some in the party leadership by surprise.

Internal Division

Two days after the ANP statement was released, political prognostication went into overdrive after NLD spokesman Nyan Win told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that senior party member Win Myint had been selected to serve as speaker of the Union Parliament’s Lower House, while the ethnic Karen MP-elect Mahn Win Khaing Than, also of the NLD, would get the party’s backing for the Upper House.

In ANP circles, it was an additional veiled disclosure that likely garnered more attention: Nyan Win told the news agency that his party was eyeing an ANP member for the Upper House deputy speaker post.

The NLD on Thursday confirmed ANP patron Aye Tha Aung as its selection for the job, but even before that he had found himself in speculation’s crosshairs, as a veteran politician with longstanding ties to the NLD who won an Upper House seat on Nov. 8.

Asked by The Irrawaddy whether he had been tapped for the post, Aye Tha Aung pled ignorance last week.

“I don’t know yet, but I wasn’t offered this [the Lower House deputy speakership], so it’s impossible to comment on that,” he said on Jan. 21.

The following morning, the ANP released a second statement, saying that if any of its MPs-elect accepted the offer of another party to serve in a ministerial post or other leadership position without informing the party, the individual would be expelled. The statement was signed by Phoe Min, one of three ANP vice chairs.

Then on Monday, Aye Tha Aung was returning from a trip to Japan when several journalists at Rangoon International Airport asked the ANP patron about reports of tension between his party and the NLD, as well as perceived internal ructions.

“We don’t know about the [ANP] statements and they didn’t inform us, so I have no comment regarding the statements,” he said. “Until the reporters asked me, I didn’t know it.”

According to ANP central committee member Myo Kyaw, party bylaws state that if an important announcement is proposed, the party leadership must call an urgent meeting to discuss the matter. While not all 39 of the party’s central committee members must be present, a minimum one-third attendance—or 13 members—is required, he said.

When The Irrawaddy phoned ANP vice chairwoman Aye Nu Sein this week, she declined to provide any clarification on party procedures or discuss confusion surrounding the two statements this month.

“Too many arguments have happened, it doesn’t make sense to rehash at this time,” she said.

Sitting Lower House legislator Pe Than was more forthcoming, admitting that senior members of the ANP leadership did not inform the full central committee before releasing the two statements. He defended that decision, saying that under exceptional circumstances, the chairperson and seven other central committee members who form the top echelon of the party hierarchy “have full power to make an announcement [unilaterally].”

That group of eight includes party chairman Aye Maung, the three vice chairs and four secretaries, all of whom were members of the RNDP before the merger.

Pe Than said the second statement, signed by Phoe Min, was released in part to encourage party-to-party interactions and discourage a party-to-person approach, the latter being “dangerous” for ANP unity.

Myo Kyaw, formerly of the ALD, criticized the decision.

“If the party chairman and secretary team wanted to announce a statement, they should not put it out on behalf of the CEC [central committee]. It is against party procedures,” he said.

“I am not sure whether they only ignored [the rules, unintentionally], or intentionally did it to disintegrate the party,” he said, adding: “Seven people neglected 39 CEC [members’] desire. How can we be satisfied with that?”

ALD-NLD Ties

The ALD was founded in 1989 in Rangoon and its chairman was Aye Tha Aung, who contested the 1990 election and won, along with 10 other ALD candidates in a vote dominated by the NLD. That electoral outcome was ignored by the military, however, which went on to imprison many of the victorious candidates from the NLD and ALD, including Aye Tha Aung.

Years later he would become a member of the Committee Representing the People’s Parliament (CRPP), formed by the NLD and victorious ethnic politicians to push for the convening of a parliament seating the 1990 election winners. With ties dating back more than two decades, Aye Tha Aung and the NLD leadership have long been considered to be on friendly terms.

Both the ALD and NLD boycotted Burma’s 2010 election, in part citing the poll’s basis in a military-drafted Constitution that the two parties deemed illegitimate.

That year, the newly founded RNDP contested 44 seats and won 35. With its success and the ALD’s return to the political arena in the aftermath, discussion turned to uniting the Arakanese forces ahead of the 2015 election, when otherwise voters might be asked to choose between two political parties competing for the same ethnic vote. That merger came about, and the new ANP was officially registered, in January 2014.

‘Every Party Has Similar Problems’

An ANP central committee member, who asked for anonymity to discuss internal party matters candidly, said Aye Tha Aung’s CRPP ties have not helped his standing in the eyes of some.

“RNDP people think that Aye Tha Aung and the NLD are so close; they don’t like it,” he said.

The ANP’s success in November belies a merger that has not been as smooth as might be apparent on the surface. Former ALD members complain that the RNDP has dominated the party, the result of a lopsided distribution of past party ties on the central committee, where 31 members are ex-RNDP, compared with only eight former ALD.

Pe Than said the reason for the imbalance was that the RNDP argued ahead of the merger that it deserved a greater proportion of representation on the central committee because it was the incumbent party and had established networks among voters in rural constituencies.

Myo Kyaw said recent internal contention would need to be resolved if the merger was to remain viable in the coming years. He highlighted what he claimed was the top leadership’s willingness to violate the party’s own bylaws as disrespectful to its supporters and the public.

“Merger dynamics are not good at the moment,” said Myo Kyaw.

Pe Than acknowledged internal frictions between ALD and RNDP party members, but he downplayed the significance of the divide.

“Every party has similar problems. You can see from the USDP crisis, our party is not as bad as that,” he said, referring to the high-profile purge of ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party chairman Shwe Mann in August. “All our party members stand together for the [Arakanese] national interest.”

But speaking to reporters at Rangoon International Airport on Monday, Aye Tha Aung sounded a less confident note.

“My future is uncertain with the ANP,” he said.