By Mizzima

April 23, 2016

Burma Campaign UK yesterday called for the immediate and unconditional release of U Gambira, and all the remaining political prisoners in Myanmar.

U Gambira was a leader of the 2007 Saffron Revolution and a former political prisoner. He was arrested in 2007 and sentenced to 68 years in prison. He was released in 2012.

On 19 January 2016, he was arrested by around 20 police officers at his hotel room in Mandalay. He was charged under the Myanmar 1947 Immigration Act for illegally crossing the border and entering the country. U Gambira, who now lives in Thailand, travelled to Myanmar to obtain a new passport, and he was able to cross the Thailand-Myanmar border at an official crossing point without facing any problems.

He is currently being detained in Obo prison while his trial continues. He was refused bail despite the fact that he is suffering from physical and mental illness due to mistreatment during his previous imprisonment which requires him to take regular medication.

“The charges against U Gambira are politically motivated because of his political activities in the past,” said Wai Hnin, Campaigns Officer at Burma Campaign UK. “He was a leader of the Saffron Revolution and he has been through several arrests and horrific torture. He should be released immediately so that he can continue his medical treatment. I hope that the NLD-led government will work to release U Gambira and the remaining political prisoners in Burma.”

By Radio Free Asia

April 23, 2016

Myanmar's opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party has expelled former party chairman and parliamentary speaker Shwe Mann and 16 of his allies in the military-affiliated party, a senior USDP official said on Saturday.

"About 17 members who are not obeying party rules and disciplines were allowed to leave from the party," Tint Zaw, a member of the USDP's Central Committee, told RFA's Myanmar service.

Tint Zaw said the decision was taken at a meeting of senior party leaders to plan for upcoming by-elections, and that those expelled included Shwe Mann affiliates Aung Ko and Maung Maung Thein.

He did not elaborate on what party rules the party members had violated, but suggested a link between the expulsions and Shwe Mann's decision in February to accept an appointment by incoming leader Aung San Suu Kyi as chairman of the Legal Affairs and Special Cases Assessment Commission. That body supports parliamentary committees as they amend existing laws and draft new legislation.

“Some former USDP leaders who are now members of Shwe Mann’s commission are also on the list," said Tint Zaw.

Shwe Mann served as speaker of the lower house of parliament for five years under the previous USDP government until January when deputies from National League for Democracy (NLD) party who swept Nov. 8 general elections took their seats.

As a former army general, 68-year-old Shwe Mann has deep connections to the powerful military, which had run the country for five decades until recent reforms brought in a quasi-civilian administration.

But he is also considered a reform-minded ally of Aung San Suu Kyi, who was appointed State Counselor and foreign minister last month and is de facto head of the NLD government despite being constitutionally barred from serving as president.

Reported by Wai Mar Tun for RFA's Myanmar Service. Translated by Win Naing. Written in English by Paul Eckert.

By Asian Correspondent

April 23, 2016

THE de facto leader of Burma (Myanmar), Aung San Suu Kyi has told foreign diplomats that it doesn’t matter whether they use Myanmar, or its old name, Burma.

In a speech to the foreign diplomatic corps on Friday, Suu Kyi told the diplomats that they could use whichever of the two to refer to the country, as its constitution does not mandate either name.

In addition to the foreign minister post, Suu Kyi currently holds the specially-created position of state counselor, which was a means of circumventing the constitutional clause that bans her from being the country’s president.

In 1989, Burma’s junta government changed the country’s name from “the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma” to “the Union of Myanmar”.

Those in favor of democracy rebelled against the name-change, deciding to continue using Burma, much to the military government’s annoyance.

Even activists and supporters abroad – including Western media and governments – also stuck to the old name.

Additional reporting by Associated Press

By Wa Lone

Myanmar Times

April 23, 2016

As many as 40 people travelling to a market and a hospital from displaced person camps in Rakhine State remained missing yesterday after their boat capsized in bad weather at sea, with nine children among the 22 bodies recovered.

The April 19 accident near Thae Chaung in Sittwe township was condemned by rights groups as the result of a state policy of segregation that limits the movements of the stateless Muslim Rohingya community, who are referred to as Bengalis by the government.

The disaster also drew international expressions of concern, highlighting how the new civilian-led government will be put under the spotlight for its treatment of Rakhine’s Muslim minority, of whom over 100,000 have been confined to camps since communal violence erupted in 2012.

The US said in a statement that it was “deeply concerned” by the accident. It linked the tragedy to the “restrictions on access to markets, livelihoods and other basic services in Rakhine State” which it said “can lead to communities unnecessarily risking their lives in an attempt to improve the quality of life”.

Janet Jackson, acting UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Myanmar, said, “This accident serves as a tragic reminder of the vulnerability that many communities and families face in this area of Rakhine where their only option is to use this mode of travel in order to access markets, livelihoods, and other basic services that are essential for a dignified life.”

Rakhine police said yesterday that 22 bodies had been recovered. They said 19 people had survived, and five were in hospital.

Lieutenant Colonel Thit San, chief of Rakhine State police, told The Myanmar Times that the boat was bringing Muslims to Thae Chaung village near Sittwe to get medical care, buy goods and visit their relations.

“It is difficult to say someone has responsibility, because what happened was caused by bad weather,” he said. The government had so far not issued any instructions to make further investigations, he said.

Accounts of how many people had been on the crowded boat vary. Police put the number at 49, based on the official manifest, while the UN said more than 60 had been reported on board. Daw Ohmar Saw, a worker for Médecins Sans Frontières in Kyaukphyu IDP camp, said there had been 81.

Police said most passengers had been residents of Sin Tet Maw and Kyauk Phyu camps and villages in Pauktaw township.

Daw Ohmar Saw blamed government restrictions that forced IDPs to make the hazardous journey by sea – when they are given official permission to travel – rather than going by land.

“They do not have enough of anything in the camps, so they have no choice but to travel even when they know that is not safe,” she said.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, criticised last year by her fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureates for failing to speak out on the crisis in Rakhine State, has yet to make her policies on Rakhine State public.

The UN said in its statement that it would “continue its efforts in support of the government and local authorities to ensure the safety and well-being of all people in Rakhine State, irrespective of religion, ethnicity and citizenship”.

The US embassy said it welcomed the government’s “stated commitment to improve conditions for all people in Rakhine State and promote reconciliation, peace and stability”.

But reflecting the nationalist sensitivities surrounding the issue, many comments on the US embassy Facebook page condemned the US statement of concern, particularly for referring to the Muslims as Rohingya rather than their official label of Bengalis.

Lt Col Thit San said the military-appointed state minister for border affairs would provide K200,000 (US$170) to each family of the victims.

By Kyaw Ye Lynn

Anadolu Agency

April 22, 2016

Online petition presented to authorities after Buddhist nationalists violently force Muslim vendors out of religious site

YANGON, Myanmar -- Activists are urging action against a group of Buddhist monks patrolling Myanmar's most famous religious site after Muslim vendors were attacked, and one was badly beaten.

On Friday, Thet Swe Win – joint general secretary of National Youth Congress -- presented a printout of an online petition to authorities after the Buddhist nationalists forced Muslim vendors out of Shwedagon Pagoda in commercial capital Yangon last week.

“I handed the documents and petition to chief minister and border affairs minister of Yangon region today,” Thet Swe Win told Anadolu Agency by phone.

"This is for justice and rule of law," he said, adding that the monks’ actions had violated the country’s constitution, which states that every citizen has the right to conduct business freely in any part of the country.

The online petition (at change.org) was set up and addressed to Yangon Chief Minister Phyo Min Thein after the the monks mistreated Muslim vendors in four separate incidents on April 17 – the first day of Myanmar’s traditional New Year.

It was signed by at least 3,000 people within two days of its launch Wednesday.

The April 17 incident saw multiple saffron-robed monks attack the vendors, and seize their money and belongings in four separate incidents at the pagoda, a large iconic gold-roofed building visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists each year.

They claimed that Muslims are not allowed to do business at any Buddhist temples.

Swe Win said he had met the vendors, and discovered that one of them -- 25-year old Abdul Qadir (Ye Ko Ko) was beaten, kicked and punched after being escorted from the site to the nearest monastery by six Buddhist monks.

“They hit my face, started kneeing me and took me into the monastery for a beating,” Ye Ko Ko was quoted by M-Media (Myanmar Muslim Media) as saying.

Thu Seikkta -- a leader of the nationalist Patriotic Monks Union, who were involved in Friday's incident -- said that they were just trying to protect the pagoda.

“They [the Muslim vendors] are gradually occupying the pagoda,” he told Anadolu Agency by phone.

“No Muslims should be allowed to do any business near the pagoda as Muslims don’t allow other people doing business near their mosque,” he claimed.

“Who can guarantee these Muslims are not going to bomb the pagoda one day?”

By Radio Free Asia

April 22, 2016

Bangladesh’s border guard this month deported at least 340 Muslim Myanmar nationals – more commonly known as Rohingyas – without any resistance from Myanmar border police, the head of the Bangladeshi force said Thursday.

“Over the last 20 days, we caught illegal Myanmar nationals, photographed them and sent 340 of them back to their homeland,” Lt. Col. Imran Ullah Sarker, chief executive of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), told RFA.

The latest batch of 20 Rohingyas was turned back Wednesday with no obstruction from the BGB’s counterpart on the Myanmar side of the border, after these members of the neighboring county’s Muslim minority were caught trying to cross into Bangladesh without proper papers, Sarker said.

The process of catching and sending Rohingyas back to Myanmar has, in fact, been occurring over the past several months, leading to a slight reduction in the number entering Bangladesh, he added.

“This is very unusual that the Myanmar border police have allowed the Rohingyas in,” former Bangladeshi ambassador Ashfaqur Rahman told RFA.

“The Myanmar border guard allows the Rohingya Muslims to go out of the Buddhist- majority Myanmar, but they had been very tough on repatriation as they [label] the Muslim minority as ‘illegal Bangladeshis’ or ‘illegal Chittagonians,’” he said.

Rahman, a former ambassador to Germany, China and Singapore, served in the 1970s as chief administrative officer in Cox’s Bazar, a district in southeastern Bangladesh where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees are now concentrated.

The influx of Rohingyas from neighboring Rakhine started in the ’70s but swelled in 1992 and 2012, when thousands of Rohingyas spilled across the border to escape from religious violence.

“Though the number of returnees is very small compared with the huge number of illegal Rohingyas living in Bangladesh, this repatriation is significant. But we have to wait to see whether this happened due to the change of government in Myanmar or for other factors,” Rahman added.

Rohingyas, who are mostly concentrated in Rakhine, a state in western Myanmar that borders Bangladesh, for many years fled abroad by land and sea to escape from persecution at the hands of Myanmar’s Buddhist majority.

Last year, more than 3,000 Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshi migrants came ashore in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand after the Thai government imposed a maritime blockade on human-trafficking boats sailing in from the Bay of Bengal. Many were fleeing from Myanmar, where Rohingyas are not recognized as citizens.

On Wednesday, the death toll from a boat that capsized off Myanmar’s coast while carrying Rohingyas rose to more than 20. The accident occurred on Tuesday as the overloaded vessel approached Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine, in rough waters.

A softening in Myanmar?

Delwar Hossain, a professor of international relations at Dhaka University, told RFA that the recent change of government in Myanmar may have softened the attitude of that nation’s border police.

“The exit of a military-backed government brings in some hopes among the people. So, the ascendency Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government may have brought some hope among the Rohingyas, though we do not see any significant change in the government policy on them,” Hossain said.

According to a report in the Myanmar Times that cited information from the U.N.’s refugee agency, as many as 500,000 Rohingyas are living in Bangladesh, but their repatriation has been stalled since 2005.

Of the total, 30,000 Rohingyas have refugee status and live in two camps in Cox’s Bazar.

Meanwhile, a survey done by a parliamentary committee in 2013 estimated that more than 300,000 Rohingyas were living illegally in Cox’s Bazar, where they live in shantytowns.

‘The Nasaka threatened to kill me’

Mohammad Hashem, a Rohingya Muslim in his seventies who fled to Cox’s Bazar to escape Buddhist attacks on Muslims in 1992, told RFA that he would like to return home to Sittwe to see his wife, daughter and grandsons.

“I tried at least 100 times over the years to see them [in Sittwe]. But the Nasaka threatened to kill me. Instead they sought money from me to push my wife and daughter into Bangladesh,” said Hashem, who works as a vendor in Cox’s Bazar.

Nasaka, Myanmar’s notorious border patrol force, was replaced in 2013 by the new border police.

“I would go back if the Moghs (Buddhists) do not torture us,” he said.

Reported by RFA.

By Syed Hamid Albar

Los Angles Times

April 20, 2016

There are more refugees and displaced people today, driven from their home by war, persecution, poverty, and climate change, than at any time since World War II. In America, perhaps, it is the Syrian refugee crisis that earns the most attention. But there is another crisis which also speaks deeply to the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, and to the Muslim world: the plight of the Rohingya.

The Rohingya are the indigenous people of southwestern Myanmar, or so-called Rakhine State. For years now, they have taken to overcrowded and leaky boats on the open sea, submitted to dangerous human trafficking networks, and seen their families split apart in a desperate bid to find safety somewhere, anywhere. Like many of the world’s refugees, they are Muslim.

But Myanmar is not Syria, torn apart by civil war. Last year, Myanmar’s economy was the fastest-growing in the world. Myanmar is entering a widely heralded new era of democracy, under the direction of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. Some of the praise she and her country receive is deserved. But much of it overlooks the unacceptable treatment of her Muslim citizens, who have suffered an ongoing and accelerating process of "otherization" and dehumanization that is deeply frightening to watch.

For decades, the Rohingya have been subject to strict restrictions. Since 1982, they were summarily rendered stateless. Today they have been herded into detention and internment camps, stripped of their valuables, denied freedom of movement, and left impoverished and lacking in even basic healthcare. It is no wonder that so many thousands make such risky journeys across treacherous waters. The plight of the Rohingya may not be well known in the West, but it is well known in the ASEAN and Muslim world.

In fact, it is one of our highest priorities.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, or OIC, the world’s second largest intergovernmental organization after the U.N., has appointed me as special envoy to Myanmar. It is a sign of how seriously we take the systemic Islamophobia of Myanmar’s government, and the inexplicable silence of Aung San Suu Kyi--otherwise a champion of the dispossessed and distressed--over this treatment.

Last week in fact, heads of state from more than 30 Muslim countries, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Pakistan, among others, and delegations from the remaining OIC member states, gathered in Istanbul for the 13th Islamic Summit. They reiterated their support for the Rohingya and called on the new government of Myanmar, under Aung San Suu Kyi, to begin a national reconciliation process, to restore to the Rohingya the rights they deserve, to honor the potential and promise of this new era in their history.

Indeed, national reconciliation and reintegration of the Rohingya is the only feasible, practicable way of addressing the humanitarian crisis created by years of discriminatory policy and exclusion. Should Myanmar truly wish to re-enter the international community, and realize the full potential long denied it by years of isolation and exclusion, then the question of the Rohingya must be addressed. The country has much to lose, and much to gain.

We hope the lessons of the past years, and the potential of years ahead, encourages the government of Myanmar to move in the right direction. For our part, the OIC is committed to leveraging the full diplomatic, economic and political resources of the Muslim world to that end - a commitment that was also made at last week’s Islamic Summit in Istanbul.

We remind the government of Myanmar, too, of all the ways in which they have worked with, benefited from, and built ties to our member states.

Myanmar is already a member of ASEAN, which groups 10 Southeast Asian countries together, forming what would be the world’s seventh-largest economy, and third-largest country. Three of ASEAN’s members are OIC member states--Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Of these, Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim country and largest economy. Sixty percent of the world’s Muslims live in the Asia Pacific area, meaning that Myanmar is at the heart of a growing region, and a fast-growing Muslim market, which is developing strong links between the Gulf region and Southeast Asia, for which Myanmar could be a potential hub.

We hope, too, that the government of Myanmar can see the undeniable benefits of a long-term partnership with the Muslim world. A resolution of the status of the Rohingya would open the door to deeper ties with the Muslim world, which bring political, economic and national security benefits to Myanmar. A close relationship between Myanmar and the Muslim world is common sense. As Myanmar opens to the world, it welcomes investment, trade and tourism. The Muslim market would look to Myanmar, given its location between South Asia, Southeast Asia and China. These are not abstract aspirations.

In 2015, during catastrophic floods, the Royal Brunei Armed Forces provided emergency humanitarian assistance to the people of Myanmar. On the election of Myanmar’s first civilian president, Indonesia’s (also elected) president, Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, called for increased cooperation between these two Southeast Asian democracies, “especially in the fields of economy, trade and democratization.” Bilateral trade was $500 million in 2014, and businessmen from both countries have met to discuss doubling that amount in this very year.

Malaysia, in turn, imports $303 billion worth of goods from Myanmar, while trade between these two countries is also accelerating. Malaysia is the seventh-largest investor in Myanmar; for example, OCK Group, a Malaysian telecom provider, is planning to build 900 cellphone towers in the country.

These relationships are natural, beneficial and critical. But should the Rohingya crisis continue, Myanmar may find that many of its neighbors--including Bangladesh, one of the world’s largest Muslim countries--will be closed for business, for assistance, and for political engagement and long-term relationships.

No country should be so isolated. The choice to gain new partnerships, new relationships, and to benefit from the region in which it lies, or to descend into ever more discriminatory and violent policies, belongs to Myanmar. We hope Myanmar will make the right decision, and we stand ready to work with Myanmar to finally bring the Rohingya peace and provide them the citizenship, prosperity and security they have so long been denied. It is the better thing to do. It is also the right thing to do. Let us work together to make it happen.

Syed Hamid Albar is the OIC special envoy to Myanmar. He is former foreign minister and minister for defense for the government of Malaysia.

By AFP

April 20, 2016

Witnesses to a boat capsize that left some 20 people dead, including children, say the victims were from the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority and blamed the tragedy on restrictions that forced them to journey by sea.

At least 21 people, including nine children, died after a packed boat capsized in choppy waters on Tuesday as it approached the Rakhine state capital of Sittwe, according to the United Nations. 

Most of the passengers were inhabitants of Sin Tet Maw, in PaukawTownship, a camp for Rohingya Muslim minority members forced from their homes by bouts of communal violence.

"It (the boat accident) happened because of unsafe transport... we cannot use direct transport (overland) to Sittwe to buy goods or medicine," Rohingya activist, KyawHla Aung, told AFP from Sittwe.

The boat's passengers had received special permission to travel by boat to the market in Sittwe from Paukaw -- a journey through the mouth of a wide river that then skirts several kilometres around the coast to the capital.

The Rohingya have been forced to live in apartheid-like conditions ever since unrest between Buddhists and Muslims left hundreds dead in 2012.

Their movement and access to services, including health care, is severely restricted by authorities in the Buddhist-majority country.

The activist said he had counted 22 bodies in Sittwe and they all were Rohingya.

Another Rohingya man, Tin Hla, who also lives in the camp of 1500 people, said his son was unaccounted for among the boat passengers. 

"When we need to go to Sittwe, we have to go there in an unsafe way (by sea)," he said, adding that he fears the worst for his son and had travelled to Sittwe to find his body.

Myanmar does not formally recognise the Rohingya as one of the country's patchwork of ethnic minorities. 

A rising tide of Buddhist nationalism has in recent years deepened hostility towards the group -- most of whom are rendered stateless by a web of citizenship laws.

Many Rohingya trace their roots in the country back for generations.

But officials routinely refer to them as "Bengalis" -- a pejorative term identifying them as outsiders from neighbouring Bangladesh.

Violence and deprivation has led thousands of the minority group to take to the sea in crammed boats, seeking sanctuary in Muslim-majority Malaysia and Indonesia.

They were among the victims of last year's Southeast Asian migrant crisis which saw trafficking networks suddenly unravel, leaving thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants stranded without food at sea.

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has come under pressure for failing to speak up for the rights of the much-maligned Rohingya. 

She has however vowed to press for greater autonomy for other ethnic minorities.

Reacting to the accident the UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Yanghee Lee tweeted her "sorrow" at the deaths of "Rohingyas, including children", adding "Must find solution".

By The Malay Mail Online
April 20, 2016

KUALA LUMPUR — Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) special envoy to Myanmar Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar called for the national reconciliation and reintegration of the persecuted Rohingya minority in Myanmar.

In a commentary on US paper Los Angeles Times yesterday, Syed Hamid, who formerly served as foreign and defence minister, said that his appointment by the OIC as a special delegate to Myanmar showed that the organisation — the second largest inter-governmental cluster after the United Nations (UN) — was concerned about the Myanmar administration’s alleged Islamophobia.

“It is a sign of how seriously we take the systemic Islamophobia of Myanmar’s government, and the inexplicable silence of Aung San Suu Kyi — otherwise a champion of the dispossessed and distressed — over this treatment.

“Indeed, national reconciliation and reintegration of the Rohingya is the only feasible, practicable way of addressing the humanitarian crisis created by years of discriminatory policy and exclusion,” he said.

Syed Hamid, who is also chairman of the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD), said that Myanmar must first address the Rohingya issue before re-entering the international community to realise its full potential as a country.

Syed Hamid pointed out that while predominantly Buddhist Myanmar is now entering a new era of democracy under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, the issue of how the Burmese government treated Muslim citizens remains unaddressed.

“Some of the praise she and her country receive is deserved. But much of it overlooks the unacceptable treatment of her Muslim citizens, who have suffered an ongoing and accelerating process of ‘otherisation’ and dehumanisation that is deeply frightening to watch.

“We hope the lessons of the past years, and the potential of years ahead, encourages the government of Myanmar to move in the right direction,” he added.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement on May 8 last year that some 25,000 Rohingya and Bangladeshis boarded smugglers’ boats between January and March in 2015, almost double the number over the same period the previous year.

Over 1,000 Bangladeshi migrants and Rohingya refugees landed in Langkawi on May 10 last year, in what was deemed as the biggest humanitarian crisis in both Myanmar and Bangladesh.

By Emre Tunç Sakaoğlu

Eurasia Review
April 20, 2016

Almost five years have passed since the former pseudo-civilian government of Myanmar departed from half a century of authoritarian rule to embark on a tedious quest towards democratization. With last November’s general elections, the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), whose reins were held by the Burmese military (the so-called ‘Tatmadaw’), was ultimately removed from power and replaced by a civilian government led by world-renown democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi. Ironically, however, the military’s loosening grip over politics due to the introduction of basic democratic reforms in the past few years has been paralleled by a dramatic escalation in human rights abuses against minority groups, first and foremost among them the Muslim Rohingya ethnicity.

The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic group known to have resided for over a millennium in the western part of what is today the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. But repression and discrimination in the modern-day Rakhine State against the native Rohingya community predates even the foundation of the modern nation itself in 1948. Systematic policies of persecution intensified particularly in the 1980’s. In 1989 the historically-established name for the region, i.e. Arakan, was replaced with its current name of Rakhine – an appellation that is preferred by the country’s overwhelming Buddhist majority.

Violence against the Rohingya community of the Rakhine state in western Myanmar gained further traction in 2012 with another round of well-organized attacks carried out by several extremist groups identifying themselves as Buddhist nationalists. In the following years, inter-communal violence became so intense that, according to reports by the Human Rights Watch and Fortify Rights, they met the legal definition of “ethnic cleansing” and “crimes against humanity”. According to estimates by the UN Refugee Agency, the incidents in question involved the torturing and killing of more than 200 people, and caused the displacement of nearly 160,000 people.

‘Floating graveyards’

Since the breakout of inter-communal violence in 2012, more than ten percent of the remaining Rohingya population in the Rakhine state have fled Myanmar. Originally comprising over five percent of the country’s entire population at the end of British colonial rule, their numbers have consistently decreased for the past few decades as a result of highly discriminatory policies involving deportation and deprivation of citizenship. Today, the Rohingya are once again being forced to depart their ancestral homeland en masse. A vast majority of these people left the country by boat, seeking asylum across the Bay of Bengal. During this perilous journey, thousands of families trapped at sea are believed to have drowned off the coasts of Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Many suspected victims of human trafficking who were able to safely arrive at the shores of neighboring countries fell victim to forced labor and abductions for ransom by human smugglers who have exploited them for economic gain.

Mass graves of forced laborers from the Rakhine state were discovered during a campaign launched by the Thai police in response to the boat crisis of May 2015, an event which has since drawn much international attention and resulted in increased pressure on the regional governments to prevent further deaths. Thanks to a sweeping crackdown by Thai authorities reinforced by a parallel campaign carried out in Bangladesh, human traffickers were dealt a great blow in the latter half of 2015. Unfortunately, the situation began to deteriorate again with traffickers abandoning vessels in the midst of the Andaman Sea, with thousands of asylum-seekers aboard, in order to evade authorities.

Thailand is currently closed as a transit route for human smugglers, whose networks and logistics have been substantially disrupted. With the advent of the monsoon season, the smuggling season for ships carrying human cargo is also coming to a close. As a result, the number of Rohingya boatpeople is down sharply as compared to last year. Yet this may well be a temporary halt, with human traffickers biding their time before conditions ease once again next autumn. As long as there is continued demand for “maritime guidance” during the mass exodus of a people, smugglers will continue to exploit the immense “business opportunities” they find. Therefore, without a clear change in policy on the part of the new government in Myanmar, entire Rohingya families – those who can afford their own boats at the forefront– will continue to sacrifice all they have at the hands of international criminal networks.

Nowhere to return

A large portion of those left behind in the Rakhine state by their asylum-seeking relatives is comprised of the most vulnerable segments of the society: i.e. children, the elderly, women, and the sick. Unable to withstand long journeys at open seas or work as manual laborers abroad, these segments of the population have to cope with desperate living conditions in nine temporary refugee camps for internally displaced people that lie outside the regional capital of Sittwe. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), conditions in both these squalid camps and remote Rohingya villages are among the most miserable in the world as far as access to clean water, sanitation, food, and basic medicine is concerned. Many families are offered no choice but to struggle for survival in filthy, mud-built shelters that often become ruined during the rainy season. Living spaces in these camps are overcrowded, with entire families squeezed in single-room dormitories, even as food ration cards intended for refugees are commonly traded by officials. Similar conditions are also observed in other refugee camps hosting hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people across the border in Bangladesh and Thailand.

Local eyewitnesses, human rights activists, the majority of international observers, and expat Rohingya communities alike condemn the former government for having encouraged, or at least turned a blind eye to, the plight of the long-persecuted minority population despite the 2011 initiation of a democratization process in the country. Laws restricting the Rohingya people’s freedom of movement, block their access to vital health care, and bar their young from receiving more than primary education are still in place. Due to such laws, the Rohingya are also not allowed to marry or have children without official permission. Moreover, the properties of those Muslim families who were massacred or forced out of their residences have been seized by local administrations to be redistributed among the Buddhist population in those regions, with all abandoned or plundered shops and workplaces cleansed from any sign of Muslim economic or cultural presence.

There is more to this grim picture. A vast majority of individuals from a Muslim Rohingya background were stripped of their legal right to full citizenship through the Citizenship Law of 1982. Any formal identification they had managed to retain afterwards was nullified under former President Thein Sein, thus rendering the entire ethnic group stateless. Likewise, most Rohingya were excluded from the latest national census in 2014, and had their names removed from the voter list as recently as last November’s parliamentary elections.

Time for real change

Now that Myanmar has a president handpicked for his loyalty by the country’s new de facto leader and Nobel laurate Aung San Suu Kyi, the time is ripe for genuine democratization. As the country has entered a new period with the National League for Democracy (NLD)-led civilian government taking the reins over power on April 1, the enormous challenge posed by the Rohingya situation demands a permanent solution. Addressing such a grave legacy requires daring and decisive action on the part of the new government before challenges to the NLD’s overwhelming mandate and internal unity emerge. If such a solution is not found, even a popular figure like Aung San Suu Kyi may not have second chance to solve this situation.

Whether the new government can afford to sweep aside short-sighted policies of the old regime that were aimed to placate the fiercely nationalistic Buddhist grassroots groups, and whether they will withstand the resulting controversy, remains to be seen. What is certain is that catastrophic consequences that will surely result from a failure to take unpopular-yet-vital measures ensuring the nation’s long-term stability and development.

The good news is that the next round of elections is years from now. All around the world hopes are high as to the determination of the democratically-elected government under Aung San Suu Kyi to shoulder responsibility and put the Rohingya ethnicity out of its longstanding misery in the forthcoming period. Indeed, in a last minute salvo, under military guidance the outgoing government lifted the state of emergency that they had imposed on the restless Rakhine state for nearly four years. But the abrogation of emergency laws should be supported by a series of complementary measures which will in turn precipitate a tangible amelioration of the Rohingya situation.

Yet the view from the Rakhine state’s ramshackle capital of Sittwe is far from assuring spectators of the ushering in of an era of normalization for the Rohingya people. Beyond the main road in the city, internally displaced people are confined to the dusty and forlorn slum of Aung Mingalar. The neighborhood is fenced with barbed wire and heavily guarded by military checkpoints in order to maintain the strict segregation between the persecuted Muslim minority and the officially-favored Buddhist majority. Even though no outside observers are allowed to enter the camp, the apparently grim conditions there make any prospects for the reintegration of the Rohingya community, not to mention establishment of a broad-based, inter-ethnic national reconciliation process, look rather dim, at least for the time being.

By Frits Sollewijn

Burma Task Force USA
April 20, 2016

Only a few weeks after the military junta lifted the curfew in Western Rakhine state, allowing an estimated 25,000 Rohingya to leave the Internal Displacement Camps, the National League of Democracy (NLD) appointed Minister of Religious Affairs Aung Ko made a statement implying Muslims are not full citizens and went on to visit firebrand monk Wirathu.

Although Minister Aung Ko is a member of the military backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, he is also a member of the newly elected NLD government. Given the landslide victory of the NLD during the election and the overwhelming majority it now enjoys in Parliament, Minister Aung Ko would not be where he is without at least the implicit support of the NLD. His conduct reflects badly on the NLD and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

In an interview with the Voice of America Burma Service, Aung Ko stated that Muslims are “associate citizens,” while Buddhists are full citizens. The Constitution of Myanmar makes no mention of “associate citizenship”. The document that does refer to this is the highly contentious 1982 citizenship or “nationalities” law. The law excludes Rohingya, a community indigenous to Rakhine state, from the list of 135 ethnicities, and thus excluding them from citizenship. It furthermore outlines a model of tiered citizenship, distinguishing between “full citizens,” “associate citizens,” and “naturalized citizenship.” In fact, to qualify for full citizenship, you need to be a descendant of residents who lived in Burma prior to the British colonial takeover of 1823 or were born to parents who were full citizens at the time of birth. The stratified citizenship and statelessness of the Rohingya goes against international norms and standards.

Most countries give citizenship to a person born in that country, or if one of the parents is a citizen. As many rights outlined in the Constitution of Myanmar are connected to citizenship in Burma (e.g. art. 21 (a), the right to equality, the right of liberty and the right of justice; art. 366, right to education art. 367, right to health care; art. 349, the right to equal opportunity), “associate” citizenship call into question the fundamental rights of an estimated 5 million Muslims living in Burma, not to mention the stateless Rohingya who are without basic rights and opportunities whatsoever.

The Minister of Religion went on to say that religious minorities, including Christians, Hindus and Muslims, had not been “deliberately oppressed.” Many studies and reports show the opposite. Studies from Yale Law School and Queen Mary University of London conclude that oppression is in fact state sanctioned. Furthermore, there is a lot of photographic material showing for instance extremists walking from burning villages in Rakhine while soldiers are standing by.

When Minister Aung Ko visited Wirathu and other members of the blacklisted anti-Islamic organization Ma Ba Tha a few days later, the NLD had apparently initially planned to submit a proposal to Parliament expressing concern about his comments. However, as a NLD Parliamentarian stated in an interview with the Myanmar Times, “We don’t want to highlight it – things like this can happen sometimes unintentionally.” NLD spokesperson U Win Htein said there was no reason to be “anxious” about the meeting between Minister Aung Ko and Wirathu: “I think Thura U Aung Ko seemed to be admonishing U Wirathu.” This, however, seems unlikely and contradicts the words of Tun Nyunt, director of the Religious Affairs and Culture Minister who joined the minister on his trip. He said the visit was “routine”, adding that he went for “introductions.”

It is disconcerting to see very little coverage on the conduct of Minister Aung Ko and that rather media have highlighted Suu Kyi’s new role as “state counselor” instead. As the NLD moves from a movement for democracy to a position of responsibility, it is imperative that the NLD takes responsibility for the actions of all members of the government. It appears the NLD does not want to “highlight” this and prefers to brush the affair under the rug because the NLD wants to fight the military and push the state counselor bill to give Suu Kyi a role similar to Prime Minister.

This year, despite the end of the monsoon season, a major out flux hasn’t taken place so far. Two reasons might play a role, one is the crackdown on human traffickers and smugglers in the region including Burma, while second is the current wait-and-see approach of the stateless and oppressed people, who still have high hopes that the NLD will bring changes for the better.

Frits Sollewijn Gelpke is a human rights advocate and political scientist from the Netherlands, working as European Liaison for Justice for All / Burma Task Force USA. He co-authored a book on democratic and constitutional reform in Nepal where he worked for two years at an NGO, law college and the Dutch consulate. He holds a M.Sc. in Political Science, International Relations from Leiden University.

Media Release from Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK)

For Immediate Release Tuesday 19th April 2016

Rohingya boat sinking: NLD must lift all aid restrictions in Arakan State

Today a ferry boat with 65 Rohingya passengers including men, women, children and babies, sank at the entrance of ThayChoung river after being hit by big wave while they were traveling from Sin Tat Maw (Sandama) IDP camp inPauktaw Township to SittweTownship, Arakan, to buy food. According to BROUK’s reliable source, 15 Rohingya passengers died, about 20 are missing and 20 are alive and 10 are unconscious. Children and a baby are among the dead. 

Since increased violence and repression in 2012,Rohingya people have faced a worsening humanitarian situation. Restrictions on travel and lack of security have made growing and buying food much more difficult for Rohingya people. Restrictions on international humanitarian assistance to those in IDP Camps and the rest of Arakan State also make the humanitarian crisis much worse. Since 2012 140,000 internally displaced people have been trapped in camps which UN officials have described as having some of the worst conditions in the world. 

These restrictions and lack of security force Rohingya people to make long and sometimes dangerous journeys to find food. More than ten percent of the Rohingya population have fled Burma since 2012.

Previous governments have used a combination of impoverishment and repression to try to force Rohingya people out of Burma. The new National League for Democracy (NLD) led government must now end this policy.

In February Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK published proposals for four steps the new NLD government could take to start to address the Rohingya crisis, including ending restrictions on aid.

“The NLD-led government should immediately lift all restrictions on international humanitarian aid in Arakan State, and ensure security for aid workers,” said Tun Khin, President of Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK. “People are dying every day. Tragedies like this ferry sinking have happened too often in the past and will happen again without action.”

For more information please contact Tun Khin +44 7888714866.

NOTES TO JOURNALISTS:

BROUK received the following list of people who died on the boat:

1. Daw Nosima, 54yrs (female )

2. Ma Ro Ma, 16yrs (female)

3. Ma Nilar, 21yrs (female)

4. Daw Nyi Ma Phyu, (female)

5. Maung Gyi, 42yrs (Male)

6. HasonShorif, Peran Mya 2 yrs (Male)

7. Sajida, U Nura 6 yrs (Female)

8. Muhamad Shorif, 4 yrs (Male)

9. Hussain Shorif, 3yrs (Male)

10. Daw Mennisa, 20yrs (Female)

11. Surat Zamal, 8yrs (Female)

12. Ajida Khatoon, Rohimuddin, 6yrs (Female)

13. Solema Khatoon, 65yrs, (Female)

14. Ferani, UKholil Ahmad, 60 yrs (Female)

15. Name unknown baby

The four steps proposed by Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK are: 

Action against hate-speech and extremists – Take action to prevent hate speech and incitement of violence, and demonstrate moral leadership, with Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders personally and specifically speaking out against prejudice and hatred, and challenging the extreme nationalist narrative.

Ensure humanitarian access – Immediately lift all restrictions on the operations of international aid agencies, ensure safe return to homes, and also start to devote more government resources to assisting IDPs and isolated villagers.

Reform or repeal of the 1982 Citizenship Law – The lack of full citizenship lies at the root of most of the discrimination faced by the Rohingya. There is no way this issue can be avoided, and it is much better that an NLD-led government bite the bullet and deal with it at the start of their period in government when they have a new and strong mandate, strong party unity, and elections are years away. It will have to be addressed at some point. Better it is done while the NLD-led government is strongest.

Justice and accountability – An NLD-led government should set up a credible independent investigation with international experts to investigate these crimes and propose action. If the NLD government fails to do so, the United Nations should establish its own Commission of Inquiry.

The full briefing paper can be accessed at: http://brouk.org.uk/?p=546

By Migrant Report

April 19, 2016

At least 18 Rohingya Muslims were killed on Tuesday morning after their boat capsized off the coast of Sittwe, home to a large IDP camp and the capital of Rakhine State in Western Myanmar.

One-third of the roughly 60 passengers on board remain unaccounted for, according to sources on the ground. Six people were admitted to Sittwe General Hospital and were later transferred to a clinic for Muslims at Thet Kay Pin village. Most of the dead and missing are believed to be women and children.

The accident occurred at roughly 9:30AM on Tuesday morning when the boat was hit by strong waves as it attempted to make landfall at Thae Chaung village near Sittwe. 

The passengers were travelling from Sin Tet Maw camp for internally displaced persons in Pauktaw Township to a segregated market for Muslims at Thae Chaung, one of a handful of destinations to which they are legally permitted to travel.

The market at Thae Chaung serves as an essential lifeline for displaced Rohingyas in Pauktaw Township, who are unable to trade with neighbouring Buddhist communities. 

Since 2012, Muslims have been barred from trading at Sittwe’s municipal market, which lies on the Kaladan River in the centre of town. As a result, Rohingyas travelling from Pauktaw need to navigate a stretch of rough sea to reach alternate ports at Ohn Daw Gyi beach or Thae Chaung on the Bay of Bengal.

The sea ports servicing areas where Muslims are confined become less accessible during the monsoon season, which usually begins in June.

The tragedy opens a window on the pointless struggle faced by the Rohingya in Myanmar.

Since 2014, an estimated 100,000 people fled persecution and privation in Rakhine State and Bangladesh by sea, usually to Thailand and Malaysia, with voyages facilitated by predatory human traffickers. Before such movements largely came to a halt in the second half of 2015, Thae Chaung was a major point of departure for Rohingyas making the fraught trip across the Bay of Bengal.

In 2012, more than 140,000 Muslims were displaced in violent campaigns that targeted their homes and businesses. They have needed to apply for permission to move from township to township following the 2012 violence, which has had a catastrophic impact on their livelihoods and has left hundreds of thousands reliant on aid from international agencies.

Although these mobility restrictions affect Rohingyas across Rakhine State, the isolation of Rohingya communities in Pauktaw Township leaves them particularly vulnerable. Access to fresh water is a particular problem for displaced Rohingyas in Pauktaw Township, as the areas they are displaced to are low-lying and marshy and are poorly supplied with groundwater. 

As a result, international agencies routinely bring in potable water to the displaced by boat, although this is not enough to stave off acute thirst. Over the past three years, many Rohingyas displaced in Pauktaw have relocated to camps near Sittwe because they perceive access to services to be better there.

MTS Chandra

RB News
April 19, 2016 

New Delhi -- Women trafficking becomes a major issue worldwide. Like other Asian countries, there are Rohingya women being trafficked in India. It has become a source of income for some smugglers from Myanmar, Bangladesh and India.

As there are many marriage restrictions for Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, it cost much money (Approximately US dollar $5,000 to $10,000) from the women's side, which is a huge amount for a bourgeois Rohingya. Most people cannot afford that large amount of money. For this reason, some of the Rohingya parents send their daughters to other countries for marriage. Among them, some poor girls reached India by the luring of smugglers. Most of them are unlucky like Senowara (20) and Alkama (18) who are originally from Buthidaung Township, Arakan state (Rakhine state). These two girls crossed to India under agent Islam (50) (dalal Islam) this week. By a reliable source, the agent resides with his family in Leda camp, Teknaf, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.

In Bangladesh, trafficker Islam started to show his real face by concealing these two girls' luggage in Chittagong. After reaching the border of India, he threatened the two poor girls and snatched a pair of gold earings and a gold hair clutcher from them. That same day, he disconnected them from their relatives who were already in India.

Then, after a week, their relatives in India got a call from Border hearing that if they don't send Rupees 20,000, they will sell the two girls. The next day one of Rohingya youths heard that the two girls are in Delhi and the the trafficker Islam was planning on selling them into prostitution. 

Fortunately, the same day, Genius Youth Club (a Rohingya youth club under UNHCR-Bosco) leader Sohail Khan with some club members rescued the two girls in Gaziabaad, Delhi from a very miserable condition and sent them to their relatives in Hyderabad. The case was handed over to the Rohingya Refugee Committee Delhi.

However, there has been no lawful action taken against the traffickers like Islam, even though there are already several Rohingya women trafficking complaints against them. The two recent victims are to seek protection of UNHCR and Government of India.

According to a research, smugglers sell Rohingya girls to prostitutions, to over-aged Indians and as well as to Sikh (Punjabi-Sarder) by saying that they are Moulanas (religious teacher of Muslims). Some are sold as domestic workers while others are in prison for an unlimited time with the charge of illegal border cross. Sometimes smugglers rape the girls on the way. 

There are very few girls who are rescued from this kind of molestations. 

Additionally, the smuggler also sells Rohingyas (both female and male) to factories from where is impossible for them to get out of for their whole life.

Smugglers are drawing their trafficking activity especially in States of Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, U.P., Delhi, Kolkata, amongst others.

Aman Ullah

RB History
April 19, 2016

[Maurice Stewart Collis (1889 –1973) was an administrator in Burma (Myanmar) when it was part of the British Empire, and afterwards a writer on Southeast Asia, China and other historical subjects. MS Collis was born in 1889, the son of an Irish solicitor, and went to Rugby School in 1903 and then in 1907 to the University of Oxford, where he studied history. He entered the Indian Civil Service in 1911 and was posted to Burma in 1912. He had postings at Sagaing and elsewhere. In 1917, the British army raised a Burmese brigade with which Collis went to Palestine, but he saw no action. In 1919, he went on leave and travelled in Europe. In the 1920s he was district commissioner in Arakan. He returned to England in 1934. He wrote over twenty books, including The Land of the Great Image, Last and First in Burma and other volumes of autobiography, travel writing, novels, histories and three plays. He died in 1973.]

When the life went out of the Roman Empire, clan vital drove the followers of Mahomet to create a polity in its stead. Moslem civilization extended from Cordova to Dacca. An average observer of the period would have seen nothing in the world but Islam. From all points of view, military, political and cultural, the Moslem Sultanates were in the van of civilization. For every other state they represented modernity, as industrial Europe now represent what is modern for Asia and Africa. Bengal was absorbed into this great polity in 1293 A. D. 

Since 1450, India was again playing its part in the making of Arakan and Arakan turned towards India. The circumstances which made Arakan turn from the East and look West to the Moslem States were political. In 1404 A. D., Min Saw Mwan was King of Arakan, ruling from Launggret, one of the Lemro Cities. As the kings of Pagan had regarded Arakan as their feudatory, the Kings of Ava, who succeeded them, saw no reason why they should not reassert that view. Moreover the Arakanese had annoyed them by raiding Yaw and Laungshe. Accordingly the heir apparent to the throne of Ava invaded Arakan in 1406. Min Saw Mwan fled the country, taking refuge at Gaur, the capital of the Sultan of Bengal. That kingdom had been independent of the Sultanate of Delhi for eighty six years. It was one of the many sovereign states of the world wide Moslem polity. The Arakanese king remained there for twenty four years, leaving his country in the hands of the Burmese. 

Force of circumstances made him prefer to call himself a feudatory of the Sultans of Bengal than of the kings of Ava. He turned away from what was Buddhist and familiar to what was Mohamedan and foreign. In so doing he loomed from the mediaeval to the modern, from the fragile fairyland of the Glass Palace Chronicle to the robust extravaganza of the Thousand Nights and one Night. Nasir-ud-din restored him in 1430 A.D. and Mrauk-U was built.

When the Moslems entered Bengal in 1203, they introduced the inscriptional type of coinage and Nasir-ud-din's coin is in that tradition. By following that the coinage Mrauk-U also subsequently modeled its own coin. In this way Arakan became definitely oriented towards the Moslem State. Contact with a modem civilization resulted in a renaissance. The country's great age began.

Shin Arahan would have found himself as much out of place at the court of Gaur as St.Bernard in the University of Cordova. To avoid such a sensation and snatch advantage from change, the Arakanese had to forsake a fashion in ideas, which had fallen behind in the march of the world's thought, and bring themselves up to date. 

They had to learn the history of recent events, the meaning of the triumph of Islam and how it arrived that the chief Moslem protagonists were Mongolian. For it was a curious fact that while the government of further India was Mongolian-Buddhist, that of India and westwards beyond was Mongolian-Mohamedan. Situated as they were between the two, the Arakanese had opportunity of detecting their fundamental difference. That basic distinction centred in the matter of war and aggrandisement. While for Further India war was wrong and only happened by the way, for the Moslem block it was the first preoccupation of government. It took the Arakanese a hundred years to learn that doctrine from the Moslem Mongolians. When it was well understood, they founded what was known as the Arakanese Empire. For the hundred years, 1430 to 1530, Arakan remained feudatory to Bengal, paid tribute and learnt history and politics. Eleven kings followed one another at Mrauk-U in undistinguished succession. If they struck coins, none have been found. In 1531 Minbin ascended the throne and struck coins also. With him the Arakanese graduated in their Moslem studies and the empire was founded.

The Minbin's coins presents a succinct commentary on the sudden rise of Arakan to importance in the Bay. On one side of it is inscribed the word "Minbin" in the Burmese character. On the reverse in Nagari is his Moslem title, Zabauk Shah. 

So Arakan had turned into a Sultanate. The Court was shaped in Gaur and Delhi; there were the eunuchs and the seraglio, the slaves and the executioner. But it remained Hinayana Buddhist. Mahamunni was still there, still fervently worshipped. Moreover Minbin embellished Mrauk-U with its greatest temples and pagodas. But the architecture of the former is neither Mohamedan nor Buddhist it’s Hindu, but of so unique a design as almost to constitute a particular style. This architecture was the work of Indian builders employed by Minbin and working to his general specifications. It illustrates the cosmopolitan origins of the state of Mrauk-U, which derived from the Hindu and the Buddhist as well as from the Prortuguese and the Moslem. But it also indicates how Minbin was able to fuse diverse elements into a particular and separate style. 

If Minbin founded the prosperity of Mrauk-U, Razagri, his successor of forty years later, may be said to have consolidated it. Maruk-U, having turned the tables on Bengal proceeded to do the same on Burma; this was the first and only Period in its history when Arakan was able not only to repulse the Burmese but even to annex part of their country. Razagiri, in alliance with Ava, took Pegu. On the division of the spoils the strip up to and including Syriam and Moulmein was added to his long coastline. This campaign was rendered possible by his excellent navy and Razagri in appointing the Portuguese de Brito, as Governor of Syriam was repeating the policy of the North West frontier. He depended on those mariners, in conjunction, presumably, with his own seamen, to keep his borders for him.

For a short period during the reign of Razagri Arakan extended from Dacca and the Sundabans to Moulmein, a coast strip of a thousand miles in length and varying from 150 to 20 miles in depth. This considerable dominion was built up by means of the strong cosmopolitan army and navy organized by Minbin and by inducing the Portuguese outside his army of fight for him in return for trade concessions. It is difficult to conceive of a state with less reliable foundations. But during the short years of its greatness, the century from 1540 to 1640, it was brilliant and imposing. Copying the imperial Court of Delhi, its kings adopted the title of Padshah. 

The causes that make men rich are often the same as ruin them. What a gambler has won he may lose by an identical throw. Mrauk-U was glorious because wise kings took advantage of a strong alliance against distracted Border States. It fell into poverty and contempt because weak kings were falsely served by their allies against united Border States.

In my sketches of Mrauk-U at its heyday I have indicated the weakening of the central government that followed the murder of King Thiri-thu-dhamma. The usurper Narapati was never fully accepted by the Arakanese. He depended upon his foreign mercenaries. These were ready to unmake him. The sanctity of authority was gone. Moreover the victories of previous reigns had flooded the country with Moghul, Burmese and Portuguese prisoners of war. These were centres of discontent on which any adventurer could count. On such men counted Shuja, Aurangzebe's elder brother, rightful Emperor of Hindustan, when he fled to Arakan after being worsted in the struggle for the imperial crown which followed the death of Shah Jahan. Only a strong national king can control an army of foreign paid soldiers.

After the loss of Chittagong in 1666, the territory of the kingdom of Mrauk-U was reduced to the present districts of Akyab, Kyaukpyu and Sandoway. Those areas in Lower Burma which had been won by Razagri and resumed in part by Thiri-thu-dhamma had all lapsed back to the Burmese. Arakan was now confined to its natural boundaries and was no larger than it had been two hundred and fifty years previously at the time when it was feudatory to Bengal. That phase in the country's history which began with Minbin was now over. But it was to last as an independent kingdom for another hundred and nineteen year.

There were twenty five kings of Mrauk-U during those hundred and nineteen years. That is a sufficient commentary on the period. With the old legitimate line extinct and with a large mercenary army of miscellaneous races which cared neither for the person of the king nor for the aspirations of the people, adventurers appeared every few years, sometimes every few months and the throne constantly changed hands, Between the fall of Chittagong (1666) and Sanda Wizaya (1710) there were ten kings averaging two and a half years each. Three reigned only one year and two did not reign one month. Between Sanda Wizaya and Nara Abaya (1742) the average was under two years, and the last seven kings to 1784 averaged just three years each. The three kings named, Sanda Thu-dhamma, Sanda Wizaya and Nara Abaya, each were a notable man and each tried to stop the downward tendency, but without success. So insecure a polity is little removed from anarchy, the coins we possess reflect this desperate internal condition. While we have several stamped with the titles of Sanda Thu-dhamma and Sanda Wizaya there are none extant of the ten kings between. Of the following set of six, two are represented and of the last seven all have coins except number 42 and 46 who both ruled but a few weeks. The coins themselves exhibit little variation. Their design is neither more not less in serving. It remains in the Mohamedan tradition of 1450 A. D.

Such a kingdom as was Arakan from 1666 to 1784 could only stand alone and independent as long as it had no aggressive neighbour. The Moghuls had ceased to an expanding power; Burma was merely as distracted as Arakan; the English were new comers. In other circumstances it could not have endured a century and a quarter. But when in 1760 the Alaungpaya dynasty had united

Burma, Mrauk-U's fate was certain. The sole question was when the blow would fall. In 1782 Thaniada became king of Maruk-U. So reduced had become the once great kingdom, that his role did not extend more than a few miles beyond the walls. 

There were six other pretenders in the country, each with his following and each anxious to enter the capital city. One of these, Ngathande, asked Bodawpaya, king of Burma, to invade the realm. After so long a period of looking west, Arakan turned east ward again. Ngathande's idea was that Bodawpaya would place him on the throne as a feudatory monarch. It was a familiar point of view in Arakanese foreign relations. Bodawpaya, however had no intention of anything of the kind. He used Ngathande, invaded the country and reduced it to the position of an administered province, the first time in its long history that it had lost a home government of its own. 

It is noteworthy that when Bodawpaya decided to annex Arakan, he bowed to the old idea that the Mahamuni was the defence of that kingdom. For so many centures it had been the common belief of Further India that as long as Mahamuni was in Arakan, the country would remain independent, that Bodawpaya thought it safer to tamper with those calculations in Yadaya which were reputed to protect both the image and the realm. He therefore sent masters of that Art before his troops crossed the mountains and the formula were detected. 

After his victory and to clinch the affair and prove to the world that Arakan was realy down, he removed Mahamuni to Amarapura, where it now sits. This event, long prophesied and long guarded against, crushed the Arakanese more than defeat in the field.

The rhythm of the history of Arakan is that of a dancer who sways now to the East and now to the West. Rarely has she stood upright. For a hundred years now she had been leaning westwards. But there are indications that her rhythm is beginning to re-establish itself and that she will again sway to the East.

[This article is based on MS Collis ‘ Arakan’s place in the civilization of the Bay’, which was published in Journal of Burma Research Society (JBRS) ‘ Fiftieth Anniversary Publication]