By Radio Free Asia

October 2, 2016

Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday asked member states of a regional economic and security organization for “constructive support” in resolving the crisis in the country’s troubled western Rakhine state.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto national leader, is trying to drum up regional support for an advisory commission on Rakhine which she created in late August to review conflict resolution between majority Buddhists and minority Muslim Rohingya in the restive state. It will also look at humanitarian assistance, development issues, and strengthening local institutions.

Buddhist nationalists and political parties in Rakhine oppose the appointment of three foreigners to the commission, including former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who chairs the body, and have called for its disbandment.

“We are working to build understanding, harmony and trust between communities while standing firm against prejudice, intolerance, and extremism,” Aung San Suu Kyi told the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the body’s Inter-Parliamentary Assembly which is meeting on Sept. 30-Oct. 3 in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw. “In doing so, we ask for the constructive support of our regional neighbors.”

“Progress in every field will not be possible overnight, but we are determined to persevere to bring about positive change in Rakhine state as in other areas of our country affected by conflict,” she said.

Rakhine is home to roughly 1.1 million stateless Muslim Rohingya, considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, who face persecution and are denied basic rights, including those of citizenship and freedom of movement. Their plight has drawn condemnation from the international community.

About 120,000 Rohingya live in squalid refugee camps after being displaced by communal violence with Rakhine Buddhists in 2012 that left more than 200 people dead.

The Buddhists and the state’s dominant Arakan National Party (ANP) believe that the three foreign members of the advisory commission will side with the Rohingya and turn the issue into an international one. The commission’s six other members are Myanmar citizens.

Annan, who was heckled by protesters during the commission’s first visit to Rakhine in early September, later told reporters at a press conference in the commercial capital Yangon that the body’s mandate is to provide recommendations to the government on measures for finding solutions to the state’s complex problems in accordance with international standards, and that it will remain “rigorously impartial.”

The commission must submit a report on its findings to the Myanmar government in 12 months.

A previous investigative committee was formed just after the outbreak of communal violence in 2012, but the suggestions it provided in a subsequent report were not implemented.

By Shahamat Hussain

Youth Ki Awaaz

October 1, 2016

It has been almost three years since the Myanmarese settlement took refuge in Hyderabad. They are struggling hard to get jobs, learn the language and to even get food to be alive. The persecution of Rohingya Muslims by Myanmarese Buddhists are known to the world. After the communal violence increased in Myanmar, many Muslims were killed and made to leave the country. They were denied food, medicine, education and other basic amenities. Many Myanmarese Buddhists do not consider them to be citizens of Myanmar. Though they have settled in Myanmar for ages now, they have been separated from their country. Hence, when the violence increased, they had to flee from their own country to various other countries.

A major chunk of people who lost their houses, family members and livelihoods, shifted to different parts of India and other countries. In Hyderabad, they have taken refuge at Barkas, “We left our country for freedom. We were not allowed to practice our religion, pray at the mosque or even educate our children. I am happy that I can practice my religion here in India without the fear of being killed” says Sultan Mohammed, aged 60. He talks firmly and introduces his son who has a disability and half of his existing family; others got killed in the deadly massacre.

The refugee’s settlement is in the outskirts of the old city. They have five camps in Balapur. Two of the camps are rent-free set by locals, whereas others are paid slums in which people live in terrible conditions. “We pay Rs. 1000 per month for this shed. We don’t have proper electricity and water. The water supply comes only for 15 minutes in a day. We only have two toilets which are shared with the entire camp” says Mohammed Noor who represents camp 2, where 45 families reside.

Most of the people who have language barriers are facing difficulties in finding jobs. The men do odd jobs like scrap collection, construction work and security for their day-to-day livelihood. Tufail Ahmed, who looks quite younger than his age (35), says, “Locals do not give us jobs. I work as a construction labourer for about 15 days in a month. Sometimes they pay me less than other labourers or do not pay me at all. I have to accept all their terms and conditions. If I do not accept, how will I buy food for my children?”

Widows are in large numbers across these camps. Some of them have remarried in their own community to start a new life. They are strictly warned by the police not to marry the locals. They only have limited options in their ghetto or they have to lead a lonely and devastating life. “My husband was chopped in Myanmar in front of my eyes. They also cut my daughter’s stomach. She cannot walk straight now and she has lost her voice after the incident. With a lot of difficulties I have reached here and I am struggling to feed my three children,”says Rani Begum with her broken Hindi, while in her arms, all her children play around. She cleans utensils and washes clothes in nearby houses to earn for her family.

The children in the camp go to neighbouring government schools. Most of the families send their children to school and they are adapting to the language spoken here. Sana Khatoon is 10-year-old who studies in Class 2. She has an innocent smile and a strong determination for what she wants to become after growing up, “I want to become a doctor and help all the diseased ones here.”

Rafiq Mohammed, who has a disability caused by the riots back home, faces the physical inability to go out and work. He and his family depend on his younger brother who works as a construction wage earner. “At times when my brother doesn’t get work, we have to beg other people from the community for rice and dal, which is the reason I have given my 4-year-old son to a local family in Sayedabad area who is taking care of him and sending him to school.”

The Hyderabad-based Confederation of Voluntary Organisations (COVA), an NGO at the forefront of Rohingya rehabilitation in Hyderabad says that many asylum seekers have registered with them so far and many more are likely to come. COVA monitors the refugees in getting them the UNHCR card. They also coordinate with the police to give them records about the refugees. The refugee card comes in slots after the interview has been taken and it has a validity of two years. “We are interviewed at the UNHCR office for the refugee card. They cross-examine and question us to check if we actually belong from there” said Mohammed Rafiq.

By Benedict Rogers

The Irrawaddy

October 1, 2016

If all you see of Burma is Aung San Suu Kyi with British Prime Minister Theresa May on the steps of 10 Downing Street, or sitting with President Obama in the White House, or at the United Nations, you might be inclined to think that Burma’s struggle is over and all is well.

But talk to any of the country’s civil society activists or ethnic or religious minorities and you will quickly realize there is still a very, very long way to go.

It is true that the peaceful transition to a government led by State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy, after they overwhelming won the country’s first credible elections in 25 years, is remarkable. But although this civilian, democrat-led government ends decades of direct rule by the military, it in no way ends the military’s power. Under the 2008 Constitution, designed by the military, they control a quarter of the seats in Parliament and three key ministries in government: home affairs, border affairs and defense.

This makes solving Burma’s two biggest challenges—ending decades of civil war and addressing deep-rooted religious intolerance—extremely difficult. Last month the State Counselor convened a major peace conference with representatives of most of the ethnic nationalities, known as a “21st Century Panglong.” Named after the conference held by her father, independence leader Aung San, in Panglong, Shan State, in 1947, it is another attempt to address the political grievances of the country’s diverse ethnic nationalities and begin a process of political dialogue.

The original Panglong conference established a federal system for the country, but the promises made were abandoned after Aung San was assassinated the following year. That principle, of a federal system giving the ethnic nationalities autonomy and equal rights, remains at the heart of the solution to the country’s conflicts.

Yet while the politicians talked peace, in Kachin and Shan states the Burma Army continued to attack civilians, and in recent weeks new reports of violence in Karen State have emerged, despite there being a ceasefire in place since 2012.

On the issue of religious intolerance, which is at its most extreme in Arakan State, where the Muslim Rohingya suffer a campaign of severe persecution from militant Buddhist nationalists and the military, Aung San Suu Kyi has been criticized for her silence. Yet last month she surprised many by establishing a nine-member advisory commission led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, to investigate the causes of the conflict and seek solutions—something several international activists had been calling for. The response from the Arakanese nationalists and those close to the military was one of fury.

One of the consequences of both the ethnic conflict and religious intolerance has been a humanitarian crisis in parts of the country. Over 120,000 Kachin civilians have been displaced by fighting, and over 130,000 Rohingya are living in dire conditions in more than 40 camps in Arakan State. Over recent years, thousands more have fled the country.

The internally displaced people in Burma are in desperate need of humanitarian aid, but are suffering from two problems: firstly, the government restricts humanitarian agencies’ access to parts of the country, and secondly, even in the areas they are able to reach, international agencies are now cutting provisions.

Last week, reports emerged that Burma Army soldiers prevented trucks containing a month’s supply of rice from the World Food Programme (WFP) from reaching a camp in Kachin state, and in the previous month, the military blocked a vehicle carrying medical supplies for four camps, provided by the United Nations.

At the same time, reports have emerged that the WFP is cutting food aid to displaced Rohingya in Arakan State. This is apparently part of a plan to phase-out relief assistance in parts of the state.

Cuts in aid in some areas and blocks on aid access in others combine into a recipe for an already serious humanitarian situation to spiral into a crisis. In July, Yanghee Lee, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma said, after meeting internally displaced peoples, that she had heard of their “daily struggles to survive.” She expressed concern about the “extensive difficulties in accessing and delivering aid,” even though such assistance “provides a lifeline to communities.” In Arakan State, she noted, access can only be approved “through a cumbersome procedure,” and in Kachin State “humanitarian access is shrinking.” The conditions of the internally displaced peoples’ camps she witnessed “remain poor.”

There is a desperate need to begin to address the root causes, which involves ending the conflict, confronting hate speech and working for reconciliation—and, in the case of the Rohingya, restoring their citizenship rights which were stripped from them in 1982. But no one can pretend that it will be easy, particularly given the military’s continuing power.

Yet there is an even more urgent task, which requires the immediate attention of both Aung San Suu Kyi and the international community: stop the block on aid, end the cuts, and ensure that no one starves to death simply on account of their race or religion. It is doubtless that Aung San Suu Kyi has a complex political tightrope to walk, but she is the only person in Burma with the moral and political authority to make this happen; in her government, she is the only decision-maker. She must now lift the aid restrictions and ensure that those displaced receive the aid they need to survive.

Benedict Rogers is a human rights activist specializing in Asia, working for Christian Solidarity Worldwide. He is also the author of Burma: A Nation At The Crossroads, Than Shwe: Unmasking Burma’s Tyrant, and A Land Without Evil: Ending the Genocide of the Karen People.

By Hiroshi Kotani

Nikkei Asian Review

September 30, 2016

PADANG BESAR, Thailand At a hospital near the border between northern Malaysia and southern Thailand, some 800km south of Bangkok, a young Rohingya man strained every muscle in his body just to walk a few gentle steps with the support of a metal walking frame.

Back in May 2015, Zama Ahmad, was bedridden, almost skeletal and barely able to move. When spoken to, he was able to manage little more than a grunt in response as he stared vacantly at the ceiling.

A year on, Zama is almost unrecognizable. When he walks along a hospital hallway, there is a distinct look of hope in his eyes. He can get to the bathroom by himself and has bulked up to 45kg, having once weighed as little as 20kg. Three years have passed since he was brought to the hospital.

"I feel a little better now, but I am still unable to pick up food and move it to my own mouth and brush my own teeth, because I have trouble moving my fingers correctly," Zama said. The mobile phone by his bed is a constant source of encouragement, helping him stay in touch with his mother and wife, who remain in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine.

Zama's story is a typical one. After deadly clashes between the Rohingya and the Buddhist majority erupted in Rakhine in 2012, more than 100,000 Rohingya homes were burned to the ground. Zama turned to human traffickers in order to flee to Malaysia. "The boat was packed with about 1,000 migrants," he said.

His memories of what happened after reaching Thailand are only a faint blur. He was left for dead beside the road in the border town of Padang Besar, where he was mercifully brought to a hospital just in time.

JUNGLE CAMPS The plight of Rohingya fleeing aboard smuggling vessels drew significant international attention in late April 2015, when the authorities in Padang Besar discovered a suspected human trafficking camp in the jungle near the town. Hundreds of people had seemingly been held captive in the camp and a mass grave of 30 bodies, believed to be Rohingya, was unearthed nearby.

Now deserted, the camp was little more than a few shabby huts on a steep slope with garbage strewn around the grounds. The stench was overwhelming, suggesting that far more people had been held there than could possibly have been sanitary.

The Thai authorities acknowledge the existence of a transnational human trafficking network in the region. Many Rohingya are persuaded or coerced into boarding vessels and transported to the port of Ranong on the Andaman Sea coast of southern Thailand. Refugees are then bundled into trucks and delivered to camps in the jungle, where they are held captive. Only those whose relatives agree to pay a ransom, usually of around 40,000 baht ($1,150) to 100,000 baht per person, are allowed to cross into Malaysia. Those unable to pay are forced to remain and endure the brutal conditions in the camp.

NEW LIFE A year ago Zama shared the ward with another Rohingya man in his mid-20s. Sorot Alam, who went by Ahmeen, was hospitalized after being found injured in a jungle migrant camp. He, too, was frighteningly thin.

Back in Rakhine, where he lived with his family of 12, he was asked by an acquaintance of his father to board a smuggler's boat to seek refuge in Malaysia. He eventually agreed and ended up in a jungle camp packed with nearly 500 other refugees, where he spent three and a half months. "Fifty people around me died. Most of them starved to death," he said, lying in bed with his eyes welling up. "In my dreams, my mother often died."

Sorot is no longer at the hospital, having been given the chance to start a new life in the U.S.

He was granted refugee status under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' mandate once restored to health. He left Thailand five months ago and now lives in Washington D.C. His final words to his companion before leaving were: "Take care. Please continue your walking practice." Zama has since found a renewed enthusiasm for his rehabilitation, according to hospital staff.

In a phone conversation from the U.S., Sorot said he had started working at an automobile parts factory two months ago after taking a three-month English course. He earns $1,300 a month, part of which he transfers via Bangladesh to his family in Rakhine.

ENDLESS WAIT Whether Zama will be as lucky remains uncertain. According to Rachakorn Surabhakdi, a field associate at the UNHCR Regional Office in Thailand, a total of 191 Rohingya were resettled in the U.S. between 2013 and the end of May 2016. As of mid-July, 342 Rohingya refugees remained at immigration detention facilities across the country. Having been through so much to get there, they now face the uncertainty of not knowing if or when their detention will end.

Despite the huge risks, the flood of people attempting the perilous journey appears unlikely to subside. Mohammad Saber, chairman of the Rohingya Thailand Group, believes Rohingya will continue to risk their lives at sea to escape the persecution and the humanitarian situation in Myanmar.

Nikkei staff writer Anchalee Romruen contributed to this story.

By Free Malaysia Today

September 27, 2016

As new Malaysian-born generations of Rohingyas arise, they will no longer be just ‘Rohingyas’ or Myanmarese.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is still grappling with the arrival and existence of more than a 150,000 Rohingyas.

And a lack of protection and policy has left Rohingyas in a state of limbo in Malaysia.

But something has to be done sooner rather than later to tackle this issue, according to Asean Today.

This is because Rohingya children are being born in Malaysia to Malaysian-born Rohingya mothers.

“With every new Malaysian-born generation of Rohingyas, it becomes increasingly clear that they are no longer just ‘Rohingyas’ or Myanmarese,” it points out.

An editorial in Asean Today says these second and third generation Malaysian-born Rohingyas are effectively stateless, as they are not eligible for residency or citizenship in Malaysia or Myanmar.

It draws parallels between their plight and that of Palestinians refugees living in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan.

“Today, many third or fourth generation, second-country born Palestinians do not have permanent residency or citizenship in their country of birth, even if the original refugees were in fact economic migrants.”

Therefore, as more and more Rohingyas are born in Malaysia, and the government continues to delay decisive action, citizenship and identity issues will pose additional problems in the future.

One third of the 150,000 refugees registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Malaysia are Rohingyas.

But advocacy groups say the number of registered Rohingyas is only a small portion of the actual number of Rohingyas living in the country.

“If Malaysia is waiting for the UNHCR to find countries accepting of the Rohingyas, they may be waiting a while,” says Asean Today.

It says since Malaysia already uses millions of foreign workers in its construction, manufacturing and domestic services sectors, it should find a way to utilise Rohingyas without encouraging illegal migration

“On multiple occasions, the Malaysian Government has proposed this exact strategy, but plans have never come to fruition. Part of overcoming these challenges will be establishing a system to assess the status of asylum seekers.”

Asean Today says: “Ultimately, this situation is a chance for Malaysia to prove its maturity as a nation and live up to its reputation as a tolerant country. Malaysia is in a prime position to take leadership of this issue and enhance its global credentials.”

By Lawi Weng & Tun Tun

The Irrawaddy

September 27, 2016

RANGOON — A Lower House lawmaker has asked that the government restrict birth rates within the Muslim community in two Arakan State townships: Maungdaw and Buthidaung—a move that was rejected by the Union health minister and described as “disturbing” by an international rights group.

Aung Taung Shwe of the Arakan National Party (ANP), representing Buthidaung Township, brought up the topic in Parliament on Sept. 22. Citing statistics on population—which The Irrawaddy could not verify—he suggested that Muslim Rohingya were having proportionally more children than the Buddhist Arakanese in these two townships.

“We need to restrict the birthrate in these areas. These are appropriate areas in which to enforce the law,” he said, referring to the highly controversial “Protection of Race and Religion” laws, put forward by ultranationalist Buddhist organization Ma Ba Tha and passed in 2015 under ex-President Thein Sein’s government.

One statute, the Population Control Law, says that state or regional governments can ask that the government “organize” women to space births 36 months apart, a law that critics say could be used against Burma’s Muslim population, who, according to the 2014 census, make up just 4.3 percent of the country.

“The authorities did not carry out their duties based on the law, and the population of the people has increased greatly,” Aung Taung Shwe alleged.

Union Minister for Health and Sport Dr. Myint Htwe called the ANP lawmaker’s suggestion a violation of “medical ethics” to sterilize women against their will. His ministry, he added, could not take action to restrict birth rates without an order from the President and the Union government.

David Scott Mathieson, a senior researcher on Burma in the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch, told The Irrawaddy that Aung Taung Shwe’s idea was “disturbing” and that there was “no evidence” of a rise in birth rates of the Rohingya Muslims. A call to reduce their population, he pointed out, was “tantamount to racial culling.”

Arakan State’s Rohingya community, who are locally labeled as “Bengali,” a term which implies that they are interlopers from Bangladesh, are widely stateless and face restrictions on their freedom of movement, access to medical care and education.

Mathieson added that the Population Control Law should be immediately repealed by the National League for Democracy-led (NLD) government. Furthermore, the NLD should respond by “stand[ing] firm” against racism and “commit to providing healthcare for all people living in these townships, based on real needs, not religion or citizenship.”

This, Mathieson said, would be “the best way to silence the voices of xenophobia.”

For Immediate Release 

27 September 2016 

BURMA: CSW URGES RAKHINE STATE GOVERNMENT TO HALT PLANS TO DEMOLISH ROHINGYA MOSQUES

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) today calls on the Rakhine (Arakhan) State Government, Burma, to halt plans to demolish more than 3,000 buildings associated with the Rohingya population on the pretext that they have been built illegally. This includes 12 mosques and 35 madrasas in the Muslim-majority townships of Maungdaw and Buthidaung.

The demolition order was announced on 18 September by Rakhine State’s Security and Border Affairs Minister, Colonel Htein Lin, and later confirmed by Maungdaw District General Administrator U Ye Htut. The Myanmar Times reports that at a press conference on 24 September, Colonel Htein Lin said that buildings in Maungdaw will be the first in Rakhine State to be examined for their legality and that no demolitions have started yet.

In a joint statement on 23 September, local and international Rohingya Muslim groups stated that the plans have “caused consternation to the entire Rohingya community,” adding that “this demolition project is part of their [Rakhine State Government’s] long-drawn-out annihilation and ethnic cleansing policy of the defenceless Rohingya people.”

The statement calls for a halt to the demolition plans, for the protection of religious sites and for the right to freedom of religion or belief to be upheld. Other calls include for basic freedoms to be restored to the Rohingya Muslim community in Rakhine State, the lifting of aid restrictions and the restoration of internally displaced persons to their homes and properties.

The Rohingya in Burma were stripped of their right to vote in Burma’s 2015 election, excluded from the most recent national census, and continue to be denied their legal right to citizenship. In a statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council in May 2016, CSW urged the government of Burma to repeal the 1982 Citizenship Law and guarantee the right to freedom of religion or belief for all.

Recent years have seen a dramatic escalation of human rights abuses, repression, discrimination and violence against the Rohingya. An estimated 150,000 people have been displaced and are living in camps which have been described by senior United Nations officials as having some of the worst conditions in the world. Over 100,000 Rohingya, more than ten percent of the population, have fled the country in the face of increasing repression, of whom thousands are believed to have drowned fleeing by boat.

CSW’s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said, “We are deeply concerned by the proposal to destroy mosques and madrasas in Rakhine State and urge the government of Burma to desist from any such action. Destroying these buildings would only further stoke tensions in the country and fuel the persecution of an already severely marginalised and dehumanised people group. We call on the government of Burma to uphold and protect freedom of religion or belief for all. We also urge the government to lift the block on humanitarian aid access to parts of Rakhine state, as well as Kachin and northern Shan States, and to ensure that all those displaced by conflict receive the humanitarian aid they urgently need. For that reason, we have launched a new phase of our Real Change for Refugees campaign – Real Change Burma.”

For further information or to arrange interviews please contact Kiri Kankhwende, Senior Press Officer at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on +44 (0)20 8329 0045 / +44 (0) 78 2332 9663, email kiri@csw.org.uk or visit www.csw.org.uk. 

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is a Christian organisation working for religious freedom through advocacy and human rights, in the pursuit of justice.

By AFP

September 26, 2016

Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been forced to take a rest from her state duties after becoming unwell during a state trip abroad, her office said Monday.

The 71-year-old was diagnosed with gastritis after returning from a visit to Britain and the US, her first trip to her Western allies since taking office in March.

Pictures of her being pushed through Yangon airport in a wheelchair posted on social media sparked concern about the Nobel Laureate's health and quickly went viral.

"She feels weak as she did not have much time to rest during the trip," her office said in a statement.

"She has a stomach ache as she did not have time to have regular meals," it added, adding that she "just needs to rest for a while".

Suu Kyi's health has long been a topic of speculation in Myanmar, where she is deeply revered after decades leading the struggle against the former military junta.

Since her release in 2011 from long years under house arrest she has kept a notoriously frenetic schedule despite her advanced years and slight frame.

But occasional bouts of ill health stopped her campaigning in 2012 and forced her to cancel public appearances last year. Earlier this year she also had operations to remove cataracts from both eyes.

Suu Kyi holds several key cabinet positions including foreign minister, as well as leading the government in a specially created role of state counsellor.

Many of her government cabinet members are also fellow democracy veterans of advanced years, leading a country with an otherwise burgeoning youth population.

Her doctor, Tin Myo Win, said he was "very busy with the health of Aung San Suu Kyi" when briefly reached by AFP, but declined to give further details.

By Hein Ko Soe

Frontier Myanmar 

September 26, 2016 

YANGON — Officials in Rakhine State have sought to downplay fears of building demolitions in Maungdaw District, after a government audit reported that over 3,000 structures had been built without permission.

Comments made in Maungdaw town by state Border Affairs Minister Col. Htein Lin on Sept. 18 about the state’s audit of religious buildings had sparked rumours the government was planning to take imminent action to tear down mosques, madrassas and homes in Rakhine’s north.

State Development Minister U Min Aung told Frontier on Friday that his government had no current plans to demolish buildings, and said Htein Lin’s comments had been taken out of context.

“So many rumours of the numbers of illegal buildings are spreading in the state and across the country,” he said. “But it is true that more than 3,000 illegal buildings exist [in Maungdaw District].”

He added that any action would be determined by the judiciary if the government decided to submit 'illegal' building cases to the courts.

As with other state and regional jurisdictions across the country, the Rakhine State government is carrying out a survey on behalf of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture of religious buildings constructed without ministry approval.

Rakhine authorities decided to carry out a parallel survey on other buildings constructed without planning approval in the district, which comprises the townships of Maungdaw and Buthidaung on the Bangladeshi border.

Min Aung claimed Friday that the same survey of all illegal buildings, rather than solely religious structures, would be carried out statewide.

Rohingya Muslims comprise the majority of the population in both townships. For decades, most Rohingya living in the district have had limited access to healthcare and education. Communal violence in 2012 resulted in increased travel restrictions and the denial of voting rights ahead of last year’s election. 

The survey of illegal buildings was denounced in a Friday statement by a coalition of European Rohingya organisations, who said that the government’s actions was an attempt to “destabilise the situation in the territory with intentions to frustrate any attempts to bring about peace and stability” in Rakhine State.

The buildings deemed illegal by the state government included 12 mosques and 35 madrasas, according to the statement.

The Religious Affairs Ministry has distanced itself from the state government’s actions, saying that Rakhine authorities were responsible for the illegal building survey.

“We are not managing audits of all illegal buildings in states and regions. Each state and regional government is managing it and we have already handed over all responsibility for that,” said U Aung San Win, a ministry director.

However, the Arakan National Party has voiced its support for demolishing illegal structures in Maungdaw and Buthidaung, with claims that the number of buildings without planning approval has grown rapidly in the last year.

U Tun Aung Thein, an ANP state lawmaker for Maungdaw, told Frontier on Friday he would raise an objection in the state assembly if the government refused to demolish illegal structures in the township.

On September 23, The Myanmar Times published the first of a two-part series about Raysuana, a young Rohingya woman who was discovered semi-conscious at a military compound in Sittwe township on August 18 and who died 12 hours later without being taken to a hospital or any kind of criminal inquiry having been launched. Today we look at what happened to her after she was found, and reveal why she did not receive the medical attention she so desperately needed. Read Part I here.

When Raysuana arrived at Thet Kya Pin Clinic at around 8am on August 18, the odds were already stacked against the young woman who had been found naked and injured in the bushes at a military compound earlier that morning.

The facility is a basic health centre for members of the Muslim Rohingya minority who are denied freedom of movement by state authorities and are usually required to go through a complicated referral process before they are allowed to go to the nearby state hospital.

It would be another hour until the state doctor would turn up for duty, and so the Thet Kya Pin village administrator U Hla Myint handed Raysuana over to the clinic’s medical assistants for care. She was placed on the bare metal slats of one of the clinic’s mattressless beds to await the doctor’s arrival.

Some clothes were hurriedly found and a woman at the clinic dressed Raysuana, noting as she did that there was blood around the young woman’s vagina.

“On the way to the clinic, I called to police and reported it and then I reported it to [a second] police station,” said U Hla Myint, who had been contacted earlier that morning by officers at the nearby military compound where Raysuana had been found and told to take her to the clinic.

“I arrived with her at the same time as the police got there,” said U Hla Myint.

But the police, who are under the authority of the military, did not open a criminal case.

U Hla Myint set off to the neighbouring camps and villages to find out if anyone knew of a missing woman. Raysuana’s mother had fled to Malaysia after riots broke out between ethnic Rakhine and Rohingya Muslims in 2012, leaving 140,000 displaced. Raysuana had been taken in by another family.

A victim of sexual assault, or psychiatric episode?

The “in-patients” section of Thet Kya Pin Clinic is, in reality, more outside than “in”. No wall separates the open-sided “ward” from the rest of the sparse health facility, and the male and female patients who lie on the few beds are entirely exposed to public view.

Such circumstances are far from ideal for any victim of gender-based violence.

But despite Raysuana having been found naked, other than a bra, and despite the fact that the woman who helped care for her when she arrived at the clinic reported possible injuries to her vagina, Raysuana was not treated as a potential victim of GBV.

Instead, sources have told The Myanmar Times that after the state doctor arrived she was classified as a psychiatric case.

This is understood to have played a significant role in why more effort was not made to ensure she received the necessary permission to be taken to the nearby state hospital for proper examination and treatment.

The allegation has been denied by the state health department, which told The Myanmar Times that because Raysuana was unable to speak, the doctor could not ascertain whether her condition was psychiatric in nature or not.

However, medical staff who attended the clinic later in the day are understood to have been told Raysuana’s was a psychiatric case and explained to their seniors later that they were not informed of the circumstances in which she was found.

The reason for the discrepancy in accounts is unknown. What is clear, however, is that due to inadequate medical assessments, a flawed and unclear set of referral protocols, and fear of reprisals, Raysuana was not treated as an emergency case nor as a possible victim of sexual violence.

The possibility that a confused, naked and injured young woman may have suffered a sexual assault and/or traumatic head injuries – with potentially life-threatening internal injuries – did not appear to be considered significant enough to either of the male doctors who treated Raysuana that day, nor to hospital authorities, to ensure she received an emergency referral.

“I believe if she’d been taken to hospital, she would have lived,” said one witness with a medical background who saw Raysuana at different moments from her arrival at the clinic until her death.

An act of kindness hides the truth

Dressing Raysuana was an act undertaken to restore her modesty. However, once she was clothed in a high-necked blouse and longyi, no further examination was undertaken to determine whether she was a victim of gender-based violence, or had internal injuries.

Indeed, such was the reluctance of the state doctor to examine her at all that he appears to have missed injuries even to less intimate parts of her anatomy.

The Myanmar Times spoke to three different medical workers involved in Raysuana’s treatment and each, separately, mentioned her most obvious injury was one to the back of her shoulder.

Yet according to the state medical department, no such injury was recorded in Raysuana’s medical notes. When The Myanmar Times asked Dr Thaung Hlaing, the state public health director, about this, he suggested the fact that she was clothed by the time the doctor saw her meant the wound was likely missed.

As for the possibility that Raysuana had been sexually assaulted, he appeared sceptical.

“For rape – I don’t agree,” said Dr Thaung Hlaing. “We can’t even see … could not see for medical reasons. Our doctor was also reluctant to handle her,” he said, referring to the fact that there was not a qualified female nurse or doctor present.

The state doctor did do a basic examination of Raysuana, checking her “extremities” and analysing her state of consciousness.

“Our doctor examined her [using] the Glasgow Coma State [assessment] and she was in the middle, borderline. He informed us and started the transfer [process to send her] to the city general hospital,” Dr Thaung Hlaing.

Protecting reputations, risking lives

But a second problem was coming to the fore. No one in the community had been found to identify Raysuana and there were no relatives to give any form of medical consent, so there was no one to travel with her to the hospital as an attendant.

According to international agencies based in Sittwe, in an emergency situation a patient can be transferred to the hospital from Rohingya camps or villages without an attendant.

Under “right to life” protocols and given the high possibility that Raysuana’s unconscious or semi-conscious state at the time she was found indicated the possibility of serious head trauma, she should have been sent straight to the hospital from the military compound rather than the clinic, an international expert in the state capital said.

But even following the doctor’s recommendation at the clinic, the local community and the medical authorities were reluctant to send Raysuana to hospital alone, and medical authorities denied her a transferral unless she had an attendant.

“Our department was ready to assist her to come, but unfortunately there was no one to come with her,” said Dr Thaung Hlaing. “I’m not making excuses; that’s just what happened.”

Among the many rumours that abound in ethnically and religiously divided Sittwe, one in particular strikes fear into the heart of the Rohingya community: There is a commonly held belief that Muslim patients who go to Sittwe Hospital are deliberately hurt or even murdered by the ethnic Rakhine staff who work there.

While reports of careless or insensitive treatment of Rohingya patients have on occasion been verified by witnesses, no evidence has emerged of deliberate harm, let alone murder.

Regardless of their veracity, the impact of these rumours has been significant. Not only were members of the Rohyinga community reluctant to send Raysuana to hospital unaccompanied, but also hospital authorities refused to take her amid fears they could be held responsible were she to die without a witness from her own ethnic background.

“The other [Rohingya] community still doesn’t have trust in our hospital. If we admitted her without an attendant and she died, we can’t explain why or what we did,” said Dr Thaung Hlaing.

He added, “They don’t dare accept her in case the media or the international community say something.”

Too frightened to get involved

As the village head U Hla Myint’s efforts to find anyone who knew the injured young woman continued to prove fruitless, he asked if anyone else from the community would be willing to accompany her to hospital, but no volunteer came forward.

“They were not her relatives and they were afraid the girl would die in hospital. They didn’t want to be involved,” he said.

With no one to accompany Raysuana, and the hospital refusing to take her alone, the doctor put her on a drip and admitted her to the clinic while the search for her family continued.

“We have the drip-line there and put these measures in front of people,” said Dr Thaung Hlaing.

He added that if Raysuana died at the clinic with witnesses there, it would cause fewer problems than were she to die alone in hospital with no one from her community to witness what had happened.

“My doctor was very reluctant even to touch her, [other than] for life-saving measures.”

As for ensuring she was treated for a possible sexual assault, “If we’re informed there’s been an assault we’ll check but otherwise we can’t. If it’s not a police case, we can’t and the police did not inform us,” he explained.

According to those working on gender-based violence issues, it does not legally require that a formal police case be opened for an incident to be treated as possible GBV. This is not something those involved in Raysuana’s case appeared to be aware of, or willing to put into practice.

“She was very unlucky. My doctor didn’t see any red [blood stain] on her longyi,” Dr Thaung Hlaing added, saying that without such clearly visible evidence, the doctor was unable to act.

A second chance for help missed

At around 2:30 that afternoon – by which time Raysuana had been lying in the open facility for around six-and-a-half hours having had only the most cursory of examinations – a doctor from the INGO Mercy Malaysia arrived to take over medical care at the clinic.

According to sources, Raysuana, having been admitted to the clinic as an in-patient, was not considered to be under his charge as the organisation was tasked solely with out-patient treatments and hospital referrals that afternoon.

The Mercy Malaysia doctor did, however, examine her “informally”.

“As soon as [the doctor] realised she was semi-conscious, he said she should be referred to hospital and called for an ambulance,” said one source present at the time.

The source said the doctor did not believe Raysuana was at imminent risk of death, but considered it important that she receive X-rays and other medical checks that could not be carried out at the clinic due to its lack of facilities.

“But the problem was [she] needed a security guard and a patient attendant, but they said she’s’ ‘unknown’ and there was no attendant so [the doctor] cannot refer her,” said the source.

According to the source, “[The doctor said he] didn’t know how serious Raysuana’s condition was, but because of the situation it did not look like an emergency. Her condition was stable.”

Asked why this second doctor had not followed up on the possibility that Raysuana had been a victim of gender-based violence, another source close to the case said the doctor had not been made fully aware of the circumstances in which the young woman had been found.

The source said that according to his understanding of events, Raysuana had gained some consciousness and at times had been able to get up and was acting erratically.

“[The Mercy Malaysia doctor] saw this woman pulling out her drip and wandering around incoherent and accepted the assessment of the state doctor who had admitted her – that she was a psychiatric case,” the source said.

It should be noted that no direct witnesses, including medical staff, spoken to during interviews in Rakhine State described such behaviour by Raysuana.

U Hla Myint, the village administrator, returned to the clinic at around 5pm.

“I said to the doctor, ‘No one wants to take care of her in hospital so what should we do?’ The doctor said, ‘Let her stay one night [at the clinic] and check on her condition.’”

By 6pm, the Mercy Malyasia doctor left the clinic for the night, leaving Raysuana in the care of Yasmin (not her real name), a Rohingya woman who had worked at Sittwe General Hospital before the inter-communal conflicts of 2012 and acted as a nurse at the clinic.

Around an hour later Raysuana died, having regained the ability to speak in the last minutes of her life when she called out for her mother.

“She was very unlucky,” said Dr Thaung Hlaing. “If she could have overcome the night, she could have come to the hospital.”

A final indignity

Early the following morning, U Hla Myint’s attempts to discover Raysuana’s identity finally had some success – although it was too late for the young woman.

He received a message that someone knew of a girl matching Raysuana’s description who had been living in Ohn Taw Shay and then later Let That Mar villages.

It emerged that as well as her “second mother” at Ohn Taw Shay, where Raysuana had stayed for three years after being displaced in the 2012 riots, as well as Su Ra Ka Tu, the mother of her friend in Let That Mar, with whom she had been living before her disappearance, she also had a cousin by marriage living on the outskirts of Thet Kya Pin.

But like others in the community, Raysuana’s relatives did not want to get involved either.

Idris, an elder from Let That Mar, takes up the story.

“We found out what had happened when the head of the village [U Hla Myint] came to us,” he said.

Her Let That Mar friends collected Raysuana’s body from the clinic and carried her to her relatives’ home.

“But they were not close relatives and they didn’t want to bury her. That’s why we had to take her back here,” Idris explained.

“There was no investigation, but we reported it to the police at the gate [the checkpoint for people entering the Rohingya villages].

“At first we waited for some investigation and then we asked the police and the head of the village how we should proceed. We were told it’s a normal inquiry for this case so we can bury her now.”

Standing by the patch of earth where she laid Raysuana’s body to rest last month, Su Ra Ka Tu recalls the day she buried the young woman she had hoped would become a sister-in-law to her daughter.

“I first saw her body in the morning after she died and by the time we got her here to the village it was about 11am. I buried her at 4pm.

“We couldn’t call her family before I buried her. At the time there was no phone connection to Malaysia.”

Raysuana was buried without an autopsy or even a doctor’s declaration as to cause of death. Demands by Amnesty International for an independent inquiry have so far gone unmet.

As for the state health authorities and international agencies involved in this case, so far no public announcement has been made as to what action will be taken to prevent such an incident from happening again.

By Yi Yawl Myint

The Myanmar Times

September 26, 2016
 

By Mahmood Hasan

The Daily Star

September 26, 2016

There seems to be a very thin light of hope that the lot of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state of Myanmar may change for the better. Guarded optimism was expressed by some after former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was chosen to lead a commission which is supposed to find a lasting solution to the communal conflict in Rakhine state. 

On August 23, 2016, a government notice announced that the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State was established between the office of State Counsellor and Foreign Minister of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Kofi Annan Foundation. The commission will be chaired by Kofi Annan and will include three international and six national members, and will meet all relevant stakeholders and international experts with a view “to finding the best possible solution to prevailing problems”. It will have 12 months to “submit its findings and recommendations”. This is an unprecedented move, as Myanmar has never allowed foreigners in any government commission.

Annan visited Sittwe from September 5-7 to meet local leaders and see for himself the Thet Ke Pyin Squalid refugee camp, where 140,000 internally displaced Rohingyas are living in dire humanitarian conditions.

During the visit, Annan met with rowdy protests from angry Buddhists, waving “No outsiders”, “No to foreigners” placards. Along with Buddhist bigots, the Arakan National Party (ANP) and the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) were protesting the inclusion of three foreign members in the commission. They argue that the conflict in Rakhine is Myanmar's internal issue and no foreigner should be allowed to engage with it. The commission does not have any representation from the Rohingya community.

Addressing the press in Yangon on September 8, Annan sought to dispel concerns over the potential partiality of the commission, saying that his mandate is to take on board concerns of both the state's Buddhist and Muslim communities and not to police human rights. “We are here to help at the request of the government and we see this as a Myanmar Commission that we are participating in, bringing in some international dimensions and you will get an honest report from all of us”, said Annan. He also said both Burma and Bangladesh will need to collaborate to resolve the problem.

Rakhine is home to more than 1.1 million stateless Rohingya Muslims, whom Buddhists call “Kalar” and “Bengalis” - derogatory terms referring them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Rohingyas, denied citizenship, face violent discrimination from the majority of Myanmar that have left them in a pathetic state.

In 2012, waves of deadly riots broke out between the two communities, which left more than 200 Rohingyas brutally killed. The conflict became an international issue when hundreds perished at sea as thousands tried to flee Myanmar by boats to neighbouring countries. Over 300,000 unregistered Rohingyas are sheltered in Bangladesh. The United Nations describes the Rohingyas as “the most persecuted minorities in the world”.

Interestingly, the Commission began its work in Yangon in early September between two important events. First, the Panglong Conference convened by Suu Kyi, which ended on September 4, 2016; and second, Suu Kyi's visit to Washington at the invitation of President Obama.

Though the Panglong Conference, which sought to make a peace deal with Myanmar's 18 ethnic groups and three insurgent armies, ended inconclusively, the Annan Commission is seen as a part of the reconciliation process initiated by Suu Kyi.

In Washington, Suu Kyi was virtually treated as Head of State. She was received by President Obama at the White House on September 14, 2016. To encourage further democratic reforms, President Obama lifted the trade sanctions imposed on Myanmar in 1989 and also restored GSP facilities for Myanmar exports to the US.

Since assuming the onerous role of chief of the NLD-led government, Suu Kyi has been trying to push for democratic reforms and consolidate her position as State Counsellor – euphemism for Prime Minister. Suu Kyi is keen to show to the generals the economic benefits of a democratic transition. She is also eager to show that democracy can unify the nation by bringing in different armed ethnic minorities, including the Rohingyas, through reconciliation. Indeed, Suu Kyi needs the support of the West, particularly Washington, in her efforts.

Suu Kyi was widely criticised for not condemning the riots of 2012. Her silence had actually encouraged the “Ma Ba Tha”(Protection of Race and Religion) movement led by xenophobic Buddhist monk Ashin Wirathu to instigate communal riots. She formed the Commission with international personalities not only to silence her critics but also to raise her administration's authority and credibility.

Addressing the 71st UN General Assembly in New York, Suu Kyi referred to the Rohingya issue saying, “By standing firm against the forces of prejudice and intolerance, we are reaffirming our faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person”. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina met Suu Kyi on September 19 on the sidelines of the UNGA, and welcomed the Kofi Annan Commission. If Kofi Annan needs help, surely Bangladesh will come forward.

Assuming that the Commission makes recommendations for the restoration of rights of the Rohingyas, it will be difficult for NLD not to implement them. On the other hand, given the widespread racial intolerance, it will test Suu Kyi's efforts towards restoring the rights of the Rohingyas, including citizenship. More importantly, whether the military generals will accept the Commission's proposals remains to be seen.

However, hopes have been raised when Suu Kyi said that there was “persistent opposition from some quarters” to the establishment of the Commission, but her government would persevere in its efforts to achieve peace in Rakhine. Let us hope that Aung San Suu Kyi will firmly handle Buddhist fanaticism and redress the plight of Rohingyas in Rakhine.

....................................................................

The writer is former Ambassador and Secretary.

By Roy Goh

The New Strait Times Online

September 24, 2016

Malaysia may be able to host them temporarily but Zahid said a more comprehensive plan was needed to resolve their problems and it needs the help from their home country - Myanmar, designated host country, Asean as well as the United Nations. 

Zahid said however he has full confidence in the UN High Commissioner of Refugees Filippo Grandi in dealing with the displaced Muslim minority community from Myanmar despite the many setbacks particularly in financial matters. 

Zahid and Grandi met on the sidelines in the on going 71st United Nations General Assembly on Thursday. 

“On out part together with Asean, an international conference is being mooted for all 10 member countries of the bloc to sit together and discuss to find a solution for the community,” he said. 

Zahid said the conference to be organised by the Institute of Public Security and a religious based party will also involve non governmental organisations that has dealt with the Rohingyas before. 

Among the issues to be discussed would be the reason why many designated countries were reluctant to accept them. 

“Some countries there are many of the refugees and that they were being selective, preferring only professionals, skilled or semi skilled workers. 

“This is where we can probably discuss how we could train them and improve their marketability in designated host countries,” he said. 

Zahid stressed Myanmar would also be invited so that their opinion could be included in the process of resolving the issue.