The Nasaka and A Rohingya 

Ro Mayyu Ali

RB Poem

April 3, 2017

I was born to a bona fide 

By the genetic of Rohingya 

And it's Nasaka as a foetus 

In the womb of my country's dictatorship 

Known as one of the world's most brutal Juntas 

Perhaps, it's in 1991's Myanmar. 

In scorching heat of 1992, 

He with thousands of comrades 

In over hundreds of settlements 

With quite switch of Junta's past strategies 

Taken encounter into my heaven 

Not only to hack the branches 

But to eliminate the entire root 

"Look! A Bengali student! 

He'll pass matric and marry a wife who gives 10 million kyats. That's the only benefit of his educating in our Buddhist country!" 

Still echoing into my head 

What he told me in a check post 

While going to sit for my matric exam 

How could I forget each of his? 

He and me, not less than a pair 

Even he from royal Junta 

And I from prey of Rohingyas 

How much he's called me 'Bengali' 

In his tone of red-nose mood 

Never be the equal grand of 

My mom ever called me 'Dear' 

Moment of my frequent glimpse 

Into the hidden chapter of his reign 

A time of my heart feeling goes out 

Fear is my first feeling 

When I open my eyes in morning 

Just life in empty joy 

Sound sleep through the lonesome dark 

Because of chronic and traumatic 

Shame and guiltiness begin to surround 

Thought of ending life is common 

I might forget his feature 

Shall never I forget 

How he made me feel in my boyhood. 

What he led me suffering 

In full guile of rigor and rampage 

A high-court level of sobs and wails 

Identities were confiscated. 

Testimonies were degraded. 

Peak of denial in every step 

Tangible coercion for every breath 

In a very short length of stay, 

Everything in our life descended 

Into a whirlpool of wreckage 

And ornament of havoc, as well 

Ah! How allergic all of his were! 

Every single practice of his flares 

The dark pines of our mind dip deeper. 

Women are widowed and single. 

New-born are without certificates. 

Children are lack of welfare. 

Young people are broken. 

All lost hope and are traumatized. 

To a group, every string is well-cutted off. 

This is the way a group of people be expelled 

Not with a mass slaughter 

But with whimper after whimper 

Indeed, he's one of the most doleful 

Of genocidal operations against Rohingya 

So even the masterpiece of Bengalization to elite Rohingya 

He's the one 

Who herds affection towards the animosity 

He's the one 

Who turns other's dream to nightmare 

He's the one 

Who keeps people dead being alive 

At the end his decade, 

All ever has he well set up 

Bequeathing his innate legacy 

The victory he sought was won 

And farewell in laughter and flavour 

On 15 of June, 2013, 

He the cobra saw the bound of the halt 

And transformed to BGP 

And I'm made an incredible illegal immigrant. 

Verily, I'm made an immigrant Bengali. 

I'm seen as a Bengali. 

And now I'm a Bengali. 

A Myanmar's well-generated Bengali! 

The poet is an original Rohingya. He himself was the victim of Nasaka operation. Nasaka, the Burmese term called to Border Immigration Forces. In 1992, it's established by Myanmar's Junta administration to set up the genocidal strategies against Rohingya. After 2012-June violence, it officially came to a halt on 5 of March, 2013. And now it is seen as the Border Guard Police (BGP) in Northern Rakhine State.

By Antoni Slodkowski 

Reuters

March 31, 2017

YANGON -- The leader of a Rohingya Muslim insurgency against Myanmar's security forces said on Friday his group would keep fighting "even if a million die" unless the country's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, took action to protect the religious minority.

Attacks on Myanmar border guard posts in October last year by a previously unknown insurgent group ignited the biggest crisis of Suu Kyi's year in power, with more than 75,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh in the ensuing army crackdown.

In his first independently conducted media interview, Ata Ullah, who has been identified by analysts and local people as the group's leader, denied links to foreign Islamists and said it was focussed on the rights of the Rohingya, who say they face persecution at the hands of Myanmar's Buddhist majority.

"If we don't get our rights, if 1 million, 1.5 million, all Rohingya need to die, we will die," he said, speaking via a video call from an undisclosed location. "We will take our rights. We will fight with the cruel military government."

A United Nations report issued last month said Myanmar's security forces have committed mass killings and gang rapes against Rohingya during their campaign against the insurgents, which may amount to crimes against humanity.

The military has denied the accusations, saying it was engaged in a legitimate counterinsurgency operation.

"No one will be above the law," said Suu Kyi's spokesman Zaw Htay, responding to questions from Reuters on Friday about the insurgent leader's comments. "If they attack us violently, we will respond the same way. Nowhere in the world would violent action be tolerated."

ETHNIC CLASHES

More than a million Rohingya live in northwestern Myanmar's Rakhine State, where they are denied citizenship, freedom of movement and access to services such as healthcare. Serious ethnic clashes between Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists erupted in 2012 in which more than 100 people were killed and some 140,000 were displaced.

"In 2012, lots of things happened and they killed us, so we understood at that time, they would not give us our rights," said Ata Ullah.

A report by the International Crisis Group in December said the insurgent group, which at first called itself Harakah al-Yaqin, Arabic for "Faith Movement", was formed by Rohingya living in Saudi Arabia after the 2012 violence.

It identified Ata Ullah, who appeared in a series of videos claiming responsibility for the Oct. 9 attacks on security forces, as the group's leader.

Ata Ullah said decades of resentment at their treatment had prompted hundreds of young Rohingya men to join him after he returned to Rakhine following several years in Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia.

"We can't turn on the lights at night. We can't move from one place to another during the day too. Everywhere checkpoints. That is not the way human beings live," he said.

Rohingya refugees Reuters has spoken to in camps in Bangladesh have said that many initially sympathised with the insurgents, but that the violence their campaign has unleashed had cost them support. Some have described how suspected government informers were killed by fighters.

"WE SURVIVE BY SELLING COWS"

In the earlier videos, Ata Ullah had cited Koranic verse and called for "jihad".

Suu Kyi's spokesman, Zaw Htay, said he "urged the international community to see the group's background...they are linked with terrorist organizations from the Middle East".

But Ata Ullah denied the group, which issued a statement earlier this week saying it was changing its name to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, had any connections with other militants or received outside support.

"We have no groups who help us from behind, whether from here or also abroad...We survive here by selling cows and buffalos," he said.

Myanmar's military said last month that what it called a clearance operation in northwestern Rakhine had ended, although the area remains closed to outside observers. 

Ata Ullah did not respond to several questions regarding the group's future strategy, its current location or how many fighters were left with him. Flanking him as a spoke to Reuters was another man brandishing a machine gun.

The Rohingya crisis has posed the biggest challenge to Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi's government, which on Thursday marked its first year in power. Her defenders say there is little she can do, given the constitution gives her no control over the military.

"The people are in such trouble, the military is so cruel to many in the Rohingya community, so she should speak out, do something for these people as a Nobel prize winner," said Ata Ullah. "If she tries to do something for us, the military would do something to her government. That's why she will not protect us."

(Reporting by Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Alex Richardson)

By Editorial Board

Pittsburgh Post Gazette

March 31, 2017

A year ago, the political ice thawed in Myanmar, with Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi playing a larger role. There was some thought that life there, in particular its human rights record, might improve.

It turns out that rather than clean up the act of Myanmar’s long-ruling generals, Ms. Suu Kyi has come increasingly to serve as a more human front for the generals’ activities. The inter-ethnic and religious conflicts that have characterized the country’s history are continuing and perhaps growing even worse.

In particular, the conflict between the majority Buddhists of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, and the Muslim Rohingya minority has become sharper. Thousands of Rohingya, in the face of persecution, are fleeing into neighboring Bangladesh as refugees. The treatment of the Rohingya by the Myranmar government is coming to be called genocide by some international observers, staining deeply the reputation of Ms. Suu Kyi, who has yet to take a stand on their behalf.

The larger long-standing problem of Myanmar, population 55 million, is the continuing quest for autonomy, sometimes by military means, of 17 of its some 100 ethnic minorities. The country’s military continues to try to suppress these groups by force, prompting some to take up arms. Some claim that Ms. Suu Kyi has as yet showed no willingness to resolve the problems with them through negotiations.

It is possible to be kind and say that she is waiting to solidify her own position further, especially vis-a-vis the Myanmar military, before tackling knotty intra-Myanmar problems directly. It is also possible to suggest that, having been under detention for years for championing democracy, she does not want to risk her political resurrection and current position by taking on some of the basic problems of her country.

But Ms. Suu Kyi’s position toward the problem of Myanmar’s minorities, particularly the Rohingya, does not enhance her reputation for humanity or greatness. The daughter of an independence leader, she has showed indomitable courage in the face of government military coercion in past years. The people of the country and the world continue to expect a lot of her.

By Joseph K. Grieboski

The Hill

March 31, 2017

Gang rape and mass slaughter: That is the appalling reality of the Rohingya of Myanmar. To categorize the ruthless campaign against this Muslim minority as anything less than genocidal would be false. Even so, the persecuted remain on the periphery of any major humanitarian initiatives or international outcry.

Every day, the brutality worsens, yet every day, the Rohingya are forsaken.

The Rohingya have been dubbed "boat people" and have had their boats full of women and children pushed back into the sea by government officials of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. In addition to being a blatant violation of international law, shoving these boats back out to sea leave the Rohingya at the mercy of the elements, exposed, with no alternative haven within safe reach.

Joining the ranks of peoples displaying a gross indifference to the plight of the Rohingya is the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, where some Rohingya have settled. In the predominantly Hindu district of Jammu, a resurgence of nationalist sentiment has incited the same ultra-nationalist rhetoric used by the Buddhists of Myanmar. The Rohingya are painted as potential terrorists in Jammu and the call for their relocation is fervent.

Yet again, nations seek to shift their responsibilities elsewhere.

This growing hostility toward refugees holds dire repercussions. Despite its absence from the Trump administration's travel ban, the consequences of halting America's refugee program will affect Myanmar the most. With 160,000 refugees settled in the United States, Myanmar accounts for over 25 percent of the United States' new refugees. With the current restrictions in place, the Rohingya's capacity to enter the United States is effectively eliminated.

Bangladesh's proposed resettlement of Rohingya refugees takes the minority group from sordid, makeshift camps to the remote island of Thengar Char. At first glance, what manifests itself as a solution to the refugee crisis in Bangladesh is, in reality, a far grimmer method of addressing the problem.

Monsoons and heavy rainfall reduce Thengar Char to an uninhabitable island as it is subjected to flooding and swamp-like conditions nearly year-round. To worsen matters, pirates occupy and swarm the island, increasing the possibility of vulnerable Rohingya becoming trafficked or tangled in criminal activity.

Bangladesh's readiness to transfer the Rohingya to a squalid island raises numerous concerns and questions the motive behind the resettlement. The island contains no freshwater and lacks any basic infrastructure needed to sustain life. While donor money put into vitalizing the island will assist the Rohingya for the time being, aid officials believe this to be a ploy by the Bangladeshi government to reap the benefits of having a newly developed island once the Rohingya return to Myanmar.

Additionally, the towns in Bangladesh with Rohingya settlements are now poised to undergo redevelopment in an attempt to boost tourism to the areas.

All signs point to exploitation, not progress.

In January, Yanghee Lee, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar embarked on a 12-day trip to investigate human rights conditions in the country. During her time in Myanmar, Lee was barred access to certain areas in Rakhine State, the Rohingya's ancestral home, due to "security concerns." The disobliging nature of the government only served to strengthen the allegations of corruption and human rights violations rampant in the country.

Lee ultimately offered an ominous warning following her visit: The systemic oppression of the Rohingya is culminating in a permanent expulsion.

Numerous ineffectual commissions investigating the crimes against the Rohingya have been established, but have thus far offered inconsistent findings. Now, after surmounting pressure and the risk of complicity, the European Union has finally put forth a resolution calling for an international inquiry into the abuses. The United Nations agreed to adopt the resolution and will send a high-level probe to investigate, but did not call for the highest level of investigation.

The body's decision comes after months of standing by idly in hopes that Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi herself would take corrective measures to address the injustices.

Still, she remains uncooperative and unresponsive.

Suu Kyi must be held accountable for her crimes and stripped of her Nobel Peace Prize. As an accomplice to the crimes against humanity occurring in Myanmar, Suu Kyi is unworthy of possessing an award dedicated to individuals upholding the very principle she has failed to achieve: peace.

Her inability to end the violence against the Rohingya signifies her ineptitude as both a leader and a human rights activist. The integrity of the Nobel Prize can only be maintained through its revocation. We cannot allow an abuser to be regarded as a protector.

The shameful inaction of the international community will go down as a stain in our shared history of safeguarding human rights and religious freedom. Indifference to one's plight is akin to complicity.

Time is running out for the Rohingya; action must be taken, and it must be taken now.

Joseph K. Grieboski is the chairman and CEO of Grieboski Global Strategies, founder and chairman of the Institute on Religion and Public Policy, and founder and secretary-general of the Interparliamentary Conference on Human Rights and Religious Freedom.

By The Daily Star

March 30, 2017

Local customs have seized large quantity of Myanmar military dress and other items from Teknaf land port in Cox’s Bazar.

Among them were 200 sets of military uniform, 186 bags, 452 belts, 18 bullet bags and 50 caps, our Cox’s Bazar correspondent reports.

Other items include sandals, dried fish, tamarind seeds and pickles.

The items were seized in a raid last evening, said Mosharraf Hossain Selim, customs official of Teknaf land port. “These uniforms were smuggled into the country.”

Rahman Trading and SR Trading imported the military uniforms declaring that they were importing dried fish, tamarind seeds and pickles.

According to the documents prepared by the customs officials, a youth from Bandarban moved Rahman Trading to import the military uniforms.

Border Guard Battalion Captain Lt Col Abuzar Al Jahid said, a youth Bhu Aung Chakma was detained in this connection.

This morning, Teknaf Model Police Station Officer-in-Charge Md Main Uddin Khan said he knew nothing about the seized items and nobody was handed over to police custody.

By Anadolu Agency

March 30, 2017

YANGON, Myanmar: A delegation of 10 EU officials arrived in a part of Myanmar wracked by alleged atrocities committed by security forces against Rohingya Muslims in recent months.

The ten-strong group, led by Colin Steinbach, political head of the EU office in Yangon, arrived in Maungdaw, a town in Rahkine state bordering Bangladesh, for a three-day visit.

State government spokesman Tin Maung Swe said the officials would meet figures from the state authorities, political parties and local communities.

“They arrived in Maungdaw today and will be back in state capital Sittwe on Friday,” he told Anadolu Agency by telephone.

The group arrived in Sittwe on Tuesday, where they met senior officials and the deputy speaker of regional parliament.

Tens of thousands of people have fled Rakhine since the military began a clearance operation last October following the deaths of nine police officers in attacks on border posts.

During the operation, the UN and rights groups have documented widespread abuses by security forces such as killings -- including of children and babies -- gang rapes, brutal beatings, the burning of villages and disappearances.

The government has said at least 106 people were killed during the operation but Rohingya groups have said around 400 Rohingya were killed.

The UN Human Rights Council decided last week to send a fact-finding mission to Myanmar to investigate alleged violations.

However, the government rebuffed the UN decision, claiming the mission would inflame the situation.

A group of 20 local and foreign journalists is also visiting Maungtaw, state-run newspapers said Wednesday. The district had been off-limits to journalists and rights activists during the crackdown.

By AFP

March 30, 2017

A nascent Rohingya militant group whose raids triggered a bloody crackdown by Myanmar's army called Wednesday for international peacekeepers to protect the stateless Muslim minority.

Attacks on police border posts in northern Rakhine State in October claimed by the group, which now calls itself the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ASRA), sparked a crackdown by security forces that sent tens of thousands fleeing to Bangladesh.

In a statement widely shared by Rohingya activists outside of Myanmar the outfit said it had acted to "defend, salvage and protect (the) Rohingya community in Arakan (Rakhine)".

"We have the legitimate right under international law to defend ourselves in line with the principle of self-defence," it said.

AFP was unable to verify where the statement came from.

The group, largely unknown until October's attacks, denied any links to terrorism, saying it was fighting to further Rohingya rights -- including citizenship -- and retrieve their "ancestral lands".

It also called for the international community to take "necessary measures, including sending peacekeeping forces into Arakan State".

The statement was signed by "commander-in-chief" Ata Ullah, who has appeared in several videos demanding political rights for Rohingya.

Myanmar's government has accused the group of being terrorists whose leaders were backed by Middle Eastern money and trained by the Taliban.

Conflict analysts at the International Crisis Group said the outfit was born from sectarian violence that ripped Rakhine apart in 2012 and drove tens of thousands of Rohingya into displacement camps.

The minority are rejected by Myanmar's Buddhist majority as interlopers from Bangladesh and denied citizenship.

UN investigators believe security forces have killed hundreds of Rohingya in the wake of the October attacks in a campaign so brutal it may be construed as a crime against humanity.

Last week the UN Human Rights Council agreed to dispatch a fact-finding mission to ensure "full accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims".

Myanmar's civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi has dismissed the claims and said the probe would only "inflame" the conflict.

The Nobel laureate has faced a storm of criticism for not speaking out against the military, which ruled the country for 50 years and still controls the ministries of defence, borders and home affairs.

Voice of America

March 30, 2017

Hard-line Buddhists ride on motorbikes during a protest march, led by Rakhine State's dominant Arakan National Party, against the government's plan to give citizenship to some members of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority community in Sittwe, Rakhine state, Myanmar, March 19, 2017.

By Peck Grant

Associated Press

March 28, 2017

BANGKOK — An armed militant group fighting Myanmar's government on behalf of the country's Muslim Rohingya minority has issued a statement asserting its right to self-defense and denying links to any terrorist group.

The statement, dated March 29 but released Tuesday through overseas sympathizers, is the first public announcement issued in the name of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which previously called itself the Faith Movement, or Harakah al-Yaqin. Analysts including the Brussel-based International Crisis Group say it has been carrying out armed resistance.

The statement says the group "came forward to defend, salvage and protect Rohingya community in Arakan with our best capacities as we have the legitimate right under international law to defend ourselves in line with the principle of self-defense." Arakan is another term for Rakhine, the western state of Myanmar where most of the country's 1 million Rohingya live.

The Rohingya face severe discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar and were the targets of inter-communal violence in 2012 that killed hundreds and drove about 140,000 people — predominantly Rohingya — from their homes to camps for the internally displaced, where most remain. Most are denied citizenship because they are looked on as having migrated illegally from Bangladesh.

The statement issued 20 demands to the government for ensuring Rohingya rights.

In October last year, armed men killed nine Myanmar border guards, triggering a savage counterinsurgency sweep by the army in the Rohingya area of Rakhine. Alleged human rights abuses by the army, including rape and killing of civilians and the burning of more than 1,000 homes, caused international criticism and led to a U.N. Human Rights Council call last week for an independent international investigation.

Harakah al-Yaqin has taken credit for the killings of the border guards, according to the International Crisis Group, and the government has accused them of being terrorists.

"We do not associate with any terrorist group across the world," the Arakan group's statement said. "We do not commit any form of terrorism against any civilian regardless of their religious and ethnic origin as we do not subscribe to the notion of committing terrorism for our legitimate cause. "

It said the group assures "the safety and wellbeing of all ethnic communities, their places of worship and properties" in Rakhine state.

An extensive report issued last December by the International Crisis Group said the Harakah al-Yaqin "is led by a committee of Rohingya emigres in Saudi Arabia and is commanded on the ground by Rohingya with international training and experience in modern guerrilla war tactics. It benefits from the legitimacy provided by local and international fatwas (religious judicial opinions) in support of its cause and enjoys considerable sympathy and backing from Muslims in northern Rakhine state, including several hundred locally trained recruits." It said the group did not appear to have jihadist motivations.

The report said that "the group apparently killed several informers."

The group's statement was signed by its leader, Ata Ullah, who has appeared in several videos showing him proclaiming the group's positions while surrounded by armed followers.

By AFP

March 27, 2017

YANGON: Myanmar's army chief defended a military crackdown in Rakhine State on Monday (Mar 27) after the UN pledged to probe claims security forces carried out a campaign of killing and torture against Rohingya Muslims there.

Almost 75,000 people from the persecuted minority have escaped to Bangladesh after the military launched operations in the north of the restive state to find Rohingya militants who raided police border posts in October.

UN investigators believe security forces may have committed crimes against humanity. Last week the UN Human Rights Council agreed to dispatch an independent international fact-finding mission, with a view to "ensuring full accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims".

Myanmar has long faced criticism for its treatment of the more than one million Rohingya who live in Rakhine State, who are rejected as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh or "Bengalis" despite many living there for generations.

Speaking to crowds assembled in the capital for armed forces day, army chief Min Aung Hlaing on Monday defended the military campaign.

"The Bengalis in Rakhine State are not the Myanmar nationalities but the immigrants," he said, according to an official translation.

"The terrorist attacks which took place in October 2016 resulted in the political interferences."

Myanmar's civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi has meanwhile rebuffed the UN probe, saying any international fact-finding mission "would do more to inflame, rather than resolve, the issues at this time".

The country's powerful military until recently ruled Myanmar with an iron fist and built up a notorious reputation for rights abuses, especially when conducting operations against restive ethnic insurgents.

Almost all Rohingya are denied citizenship and forced to live in apartheid-like conditions, while tens of thousands of them have been confined to dire camps since violence drove them from their homes in 2012.

This month a commission led by former UN chief Kofi Annan to resolve issues in Rakhine recommended the camps be closed and said restrictions on freedom of movement should be lifted.

By Lindsay Murdoch