Latest Highlight

Rabeya's two-year-old daughter sleeps inside their temporary shelter in the makeshift Balukhali camp in Ukhiya, Cox's Bazar district, in south eastern Bangladesh, April 8, 2017. Since October 2016, almost 75,000 people fleeing violence in the northern area of Rakhine State in neighboring Myanmar have arrived in Bangladesh. Many are living in unplanned and overcrowded settlements in the district of Cox's Bazar where living conditions are extremely poor. On 20 March 2017, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) launched a $3.2 million emergency appeal in support of the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society's efforts to address the most urgent humanitarian needs of the newly arrived migrants. The appeal seeks to ensure that 25,000 of the new arrivals will receive food aid and other emergency relief items, including shelter materials, together with clean water, sanitation, psychosocial support and health care over a nine-month period. Photo: Mirva Helenius / IFRC

By Rebecca Wright
April 19, 2017

They say they ran from murder and persecution. They've ended up in mud huts on the Bay of Bengal.

And with the torrential rains of the monsoon season approaching, along with the threat of cyclones and floods, the fate of tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees living in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh looks as precarious as their makeshift shelters.

"It's becoming a silent crisis which does not have the international attention that it deserves, given the scale of the needs of the people and the uncertain future they are facing," says Ezekiel Simperingham, Asia Pacific Regional Migration Coordinator for the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC).

New photographs of the refugees show only the fortunate have tarpaulins for a roof, the rest stretch black plastic over bamboo frames. Mats on the hard ground are beds.

"Their shelters are not strong enough to withstand these extreme weather patterns," Simperingham says.

The UN estimates that 74,000 Rohingyas have crossed the border into Bangladesh since Myanmar began a military crackdown in northern Rakhine State following attacks on border guards on October 9 last year.

Many of those fleeing have made allegations of murder and rape by Myanmar's security forces inside Rakhine State.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's State Counselor and de-facto leader, denied any ethnic cleansing in an interview with the BBC.

And while Bangladesh offers refuge, there is little else available for the Rohingya.

Aid agencies have been distributing food, tarpaulins and other essentials in the camps, but they are struggling to keep up with the demand.

"We barely have enough food to survive," Mohsena, a 22-year-old Rohingya mother living in a makeshift shelter in Bangladesh, said. "If we have a meal once, we don't know when we can have the next one. Feeding my children is my main concern."

Mohsena, 22, is seen in front of her shelter with her two children.

Dire needs

An estimated one million Muslim Rohingyas live in Myanmar's northern Rakhine State, where they are a persecuted, stateless ethnic minority in the Buddhist-majority country, analysts say.

Most of the new arrivals to Bangladesh are living in makeshift shelters outside two United Nations-administered refugee camps, along with hundreds of thousands of other Rohingyas who were already there after fleeing previous spates of violence.

"We are hearing reports that 180 people are sharing one latrine," says Simperingham.



The Rohingyas were in a desperate situation even before the most recent round of violence broke out.

The IFRC says 150,000 people in northern Rakhine State were receiving humanitarian support before October 9.

The aid group has now launched an urgent appeal for $3.2 million to help meet the needs of 25,000 of the most vulnerable people in the Bangladesh camps over the next nine months.

"People don't have enough food, enough water," Mirva Helenius, a photographer for the IFRC, tells CNN. "These people are living without any kind of status, and without any services."

Last week, Helenius traveled to refugee camps in and around Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, to take photographs of the living conditions and gather testimonies from some of the families living there.

CNN cannot independently verify the stories of those who have arrived in Bangladesh, as access to media in Rakhine State is heavily restricted.

People fetching water in the makeshift extension to Kutupalong camp in Ukhiya, Cox's Bazar district, south eastern Bangladesh on 9 April, 2017.

'Now, we have nothing'

Mohsena says she fled Myanmar, also known as Burma, three months ago with her 4-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter after her husband was killed.

Mohsena's son is disabled, which means she struggles to earn any income.

"Because my son can't walk or sit or eat, I have to stay close to him all the time," she says. "I got some money by begging. I don't know how we will survive after that money is gone."

There are thousands of families in the camps with stories just like Mohsena's, Helenius says.

Rabeya, 25, says she arrived in the Balukhali makeshift camp four months ago, fleeing Myanmar with her husband and children after she was attacked by a group of men.

Rabeya, 25, talking with the Bangladesh Red Crescent volunteer trained in psychosocial support in the makeshift Balukhali camp in Ukhiya, Cox's Bazar district, south eastern Bangladesh on 8 April, 2017.

"I lost consciousness because of the pain," she says. "My neighbors found me on the ground and dragged me to the jungle. I was bleeding a lot. All my clothes were torn."

Rabeya says she later miscarried a baby she was carrying. She also heard that her mother and sister had been killed.

"We had a wealthy and happy life there before," she says. "Now, we have nothing. We have to worry about surviving. We don't even have enough money for food."

In February, the United Nations released a report that alleged widespread brutal killings and rapes taking place inside Rakhine State, and in March, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva announced that an "urgent" fact-finding mission will be sent to Myanmar to investigate the claims of human rights abuses.

Nobel Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi insisted that those who fled Myanmar are "safe" to come back, adding that "we will welcome them back."

But in Bangladesh, the future for the Rohingya refugees is still looking increasingly uncertain.

"My first priority is the safety of my family," Rabeya says. "If peace returns to our home, if it is safe for us to be there, we want to go back. But if not, how can we survive here?"

(Photo: JCARILLET)


By Daniel Wagner and Jesse Schatz
April 19, 2017

Saudi Arabia’s support for the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar is expected to continue for some time.

Despite Aung San Suu Kyi’s decades-old image as an embattled political prisoner and proponent of ardent reform as an opponent of the previous military government in Myanmar, her new role as state councilor has resulted in criticism from a variety of quarters domestically and internationally, as she juggles her predisposition toward humanitarianism with a pragmatic approach to governing. Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) have been roundly criticized for their presumed complicity in what many international observers have deemed a process of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Rohingya minority residing in the country’s rural Rakhine State.

While advocacy on behalf of the Rohingya has come from predictable sources in the West, it has also come from Saudi Arabia. The kingdom started providing financial assistance to the Rohingya when the situation began deteriorating in 2012. With its valuable investments in Myanmar’s oil infrastructure, located largely within Rakhine, Riyadh has undoubtedly wished to hedge its bets and play both sides of the same coin. Since then, armed resistance from the Rohingya people toward the Burmese government, including a 2016 attack on security forces linked to funds from Saudi and Pakistani actors, has motivated an increased Burmese military presence in the region.

On numerous occasions, the United Nations as well as human rights organizations have documented abuses leveled against the Rohingya. Earlier this year, Human Rights Watch released a report that identified widespread and systematic human rights violations targeting Myanmar’s Muslim citizens in Rakhine State. The report has been disputed by the government. Suu Kyi disagrees with the findings and has denied that the government is guilty of ethnic cleansing.

The roots of the violence in Rakhine State are multifaceted and rooted in British colonial officials’ failure to include the word “Rohingya” in censuses taken of the then-British colony, which was subsequently used as a means of falsely characterizing the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from neighboring regions, with no historical legitimacy in Burma. The former military regime and the current democratically-elected government have both denied the Rohingya full citizenship, strictly limiting basic freedoms of movement and suffrage. Suu Kyi finds herself in a precarious position, reemphasizing her support for non-violent political change, while at the same time referring to the Rohingya’s disrespect for the “Rule of Law” as a justification for a strong military presence in Rakhine.

Prior to 2009, Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdullah recognized the plight of the Rohingya and offered permanent residency for in excess of 250,000 Burmese Muslims, but Saudi authorities segregated many Burmese upon arrival to the kingdom. Most Burmese expatriates in the Gulf have worked low-skilled/low-pay jobs and have faced challenges similar to those of other poor Southeast Asian migrants in Saudi Arabia. Following the death of King Abdullah, King Salman detained 3,000 Rohingya families in Jeddah prisons and planned to deport them back to Myanmar for reasons that remain unclear.

SAUDI ARABIA AND MYANMAR

Such reversals have further complicated Riyadh’s policy toward the Rohingya. This year, Saudi officials announced the kingdom would accept a total of 190,000 Rohingya refugees over a four-year period, in conjunction with providing limited financial assistance to the Rohingya. In 2013, the Saudi government publicly condemned the Burmese government’s treatment of the Rohingya at a UN meeting — something it has rarely done. Perhaps the ability to lecture other countries about human rights was one of Saudi Arabia’s original objectives for having first become embroiled in the Rohingya issue.

At the same time, Saudi Arabia has been working with the Burmese and Chinese governments to industrialize natural resource production and distribution within Rakhine State. Saudi Arabia and its smaller Persian Gulf neighbors became deeply involved in Myanmar’s oil industry in 2011, when Riyadh and Beijing signed a Memorandum of Understanding in which China pledged to provide 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day through the just-completed Sino-Burma oil pipeline. The United Arab Emirates has also built roads and hotels to supplement Rakhine State’s booming oil industry, and in 2014, Qatar began transporting methane to China via Myanmar, further emphasizing the critical role of Burma in connecting China and the Arab Gulf states. Although Saudi Arabia has maintained its support for the Rohingya, other Gulf Cooperation Council members, such as Qatar, appear willing to ignore the situation altogether if it counteracts their wider regional strategy — particularly if doing so creates tension with China.

The Burmese government is unlikely to reverse its position on the Rohingya in the future — with or without Suu Kyi at the helm. By the same token, Saudi Arabia’s support for the Rohingya may well continue, to the extent that it does not jeopardize the kingdom’s business, commercial and investment interests in Myanmar, particularly at a time when officials in Riyadh are increasingly focused on securing greater cooperation from members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for advancing Saudi Arabia’s ambitious Vision 2030.

Can Saudi Arabia have its cake and it eat too by strengthening Riyadh’s ties with Beijing via their mutual interests in Myanmar, while having the luxury of maintaining the kingdom’s continued support for a repressed Muslim minority group?

The tangled web Saudi Arabia has weaved will in all likelihood become more complicated, yet the kingdom’s support for the Rohingya should be expected to continue for some time, given Saudi Arabia’s clearly demonstrated view that throwing its weight behind this Muslim minority group in Myanmar yields more net benefits than disadvantages in the forum of global public opinion.

Illustration: Peter C. Espina/GT

By Ge Hongliang
April 18, 2017

The Aung San Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy (NLD) took over Myanmar's government from the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in late March 2016. After one year in power, Suu Kyi talked about public disappointment with the NLD government during a TV speech last month. Apart from the Myanmese public, the US and Western public opinion are also critical of the NLD governance.

From the perspective of the US, a unified, peaceful, prosperous and democratic Myanmar that respects its citizens' rights conforms to the US' national interests. Therefore, Washington is attaching great importance to Myanmar's democratization process and human rights issues such as constitutional amendments, multi-party election, delegating central power to lower levels, rule of law, ethnic groups and national reconciliation.

Indeed, the US had high expectations for Myanmar in the last year. This is connected to the NLD's victory in the 2015 election, and Suu Kyi's long-term interactions with the West. 

After Suu Kyi received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, she has become one of the most important factors in Washington's Myanmar policy, and has exerted significant influences on the US officials and public. David Steinberg, an expert on Myanmar, once said that "No living foreigner has shaped contemporary United States policy toward a single country more than Aung San Suu Kyi."

In the meantime, Suu Kyi, with the halo of the Nobel Peace Prize, was regarded as the "beacon of human rights" by US and Western public opinion. Americans believe that Suu Kyi should voice concerns on human rights agendas and stressed that Suu Kyi must be aware that Myanmar government has responsibilities to help the Rohingya people. 

The West had high expectations for Suu Kyi in the promotion of Myanmar's democracy and human rights. However, the West thinks there was no positive response from Myanmar's de facto leader. 

In fact, Myanmar's actual development has triggered increasing criticisms from the US and other Western countries, especially after Suu Kyi was actively involved in the country's political arena again. The Rohingya issue was harshly denounced. The issue simmered in the 2014 nationwide census, and the Myanmese government's attitude toward the Rohingya people has sparked widespread criticisms from the West. Suu Kyi's response was reprimanded as well, with The New York Times accusing Suu Kyi of silently standing by outright abuses. 

Washington and Nay Pyi Taw saw a diplomatic spat on whether the term "Rohingya" should be used last year. Shortly after the NLD took office, the US embassy in Myanmar mentioned "Rohingya" in a statement, which later incited protest from the Myanmese public. Later, then US secretary of state John Kerry continued to comment on "Rohingya" during his Nay Pyi Taw visit, and, as a result, Myanmar's foreign ministry and Suu Kyi complained about the use of the term. This demonstrates that Washington takes a firm stance on the issues of human rights and religious freedom, and, at the same time, is dissatisfied with the NLD government's policies and attitude toward ethnic groups.

The Rohingya issue and the situation in Rakhine State are jeopardizing the relationship between Suu Kyi-led NLD government and the Western public opinion. Myanmar's army are accused by the West of sexually assaulting and slaughtering the Rohingya people. Although it was denied by the NLD government and Suu Kyi, the Western public opinion believes that Suu Kyi is dodging the issue.

The US has also attached great importance to the conflicts in northern Myanmar, and correlates the conflicts to the country's democracy and human rights conditions.

Admittedly, no substantial progress has been made on the issues of Rohingya and northern Myanmar conflicts during the NLD's first year in office. These issues have not only put a heavy burden on the NLD government, but also created divergences between the US and Suu Kyi. Apart from high expectations, the failure to understand Suu Kyi's conundrums in handling these issues is the root cause for Western disappointment. 

Given the current domestic situation, Suu Kyi still has a long way to go in addressing the abovementioned issues. While the problems are tough to handle, Suu Kyi, as a nationalist, will not cater to the West, and thus, tension between her and the West will continue in the future.

By Dr Habib Siddiqui
April 18, 2017

How long our world must witness the ethnic cleansing of vulnerable minorities? In Myanmar, it is a routine thing, against the minority Rohingyas who mostly live in the northern Arakan state, close to Bangladesh. They are the most persecuted people in our planet. They were persecuted for nearly half a century by the military governments that preceded the current civilian government.

There was much hope in the air that conditions inside the country would improve dramatically once a democratic government comes to power. Well, there is a democratic government now after a general election in which all but Muslims participated [the latter were barred from participating in the election on the grounds of their race/ethnicity and religion]. The Myanmar government is run by Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD party. 

Remember her? Suu Kyi was the poster lady of democracy, a figure who was prematurely awarded a Nobel Prize for peace to pressure the repressive military government to pave the path of democracy. She was presumed to make things better for everyone. Even the persecuted Muslims had high aspirations about her despite her criminal silence when the Rohingya and other minority Muslims were slaughtered all over Myanmar by Buddhists in 2012 genocidal campaigns. It did not matter that in the general election that followed her party did not field a single Muslim candidate even in the Rohingya majority territories of the northern Arakan state. 

Her hypocrisy shocked everyone. Many pundits tried to find excuses for her saying that her decision not to field a single Muslim candidate was part of a calculated election strategy to position herself as a die-hard, serious Buddhist nationalist who is not sympathetic to the ‘despised’ Rohingya and other Muslim minorities living inside the den of intolerance called Myanmar. As expected, she won big, formed the civilian government and self-appointed herself to be its chief counsellor, a CEO-like figure overlooking the government. 

Rather than integrating the minority Muslims and easing their pains and sufferings, in recent months Suu Kyi’s government unleashed one of the worst ethnic cleansing drives in the northern Rakhine state to further marginalize the already marginalized Rohingya community. Scores of Rohingya villages were torched by her security forces leading to forced exodus of tens of thousands to Bangladesh, let alone the internal displacement of even a larger number. Thousands disappeared, many were killed. Hundreds of Muslim females – even teenage girls – were raped as part of an ethnic cleansing drive that many imagined would never see in Suu Kyi’s Myanmar.
Knowing the enormity of the war crimes committed by her security forces, Suu Kyi would not let any fact-finding mission to investigate. In a BBC interview, she lied and denied such gruesome abuses of human rights. 

But can truth be hidden? She ought to know better. 

Suu Kyi says that Rohingyas returning to Myanmar are welcome. Reliable sources in Maungdaw say that the government has planned to return only one third of their original lands to the returnees and internally displaced Rohingyas, and that they are kept in a small slum-like quarter as per one ‘Household Registration List’, regardless of the numbers of the families within that ‘household registration list.’

“The Myanmar military burnt down our homes last year and we became displaced. They are returning us only one-third of our original village and building a small IDP Camps-like quarter. None of us wants to accept this. Worse, they are demolishing mosques, cemeteries, roads and other historical evidences in order to destroying evidences of the human habitats/societies in the village”, said an internally displaced person at ‘Wapeik’ village in Maungdaw.

Rohingya youths are targets of intimidation, harassment and persecution by the Myanmar authorities. The Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) from the Camp 12 based at the village of ‘YweNyoTaung’ has recently issued the warrants considered as arbitrary by the human rights observers for the following number of youths from the following villages:

1) 105 from the village of ‘Ye Khae Chaung KhwaSone’ locally known as ‘Bor Gozi Bil.’

2) 69 from the village of ‘Ye Dwin Chaung’ locally known as ‘Raimma Bil’, and

3) 59 from the village of ‘Kyar Gaung Taung’ locally known as ‘Rabailla’. 

U Aye Myint, a human rights observer based in Maungdaw while speaking to Rohingya Vision, said “this is a list of targeted arbitrary warrants issued aiming to reduce the numbers of the Rohingya youths including underage teenagers in the Arakan state. As a result, many youths in the region have been living in their hideouts for past few days in fear of arbitrary arrests.”

According to the local Rohingyas, since 2012 the Myanmar authorities systematically forced hundreds of Rohingya youths in Maungdaw and Buthidaung to flee from the country by issuing arbitrary arrest warrants against them after accusing them of involving in the June-2012 violence. [Rohingya Vision TV] 

Suu Kyi has proven herself to be a devil with a smiling face; an utterly sly lady to whom veracity and morality have lost their worth. It’s a sad commentary on a personality – once much revered and now deservingly maligned – that could have made things better for all those who call Myanmar their home – Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. 

Instead, it is becoming increasingly clear that in Suu Kyi’s Myanmar religious minorities won’t have any rights. Thus, the destruction of Muslim shrines, mosques and cemeteries has become part of a sinister strategy to ethnically cleanse them. And yet like a pathological liar she chose to deny practicing such crimes. 

What a joke Buddhism has become in the hands of its extremist zealots inside Myanmar! 

In nearby Bangladesh, if any Buddhist temple is attacked by an angry mob that is reacting to unfathomed crimes of the Myanmar government and its extremist Buddhists, the government of Bangladesh takes extra effort to refurbish it better showing its unmolested reverence and respect for other religions and their symbols. Expecting any reciprocity of gesture from Buddhist Myanmar is simply foolish; it’s not even a beautiful dream, only an illusion!

Unalienable rights are those which God gave to man at the Creation, once and for all. By definition, since God granted such rights, governments could not take them away. In the USA, this fundamental truth is recognized and enshrined in its nation's birth certificate, the Declaration of Independence: "[A]ll men are created equal...[and] are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

The preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) recognizes the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family, stating such to be the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. The Government of Myanmar is in serious breach of the UDHR and its Article 3, which states: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. As I have noted many times, Myanmar government is guilty of refusing to grant any of the 30 Articles enshrined in the UDHR to the Rohingya people. They don’t have any right in Myanmar – neither before nor now in Suu Kyi’s apartheid regime. 

Unwanted and brutally persecuted in Buddhist Myanmar, Rohingyas have been fleeing their ancestral homes in Arakan state after Burma (now Myanmar) won its independence from the Great Britain. More Rohingyas now live outside Myanmar than inside. Bangladesh, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Gulf statelets, Malaysia and India have sizeable community of Rohingya refugees. 

The life of a refugee is terrible. It is unsafe, insecure and dehumanizing. 

Nearly 5000 Rohingyas have been putting up in the Jammu city, mainly on its outskirts, in the Indian Occupied state of Jammu and Kashmir, well until recently. Now with a fascist Hindutvadi party (BJP) ruling the country in the center and many other states, Hindu fascists are making it difficult for anyone to live peacefully in this country unless the person is a Hindu, preferably from the upper caste. Of course, when it comes to outsiders like the Rohingya, who are refugees who don't share Hindu religion, they are easy targets of harassment and persecution these days. 

Last week, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Jammu, Rakesh Gupta had issued a statement calling for identification and killing of Rohingyas. As the latest report shows, seven Jhuggis (shacks) of Rohingya Muslims were torched by Hindu miscreants in Bhagwati Nagar area of Jammu early Friday, just days after a Rohingya family was thrashed and threatened to leave the state.

The Rohingyas putting up in Bhagwati Nagar said some families living in the adjacent plot were forced to move out after some people threatened them. “I don’t know why it happened. I had come here because of the problem in our country (Burma). We will return once things limp back to normal there. It would be good if the Modi government gives us space and time to stay here for some time, till we return,” said Fatima Khatoon.

High Court Bar Association Srinagar has condemned the torching of seven shacks of Rohingya Muslims by certain communal elements in Bhagwati Area of Jammu, on Friday. It described the statement of certain police officials that it was a case of short circuit as false and an attempt on their part to protect those criminals, who had committed the distressing and horrifying crime.

The Bar Association once again requests the international community including Amnesty International, Asia Watch and other human rights organizations of the World to take notice of the gruesome events, which are taking place in Kashmir and intervene effectively, to bring an end to such gross human rights violations in Kashmir.

My heart bleeds to see so much suffering in our world! Who knows if the persecuted Rohingya will one day see the end of their long sufferings, much like many other lucky ones in this unfortunate planet of ours.



April 18, 2017

The thousands uprooted by violence in Rakhine are being moved again – but it’s not known where

The international community and particularly the Association of Southeast Nations deserve to be fully apprised regarding the fate of thousands of displaced people in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. Instead, all we’ve had is a worrying government announcement that refugee camps were being shut down. Nothing has been said about what happens to them next. These people sought shelter five years ago amid violent conflict between Buddhists and Muslims. Many fled the country, retreating to the Bangladeshi frontier, but the government in Dhaka was no more accepting than its neighbour to the east has been.

Thaung Tun, Myanmar’s National Security Adviser, said last week the government had begun shutting down three camps named in a report compiled for de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi by a commission led by Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general. One camp shelters ethnic Rakhine and another holds Kaman Muslims.

Suu Kyi had last year chosen Annan, a fellow Nobel laureate, to head a commission seeking solutions to the crisis in Rakhine. It was mandated to examine ways to develop the state, strengthen civic institutions, provide humanitarian assistance, seek reconciliation and prevent further conflict. But the mission was flawed from the start, restrained by a law that doesn’t recognise the Muslim Rohingya of Rakhine as citizens. Myanmar is a predominantly Buddhist society and nationalist intolerance of other religions is rife.

Annan’s commission recommended that the government formulate a comprehensive plan to close the displacement camps as part of any attempt to curb festering communal tensions. It noted that efforts to relocate the more than 120,000 “internally displaced persons” (IDP) in the camps had “shown little progress” since 2012. A sounder strategy was needed, it said, and a clear timeline. The commission identified 335 households within the IDP camps, a mix of Kaman, Rakhine and Muslim people who it said ought to be allowed to return to their homes or be relocated elsewhere as an initial expression of “goodwill”.

In briefing foreign diplomats last week, Thaung Tun unveiled no plan beyond the camps being shut down. He said nothing about measures to relocate the refugees or about aid or facilities to be provided. Thus international criticism of Myanmar over its official mistreatment of Rakhine’s million-plus Rohingya is unlikely to abate. Most of these people, despite their families having lived in Myanmar for generations, are denied citizenship and face severe restrictions in movement and access to education and healthcare.

Matters have been muddled ever since the military – reacting to militant Rohingya attacks on police border posts last October – launched a bloody crackdown in north Rakhine that reportedly claimed hundreds of lives. UN investigators concluded that security forces might have carried out crimes against humanity as well as ethnic cleansing. Suu Kyi last week rejected the accusations, calling “ethnic cleansing” “too strong an expression”. Annan agreed, while Thaung Tun insisted the authorities were doing their best to push forward a process of citizenship verification.

The leaders of the Asean countries, presumably including Myanmar President Htin Kyaw, will this month gather for a summit in the Philippines, but, as usual, the subject of the Rohingya will remain off the agenda, since members of the bloc are loathe to meddle in one another’s internal affairs. That doesn’t prevent any members from raising concerns or even suggesting possible solutions, however. Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia have provided humanitarian assistance in the past. They and others should seek larger roles in helping Myanmar tackle the issue at its roots. At the very least, they should press Myanmar’s representatives for more information about the latest developments and, better still, what the long-range plan is.

(Photo: Steve Gumaer/Flickr)

I, Too, Am Myanmar.

Ro Mayyu Ali
RB Poem
April 16, 2017

I am the oppressed brother.
They burn my home down
And send me to an internally displaced camp.
When foreigners come,
But I complain,
And eat what I find in there.
And even grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When the foreigners come,
Nobody will dare
Say to me,
"Go to the internally displaced camp
And eat in there"
Then,

Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am.
And be ashamed and repentant.

I, too, am Myanmar.
I, too, am a Myanmar.


SYED HAMID: "ASEAN countries particularly, do not stop your efforts so that Myanmar will at the very least stop its military activities so that aid can be channeled to the Rohingya."

By Bernama
April 15, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: ASEAN should continue to put pressure on Myanmar to ensure that humanitarian aid can be channeled to the Rohingya Muslims, said Former Special Envoy of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for Myanmar, Tan Sri Dr Syed Hamid Syed Albar.

He said despite efforts undertaken by various parties including Malaysia to help the ethnic minority, there were still many restrictions due to the country's policies.

"ASEAN countries particularly, do not stop your efforts so that Myanmar will at the very least stop its military activities (against the Rohingyas) so that aid can be channeled to the Rohingyas," he told reporters after delivering the keynote address at the 2017 Humanitarian Symposium entitled "Rohingya: Plight & Despair, Hope" here Friday.

A book entitled 'Flotilla, Wiping the Tears of the Rohingyas' was also launched at the event.

Syed Hamid said various efforts including dispatch of essential items, food and medical aid to the Rohingya Muslims areas in Myanmar were still being restricted.

Fishing boats sit in the sunset on the beach in Teknaf in southern Bangladesh. Billed as the longest beach in the world, the Bangladeshi government has plans to turn the area into a tourist destination in hopes of bringing in badly needed jobs and investment. Michael Sullivan for NPR

By Michael Sullivan and Ashley Westerman
April 14, 2017

The beautiful beaches of Teknaf, along the Bay of Bengal in southern Bangladesh, are almost completely untouched by humans. Wide, with fine-grained brown and gray sand, the shore looks as if it stretches along the sea forever. In fact, the Bangladeshi government bills it as the world's longest beach.


So naturally, developers are lining up to build there and have literally staked out their claims on signs along the road, Marine Drive. When the highway is finished, it will link this place to Cox's Bazar some 50 miles to the north.

"We look for other tourists from all over the world. We have a goal to attract them," says Anwar Ul Islam, who heads the Cox's Bazar Development Authority.

One of the first goals is to turn the domestic Cox's Bazar Airport into an international airport. That work, he says, should be finished in two more years.

When it's done, he is confident foreign tourists will come and that Cox's Bazar will give Thailand and the Philippines a run for their money — bringing badly needed jobs and investment to a country of more than 150 million people that doesn't have enough of either.

Tourists gather on the beach in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh's current beach destination. Michael Sullivan for NPR

But there's a potential problem with that plan: hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees live in that area.

Since the 1970s, an estimated 500,000 of the Muslim minority group have fled to Bangladesh from neighboring Buddhist-majority Myanmar in several waves. In the last six months, some 70,000 Rohingya have arrived after the Myanmar military's latest crackdown against them. Refugees fleeing the country describe a brutal military campaign of murder, arson and mass rape against the long-persecuted minority.

Many of these refugees live unofficially in squatter camps near Cox's Bazar within a few miles of the beach.

That's not a big selling point for a go-to tourist destination, and Ul Islam knows it.

"It is an issue," he says. "The government has decided if we can relocate these Rohingya from Cox's Bazar ... to other places, it will be better."

Until then, the Rohingya are stuck; they're not allowed to move or work — not legally, at least.

At a brick factory a short drive from Cox's Bazar, the manager says that he hires Rohingya for the nastiest jobs: hauling the coal to bake the bricks.

"We don't recruit them. If they come looking for work, and we need people, we give them a job," he says.

He has even given one Rohingya employee a permanent job as a mechanic to keep the ovens cooking. Hassan — NPR is only using his first name because he is not supposed to be working — is 30 years old and fled Myanmar two years ago. This job, he says, is the best he's had in Bangladesh.

"The last job I had, the boss tried to cheat me and didn't give me my full salary," Hassan says. "He told me if I complained, he'd have someone hurt me. So I left and came here."

Hassan says he sends about half the $100 a month he earns back to his family still living in Myanmar. But many locals think that he, as a refugee, shouldn't have a job at all.

Workers at a brick factory toil through sweltering heat to shape, dry and bake bricks. The work is seasonal and labor-intensive. The manager says if he has openings, he'll give a job to anyone willing to do the work. Michael Sullivan for NPR

"We compete for the same jobs," says Habibur Rahaman, an 18-year-old Bangladeshi working at a construction site south of Cox's Bazar. "The more of them that come, the less opportunities we have to work and to make money."

He says employers can pay Rohingya half what Bangladeshis will accept, since they're working without authorization and have to take what they can get.

Rahaman's uncle Alauddin says he understands the Rohingya's problems across the border in Myanmar, but worries more about his own people.

"Our country is already poor. We don't need any more Rohingya coming here and making it worse," he says. "Not all Rohingya are bad, some are good. But they still take our jobs and some are involved in the illegal drugs trade, too."

Habibur Rahaman (left) and Alauddin are Bangladeshi construction workers who worry that the influx of Rohingya refugees will make it harder to find a job. They say Rohingya are willing to work for half the wages that Bangladeshis get. Michael Sullivan for NPR

There are other concerns. Some analysts worry that a new Rohingya insurgent group — the one blamed for the October and November attacks that prompted the Myanmar military's brutal crackdown — could start recruiting in the camps in southern Bangladesh and possibly use them as staging areas for attacks against the military in Myanmar.

If that happens, it could prompt another furious response from the military and potentially another wave of refugees.

Now, the government has a plan to relocate the Rohingya refugees to a remote island call Thengar Char, which lies some three hours away from the mainland. Local officials say parts of the island are underwater much of the year. The plan has been kicking around for a while, but in January, after the latest influx of refugees, the government said it was moving forward with the idea.

That decision alarmed the international aid community. It also caused fear among the Rohingya, says Abul Kashem, a Bangladeshi human rights activist who runs the NGO Help Cox's Bazar.

"Who would want to be sent to an island where the water swells up and people cannot live? None of them want to go to the island of Thengar Char," Kashem says.

Not Mohammad Ismail, a refugee who's been staying at one of the informal camps since February after fleeing Myanmar just before the new year.

"We feel safe here. We have already been tortured enough," he says. "We are already refugees. We don't want to move again. We will not go to Thengar Char."

Ismail says they would rather go back to Myanmar and face the military than go to the island.

Kashem hopes it doesn't come to that and that the plan is quietly scrapped — some humanitarian workers on the ground believe that's what will happen eventually.

But Kashem says he understands his people's growing unease with the number of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. He says he also understands their complaints about competition for scarce resources. But he's more sympathetic to the plight of the Rohingya.

"They neither get support in their country, nor can they feel at home here in this country," he says. "They are really vulnerable. They are deprived of all their rights. Of education, country, religion and language. They are deprived of everything."

The Rohingya have no good options, he says. They can either stay here in squalid camps, barely surviving, or risk returning home to Myanmar and possible retribution from the Myanmar military. Not many have chosen the latter — which is why the number of Rohingya in Bangladesh just keeps growing.


With additional reporting by Bangladeshi journalist Muktadir Rashid.


(Photo: Reuters)

By Mark Farmaner
April 14, 2017

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, head of the Burmese military, is the most powerful person in Burma. It is his soldiers and security forces who have been raping Rohingya women, shooting Rohingya civilians and burning Rohingya villages. It is his soldiers who have increased conflict in Kachin Sate and Shan State, displacing thousands of villagers already forced from their homes by Burmese army attacks. 

Min Aung Hlaing is the one who is threating the entire peace process by insisting on hard-line conditions unacceptable to many ethnic organisations. It is Min Aung Hlaing who is blocking constitutional reform which would make Burma more democratic. Civil servants under his control are obstructing reforms and policies the NLD-led government are trying to put in place. He is also starving health and education of funds by insisting on a huge budget for the military at the same time as the health service and education systems are one of the most poorly funded in the world.

Min Aung Hlaing is the biggest obstacle to improving human rights, democratic reform, peace, modernisation, and improving health and education in Burma. 

Yet somehow, he largely escapes direct criticism. Since the latest Rohingya related crisis began in October 2016 it is Daw Aung San Suu Kyi who has received most attention and criticism, not Min Aung Hlaing, whose soldiers are the ones committing the abuses.

Last November Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had to cancel a trip to Indonesia, reportedly for fear of protests over her stance over the Rohingya. In the same month, Min Aung Hlaing was enjoying a red carpet tour in Europe after being invited to attend a meeting of European military heads. There were no protests against him in Italy or Belgium. As his soldiers raped and killed Rohingya, and increased conflict in Kachin State, he enjoyed sightseeing in Brussels and Rome, travelled the canals of Venice, and even toured factories of arms manufacturers, despite there being an EU arms embargo on Burma. 

The current approach of the international community towards the military has been one of soft engagement, hoping they will have a gradual epiphany and realise it is in their own self-interest to agree to further reform. It amounts to a fingers crossed approach that if we are nice to the Burmese military, they will suddenly come around.

This approach clearly isn’t working. The more Min Aung Hlaing is welcomed into the arms of the international community, the more sanctions are lifted, the more UN engagement on human rights is lifted, the more they are praised for reforms, the more his confidence grows that he can continue to commit human rights violations and block democratic constitutional reform with impunity, and the more human rights violations and conflict have increased.

A key question now for the international community is how to influence Min Aung Hlaing. The international community needs to develop an approach towards Min Aung Hlaing with two clear goals in mind. First, how to persuade him to stop committing human rights violations, and second, how to persuade him to agree to constitutional change which will enable the peace process to succeed, and which will allow further democratic transition in the country.

Min Aung Hlaing will only agree to change when he decides it is in the interests of the military to do so. At the current time, he has little incentive to reduce human rights violations or agree to further democratic reforms. The military have in place the system they designed to protect their interests and give them control over areas such as security and defence. They believe only they are able to guarantee the safety and security of the nation. Yet clearly Min Aung Hlaing and his military are enjoying the embrace of the international community and want the respect of the people of Burma. This provides some leverage.

When the EU and USA lifted sanctions they made no differentiation between sanctions which targeted the government and sanctions which targeted the military and their associates. The same applies to discontinuing the UN General Assembly Resolution on Burma. This decision was justified as being in acknowledgment and support of reforms and the new government, without differentiation between the government and the military and their actions. There are two powerbases in Burma now, and different approaches are required for each.

It is time to identify potential points of leverage specifically targeting the military and how they can be most effectively applied to induce Min Aung Hlaing to agree to change. This could include United Nations investigations into violations of international law, economic sanctions targeted at their interests, visa bans, ending military training, and more robust diplomatic pressure. One option that cannot be considered is carrying on as before while Min Aung Hlaing systematically destroys hopes for peace, respect for human rights, and democracy in Burma. 

IMPORTANT NOTICE: IF YOU ARE IN BURMA SHARING THIS ARTICLE ON SOCIAL MEDIA COULD RESULT IN ARREST. If you live in Burma please consider carefully before sharing this article on social media such as Facebook. Sharing this article could result in arrest and prosecution under article 66d of the Telecommunications Law. Several media organisations in Burma felt unable to publish this article because of concerns over this law.

A rohingya refugee boy looks on at Balukhali Makeshift Refugee Camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh April 12, 2017. Source: Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

April 14, 2017

BURMA has been identified as the third most at risk country in the world to experience a new episode of genocide, as annual rankings show civilian mass killings at the hands of government forces are on the rise worldwide.

A report from NGO ‘The Early Warning Project’ estimates the risk of deliberate killing of more than 1,000 civilians within a country by that country’s government or its agents, or state-led mass killing.

Alarmingly, the annual rankings also show a reversal in a decade-long trend of decline.

The analysis forecasts risks using public data and advanced methodologies built on 50 years of historical indicators in the hope of highlighting cases where there are early warning signs of potential mass atrocities.

For the third year running, Burma has made it into the top three, along with Sudan and Yemen. According to the data, Burma is already experiencing state-led mass killings, however, models indicate significant risk of a new distinct episode occurring despite the country’s progress towards democracy.

Increased violence against the Muslim minority Rohingya is behind the high ranking.

A UN report detailed how Burma’s security forces had 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 counter-insurgency operation, but this has been largely discredited by independent bodies.

Rohingya children gather at the Dar Paing camp for Muslim refugees, north of Sittwe, western Rakhine state, Myanmar, June 24 2014. Source: AP/Gemunu Amarasinghe

While the UN report stopped short of explicitly labelling the crackdown as ethnic cleansing, they expressed “serious concerns” that the attacks were a result of a “purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas”.

Bangladesh also appeared in the list, with the NGO ranking it 16th at risk in the world.

Starker political polarisation and a growing extremist threat, as well as an increasingly authoritarian government were given as reasons for the elevated risk of mass violence in the country.

Sri Lanka ranked 18 in the list, seeing a significant and steep increase in risk from the previous year that saw them in the 35th spot.

The report noted that this rise was surprising given the country’s political gains after an unexpected but ultimately peaceful transfer of political power via legislative and presidential elections in 2015.

Despite these positive developments, Sri Lanka was still deemed a risk due to its “history of mass killing and the continued salience of the ruling elite’s ethnicity”.

Pakistan and India also appeared in the list, ranked 9th and 30th respectively.

Cameron Hudson, director of the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, warned of a dangerous influx of state-led mass killings across the globe and reiterated the importance of analysis such as this to fight against it.

“After a decade of decline, civilian mass killings by governments against their own people are once again on the rise,” she said.

“By combining the power of analytics with the growing body of social science around mass killing onsets, we hope to galvanise preventive actions to avoid these outcomes.”

Additional reporting by Reuters



RB News
April 14, 2017


Rohingya Advocacy Network in Japan (RANJ) together with Human Rights Watch and Human Rights Now had a meeting with Japanese Foreign Ministry's high ranking officials at the Upper House Parliament Building. The meeting took place from 10 am to 11:30 am on 13th of April, 2017. At the meeting, HRW Tokyo Director Attorney Kanei Doi stressed the Japanese government's failure to lend full support at UNHRC's 34th Session on Myanmar Resolution. She expressed her disappointment with the Japanese government's commitment on human rights. Human Rights Now Secretary General Kazuko Ito, who came back from a visit to Yangon last week, explained her encounter with several people in Myanmar. She said that the Japanese government has big leverage on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as they are very close to her government. So, the Japanese government has the responsibility to promote human rights for all, especially Rohingya, as they are suffering so much and for so long. 



Rohingya Advocacy Network in Japan Executive Director Zaw Min Htut discussed various issues related to Rohingya such as UN Human Rights Council Resolution on Rohingya, Kofi Annan advisory Commission Interim Report, the Myanmar government are forcing Rohingya to take the NVC, arbitrary arrest of Rohingya youngsters to extort money, physically torture in the custody. Nearly 1000 innocent Rohingya in their detention including under age children. International Aid Organizations and international media access are still prohibited. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi`s recent BBC interview denied the existence of genocide and defended military atrocities on Rohingya. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing’s reckless comment on Rohingya existence in last month's speech at military parade. 

Mr. Nurul Hai appealed to the Japanese government to give serious attention on the Rohingya issue as Rohingya has been suffering so long under the military government in Myanmar. 

Japanese Foreign Ministry officials responded in a very positive manner and said that they are watching the situation very closely. Japanese government is in regular contact with Myanmar government on the issue while they are providing humanitarian assistance to Rohingya IDPs and Refugee in Bangladesh. 

At the end of the meeting HRW, HRN and RANJ again strongly demanded to lend Japanese government utmost support to the Fact-Finding Mission of UNHRC. And Mr. Zaw Min Htut & Mr. Nurul Hai presented a letter to Japanese Foreign Minister and some relevant documents. Below is the letter to the Foreign Minister. 



Rohingya Exodus