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By Dr. Azeem Ibrahim
August 12, 2017

As the persecution of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar is getting worse by the day, we must now acknowledge that the United Nations is failing to enforce the principles of its own 1948 Genocide Convention.

Leaked documents from earlier this year described the office of the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Reneta Lok-Dessallien, as ‘glaringly dysfunctional’, in no small part due to her putting human rights considerations on the back-burner, in favour of economic development goals. She was accused by many of her own staff of having too cosy a relationship with the civilian government and the military elite, whilst the persecution of the Rohingya and other minorities dropped off her agenda.

Hoping that the new dawn of democracy ushered in by Aung San Suu Kyi will soon start to bear fruit, the UN in general, and Lok-Dessallien in particular, were content to watch from the sidelines as hundreds were killed and tens of thousands ethnically cleansed from villages, and many thousands more were forced to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh and Malaysia on rickety boats – only to be met with conditions little better than those they had just fled. The UN seemed to have embraced the Obama Administration’s ‘Strategic Patience’ doctrine with regards to Myanmar. Which is diplomatic speak for ‘do-nothing’.

Many were relieved when it was recently announced that Reneta Lok-Desallien was moved on from her position with the Myanmar mission, a couple of years ahead of schedule. But whether the incoming Coordinator will recalibrate the priorities of the office to give due attention to the gross human rights abuses in the country remains to be seen.

Perhaps now that the world’s largest intergovernmental organisation has failed to live up to it’s responsibility towards the Rohingya, the task may be better addressed by the second largest. The plight of the Rohingya has already featured prominently on the agenda of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s meeting of Foreign Ministers. In fact, the OIC held an Extraordinary Session earlier this year in Malaysia dedicated entirely to the situation of the Rohingya.

Not a good record

One concern might be that the OIC does not have a good record when it comes to conflict resolution. It is fundamentally handicapped in this regard, as it does not have the means by which to enforce its will. Resolutions are passed with little fanfare and go largely unnoticed outside the Muslim world. Often, their sole purpose is to mollify local populations.

Nevertheless, in this case the OIC may prove significantly more effective. As the second largest intergovernmental organisation, with a membership of fifty-seven states spread across four continents, and with a new dynamic secretary general in the form of Dr Yousef bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen, the organisation will have the verve to intervene on the issue that the UN is clearly lacking. And there are simple measures the OIC could pursue.

The OIC does not have the happiest history when it comes to living up to its own founding principles. But on this occasion, they may well be able to succeed where the UN has failed.  -- Dr. Azeem Ibrahim

Firstly, the OIC can work with the UN and Myanmar authorities to investigate the allegations that militant Islamist groups are attempting to penetrate and hijack the Rohingya struggle. Though such allegations are anaemic at best, they offer a convenient excuse to the Myanmar authorities to pursue their policy of collective punishment while placating the international community and forcing it to turn a blind eye. Particularly now that ISIS is losing territory in the Middle East and are looking for new regions in the world where their poisonous ideology might find fertile ground.

Secondly, the persecution of the Rohingya has a sectarian dimension, as some of the key instigators promote these abuses in the name of a militant interpretation of Theravada Buddhism. The OIC, as a religious-based organisation, can reframe the conflict-resolution efforts of the international community in terms of an inter-faith dialogue amongst religious communities and their global leaders. The OIC itself claims to represent the global Muslim voice, and so it should be able to bring in leading global Muslim personalities who would already be acceptable and respected by the Buddhist leaders of the country.

Finally, the OIC can help relieve pressure on neighbouring countries that have taken in hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees such as Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand and so on. The government of Bangladesh is justified in trying to ensure that the Rohingya do not become a permanent presence in their own country, as they simply don’t have the resources to absorb the kinds of numbers that are fleeing. The OIC could therefore organise a coordinated global effort to provide countries like Bangladesh the basic essentials to ensure the Rohingya are comfortable during their short tenure before they are able to return to their homeland.

The OIC does not have the happiest history when it comes to living up to its own founding principles. But on this occasion, they may well be able to succeed where the UN has failed. The Rohingya situation is providing it with an opportunity to redeem itself. And it can start with such simple measures which will have a real positive impact on the lives of so many people. Let us hope it seizes this opportunity with both hands.

______
Azeem Ibrahim is Senior Fellow at the Centre for Global Policy and Adj Research Professor at the Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College. He completed his PhD from the University of Cambridge and served as an International Security Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and a World Fellow at Yale. Over the years he has met and advised numerous world leaders on policy development and was ranked as a Top 100 Global Thinker by the European Social Think Tank in 2010 and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He tweets @AzeemIbrahim

A Myanmar border guard stands in Tin May village, Buthidaung township, northern Rakhine state [Simon Lewis/Reuters] 

By AFP
August 12, 2017

UN expresses alarm as government imposes curfew and sends more soldiers to violence-hit region of Rakhine. 

Myanmar is imposing new curfews and deploying more troops to Rakhine state, the government confirmed on Saturday, after the United Nations expressed alarm at reports of a military build-up in the region where authorities are accused of widespread rights abuses. 

News that an army battalion was flown into Rakhine this week to boost security met criticism from UN special rapporteur Yanghee Lee on Friday, who warned it was "cause for major concern". 

Rakhine has been gripped by violence since October last year when ethnic Rohingya fighters attacked police posts, sparking a months-long bloody military crackdown. 

The army campaign sent more than 70,000 Rohingya villagers fleeing across the border to Bangladesh, carrying with them stories of systematic rape, murder and arson at the hands of soldiers. 

The Rohingya are a stateless group, long-maligned by Myanmar's Buddhist majority, and the UN believes the army's crackdown may amount to ethnic cleansing - a charge the government vehemently denies. 

State media said Saturday that "clearance operations are being heightened" in Rakhine's May Yu mountain range, an area where the government says Rohingya fighters remain active. 

The army used the same language to describe counterinsurgency sweeps in October. 

"Plans are under way to reinforce security forces and military forces by deployment of additional troops," the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar said, adding curfews would be imposed in "necessary areas". 

The goal was to "prevent extremist terrorists from taking a stronghold in the May Yu mountain range", the state mouthpiece said. 

The military build-up comes after a rise in violence in recent months with dozens of villagers killed and abducted by masked assassins. 

The government blames the killings on the rebel Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which claimed the raids on police posts last October. 

The group has denied killing civilians in statements issued through an unverified Twitter account.

Rohingya communities in the remote area also continue to be raided, with security forces firing "warning shots" during a face-off with a mob of villagers earlier this month. 

UN rights expert Lee urged authorities to carry out their security operations in line with international human rights standards. 

"The government must ensure that security forces exercise restraint in all circumstances and respect human rights in addressing the security situation in Rakhine State," she said in a statement. 

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long faced criticism for its treatment of the more than one million Rohingya, who are denied citizenship and struggle to access basic services. 

The minority are widely reviled as illegal migrants from Bangladesh, despite having lived in the area for generations. 

A government-appointed commission in the country has dismissed allegations of widespread abuses, while Myanmar is refusing to allow a UN fact-finding team to conduct its own probe.



August 10, 2017

Denied citizenship, forced from their homes, and subjected to cruelty; we investigate the plight of Myanmar's Rohingya.

Filmmakers: Salam Hindawi, Ali Kishk, Harri Grace

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has a population of around 51 million people. The Burman ethnic group constitutes around two-thirds of this figure and controls the military and the government. But there are also more than 135 ethnic groups in the country, each with their own culture.

Many of them have become internally displaced by government moves to exploit land, provoking long-standing friction. 

In fact, the conflict between Myanmar's ethnic minorities and the ruling Burmese majority represent one of the world's longest ongoing conflicts.

One group, the Muslim Rohingya, are not recognised as an ethnic nationality of Myanmar, so they suffer from arguably the worst discrimination and human rights abuses of all. The Rohingya population is somewhere between one and two million and they are living mainly in Rakhine State in the north of the country.

In this film, Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Salam Hindawi goes to Myanmar to investigate the situation surrounding the Rohingya.

Myanmar has been tightly controlled for decades and Hindawi has enormous difficulties gaining access to certain areas of the country that the government simply doesn't want anyone from outside to see.

"I think the military and the government are blocking people from going into northern Maungdaw [a majority Rohingya town], because they have something really horrible to hide," says David Mathieson, a former director of Human Rights Watch in Myanmar and now an independent analyst and observer. 

"There are signs of this in satellite pictures and by the government's own admission and through credible reporting coming out of the area, saying there have been extensive human rights violations. They want to hide the extent of the abuses against the civilian population. It's a cover-up," he says.

In 2012, the capital of Rakhine state, Sittwe, saw a wave of violence in which hundreds of Rohingya were killed and tens of thousands forced to leave their homes and move to camps.

"Our houses were burned down by the Rakhine people," says Sander Win, a Rohingya refugee. "We stayed at a friend's house and were then sent here. I've been here for five or six years."

Muhammed Yasin, the so-called camp doctor, says: "Our lives are very difficult. All our houses have been destroyed. In cold weather, we sleep on the floor ... our children get diseases and die."

The government restricts their movement, ability to marry and access to education and healthcare. The refugees Hindawi met seemed to have been in the camp for years - and the children appeared to never have lived anywhere else.

At the heart of the Rohingya's problems lie Myanmar's citizenship laws which deny them full nationality and therefore rights. This mirrors the widespread official and public prejudice against them.

"As a Buddhist, I feel sorry for them," says Buddhist monk U Par Mount Kha. "But these Muslims living in Myanmar, we can't just look at their human rights. They're not qualified to be citizens under our citizenship law ... If we let them out, the terrorist attacks will increase in Myanmar. There are 57 Islamic countries in the world, so if the leaders of those countries would take these people into their countries, there will be no problems in our country at all. We should consider that idea."

This discrimination has created tension and in October 2016 at least nine police officers were killed and four injured in multiple assaults along Myanmar's border with Bangladesh. The attackers were identified only as "terrorists" but were believed to belong to an armed Muslim group.

There was an immediate violent backlash and the army began a siege on Maungdaw. There were reports of mass killings, torture, rape - and of tens of thousands of Rohingya sought refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh.

The government says these reports are exaggerated - but the UN has since reported a raft of human rights violations. It has even gone as far as suggesting that Myanmar's strategy may be to expel the Rohingya altogether. It announced a fact-finding mission to Myanmar but the government said in June that it would deny entry to officials taking part in the UN investigation.

Former Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi now holds the post of State Counsellor and is effectively the head of the Myanmar government. But since her days as an anti-government campaigner, she has been accused of ignoring the plight of the Rohingya in Rakhine state.

"[Aung San Suu Kyi] stays relatively silent about the abuses going on," says Mathieson. "She's really been absent when her voice as a leader needs to be heard."










Roima Yunus (The Star)

By Rashvinjeet S. Bedi 
August 10, 2017

Kuala Lumpur -- Roima Yunus was only 11 when she fled her village in Arakan, Myanmar because of the escalating violence against the Rohingya there.

She ended up in the hands of traffickers who brought her to Thailand and then subsequently to Malaysia.

While life in Arakan was terrible, nothing could have prepared her for her journey to Malaysia.

She was sexually abused by countless men and she became pregnant before having a miscarriage.

Roima was later sold to her husband in Malaysia who also ended up sexually abusing her. She fled her husband and is now living alone somewhere in Kuala Lumpur.

Her story is told in "Bou", a 30-minute film by Mahi Ramakrishnan about Rohingya child brides in Malaysia.

"It was just so dark and depressing. Emotionally, the trauma and sexual abuse she went through when she was 11 hit me hard. At one point I couldn’t do the interview. I then just gave her a hug and sat next to her. I didn’t know what to do," said Mahi.

Mahi said she explored this aspect as of the community as the trafficking and the buying of the child brides intrigued her.

The film premiers this Sunday at Refugee Fest: Inclusion For a Better World at Black Box in Publika, Kuala Lumpur.

The festival from Thursday to Sunday features various arts, cultural and educational programs about refugees.

Besides Roima, Mahi spoke to two other Rohingya child brides, two husbands of these child brides and a couple of traffickers.

Roima Yunus' story is told in (The Star)

“The Rohingya men here were commissioning brides from traffickers. They were negotiating payment and terms to try and get a bride, sometimes from their own village. This seems to be crucial for them,” said Mahi who added that because of the continuing violence in Arakan, the children had no choice but to flee through the traffickers.

The brides can be sold for up to RM16,000, said Mahi.

Considered to be stateless and often subjected to arbitrary violence and forced labor in Myanmar, the Rohingya are considered by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.

As of June this year, there were 59,100 Rohingya refugees registered with the UNHCR in Malaysia, although unofficial estimates are considerably higher.

She added that traffickers in Arakan would go into the villages with someone known by the parents. The parents are told that they would not be paid for their children’s journeys here.

"They are told that their children will be safer in Malaysia. They are told that there is no violence and that they are able to work. Parents agree because they think that their children will be alive at the very least," she said.

Another of the girls Mahi spoke to was an illiterate girl who was abandoned by her husband before giving birth to her now one-year-old child.

Mahi added that the husbands have said that they are doing the girls a favor as they would experience more abuse if they are left with the trafficker.

"They believe that these girls have been given a lease of life," she said.

Mahi added that child protection is currently impossible as child marriage is currently a culturally entrenched practice among the Rohingya.

However, she points out that the girls never wanted to get married in the first place.

"At the end of the day, these are not adults who can make an informed decision about their lives. None of them wanted to get married," she said.

Mahi said that she hopes to engage with the UNHCR to document the number of child brides in Malaysia and to look at ways of mental health intervention.

"This film talks about children who are vulnerable, children who had no choice but to flee. I think the most decent thing for anyone to do is to embrace them and find a way to integrate them into society,” she said.

The remains of a house burned down in a clash between suspected militants and security forces is seen in Tin May village, Buthidaung township, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar July 14, 2017. Picture taken July 14, 2017. (Photo: Simon Lewis)


By Simon Lewis and Wa Lone
Reuters
August 10, 2017

YANGON  -- The United Nations has warned aid workers in western Myanmar of rising hostility and imminent protests from troubled Rakhine state's majority Buddhists, some of whom say humanitarian agencies are giving support to Rohingya Muslim militants. 

Reuters has obtained the text of a "precautionary security notification" distributed to the 300 or so U.N. staff and to international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) in Rakhine on Wednesday. 

It notes the "increased likelihood of civil unrest" and the possibility of demonstrations at aid agency offices in the state already racked by violence. 

The Office of the U.N.'s resident coordinator in Myanmar confirmed it had issued the notification as part of routine safety and security practice. 

The perception that U.N. agencies were supporting Muslim militants, and even their support to the broader Muslim community, the note said, "fueled renewed social media rhetoric and incidents of expressed hostility by some more hardline elements". 

"Rumor and misinformation will continue to be used to fuel anti-UN and INGO sentiment and hostility and elevate anxieties," it said. "As usual heightened vigilance and the immediate reporting of any security-related information are recommended." 

About 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims live in Rakhine, but are denied citizenship and face restrictions on their movements and access to basic services. About 120,000 remain in camps set up after deadly violence swept the state in 2012, where they rely on aid agencies for basic provisions. 

In October, Rohingya militants killed nine border police officers, sparking a security operation beset by allegations of rape, killings and torture by government troops. 

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi refuses to grant visas to U.N. investigators tasked with probing the claims and other abuses. 

Tensions have ramped up again since late July after seven Buddhists were found hacked to death in the mountains near Maungdaw, northern Rakhine. 

The government said it had discovered forest encampments that proved Muslim "extremists" were responsible for the killings and a spate of other murders in northern Rakhine. 

Suu Kyi convened a high-level meeting in the capital Naypyitaw to discuss security in Rakhine on Wednesday, state media said. 

TOLD TO LEAVE RAKHINE 

Rakhine Buddhist leaders have long bemoaned the presence of foreign agencies, who they accuse of favoring the Rohingya with aid. Aid offices were sacked during 2014 riots in the state capital, Sittwe. 

But the discovery at a suspected militant camp on July 30 of World Food Program-branded biscuits intended for malnourished children had further angered Buddhists, said Than Tun, a Rakhine community elder in Sittwe. 

Rakhine monks and community leaders met on Sunday in Sittwe and called for the government to ensure the security of non-Muslim citizens, who are the minority in the northern part of Rakhine dominated by the Rohingya. 

Protests were planned across Rakhine on Sunday to demand that foreign agencies leave immediately and that the government quickly verify the citizenship credentials of Muslims in the state, Than Tun said. 

"We cannot guarantee that there will not be violence like before. U.N. and INGO staff should be careful how they live and work," he said. 

"If they drive around the city this way and that like in the past, or visit Muslim villages without care, they will cause the Rakhine to hate them - everything depends on them." 

Rakhine state government spokesman Min Aung said he believed locals "had learned from previous mistakes" and would not initiate violence against aid agencies. 

At least four humanitarian workers have been confronted by Rakhine people telling them to leave the state in recent days in incidents reported to the U.N., two INGO staff told Reuters. 

The message on Wednesday, from the U.N. security advisor for Myanmar, said the protests were expected to remain peaceful, but demonstrations could grow larger and may eventually target agencies' offices. 

Editing by Nick Macfie

Pope Francis walks at the end of a canonisation mass for seven new saints in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican in 2016. Source: Reuters/Tony Gentile

By Max Walden
August 9, 2017

ACCORDING to Catholic media outlets, Pope Francis will undertake the first papal visit to Burma (Myanmar) in November, where he will focus on promoting the rights of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim community.

While news of the papal visit has not been officially announced, leaks from sources in the Vatican have confirmed a planned historical visit to Burma and Bangladesh, reported the Union of Catholic Asian News on Monday.

The Pope reportedly received a personal invite from Burma’s President Htin Kyaw, a decision which has led to an angry backlash among hardline Buddhist and ultranationalist groups on social media.

He will visit the capital Naypyidaw to meet with senior government figures before travelling to the country’s largest city Yangon, but will not go to the restive Rakhine State, where most Rohingya live.

While Burma and Bangladesh have relatively small Catholic communities, the Pope has long been a vocal critic of the Burmese government for its failure to protect Rohingya Muslims from violence and persecution.

Rohingya villagers watch as international media visit Maung Hna Ma village, Buthidaung township, in northern Rakhine state, Burma, on July 14, 2017. Source: Reuters/Simon Lewis

In 2015, the Pope called persecution of Rohingya akin to a “war” against Muslims in Burma.

More than 75,000 people are said to have fled across the Bangladeshi border since clashes with the military broke out in October 2016, leading to a harsh crackdown by authorities.

Earlier this year, he said Rohingya were “peaceful people, and they are our brothers and sisters,” calling for the Burmese regime to let them “live their culture and their Muslim faith.”

Pope Francis also created the first-ever Catholic cardinals for Burma and Bangladesh.

“The Catholic bishops invited Pope Francis before the 500th anniversary of Catholicism in Myanmar in late 2014,” Bishop Raymond Sumlut Gam told UCA News. There are roughly 700,000 Catholics in Burma.

“Some improvements have occurred such as diplomatic relations between Burma and Vatican plus the appointment of an apostolic nuncio.”

The Vatican established full diplomatic relations with Burma in May, after the Pope met with the country’s State Counsellor and de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Crux’s correspondent in the Vatican first reported the possibility of Francis cancelling his planned trip to India in place of a visit to Burma and Bangladesh late last month.

Rohingya calling on journalists to visit their village. (Photo: May Wong/Channel NewsAsia)

Statement by the Rohingya Consultative Body


Date: August 9, 2017

The Rohingya Consultative Body is disappointed but not surprised by the newly released "Maungdaw Investigation Commission Report” released on 6th August, which was commissioned by the government of Myanmar.

It was widely expected that the report would deny the widespread and widely documented human rights violations against the Rohingya by the Tatmadaw and security forces, which began in October 2016. The government of Myanmar had already denied human rights violations had taken place even before the Commission began its investigation. 

A report published 3 February this year by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) found that human rights violations committed by the security forces included mass gang-rape, extra judicial killings – including of babies and young children – brutal beatings and disappearances. 

Internationally what has happened to the Rohingya is widely known and accepted as fact, and prompted the United Nations Human Rights Council to establish the Fact-Finding Mission. We are confident that as far as the international community is concerned, this whitewash report will carry no credibility, and only does harm to the international reputation of the government of Myanmar.

After denial of OHCHR findings by the commission, we urge Myanmar government to give access to the UN fact-finding Mission and Media to verify their findings. 

However, within Myanmar the continued denials of the facts by the government has much more serious implications it will contribute to the military and security forces sense of impunity, that it can continue to violate the rights of the Rohingya without consequences. The report will also be widely believed within Myanmar, contributing to tensions and prejudice against Rohingya in Rakhine state where tensions are already on the rise. This is of great concern to us.

The Rohingya have been subjected to decades of state-sponsored discrimination and persecution, which have been extensively documented by Amnesty International and other human rights groups. As long ago as 1992 the United Nations General Assembly expressed concern of the treatment of the Rohingya. The Rohingya have effectively been stripped of citizenship rights, in particular as a result of the country’s discriminatory 1982 Citizenship Law and its application, and more broadly their civil, political, economic and social rights have been violated. 

In this connection, Rohingya Consultative Body call on Burmese Government 

1. To abandon its policy of denial of the facts about human rights violations taking place against the Rohingya and other ethnic groups in Myanmar. 

2. To allow UN- Fact finding mission to investigate the truth about human rights abuses in Rakhine State, Shan State, Kachin States and other parts of the country.

3. To stop current escalating violence and to protect all minorities in Rakhine State.

4. To allow unrestricted humanitarian aid access all the areas of Rakhine State.

Rohingya Consultative body also call on International Community such as UN, EU, OIC, US and UK

1. To adopt a policy towards the government of Myanmar that it will no longer receive international support if it continues to defy the United Nations by obstructing the Fact-Finding Mission

2. To make it clear to the government of Myanmar that continued support from the international community is also conditional on lifting all restrictions on humanitarian aid in Rakhine State and other parts of the country.

3. To mandate the United Nations Secretary General to personally visit Myanmar to negotiate unrestricted humanitarian access and co-operation with the Fact-Finding Mission. 

4. To ensure that when it reports the recommendations of the Fact-Finding Mission are fully implemented, even if this requires taking difficult decisions which change the current approach of the international community towards Myanmar. 

For more information, please contact; 

Tun Khin +44 7888714866
Nay San Lwin +49 69 2602234




RB News
August 8, 2017

Tokyo, Japan -- Rohingya Advocacy Network in Japan (RANJ) together with Human Rights Watch’s Tokyo Office visited the Japanese Upper House Parliament building to meet with a delegation of Japan’s Foreign Ministry Officials on 3rd August 2017 in Tokyo while Myanmar’s military Chief, Sr. General Min Aung Hlaing, was paying a goodwill visit to Japan.

The Rohingya delegation, led by RANJ Executive Director Zaw Min Htut, included HRW’s Tokyo Office Director, Attorney Kanei Doi, long time Rohingya supporter Attorney Shogo Watanabe, Myanmar expert Hisao Tanabe, Mr. Abul Kalam and a Myanmar Muslim community member. The Foreign Ministry Officials from several departments including Southeast Asia Division, Human Rights Department, Humanitarian Departments, A representative to UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, a representative to UN Headquarters in New York. The one and half hour long meeting was presided by Japan Social Democratic Party Leader and Upper House Member Mrs. Mizuho Fukushima.



At the meeting, the RANJ Executive Director mainly focused on the UN mandated Fact - Finding Mission into human rights abuses in Rakhine Shan and Kachin States, the Kofi Annan led Rakhine Commission’s upcoming report, Ms. Yanghee Lee’s latest visit to Myanmar & her end of mission report, UNHCR Chief Mr. Fillippo Grandi’s and WFP’s latest statements on Rohingya suffering, upcoming UN General Assembly and Japan’s role on Rohingya in September- October. The current situation in Rakhine was also detailed with video clips, pictures, reports from various human rights organisations including HRW and Amnesty International, killing, sexual violence, mass arrest, torture, extortion, demolition of dwellings and crops by giving the examples of July 4, Sittwe incident, July 30 Rethedaung incidents and other daily atrocities in Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Rathedaung and Sittwe.

The HRW Director highlighted the human rights situation of Rohingya and strongly demanded the Japanese Government take action to stop it. Attorney Shogo Watanabe raised the issue of Myanmar’s refusal to cooperation with FFM, and said it is unacceptable and Japanese government must urge Myanmar to cooperate in order to find out the truth.

Before concluding the meeting, Upper House member Mrs. Mizuho Fukushima who organized the meeting and RANJ Executive Director Zaw Min Htut strongly demanded from the MOFA officials that the Japanese Prime Minister or Foreign Minister should directly urge Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s government and Military Chief Min Aung Hlaing to immediately stop all human rights violations against the Rohingya and cooperate with the UN mandated Fact-Finding Mission.

RANJ presented the following letter and other relevant UN, HRW, AI reports, as well as other information.




Children from Taung Bazar Rohingya village look on as a border guard stands in the background. (Photo: May Wong)

By May Wong
August 8, 2017

YANGON: She stood silently in a crowd of more than 20 people, as she cradled her two-year-old child on her hip.

But as Sarbeda heard others relay their stories to foreign journalists of how their husbands or sons have been arrested, she started to weep.

That is when I asked why she was crying. Her experience of how her 14-year-old son was arrested brought a flood of tears. 

Sarbeda said the boy was working in the fields when security personnel arrested him, suspecting him of being involved in alleged terrorist activities.

An accusation she vehemently denies, saying “they took him without any question. My son is so young.”

Buthidaung and Maungdaw are home to a majority of some one million Rohingyas, deemed as illegal immigrants by Myanmar. (Photo: May Wong)

Sarbeda’s 14-year-old son is one of at least 10 juveniles arrested alongside more than 400 Rohingyas accused of being involved in violent attacks since Oct 9 last year.

She has no idea how he is doing now or when he might be released.

This mother was just one of many who came forward with fear, helplessness and anxiety written all over her face.

One after another, women, many carrying children in their arms, rushed up to the foreign journalists who entered their villages as part of a government-led visit to showcase the latest development on the ground.

The five-day arranged visit to several villages in northern Rakhine state was the third such trip organised by the government.

But it is the first allowing international journalists into the area after the initial attacks.


The aim – to show how the government has nothing to hide and that allegation of abuse and atrocities against the Rohingyas are, according to the authorities, exaggerated.

Rohingya calling on journalists to visit their village. (Photo: May Wong)

Rakhine Chief Minister Nyi Pu defended the security forces’ actions saying “when we are working on security issues, there are terrorist attacks and conflicts happening so there can be some casualties.

"We are not performing genocide. It is very wrong to exaggerate the small casualties.”

To a certain extent, it must be said that the Information Ministry official leading the visit accommodated the journalists’ requests of wanting to visit villages off the prescribed list and to speak to any villager without the presence of the authorities.

Without the watchful eye of officials, another villager called Lalmuti stood by her father’s grave and told journalists that “my mother said my father was burned to death by the military. They put my father in the house and burned the house and him.”

The 23-year-old said “after three months, they took her (mother) for questioning and threw her into jail.”

When asked if she’s worried she might get into trouble for sharing her story, Lalmuti simply replied “Why would I be afraid? I am telling the truth.”


There were others, however, who didn’t want to be seen speaking to journalists, for fear they may be hauled up for questioning. One pulled me away from earshot of others and related to me how he was beaten and threatened by security forces.

Yet another kept looking over his shoulders while describing how insufferable their lives have become, only to quickly disappear into the crowd, waving me away, believing he was being watched.

Villagers are afraid to step out of their homes. (Photo: May Wong)

The journalists had insisted that the heavily-armed security personnel escort us only to the entrance of villages, but some Rohingyas worry about government informants among them.

That was not paranoia because soon after, a man among the Rohingya villagers was caught red-handed taking pictures of those speaking to the media and recording the conversations.

PALPABLE DISTRESS

As journalists track through fields and walk through yet another Rohingya village, a woman slipped a hand-written note to a reporter.

That note accused security forces of arbitrary arrests including a 15-year-old boy. What is more damning is that the note said that on the day of Eid al-Fitr, one of the holiest days on the Muslim calendar, border police guards came into the village and brutally raped some women.

The distress among the Rohingyas met throughout the visit is palpable. The Oct 9 attacks against three border posts, killing nine officers, sparked a security lockdown in areas of Buthidaung and Maungdaw in northern Rakhine state.

The area is home to a majority of some one million Rohingyas, deemed as illegal immigrants by Myanmar.

The government initially accused a group they identified as Aqa Mul Mujahidin as the terrorists who launched the initial attacks.

Myanmar’s security forces then executed a “clearance operation” to hunt down the perpetrators.

Unfortunately, according to the United Nations, that led to more than 75,000 Rohingyas fleeing from Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh.

Allegations of arbitrary arrests, abuses, extra-judicial killings and security personnel raping Rohingya women prompted the exodus.

But the Myanmar government has denied most of the allegations, while rubbishing the number of Rohingyas who have fled the area.

The government claims only about 22,000 Rohingyas have left the area after the incident. For those who remained in their villages today, it was out of pure desperation that they decided to step up to tell their story.

DESPERATE TO GET THE WORD OUT

The Rohingyas were unsure of what the journalists could do for them or if their lives would be in jeopardy after they speak to the media.

But what is clear is that without phones, other communication devices and being rather isolated in rural, difficult-to-get-to villages, they simply wanted to get their word out – to whoever is willing to listen.


So desperate were some that they waved us down from a riverbank as we were traveling past in speedboats. 

A group of some 20 women attracted our attention by calling us to shore and pointing us towards their village.

That’s when we knew we had to stop, turn back and speak with them. Once on shore, we were quickly surrounded by many Rohingya women wanting to relay their experiences of how their sons, brothers, fathers, husbands have been arrested as suspects and how they’re unsure of what will happen to them.

One woman, 48-year-old Mamuda Hatu, spoke of how authorities arrested her 27-year-old son, accusing him of going to Bangladesh and potentially having connections with terrorists.

A border guard stading in front of a group of villagers. (Photo: May Wong)

But she said “some falsely reported that he went to Bangladesh. That's why he was arrested”. She said her “son has no connection with the terrorists. I have only one son. They took him for no reason.”

Such experiences are similar to many that have surfaced in various media over the last nine months post-Oct 9 but it is difficult to authenticate and verify the facts.


But that doesn’t mean it is not true.

Hence the call by the international community and the United Nations to allow a UN-backed fact-finding mission to enter Myanmar and to investigate the allegations and accusations made against the security forces.

But Myanmar has strongly rejected that suggestion.

The country’s National Security Advisor, Thaung Tun reiterated Myanmar’s position that such a mission will “only aggravate the situation on the ground”.

He said such a mission was derived from “allegations of wide-spread human rights abuses by the Myanmar security forces” and is “less than constructive”.

The villagers at an IDP camp in Sittwe have limited access to healthcare. (Photo: May Wong)

Speaking to foreign diplomats and international aid agencies based in Yangon recently, Mr Thaung Tun said “since October 2016, 44 civilians have been murdered and 27 abducted”.

And based on recent reports of abductions and killings of Rohingyas, he said “it is clear that Muslim militants are taking out Muslim villagers who are perceived to be collaborating with the government.”

He added “there is evidence of increasing terrorist activities in northern Rakhine” with the discovery of a terrorist training camp and tunnel in Maungdaw, Rakhine.

This is the same narrative given by Myanmar’s Border Guard Police Commander, Brigadier-General San Lwin.

Brigadier-General San Lwin said “the terrorists conduct secret trainings in the villages. There are some murder cases because the terrorists ask the villagers to kill the village administrator or certain people.”

He suggested that some of the violence could be due to personal or business fallouts, while in other cases, “there can be some involvement by the terrorists.”

Seemingly to drive the point home about terrorist activities among the Rohingyas, authorities brought journalists to a location where a house was burnt to the ground in one of the Buthidaung villages.

There, the authorities related how a shoot-out between security forces and those in the house happened in July.

They said Muslim militants in the house fired at security forces who were conducting checks after receiving information about suspicious activities there.

Such incidents and increased security threats in Northern Rakhine have also affected Rohingyas already living in internally displaced persons or IDP camps just outside the state’s capital Sittwe.



The Rohingyas were placed in IDP camps after violence broke out between the Buddhists and Muslims in 2012.

Many Rohingyas have been living in those camps for more than five years now with no end in sight.

One such camp is Thet Kay Pyin IDP housing some 6,000 Rohingyas, near Sittwe. Rohingyas are not allowed to leave the camps without authorisation and they complained of a lack of education, healthcare, food and unemployment.

Children at an IDP camp in Sittwe, Rakhine. (Photo: May Wong)

I saw children who were severely malnourished with the sick elderly unable to receive medical treatment.

A resident, Zadah asked “we’re not animals. So why we have to live in this area? Why we have to live in this detention centre for five years?”

The government insists the continuous violence in Rakhine is due to terrorist attacks or Muslim militants killing Muslim villagers. However, the Rohingyas say they are being discriminated and violently targeted by security force personnel.



Whatever the case, it is clear the Rohingyas continue to live in fear, the security situation remains vulnerable and a complete resolution seems nowhere in sight right now.

For Myanmar, which is trying to attain full democracy and to achieve national reconciliation, a divided nation and many other challenges will make those goals even more of a struggle.



Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)

Press release: 7 August 2017

Maungdaw Investigation Commission’s report is not credible

Arakan Rohingya National Organsation (ARNO) strongly denounces and rejects the report, dated 6 August 2017, of the Maungdaw Investigation Commission headed by Myanmar Vice-President Myint Swe, a former military general. The report is “fundamentally flawed” and devoid of truth.

We are not surprised that the government’s commission denies “crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing” against the Rohingya people, where Myanmar military and security forces were the perpetrators.

We reiterate that the commission lacked independence and proper mandate; its members are not impartial or competent; it fails to provide adequate and effective protection for witnesses; and it has not given any consideration to the independent expert's recommendations. The report neither provides accountability nor reconciliation but impunity. It, in fact, is a blatant disregard of the human rights of the victims. 

Under international conventions and customary international law, the government of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has primary responsibility to protect the Rohingya population; to make accountable those responsible for acts of genocide, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing against them, and to ensure their right to effective remedy. But the commission and its report is a ploy by the Myanmar government to prevent an independent international investigation to deliver justice, truth and full reparations for the victims.

The UN Fact-Finding mission is credible alternative to highly flawed and bias Maungdaw Investigation Commission’s report and is crucial for accountability efforts. The defenceless Rohingyas should not face discrimination or violence because of their ethnic background or religious belief.

We, therefore, urge upon the international community, including the powerful countries and Myanmar’s neighbours, to reject the Maungdaw Investigation Commission’s report and put concerted pressure on the stubborn Myanmar authorities to fully cooperate with the UN mandated Fact-Finding Mission into the human rights situation in Arakan/Rakhine State, and to provide it with free and unfettered access to all the areas to which they are seeking access.

For more details, please contact:
Australia: Dr. Hla Myint +61-423381904
Bangladesh: Ko Ko Linn: +880-1726068413
Canada: Nur Hasim +1 -519- 5725359
Japan: Zaw Min Htut +81-8030835327
U.K. Ronnie: +44-7783118354
USA: Dr. Habib Ullah +1-4438158609




 RB News
August 7, 2017

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) released a statement through its twitter account (@arsa_official) on 7th August 2017 urging all the citizens of Arakan state -- Rakhine, Rohingya and others -- to maintain and preserve calmness, public order and tranquility in the region.

It says a series of unfloding violent events across Maungdaw and Rathedaung Townships are being carried out by the Myanmar authorities and some Buddhist extremists and meant to trigger a repeat of 2012-style violence. 

The Arakan Rohingya Liberation Army (ARSA) was formerly known as Faith Movement or Al Yakeen in Arabic is a rebel group fighting for the liberation of the persecuted Rohingya, according to its twitter account profile. It has been operating in the northern Arakan State since October 2016 targeting the Myanmar state’s armed forces.

Reliable sources have told us that the twitter account is handled by one or more members of the rebel group.

The full statement (dated on August 6, 2017, but released on August 7, 2017) is attached below.

    • Rohingya Exodus