US officials preparing a recommendation for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to declare "ethnic cleansing" is occurring against Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims.

By Matthew Pennington 

Associated Press

October 24, 2017

WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration moved toward a condemnation of "ethnic cleansing" against Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims, as officials were preparing a recommendation for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to unequivocally use the term for the first time. Angry lawmakers on Tuesday demanded an immediate denunciation as they explored a new, tougher U.S. policy.

"My bosses have said it appears to be ethnic cleansing. I'm of that view as well," said Patrick Murphy, a senior U.S. diplomat for Southeast Asia, while adding that the final call wasn't his to make.

Tillerson could receive the recommendation to adopt such terminology as a matter of policy as early as this week, officials familiar with the process told The Associated Press. He would then decide whether to follow the advice of his agency's policy experts and lawyers, which would raise pressure on the U.S. government to consider new sanctions on a country that had been lauded for its democratic transition.

At a Senate hearing Tuesday, lawmakers pressed Murphy and other administration officials to hastily clarify their view of the brutal crackdown on Muslims in Rakhine State that has caused more than 600,000 refugees to flee to Bangladesh. But U.S. officials have been weighing several factors for their policy toward the country also known as Burma, including concerns about undermining the civilian government led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi for the last 18 months.

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine was among those calling for a clear determination "with dispatch." Republican Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, emphasized it "may be time for a policy readjustment." Other lawmakers in both houses of Congress have proposed new U.S. penalties on the military, which retains significant power in Myanmar and is blamed for the violence.

The U.S. officials, who weren't authorized to speak publicly on the internal process and requested anonymity, told the AP the State Department won't make a call yet on whether crimes against humanity have occurred in Myanmar. Such a determination would be even more detrimental to Myanmar's military, as it could force the U.S. to push harder for legal accountability.

According to the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention, "ethnic cleansing" isn't recognized as an independent crime under international law, unlike crimes against humanity and genocide. It surfaced in the context of the 1990s conflict in the former Yugoslavia, when a U.N. commission defined it as "rendering an area ethnically homogeneous by using force or intimidation to remove persons of given groups from the area."

Nevertheless, Murphy stressed that "a determination of ethnic cleansing will not change our pursuit of full accountability." The issue also is sensitive because President Donald Trump will make his first official trip to Asia next month and hasn't spoken about the crisis.

Human rights groups accuse security forces of launching a scorched-earth campaign in late August as they responded to Rohingya insurgent attacks. Amnesty International alleges that hundreds of Rohingya men, women and children have been systematically killed.

Senators of both parties expressed outrage over the atrocities — and frustration at Washington's inability to stop them. They questioned whether former President Barack Obama prematurely lifted sanctions against the armed forces as a reward for an end to decades of direct military rule.

"The military control Burma today," Sen. Ben Cardin, the panel's top Democrat, said. "That's unacceptable, that's why we imposed sanctions, because of military control. Sanction relief was given for what? So people can be ethnically cleansed?"

Murphy said the U.S. has limited leverage with Myanmar's military. He described broad sanctions and more targeted measures as under consideration, but worried about hurting Myanmar's vulnerable citizens. Administration officials also fret that punishing Myanmar too forcefully could undermine Suu Kyi's government and push her country away from the United States and toward China.

Before the latest refugee exodus, roughly 1 million Rohingya lived in Myanmar. The Buddhist majority believes they migrated illegally from Bangladesh, although many Rohingya families have lived in Myanmar for generations. They were stripped of their citizenship in 1982.

Calls for a U.S. determination of "ethnic cleansing" have intensified, as the United Nations and leading Western governments have used the term. Six weeks ago, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said it "seems a textbook example of ethnic cleansing." French President Emmanuel Macron echoed that opinion, as have leaders of many in the Muslim world.

U.S. officials have been more reticent. Tillerson, who last week said that perpetrators will be held to account for atrocities, has referred to the violence as "characterized by many as ethnic cleansing." U.N. envoy Nikki Haley told the Security Council last month it was "a brutal, sustained campaign to cleanse the country of an ethnic minority."

"We are not shying from the use of any appropriate terminology," Murphy told reporters later Tuesday, without revealing what the formal review would conclude.

The recent violence already has prompted Washington to curtail already restricted ties with Myanmar's military. Two months ago, the U.S. stopped waiving visa restrictions to allow members of Myanmar's military to visit — a policy that Murphy said would also apply to commander in chief Gen. Min Aung Hlaing. The State Department announced Monday that units and officers involved in Rakhine operations are ineligible for U.S. assistance, and rescinded invitations for senior security forces to attend U.S.-sponsored events.

Some Democratic and Republican lawmakers want tougher action, such as financial sanctions against military officials complicit in rights abuses. Restrictions on military-owned businesses that hold large stakes in Myanmar's economy are also a possibility.

"Here we have this horrific instance, and we have virtually no voice, no pressure," said Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley, who is set to travel to Myanmar soon.

___

Associated Press writer Josh Lederman contributed to this report.

By Shoon Naing

Reuters

October 24, 2017

NAYPYITAW -- Myanmar and Bangladesh on Tuesday agreed to cooperate on the repatriation of Rohingya refugees and took steps to boost border security as relations between the neighbors have been strained by the continuing flow of refugees into Bangladesh.

Over 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar since Aug. 25, when Rohingya insurgent attacks sparked a ferocious military response by the Myanmar army that the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing. 

At a meeting in Myanmar’s capital Naypyitaw, attended by Myanmar’s home affairs minister lieutenant general Kyaw Swe and his Bangladeshi counterpart Asaduzzaman Khan, the countries signed two agreements covering security and border cooperation. 

The two sides have also agreed to “to halt the outflow of Myanmar residents to Bangladesh,” and “to form a joint working group,” Tin Myint, permanent secretary from Myanmar’s home affairs ministry told reporters after the meetings. 

“After joint working group, the verification, (the) two countries have agreed to arrange different steps so that these people can return to their homeland safely and honourably and in secure conditions,” said Mostafa Kamal Uddin, secretary from Bangladeshi home affairs ministry.

The officials did not elaborate on the specific steps the authorities would take for the repatriation, adding that the bulk of discussions was dedicated to border and security cooperation agreements which have been long in the making. 

Tin Myint said the two countries agreed “to restore normalcy in Rakhine to enable displaced Myanmar residents to return from Bangladesh at the earliest opportunity.”

He also said Myanmar had sent a list of suspects who had fled to Bangladesh and requested the authorities there to investigate and return them to Myanmar. 

Thousands of refugees have continued to arrived cross the Naf river separating Myanmar’s western Rakhine state and Bangladesh in recent days, even though Myanmar says military operations ceased on Sept. 5. 

The United States said on Monday it was considering a range of further actions over Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya Muslim minority. 

While on Tuesday the officials said the talks were friendly, tensions are still high between the two countries. Bangladesh last month accused Myanmar of repeatedly violating its air space and warned that any more “provocative acts” could have “unwarranted consequences”. 

On border and security, the two sides decided to establish border liaison offices, carry out regular meetings between two security forces, jointly combat drug trafficking across the border and set up a mechanism to communicate directly. 

Bangladesh has for decades faced influxes of Rohingya fleeing persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where the Rohingya are seen as illegal migrants. It was already home to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya before the latest crisis. 

Though Rohingya families have lived in Myanmar for generations, they are denied citizenship and access to basic civil rights such as freedom of movement, decent education and healthcare. 

Hundreds in Rakhine on Sunday protested to urge Myanmar’s government not to repatriate the Rohingya. 

Reporting By Shoon Naing and Antoni Slodkowski in NAYPYITAW; additional reprorting by Thu Thu Aung in YANGON; Writing by Yimou Lee; Editing by Hugh Lawson

By Julhas Alam

Associated Press

October 23, 2017

Dhaka, Bangladesh -- India's foreign minister told Bangladesh's government that Myanmar must take back Rohingya Muslims to resolve one of Asia's largest refugee crises in decades, the government said.

Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj conveyed her message Sunday during a meeting with Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who ordered border guards and her administration to allow the Rohingya to cross the border and shelter in makeshift camps in the coastal district of Cox's Bazar.

Nearly 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar's Rakhine state since Aug. 25 to escape persecution that the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing.

The United News of Bangladesh agency reported that Swaraj said, "Myanmar must take back their nationals ... this is a big burden for Bangladesh. How long will Bangladesh bear it? There should be a permanent solution to this crisis."

She met earlier with her Bangladeshi counterpart A.H.Mahmood Ali and said India was worried about the violence. Human rights groups have interviewed refugees who said Myanmar security forces killed indiscriminately, committed rapes and burned villages to force Rohingya to leave.

"We've urged the situation be handled with restraint, keeping in mind the welfare of the population," Swaraj said in a statement.

Swaraj also said India supported the implementation of recommendations suggesting recognition of the Rohingya ethnic group within Myanmar, where they are denied citizenship and are effectively stateless.

In the statement, she also said creating economic opportunity in the troubled Rakhine state could help resolve the situation.

"In our view, the only long-term solution to the situation in Rakhine State is rapid socio-economic and infrastructure development that would have a positive impact on all the communities living in the state," she was quoted as saying in the statement.

Bangladeshi Foreign Minister urged India to play a greater role by "exerting sustained pressure" on Myanmar to find a peaceful solution to the Rohingya crisis.

India's shift toward resolving the Rohinga crisis would mean a lot to China's policy to support Myanmar.

An official with China's ruling Communist Party said Saturday the country supports Myanmar in "safeguarding peace and stability" and won't join other nations in condemning the government's actions. Beijing condemns "violence and terror acts" and backs measures to restore order, said the vice minister of the party's International Department, Guo Yezhou, apparently referring to attacks by Rohingya rebels on Myanmar security forces.

By Stephanie Nebehay

Reuters

October 23, 2017

GENEVA -- Bangladesh called on Myanmar on Monday to allow nearly 1 million Rohingya Muslim refugees to return home under safe conditions, saying that the burden had become “untenable” on its territory.

About 600,000 people have crossed the border since Aug. 25 when Rohingya insurgent attacks on security posts were met by a counter-offensive by the Myanmar army in Rakhine state which the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing. 

“This is an untenable situation,” Shameem Ahsan, Bangladesh’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, told a U.N. pledging conference. “Despite claims to the contrary, violence in Rakhine state has not stopped. Thousands still enter on a daily basis.” 

Vital humanitarian aid must continue, Ahsan said, adding: “It is of paramount importance that Myanmar delivers on its recent promises and works towards safe, dignified, voluntary return of its nationals back to their homes in Myanmar.” 

Bangladesh’s interior minister was in Yangon on Monday for talks to find a “durable solution”, he said. 

But Myanmar continued to issue “propaganda projecting Rohingyas as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh”, Ahsan said, adding: “This blatant denial of the ethnic identity of Rohingyas remains a stumbling block.” 

Myanmar considers the Rohingya to be stateless, although they trace their presence in the country back generations. 

Filippo Grandi, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, later told journalists that the two countries had begun talks on “repatriation”. 

Conducive conditions have to be “recreated” in Rakhine, he said. “This must include a solution to the question of citizenship, or rather lack thereof for the Rohingya community,” Grandi said.

Khaled al-Jarallah, deputy foreign minister of Kuwait, called on Myanmar authorities to “cease the practice of stripping the Rohingya minority of their right of citizenship, which as a result deprives them of the right to property and employment”. 

“THE WALKING DEAD” 

Jordan’s Queen Rania visited Rohingya refugee camps on Monday and called for a stronger response from the international community to the plight of the Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh to escape “systematic persecution” in Myanmar.

“One has to ask, why is the plight of this Muslim minority group being ignored? Why has the systematic prosecution been allowed to play out for so long?” she asked after touring the camps. 

The United Nations has appealed for $434 million to provide life-saving aid to 1.2 million people for six months. A total of $344 million has been raised so far, a final U.N. statement said. 

“We need more money to keep pace with intensifying needs. This is not an isolated crisis, it is the latest round in a decades-long cycle of persecution, violence and displacement,” U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told the talks. 

An estimated 1,000-3,000 Rohingya still enter Bangladesh daily, William Lacy Swing, head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. He called them: “these most rejected and vulnerable people in the world.” 

Joanne Liu, president of the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) or Doctors Without Borders, described them as “the walking dead”. 

There are only 210 hospital beds for 1 million refugees, malnutrition is on the rise and latrines are lacking to prevent contamination, she said. “The camp is a time-bomb, ticking towards a full-blown health crisis.” 

Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Rafiqur Rahman in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg

By Azeem Ibrahim

CNN

October 23, 2017

The Rohingya crisis in Myanmar is now widely described as ethnic cleansing. But the situation has been evolving. And now, it seems, we can no longer avoid the conclusion we have all been dreading. This is a genocide. And we, in the international community, must recognize it as such.

Article II of United Nation's 1948 Genocide Convention describes genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."

Though the Rohingya situation has met most of the above criteria for being described as a genocide under international law for a number of years now, the label has been resisted until now because we think of genocide as one huge act of frenzied violence, like the machete insanity in Rwanda or the gas chambers of Nazi Germany. 

But the final peak of violence is in all historical cases merely the visible tip of the iceberg. And the final outburst only occurs once it has already been rendered unavoidable by the political context.

In Rwanda, Hutu tribal propaganda ran for years on the radio and in magazines referring to the Tutsis as cockroaches and a mortal threat to the Hutus that needed to be eliminated lest the Hutus themselves would die. Kill or be killed. The frenzied killing was not something that just occurred to the Hutus one day in April 1994. It was the logical conclusion of a campaign of dehumanization and paranoia which lasted for years.

The same is true of the Holocaust. The Nazi genocide began slowly and had few distinctive outbursts of violence to delineate where one degree of crime against humanity ended and where another began.

All in all, that genocide developed and unfolded over a period of more than 10 years. Most of that period was not taken up with the killing of Jews, Gypsies and all the other "sub-humans." Rather, it was taken up with manufacturing of the category of "sub-humans" by state propaganda. Only once the problem was manufactured and sold to the wider population did the "final solution" become viable.

Pattern of genocide

In Myanmar, extremist Buddhist monks have been preaching that the Rohingya are reincarnated from snakes and insects. Killing them would not be a crime against humanity, they say -- it would be more like pest control. 

And necessary "pest control" too. Just like the Tutsi conspiracy to kill all the Hutus, or the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the Rohingya are supposed to be agents of a global Islamist conspiracy to take over the world and forcibly instate a global caliphate. The duty of any good Buddhist who wants to maintain the national and religious character of Myanmar is to prevent the Islamist takeover, and thus to help remove the threat posed by the "vermin."

Every modern genocide has followed this pattern. Years of concerted dehumanization campaigns are the absolutely necessary pre-condition for the mass murder at the end. Usually these campaigns are led by a repressive government, but other political forces also come into play. Such was the case in Bosnia, Darfur and Rwanda. And so it is with Myanmar. 

The campaign of dehumanization against the Rohingya has been going on for decades, and events certainly took an unmistakeable turn towards genocide since at least the outbursts of communal violence in 2012. Those clashes, and the ones in the subsequent years, drove 200,000 to 300,000 Rohingya out of Myanmar. 

But somehow, at that rate of attrition, and against the backdrop of Myanmar's supposed move towards democracy with the election of Aung San Suu Kyi to power in late 2015, world leaders have allowed themselves to hope that the situation could still be turned around.

Now, the reality of an exodus of a further 600,000 people in the space of just six weeks; the incontrovertible evidence of large scale burning of villages by the Myanmar military -- which the military is calling clearance operations of terrorists -- and the reports of widespread extra-judicial killings against fleeing civilians by the country's federal security forces have made it much more difficult to avoid the conclusion: this is genocide. We no longer have just the slow-burning genocidal environment which whittles down a people until their ultimate extinction. 

Now we are also confronting the loud bang at the end. More than half of an entire population has been removed from their ancestral lands in just eight weeks!

The tragedy is that the international community will abet the situation. The UN Security Council will decline to respond to the situation with the seriousness it deserves. If a situation is defined by the Council as a "genocide," then the UN becomes legally bound to intervene, with peace-keeping missions and so on. That is why Western countries will be reluctant initiate such a move, and China, who is building one branch of its New Silk Road infrastructure right through Rakhine State to access the port of Sittwe, will likely veto any such proposal.

Just like we did in Rwanda, just like we did in the Balkans, we are once again seeing a genocide happen before our very eyes. And we will do nothing about it. We will bury our heads in the sand, and when our children will ask us why we let this happen we will plead ignorance. Once the final act of killing starts, it is usually too late. For the Rohingya, the final act is in full swing. And still we are in denial about what is happening.

Dr. Azeem Ibrahim is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Policy and author of "The Rohingyas: Inside Myanmar's Hidden Genocide" (Hurst & Oxford University Press)

By AFP

October 22, 2017

TEKNAF, BANGLADESH -- Authorities in Bangladesh were bracing Sunday (Oct 22) for another possible surge in Rohingya refugee arrivals, with thousands from the Muslim minority believed stranded along the border with Myanmar waiting to cross.

Border guards are also concerned that the relaxing later Sunday of a temporary ban on fishing in the Bay of Bengal could see a surge in people-smuggling along the coast as unscrupulous captains return to the seas.

Rohingya refugees already in Bangladesh have received videos from families across the border showing thousands of displaced Muslims massing near crossing points, waiting for an opportunity to cross.

"We have seen some videos sent by people across the border. There are many gathered there. The number could be big," Border Guard Bangladesh commander Lieutenant Colonel S.M. Ariful Islam told AFP, without giving an estimate.

Almost 600,000 Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh since late August, when militant attacks on Myanmar's security forces in Rakhine state sparked a major army crackdown on the community likened by the UN and others to ethnic cleansing.

Around 10,000 were left stranded in no man's land near Anjumanpara village for three days last week after being prevented from crossing into Bangladesh. They were finally permitted by authorities to enter Thursday (Oct 19).

The influx has slowed since then, with charities and officials reporting about 200 people crossing the Naf River dividing the two countries.

"(But) those that came told us thousands were still stranded on the other side of Naf," Jashim Uddin, a volunteer for the International Organisation for Migration, told AFP.

Another border guard told AFP an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 refugees were heading to Anjumanpara but had been pushed back.

"We heard from their relatives that the Myanmar army has stopped them from heading to the border," said a Border Guard spokesman, Iqbal Ahmed.

Refugees arriving Sunday described violence in their villages in Rakhine and food shortages that had forced countless numbers to flee.

"We hardly had any food for the last 10 to 15 days. They torched our home. We did not have any choice but to leave," Yasmin, who goes by one name, told AFP at the coastal village of Shah Porir Dwip.

Authorities meanwhile are on high alert for fishermen seeking to ferry refugees to Bangladesh via the open sea as the temporary fishing ban expires later Sunday.

"It is risky, but you can make a lot of money ferrying Rohingya to Bangladesh," said local fisherman Shawkat Hossain.

By Associated Press 

October 22, 2017

SITTWE, Myanmar — Hundreds of hard-line Buddhists protested Sunday to urge Myanmar’s government not to repatriate the nearly 600,000 minority Rohingya Muslims who have fled to Bangladesh since late August to escape violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

The protest took place in Sittwe, the state capital, where many Rohingya lived before an outbreak of inter-communal violence in 2012 forced them to flee their homes.

Aung Htay, a protest organizer, said any citizens would be welcome in the state. “But if these people don’t have the right to be citizens ... the government’s plan for a conflict-free zone will never be implemented,” he said.

Myanmar doesn’t recognize Rohingya as an ethnic group, instead insisting they are Bengali migrants from Bangladesh living illegally in the country. Rohingya are excluded from the official 135 ethnic groups in the country and denied citizenship.

More than 580,000 Rohingya from northern Rakhine have fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25, when Myanmar security forces began a scorched-earth campaign against Rohingya villages. Myanmar’s government has said it was responding to attacks by Muslim insurgents, but the United Nations and others have said the response was disproportionate.

Myanmar de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s government said earlier this month that it was willing to take back Rohingya refugees who fled to southeastern Bangladesh. The government has agreed to form a joint working group to start the repatriation process.

On Sunday, protesters, including some Buddhist monks, demanded that the government not take back the refugees.

“The organizers of the protest applied to get permission for a thousand people to participate in the protest, but only a few hundred showed up,” said Soe Tint Swe, a local official.

Meanwhile, thousands of people gathered Sunday in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, to show support for Suu Kyi and the government’s handling of the Rohingya crisis.

Colorful crowds of people, some wearing T-shirts with Suu Kyi’s photo and some holding photo frames of Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party flag, took part in the rally.

The global image of Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate, has been damaged by the violence in Rakhine, which has sparked Asia’s largest refugee crisis in decades.

Mohammed Ayub (TU), UAE

RB Article

October 22, 2017

Myanmar Military was never sincere in handling ethnics’ affairs, especially, in Rohingyas’ whose permanent home is northern Arakan. Throughout the history, military uses the Muslims population of the country for political diversion and benefits. After 9/11, 2001 attack in US, the perception of non-Muslims world towards the Muslims has changed in unbelievable way. This opportunity, though hidden anti-Muslims campaign has long been rooted in Myanmar, was best used by the power monger groups like Myanmar Military to de-attach the Muslims from mass public, and divert the attention of all-problems-bundle of the country towards Muslims by exposing post 2001 sentiments of Islam. As a result, majority Buddhists public of Myanmar, who has been caged more than five decades,turned away from the actual democratic movement of the country to join anti-Muslim movement and hence emerging a strong legal public anti-Muslim forces within Myanmar. 

Publically motivated anti-Muslim operations have gained momentum after the alleged murder of Rakhine woman by Muslim in mid-2012. The campaign has got fierce intensity throughout the years as groups like MaBaTha, 969 has been publically propagating anti-Muslim hate speeches with the Military sponsorship. ARSA’s attack on security posts of Arakan on 25th of august, 2017 met the Rohingyas with deadliest clearance operations that almost 600 thousands of Rohingya Muslims has poured into Bangladesh to escape historic brutalities of Myanmar Military and local Buddhists mobs.

Fortunately, Burmese Military has succeeded in filtering out Muslims from the anti-Military dictatorship forces with the injection of racially motivated propagandas to themajority xenophobic Buddhists public. The resultant achievement is both the Buddhist public, Military and government, have come under the same roof of de-rooting Rohingya Muslims from Arakan. Recent years have been the years of rigorous anti-Muslims campaign through different means; social media, mass public religious gatherings, that being a Muslim in Myanmar has become the greatest crime. And majority Buddhist perceives Muslims as a menace to their religion, race, culture and the country, so much so that they want Rohingya constitutionally disable if not completely eradicated from the soil of Arakan.

Actually, Rohingyas problem is based on well-founded fear created from the psychological disorder, dementia and xenophobe of Myanmar Buddhists. Logically speaking, the Myanmar have no problem with the word ‘Rohingya’ nor with the Muslim inhabitants that have long been residing in Arakan side by side. The problem with them is the religion, which Rohingyas believe in. Keep aside the volumes of history of pre-independent Burma; in post-independent Burma, there are mountains of historical evidences of Rohingya starting from the office of the then military war-fair to Myanmar’s Broadcasting Program, from Myanmar’s school, university textbooks to encyclopedia, from village chairman to MPs and Ministers. Xenophobic Buddhists are blatantly denying the Rohingya just because of superstitious belief that, if Muslims were given equal rights, whole Burma will be Islamized, were made conceived in the hearts of Buddhists in the successive military regimes. 

As said earlier, the Buddhists want Rohingya Muslims of Arakan to constitutionally disable by forcing them to accept National Verification Card (NVC) that in turn will make them foreigners.

From the legal perspective, NVC is not the product of any law or constitution of Myanmar, which is in force now. Even according to the clause 65 of notorious 1982 citizenship law, no NVC is required to issue citizenship card. It is a product of mere cowardice nationalist propagandists' imaginary islamophobic assumptions.

It is point-out-worthy that all the citizenship cards holder of Myanmar need not have to have NVC prior to citizenship cards. If the government of Myanmar sincerely wants to help solve the Rohingya crisis, there are many post-independent era’s records and evidences that it can depend on without imposing unconstitutional NVC card. The Government’s ulterior motive behind this NVC is making believe the world that the Rohingyas are foreigners who are recent immigrants to Arakan from Bangladesh.

The following points are some of many historical evidences that Rohingyas are not British era settler and hence no required to go for NVC cards. 

1. Rohingya holds the same citizenship NRC cards with 6 digits (where as foreigners hold FRC with 5 digits), which were issued after 1952-53 Mayu operations, as other ethnics of Myanmar and, were provoked in 1989 at the promise of issuing pink color citizenship cards. Unfortunately, 1990-91 exodus took place and what Rohingyas in return were gifted was White cards in 1995. If Myanmar sincerely wants to solve Rohingya crisis, it can base on those records and details collected in 1989. In 1993, NaSaKa aliases Border Immigrations Head Quarters (BIHQ) were deployed in Arakan with special decree and power solely aimed at Rohingyas. And every year onwards were scrutiny and records of Rohingyas with group family photo but found none of illegal entry. 

2. After Burma independence, all ethnics groups including Rohingyas took rebellion against Burmese government for autonomy. And the Rohingya Mujahids were the first to surrender to the central government for the sake of peace, tranquility and betterment of the sate and, were recognized as Rohingya indigenous ethnic as Rakhine.

3. In 1872, per square mile population of Arakan was 33 and that of Bengal was about 450. Even at that time, having unrestricted movement within British India, and greener pastures in British-Burma, dense-populatedly living Bengali had not seen flooding into British Arakan for good. Whoever, came was for seasonal work and went back after pocketful of money. And still Myanmar Buddhists say over populated Bangladesh pours Bengali to Arakan, a modern day killing field for Muslims.

4. On many occasions, Government imported Bengali Buddhists from Bangladesh with A to Z support. They could not survive in the golden Arakan having seen no future and returned Bangladesh. And still Myanmarsays Muslims are entering Myanmar while their fellow Bengali Buddhists did not survive because of zero opportunity and dead future.

5. No Muslim's "official family list" is left intact, except for dead or any other reasons, that member entry is stroked with red pen with remark that reads, " fled to Bangladesh". And still Myanmar accuses Rohingya of illegally coming in to Arakan.

6. In 2012, ex-president U Thein Sein and ex-immigration Minister U Khin Yee confessed in a VOA interview that there were no illegal Muslims residing in Arakan. And still Myanmar label Rohingya as "Khoewin" (ခိုးဝင္) meaning illegal immigrants.

7. And also under different rules of British, Arakan was under British-Burma, British-India and British-Bengal, where in all cases British censured the indigenous Muslim populations of Arakan as either Mahomadensor Mussulmans or Arakanese Mahomadens or Arakanese Mussulmans.

8. What Myanmar propagandist portrayed the Rohingya history is that there were no Muslim (Rohingya) inhabitants in the soil of Arakan before 1823 and they came into existence in Arakan only after British annexation when the Britishers brought many Muslimsfrom Bengal as laborers, ignoring piles of historical evidences as early as 1000 years before British conquest.

9. It was recorded in 1872 British-Burma census that there were 100,000 souls (of whom 30,000 were Muslims Rohingya) in Arakan when British annexed Arakan in 1826 and, many Muslims who escaped the brutal Burmese killings in 1784 returned to their original home Arakan when situation became peaceful in Arakan. And still there were uncertainty in Arakan and some Rohingyas who fled to Bangladesh in 1874 prefer to work as “seasonal laborers” in Arakan than settling back there in Arakan.

10. 1942 Muslim-Buddhist riot forced refuge the Buddhist populations of Northern to the southern part of Arakan and Muslim population of Southern into Northern part of Arakan and that is the reason why Muslims are densely populated in Northern Arakan. 

From the above points one can comprehend and ponder that the Rohingyas are the core people of the soil of Arakan and requires no NVC process, as they have been under tight surveillance and scrutiny in the successive governments.What Myanmar’s perception about Rohingya was that Myanmar is sandwiched between two over populated countries; Bangladesh and China, and it needs verification process in place to deter illegal entry from Bangladesh and China. When China is concerned, Myanmar ignores even national sovereignty concerns, at the same time welcoming the Chinese with all its race, religion, culture and scarce resources. The Chinese from the eastern gate penetrated into Myanmar and gradually has absorbed and distortedMyanmar’s race, culture and resources and passed through the western gate (Arakan). Astonishingly, whole Myanmarremains silent on the matter and unwise, foolish discriminatory agendas are put in practice against Rohingya Muslims. 

Through out the Military regimes to date, no single illegal entry residing in Arakan can be brought forward by Myanmar to International surface, and contrary to that, the international bodies are witnessing Rohingyas fleeing due to the heinous crimes committed to them by the Military and local mobs. Annan Commission left dubious state regarding citizenship status of Rohingya in his final reportenforcing NVC process even to be allowed with uncles’ or aunts’ documents when one’s own documents are not available. On the other hand, the report also emphasizes to amendment of the 1982 citizenship law. So, no clear cut strategy was advised in the report for the citizenship of Rohingya, whose the same was stripped off by the enforcement of 1982 citizenship law after 1978 refugees take-back. 

In the most years of tyrant rule of Military, Rohingya Muslims were suffered from all aspects of life and also Arakan has never been a safe place for Rohingya Muslims, which 1784, 1978,1991 and 2017 exoduses testified. Rohingyas are dying to live in Arakan because it is their ancestral land. Economically, Bangladesh is in relatively better position than Myanmar and it is a nasty ideology to accuse of Rohingyas of recent immigrants from Bangladesh and enforcing them for NVCs. In conclusion, It would be wise choice for Myanmar to restrain using the word “Bengali” when referring Muslim minority Rohingya and, to stop enforcing NVC cards to Rohingyas. And last but not the least, all Rohingyas should be called back with assurance of recognition, safety, security, and many other civil rights.

By Simon Lewis, Thu Thu Aung, Kyaw Soe Oo

Reuters

October 22, 2017

SITTWE, Myanmar -- Rohingya Muslims who return to Myanmar after fleeing to Bangladesh are unlikely to be able to reclaim their land, and may find their crops have been harvested and sold by the government, according to officials and plans seen by Reuters.

Nearly 600,000 Rohingya have crossed the border since Aug. 25, when coordinated Rohingya insurgent attacks on security posts sparked a ferocious counteroffensive by the Myanmar army. 

The United Nations says killings, arson and rape carried out by troops and ethnic Rakhine Buddhist mobs since late August amount to a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya. 

Civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has no control over the military, has pledged that anyone sheltering in Bangladesh who can prove they were Myanmar residents can return. 

Reuters has interviewed six Myanmar officials involved with repatriation and resettlement plans. While the plans are not yet finalised, their comments reflect the government’s thinking on how Suu Kyi’s repatriation pledge will be implemented. 

Jamil Ahmed, who spoke to Reuters at a refugee camp in Bangladesh, is one of many Rohingya who hope to go back. 

Describing how he fled his home in northern Rakhine state in late August, Ahmed said one of the few things he grabbed was a stack of papers - land contracts and receipts - that might prove ownership of the fields and crops he was leaving behind. 

“I didn’t carry any ornaments or jewels,” said the 35-year-old. “I’ve only got these documents. In Myanmar, you need to present documents to prove everything.” 

The stack of papers, browning and torn at the edges, may not be enough, however, to regain the land in Kyauk Pan Du village, where he grew potatoes, chilli plants, almonds and rice. 

“It depends on them. There is no land ownership for those who don’t have citizenship,” said Kyaw Lwin, agriculture minister in Rakhine state, when asked in an interview whether refugees who returned to Myanmar could reclaim land and crops. 

Despite his land holdings, Myanmar does not recognize Ahmed as a citizen. Nearly all the more than 1 million Rohingya who lived in Myanmar before the recent exodus are stateless, despite many tracing their families in the country for generations. 

Officials have made plans to harvest, and possibly sell, thousands of acres of crops left behind by the fleeing Rohingya, according to state government documents reviewed by Reuters. 

Myanmar also intends to settle most refugees who return to Rakhine state in new “model villages”, rather than on the land they previously occupied, an approach criticized in the past by the United Nations as effectively creating permanent camps. 

The government has not asked for help from any international agencies, who are calling for any repatriation to be voluntary and to the refugees’ place of origin. 

“OWNERLESS” CROPS 

The exodus of 589,000 Rohingya - and about 30,000 non-Muslims - from the conflict zone in northern Rakhine has left some 71,500 acres of planted rice paddy abandoned and in need of harvesting by January, according to plans drawn up by state officials. 

Tables in the documents, reviewed by Reuters, divide the land into paddy sown by “national races” - meaning Myanmar citizens - or “Bengalis,” a term widely used in Myanmar to refer to the Rohingya, but which they reject as implying they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh. 

Kyaw Lwin, the state minister, confirmed the plans, and said there was a total of 45,000 acres of “ownerless Bengali land”. 

Two dozen combine harvesters operated by officials from the agriculture ministry will begin cutting stalks this month in areas under military control. 

The machines will be able to harvest about 14,400 acres according to official calculations contained in the plans. It is unclear what will become of the remaining crop, but officials told Reuters they would try to harvest all the paddy, recruiting additional labor to harvest manually if necessary.

An acre of paddy in Myanmar typically makes more than $300 at market, meaning the state will gain millions of dollars worth of rice. 

The harvested rice will be transported to government stores, where it would either be donated to those displaced by the conflict or sold, Rakhine state secretary Tin Maung Swe told Reuters by phone. 

“The land was abandoned. There is no one to reap that, so the government ordered to harvest it,” he said. 

Human Rights Watch (HRW) deputy Asia director Phil Robertson, said the government should at least guarantee that the rice would be used for humanitarian support and not for profit. 

“You can’t call a rice crop ‘ownerless’ just because you used violence and arson to drive the owners out of the country,” he said. 

‘MODEL VILLAGES’ 

Many refugees are fearful to return and are skeptical of Myanmar’s guarantees. Those who do decide to cross back into Myanmar will first be received at one of two centers, according to government plans reviewed by Reuters, before mostly being relocated to model villages. 

International donors, who have fed and cared for more than 120,000 mostly Rohingya “internally displaced persons” (IDPs) in supposedly temporary camps in Rakhine since violence in 2012, have told Myanmar that they will not support more camps, according to aid workers and diplomats. 

“The establishment of new temporary camps or camp-like settlements carries many risks, including that the returnees and IDPs could end up being confined to these camps for a long time,” said U.N. spokesman Stanislav Saling in an emailed response. 

Satellite imagery shows 288 villages, mostly Rohingya settlements, have been fully or partially razed by fires since Aug. 25, according to HRW. 

Refugees say the army and Buddhist mobs were responsible for most of the arson. The government says Rohingya militants and even residents themselves burned the homes for propaganda. 

The hamlets where Rohingya farmers lived were “not systematic”, and so should be rebuilt in smaller settlements of 1,000 households set out in straight rows to enable development, said Soe Aung, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement. 

“In some villages there are three houses here, four houses over there. For example, there’s no road for fire engines when fire burns the villages,” Soe Aung said. 

IDENTITY CHECKS 

Those who decide to cross back into Myanmar will first be received at one of two centers, according to government plans reviewed by Reuters. 

At the centers, officials said, the returnees will fill out a 16-point form that will be cross-checked with local authorities’ records. Immigration officials have for years visited Rohingya households at least annually for checks, photographing family members. 

For refugees who lost all their documents, the government would compare their photos to those that immigration authorities have on file, said Myint Kyaing, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population. 

Officials will accept as evidence “national verification” cards handed out in an ongoing government effort to register Rohingya that falls short of offering them citizenship. The card has been widely rejected by Rohingya community leaders, who say they treat life-long residents like new immigrants. 

“We are not going to go back like this,” said Mushtaq Ahmed, 57, a farmer from Myin Hlut village now living in the Tenkhali refugee camp in Bangladesh, where Jamil Ahmed is also staying. 

“If I can go back to my house, and get my land back, only then I will go. We invested all our money into those paddy fields. They are killing so many of us with swords and bullets, and killing the rest of us like this.” 

Additional reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh and Shoon Naing and Antoni Slodkowski in Yangon; Editing by Alex Richardson

By Associated Press

October 21, 2017

GENEVA — UNICEF says the children who make up most of the nearly 600,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in Myanmar are seeing a “hell on earth” in overcrowded, muddy and squalid refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh.

The U.N. children’s agency issued a report that documents the plight of children who account for 58 percent of the refugees who have poured into Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, over the last eight weeks. Report author Simon Ingram says about one in five children in the area are “acutely malnourished.”

The report comes ahead of a donor conference Monday in Geneva to drum up funding for the Rohingya.

“Many Rohingya refugee children in Bangladesh have witnessed atrocities in Myanmar no child should ever see, and all have suffered tremendous loss,” UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said in a statement.

The refugees need clean water, food, sanitation, shelter and vaccines to help head off a possible outbreak of cholera — a potentially deadly water-borne disease.

Ingram also warned of threats posed by human traffickers and others who might exploit children in the refugee areas.

“These children just feel so abandoned, so completely remote, and without a means of finding support or help. In a sense, it’s no surprise that they must truly see this place as a hell on earth,” Ingram told a news conference in Geneva.

The report features harrowing color drawings by some children being cared for by UNICEF and other aid groups who are scrambling to improve living conditions in Cox’s Bazar. Some of the images show helicopter gunships and green-clad men firing on a village or on people, some of whom are spewing blood.

The influx of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar began on Aug. 25 as the military launched a crackdown it said was in response to militant attacks. Refugees have fled burning villages and provided accounts — like the children’s drawings — of security forces gunning down civilians.

The U.N. and humanitarian agencies seek $434 million for the Rohingya refugees — about one-sixth of which would go to UNICEF efforts to help children.

By Paul Alexander

Voice of America

October 21, 2017

Worn down and traumatized, children make up about 60 percent of the Rohingya refugees fleeing what aid groups call ethnic cleansing in Myanmar and heading to difficult conditions and an uncertain future in Bangladesh.

Some 320,000 refugees have crossed over since August, including 1,200 to 1,800 children daily in recent days, the United Nations Children’s Fund said Friday. Bangladesh’s social services department said 13,751 children without a parent or parents were identified in a survey of the crowded refugee camps.

“Many Rohingya refugee children in Bangladesh have witnessed atrocities in Myanmar no child should ever see, and all have suffered tremendous loss,” UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said in a statement.

Violence broke out against Rohingya in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state following attacks on 30 police posts by Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Army militants Aug. 25. Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that newly released satellite images indicate at least 288 villages were partially or totally destroyed by fire in Rakhine state since then.

WATCH: Traumatized and Needy, Rohingya Children Make Up 60 Percent of Myanmar Refugees

The Asian Human Rights Council released a report Friday saying newly released satellite images reveal that at least 66 were torched since Sept. 5, when security operations there supposedly ended.

Myanmar has said the refugees are welcome to return home, but many fear a repeat of the persecution, rape and killings that they fled.

Rebuilding said to begin

Regional government spokesman Tin Maung Swe told VOA Burmese that security has been restored and rebuilding work has begun in the region.

UNICEF said desperate living conditions and waterborne diseases are threatening the refugees, who have strained Bangladesh’s capability to help them. Many of the newcomers have little to no food and scant shelter. Some have used large concrete culverts to get out of the seasonal rains.

More than 400 schools were closed following the Aug. 25 attacks. Authorities have reopened several of the schools, but most of those in Muslim-dominated areas were not among those reopened, as those villages were destroyed. Refugees have also sought shelter in schools that weren’t razed.

Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on the Myanmar government to do more to ease the crisis.

U.S. officials and lawmakers have been weighing in on possible actions against Myanmar’s military, including possible sanctions and other tough measures, for rights violations.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said this week that Washington holds Myanmar military leaders accountable for rights abuses in Rakhine state. More than 40 congressmen sent a letter to him, urging the administration to take action.

By Tarek Mahmud

Dhaka Tribune

October 21, 2017

Justice Shamsul Huda and Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik were made the chairman and the member secretary of the commission respectively

The Citizens’ Commission has started recording statements of 10,000 Rohingya refugees, who have taken shelter at different camps in Cox’s Bazar, in a bid to collect more substantial evidence of the genocide taking place in Myanmar.

The 35-member committee named Citizens’ Commission for Investigating Genocide and Terrorism in Burma is comprised of eminent individuals including former justices, security specialists and intellectuals

“We are collecting the statements of Rohingyas as a part of investigating genocide and terrorism in Myanmar that led about 600,000 Rohingya people to flee to Bangladesh,” Major General (Retd) Abdur Rashid, a member of the commission, told the Dhaka Tribune.

The commission members visited the Rohingya camps at Ukhiya and Teknaf upazilas in Cox’s Bazar on Saturday. During their visit, the members themselves had interviewed a number of Rohingya refugees and provided questionnaires to their volunteers for collecting statements from the refugees, Maj Gen (R) Rashid said.

Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee President Shahriar Kabir declared the formation of the commission at a press conference at Jatiya Press Club in Dhaka on October 11.

The commission was formed to investigate genocide and crimes against humanity committed by Myanmar military against the Rohingya people.

Justice Shamsul Huda and Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik, two former judges of the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, were made the chairman and the member secretary of the commission respectively.

Shahriar Kabir said: “We will be working at the camps on Saturday and Sunday to record statements of Rohingya refugees.”

Kazi Mukul, general secretary of Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee is looking after the coordination of the entire commission.

“We are also talking with the government agencies, like-minded organisations and individuals,” Security Expert Maj Gen (R) Md Ali Shikder told Dhaka Tribune.

“We are working to prove that Rohingyas, as per the international law and several UN conventions, are citizens of Myanmar. The commission is investigating the reasons behind the continuous persecution and deportation of the Rohingyas and aimed to lay out a solution for it.”

“The commission is working independently while the Nirmul Committee is providing necessary assistance,” said Shahriar Kabir.

Shahriar said they also took an initiative to form an international commission for implementing the recommendations of the citizen commission, and also for bringing a permanent solution to the Rohingya crisis.

The international commission, comprising legal experts, intellectuals and rights activists will take a decision about taking the Myanmar government to the International Criminal Court.

“We hope the international commission will be formed in the first week of December in Geneva,” he said; adding that it needed to create an international consciousness over “the genocide and crimes against humanity committed in Myanmar” and to pressurise the United Nations to take effective measures.

The commission has a plan to visit Myanmar if the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar permit and they have already talked with the Bangladesh state minister for foreign affairs about the issue.

The committee members hope they will publish their report within the next three to four months. They are determined whether genocide and crimes against humanity were committed against Rohingyas in Myanmar and if committed, then identify the responsible persons.

Former justices Mohammad Mumtaz Uddin Ahmed, Nizamul Haque Nasim and Kazi Ebadul Haque; journalist Muhammad Shafiqur Rahman; Professor Muntassir Mamoon; Professor Kamrul Hasan Khan; Professor Ajoy Roy; rights activist Ashok Barua and former inspector general of police Nurul Anwar, Professor Anisuzzaman, former law minister Barrister Shafique Ahmed, Sanghanayaka Suddhananda Mahathero, former justice Syed Amirul Islam, Professor Burhanuddin Khan Jahangir, Professor Anupam Sen, journalist Kamal Lohani, writer Professor Hasan Azizul Haque, artist Hashem Khan and advocate Rana Dasgupta are among the members of the commission.

By Dhaka Tribune

October 20, 2017

Since late August, more than 580,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, have arrived in Cox’s Bazar

The queen of Jordan, Rania Al Abdullah, is scheduled to visit Rohingya refugees at the Kutupalong Refugee Camp and its surrounding areas in Cox’s Bazar on Monday.

Her Majesty, as a board member of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and as an advocate of the work of UN humanitarian agencies, is going to make the tour.

The Jordanian Queen’s visit is also aimed at underscoring the urgent need for a dramatic increase in humanitarian assistance for this vulnerable population, said a media advisory of the UN refugee agency.

She is expected to meet Rohingya women and children, who recently crossed the border from Myanmar, and see some of the emergency services offered by the IRC, UNHCR, UNICEF, and other humanitarian agencies to the Rohingya.

Ending the visit, the queen will make a press statement, the advisory added.

Since late August, more than 580,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, have arrived in Cox’s Bazar, marking the largest mass refugee influx in the region in decades and a major humanitarian crisis.

The sheer number of new arrivals has overwhelmed pre-existing service providers, causing significant challenges in the provision of essential lifesaving services and highlighting the need for greater concerted urgent international response.