OIC conference on Rohingyas in Jeddah next week

OIC chief Ihsanoglu says targeting of Muslims in central Myanmar in March and April has been a particularly worrying development. (AN photo)

July 5, 2013
Arab News

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will hold on July 7 and 8 the Arakan Rohingya Union Conference at its headquarters in Jeddah.
The charter of the Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU) will be submitted to the members for discussion in preparation for its adoption.
The agenda of the conference will also include introduction of the current and new members of the union, which was established by the OIC in May 2011 to unite the Rohingya refugees around the world.
Waqarudin, director general of the first session of the union, will present his report on ARU’s achievements. The conference will look into the strategy and action plan of the union in the next session, in addition to electing officials and the formation of the Supreme Council, the committees and advisory board.
In a letter sent through his special envoy, OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told Myanmar President Thein Sein that the organization, on behalf of the 57 heads of the member states, is ready to assist in reaching a long-term solution to problems of Muslims in Myanmar.
Special envoy Talal Daous, director of minorities department at the OIC, accompanied by Hassan Abdin, delivered the letter last week.
In the letter, the secretary-general said the OIC is ready to assist in any way to reach a long-term solution for the existing and emerging problems of all Muslims in Myanmar, who deserve nothing less than the basic rights accorded to any citizen of Myanmar, including access to urgent humanitarian assistance.
The special envoy delivered the letter to Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin and during the meeting discussions focused on the importance of the secretary-general’s visit to Myanmar and the Contact Group on Myanmar.
“We believe that a long-term solution to the problems of the Rohingya Muslims can only be found through the restoration of their legal status and the recognition of their birth right, including citizenship,” said Ihsanoglu.
He said the targeting of Muslims in central Myanmar during the last week of March and last week of April has been a particularly worrying development for the reason that unlike the Rohingya Muslims, the recent events involved Muslims who are integrated in the Myanmarese society with full citizenship rights in areas outside the Rakhine region.
“We are concerned that what was once considered as a case of inter-communal violence confined to one part of Myanmar now has the danger of spreading throughout the country,” Ihsanoglu said.
The OIC chief said that with the cooperation of the authorities in Myanmar, OIC member states would be willing to establish a collaborative mechanism with Myanmar to provide economic and humanitarian assistance to all those in need, confidence building between communities, interfaith dialogue and technical expertise to assist Myanmar in its democratic transition and integration into the international community.

Iranian Deputy FM Meets Myanmarese Counterpart on Situation of Muslims

July 04, 2013
 FARS

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia and Pacific Affairs Seyed Abbas Araqchi in a meeting with his Myanmarese counterpart Zin Yaw discussed the latest situation of the Muslims in the Southeast Asian country.

During the meeting in Naypyidaw on Wednesday, Araqchi said that the Islamic Republic is prepared to dispatch humanitarian aid consignments to Myanmar in order to help with the relief of the Rohingya Muslims.

He also voiced the deep concern of the Iranian authorities, scholars and nation over the ongoing sectarian clashes between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, urging the Myanmar government to adopt effective measures to properly resolve the issue.

Araqchi further noted that Iran is ready to send aid shipments to Myanmar, and help to improve the miserable living conditions of Rohingyas.

In June, the United Nations refugee agency said over 140,000 people remain displaced in Myanmar a year after extremist Buddhists started daily attacks on the country's Muslim community in Rakhine state.

According to the UN body, some 75,000 people were displaced by the first wave of riots in Northern Rakhine state last June and another 36,000 were uprooted in the second wave in October.

"Many others who were not directly affected by the violence have lost their livelihoods as a result of restricted movements due to the security situation. Some have been forced to leave their homes in search of assistance," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said at the time.

The agency called for measures to stem the flow of people out of Rakhine and to promote the "safe and sustainable voluntary return" of the displaced.

UNHCR also called on the governments in the region to keep their doors open to people in need of international protection.

The UN body underlined the necessity to urgently register all internally displaced persons in order to improve aid delivery and better respond to the needs of the most vulnerable ones.

Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar account for about five percent of the country's population of nearly 60 million. They have been persecuted and faced torture, neglect, and repression since the country's independence in 1948.

Hundreds of Rohingyas are believed to have been killed and thousands displaced in recent attacks by extremists who call themselves Buddhists.

The extremists frequently attack Rohingyas and have set fire to their homes in several villages in Rakhine.

Myanmar army forces allegedly provided the fanatics containers of petrol for torching the houses of Muslim villagers, who were then forced to flee.

Myanmar's government has been repeatedly criticized for failing to protect the Muslim minority.

    

Iran ready to send aid shipments to help Myanmar Rohingyas: Official

July 3, 2013

Press TV

 

A Muslim Rohingya woman (C) breastfeeds her baby at a school sheltering Internally Displaced Persons in the village of Theik Kayk Pyim, Myanmar, on October 11, 2012.

Iran deputy foreign minister says the Islamic Republic is prepared to dispatch humanitarian aid consignments to Myanmar in order to help with the relief of the Rohingya Muslims in the Southeast Asian country.

In a meeting with Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister Zin Yaw in Naypyidaw on Wednesday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia and Pacific Affairs Seyyed Abbas Araqchi elaborated on Tehran’s principled policies towards the developments in the Muslim World.

He also voiced the deep concern of the Iranian authorities, scholars and nation over the ongoing sectarian clashes between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, urging the Myanmar government to adopt effective measures to properly resolve the issue.

Araqchi further noted that Iran is ready to send aid shipments to Myanmar, and help to improve the miserable living conditions of Rohingyas.

Thousands of Rohingyas are deprived of citizenship rights due to the policy of discrimination that has denied them the right of citizenship and made them vulnerable to acts of violence and persecution, expulsion, and displacement.

The Myanmar government has so far refused to extricate the stateless Rohingyas in Rakhine state from their citizenship limbo, despite international pressure to give them a legal status.

The extremists frequently attack Rohingyas and have set fire to their homes in several villages in Rakhine. Myanmar Army forces have allegedly provided the fanatics with containers of petrol for torching the houses of Muslim villagers, who are then forced to flee.

Hundreds of Rohingyas are believed to have been killed and thousands displaced in attacks by extremists, who call themselves Buddhists.

Rohingyas are said to be Muslim descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan origin, who migrated to Myanmar as early as the 8th century.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have issued separate statements, calling on Myanmar to take action to protect the Rohingya Muslim population against extremists.  

BBC Newsnight report on Rohingyas by Jonathan Head

Iranian MP Voices Concern about Myanmar's Muslims

July 03, 2013 

FARS

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Iranian legislator expressed serious concern over Buddhists' attacks on Myanmarese Muslims, and took the Naypyidaw government responsible for the massacre of the minority in the country with the green light from the United States.

“The attacks against Muslims in Myanmar is carried out with a green light from the United States, and the government has not yet responded to growing criticism about its inability to protect ethnic groups and minorities,” member of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Ebrahim Aqamohammadi said on Tuesday. 

“The Myanmar’s government has shown that it will never recognize the Muslims and it continues to view them as immigrants,” he added.

“Such racist policies will certainly undermine Myanmar’s efforts at the international stage to give democratic picture of the country,” the Iranian lawmaker pointed out.

In June, the United Nations refugee agency said over 140,000 people remain displaced in Myanmar a year after extremist Buddhists started daily attacks on the country's Muslim community in Rakhine state.

According to the UN body, some 75,000 people were displaced by the first wave of riots in Northern Rakhine state last June and another 36,000 were uprooted in the second wave in October.

"Many others who were not directly affected by the violence have lost their livelihoods as a result of restricted movements due to the security situation. Some have been forced to leave their homes in search of assistance," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said at the time.

The agency called for measures to stem the flow of people out of Rakhine and to promote the "safe and sustainable voluntary return" of the displaced.

UNHCR also called on the governments in the region to keep their doors open to people in need of international protection.

The UN body underlined the necessity to urgently register all internally displaced persons in order to improve aid delivery and better respond to the needs of the most vulnerable ones.

Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar account for about five percent of the country's population of nearly 60 million. They have been persecuted and faced torture, neglect, and repression since the country's independence in 1948.

Hundreds of Rohingyas are believed to have been killed and thousands displaced in recent attacks by extremists who call themselves Buddhists.

The extremists frequently attack Rohingyas and have set fire to their homes in several villages in Rakhine.

Myanmar army forces allegedly provided the fanatics containers of petrol for torching the houses of Muslim villagers, who were then forced to flee.

Myanmar's government has been repeatedly criticized for failing to protect the Muslim minority.

Analysis: Myanmar’s Rakhine State - where aid can do harm

July 3,2013
IRIN News

Dana MacLean

Photo: Contributor/IRIN

BANGKOK, 3 July 2013 (IRIN) - The aid community should proceed carefully to avoid enflaming sectarian tensions in Myanmar’s Rakhine State more than a year after the first wave of inter-communal violence.

“The biggest challenge faced by humanitarian aid groups to operate in contexts of sectarian violence is to be perceived as delivering aid in a biased manner,” said Jeremie Labbe, a senior policy analyst of humanitarian affairs at the UN International Peace Institute (IPI) based in New York.

Since inter-communal fighting broke out between ethnic Rakhines (mostly Buddhist) and Rohingya (predominantly Muslim) in June and October 2012, displacing up to 140,000 people, humanitarian assistance to Rakhine State has totalled more than US$52 million, according to the European Commission’s aid body ECHO.

“Aid organizations working in Rakhine State [need to] take a conflict-sensitive approach to providing aid so that they do not fuel existing tensions between communities,” Oliver Lacey-Hall, the acting head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Myanmar, told IRIN.

In recent decades, humanitarian aid has been directed at the Rohingya in western Rakhine State due to systematic state-sanctioned discrimination that has left roughly 800,000 people stateless, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). This focus has engendered hostility among some in the majority Buddhist population (ethnic Rakhines), who felt marginalized and threatened by people they consider to be illegal migrants.

Meanwhile, the separation of Muslim Rohingya in nearly 90 official camps and sites for internally displaced persons (IDPs) risks cementing segregation between the two communities, fears ECHO, which has expressed concern that any housing construction in the camps for the displaced may lead to long-term physical division.

Conflict sensitivity

While OCHA encourages humanitarian providers to adopt a “conflict-sensitive” approach to aid distribution, which requires clear communication with communities to explain the basis of aid distribution, past humanitarian interventions in Rakhine State have contributed to an uneasy relationship between aid providers and ethnic Rakhines.

“Without addressing the very real perception among the Rakhine population that assistance has been disproportionately provided to Rohingya, it will be difficult for humanitarian aid groups to decrease tension,” said Anagha Neelakantan, the deputy director for International Crisis Group’s (ICG) Asia programme, speaking from Kathmandu, Nepal.

Photo: Contributor/IRIN

Temporary shelters (bamboo-framed longhouses) for thousands of IDPs

In order to appear impartial, humanitarian agencies must “have a balanced approach” and reach out to all affected communities, according to Labbe.

While most aid organizations assist both ethnic Rakhine and Rohingya indiscriminately, the Rohingya have disproportionately suffered the consequences of recent inter-communal strife.

Most of the 3,000 previously displaced ethnic Rakhine people have returned to their places of origin, with support from central and local government, according to ECHO.

“Sticking to the principle of impartiality [and providing aid on the basis of need] means that the bulk of aid [is] directed toward the group that suffered the most during the violence and now faces the biggest needs, in [this] case the Muslim Rohingya,” said Labbe.

But it also means that aid risks exacerbating sectarian tension, as well as the insecurity of humanitarian staff working on the ground.

“It is up to aid agencies to redouble efforts to explain and communicate with all segments of the population why aid is distributed in a certain way, and how - in order to mitigate possible negative effects,” said Labbe.

Construction in camps divisive

While IDPs still lack adequate food, housing, and health, focusing on only those immediate needs without addressing broader political concerns may condone a securitized, restrictive IDP camp setting that obstructs livelihoods, freedom of movement and, ultimately, prevents reconciliation, according to activists.

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the current situation of “warehousing” - where Rohingya people are “penned in by local security forces” in both official and unofficial camps - is untenable for forging peace in Rakhine State.

“The situation that has evolved, with no freedom of movement for the Rohingya IDPs, follows the plan of the Rakhine extremists; to drive one community out of a place and contain them in camps,” Phil Robertson, HRW’s deputy director for Asia, explained.

“The danger is that funding temporary or semi-permanent shelters in the Rohingya IDP camps could contribute to making the ethnic/religious partitioning permanent,” said Mathias Eick, ECHO’s regional information officer for Southeast Asia, which has committed up to $19 million in 2012 and 2013 for humanitarian assistance, including food, livelihoods, household items and health support to IDPs in Rakhine State.

“Our problem is not with shelters per se, but rather with supporting the construction of shelters in the camps, which may result in permanent segregation of the communities... We would rather see those displaced return voluntarily to their home villages and towns where we could provide assistance for rebuilding. Shelter needs in the camps have to be balanced with the humanitarian principle of `do no harm’” he added.

Photo: Contributor/IRIN

IDP camp in Sittwe

A US-based NGO, CDA Collaborative Learning Projects (previously Collaborative for Development Action) has a training module that examines how assistance in conflicts interacts with conflicts.

“When assistance workers understand the patterns by which assistance can have harmful effects, and the opportunities by which it can also have additional positive effects on overcoming conflict, they can… avoid doing the harm that has sometimes been done in the past, and [help] rebind and re-connect people rather than divide them,” wrote project staff.

Long-term segregation in Rakhine State may make the task of addressing historical tensions between the two communities more difficult, according to ICG’s Neelakantan.

Since January 2013, Rakhine local authorities and the central government have been providing bamboo material for houses in the 89 camps and settlements for Rohingya IDPs. The bamboo is then used to construct barrack-type structures providing accommodation for up to eight families per building.

With the ongoing rainy season from May to September, the UNHCR and OCHA listed shelter as an urgent need and campaigned for $2.5 million in April 2013, the requirements of which have since been covered by the Myanmar government.

 Government needs to do more

While a conflict-sensitive approach may help avoid mutual hostility between the two communities, ultimately the responsibility for addressing turmoil and promoting peace lies with the government, rights advocates insist.

“There is a limit to what humanitarian aid providers can do to defuse conflict and unrest,” said Robertson.

Experts list poverty, marginalization, and discriminatory laws as root causes for deep-seated grievances, requiring government-driven political recognition and protection of human rights for both groups, for example granting Rohingya Muslims citizenship.

“It is the responsibility of the Burmese government to get to the bottom of the unrest, but so far they [have not taken enough action] to promote reconciliation and face down the instigators of violence and unrest,” said Robertson.

While the government established an Inquiry Commission on the Sectarian Violence in Rakhine State in 2012, and a report detailing recommendations was published in April 2013, concrete action to stem violent extremist rhetoric has yet to be taken, according to HRW and ICG.

“Decisive moral leadership is required by both President Thein Sein and [opposition leader] Aung San Suu Kyi to prevent violence from spreading,” said ICG in November 2012, a need largely unchanged today.

“The government must strive to find solutions to the conflict. Community and religious leaders also have a major role to play to defuse tension and promote peace,” said OCHA’s Lacey-Hall.

Uncertain Rohingya stuck in limbo

 3 Jul 2013
Bangkok Post

Around 2,000 Rohingya are trapped in limbo in two dozen government-approved shelters around Thailand, often without recourse to the legal system despite abuses during their flight from Myanmar.

Officials indicate that the Muslims who fled their homes, often because of persecution, now have little hope for the immediate future as they languish in government custody.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra promised the international community to care for the Rohingya for six months, while the United Nations and other groups tried to come up with a solution for the shattered emigrants from the Myanmar-Bangladesh border area.
That deadline runs out on July 26, but there is no more hope for the Rohingya today than there was last January, during a wave of flights into Thailand.
The decision to shelter the Rohingya made life tough from the start, and it has not got much better. One serious drawback, for example, is the necessity to use already overcrowded immigration detention facilities. This has split families, as men and women are housed separately at the facilities.
International aid agencies have got involved, and supply food and basic essential items. They include the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organisation of Migration (IOM), Muslim communities, and National Human Rights Commission.
These and other groups have visited, interviewed and recorded details of the Rohingya, but aside from giving them some aid items are powerless to provide hope. In addition, the groups say the Rohingya remain vulnerable and prone to trafficking gangsters. Officials say those at greatest risk are in shelters operated by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.
At the 24 official holding centres for the immigrants (see chart below), there are wildly different standards, for reasons that range from a simple lack of interpreters at the local level to pressure or intimidation from human trafficking rings that answer to influential local figures.
The Rohingya themselves often are to blame for problems. Officials say many lack education. Quarrels often occur, especially among those who want to leave the official camp to try to contact their loved ones in other locations. Many have tried to sneak out of the shelters to try to travel to Malaysia.

Aid workers said human trafficking and rape cases in Phang Nga province illustrated the vulnerability of the Rohingya. Officials in charge of the immigrants were dispirited and tired, especially by the communications problem, and uncertainty about how long the boat people would be staying.
"They are not criminals after all, so how can we keep 24-hour surveillance on them?" asked a shelter official in southern Thailand rhetorically.
Immigration officials share the problem. "We are seeking approval to build a fence so that at least they can roam around exercising or play football within this open-air compound while waiting for the government comes up with a concrete plan on where else to house them,” said one official at a Songkhla immigration centre.
Villagers in Nakhon Si Thammarat's Cha-uad district have protested against planned improvements of the facilities used to house the Rohingya - former Border Police Patrol housing.
The government was reportedly searching for remote areas of Songkhla or Prachuap Khiri Khan province to erect a type of refugee centre. Some Muslim countries have pledged to donate for a one-stop detention facility for the Rohingya, diplomatic sources said.
According to a survey carried out by the UNHCR, at least 60 Rohingya people were Bangladeshi citizens. The UN group was trying to coordinate efforts to repatriate them.
UNHCR spokesperson Vivian Tan said her agency had interviewed all of the approximately 2,000 Rohingya men, women and children in the shelters and immigration detention centres.
"Many say they left because of the inter-communal violence (between Buddhists and Muslims) in Myanmar's Rakhine state last year," she said. "Some of the women and children had planned to join their menfolk in Malaysia."
Because the situation in Rakhine remains unsettled, the UNHCR has appealed to Thai authorities to extend the six-month temporary protection promise, and to relocate the Rohingya to a site in Thailand that is less crowded and allows for family reunification.

However, immigration officials with long experience with the Rohingya said that while half of the Rohingya detainees were legitimately fleeing persecution, at least half were economic refugees hoping to get jobs and send money back home, and had no desire to be sent to third countries.

Canada aid to Burma will help thousands

           

July 2,2013

Asian Pacific Post

The Canadian International Development Aid Agency (CIDA) has pledged a total of US$4.2 million in humanitarian aid to causes in Myanmar.

At a recent All Burma Ethnic Cultural Event, Oxfam Canada, UNICEF and several other charities were allocated funds from the package towards their respective humanitarian efforts in the Southeast Asian country.

“Despite some recent positive political developments in Burma [Myanmar], the humanitarian situation in many border areas of the country remains very difficult,” said Canadian Minister of State Tim Uppal in a statement following the event.

“Canada’s support will help to ensure that life-saving humanitarian assistance including food, water, shelter and protection is provided to the most vulnerable people affected by the conflict,” he said.

The aid packages will go towards food, education, training, sanitation and basic supplies for IDPs across Rakhine, Kachin and Myanmar’s southernmost states.

“I would like to convey my heartfelt appreciation to the Government of Canada for Canada’s commitment in providing crucial humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable people in Burma’s ethnic regions,” said Zaw Kyaw, spokesperson for the Burma Ethnic Network-Canada.

Tens of thousands of Burmese people are living in crisis due to violence and conflict, which has resulted in large-scale displacements and worsening humanitarian conditions. 

Between 75,000—100,000 Burmese—mostly women and children—have been displaced due to conflict and are living in makeshift camps in Kachin and Shan States, or in neighbouring China. In addition, in June and October 2012, violent communal clashes in Rakhine state resulted in the displacement of more than 100,000 people.

“Canada is helping ensure that Burmese people affected by crisis receive the emergency life-saving support they need,” said Uppal. 

“Canada’s support will help to improve health, living conditions, and protection for those living in conflict-affected areas of the country.”

Canada provides humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable people facing natural disasters and conflict. The Economic Action Plan 2013 affirms Canada’s commitment to providing humanitarian assistance. The new Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development will maintain the mandate of poverty alleviation and help achieve greater efficiency, accountability and focus to continue to improve the lives of people in need around the world.

The largest ethnic group is the Burman people, distantly related to the Tibetans and Chinese. Burman dominance over Karen, Shan, Rakhine, Mon, Rohingya, Chin, Kachin and other minorities has been the source of considerable ethnic tension and has fuelled intermittent protests and separatist rebellions.

Military offensives against insurgents have uprooted many thousands of civilians. Ceasefire deals signed in late 2011 and early 2012 with rebels of the Karen and Shan ethnic groups suggested a new determination to end the long-running conflicts, as did Chinese-brokered talks with Kachin rebels in February 2013.

Simmering violence between Buddhists and the Muslim Rohingya erupted in 2013, the official response to which raised questions at home and abroad about the political establishment’s commitment to equality before the law.

A largely rural, densely-forested country, Burma is the world’s largest exporter of teak and a principal source of jade, pearls, rubies and sapphires. It has highly fertile soil and important offshore oil and gas deposits. Little of this wealth reaches the mass of the population.

The economy is one of the least developed in the world, and is suffering the effects of decades of stagnation, mismanagement, and isolation. Key industries have long been controlled by the military, and corruption is rife. The military has also been accused of large-scale trafficking in heroin, of which Burma is a major exporter.

The EU, United States and Canada imposed economic sanctions on Burma, and among major economies only China, India and South Korea have invested in the country.

Burma’s wealth of Buddhist temples has boosted the increasingly important tourism industry, which is the most obvious area for any future foreign investment.

Order of the Heedless

July 2, 2013

New York Times

Swe Win

Adam Dean for The New York Times

YANGON, Myanmar — The violence opposing majority Buddhists and minority Muslims that flared up in Myanmar last year has continued unabated despite the government’s pledges to enforce the rule of law. On Sunday night in the town of Thandwe, in the western state of Rakhine, two Muslim houses were reportedly burned down by a Buddhist mob in retaliation for the alleged rape of a Buddhist girl by a Muslim man.
The leadership in Yangon and some Western media describe these clashes as the unfortunate but inevitable byproduct of Myanmar’s transition from army rule to civilian government. Yet it is becoming increasingly clear that this violence — which started shortly after the victory of the opposition National League for Democracy in parliamentary by-elections in April of last year — is politically motivated.

This was evident Thursday during a conference of Buddhist monks at a monastery near Yangon. Monks in Myanmar traditionally congregate to discuss only religious affairs; the massive anti-establishment protest they led in 2007 was exceptional. But last week more than 1,500 of them gathered around what an organizer, the virulently anti-Muslim monk Wirathu, called an agenda “to safeguard the race, the language and the religion” of Myanmar, meaning Bamar, Burmese and Buddhism. Ashin Nyanissara, a tremendously influential monk who once boldly defied military rule and has undertaken philanthropic activities, went further, saying, “We must safeguard the territory as well.”
The gathering had the feel of a political rally. At the front door to the meditation hall, members of the governing Union Solidarity and Development Party — their logo (a lion) visible on their shirts — were busy handing out to arriving monks stickers bearing the flag of Buddhism with three Asiatic lions and the number 969, a traditional symbol of Buddha, his teachings and the monkhood. This collage is the new emblem for Wirathu’s boycott against Muslims: He has called on Buddhists to shop and do business only with other Buddhists.
Inside the hall, monks took turns denouncing the cover of Time magazine’s Asia edition last week, which featured a photo of Wirathu with the headline “The Face of Buddhist Terror.” They also agreed to support a bill to prohibit non-Buddhists from marrying Buddhist women — the idea being to protect the women from having to convert to Islam when they marry Muslims. An elderly monk, Wimala Buddhi, announced that any member of Parliament who opposed the bill would face reprisals. “I will wish to know the names of the M.P.’s who object,” he said. “Those M.P.’s will lose their votes in the 2015 elections and go down into the gutters.”
This was a barely veiled threat against the National League for Democracy and its leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the commanding symbol of the pro-democracy movement. She has been criticized internationally for not speaking up enough in defense of Muslims, especially the stateless Rohingyas in Rakhine, thousands of whom have been displaced after sectarian clashes. In fact, she recently opposed a government policy to control births among Rohingyas. Thanks to this and Wirathu’s speeches, the perception is growing that she is staunchly pro-Muslim — a position that risks discrediting her in the eyes of Buddhists, who account for the vast majority of Myanmar’s population.
The government, for its part, seems eager to make the most of anti-Muslim sentiment. It did little to contain the sectarian attacks that killed more than 40 people in Meiktila in March. Since then it has continued to allow Wirathu and other radical monks to give anti-Muslim speeches across the country. Last week, the president’s office called them “sons of Buddha” and banned the offending issue of Time. The crudeness of these tactics reveals just how worried the leaders of the Union Solidarity and Development Party are that Aung San Suu Kyi’s party may win the next election, in 2015.
The general election of 2010, which the National League for Democracy boycotted and that brought General Thein Sein to power, were seen as fraudulent. Times might have changed enough that the 2015 election is likely to be free and fair, at least formally. But they haven’t changed so much that the ruling party has stopped using ugly maneuvers to gain an edge.

---

Swe Win is a freelance journalist based in Yangon.

Myanmar’s Muslim Minority Confronts Fear and Mistrust

July 2,2013

New York Times

 Thomas Fuller

Muslims on Guard: In Yangon, Myanmar, the Muslim community is on edge. Many worry the recent violence between Buddhists and Muslims elsewhere in the country will arrive in their city.

YANGON, Myanmar — Night can be very dark in Yangon, a city where street lamps, when there are any, flicker on and off with the uneven electricity supply. For a group of Muslim men guarding their neighborhood until dawn, it is never clear what is lurking down the potholed roads and alleyways.        

 “The government cannot guarantee our safety,” said U Nyi Nyi, a businessman who sat on a plastic chair with a half-dozen of the 130 men he has organized for an improvised Muslim neighborhood watch program.

After decades of peaceful coexistence with the Buddhist majority in the country, Muslims say they now constantly fear the next attack. Over the past year, they say several violent episodes across the country led by rampaging Buddhist mobs have taught them that if violence comes to their neighborhood, they are on their own.

“I don’t think the police will protect us,” Mr. Nyi Nyi said.

The neighborhood watch program, a motley corps of men who check for any suspicious outsiders and keep wooden clubs and metal rods stashed nearby, is a symbol of how much relations have deteriorated between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

About 90 percent of the country’s population of 55 million is Buddhist, with Muslims making up 4 to 8 percent.

Since British colonial days, Yangon, formerly Rangoon, has been a multicultural city where Buddhists live cheek by jowl with Muslims, Christians and Hindus. Mosques and Buddhist pagodas are literally in each other’s shadows.

Now fear and suspicion taint dealings between the two communities, Muslims say.

“We are losing trust with each other,” said U Aye, a Muslim used-car salesman. “Any business transaction between a Buddhist and a Muslim can turn into an incident.”

The root of the violence, which has left around 200 Muslims dead over the past year, appears partly a legacy of colonial years when Indians, many of them Muslims, arrived in the country as civil servants and soldiers, stirring resentment among Burmese Buddhists. In recent months radical monks have since built on those historic grievances, fanning fears that Muslims are having more children than Buddhists and could dilute the country’s Buddhist character.

So far, Yangon, which is by far the country’s largest city, has mainly escaped the violence. But there have been some minor clashes in the city that intensified worries here, fueling rumors about pending attacks in both the Buddhist and Muslim communities.

Days after Buddhist mobs tore through the central city of Meiktila in March, two trucks filled with men showed up in Mr. Nyi Nyi’s neighborhood and hurled stones at the night watchmen with slingshots.

Some Muslims with means have fled to Malaysia or Singapore. Muslim-owned businesses are losing Buddhist customers. A growing Buddhist movement known as 969 that has the blessing of some of the country’s leaders is campaigning for a boycott of Muslim products and businesses and a ban on interfaith marriages.

The movement says it is not involved in violence, but critics say that, at the least, hate-filled sermons are helping to inspire the killings.

“This is the first time we experience this in our lifetime,” said U Maung Maung Myint, who runs an import-export company and is one of the trustees of the Bengali mosque, which is only a few hundred paces from a Buddhist pagoda, a Christian church and a Hindu temple. He was referring specifically to the mistrust between communities.

After a lifetime of feeling that he was Burmese, Mr. Maung Maung Myint said he felt “betrayed.” At least twice during the decades of military rule, Muslims joined protesters calling for political change, he said. “We marched in front of the American Embassy and chanted, ‘We want democracy!’ ” he said.

“We hoped our lives would be more peaceful — we didn’t expect this,” Mr. Maung Maung Myint said in an interview after Friday Prayer on the third floor of the mosque, which installed security cameras last year to guard against arson.

Myanmar is now ruled by a nominally civilian government, but new freedoms have amplified old animosities.

Much of the violence has made headlines inside the country and beyond. But smaller incidents have gone largely unreported. In one such case, a grocery store owned by U Khin Maung Htay, 59, was attacked in February by a Buddhist mob in Hlaing Thaya Township, directly across the Hlaing River from Yangon.

Mr. Khin Maung Htay was the headman of the neighborhood, and some of his Buddhist friends had warned him that trouble was brewing.

“I called police, but they said, ‘Don’t worry, there’s no problem,’ ” Mr. Khin Maung Htay said.

When the Buddhist mob attacked, the police arrived, but left after failing to persuade the crowd to disperse, he said. Mr. Khin Maung Htay’s shop was destroyed, and everything inside was looted.

He fled his home and is now a refugee in his own city, crammed in a two-bedroom apartment in central Yangon with 22 other relatives.

He tried to return to the neighborhood, he said, but angry residents, some of them former customers, shouted abuse and threatened him.

“They said: ‘Go back to India! Go back to Bangladesh!’ ” Mr. Khin Maung Htay said.

The suggestion that Muslims leave the country has been a common refrain during the violence, which bewilders many Muslims who have always considered themselves Burmese. Mr. Khin Maung Htay, his father and his grandfather were all born in Myanmar.

Myanmar’s Muslims are a diverse collection of ethnicities and appearances. In some families, women wear head scarves and men grow out their beards. But many say they have made an effort to blend into Burmese society.

“We have a Myanmar lifestyle,” said U Maung Maung Myint, the owner of a desktop publishing business who is not related to the head of the import-export business. “We are Myanmar citizens. We went to Myanmar schools.”

Ninety percent of his customers were Buddhists, but early this year many of them stopped coming. It was the first time he had felt discrimination, he said.

Buddhists in Myanmar are often candid about their dislike for Muslims.

U Soe Nyi Nyi, the owner of a successful restaurant business that includes the flagship brand Feel, a popular chain in Yangon, said he generally avoided hiring Muslims because “there are so many differences — their attitude, their manners, their behavior.”

Among his 1,800 employees are only two Muslims, a parking attendant and a man who makes a type of Indian ice cream.

In real estate, Buddhist building owners do not want to sell apartments to Muslims, Mr. Soe Nyi Nyi said, adding, “If you sell one apartment to a Muslim family, all the prices in the building will go down. ”

U Myint Thein, who owns a business selling cooking-gas stoves imported from India, said he found it difficult to explain the violence to his children.

“I did my best to make sure they didn’t hear about these horrible things, but they heard,” he said. “I never thought about leaving this country before. But I don’t want my kids to live through more of this.”

A version of this article appeared in print on July 3, 2013, on page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Myanmar’s Muslim Minority Confronts Fear and Mistrust.

More Rohingya Muslims flee to Malaysia

 Jul 3, 2013 

Press TV

Mahi Ramakrishnan,

These families are a few of the estimated 1500 Muslims who have fled to Malaysia from the violence in Myanmar over the past few months. 

Continued violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar's Rakhine state is triggering a bigger influx of refugees into Malaysia. As our correspondent Mahi Ramakrishnan reports, Kuala Lumpur has urged the neighboring government to take stronger action to prevent the persecution of Muslims. Meanwhile, the existing refugee groups inside Malaysia are trying to the ease the suffering of Rohingyas despite their limited resources.

These families are a few of the estimated 1500 Muslims who have fled to Malaysia from the violence in Myanmar over the past few months.

The Rohingya ethnic group has taken the brunt of the attacks by members of that country’s Buddhist majority.

There are already tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Malaysia. And the recent influx is causing a huge strain on the community’s limited resources.

And with violence still sporadically breaking out in Myanmar, there is no reason to think the flow of refugees to Malaysia will stop anytime soon.

Malaysia has seen another spillover effect. Recent violent clashes between Buddhists and Muslims from Myanmar left several people dead, prompting the Malaysian government to round up and detain at least a thousand people.

And in a break with the non-interference policy practiced by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN, Malaysia has urged Myanmar to take stronger action to prevent the persecution of Muslims.

But given its history, analysts say it seems unlikely that ASEAN will go beyond mere words to ease the suffering of the Rohingya people.

Cornered, Rohingyas choose a life beyond law

 July 2, 2013 Dhaka Tribune
Kailash Sarkar 

 

Rohingya children are seen at a refugee camp in Myanmar  
Photo- Reuters

There are around 30,000 registered Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

Left with limited choices because of their ‘statelessness’, many Rohingyas living in the country have chosen to live outside the law by paving the way for a section of people on both sides of the Bangladesh-Myanmar border to reap rich illegal dividends.
They are getting increasingly involved with various criminal activities, including cross-border trading of drugs and firearms, helping them to be smuggled in and out of the country.
A number of Rohingyas assuming the identities of Bangladeshis, with doctored passports and documentations, are also going abroad, especially to the Middle East.
According to sources, unscrupulous officials at the passports and immigration departments and recruiting agencies, and their local agents in Cox’s Bazar, ‘help’ Rohingyas move out of the country.
They are also helped to move in illegally, through the border shared with Myanmar.
In the last year, the members of Armed Police Battalion (APBn), Detective Branch (DB), Immigration Police, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Coast Guard arrested several thousand Rohingyas from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, at different border crossing points and from various other places.
Of them, more than 400 were arrested at Dhaka airport as they attempted to flee overseas using fake Bangladeshi passports.
Abdullah Aref, the superintendent of police (SP), told the Dhaka Tribune that they arrested several hundred Rohingyas – mostly female – during their attempts to travel abroad using Bangladeshi passports.
“Most of them were heading towards Middle Eastern countries,” said Aref, who is also the commanding officer of the APBn at the Dhaka airport.
He stressed about finding the people responsible for assisting the shams from “within” the system. “It is important to find the people who are involved in the process of supplying Bangladeshi passports to those who are not Bangladeshi nationals.”
Md Iqbal, a senior assistant superintendent of APBn, said they also arrested many Bangladeshis along with the Rohingyas trying to leave the country illegally.
“Apart from these arrests, we also collected detailed information on many brokers who assist Rohingyas to go abroad, usually for a fee between Tk150,000 and 300,000,” he added.
While talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Ashiq Sayeed, the special superintendent at the passport section of the Special Branch, said, “Irregularities in police verification (necessary before issuing a passport) are nothing new. It has been going on for a long time.”
Major Gen. Aziz Ahmed, director general of BGB, described the BGB’s part in the affair. “Some 11,386 Rohingya people were detained in the last two-and-a-half years, and millions of Yaba tablets were seized as they were being smuggled from Myanmar.”
Sources said, Rohingyas are often given tempting promises of a better life by the unscrupulous manpower agents, who maintain close ties with the officials at the government’s departments of passports and immigration.
The Rohingyas are a Muslim people with roots in the Arakan state of western Myanmar. Because of persistent sectarian violence in the region, they started fleeing to Bangladesh in 1978, until their entrance was restricted over a decade ago.
There are around 30,000 registered Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, living in abject conditions in two refugee camps at the Teknaf upazila of Cox’s Bazar. But about half a million unregistered Rohingyas are believed to be living in different parts of Chittagong.
Around 800,000 Rohingyas live in Myanmar. 

Burma: Problems in Rakhine state go beyond religious violence

 Jul 02, 2013
Asian Correspondent
Casey Hynes

The media reports coming out of Burma’s Rakhine state in recent months focused predominantly on the violent flare-ups between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims and the displacements of nearly 150,00 people into overcrowded refugee camps.
While this story is an important one and must be followed, Rakhine Buddhists continue facing a slew of other problems as the Burmese government invites foreign investors to develop resource extraction projects in Rakhine state, with potentially devastating effects for the people who live there.

A Buddhist monk walks along ancient pagodas in Mrauk-U, Rakhine state, western Burma. Pic: AP.

Although the government seems more complacent when it comes to the anti-Muslim rhetoric, Rakhine Buddhists repeatedly face persecution and tension with the government as well, especially when it comes to protests over resource extraction projects and land confiscation.
“I would say it’s a politically astute and active population for the most part,” said Matthew Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights International and formerly of Human Rights Watch. He noted that Rakhine monks were among the first to take to the streets at the beginning of what came to be known as the Saffron Revolution.
Citizens in Rakhine (formerly known as Arakan) state have been protesting foreign development projects, not necessarily because they against the projects in and of themselves, but because of the lack of transparency and input by community members.
According to Human Rights Watch, several were arrested at a protest in Maday Island in May when hundreds of villagers gathered to voice concerns over the Shwe gas pipeline, construction of which is scheduled to begin this year. Ten protesters were arrested on the grounds that they had violated Section 18 of the Peaceful Assembly Law, which stipulates that a permit is needed in order to hold a lawful demonstration. Villagers had reportedly applied twice for permits, and been denied twice.
Smith said that concerns among Rakhine villagers about development and land confiscation “pre-date the latest round of violence between Buddhists and Muslims.”
The government has demonstrated a clear interest in attracting foreign investment and developing a natural resource industry, but such development comes at a high price, especially for villagers whose livelihoods are being upended due to these projects.
“The loss of land in a country like Burma has serious repercussions,” Smith said. He said that outside the urban areas, you find largely agrarian communities, and some farmers are being compensated inadequately or not at all for their land.
A major problem is that as it stands now, there is no framework through which those in Rakhine can voice their opinions and concerns about these projects, which can have potentially adverse effects on the economic and environmental landscapes in their communities. Instead, farmers are informed by the government that a company will be starting a project and that their land will be confiscated, and told how much compensation will be given. In some cases, only a certain portion of the land is paid for or nothing is paid.
Paul Donowitz, campaigns director at Earth Rights International, said the compensation schemes are problematic because the money given to farmers typically runs out quickly, and is not enough for them to purchase new land.
In one instance, Donowitz described the digging of a trench which led to muddy build-up on farm land making it impossible for farmers to work the land. They needed heavy machinery to move the mud, which they could not afford. The companies involved refused to provide the machinery for fear it would be damaged, leaving the farmers stuck. They were compensated for one year’s worth of crops but have no means of buying sufficient land to work in the coming years.
Without another method for participating in these decisions, Rakhine villagers have little choice but to protest and express their grievances. However, with law enforcement able to arrest them under laws such as Section 18 and no apparent moves to make them part of the process, they are likely to face continuing pushback from the government.
Another issue is that when foreign companies enter the scene and start these natural resource extraction endeavors, locals don’t really benefit. The resources are used in foreign countries and many of the jobs generated go to Chinese or Indian workers, as opposed to those living in Burma.
While the Burmese government has said that future projects will be established to benefit Burma first, there is a clear financial incentive to partner with other, wealthier nations.
“The world market is going to pay for that energy at a much higher rate than the people of [Burma] are going to be able to pay” for sometime, Donowitz said.
Disheartening though it is to see decisions and deals made without the input of those who will be most deeply affected, there is reason for optimism in places such as Rakhine. With community members coming together to affect change, there may eventually be changes to the process that allows for them to have a say.

“A few years ago, there wasn’t this civil society organizing,” Donowitz said. With community-driven organizations coming together to make their voices heard, they are the ones who groups such as Earth Rights International point to for recommendations on what needs to be done in terms of transparency, compensation and participation.

Humanitarian vs. Legal deals

July 2,2013
The Daily Star
Emdadul Haque

On the face of records of reality, Rohingya people are destined to be persecuted and suffer degrading treatment unabatedly. The ethnic minority people are struggling for survival and facing the threat of existence leading them to deprive basic human rights and dignity, demanding regional and global humanitarian deals.
Widespread controversy as to origin of this community is in flow both in Myanmar and Bangladesh. The haggling of the historians has added their sufferings like insult to injury. Historical exclusion and contemporary marginalization of them have been turned into an age old dichotomy piercing humanity.

 Myanmar branded them as Bangla speaking migrated Muslim workers community in the Arakan (now Rakhine) state because the term Rohingya was unknown to the country before 1950s and more specifically the term is not even used in the 1824 census, conducted by the British colonial regime. On the contrary, Bangladesh combed through the entire history of this community and found its existence since 8th century. The term Rohingya was in fact used in the late 18th century report published by the British Francis Buchanan-Hamilton and in his 1799 article “A Comparative Vocabulary of Some of the Languages Spoken in the Burma Empire”. He stated that three dialects were spoken in the Burma Empire, evidently derived from the Hindu Nation and among three dialects one was spoken by the Mohammedans, who have settled in Arakan, and who call themselves Rohingya or natives of Arakan.

The Rohingya community both at home and abroad constitutes some 3.5 million people and out of it, about 1.5 million have been uprooted from their motherland and those displaced Rohingya people are leading a gypsy life in different countries of the world mostly in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia and in Middle East. Now, the Rohingya people account for approximately 4% of Myanmar’s population although exact numbers cannot be cited owing to the regime’s refusal to allow independent observers and negligence of the community as well.
The first wave of Rohingya refugees fleeing from Arakan to the area of Cox’s Bazar occurred in 1784 when the Burmese King Bodawpaya invaded and annexed Arakan to the then Kingdom of Ava in central Burma. Apart from the inflow of 1942, two major influxes of Rohingya people took place in Bangladesh in 1978 and during 1991-92 to escape Myanmar governed backed systematic genocidal and ethnic cleaning. Now around 0.5 million documented and undocumented Rohingya people are living in Cox’s Bazaar, Bandarban and its adjacent areas under the generosity of Bangladesh for over 30 years.
Among them only around 30,000 are officially registered in two official refugee camps in the southern part of Cox’s Bazar while the rest of them are undocumented and leading a scattered life. However, in 2012 Bangladesh refused to accept any more Rohingya boat people and sent them back providing basic humanitarian support to them. The overpopulated, poverty stricken and natural disaster prone country is now embittered of the adverse economic, social and environmental consequences and their burden in the future because this issue is not likely to be ended soon.
If Bangladesh in spite of its manifold limitations is to observe the principle of non refoulement upon which the International Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 1951 is grounded, the country has done a lot despite not being a party to the Convention and its related Protocol, 1967. The principle of burden sharing is beyond the capacity of Bangladesh to obey.
Besides, to some extent as part of its Constitutional pledge the basic rights and minimum dignity of them are recognized and promoted by the country but due to its own vulnerability cannot take maximum protection measures. The country is a state party to eight human rights documents out of nine core international human rights documents and very respectful towards international law.
The track record of observing Constitutional commitment and basic human rights in Myanmar is very deplorable, though it became the UN member 26 years ahead of Bangladesh. Preamble of the Myanmar Constitution, 2008 envisages the principles of justice, liberty, equality, perpetuation of peace and prosperity of the National people with a pledge to uphold peaceful co-existence among the nations. The country is only state party to UNCRC, CEDAW and Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 under which it is duty bound to protect civilians ensuring basic rights. Ridiculously, the state has enacted a draconian Citizenship law in 1982 which excluded the Rohingya from list of 135 races entitled to citizenship. More than 200 Rohingya were killed by the radical Buddhists in 2012. They also injured thousands of them and torched around 10000 houses, businesses and mosques forcing them around 140000 displaced.

One of the moral precepts of the Buddhist philosophy is the ‘promise not to kill’ imbibed with the virtue of non violence but they have undermined such teachings treating the Rohingya as a threat to their life, liberty and religion branding them terrorists. It is puzzling because this Buddhist dominated country is not facing an Islamist militant threat as Muslims here a generally peaceful and ethnic minority.

In fact, mudslinging by the stakeholders cannot bring a durable solution rather can deepen the crisis. Simultaneously, the economic and geopolitical perspectives of the South Asian countries especially of Myanmar and Bangladesh may suit legal deals only after the matured end of humanitarian deals. To materialize humanitarian deals, these two nations in a joint effort should try to explore the avenue of transferring the Rohingya people staying in Bangladesh. Middle East Countries along with Canada, Australia and Europe as a safe destination to negotiate the crisis aptly.

Moreover, the universal 3R model i.e. repatriation, reintegration and resettlement for durable solution to the burgeoning crisis is not properly applied by the stakeholders. The diplomatic failure of Bangladesh to raise voice against Myanmar in International forums and arrogance of Myanmar is also responsible for its stagnated position. The non cooperation of Myanmar is also a major impediment resolve it.

Only Nobel Laureate politician in the South Asia Aung San Suu Kyi’s role to advocate resolving the crisis is questionable. Adoption of regional legal instrument like Africa and Latin America understanding the nature of the refugee crisis in South Asia can help minimize the problem. World communities, human rights organizations and even pro-Rohingya regional and national NGOs to be lead by UNHCR should come up with consolidated measures casting neutral eyes to resolve the issue creating mounting pressure on Myanmar.

THE WRITER IS A SENIOR LECTURER IN LAW AT SOUTHEAST UNIVERSITY, DHAKA.

US blacklists Myanmar general over N. Korea arms deals

July 2,2013
APF

Lt. General Thein Htay is pictured at the Myanmar International Convention Center in Naypyidaw on August 20, 2011. The United States placed the Myanmar general on its sanctions blacklist Tuesday for arms deals with North Korea that violated a UN Security Council embargo on buying weapons from Pyongyang.

The United States placed a Myanmar general on its sanctions blacklist Tuesday for arms deals with North Korea that violated the UN Security Council embargo on buying weapons from Pyongyang.

Weeks after a landmark visit to Washington by Myanmar President Thein Sein celebrated the thaw in bilateral relations, the US Treasury named Lt. General Thein Htay, the head of Myanmar's Directorate of Defense Industries, for the sanctions.
The Treasury said the general was involved in buying North Korean military goods despite his government's support of the Security Council ban.
It said he acted on behalf of the Directorate of Defense Industries, a Myanmar military agency that was placed on the US sanctions blacklist in July 2012 for arms deals with North Korea.
The Treasury stressed in a statement that the Myanmar government, which until 2010 endured years of isolation and condemnation by the international community for rights abuses, was not targeted by the sanctions.
"This action specifically targets Thein Htay, who is involved in the illicit trade of North Korean arms to Burma," the Treasury said, using the former official name for Myanmar.
"It does not target the government of Burma, which has continued to take positive steps in severing its military ties with North Korea."
The Treasury noted that the Myanmar government last November "publicly announced its intention to abide by" the UN Security Council resolution prohibiting countries from buying military equipment and support from North Korea.
"The international community has repeatedly condemned North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile proliferation activity," the Treasury said.
"North Korea's arms trade provides it with an important source of revenue to expand and enhance its proscribed nuclear and missile programs, which are a threat to international peace and security."
The sanctions announced Tuesday forbid any American from doing business with Thein Htay and freeze any assets he might have in the United States.
The general was until early this year Minister for Border Affairs, a position which linked him to the widely-criticized handling of anti-Moslem violence in one state and its brutal campaign against the Kachin minority in another.
The blacklisting came despite a warming of relations between the United States and Myanmar, after the government introduced democratic reforms.
In May, President Thein Sein, a former military commander, held talks with US President Barack Obama in Washington as Myanmar continued to gain distance from its former pariah status alongside North Korea.
It was the first visit in nearly 50 years by a Myanmar leader to the White House, and Obama praised the country's journey away from brutal junta rule, promising Washington would offer more political and economic support.
But the US has not whole-heartedly embraced Myanmar, remaining cautious about its security ties to Beijing and Pyongyang.

Malaysia: Rohingya refugees left with nowhere to go

Salima Nora Ahmad, a 25-year-old Rohingya woman who rejoined her husband, who left Burma six years earlier, in Malaysia. When she left Burma in April 2011, she was convinced her life as a Rohingya would not be worth living if she stayed. 

July 2, 2013
Green left Weekly
 Lee Yu Kyung

Salima Nora Ahmad, a 25-year-old Rohingya woman who rejoined her husband, who left Burma six years earlier, in Malaysia. When she left Burma in April 2011, she was convinced her life as a Rohingya would not be worth living if she stayed.

- See more at: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/54426#sthash.9ga7V9CW.dpuf

 Jani Alam, a 25-year-old, is walking slow and painfully. Having slightly swollen feet, this “exercise” is the only treatment available from 60-year-old traditional doctor, Guramia Saiyid.  Both Alam and Saiyad are stateless refugees from the Rohingya ethnic minority from Arakan state in western Burma. They now live in Malaysia.  Saiyad has lived in the country for 11 years, while Alam has arrived four months ago.  “In the past months, dozens of refugees arrived almost every day,” said 41-year-old Jamar Udin, a neighbor and also a Rohingya.  Udin said many of the newly arrived have difficulty walking due to a lack of exercise.

Fleeing by boat

It was last November that Alam got on the boat in Bangladesh, to where he crossed Naf River from Arakan State. He hardly stretched or moved his legs for months.

During the seven-day journey from Bangladesh to the shores of Thailand shore, two-to-three people died a day, he said. After he arrived at Thai shore, smugglers used s Toyota pickup truck, in which Udin and others were stacked atop one another. It was near perfection conditions for suffocation.

After terrible ordeals, survivors were dropped off at Penang the northwest coast of Malaysia.

“Rakhine Buddhists armed with arrows, machetes and sticks came to our village to destroy everything,” Udin said of the situation he fled.

“NASAKA [the border police in Arakan State] just watched … My both parents succumbed to their bullet wounds after three days.”

Alam described the first wave of Buddhist riots in Soparan village in one of the two townships in which the Arakan State government has imposed its notorious “two child limit” policy. The violence quickly turned to be a massacre against Rohingya in June last year.

As he saw the second wave of riots in October, when the targets were expanded to Kaman Muslims who, unlike the Rohingyas are recognized citizens, Udin decided to leave the country.

Among thousands of victims of the October riots was 48-year-old Salim Bin Gulban, a Kaman business man, who arrived at Malaysia in mid-January. Salim saw security forces set a fire to six boats in Kyawkpyu on October 23, as he rushed to quay in a bid to flee by boat.

People managed to hurriedly got on remained boats to flee.

Salim and 74 others fled the country on his boat. They have made a direct journey from Arakan to Malaysia with little trouble, unlike Rohingya boat people who normally rely on smugglers.

“We met the Indian navy four days after departure,' he said. “They helped us to direct the way for Malaysia and also have given us drinking water.”

Salim’s troupe arrived on Malaysian shores, where the Malaysian Navy found them and brought them to Lankawi. They were provided food and health check-up at first. Some, including Salim, have been released into community after an interview with UNHCR in May.

According to the UNHCR, about 20,000 people (13,000 last year and 7000 in the first two months of this year) fled Burma by sea since the religious riots broke out June last year. These figures are unprecedented.

It was an utterly dark night in April 2011 when Salima got on the boat in Maungdaw in Arakan state with eight others. Although she fled the country before last years massacre, she was absolutely convinced that life as a Rohingya in Burma was not worth living.

Her husband, 25-year-old Mohamad Tandamia, had already left for Malaysia in 2006, where Salima was hoping to join her husband.

“We have no citizenship, no freedom of movement,” Tandamia said. “And government grabbed our land where I built a house. So I left.”

Salima had waited three days in the Teknaf Bangladesh border town until getting on a fishing boat to travel into international seas in the Bay of Bengal. There, she moved from to a bigger vessel with a capacity to hold 50 people. When it departed, there were 250 people on board.

The captain was Bangladesh and the crew were mainly Thai, Salima said. They were all armed. Salima hardly stretched her legs for 18 days. During the trip, 18 people died.

“14 people were suffocated to death at the bottom of the boat,” Salima said. “The other four were thrown overboard by crews because they asked water. All were young men.”

Among the refugees I interviewed, allegations of people asking for water being thrown overboard for asking for water were common. There were also many allegations of women being raped by the crew.

Fourty-one-year-old Nurul Hessen, who left Burma in January, said rape often occurred on the boat he fled on, which carried 750 people.

“The crew ordered women to stay upper deck, where no one was allowed to be,” Hessen said. “We heard rape sounds very often.”

Like many making the journey, Hessen believed that the boat was heading to Malaysia. However, their boats reached a Thai shore and the human traffickers kicked them off.

Uniformed men

In every interviewees’ accounts, there were “uniformed men” who received the boats, or were called by the smugglers when the boat arrived at Thailand.

From there, the refugees were taken through the jungle to a main camp, where they were released after finalising a deal. Smugglers called the refugees’ family or friends in Malaysia to demand 5500-6000 ringgit (about $2000).

Tandamia remember the moment he received a call for the money so his wife could join him in Malaysia. It took 14 days for him to borrow the needed money.

Who were the “uniformed men” met at sea? The most obvious answer the Thai Navy, which has been implicated in cases involving the smuggling of Rohningya refugees in recent years.

In 2009, the Thai navy forcibly removed the engine of a Rohingya boat before pushing back them to the sea. In February 22, reports suggested that the Thai Navy shot at Rohingya refugees who refused to get into Thai Navy boats. Two people were reportedly killed.

The latter case resembled to the Samila’s accounts, in which she and other refugees were transported by small boats under the command of the “uniformed men”.

In response to an email, the Thai Navy denied the allegation. It said: “In case of detecting for the Rohingya boat if the vessel is located outside the territorial sea, Naval officer will conduct humanitarian assistance by providing food, water and make recommendations for direction to go on.

“If Rohingya people are trying to enter the territorial sea, they will be forwarded to the relevant authorities. The whole procedure are based on the humanitarian principles of law.”

Chris Lewa, the director of Arakan Project, which approaches the matter carefully, said: “It’s very difficult to know who they are.

“To be honest I have no clear evidence that Thai authority involved in trafficking. But I’m almost convinced that it could be some sort of militia.”

Lewa said: “In terms of past atrocities such as ‘pushing back the boat to the sea, they won’t do this without receiving order from high level of command.”

At the hands of smugglers, Rohingya asylum seekers went through terrible ordeal in the jungle camp.

“If we made sounds, the agents would torture us,” Alam said. “They pulled someone’s teeth out.”

While he was in jungle, he said 10 people were killed, including four trying to escape.

Alam spent almost two months there, as he had no one in Malaysia to pay the smugglers. Finally, his uncle in Burma helped him out.

As for Hessen, he was lucky to be released after four days thanks to a friend in Malaysia. When he left the jungle camp, there were about 300 refugees remaining.

What would happen to those who couldn’t pay? It’s highly likely that they would be sold out to Thai fishing boats as modern slaves. The US State Department’s annual report of Trafficking In Person (TIP) released on June 20 states: "There were reports that some Rohingya asylum seekers transiting Thailand on route to Malaysia were sold into forced labor on Thai fishing boats, reportedly with the assistance of Thai military officials.’’

Nowhere to go

After paying the smugglers and finally reaching Malaysia, the refugees hoped they would be, at least, safer from violence.

But in recent weeks, this hope has looked shaky with violence breaking out between Burmese migrant communities in Malaysia.

On June 11, Burma’s deputy minister of foreign affairs Zin Yaw departed for Malaysia to provide protection for who he called, “our Burmese”.

It is difficult to believe the deputy minister included Rohingya, denied Burmese citizenship, count as for “his Burmese”.

A day after Malaysia’s announcement of the repatriation of Burmese migrants, president of Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organization Malaysia Zafar Ahmad said in a phone interview; “I’ve just got information that one Rohingya was killed hours ago in Ampang area in Kuala Lumpur. But I can’t go there now out of fear.”

Ahmad said: “There’s no place we can move freely. Not in Burma now in Malaysia.”

This is echoed by Lewa, who has researched Rohingya issues for more than six years: “They have nowhere to go. No one wants them in the region.

“I want [the media] to more highlight dire situation in Arakan state rather than highlighting smuggling issues. If you see the condition where they live in Arakan, oh my god, you gonna be on a boat.”

Nurul Islam, a 14 year old boy is Kaman refugee. Kaman are recognsed as one of 135 "national races", unlike the stateless Rohingya. However, they are also targeted by Buddhist extremists. Nurul got on an asylum boat with his uncle at his mother’s request. Photo by Lee Yu Kyung



Due to lack of exercise during the journey by smugglers’ boat, Jani has difficulty for walking. He’s getting a "snake oil" massage by Rohingyan traditional doctor, Guramia Saiyid, who is also a refugee. Photo by Lee Yu Kyung



Jani walking for exercise. Photo by Lee Yu Kyung



(Above and below) Mohamad Rafik, a 17-year-old Rohingya refugee, reenacts the pose that he had to maintain during the journey by smugglers’ boat. Photo by Lee Yu Kyung



Photo by Lee Yu Kyung - See more at: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/54426#sthash.9ga7V9CW.dpuf

It was last November that Alam got on the boat in Bangladesh, to where he crossed Naf River from Arakan State. He hardly stretched or moved his legs for months.
During the seven-day journey from Bangladesh to the shores of Thailand shore, two-to-three people died a day, he said. After he arrived at Thai shore, smugglers used s Toyota pickup truck, in which Udin and others were stacked atop one another. It was near perfection conditions for suffocation.
After terrible ordeals, survivors were dropped off at Penang the northwest coast of Malaysia.
“Rakhine Buddhists armed with arrows, machetes and sticks came to our village to destroy everything,” Udin said of the situation he fled.
“NASAKA [the border police in Arakan State] just watched … My both parents succumbed to their bullet wounds after three days.”
Alam described the first wave of Buddhist riots in Soparan village in one of the two townships in which the Arakan State government has imposed its notorious “two child limit” policy. The violence quickly turned to be a massacre against Rohingya in June last year.
As he saw the second wave of riots in October, when the targets were expanded to Kaman Muslims who, unlike the Rohingyas are recognized citizens, Udin decided to leave the country.
Among thousands of victims of the October riots was 48-year-old Salim Bin Gulban, a Kaman business man, who arrived at Malaysia in mid-January. Salim saw security forces set a fire to six boats in Kyawkpyu on October 23, as he rushed to quay in a bid to flee by boat.
People managed to hurriedly got on remained boats to flee.
Salim and 74 others fled the country on his boat. They have made a direct journey from Arakan to Malaysia with little trouble, unlike Rohingya boat people who normally rely on smugglers.
“We met the Indian navy four days after departure,' he said. “They helped us to direct the way for Malaysia and also have given us drinking water.”
Salim’s troupe arrived on Malaysian shores, where the Malaysian Navy found them and brought them to Lankawi. They were provided food and health check-up at first. Some, including Salim, have been released into community after an interview with UNHCR in May.
According to the UNHCR, about 20,000 people (13,000 last year and 7000 in the first two months of this year) fled Burma by sea since the religious riots broke out June last year. These figures are unprecedented.
It was an utterly dark night in April 2011 when Salima got on the boat in Maungdaw in Arakan state with eight others. Although she fled the country before last years massacre, she was absolutely convinced that life as a Rohingya in Burma was not worth living.
Her husband, 25-year-old Mohamad Tandamia, had already left for Malaysia in 2006, where Salima was hoping to join her husband.
“We have no citizenship, no freedom of movement,” Tandamia said. “And government grabbed our land where I built a house. So I left.”
Salima had waited three days in the Teknaf Bangladesh border town until getting on a fishing boat to travel into international seas in the Bay of Bengal. There, she moved from to a bigger vessel with a capacity to hold 50 people. When it departed, there were 250 people on board.
The captain was Bangladesh and the crew were mainly Thai, Salima said. They were all armed. Salima hardly stretched her legs for 18 days. During the trip, 18 people died.
“14 people were suffocated to death at the bottom of the boat,” Salima said. “The other four were thrown overboard by crews because they asked water. All were young men.”
Among the refugees I interviewed, allegations of people asking for water being thrown overboard for asking for water were common. There were also many allegations of women being raped by the crew.
Fourty-one-year-old Nurul Hessen, who left Burma in January, said rape often occurred on the boat he fled on, which carried 750 people.
“The crew ordered women to stay upper deck, where no one was allowed to be,” Hessen said. “We heard rape sounds very often.”
Like many making the journey, Hessen believed that the boat was heading to Malaysia. However, their boats reached a Thai shore and the human traffickers kicked them off.
Uniformed men
In every interviewees’ accounts, there were “uniformed men” who received the boats, or were called by the smugglers when the boat arrived at Thailand.
From there, the refugees were taken through the jungle to a main camp, where they were released after finalising a deal. Smugglers called the refugees’ family or friends in Malaysia to demand 5500-6000 ringgit (about $2000).
Tandamia remember the moment he received a call for the money so his wife could join him in Malaysia. It took 14 days for him to borrow the needed money.
Who were the “uniformed men” met at sea? The most obvious answer the Thai Navy, which has been implicated in cases involving the smuggling of Rohningya refugees in recent years.
In 2009, the Thai navy forcibly removed the engine of a Rohingya boat before pushing back them to the sea. In February 22, reports suggested that the Thai Navy shot at Rohingya refugees who refused to get into Thai Navy boats. Two people were reportedly killed.
The latter case resembled to the Samila’s accounts, in which she and other refugees were transported by small boats under the command of the “uniformed men”.
In response to an email, the Thai Navy denied the allegation. It said: “In case of detecting for the Rohingya boat if the vessel is located outside the territorial sea, Naval officer will conduct humanitarian assistance by providing food, water and make recommendations for direction to go on.
“If Rohingya people are trying to enter the territorial sea, they will be forwarded to the relevant authorities. The whole procedure are based on the humanitarian principles of law.”
Chris Lewa, the director of Arakan Project, which approaches the matter carefully, said: “It’s very difficult to know who they are.
“To be honest I have no clear evidence that Thai authority involved in trafficking. But I’m almost convinced that it could be some sort of militia.”
Lewa said: “In terms of past atrocities such as ‘pushing back the boat to the sea, they won’t do this without receiving order from high level of command.”
At the hands of smugglers, Rohingya asylum seekers went through terrible ordeal in the jungle camp.
“If we made sounds, the agents would torture us,” Alam said. “They pulled someone’s teeth out.”
While he was in jungle, he said 10 people were killed, including four trying to escape.
Alam spent almost two months there, as he had no one in Malaysia to pay the smugglers. Finally, his uncle in Burma helped him out.
As for Hessen, he was lucky to be released after four days thanks to a friend in Malaysia. When he left the jungle camp, there were about 300 refugees remaining.
What would happen to those who couldn’t pay? It’s highly likely that they would be sold out to Thai fishing boats as modern slaves. The US State Department’s annual report of Trafficking In Person (TIP) released on June 20 states: "There were reports that some Rohingya asylum seekers transiting Thailand on route to Malaysia were sold into forced labor on Thai fishing boats, reportedly with the assistance of Thai military officials.’’
Nowhere to go
After paying the smugglers and finally reaching Malaysia, the refugees hoped they would be, at least, safer from violence.
But in recent weeks, this hope has looked shaky with violence breaking out between Burmese migrant communities in Malaysia.
On June 11, Burma’s deputy minister of foreign affairs Zin Yaw departed for Malaysia to provide protection for who he called, “our Burmese”.
It is difficult to believe the deputy minister included Rohingya, denied Burmese citizenship, count as for “his Burmese”.
A day after Malaysia’s announcement of the repatriation of Burmese migrants, president of Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organization Malaysia Zafar Ahmad said in a phone interview; “I’ve just got information that one Rohingya was killed hours ago in Ampang area in Kuala Lumpur. But I can’t go there now out of fear.”
Ahmad said: “There’s no place we can move freely. Not in Burma now in Malaysia.”
This is echoed by Lewa, who has researched Rohingya issues for more than six years: “They have nowhere to go. No one wants them in the region.
“I want [the media] to more highlight dire situation in Arakan state rather than highlighting smuggling issues. If you see the condition where they live in Arakan, oh my god, you gonna be on a boat.”
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