Myanmar Rohingya face limbo in Indonesia

An Indonesian soldier (L) joins a group of Rohingya asylum-seekers from Myanmar for prayers in a mosque at the immigration detention center in Lhokseumawe town, Aceh province, on April 11, 2013. Buddhist-majority Myanmar views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, and as sectarian violence has escalated in the past year they have fled in increasing numbers.

July 5,2013
AFP


A group of Rohingya asylum-seekers from Myanmar prayed peacefully alongside Indonesians at a mosque in Sumatra, a sign of the solidarity they have found in the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation after fleeing sectarian bloodshed.
The members of the persecuted Muslim minority were still shaken after a gruelling, 25-day journey at sea -- but were grateful to find themselves in a country where they felt at least a little at home, despite there being no chance of a normal life for them there.
"Indonesia, Muslim country, good," said Muhammad Yunus, 25, in halting English, after praying at the immigration detention centre in the town of Lhokseumawe.
But while the population at large is accepting of the increasing number of Rohingya washing up in Indonesia, authorities have not extended the same warm welcome.
Although president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has publicly expressed backing for the stateless minority, Rohingya who make it to Indonesia can end up living in legal limbo for years.
Buddhist-majority Myanmar views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, and as sectarian violence has escalated in the past year they have fled in increasing numbers.
As other countries in Asia struggle to deal with them, the flow of Rohingya arrivals in Indonesia is increasing.
After several incidents where Thailand was accused of pushing them back out to sea, 2,000 Rohingya landed earlier this year and have been detained in refugee camps. Bangkok has said it is unable to accept more, while Malaysia says it is reaching capacity.
Most Rohingya do not initially view Indonesia as their final destination and hope to use it as a stopping point en route to Australia, where more than 220 have arrived on asylum seeker boats over the past year.
Once in Indonesia, many Rohingya are held in prison-like detention centres for long periods while their cases are processed.
Those granted refugee status by the United Nations are considered the lucky ones but enjoy few rights as Indonesia has not signed a key UN convention on refugees. It will not accept them as permanent citizens and they cannot work or study as they wait to be resettled.
At a refugee housing complex in Medan, on Sumatra, Rohana Fetikileh looks haunted as she contemplates the turmoil that has rocked the state of Rakhine, from where she fled in 2010.
Rakhine was the site of two outbreaks of deadly sectarian unrest between Rohingya and Buddhists in Myanmar last year. Since then, several further episodes of communal unrest across Myanmar have tempered international optimism about the country's dramatic political reforms as it emerges from decades of military rule.
"If Indonesia accepted us, then we'd stay," Fetikileh told AFP, clutching her 11-month-old son in her arms as other refugee children played nearby.
"As long as we can work and there is a future for our kids," added the 28-year-old mother of four.
Those given "Refugee" status are given some help from the UN: basic housing, schooling for their children and a 1.25 million rupiah ($128) monthly allowance per person.
But most refugees spend their days cooped up in basic community housing, with little to do.
"We can't do anything here," said Zahid Husein, 26, who has been been waiting for resettlement more than 11 years, having passed through Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia.
"We can't study, if we want to go shopping we can't...without being detained again," he said.
With only 1.0 per cent of refugees globally ever resettled, according to UN data, prospects for Rohingya are bleak. Australia had said it aimed to take around 600 refugees who are in Indonesia in the 12 months to June as part of the expansion of its humanitarian refugee programme, but that number does not include those who had come from Myanmar.
Many make it to Australia by boarding rickety, wooden boats in Indonesia.
Critics argue that Indonesia has failed to change its policies despite supportive rhetoric and the increasingly desperate state that the Rohingya are arriving in.
Authorities have publicly backed the Rohingya on many occasions -- Jakarta pledged $1 million to help those displaced in violence in Rakhine last year and president Yudhoyono raised the issue on a recent visit to Myanmar.
There have also been growing signs of public anger about the Rohingya's plight.
In April, a plot to bomb the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta was uncovered, and the same day Islamic hardliners marched on the mission urging "jihad in Myanmar" to avenge Muslim deaths.
So far this year, the United Nations has registered 360 arrivals of Rohingya in Indonesia, up from just 30 for the whole of 2010.
While developing countries rarely settle refugees, Jakarta Legal Aid director Febi Yonesta said Indonesia should consider doing so anyway, especially in the case of stateless Rohingya.
"We have the space, the economy is booming, why not?" he said.
Indonesia has long promised to sign the UN convention, but missed its own deadline in 2009 and observers believe there is little chance it will make a new deadline of 2014.
However, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said the failure to sign the convention was simply down to a "backlog of priorities".
"We have welcomed the Rohingya -- we are not in the practise of pushing them back," he told AFP.
But warm words may not be enough to help a minority denied citizenship in Myanmar and desperately searching for a home.
At the Lhokseumawe centre, Mohammad Zuhar bin Sayed Alam explained how he fled Sittwe, in Rakhine, after Buddhists sealed off his mosque and he became too scared to walk down the street.

The 30-year-old broke down in tears as he showed two tiny photos of the sister and wife he had been forced to leave behind.

Parliament chief says discrimination banned in Myanmar

(Photo: AFP/Soe Than Win)

June 14, 2013

AFP

WASHINGTON — Myanmar's influential parliament speaker vowed Thursday to press forward with democratic reforms but said the country already had laws against discrimination amid a furor over anti-Muslim violence.

Shwe Mann, a former general who is a key architect of reforms and is eyeing the presidency, was visiting Washington, where he said he hoped to study the US democratic system including the separation of government powers.

"For the interest of our people and the international community, we wish to see that a continuous democratic system is deeply rooted in Myanmar," he said at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars.

Leading a delegation of lawmakers, Shwe Mann said that he hoped to encourage reconciliation in the long conflict-torn nation and also to build a "more inclusive society."

But asked whether parliament needed to do more to protect the Rohingya Muslim minority following a wave of violence, Shwe Mann said that "actions will be taken" against anyone who violated existing laws.

"According to our law, discrimination does not exist whether you are a Rohingya or whether you call them Bengali, or even in religion," he said.

"There are still some weaknesses in terms of the rule of law. Therefore, we are working hard so that the rule of law will prevail in Myanmar," he said.

Myanmar's roughly 800,000 Rohingya are considered by the UN to be one of the world's most persecuted minorities. Myanmar does not consider them to be citizens, saying they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh, and local authorities have reimposed a ban on Rohingya having more than two children.

Up to 140,000 people -- mainly Rohingya -- were displaced in two waves of sectarian unrest between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine state last year that left about 200 people dead.

Myanmar has faced strong international criticism over the Rohingya, a stark contrast to the enthusiasm over reforms in recent years over democratic reforms that have included an easing of censorship and freeing of political prisoners.

Shwe Mann told Radio Free Asia while in Washington that he plans to run for president in 2015, making him the only declared candidate besides opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who was freed from house arrest in 2010.

Shwe Mann met Tuesday with Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and discussed various topics including human rights and legal reform, a State Department official said.

Myanmar to examine two-child rule for Rohingya

June 3, 2013

AFP

AFP © Myanmar to examine two-child rule for Rohingya

YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar will examine a controversial ban that was imposed on Rohingya Muslims having more than two children, a top official said, after criticism from the United Nations and rights groups.
Authorities in the strife-torn western state of Rakhine said last month that they had reaffirmed the longstanding rule -- which was first introduced during the junta era -- in two townships.
"The central government did not announce that policy. We will look into it," presidential spokesman Ye Htut told AFP.
"The population in that area is much higher than in other regions so there are some social and economic problems within each family."
He said the government planned to implement a population policy in the future that would take international standards into consideration.
The UN has called for an end to the ban, which it said was discriminatory and an infringement on human rights.
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been accused by activists of failing to speak up for the marginalised Rohingya minority group, last month criticised the policy as counter to human rights.
But highlighting the pressure she faces from within her movement, eight NLD offices in Rakhine have written to the party headquarters expressing support for the two-child policy, citing national security.
Up to 140,000 people -- mainly Rohingya -- were displaced in two waves of sectarian unrest between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine last year that left about 200 people dead.
Myanmar views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. They are considered by the UN to be one of the world's most persecuted minorities.

Rohingya two-child rule ‘discrimination’: Suu Kyi

27 May 2013

AFP

Aung San Suu Kyi talks to reporters after giving a speech at the first meeting of the central executive committee of the National League for Democracy party in the Royal Rose hall in Rangoon on 27 May 2013. (Reuters)

Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi Monday criticised a ban on Rohingya having more than two children in strife-torn Arakan state as counter to human rights, in rare comments on the plight of the Muslim group.
The opposition leader, who has been accused by activists of failing to speak up for the marginalised Rohingya, said she opposed the controversial rule, imposed by the previous junta and reaffirmed recently by local authorities in the wake of deadly unrest.
“It is not good to have such discrimination. And it is not in line with human rights either,” the veteran democracy activist told reporters in Rangoon, adding she could not confirm whether the policy was being implemented.
Arakan authorities on Sunday told AFP that the rule had been reaffirmed in two Muslim-majority townships in the state.
Win Myaing, spokesperson for the Arakan government, said the order was designed to “enforce monogamy and not to have more than two children”.
He said the policy had previously been put on hold because of fears over “conflicts among communities” in the state.
Up to 140,000 people – mainly Rohingya Muslims – were displaced in two waves of sectarian unrest between Buddhists and Muslims in Arakan state last year.
Human Rights Watch has accused the authorities of being a party to ethnic cleansing over the violence, which killed some 200 people and saw mobs torch whole villages.
It described the population policy as “abhorrent, inhumane” and “completely contrary to human rights”.
An official commission’s report in April into the unrest suggested voluntary family planning to stem a high birthrate among the Rohingya that it said stoked tensions.
Local authorities have previously been accused of trying to restrict birthrates among the Rohingya by refusing to acknowledge any more than two children per married couple – thereby denying them legal rights and access to services.
Burma views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal Bengali immigrants and denies them citizenship. They are considered by the United Nations to be one of the world’s most persecuted minorities.

After cyclone Mahasen, Myanmar camps face monsoon threat

May 20, 2013

Agence France-Presse




Sittwe, Myanmar: Myanmar's victims of sectarian strife were spared the full force of Cyclone Mahasen, but many are now returning to flimsy tents in flood-prone camps with the monsoon just weeks away.

Myanmar's Rakhine state is pockmarked with makeshift settlements for up to 140,000 people - mainly Rohingya Muslims - displaced by sectarian unrest last year that claimed about 200 lives and saw whole villages razed.

Many were evacuated last week ahead of Cyclone Mahasen, which later veered into neighbouring Bangladesh. But most have now returned, according to Kirsten Mildren of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
"They are actually no better off than where they were last week before the storm," she said, adding the cyclone was simply a "dress rehearsal" for the rainy season -- set to hit in a few weeks.

Many of the camps consist of little more than ramshackle bivouacs of bamboo and tarpaulin flung up in soggy paddy fields.

Sanitation is a key concern. Rain last week left standing water in many of the camps and Mildren said water-borne diseases such as cholera were a particular fear.

"Thousands are sheltering in areas that make them vulnerable and we need to find solutions to this, " she said. "If one week of rain has done this, imagine what it's going to be like in a couple of months."

Many Rohingya are completely reliant on humanitarian aid, with an almost total segregation of Buddhist and Muslim communities.

A lack of adequate food has also raised fears about malnutrition among children, many of whom have gone without access to education for almost a year.

"It makes me sad just to talk about our life here," 55-year-old Hla Hla Myint told AFP, describing conditions at the Mansi camp near the state capital Sittwe.

"Ants, leeches and earthworms come into our tents. We are living in the water. I am so sad. We have no food," she said.

While the former factory worker sought shelter from the cyclone with her two daughters in a local school, her husband and son stayed behind to guard their tent -- all they had to protect them from the monsoon.

Myanmar views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and denies them citizenship - they are considered by the United Nations to be one of the world's most persecuted minorities.

Attacks against Muslims - who make up an estimated four percent of the population - have spread to other parts of Myanmar, overshadowing widely praised political reforms as the country emerges from decades of military rule.

After months of warnings from rights groups and aid organisations, local authorities are now scrambling to build enough wooden shelters before the tents are swamped.

"I don't think we have much time left -- just over a month. These houses have to be finished in that time," Rakhine government spokesman Win Myaing told AFP.

He said about 70 percent of the required shelters had been built, although he could not provide exact figures.

The UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, which has previously warned of a "humanitarian catastrophe", said some 70,000 people most at risk from the monsoon would be housed in new wooden blocks.

That is in addition to shelters for 12,000 people already built by UNHCR along with an unknown number constructed by the government, according to spokeswoman Vivian Tan.

The semi-permanence of the wooden structures has caused concern that they will prolong segregation of communities - a solution, albeit temporary, that was advocated by a recent official report on the unrest.

Independent analyst Richard Horsey said a "huge challenge" would be to provide aid "without making these camps into permanent settlements".

Tan said the aim was to eventually return the displaced to their old communities.

"This cannot go on for a long time. Solutions will need to be found in their own villages," she told AFP.

At Bawdupha camp near Sittwe, more than 7,500 Rohingya have moved into 20 new barracks, each comprising eight one-family rooms. A dozen more are being built, but residents worry whether they would withstand a cyclone.

"The house is a temporary construction, not strong. I am concerned if there is a storm, it will be swept away," said Muhibulah, 55, who has been living in the camp with his wife and three children for almost a year.

Like many Rohingya he has little faith in the authorities.

"We don't trust the government. Absolutely not," he said.

Myanmar leader pledges to uphold Muslim rights

Myanmar President Thein Sein delivers a speech in Bangkok on April 29, 2013 (AFP/File, Nicolas Asfouri)

May 6, 2013

AFP
YANGON — Myanmar's president on Monday pledged to uphold the "fundamental rights" of Muslims in strife-torn Rakhine state, in the wake of deadly religious unrest that has spread across the country.
In a speech to the nation following the release last week of an official report into last year's violence in western Rakhine that killed around 200 people, Thein Sein said the country should aim for "peaceful coexistence".
"Regarding Rakhine, our government will take responsibility for upholding Muslims' fundamental rights," he said, adding that ethnic Rakhines, who are mainly Buddhist, "will not be neglected".
Rakhine state remains deeply divided following major eruptions of unrest in June and October that saw mobs rampage through villages and torch thousands of homes, displacing 140,000 mainly Rohingya Muslims.
Waves of anti-Muslim unrest have spread across the country this year. Buddhist monks have been linked to some incidents, while security forces have been accused of standing by while mosques and homes were attacked.
Thein Sein said he accepted that "there were human rights violations... because of the policies that we used formerly", without elaborating on which measures he was referring to.
He pledged to use his authority "to make sure that security forces fully implement measures to restore peace and the rule of law".
Attacks against Muslims -- who make up an estimated four percent of Myanmar's population -- have exposed deep fractures in the formerly junta-run country and cast a shadow over reforms under a quasi-civilian regime that took power two years ago.
At least 43 people were killed and thousands left homeless in March after a flare-up apparently triggered by a quarrel in a gold shop in the central town of Meiktila.
A renewed bout of anti-Muslim unrest last week saw one killed and mosques and homes destroyed in Oakkan, around 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Yangon, as the unrest spread closer to the country's main city.
The Rakhine commission called for increased aid in Rakhine, where tens of thousands of Rohingya are trapped in squalid camps amid fears of a deepening humanitarian crisis as the monsoon season approaches.
But the report also recommended maintaining the segregation of the two communities while tensions remain.
Human Rights Watch, which has claimed the authorities were involved in ethnic cleansing in Rakhine, said the report's call to double troop numbers there was a "potential disaster" without proper oversight.
Rohingya -- considered by the United Nations to be one of the world's most persecuted minorities -- have been rendered effectively stateless in Myanmar with few rights and scant access to public services.

Myanmar unrest tests iconic status of Suu Kyi

(Photo: AFP)

April 21, 2013

AFP

Aung San Suu Kyi's refusal to condemn attacks on Muslims in Myanmar has dimmed the Nobel laureate's lustre among global rights campaigners, but observers say her reticence will do her no harm with voters. 

Nearly a month after religious riots killed 43 people in central Myanmar, the former political prisoner turned lawmaker finally voiced sympathy for Muslims targeted by violence that saw mosques and homes razed. 

But Suu Kyi again failed to clearly condemn attacks against Muslims -- who represent an estimated four percent of the population -- or hate speech by some extremist Buddhist monks. 

Instead, as in 2012 when two waves of violence between the stateless Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists caused more than 180 deaths in the west, the opposition leader more indirectly urged respect for the "rule of law". 

"They did not feel they belonged anywhere else and you are just sad for them that they are made to feel they did not belong to our country either," she said of Myanmar's Muslims last week during a visit to Japan. 

But Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and endured years of house arrest, defended the restrained nature of her remarks and said: "I am sorry if people do not find my comments interesting enough to acknowledge them." 

Rights groups say her comments, delivered late and without criticism of the perpetrators of violence, sit uncomfortably with her position as a democracy champion who led a long fight against Myanmar's former military junta. 

"I'm glad she is in some ways recognising that these people are facing a very, very difficult situation" but "there has to be more than just her feeling sad," said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch. 

"The burden of action here lies with the government, but she is not an ordinary opposition leader either... and this is where some of this moral authority built up over the years needs to be used," he added. 

For their part Myanmar's ethnic minorities harbour suspicions of the Burman majority group -- including Suu Kyi -- and complain that discrimination endures under Myanmar's civilian-led reformist government. 

The Rohingya in particular feel let down by Suu Kyi. 

Some 800,000 of the minority group, considered by the UN as one of the most persecuted in the world, live in Rakhine State where tens of thousands of people were displaced by the violence last year and still languish in makeshift camps. 

Human Rights Watch has accused security forces of allowing and in some cases leading assaults against the Rohingya. 

Abu Tahay from the National Democratic Party for Development, which represents the Rohingya, said Suu Kyi has an "obligation" to intervene given her status as daughter of independence hero Aung San and a "democratic icon". 

Yet he stepped back from openly criticising the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) -- which is tipped to win general elections in 2015 that could install Suu Kyi as Myanmar's president. 

Suu Kyi's core constituency in the dominant Burman population sees the Rohingya as worthless illegal immigrants, and any offers of support may haunt her at the elections. 

"Aung San Suu Kyi has an election to win in 2015. She risks alienating politically potent Buddhist elements among her own supporters if she appears too cosy with the Rohingya, or other Muslims," said Nicholas Farrelly of the Australian National University. 

"Western human rights activists and international opponents of anti-Islamic prejudice will not have a vote in who runs Myanmar in the years ahead," he said. 

More immediately, "The Lady" does not want to fuel ethnic and religious tensions as the country undergoes its transition from junta rule, according to Win Tin, co-founder of the NLD. 

"There was some damage to her moral authority because of this situation. Daw Suu also knows about it," he told AFP, using a Burmese honorific, adding that her caution recognises "things are very fragile politically". 

Foreign observers need to take a more realistic view of the democracy leader, a senior diplomat formerly posted to Myanmar told AFP. 

Critics "need to consider whether their disappointment is a consequence of attributing near-sainthood and infallibility to her during her years under house arrest", the diplomat said, requesting anonymity. 

But Chris Lewa, the Bangkok-based director of The Arakan Project, which lobbies for Rohingya rights, said Suu Kyi was failing a vital test of leadership. 

"She talks a lot about the rule of law, but that is not enough," she said.

Myanmar's Muslims fear toxic fallout of reform

(Terrorizing Muslims' properties in Meikhtila - Photo: Facebook)

April 14, 2013

AFP

YANGON: After generations as part of one of Asia's most ethnically diverse societies, Myanmar's Muslims fear they are becoming "scapegoats" of its reform process following a wave of religious violence. 

At least 43 people died in Buddhist-Muslim clashes which broke out last month in central Myanmar where mosques were burned down and Muslim homes were destroyed. 

The unrest — which followed a wave of religious bloodshed in western Myanmar last year — has instilled fear into the country's Muslims, some of whose families had lived peacefully alongside Buddhists for generations. 

"All Muslims living in Myanmar are worried about this. What will happen to our faith? How can we live in this Buddhist society?" said Nyunt Maung Shein, president of the country's Islamic Religious Affairs Council. 

"Why are we so miserable that our men and women, children, students are brutally killed? Muslims are scapegoats in this transition period from the brutal junta." 

Last year at least 180 people were killed in the western state of Rakhine in clashes between local Buddhists and Rohingya — a Muslim minority treated with hostility by most Burmese who see them as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. 

While the Rohingya — described by the UN as among the most-persecuted minorities on the planet — have long been denied Myanmar citizenship, the Muslims targeted in last month's unrest are Myanmar nationals. 

The apparent trigger for the latest violence was a quarrel between a Muslim gold shop owner and Buddhist customers in the town of Meiktila. Soon afterwards, a monk was killed by Muslims. 

The violence escalated into a street riot that unleashed Buddhist-led bloodshed around the region. 

Some monks were involved in the unrest while others are behind a nationalistic campaign calling for a boycott of shops owned by Muslims. 

The surge in Islamophobia is a major challenge for President Thein Sein's reformist government which took office two years ago after the end of decades of harsh rule by a military that largely suppressed religious tensions. 

"We're oppressed by fear, sorrow and doubt," said Kyaw Nyein, legal consultant and senior member of Jamiat-Uloma-El Islam, an organisation of religious scholars. 

"Even if the government is willing to cure the disease, it is going to take decades." 

The country's transition from junta rule is proving a test for all of society, including the security forces, he said. 

"Previously, there was one military command that would stop any event," he said. "Now it's a civil administration. There are so many steps that need to be taken before (there is) action." 

Myanmar's Muslims officially account for an estimated four percent of the population of roughly 60 million, although the country has not conducted a census in three decades. 

But local Muslim organisations believe the real figure is at least double that — and the proportion is possibly even higher in Yangon, the former capital and main commercial city, which is home to several Muslim neighbourhoods. 

In Meiktila an estimated 30 percent of the population is Muslim, including many who came from China decades ago as merchants. Others hail from Bangladesh, although the majority came from India during British colonial rule. 

Whatever their heritage, Muslims are widely considered as foreigners, said Alexandra de Marsan, an anthropologist with the Paris-based National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations. 

"There have been very few conversions" to Islam in Myanmar, she explained. "Most Muslims are descendants of foreigners from India or other countries." 

The recent violence triggered international alarm and brought calls for Thein Sein's government to take swift action to quell the bloodshed. 

Rights groups have also accused police of failing to stop the violence, which has calmed since the former general appeared on national television on March 28 and vowed a tough response against those behind the attacks. 

Even so in cities such as Yangon — which has so far remained largely peaceful — Muslims are still living in fear. A fire that killed 13 teenagers at a Muslim school in early April added to the tensions, although the authorities insisted the blaze was accidental. 

"Everyone is scared, even me," said Kyaw Nyein. "Every night there are rumours. We are under pressure."

Myanmar's Muslims 'barred from Suu Kyi meet' in Japan

(Photo: AFP)

April 11, 2013

AFP

TOKYO - Members of Myanmar's Muslim minority Rohingya community said Thursday they have been barred from a gathering to welcome democracy hero Aung San Suu Kyi when she visits Japan.

Suu Kyi is expected from Saturday in her first visit to the country for nearly three decades, after time spent as a researcher at Kyoto University in 1985-6.

During her six-day trip, she is expected to have meetings with some of the approximately 10,000 Burmese who live in Japan, as well as with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.

But Zaw Min Htut, 42, the leader of some 200 Rohingya Muslims who live in Japan, said his people had been told they were not wanted at events to welcome Suu Kyi.

"Because some Buddhist minorities are against our participation, even though I've been in Japan for decades and have helped other Myanmar nationals here, I was told by compatriot event organisers I won't be able to see Daw Aung San Suu Kyi," he told AFP, using a term of respect.

The apparent tensions between groupings within the expatriate Myanmar community underline growing problems between Muslims and Buddhists at home that have cast a shadow over much-vaunted political reforms of recent years.

At least 43 people were killed in March as mosques and Muslim homes were destroyed in central Myanmar, in a wave of communal violence that witnesses say appeared to have been well organised.

The recent disorder was the worst since an eruption of violence between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in the western state of Rakhine last year that left scores dead and tens of thousands -- mainly Muslims -- displaced.

The Rohingya have been described by the UN as one of the world's most persecuted minorities.

Activists have expressed disappointment that Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate who was locked up for 15 years by the former junta, has remained largely silent about several episodes of communal bloodshed.

"I would really like to meet her in person, but I don't want there to be any quarrels," Zaw Min Htut said.

An official from Japan's foreign ministry said decisions on participation at the event were taken by organisers and were nothing to do with the ministry.

Zaw Min Htut said he had met officials Wednesday and handed over a letter to Kishida, asking the minister to convey his wish that Suu Kyi play a leading role in ending inter-communal violence.

"I want her to become a mediator in ethnic conflicts, because without settlement of the issue, Myanmar will not become a truly peaceful nation, even if it becomes a democracy," he told AFP.

Suu Kyi's connection to Japan stems from her father, General Aung San, who led the independence movement in the country then known as Burma against British colonial rule.

From late 1940 he spent several months in Japan, whose Imperial Army -- then involved in a brutal campaign of conquest across Asia -- had offered succour, including cash, weaponry and manpower.Two years later he established a Japanese-backed government, but by 1945 had enlisted the help of the British to liberate Burma from Tokyo's colonial rule.

Myanmar's displaced Rohingya face rains threat: UN

Photo: Muslim Rohingya walk around the Bawdupha Internally Displaced Persons camp on the outskirts of Sittwe, the capital of Myanmar's western Rakhine state. (Soe Than Win: AFP)

March 29, 2013

ABC/AFP

The UN has warned tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims living in squalid, flood-prone camps in western Myanmar face "imminent danger" from looming monsoon rains.

An estimated 125,000 Rohingya and other Muslims have languished in insanitary camps since violence flared last year with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, leaving scores dead and whole neighbourhoods in ruins.

John Ging from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is calling on Myanmar's government to take action now "to prevent a predictable tragedy".

"The gravity and urgency of the situation cannot be overstated," he said.

"Community and religious leaders also have a major role in promoting a culture of peace and mutual respect in multicultural and multi-ethnic Myanmar."

The monsoon season is expected to start in May and Mr Ging is urging the government to release new land for camps and to help rebuild community relations after spreading anti-Muslim violence in central Myanmar this month.

His comments follow allegations by rights groups that humanitarian aid to the Rohingya is being restricted by Myanmar's authorities.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, says curbs on relief to the camps are creating a "crisis that will become a disaster when the rainy season arrives".

Mr Robertson says Myanmar's leaders seem intent on keeping the Rohingya segregated in camps rather than planning for them to return to their homes.

He also warns heavy rains are likely to spread waterborne diseases among vulnerable camp residents.

Medical aid agency Doctors Without Borders has said a lack of clean drinking water in the camps has caused skin infections, worms, chronic coughing and diarrhoea, while many malnourished people are going without urgent medical care.

'Enough Shelter'

Earlier this month, Myanmar presidential spokesman U Ye Htut told Australia Network's Newsline program the shelter at the camps was adequate.

"I think most of the people are still living in the camp but they have enough shelter and food supply for the rainy season," he said.

His comments followed UN Special Rapporteur Tomás Ojea Quintana's report which recommended the Rohingya be integrated into communities "to avoid a humanitarian disaster" during the rainy season.

Thousands of Rohingya have fled Myanmar in recent months on rickety boats, mostly believed to be heading for Malaysia.

Myanmar views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and denies them citizenship.

The country's Rakhine state suffered two bouts of deadly sectarian violence last year between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims.

The fighting has divided the community and led to Rohingya Muslims being separated into temporary camps.

In central Myanmar, the country's Muslims have been targeted by violence led by Buddhist mobs since March 20. 

At least 40 people have been killed and mosques burned in several towns, prompting the government to impose emergency rule and curfews in some areas.

Source:Here

Fishermen rescue another 63 Rohingya off Indonesia

 March 1, 2013

AFP

Fishermen in western Indonesia rescued more than 60 ethnic Rohingya asylum-seekers from Myanmar found adrift in a wooden boat, police said Friday, in the second such arrival this week.

The vessel with no engine had 23 children on board and was found drifting off the eastern coast of Sumatra island near the province of Aceh.

"Fishermen found the boat with 63 Rohingya late Thursday afternoon around 160 kilometers [100 miles] from the coastal town of Idi Rayeuk. They then towed the boat to shore," East Aceh district police chief Muhajir told AFP.

"All we know is they are from Myanmar. We don't know where exactly the boat sailed from as they're too tired and hungry to be interviewed and we're having problems communicating," said Muhajir.

The asylum-seekers were being held in an immigration office in the nearby town of Langsa, and were likely to be transferred to a detention center, Muhajir said.

Fishermen in Sumatra rescued 121 Rohingya on Tuesday, with one claiming Thai authorities had shot at them and taken their food and petrol supplies to sabotage their boat as they crossed Thai waters.

Thai authorities are cracking down on Rohingya refugees entering the country, turning around a boat in January with 200 Rohingya in its waters, pushing them towards a third country.

"Considering the situation in Myanmar and Thailand, we're expecting to find more Rohingya in boats around here," Muhajir said.

The UN considers the Rohingya, a stateless Muslim ethnic group, one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, and Myanmar views its roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, denying them citizenship.

Buddhist-Muslim unrest in the western Myanmar state of Rakhine has left at least 180 people dead and more than 110,000 displaced since June 2012.

Over 100 Rohingya asylum seekers rescued off Indonesia

 February 27, 2013

AFP

COT TRUENG, Indonesia: Fishermen have rescued more than 100 ethnic Rohingya asylum seekers from Myanmar who were found drifting in a wooden boat off western Indonesia, an official said Wednesday.

The 121 Rohingya, including six women and two children, were found adrift late Tuesday by fishermen around 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the village of Cot Trueng, on the northernmost tip of Sumatra island in Aceh province.

"Their boat ran out of petrol as they tried to sail from Myanmar to Thailand," village chief Mukhtar Samsyah told AFP, adding that they had fled Myanmar to escape sectarian conflict.

He said the Rohingya were found in a weak condition but had recovered after being given food, water and a place to sleep.

"They've all been sent to an immigration detention centre in Lhokseumawe city," he said.

The UN considers the Rohingya, a stateless Muslim ethnic group, one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, and Myanmar views its roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, denying them citizenship.

Buddhist-Muslim unrest in the western Myanmar state of Rakhine has left at least 180 people dead and more than 110,000 displaced since June 2012.

Almost 6,000 Rohingya fleeing the violence have illegally entered Thai waters since October, the Thai army said earlier this month.

Mothers, children flee Myanmar on desperate voyage

AFP © Mothers, children flee Myanmar on desperate voyage

 February 25, 2013

AFP

KHAO LAK, Thailand: Homeless, hungry and nine months pregnant, Nuru boarded a rickety boat filled with Rohingya asylum seekers fleeing a wave of deadly sectarian violence in western Myanmar. 

Six days later she gave birth at sea, far from any hospitals or doctors. 

Since Buddhist-Muslim tensions exploded last June in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, thousands of Rohingya boat people – including a growing number of women and children – have joined an exodus from the former junta-ruled country. 

Those who arrived in neighbouring Thailand have been “helped on” by the Thai navy towards Malaysia further south or detained as illegal immigrants. 

Hundreds are feared to have drowned along the way while others were rescued as far away as Sri Lanka. 

Denied citizenship by Myanmar, where they have suffered decades of discrimination and persecution, they left behind a country where they were never wanted – only to find they are unwelcome elsewhere. 

“After my house was burned down I had nowhere to live and no job,” Nuru, 24, told AFP at a government-run shelter in southern Thailand, cradling her month-old baby boy in her arms. 

Even though she was on the verge of giving birth, Nuru decided to make the long and dangerous journey in the hope of reaching Malaysia.

After just a few days at sea, the food and water ran out. 

“We had to drink sea water and we got diarrhea,” said Nuru. Some fishermen took pity on them and gave them water, fish and fuel. 

Finally, two weeks after leaving Rakhine, their flimsy vessel reached an island off Thailand’s Andaman Coast after a near 1,500 kilometre (900 miles) journey. But their ordeal was not yet over. 

The men were separated from their families and sent to detention centres, while the women and children were confined to the shelter in Khao Lak, a popular beach resort just north of the tourist magnet of Phuket. 

“They looked terrible. Some of the children drank sea water and had diarrhea. They vomited and it was full of worms. They looked very scared and upset,” said a worker at the shelter, which houses about 70 women and children. 

“The journey was very difficult for the pregnant women. They must have been really suffering to come here,” said the shelter worker, who did not want to be named. 

Some children even made the dangerous journey alone without any relatives, leaving behind a country where they were born and raised — but viewed by the Burmese majority as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. 

“My father is disabled so I need to go to Malaysia. I have relatives – an uncle – in Malaysia,” said Abdul Azim, 12, whose home was burned and mother killed in the Rakhine unrest. 

The boy, whose name AFP has changed to protect his identity, is one of about 1,700 Rohingya – including more than 300 women and children – detained by Thailand in recent months. 

“These people are desperate and that’s why we see not just men and boys but now also women and small children fleeing as well,” said Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director at New York-based Human Rights Watch. 

“It’s something that indicates that there is a very, very serious problem in Arakan (Rakhine) state that the government of Burma needs to attend to urgently.”Officials say those already in Thailand will be kept for six months in detention while the government works with the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) to try to find other countries willing to accept them. 

“Thailand itself cannot carry the burden,” said Thai foreign ministry official Manasvi Srisodapol. 

“We don’t want them to risk danger every year travelling at the sea like this, so we’d like to see a better environment for them in their country of origin.”At one detention centre in Phang Nga near Phuket, 275 Rohingya men are held in crowded conditions, denied access to their families. Some have been treated for illnesses including malaria, chickenpox and tuberculosis. 

One detainee whispered through the bars to a visiting AFP journalist that the men hoped to go to America or Malaysia. 

Hundreds of others have been blocked by the Thai navy from entering the kingdom as part of a new crackdown that began after allegations emerged that Thai army officials were involved in the trafficking of Rohingya. 

In Myanmar, more than 100,000 people have been displaced by the Rakhine clashes, which have overshadowed a series of widely praised political reforms by a nominally civilian government which took office in early 2011. 

The government says about 180 people have been killed, but activists fear the real death toll is much higher. 

Myanmar’s population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya – described by the UN as one of the most persecuted minorities on the planet – face travel restrictions, forced labour and limited access to healthcare and education. 

Bangladesh used to be the destination of choice for those fleeing the country, but it has since closed its border to the Rohingya. 

Now many want to go to Muslim Malaysia, where the UNHCR has already registered almost 25,000 Rohingya, although community leaders estimate actual number could be double that. 

Malaysia largely turns a blind eye, allowing them into the country but denying them any sort of legal status that would allow access to healthcare, education, jobs, and other services, activists say. 

The UN estimates that last year about 13,000 boat people fled Myanmar and Bangladesh. Few who reach Thailand want to stay permanently, preferring to join relatives elsewhere. 

“I’m not happy here. I will be happy if I can go Malaysia,” said Abdul Azim.

Sri Lanka rescues more Myanmar boatpeople

Sri Lanka rescued 138 Bangladeshi and Myanmar Nationals on February 3, 2013. (Photo - AFP)

AFP

February 16, 2013

Sri Lanka's navy on Saturday rescued 38 Myanmar nationals who were drifting off the island's east coast, the second batch of boatpeople to be saved in as many weeks, officials said. 

Sri Lankan naval craft responding to a distress call plucked the 38 people from a rickety boat drifting about 250 miles (400 kilometres) off the east coast, a navy official said. 

Four of the rescued passengers required treatment for dehydration and they were being brought to the southern port of Galle, he said. 

"Four people required medical attention and are out of danger," the navy official, who asked not to be named, said. "They will reach shore by tomorrow (Sunday)." 

It is the second time in less than two weeks the navy has gone to help a crippled foreign boat. 

On February 3, the navy rescued 138 Bangladeshi and Myanmar nationals from a sinking boat. One of the passengers in that boat had died before help reached. 

Officials said it was unclear if those identified as Myanmar nationals were Rohingya -- members of a stateless Muslim minority described by the UN as one of the world's most persecuted groups -- who had fled Myanmar. 

An explosion of tensions between Buddhist and Muslim communities in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine since June 2012 has triggered a seaborne exodus of Rohingya. 

Thailand's navy blocked more than 200 Rohingya boatpeople from entering the kingdom late last month as part of a new policy under which they will be given food and water but barred from landing if their boat is seaworthy

Medical aid agency warns of 'emergency' in Myanmar camps

This file photo shows an Internally Displaced Persons camp in
 Myanmar's Rakhine state, on November 2, 2012 (AFP/File, Soe Than Win)

Feb 6, 2013
AFP

YANGON — Medical aid agency Doctors Without Borders warned on Thursday of a "humanitarian emergency" in strife-hit western Myanmar with tens of thousands of people unable to access urgently needed medical care.
Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) said its teams on the ground in Rakhine State faced threats, hostility and accusations of a bias towards the Rohingya Muslim minority group.
Displaced people living in makeshift camps in Rakhine are cut off from healthcare, clean water and basic provisions, according to the humanitarian group, which has worked in the area for two decades.
"It is among people living in makeshift camps in rice fields or other crowded strips of land that Medecins Sans Frontieres is seeing the most acute medical needs," MSF general director Arjan Hehenkamp said in a statement.
"Ongoing insecurity and repeated threats and intimidation by a small but vocal group within the Rakhine community have severely impacted on our ability to deliver lifesaving medical care."
More than 100,000 people -- mostly Rohingya -- have been displaced and dozens killed since June 2012 in Rakhine in two major eruptions of violence between Buddhists and Muslims, mainly from the Rohingya minority.
Myanmar views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and denies them citizenship.
Thousands of Rohingya have fled Myanmar in recent months on rickety boats, mostly believed to be heading for Malaysia.
MSF said some pregnant women faced giving birth in muddy camps without a doctor, while surveys have revealed alarming numbers of acutely malnourished children. Some of the displaced lack access to clean water.
"The only drinking water pond we have is the one which we have to share with the cattle of the nearby village. Five minutes from here is a pond with crystal clear water. We don't dare to go," MSF quoted one displaced man as saying.
Skin infections, worms, chronic coughing and diarrhoea are also common ailments.
MSF urged the Myanmar government and community leaders "to ensure that all people of Rakhine can live without fear of violence, abuse and harassment, and that humanitarian organisations can assist those most in need".

Sri Lanka rescues 138 stranded on sinking boat: navy

In this photograph received from the Sri Lanka Navy on February 3, 2013 Sri Lankan sailors help a rescued youth to disembark from a Sri Lanka Navy vessel at Oluvil fisheries harbour in eastern Sri Lanka on February 3, 2013. Sri Lanka’s navy on Sunday rescued all 138 Bangladeshi and Myanmar survivors from a sinking fishing vessel off the island’s eastern coast, officials said. — Photo by AFP

3 Feb 2013
AFP
Dawn

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s navy on Sunday rescued 138 Bangladeshi and Myanmar nationals from a sinking fishing vessel off the island’s eastern coast, officials said.
One passenger was found dead while many of the 138 plucked from the boat were dehydrated, navy spokesman Kosala Warnakulasuriya said, adding that the vessel had been adrift for 10 days before it sank on Sunday.
“We sent three ships for the rescue at a location 80 kilometres off the eastern coast of Akkaraipattu,” Warnakulasuriya told AFP. “Some have been admitted to a local hospital.”Among those rescued were three women and three children, he added.
Police said initial investigations showed that 11 were Myanmar nationals while the others were Bangladeshis.
“We have difficulty in communicating with the survivors so we have asked the two embassies to send us translators,” police spokesman Prishantha Jayakody told AFP.
He said statements of survivors would be recorded and they would be moved to a temporary shelter in Colombo under judicial supervision.
“We are certain that they were not trying to enter Sri Lanka, but their boat developed trouble in mid-sea and they drifted close to our shores,” Jayakody said.
The early-morning rescue came amid stepped up naval patrols to check Sri Lankan fishing boats taking would-be illegal immigrants to Australia.
Sri Lankan authorities arrested more than 1,200 people trying to leave the island illegally last year. Many of those who make the perilous journey pay up to $3,000 for a place on trawlers run by people-smugglers.
Warnakulasuriya said the passengers rescued on Sunday identified themselves as Bangladeshi and Myanmar nationals. He said they were yet to establish their port of origin or the destination.
Reports from local fishermen alerted Sri Lanka’s fishing authorities who in turn asked for help from the navy which mounted a 20-hour search-and-rescue operation, officials said.

Myanmar gets steamed up by sex education magazine

This picture taken on January 5, 2013 shows a man browsing the shelves in a book shop
where Myanmar sex education books are on display in Yangon. Photo: AFP / Soe Than Win

January 07, 2013
Dawn
AFP

YANGON: With its glossy pages of pouting models and racy romance tips, Myanmar’s first sex education magazine has got the usually demure nation hot under the collar as it cashes in on new-found cultural freedom.
“Hyno” has sparked fevered debate since hitting Myanmar’s bookstores in November, where it has become a must-read among the young and curious, just a few months after the end of direct censorship in the former junta-ruled nation.

Perhaps tame by western standards, Hyno’s photo spreads of semi-clad women and columns espousing “bedroom secrets” and “the benefits of cuddling” – to the more cryptic “modern lies before marriage” – have raised eyebrows in conservative Myanmar, earning it an adult-rating.
But its editor brushes off accusations that the monthly publication is too risque for the country, or in any way as salacious as “Playboy” magazine as critics have claimed on Facebook.
“This magazine is a combination of sex education and entertainment,” Ko Oo Swe told AFP, saying the red label on the front page warning it is for over 18s has stirred the unfavourable comparisons.
“Issues about sex remain hidden in Myanmar. Our society is becoming more open but I think sex education is still weak,” he added.

Hyno – which translates as “enchant” or “hypnotise” – is the first magazine of its kind and is proving very popular despite the relatively-expensive $3 cover price at bookstores and street stalls.
Its debut follows the abolition in August of Myanmar’s stringent pre-publication censorship which had seen officials scrupulously flag photos or articles deemed distasteful to public morality, as well as stifling dissent.

This picture taken on December 20, 2012 shows a Myanmar woman selling
Myanmar’s first sex education magazine in downtown Yangon. — AFP Photo

But since censorship was scrapped, fashion and lifestyle magazines have started to push the boundaries with their content – so far without sanction.
Hyno has raised the stakes, so much so that some bookshops refuse to stock the magazine, saying its aim is to titillate rather than educate.
Ominously, the Ministry of Information sent a letter to the interim press council registering its unhappiness with the “unethical” lifestyle magazine.

The ministry accuses Hyno of breaching its licence as a fashion publication by printing “sex-related articles and photos that are not appropriate for Myanmar’s culture.””I even saw some comments on the Internet saying how shameless the editor is to print such magazine,” said Ko Oo Swe, urging people to avoid criticism until they have read it and seen how he has “stuck to the cultural rules.”Despite the uproar, Hyno’s young readers believe it could play a major role in raising awareness of sexually transmitted diseases and, in the longer term, shifting rigid social mores as Myanmar edges out of decades of isolation.

“For those who are quite old-fashioned it (sex education) is a very shameful thing,” said Yoon Lae Khin, a 20-year-old student, who is also a volunteer for the Myanmar Medical Association (MMA).
“My mother understands there are things we need to know, but it is difficult to talk about sex in front of my father and siblings. So we need to get this awareness from magazines.”Medical professionals have joined Hyno’s corner saying it is high time the country talked about sex.

“Young people do not have enough knowledge so problems such as underage pregnancy, pregnancy before marriage and infection with HIV/AIDS and venereal disease occur,” said Khine Soe Win, a project officer for a youth development programme with the MMA.

“Old-fashioned people turn their noses up in disapproval” of sex education, he added, criticising them for judging the issue by the yardstick of “a culture they don’t understand.”His comments were echoed by Ne Win, a doctor working for the United Nations Population Fund in Myanmar, who believes a modern, progressive media can fill the void left by the nation’s reluctance to promote sex education.
“Our activities are not as strong as media coverage which can reach hundreds of readers in a short time,” Ne Win said.
While its editor says Hyno is here to stay, a battle is brewing with those who see it as a threat to decency in hitherto modest Myanmar.

Mg Mg Lwin, manager of Innwa Book Store – one of Yangon’s leading bookshops – refuses to stock Hyno despite fielding a barrage of enquiries, mainly from women, about its availability.
“Even if someone gives me those magazines to sell at my shop, I will not accept them,” he said.

Myanmar's Suu Kyi says any peace bid 'up to government'

AFP

YANGON — Myanmar democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi on Sunday said she would not step in to help end worsening conflict between the army and ethnic Kachin rebels without government approval.
"It is up to the government. This case is being handled by the government at the moment," Suu Kyi told AFP when asked if she would get involved in efforts to resolve the fighting, after the army's use of air strikes drew international concern.

The Nobel laureate said she would need an official invitation to join peace negotiations aimed at quelling the raging civil war, which has overshadowed Myanmar's widely-praised political reforms.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the conflict in the far north since June 2011, when a 17-year ceasefire between the government and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) broke down.
Myanmar's quasi-civilian regime, which took power in 2011 at the end of junta rule, has reached tentative peace deals with other major ethnic rebel groups, but an agreement with the Kachin has proved elusive.
President Thein Sein, a former general, in December 2011 ordered an end to military offensives against the rebels and continued hostilities have led to doubts over his ability to control the powerful armed forces.
According to the English language state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper on Sunday, the Myanmar leader has instructed the military not to attack unless in "self-defence".
The report said Thein Sein urged "mutual trust" and "continued dialogue" in order to bring about peace.
Civil war has plagued parts of the country formerly known as Burma since it won independence from Britain in 1948.

Yup Zaw Hkaung, a local businessman and peace negotiator in the Kachin state capital Myitkyina, on Saturday appealed for Suu Kyi's involvement in ending the fighting, which has intensified in recent weeks.
He said the democracy activist had a "responsibility" to work for ethnic peace.
Suu Kyi, a former political prisoner turned lawmaker, used her maiden speech to parliament in July last year to call for greater protection of ethnic minority rights.

But the veteran activist has disappointed rights campaigners by not speaking out more vocally in support of another minority group, the Rohingya, in the violence-torn western state of Rakhine.

Myanmar leader gives first New Year address

YANGON: Myanmar President Thein Sein on Tuesday called for "mutual trust" between the ruling regime and the people in his first New Year address since taking power and ushering in sweeping reforms.
He pledged a new drive to communicate more directly with the nation in a radio speech he said aimed to "bridge the gap" between the authorities and the public.
"The most important ingredient for the success of Myanmar's democratic transition is the mutual trust between the government and the people," he said.
Thein Sein, who took the helm of a quasi-civilian regime in 2011, said the world had been "amazed" by the nation's progress last year in the former junta-ruled country.
Western sanctions against the former pariah state began to be dismantled in 2012 in response to reforms, including the release of hundreds of political prisoners and the election of democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi to parliament.
But the former general warned that the swift pace of change should not encourage unrealistic expectations from a public eager for further opening up after decades of military rule.
"What the esteemed people and our government need to be conscious of is the gap between the demands of the people and the capacity of our government," he said, adding the country still had "many aspects to reform".
Thein Sein last week set his sights on graft in a televised address in Naypyidaw, saying democratic developments in the nation depended on good governance.
US President Barack Obama praised Myanmar's "remarkable" reforms during a landmark visit to the country in November, but warned "the flickers of progress that we have seen must not be extinguished".-AFP