Arakans sentenced to hard labor for refusing Myanmar census

Source worldbulletin, 20 Dec

file photo 

Many Rohingya have previously refused to register as "Bengalis" because they say the term implies they are illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

World Bulletin/News Desk

Eight Arakan Muslims (Rohingya) from Northern Maungdaw Township in Arakan State were sentenced to two years for refusing to participate in census conducted by Myanmar Border Guard Police, Rohingya Blogger reported.

Myanmar's national government gave around a million members of the persecuted Arakan Muslims a bleak choice: accept ethnic reclassification and the prospect of citizenship, or be detained.

On August 1st, 2014 the Border Guard Police conducted a census in the name to register Arakans as illegal Bengali immigrants. As the census referred to Arakan Muslims as illegal Bengali immigrants the villagers refused to participate. Although the whole village refused, nine were targeted and arrested, according to the report. One of them was released on that day and eight were tried and sentenced to two years prison with hard labor.

The court decision was made on December 2, 2014 at Maungdaw Township court, according to locals. They were tried under Burma panel code 353 which is assaulting a public servant during the time they are on duty. The arrestees didn't convince anyone in the village to refuse participation in the census nor organized any event to deny the unofficial census conducted by BGP. They simply stayed at home not willing to participate if the term 'Rohingya' is forbidden. The authorities targeted against them for the term "Rohingya" and they were punished unjustly.

During the hearing at the court, the families were not allowed to attend and the arrestees were not allowed to hire a lawyer.

Ages of the eight Arakan Muslims who were imprisonment for two years with hard labour are ranges from 17 to 50.

Most of Myanmar's 1.1 million Arakan Muslims already live in apartheid-like conditions in western Rakhine, where deadly clashes with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in 2012 displaced 140,000 people, mostly Rohingya.

The government plan proposes Rakhine authorities "construct temporary camps in required numbers for those who refuse to be registered and those without adequate documents".

Many Rohingya lost documents in the widespread violence, or have previously refused to register as "Bengalis", as required by the government under the new plan, because they say the term implies they are illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

Rights advocates say it could potentially put thousands of Rohingya, including those living in long-settled villages, at risk of indefinite detention.

The government will offer citizenship for those that accept the classification and have required documentation.

Many Arakan families have lived in Rakhine for generations. They are stateless because the government does not recognise the existence of the Rohingya ethnicity, and has to date refused to grant the majority of them citizenship.

Accepting the term Bengali could leave the Rohingya vulnerable should authorities in future attempt to send them to Bangladesh as illegal immigrants.

Turkish aid agency sends aid to Rohyinga muslims

Source worldbulletin, 17 Dec

file photo

The Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency has distributed food, clothing, and stationary to the people of Myanmar in Arakan state.

World Bulletin/News Desk

The Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency has distributed food, clothing, and stationary to the people of Myanmar in Arakan state.

Along with AFAD (Turkish State Emergency Services), distributed food, clothing, stationary to the Rohyinga muslims of Arakan state – 600,000 people have benefitted from the distriubtion that took place in the Yangon area, with two separate shipments of 600,000 tons to the capital Sitwe.

The Rohyinga Muslims live 20km away from the capital city where they are in 10 different towns and districts. The organisation of the distribution was done jointly with TIKA and local ngo's.

In the press statement, it was explained that many were in camps and faced difficult condition with nearly 300,000 were close to starvation and the local organisations thanked TIKA and AFAD.

At the same time, the Myanmar United Nations Food programme had reduced their limit and as a result many Muslims in Rohynga are starving.

The Muslims who live near in the camps and villages expressed their gratitude for the people of Turkey for helping them in their difficult time.

32 Rohingyas Arrested And Tortured By Arakan Army, To Be Sold as Slaves In Thailand

Source RB news, 15 Dec

Maungdaw, Arakan – 32 Rohingyas working in four fishing boats owned by a Rakhine businessman from Aley Than Kyaw village tract of Southern Maungdaw Township in Arakan State were arrested and tortured by Rakhine Militia, Arakan Army. They will be sold in Thailand according who escaped. 

On Saturday night, December 13, 2014, four fishing boats owned by Than Htay (a.k.a) Maung Saw Tin from Aley Than Kyaw village tract of Southern Maungdaw Township, carrying 40 Rohingyas fishermen who were fishing at sea. The Arakan Army came by Thai boat which is commonly used for human trafficking and terrorizing the fishermen while they are fishing. 

Among 40 fishermen, 8 could manage to escape from the brutal attacks and torture of Arakan Army on their fishing boats. The remaining 32 were tortured on their boats and later they were detained and taken onto the boat of Arakan Army. 

On the Thai boat operated by the Arakan Army approximately 200 Rohingyas were carried. Normally such boat carried 600 but as the Rohingyas in Northern Arakan were alerted of the risk to be victims of human trafficking, the human trafficking led by Arakan Army received less than they expected, picking up the fishermen from the sea and torturing them. Their intention is to sell all these Rohingyas as slaves in Thailand, according to 8 survivors. 

The four fishing boats remain in the location they were left at and blood stains remain on the boats as 32 Rohingyas were brutally tortured and terrorized before they were taken to Thai boat by Arakan Army men, according to a local. 

Although three ships from Myanmar Navy at the Naf river saw that the Rohingyas on the fishing boats were being tortured by the Arakan Army they ignored the crimes and didn't rescue them because they were Rohingyas. 

As many tactics have been used by Myanmar government to cleanse the Rohingya minority from Myanmar, sometime the local authorities collaborate with Rakhine rebels to attack the Rohingyas, the authorities themselves bring the ships from Thailand and organizing the local Rohingyas to go to Thailand and Malaysia, and arresting the innocent Rohingyas in Northern Arakan so they will leave from the country.

20 Muslims Facing Trial on Terrorism Charges

Source Irrawaddy news, 9 Dec

  

An aerial view of Mandalay prison, where 20 Burmese Muslims are detained on terrorism charges. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Twenty Burmese Muslims remain in prison awaiting a verdict almost five months after they were detained and accused of links to terrorism, with a lawyer representing some of the defendants saying odds for a fair trial look slim despite a dearth of credible evidence against the accused.

The detained men and women are from Taunggyi, Kyaukse and Naypyidaw, and were arrested in August in Konhein Township, Shan State, while they were traveling to a wedding in the town of Konhein.

"They were charged with Article 5(j) and 5(l)" of Burma's Emergency Provisions Act, said Khin Moe Moe, a lawyer for 12 of the detained. "They did not have any contact with insurgent armed groups, they were just traveling for a wedding. … They are just normal people. Even the police bringing charges could not provide evidence at court about links to an armed group."

Win Khaung, the national police chief, has disputed that claim, telling Radio Free Asia that the 20 detainees had links to an unspecified armed terrorist group and were planning to carry out an act of terrorism, allegations to which the police chief said the accused had confessed.

Both charges carry a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.

"I do not think that these victims will get fair justice," Khin Moe Moe added. "I believe that there are instructions for the court in Taunggyi from top officers about how to punish these victims. The judge will sentence the victims even though the victims are innocent and even though police do not have [sufficient] evidence."

The 20 Muslims are all Burmese nationals, and some are even members of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), according to their lawyer.

The accused have been held in a prison in Mandalay since August, with their lawyer objecting to their incarceration while the investigation is ongoing.

"Prison is for those who have been sentenced. These people are not guilty yet," she said. "An investigation is ongoing. They should not be in prison."

She said prison authorities have refused to let the families of the detained Muslims visit them. The four women and 16 men have appeared in court 20 times already, according to the lawyer.

Khin Moe Moe also claimed that monks aligned with the Buddhist nationalist 969 movement were interfering in the case. A group of 969-affiliated monks has attended every court hearing convened, and Khin Moe Moe said she had received a threat from a 969 member on Facebook.

"They come to show their power whenever the victims appear in court. They were waiting in front of the court during the victims' trial. They showed their power to create trouble sometimes. I told the victims' families not to come to the court out of concern," she said.

Members of Burma's Muslim minority are severely repressed in western Arakan State, but elsewhere in the country they have largely managed to avoid discriminatory treatment by authorities, despite rising interreligious tensions in recent years.

More than 200 people, mostly Muslims, have been killed in clashes between Buddhists and Muslims that have broken out sporadically since mid-2012. The most recent violence erupted in Mandalay in July, when one Buddhist and one Muslim were killed during rioting that lasted two days.

In Arakan State, more than 100,000 Muslims remain confined to displacement camps after they fled their homes in the 2012 violence.

More people risk lives across Indian Ocean despite abuse, deterrence

Source UNHCR, 5 Dec

Small boats in Teknaf, Bangladesh, carry passengers across the Naf River.                                                                                                     

Boys play football on a beach in Teknaf, Bangladesh, next to fishing boats often used to ferry passengers to larger vessels in the Bay of Bengal bound for Thailand or Malaysia. In the distance, across the Naf River, lies the coast of Myanmar.

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 5 December 2014, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

A new UNHCR report has found that more people are risking their lives on smugglers' boats in South-East Asia despite the prospect of horrific violence en route.

UNHCR estimates that 54,000 people have undertaken irregular maritime journeys in the region so far this year, based on reports by local sources, media and people who survived the journey. This includes some 53,000 people leaving from the Bay of Bengal towards Thailand and Malaysia, and hundreds of others moving further south in the Indian Ocean.

The outflow from the Bay of Bengal tends to peak in October, when calmer waters follow the end of the rainy season. Departures this October surged more than in previous years. Some 21,000 Rohingya and Bangladeshis have set sail since then, a 37-per cent increase over the same period last year. About 10 per cent are believed to be women. Roughly one-third of arrivals interviewed by UNHCR in Thailand and Malaysia were minors under 18 years of age. Children as young as eight years old are known to have made the journey alone.

In total some 120,000 people are believed to have embarked on these voyages in the Bay of Bengal since the start of 2012. With payments ranging from US$1,600 to US$2,400 demanded for each passenger, smugglers plying this route are believed to have generated nearly US$250 million in revenue in the last three years.

Myanmar/Bangladesh

While the majority of people paid smugglers for the journey, there were isolated accounts of people who said they were forced onto boats, sometimes at gunpoint, in Myanmar and Bangladesh. UNHCR staff met two Rohingya boys in Malaysia who said they were kidnapped off the street in northern Rakhine state in late September and forced onto boats.

Conditions on the smugglers' boats were dire. Survivors consistently described overcrowded conditions and daily rations of one sparse meal and one to two cups of water. People who asked for more or tried to use the toilet out of turn were beaten with belts or kicked down ladders by the armed crew on the deck above. An estimated 540 people have reportedly died this year at sea from such beatings, starvation or dehydration, and their bodies thrown overboard.

Thailand

Survivors told our staff that they were ferried from the big boats on smaller boats to Thailand. There they were held in smugglers' camps and made to call relatives to pay for their release. When payment was not immediate, they were beaten or subjected to other acts of torture. A large number of survivors were able to show signs of serious mistreatment on their body.

Since last year, hundreds of people are alleged to have died in the camps from illness, starvation, dehydration and killings by smugglers when they tried to escape or could not pay.

According to survivor accounts, raids by law enforcement agencies in Thailand since the beginning of the year seem to have led to a marked reduction in the number and size of smugglers' camps in the country.

Some of the survivors UNHCR interviewed had gone through the camps more than once. They were rescued in government raids, placed in immigration detention, then opted for deportation or escaped and re-entered the smuggling cycle to escape the prospect of indefinite detention.

Rohingya and Bangladeshis who arrived in Thailand in recent months have been systematically screened by government multi-disciplinary teams to assess the potential for human trafficking. If found to be victims of trafficking, they are transferred to shelters to facilitate their rehabilitation and investigations of suspected smugglers. UNHCR hopes that this ongoing screening can be expanded to an assessment of all international protection needs.

Malaysia

Most arrivals in Malaysia crossed by land from Thailand and were kept in holding houses in northern Malaysia, usually for a few days. UNHCR staff met a teenage girl who married a Rohingya man after he paid for her and her brother's release from a holding house.

As a result of the abuse and deprivations they suffered on smugglers' boats and camps, this year nearly 200 people approached UNHCR in Malaysia with beri beri disease, a form of Vitamin B1 deficiency that left them unable to walk.

Several boats arrived directly in Malaysia from the Bay of Bengal this year. Nearly 300 people who arrived on three boats were arrested. UNHCR has been able to access people from the first two boats and is seeking access to the third group.

Yet others arrived by boat undetected and are living in the community. In interviews with UNHCR, they said they disembarked on Langkawi island off Malaysia's north-western coast or were ferried by speedboat from the Andaman sea to the mainland.

Indonesia

Two-way boat traffic continued between Indonesia and Malaysia, with some Rohingya moving to Indonesia after spending some time in Malaysia. More than 100 Rohingya were registered with UNHCR in Indonesia this year.

UNHCR staff spoke to some Rohingya who tried to sail onward to Australia but returned due to bad weather, engine failure or interception by Australian authorities.

Australia

In 2014 there were 10 known interceptions of boats carrying 441 people hoping to reach Australia. Seven boats with 205 people were returned to Indonesia. All but one of 79 passengers on two boats were returned to Sri Lanka. Separately 157 people on a boat from India were transferred from the Australian mainland to an offshore processing centre in Nauru, where they remain detained.

Of the more than 6,500 people of concern to UNHCR who travelled by sea and were put in detention in the region, over 4,600 were held in Australia or the offshore processing centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Committee against Torture recently added their voice to UNHCR's own set of concerns about these practices.

Link to access the full report:http://storybuilder.jumpstart.ge/system/places/video/479/processed/2680__boats-web.mp4

http://storybuilder.jumpstart.ge/en/unhcr-imm