Monday 27 April 2015

Letter from America: Partnership with Myanmar – dream or delusion?

Source Asiantibune, 26 April
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon convened a meeting in the UN headquarters on Myanmar on Friday, April 24, 2015. In his speech to the participants of the Partnership Group for Peace, Development and Democracy in Myanmar, Mr. Ban warned Myanmar that stability in its most sensitive region can't be achieved unless it addresses the issue of citizenship for minority Rohingya Muslims. He told a Myanmar delegation that the U.N. has seen "already troubling signs of ethnic and religious differences being exploited" as elections approach later this year.

Speaking at the meeting, India's permanent representative to the UN, Asoke Kumar Mukerji noted that in Rakhine State, the Myanmar Government "has taken steps towards restoration of law and order and has expressed readiness to cooperate with UN and other humanitarian agencies regarding rehabilitation of those affected by violence." "We urged member states to agree to the discontinuation of annual resolutions on the human rights situation in Myanmar," Mukerji said. "In our view, this would convey the world community's strong support and encouragement for the reform measures that are already underway in Myanmar."

While disappointed to hear the statement from the Indian rep, I am not too surprised. After all, India has her own 'Rohingya problem' in Jammu & Kashmir, where people have been denied their basic human rights. The Government of India has not allowed a UN sponsored plebiscite - long demanded not only by its own people but also the world community as reflected in UN Resolutions dating back to 1948.

Much like the Burmese leaders of our time, the Indian leaders have repeatedly told the world community that the Kashmir problem is an internal affair which India will solve internally without outside interference. India has not done anything in the last 68 years since her independence in 1947 from Britain to solving the problem. It was a hypocritical gesture to derailing the world opinion and ignoring human rights of the affected Kashmiris. Since 1989 when serious insurgency began, at least 80,000 Kashmiris (mostly civilians) have been killed by the Indian forces. The Indian Occupied Kashmir remains a police state with one soldier for every 10 Kashmiris living in the valley. These Indian troops are not only responsible for the massive destruction there but also committing heinous crimes, like rape as a weapon of war, while ensuring the Indian control of the disputed territory by hook or crook.

Lest we forget, on November 2, 1947 India's first prime minister Pundit Jawahar Lal Nehru, standing beside Kashmiri leader Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, addressed thousands at Lal Chowk of Srinagar and said "The fate of Kashmir will ultimately be decided by the people. We have given that pledge and Maharaja (Hari Singh) had supported it. It is not only a pledge to the people of Kashmir but to the world. We will not, and cannot back out of it." Much in contrast to that and other similar promises of holding a referendum made to the Kashmiri people the Indian government paid little attention to the political views of the Kashmiri people. The government would often dissolve assemblies, arrest elected politicians and impose president's rule. The government also rigged elections in 1987. The Indian record when it comes to honoring the pledges she has made to the Kashmiri people and her treatment of the non-Brahmins inside India, esp. those living in the north-eastern corner of India, sandwiched between Bangladesh, Myanmar and China is simply shameful.

So, it is not difficult to understand Indian rep Mukerji's deplorable position vis-à-vis Myanmar. Just as India has been able to bury the UN resolutions on Kashmir all these decades, Mukerji wants to sell the absurd idea that the discontinuation of annual resolutions on the human rights situation would encourage reform inside Myanmar.

What reform is Mukerji talking about when some 650,000 people are homeless and forced to live as IDPs inside Myanmar? What reform when one after another xenophobic, racist and bigotry-ridden bills and laws are passed in Thein Sein's parliament? What reform when the Rohingyas are targeted for genocide and elimination? What reform when they are put behind the bars with long prison term sentences or are sentenced to death when they are the ones who have been victimized while their tormentors get away scot-free in Myanmar's legal system? What reform when rape is used as a weapon of war against targeted minorities in the Rakhine, Chin, Kachin and Shan states? What reform when racism and bigotry are promoted by the very government agencies that is supposed to curb its deadly effect? What reform when the eliminationist policy against the minority Rohingya and other Muslims has become a national project with deep support enjoyed from President Thein Sein at the top to NLD leader Suu Kyi and RNDP leader Aye Maung in the middle to NaSaKa to local government agents and thugs at the bottom? What reform when the fascist groups like 969, led by the Buddhist terrorist monk Wirathu, dictate the future of Myanmar?

No one is fooled by such a statement from the Indian rep Mukerji. His condescending remarks say that his government is okay with everything that is going wrong inside Myanmar and the death and carnage of the victims are all 'collateral damages' in 'reformed' Myanmar. India is committed to investing billions of dollars inside Myanmar. That explains why Mukerji is urging member states to hide Myanmar's crimes under the rug, much like what it has been doing with the Kashmir crisis. As I have noted before, human rights have long ceased to be a guiding principle lived by and/or promoted by the government of India, and surely not under BJP's rule. With Modi's ascension to power, it is all too natural that we see tying knots with a murderous regime that promotes the Buddhist version of his Hindutvadi fascism!

2015 is the year that ASEAN aims to become one community of Member States that share a vision and goal to become a zone of peace and stability.

If ASEAN is genuinely serious about its declared objective, it must make it crystal clear that Myanmar's so-called reforms are not working and need an overhaul of intent and purpose. It must insist that the race, family and religious bills recently passed inside the parliament as well as the absence of swift action to regularize the status of White Card holders (most of whom are Rohingya people) will be seen as institutionalized discrimination. It must school Myanmar government that the long-term stability in the Rakhine state will remain unattainable without comprehensively addressing the issue of status and citizenship of the Muslim populations -- particularly the plight of those who self-identify and are recognized by the world community as "Rohingyas" but whom the government calls "Bengalis"; without these steps, the Myanmar Government will find itself continually exposed to international criticism. It must insist that the 1982 Citizenship Law violates several international laws and must be repealed. It must insist that the Rohingya and other stateless minorities (previously holding the White Cards) who were born there are given full citizenship rights immediately to live at par with other dominant ethnic groups and be allowed to vote in the upcoming constitutional referendum, paving the way for participation in a general election later this year.

ASEAN must warn the Myanmar government that its insistence to depicting the Rohingyas as 'Bengalis', which they are not, is tantamount to denying a group's self-identification, and thus, qualifies as an international crime of highest proportion.

ASEAN must inform the Myanmar leaders that ethnicity is a colonial era invention which has no place in our time, and that it is divisive, and thus, suicidal or a sure recipe for disintegration in a multi-racial, -religious and –ethnic state like Myanmar. If Myanmar were to survive, it must embrace a federal character with regional autonomy, much in common with original Panglong Agreement signed between Aung Saan and leaders of other ethnic minorities.

ASEAN must insist that Myanmar's top leaders – civilian and military - send a unified message against incitement of hatred and create and promote an environment of harmony and social cohesion in this fractured country of many races and religions. It must insist that the Myanmar regime punish terrorist Buddhist monks like Wirathu who have been behind most of the genocidal activities directed against Muslim and other religious minorities. It must insist that Myanmar's Buddhist political and religious leaders promote understanding and mutual respect with others.

ASEAN must insist that Myanmar allows for unimpeded access by humanitarian agencies to the vulnerable populations especially in the IDP camps to provide much needed aid in a timely fashion.

ASEAN must insist that Myanmar adopts a strategy to address her myriad of challenges failing which the stability and security of the entire region, as already seen through human trafficking and slave labor camps in places like Thailand and elsewhere, will be threatened. Such forced or voluntary exodus from Myanmar is destabilizing to the entire region and must be stopped through tangible measures which address the root causes of the problem, and not the symptoms.

Without such changes taking root inside Myanmar, delivering tangible results, ASEAN's shared vision and goal to become a zone of peace and stability will only remain an illusion, and nothing else. The desired changes won't happen with either flattering speeches or looking the other way.

- Asian Tribune -

Saturday 25 April 2015

The International community's Donation are Using for Rakhine Insurgent (Arakan Army)

Source MMM, 25 April

The International community's Donation food ration and others for Internal Displaced People of Arakan state( Mostly Rohingya) are Using for Rakhine Insurgent (Arakan Army).


According to Myawaddy News of 23 April 2015,  the Burmese military had captured the armed members of Arakan Army (AA) with arms and rations included with the brad mark of "TIKA"  that were donated from Turky government. The fight between AA members and military was took place in Paletwa township of Chin state on the 21 of April 2015.


Read more here in Burmese..


ဒုကၡသည္မ်ားအတြက္ တူရကီႏိုင္ငံမွ ေပးပို႔လွဴဒါန္းေသာ အလွဴပစၥည္းမ်ားကို ရခိုင္တပ္မေတာ္ထံမွ သိမ္းဆည္းရမိ

Bangladesh to launch Rohingya head-count to push back into Burma

Source Dhaka Tribune, 26 April

<p>A Rohingya child returns with firewood to a refugee camp in Bangladesh (Photo courtesy of UNHCR)</p>

A Rohingya child returns with firewood to a refugee camp in Bangladesh (Photo courtesy of UNHCR)

The government has decided to start counting the Rohingya refugees of Myanmar living across the country from mid-September for proper documentation, official sources said.

The documentation would also help expediting repatriation of the Rohingya Muslims to their homeland.

The decision was made fearing fresh influx of the Rohingyas due to possible deterioration of political condition ahead of the general election in the Rakhine state of Myanmar, likely to be held in November.

The decision and concerns came from the seventh meeting of the National Task-force on Implementation of the National Strategy Paper on Myanmar Refugees and undocumented Myanmar Nationals held at the Foreign Ministry on March 31.

It was arranged by the United Nations wing of the ministry. Representatives of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) informed the meeting about the possible influx.

State Minister for Home Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal yesterday told the Dhaka Tribune: "We have already ordered the BGB to push back Rohingya refugees if they try to enter Bangladesh territory ahead of the national election in November.

"We do not care what the foreign communities will say about our action because the Rohingya refugees are destroying livelihood of the local people and the environment."

He said: "The daily wage rate in Cox's Bazar has declined due to availability of Rohingya refugees as day labourer."

The meeting also decided that the number of police camps would be increased. Moreover, the BGB is carrying out construction of border outposts and observation towers which is likely to be completed by the middle of next year.

According to the meeting, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistic would carry out photo-based listing or census among the undocumented Rohingyas in September for 10-15 days in Cox's Bazar and four other districts.

They have been asked to work in coordination with the Election Commission. The BBS is expected to prepare the preliminary report by January next year.

According to official estimation, there are around 28,000 registered Rohingyas living in two camps in Cox's Bazar. But the number of undocumented Rohingya Muslims is over 5,00,000 and they spread in Chittagong, and the three hill districts.

For the first time since 2005, the Myanmar government last year agreed to take back the registered Rohingyas in phases.

It is alleged that the political influential people in the coastal areas are using Rohingya refugees for illegal yaba trade which has increased criminal and unsocial activities in the country. Moreover, they have been used by Islamist militant groups of Bangladesh and the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation – a separatist group banned in Myanmar.

The home state minister said: "It is necessary to count the Rohingya refugees as many of them have acquired Bangladeshi passports and are allegedly running terrorists dens here."

A large number of undocumented Rohingyas hold Bangladeshi passports and many of them went to the Middle-East countries pretending to be Bangladesh workers.

"Our workers are banned in the UAE because the Rohingyas in disguise were found involved in criminal activities there,"
Kamal said.

"Such incidents are tarnishing the image of Bangladeshi workers in other Middle-East countries. This should be stopped."

In 2007, the Saudi Arabia government deported a number of Rohingyas for their involvement in criminal incidents.

The meeting also discussed that the undocumented Rohingya Muslims living in makeshift settlements were sending their children only to madrasas and mosques for eduction.

The task-force agreed to provide those children with informal education. 



Thursday 23 April 2015

Report states Rohingya crisis has all signs of genocide

Source aa, 23 April 

ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights report claims longstanding persecution of Rohingya has led to highest outflow of asylum seekers by sea since the U.S. war in Vietnam.

By Jaiden Coonan

YANGON 

Days before ASEAN leaders meet in Malaysia, a report has been released by the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) stating that the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar has all the signs of genocide. 

It claims that the longstanding persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar has led to the highest outflow of asylum seekers by sea since the U.S. war in Vietnam.

Charles Santiago - chair of the APHR, and a Malaysian parliamentarian - described the issue to the Myanmar Times on Thursday as "clearly not just an internal affair."

"This is an issue that affects all of ASEAN, from Thailand to Malaysia to Indonesia," he said. "Invoking the 'non-interference' policy in [a] situation that paves the way for genocide and crimes against humanity has no logic and undermines ASEAN's very existence." 

The report highlights Myanmar's continual denials of the ethnic group, its constant reference to the population as "Bengali," and its accusation that they are illegal immigrants. 

There are roughly 140,000 Rohingya living in IDP camps since an outbreak of violence between the ethnic Arakanese Buddhists and Rohingya in 2012.

The majority of the camps are in squalid conditions and the population relies heavily on international assistance to survive.

During its turn as chair of ASEAN, Myanmar managed to keep the Rohingya issue off the agenda by declaring it an internal issue. 

But with the conference due to start in majority Muslim Malaysia on Monday, many rights groups are hoping that Kuala Lumpur will ramp up the pressure. 

The 26th ASEAN Summit will run from April 24 to 27.

Wednesday 22 April 2015

Malaysian PM urged to address Rohingya crisis

Source theSundaily, 22 April

Rohingya Muslims are fleeing Burma in their thousands to escape persecution. Pic: AP.Rohingya Muslims are fleeing Burma in their thousands to escape persecution. Pic: AP.

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak must use his influence as the chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to address the humanitarian crisis of the Rohingya in Myanmar at the 26th Asean Summit to be held here.

Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) chairman Charles Santiago said Malaysia has the moral responsibility to raise the issue as Malaysia was one of the countries which promoted Myanmar to be included into Asean.

Speaking at a press conference here today, Santiago, who is the Klang MP, said Malaysia should also provide for the children of Rohingya refugees in the country to receive basic rights such as going to school and healthcare services as an example to other nations having these refugees.

Early this month, APHR MPs travelled to Myanmar to see the situation of the Rohingya.

Their findings and that of an independent research by human rights organisations were compiled into an APHR report on the Rohingya crisis which was released today.

APHR, a human rights intervention force of like-minded parliamentarians and influential persons, was founded in 2013 to protect the human rights of the Asean people.

Myanmar gov’t forces arrest five Rakhine rebels

Source Presstv, 22 April


This file photo shows troops on patrol in the troubled northeastern Kokang region of Myanmar.
This file photo shows troops on patrol in the troubled northeastern Kokang region of Myanmar.

Myanmar government forces have arrested five members of an ethnic armed group in the western Rakhine State of the Southeast Asian country.

The five were captured as government forces engaged in fighting with the Rakhine armed group at Pinlong village of the Paletwa area over the weekend, state-owned Myawaddy television network reported on Wednesday.

The report added that the rebels were caught in a hideout, from where arms and munitions were also seized.

Meanwhile, Rakhine rebels have been retreating from Paletwa area, and Myanmar government forces continue to comb the region in order to arrest remnants of the rebel group and also prevent any possible future confrontations.

The weekend clashes took place at the same time as Myanmar government forces were also battling ethnic Kokang rebels in the restive northeastern Shan State.

This file photo shows the rebel soldiers of Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) at a military base in Kokang region, Myanmar.

 Myanmar has been wracked by unrest since its independence from Britain in 1948 as militancy flares among some minority groups demanding greater autonomy.

Last month, Myanmar's President Thein Sein hailed a historic draft peace deal with a host of rebel groups to end decades of civil war.

Kokang militants were not part of the deal. The self-administered Chinese-speaking Kokang region has been in a state of emergency since fighting erupted in the region on February 9 between government forces and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), known as the Kokang army.

Another ethnic armed group in Shan State, which is involved in the peace talks with the government, the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), has expressed support for the Kokang militants.

Although the Kokang rebels are not directly involved in the peace talks, the ongoing fighting has drawn condemnation from the coalition of rebel groups at the negotiating table, who are yet to formally ratify the draft of the ceasefire deal.

Tuesday 21 April 2015

78 Rohingyas found on vessel arrival in Malaysian waters

Source The Star, 21 April

A powerless or engineless boat loaded with Rohingya refugees, moments before it was rescued by Indian Coastguards off Andaman Islands. Thai authorities forced the boatpeople board this boat which was then towed out to the middle of the sea and left to drift with very little food and water (photo: Asiapics)

The UN says more than 28,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled the violence. Fishing boats are often the only way for families to reach safety.

BALIK PULAU: A two-month-old baby was among 78 illegals from Myanmar who were found crammed in a small wooden vessel shortly after it reached the shores of Penang in Teluk Bahang here.

They looked tired and scared when discovered at 2.30am yesterday. "The authorities not only provided food, but provided medical treatment for them," said Penang police chief Senior Deputy Comm Datuk Wira Abdul Rahim.

Police personnel, on their crime prevention rounds, spotted the suspicious boat and moved in for further inspection before making the discovery.

Believed to be Rohingyas, the illegals consisted of 34 men, 19 women, 10 boys and 15 girls, aged between two months and 68.

"Initial findings showed that the illegals left Myanmar on April 8," SDCP Abdul Rahim told reporters.

Friday 17 April 2015

Scholar Maung Zarni Defines Genocide in HHRP Lecture

Source maungzarni, 15 April


The word genocide calls to mind events like the Jewish and Armenian holocausts, but according to Maung Zarni, a Burmese scholar affiliated with Harvard and the London School of Economics, smaller-scale killing can also fit the definition "if done in an attempt to destroy a people." 

Such is the case with the victimization of Burma's Rohingya Muslim ethnic group by members of the Buddhist majority, which has involved explicit violence on a relatively modest scale but also forced birth control, forced relocation, and denial of access to food and medical care, said Zarni, who on April 13, delivered a lecture on the topic, sponsored by the Law School's Owen M. Kupferschmid Holocaust and Human Rights Project

How could Buddhists, raised to spare the lives of all creatures, even insects, perpetrate a genocide? The answer, Zarni said, is common to every genocide: the perpetrator learns to see himself as a victim, and a defender of his nation or ethnic group. "We have to frame the target of the attack as a threat to our livelihood, a threat to our national community, as a virus, a leach, a bloodsucker," he said. 

All genocides have another common element, Zarni said, in that the genocidal acts are orchestrated, not spontaneous. "This is not like football hooliganism," he said, "where your team lost and you want to express your rage. You always find an organization, you always find leaders who are mobilizing public opinion [in favor of] an act that is otherwise unthinkable."

Wednesday 1 April 2015

Thailand detains 76 migrants found on train, including Rohingya

Source Reuters, 30 March

A Rohingya Muslim illegal immigrant puts his hand on the railing inside the Immigration Detention Centre in Kanchanaburi province, Thailand, July 10, 2013. MREUTERS/Damir Sagolj

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai authorities said on Monday they had found a group of 76 migrants from neighboring Myanmar, including six suspected Rohingya, in a sign that one of Asia's busiest smuggling routes is still thriving despite Bangkok's vow to stamp out trafficking.

It follows the discovery in January of a group of 98 suspected Rohingya trafficking victims, including dozens of children, who were found in pickup trucks in southern Thailand.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled Myanmar since 2012, when violent clashes with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists killed hundreds. Many head to Malaysia but often end up in smuggling camps in southern Thailand where they are held captive until relatives pay the ransom to traffickers to release them.

The latest group were stopped at Tong Sung district in Thailand's southern Nakhon Si Thammarat province. They were heading to Malaysia in search of work, Police Colonel Anuchon Chamat, deputy commander of Nakhon Si Thammarat Provincial Police, told Reuters.

"They were sitting with Thai passengers and upon inspection by authorities were found to have no travel documents," said Anuchon, adding that police have yet to determine whether traffickers were among the group.

"It seems they wanted to go to Malaysia for work and had boarded the train at different locations along the route. It is difficult to say whether traffickers are among them."

Thailand is ranked one of the world's centers of human trafficking. It was downgraded to the lowest "Tier 3" status last June on the U.S. State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons Report for not fully complying with minimum standards for its elimination.

Last week, Thailand's parliament voted overwhelmingly to introduce harsher punishments for human traffickers, including life imprisonment and the death penalty in cases where their victims had died.

Thailand's military government said in January it was "confident" it had met the minimum standards to improve its ranking in this year's U.S. State Department ranking.

But a government report aimed at lifting Thailand from the list of the world's worst offenders showed it had identified fewer victims of human trafficking last year than in 2013 and convicted fewer perpetrators.

Anuchon said the 76 migrants were being questioned by immigration police and would likely be charged with illegal entry.

(Reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)