Saturday 28 May 2016

Migrants from 2015 refugee crisis stuck in detention limbo

Source themalaymailonline, 27 May


A boat that carried Rohingya migrants for three months is seen at Langkawi island, in Malaysia's northern state of Kedah, Malaysia, May 12, 2015. According to an Amnesty International study, 325 Rohingya refugees and 65 from Bangladesh remain in captivity in Malaysia despite technically being freed in 2015. — Reuters pic


















A boat that carried Rohingya migrants for three months is seen at Langkawi island, in Malaysia's northern state of Kedah, Malaysia, May 12, 2015. According to an Amnesty International study, 325 Rohingya refugees and 65 from Bangladesh remain in captivity in Malaysia despite technically being freed in 2015. — Reuters pic - See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/migrants-from-2015-refugee-crisis-stuck-in-detention-limbo#sthash.KfZ7hCo2.dpuf

KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 — Hundreds of refugees rescued from the humanitarian crisis off Malaysia's water last year are now languishing in the country's detention centres with no recourse.

According to an Amnesty International study reported by UK newspaper The Guardian, 325 Rohingya refugees and 65 from Bangladesh remain in captivity here despite technically being freed in 2015.

The 390 are among the thousands of people-smuggling victims abandoned and left to die at sea in boats and other makeshift craft last year after their captors fled a crackdown in the region.

The incident triggered an embarrassing crisis as affected countries including Malaysia initially refused to accept the victims, saying they did not recognise the group as refugees and instead sought for them to be returned to their countries of origin.

Although most of the 2,900 that Malaysia eventually accepted have been variously repatriated, resettled and otherwise released, authorities continue to hold the remaining 390 in the Belantik immigration depot in Sik, Kedah. 

"One year on, these people who have been through this horrific journey are still being punished, rather than being treated as victims of human trafficking," Khairunissa Dhala, an Amnesty researcher who helped prepare the report, was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

Aside from the continued detention, the refugees also face overcrowding at the centre that was previously flagged for its conditions. Filled beyond its capacity, humanitarian groups and lawmakers have cited health concerns in Belantik.

Amnesty's report found that at least one Rohingya woman died in the centre before she was able to be resettled; it also received unconfirmed information on the death of a Bangladeshi inmate at the centre.

"The conditions of [Malaysia's] detention centres are appallingly bad," Dhala was further quoted as saying.

According to The Guardian, Putrajaya did not respond to questions regarding the Amnesty report.

In the crisis last year, an estimated 6,000 to 20,000 migrants fleeing ethnic persecution in Myanmar and poverty in Bangladesh were left adrift in the Andaman Sea and the Straits of Malacca.

In what was dubbed a massive humanitarian disaster by the United Nations, the boat people were believed abandoned by their traffickers with little food or water.

Both Malaysia and Indonesia initially declared that they would turn away any who attempted to land on their territory, but later relented.

Putrajaya's initial refusal to aid the migrants prompted ordinary Malaysians to launch their own missions of mercy to supply them with food, water and medical supplies out at sea.



36 Rohingya refugees resettled in the US

Source thestar, 27 May












Two of the Rohingya refugees who were resettled in the US. - Photo courtesy of UNHCRTwo of the Rohingya refugees who were resettled in the US. - Photo courtesy of UNHCR

PETALING JAYA: One year after landing in Malaysia, following a harrowing ordeal in the Bay of Bengal, 36 Rohingya refugees have been resettled in the United States.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that the 36 refugees departed Malaysia early Thursday morning under its resettlement programme. 

The refugees had been released from the Belantik Immigration Detention Centre the previous afternoon.

"UNHCR welcomes the move by the Malaysian Government to release the 36 extremely vulnerable Rohingya refugees from the Belantik Immigration Detention Centre," said Richard Towle, UNHCR Representative in Malaysia in a statement on Friday.

"We are also extremely grateful to the Government of the United States of America for their generosity in providing resettlement spaces for this group of extremely vulnerable individuals, for whom no other safe, long-term solution would be an option," he added.

In May last year, over 1,000 people from Bangladesh and Myanmar had arrived by boat after being stranded in the Bay of Bengal.

They were stranded at sea after human trafficking syndicates abandoned them following the discovery of mass graves and detention camps for Rohingya and Bangladeshis in Thailand and Malaysia.

According to UNHCR, 371 of the refugees were identified as Rohingya from Myanmar and of concern to the commission.

Towle, however, expressed concern for the remaining 334 Rohingya "boat arrivals" who are still at the Belantik centre.

"These people have undergone traumatic experiences at the hands of smugglers and traffickers, and are in need of specialised care.

"The best option for them is to be released into UNHCR's care where we can assess their protection needs and help find support for them within the refugee communities in Malaysia," he said.

The Rohingya are considered by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.

They are considered to be stateless and were often subjected to arbitrary violence and forced labour in Myanmar.

They come mainly from the Arakan state in Myanmar, which borders Bangladesh.

To escape persecution back home, they took long and arduous journeys by boat to other countries in the region.

As of February this year, there are 53,700 Rohingya refugees registered with the UNHCR in Malaysia.

The Malaysian Government does not legally recognise refugees, although they are allowed to work in informal sectors

Thursday 26 May 2016

Suu Kyi’s 21st Century Panglong Convention: Old wine in a new bottle?

Source english.panlong, 25 May


Two issues regarding the plight of the Muslim in Arakan State and heightened armed conflict in Kachin and Shan States dominated the political arena during these few weeks.

The flared up old issue of "Rohingya", due to the US ambassador to  Burma, Scot Marciel's stand point of addressing the chosen nomenclature as it is preferred by the said ethnic group and the US Secretary of State John Kerry's inquiry following his recent visit, pushed Aung San Suu Kyi to take up position that she has so far tried to avoid.

While this tip-toeing around or asking for sympathy and more space, regarding the Rohingya issue might be necessary for a short period of time, the armed ethnic conflict that have flared up to a new height in Kachin and Shan States these days is alarming and disturbing, which needs immediate attention for the National League for Democracy's (NLD) national reconciliation commitment hinges upon on how fast and effective the so-called Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) could be implemented, in words and deeds.

In this respect, the Suu Kyi-led, newly renamed, National Reconciliation Peace Center (NRPC) seems to be moving towards adopting the previous regime's well-beaten path of peace process, so much so, people are starting to say that her program is, in fact, "an old wine in a new bottle".

Let us examine in the light of recent political development, if this is really the case.

The Rohingya terminology

Her tip-toeing around the racial and religious conflict was explained as largely due to the fact that the risk of inflaming the issue was so high, only by just mentioning and using the terms "Rohingya" and "Bengalis," that are politically and emotionally highly charged.

The Buddhist nationalists label the group "Bengalis", casting Burma's more than one million Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, according to various news reports.

"The  Arakan Buddhists object to the term 'Rohingya' just as much as the Muslims object to the term 'Bengali'," Suu Kyi said during a press conference with US Secretary of State John Kerry in the capital Naypyitaw.

One positive statement Suu Kyi said was that her new government was determined to address deep hatreds in western Rakhine State. And in addition,  Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Mr Kerry both stressed that the ability to self-identity was important for people all over the world. "We are not in any way undermining people's desire to establish their own identity," Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said.

Suu Kyi, who has faced criticism internationally for not speaking up for the Rohingya, pledged to work towards a situation where the communities "live peacefully and securely outside the camps".

"That is why we say that we need the space to build up trust and security within the community", Suu Kyi added.

The 21st Century Panglong Convention

According to U Khun Myint Tun, chair of the Pa-Oh National Liberation Organisation, the new government's peace plan will be built on the foundation laid by former president U Thein Sein, though non-signatories will also be invited.

"What we understand is the 21st-century Panglong Conference will be held in accordance with the provisional timeline of the NCA. It is just a replacement to the Union Peace Conference. With a few changes, I think the new government will follow the old peace process laid out by President U Thein Sein," he said.

The newly renamed NRPC, which formerly was Myanmar Peace Center (MPC), meanwhile has formed two sub-committees, one headed by Lieutenant General Yar Pyae would meet with the signatory Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs), while the other led by U Tin Myo Myo, who is also head of the NRPC,  would liaise with the non-signatories. Reportedly, in U Tin Myo Win's team prominent ethnic politician U Khun Tun Oo was said to be included as a member, according to Myanmar Times report.

However, regarding the new regime's soliciting of the remaining EAOs to join the political dialogue, it is not clear whether all the 13 non-signatory EAOs will be included or the military, also known as Tatmadaw and Burma Army, rejected 3 EAOs – Kokang or Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Palaung or Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Arakan Army (AA) – will be left out.

The military has said that the said 3 EAOs would have to surrender first, before they could participate in the peace process.

On top of this, the NLD usage of the word phrase "those that deserves and appropriate to participate" in the peace process would be included is hardly an all-inclusive pledge, even if the party's political commitment is said to be so.

Burma Army position on peace process

According to the Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing's much publicized press conference of 13 May, the military position on the peace process could be summarized as the following:

  • It adheres to the constitution and thus also accepts the President leading role of the country;
  • It will support Suu Kyi's Panglong-like convention;
  • EAOs need to sign NCA first before participating in the peace process; and
  • MNDAA, TNLA, AA must surrender first to be part of the peace process.

Apart from that,  on question of 25% military's non-elected, allotment in the parliament and its subsequent withdrawal from politics, Min Aung Hlaing reiterated with his usual answer that it would be according to the desire of the people, if armed conflicts ended and peace is restored.

But to underpin the military's independence from that of the administration, the military leaders, including the Commander-in-Chief, maintained that they could continue to take up responsibility and run their own affairs, even after the pensioned age of 60.

Military activities and development

Meanwhile, the military despite its public commitment to support Suu Kyi's 21st Century Panglong Convention, it has been conducting military offensives in the Shan and Kachin States.

On 19 May, Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA) issued an eight point statement, of which its doubtfulness on Burma Army was stressed and its aim to derail the Suu Kyi initiated Panglong-like convention by staging offensives on SSA positions in Lashio and Hsipaw Townships was mentioned. It went on to protest the onslaught and demand the Burma Army to immediately stop the offensives.

Again on the 58th anniversary of  Shan Revolution Day, that has been started by 31 Shan patriots in Mong Ton Township, on 21 May 1958, called on all EAOs to unite and strive for ethnic rights.

"(We) urge all our ethnic armed brethren to unite hand-in-hand to fight for our ethnic rights in unison, using diverse actions," stated the statement.

On 21 May, Daung Khar, Chief technical advisor of the Kachin Independence Organization/Army (KIO/KIA) , told BBC that he was disappointed and ruminated for the new government's silence on the military using of  combat aircraft against the KIA and that they won't be asking for help from the regime, for it has already known the situation. He went on to stressed that the 21st Century Panglong Convention will be meaningless, with the war on ethnic groups going on.

During these few weeks, the MNDAA, TNLA, that the military refused to accept as negotiating partners, tendered resignation to the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) a coalition of 11 EAOs alliance, which is still pending,  has led many to think that the United Wa State Army (UWSA)-led military alliance in the north of the country, might become a reality. This means, the alliance to be formed would include some 5 to 6 EAOs that would weaken the UNFC militarily.

Meanwhile, the escalation of wars in Shan and Kachin States continue unabated, citing criminal activities like illegal logging, taxation of the EAOs and also "area clearance and control" policy, to create more "white areas" or government control areas, before the Panglong-like Convention really started.

Analysis

Apart from the possible problematic or debacle of all-inclusive policy line of the NLD with the military demanded non-inclusive posture, vis a vis the EAOs, the time has also come for the NLD to tackle the  mentioned issues head on.

The Rohingya issue, which is based on religious hatred and racism, would need a clear policy on how to go about. This should be a kind of "denazification" –  "entnazifizierung" in German -, which was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society of the National Socialist ideology (Nazism), to build awareness of how a responsible democracy-adhering society needs to behave and thus is a long term undertaking. But beating around the bush won't help. The civilian-based initiative of harmonious living together among different races and religions are already there, albeit at a very rudimentary stage, but needs institutional support and as well, decisive "secular form of governance" commitment that is a must in a democratic society.

Similarly, ethnic conflict that have plagued the country for so long needs bold, innovative approach rather than being bogged down in the first step of actual nationwide ceasefire, due to lack of political will.

 The Burma Army's usual mantra of protecting sovereignty and upholding national unity is not conducive and helpful. More so, if it combines this with its commitment of creating more "white areas" prior to the actual political dialogue, to be at an advantaged bargaining position.

Actually, this doesn't make sense as an agreed "Union Accord" will resolve all these problems with one stroke, for soon as a political settlement of a genuine federalism solution is reached.

 In a nutshell, if Suu Kyi and NLD don't want its peace initiative to be termed as "an old wine in a new bottle", there is only one option open. And that is, as time and again being advocated by well-wishers and keen observer of the country, to wipe the slate clean or create a level playing field, by unilateral ceasefire declaration from the part of the government, for it is a must and necessary step, rather than beating around the bush. Of course this will be only possible with the Burma Army's willingness and commitment, so that the initiated 21st Century Panglong Convention will have its real meaning and become a reality.

Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims still waiting for Democracy

Source theindianpanorama,26 May

Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her "non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights". Back then, she was a campaigner for those things, spending a total of 15 years under house arrest.

She knows what it's like to have rights and freedom taken away.

But now that she is in perhaps the ultimate position of power in Myanmar, there is no sign that she is going to defend the rights of people who have been detained simply because of who they are.

Tens of thousands of Muslims, mainly Rohingya, have been kept in camps in western Myanmar's Rakhine State for almost four years since their homes and communities were attacked.

They were horrific events that were fanned by a powerful, nationalist Buddhist agenda – alive and well today – and it's a movement Aung San Suu Kyi seems afraid of upsetting.

After decades of campaigning against the previous military regime, her National League for Democracy party won last November's general election and, even though the constitution prevents her from becoming president, she made it clear that she would be in charge and gave herself the title of State Counsellor.

Her choice of Religious and Cultural Affairs Minister raised eyebrows. Thura Aung Ko is a former army general and was a deputy in the same ministry under the previous military-backed government. And, so far, the new government isn't sending any signals that it will adopt a policy to give rights to Rohingya who, in Myanmar, are widely regarded as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

On his first day on the job in the new administration, Thura Aung Ko gave a media interview in which he said that Muslims and Hindus were "associate citizens", referring to the 1982 citizenship law that places people into three categories depending on their status.

He then visited leaders of a nationalist Buddhist movement who regularly spew anti-Islam rhetoric. It's not known what was discussed at the meeting but it sent a bad message, something Aung San Suu Kyi herself has also been guilty of.

In April, the United States embassy in Yangon released a statement, offering their condolences for people who were killed when a boat sunk off Rakhine State. The people onboard were Rohingya and that's exactly what the US statement called them.

That led to protests outside the embassy by people who refuse to recognise the term Rohingya because it's not one of the official ethnic minority groups in Myanmar.

The response from Suu Kyi? Government officials sent a letter to the US ambassador and other diplomats urging them to refrain from using the word Rohingya.

Yes, it's very early days in the life of the new government and there are many problems in this country to solve. Yes, the plight of the Rohingya is a very complex issue. Yes, the new government is talking about new laws to safeguard religious freedom and to get tough on hate speech.

But it's not enough.

Here's what we also know: Around 100,000 people have been living in squalid conditions for almost four years. They have no rights and many have died in a desperate attempt to leave. Over the past year though, the number of departures fell, partly because people wanted to see what the new government would do for them.

What Aung San Suu Kyi has at her disposal now is the power to speak out. Words can be powerful. They can offer hope. Particularly when they come from someone who built her name on a fight for freedom and rights.

But when it comes to the Rohingya, there has been nothing but silence; meaning for them, hope is already fading so early in Myanmar's new democracy.

Wednesday 25 May 2016

Watch Research Conference on Burma's Rohingya Genocide at Oxford

Source maungzarni, 23 may



Proceedings of the Oxford Conference on the Rohingya Conference Host's Welcome by Professor Barbara Harriss-White
Arakan or Rakhine in Myanmar since the 14th Century: From Inclusion to Polarisation and Exclusion by Professor Michael W Charney, SOAS

Matthew Smith on Myanmar's International Crimes in Rakhine State
"Why the world must listen to the Rohingya", keynote address by Gayatri C. Spivak

The Slow Genocide of the Rohingya by Amartya Sen

Only the world can end the Rohingya genocide by Dr Azeem Ibrahim

Myanmar's Genocide of the Rohingya: Research Findings by Penny Green & Thomas MacManus

What have happened to the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh (since 1978)?

Professor Shapan Adnan, Associate, Contemporary South Asian Studies Programme, Oxford University & Former Associate Professor, National University of Singapore (NUS) & Professor, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh
Myanmar's Denial of Public Health Services to the Rohingya by Dr Ambia Perveen
Video Myanmar's Denial of Public Health Services to the Rohingya - by Dr Ambia Perveen
Q & A on Myanmar Rohingya Genocide with Prof. Penny Green, Dr Thomas MacManus and Maung Zarni

Why do Myanmar Buddhists kill? by Maung Zarni 
 Video Why do Myanmar Buddhists kill? - Maung Zarni
Perspective from ASEAN Region and Malaysia by Azril Mohd Amin
Indonesia's Perspective on the Rohingya Genocide by Adnan Armas 

Rohingya man shot dead in Phang Nga Immigration breakout Read more at http://www.thephuketnews.com/rohingya-man-shot-dead-in-phang-nga-immigration-breakout-57542.php#LWxAgs01xStFeQRg.99

by admin: Rohingya Detainees are detained indefinitely for seeking refugees when the agency UNHCR does not interfere for them. 
So, they find simply escaping is the best solution. The Thai guards shooting dead of one of them, is inhumane and racist. They don't attack the guards and it just a lie to avoid from killing charges.
.................................................


Source thephuketnews, 23 May

An officer exits the Phang Nga Immigration centre detention block. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub
An officer exits the Phang Nga Immigration centre detention block. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Police are claiming self-defence, as they say the escapees allegedly attacked the officers who were trying to take them into custody.

The alarm was raised at 3am, when guards at the centre noticed that bars on the windows of a second-floor cell had been cut. Police believe the escapees used hacksaw blades to cut the bars.

The escapees broke into two groups, with 15 heading down a canal which joins Phang Nga Bay and another six fleeing into the hills.

Officers in pursuit closed in on the six escapees in the hills, who they say attacked the officers. In the ensuing struggle, say police, one of the Rohingya escapees was fatally shot.

Police reported that three of the six in the hills were recaptured. No clarification was given on whether or not the remaining two of the six were taken into custody.

Police have yet to reveal any progress on apprehending the 15 escapees who fled down the canal.

Monday 23 May 2016

'No Muslims allowed': how nationalism is rising in Aung San Suu Kyi's Myanmar

Source the guardian, 22 May

Nationalists rally against the Rohingya people – Muslims confined to internal displacement camps in western Myanmar – claiming they are illegal immigrants. Photograph: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

At the entrance to Thaungtan village there's a brand new sign, bright yellow, and bearing a message: "No Muslims allowed to stay overnight. No Muslims allowed to rent houses. No marriage with Muslims."

The post was erected in late March by Buddhist residents of the village in Myanmar's lush Irrawaddy Delta region who signed, or were strong-armed into signing, a document asserting that they wanted to live separately.

Since then a couple of other villages across the country have followed suit. Small but viciously insular, these "Buddhist-only" outposts serve as microcosms of the festering religious tensions that threaten Myanmar's nascent experiment with democracy.

The post was erected in late March by Buddhist residents of the village in Myanmar's lush Irrawaddy Delta region who signed, or were strong-armed into signing, a document asserting that they wanted to live separately.

Since then a couple of other villages across the country have followed suit. Small but viciously insular, these "Buddhist-only" outposts serve as microcosms of the festering religious tensions that threaten Myanmar's nascent experiment with democracy.

 A sign barring Muslims from staying overnight, doing commerce, or marrying in Thaungtan village, in Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta Region. Photograph: POPPY MCPHERSON for the Guardian

After decades of military rule, Myanmar has entered a new era. As state counsellor, Aung San Suu Kyi is in charge, though key institutions remain under the army's control.

Recent weeks, however, have brought a surge in nationalist activity. Scores rallied outside the US embassy in Yangon last month to demand diplomats stop using the word Rohingya to describe millions of Muslims confined to internal displacement camps and villages in western Myanmar. Nationalists insist the group are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

The few public comments Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy has given on the issue have not been encouraging.

Suu Kyi reportedly instructed the new US ambassador not to use the term Rohingya. The new minister for religion, former general Thura Aung Ko, recently called Muslims and Hindus "associate citizens".

The fact that nationalist rhetoric has gone unchallenged, and has in some cases been echoed, by the new government has left some wondering what place the country's minorities have in its future.

Thaungtan is a small village of about 700 people, mostly farmers. At the end of a long dirt road flanked by tall grass and banana trees, it is extremely isolated.

Recently, residents formed the Patriotic Youth Network, a nationalist group dedicated to developing the village and keeping it out of foreign hands.

At the local monastery, a young monk with piercing black eyes named Ma Ni Ta sits unsmiling as villagers clamour to explain the new sign.

"The village has talked and seen that the NLD didn't do anything on the religious matter," he says.

It has fallen to the village to handle the mission to "protect religion" themselves.


Young monk Ma Ni Ta pictured inside the monastery in Thaungtan village, Myanmar.Young monk Ma Ni Ta pictured inside the monastery in Thaungtan village, Myanmar. Photograph: Poppy McPherson for the Guardian

In early 2015 a stranger of south Asian origin moved to Thaungtan.

According to the villagers' version of events he initially got along well with his neighbours. He said he was Hindu. Then he started buying land. That's when they jumped to the conclusion that he must be Muslim.

"It's like ghosts. We have never seen a ghost but we're afraid," says one villager, with a rueful laugh. He was part of a small minority who opposed the sign, he says, asking not to be named for fear of reprisals.

Members of the Patriotic Youth Network found the new arrival and his family did not all have identity cards. "They might have sneaked in from Bangladesh," says Ma Ni Ta.

"If we live together, we might have some problems with donations and religious ceremonies," he says.

Kyaw San Win was the stranger who came under suspicion. A stocky 28-year-old with large, long-lashed eyes, he stands in his cousin's drinks shop in Yangon, three hours drive from Thaungtan.

He points at a small Buddha statue on a shelf and explains how his family followed both Buddhist and Hindu traditions.

Kyaw San Win says he was living in Yangon when his elderly father decided to retire to the countryside. Kyaw San Win's cousin suggested his wife's village: Thaungtan. They bought and renovated an old wooden house.

The monks and villagers were immediately unfriendly, he says.

After they bought another piece of land, planning to open a teashop, he and his wife got an urgent call from his father.

"Please, my son," he said. "Please come back to the village because the villagers and the monks, they don't really want us to live here."

At the monastery, they were told that residents didn't want "kalar", an offensive term for Muslims, in their village.

"I ate pork in front of them," Kyaw San Win recalls with an exasperated laugh. "They said I was just pretending so I could do some mission, like jihad."

Later he says members of the Patriotic Youth Network warned him: "Someone may come and burn your house down."

Then groups of young men took to walking and running around the house at all hours. They revved motorbikes outside.

According to Kyaw San Win, the village administrator said he couldn't guarantee their security. So they left the village, eventually selling the home last month. Around the same time, pictures on Facebook showed members of the Youth Patriotic Network standing beside their new sign.

"Every religion, every person, should be able to live in every part of the country," says San Htay, Kyaw San Win's cousin. "Every person should be under the same law … The nationalist guys want to rule the village."

"We're really lucky we are Buddhist," adds Kyaw San Win. "If we were Muslim there would be a conflict in that village."

Recently it has seemed to some as though Myanmar could again be teetering on the verge of religious violence. After the disappointment of last November's election, nationalist groups, who backed the losing military-backed Union and Solidarity Party, are again making noises.

"Now that the post-election dust has settled, it's business as usual for religious extremists throughout the country," says Matthew Smith, executive director of the nonprofit Fortify Rights. "Without a stronger counter-movement, this brand of religious discrimination will continue to flourish. Violence is inevitable."

The Youth Patriotic Network in Thaungtan denies links to extremist nationalist organization Ma Ba Tha, which has waged an anti-Muslim campaign of hate in recent years.

The firebrand monk Ashin Wirathu has been accused of inciting deadly riots through his Facebook page, where he posts unsubstantiated rumours about Muslims.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Religious Affairs says he hasn't heard about the "no-Muslim" villages. "Basically [complaints] should come from the regional level," he said. He could not be reached to answer further questions.

The NLD is in a precarious position. Hatred of the Rohingya penetrates all levels of society. Recently, local magazine the Irrawaddy, which is run by human rights activists, published a cartoon that featured a dark-skinned half-naked man holding a sign that said "boat people".

When students from the Yangon School of Political Science held a small peace march across the city, a few dozen men, women and children carried banners saying: "Accept Diversity. Promote Tolerance." Police said they planned to charge the activists with unauthorised protest.


Myanmar Taxi driver Nanda Kyaw has scars on his left arm from a beating.Myanmar Taxi driver Nanda Kyaw has scars on his left arm from a beating. Photograph: Aung Naing Soe for the Guardian

Nanda Kyaw, a Muslim taxi driver who was beaten outside Shwedagon Pagoda, from which Islamic vendors were evicted a few weeks earlier, says he is still getting headaches.

"I have to drive every day for my survival," says the slight 31-year-old.

At least once a day, he says, a passenger waves him on when they see his goatee. But the attack in April came as a surprise.

A group of young people wound down their windows and shouted racially charged insults. Then, he said, they swerved in front of his car and beat him with iron rods. They left him bleeding from his mouth and head.

"Some people stopped their cars and watched a little bit. It's because it was a problem between a Muslim guy and a Buddhist guy, they are afraid."

He declines to have his picture taken, for fear of inflaming tensions.

Kyaw San Win feels the same. It's the reason his family haven't pursued charges against the people who hounded them from the village. Besides, he says, they wouldn't want to move back now.

"The people, they are very narrow-minded, we don't want to live with them," his cousin says.

Additional reporting by Cape Diamond and Aung Naing Soe

Thursday 19 May 2016

Searching for a safe space: The story of a young Rohingya woman displaced in Myanmar

Source UNFPA, 19 May

Searching for a safe space: The story of a young Rohingya woman displaced in Myanmar Khin Me Me Htun has been displaced from her home in Rakhine state for four years. © UNFPA Myanmar/Yenny Gamming

RAKHINE, Myanmar – Khin Me Me Htun was 22-years old when a wave of inter-communal violence swept across the state of Rakhine in 2012. At the time, she had just graduated with a degree in English from Sittwe University, and was planning to move to Yangon to start post-graduate studies and pursue her long-time dream of a career in diplomacy.

Then one night, riots broke out in her town, Sittwe, and her carefully planned future was upended. She saw her neighbours being beaten with steel sticks and stabbed with knives. And she watched as her father nearly died from a beating.

"I could see my father's brain," she says. "I saw my friend die from a knife wound. There was blood everywhere. That was the last time I saw my neighbourhood."

Khin Me is one of the approximately 1 million people in Myanmar who self-identify as Rohingya, a Muslim minority that came into international focus in 2015 when thousands fleeing persecution were left floating at sea in rickety boats, unable to find a country willing to grant them refuge.

And today, four years after she was forced to flee her home, Khin Me and 120,000 others affected by the 2012 conflict remain displaced within Myanmar's borders.

Most live in restricted zones, often just kilometres from their home villages and towns, but the zones' perimeters are policed, and they are barred from leaving or returning home.

Inside the walls, they are shut off from jobs, education and health care, including sexual and reproductive health services. Most struggle to survive day to day, and, while there is no data available from the camps, anecdotal evidence suggests that women and girls in the zones faced an increased risk of sexual and gender-based violence.

A village in the restricted zones where many displaced Rohingya now live.  © UNFPA Myanmar/Yenny Gamming

So close, but so far from home

As she scrolls through photos on her phone of her old, more urban life in Sittwe – going to the cinema, goofing around with friends, Khin Me discusses living in the restricted zone. "At first, it was strange," she says, her demeanour quiet and serious and very different from the smiling, light-hearted Khin Me floating by in her photos. "I cannot wear trousers here. Women don't go to the tea stall. And there is nowhere to borrow or buy books."

In the camps, water is collected from a shared pump, electricity is intermittent and the latrines are outdoors. For many women and girls, venturing out to use the latrines at night is the time they most fear experiencing sexual assault. However, the huts where most live have no locks, and even staying inside after dark is no guarantee of protection.

In addition, families live day after day, year in and year out, in these small, stiflingly hot makeshift huts, without privacy, and the conditions breed despair and frustration that contribute to domestic violence.

Finding a safe space

In response to the displacement, UNFPA has established 15 Women and Girls Centres in Myanmar, in partnership with the International Rescue Committee and the Metta Development Foundation, to provide women and girls with social support, information about sexual and reproductive health, family planning, psychosocial counselling, other violence-related services and transport to a nearby hospital for those in need of medical attention. In 2015 alone, 16,000 women and girls accessed the centres.

All staff members at these safe spaces are themselves internally displaced women and girls, and the work not only provides them with financial security, but also allows them to use their first-hand knowledge of life in the camps to shape and improve the response to gender-based violence.

Khin Me laughs with her colleague at a UNFPA Women and Girls Centre in Rakhine. © UNFPA Myanmar/Yenny Gamming

Khin Me is among those on staff at the seven centres in Rakhine. She says her position as a response manager gives her a sense of purpose. And as she sits there, talking and laughing with her colleagues and the women visiting the centre, she begins to look more like the playful young woman in her photos.

"I feel that my work really matters," she says. "Many of the women who come here have little or no education, and we teach them not only about gender-based violence, but also about health and sanitation."

However, despite the fulfilling work, Khin Me says she constantly teeters between hope and hopelessness.

To date, there has been little progress towards an agreement or reconciliation that would allow Khin Me and the rest of the Muslim community to return to their homes. And in the centre of Sittwe, there remains only a vacant lot where her family's house and tea stop once stood.

But Khin Me still holds out hope for returning there. "My dream has changed," she says. "I don't want to go to Yangon anymore, or to America, or anywhere else in the world. I just want to go home."

Monday 16 May 2016

QRCS delegation visits Rakhine State in Myanmar

Source thepeninsulaqatar, 17 may

Qatar Red Crescent Society volunteers interview people in Rakhine State.

DOHA: A team assigned by Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) to Myanmar to take stock of the humanitarian situation on ground like healthcare, shelter, water and sanitation, and food, has returned to Doha.

It also assessed the needs and work of QRCS's mobile clinics programme launched in 2013 in response to clashes in Rakhine State.

The clinics, each equipped with a doctor, an assistant, three nurses and local volunteers, continue to offer primary healthcare, health education, and hygiene promotion for target communities.


During a week-long visit to the country, the team also observed the shelter, sewage and water supply conditions in camps and towns and interviewed affected families in four towns and four camps, QRCS said in a statement. The team also held discussions in six targeted districts with local community and camp management committees, through interpreters provided by Myanmar Red Cross Society (MRCS).

To avoid duplication and ensure coordination with local and international partners, the team held meetings with World Health Organisation (WHO); Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA); Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); Danish Refugee Council (DRC); and the Department of Health in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine. At the end of the mission, the team delivered a generator to MRCS as a contribution from QRCS to build capacity of its host counterpart in catering for the needs of beneficiaries.

The current humanitarian needs include shelter solutions, extension of health care services, and capacity-building for the local community, especially as the monsoon season approaches. Another aspect of intervention is livelihood support to enable the affected population restore their normal life.

QRCS is developing a strategy to enhance humanitarian services there. QRCS's mission began late in 2012 to help victims of conflict in Rakhine.

Some 84,000 people benefited from QRCS's relief programmes.

Sunday 15 May 2016

Myanmar's 'Rohingya' problem

Source AsianTribune, 15 May



 

By Habib Siddiqui       
A woman carrying a baby walks among debris after fire destroyed shelters at a camp for internally displaced Rohingya Muslims in the western Rakhine State near Sittwe, Myanmar May 3, 2016. Photo By Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters
A woman carrying a baby walks among debris after fire destroyed shelters at a camp for internally displaced Rohingya Muslims in the western Rakhine State near Sittwe, Myanmar May 3, 2016. Photo By Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

Human rights groups say the Rohingya people are one of the most persecuted ethnic groups in the world. My own research work on endangered people has also shown that they are the most persecuted people in our time. More than a million people in Myanmar from the Muslim minority are currently stateless, and genocidal violence in the country's west has put nearly 140,000 of them in internment camps.

Although Myanmar has gone through a political change with an elected government running the state, it still doesn't want to recognize its Rohingya people whose ties to the soil of Arakan (Rakhine) state are older than others. This is a sad matter for all the human rights groups around the globe who expected better from a government that is now led by Suu Kyi. With her inexcusable silences to condemn the crimes of her Buddhist people against unarmed Rohingya and other minority Muslims living inside Myanmar she has been a disappointing icon since the latest genocidal pogroms started in 2012. But there was always that hope in the midst of hopelessness that she will eventually self-correct and do the right thing once put into power.

Well, all such wishful hopes are evaporating fast. Suu Kyi does not want to recognize the existence of the Rohingya people, but more problematically doesn't want the U.S. to, either call this most persecuted people as the 'Rohingya'.

According to the New York Times, her government recently made an official request to the US ambassador to Myanmar to not even use the term "Rohingya." "We won't use the term Rohingya because Rohingya are not recognized as among the 135 official ethnic groups," said Kyaw Zay Ya, a foreign ministry official quoted by the Times. "Our position is that using the controversial term does not support the national reconciliation process and solving problems."

So, here is the problem. Though they've lived in Myanmar for centuries, the Rohingya are viewed by many in this Buddhist majority country, which has transformed into what I have been calling a den of unfathomable intolerance, as illegal immigrants from nearby Bangladesh because of their racial and religious similarities with them. The Myanmar majority (approximately 80%) practices Buddhism and supports anti-Muslim policies. Like their government, they refuse to use the term "Rohingya," and instead use "Bengalis."

Suu Kyi supporters including the Dalai Lama had hoped she would defend the stateless Rohingya after her party's big victory in elections last November. But this newest diplomatic request suggests an end to the crisis is perhaps even further away than expected.

Since mid-2012, the Rohingyas of the Arakan (Rakhine) state have been confined to concentration camps, where conditions are simply atrocious, and had their citizenship revoked. Some have attempted to flee by taking a dangerous ocean voyage in rickety boats, often with tragic results.

Last month's tragic boat accident off the coast of Burma's Arakan State killed an estimated 21 Rohingya Muslims, including nine children, and left another 20 missing. The government-controlled newspaper, Global New Light of Myanmar, made a rare admission that the tragedy, in which a packed boat capsized in heavy seas, resulted from government travel restrictions that prevent Rohingya from traveling overland, forcing them to travel by boat even when conditions are dangerous.

The accident underscores the serious plight of Burma's long-persecuted Rohingya minority. The boat was making a regular trip from an internally displaced persons' (IDP) camp in Pauktaw to the markets near camps around the state capital, Sittwe.

With the latest directive from the government of Suu Kyi banning the use of the 'Rohingya' term, it is highly doubtful that the deplorable condition of this most persecuted people will improve any time soon.

The Buddhist monks of the fascist organization Ma Ba Tha are also making sure that there is no let down on the Rohingya problem whom they want either eliminated inside or forced out, thus making a mockery of their so-called peaceful religion. They have been behind the ethnic cleansing/ genocidal drives in Myanmar against the minority Muslims that resulted in internal displacement of nearly a million people since 2012, let alone the torching of hundreds of Muslim towns and villages, and deaths of thousands. They were the gay hound-dogs of the erstwhile Thein Sein's military regime and were very vocal against the NLD in the last election. Although their anti-NLD campaign failed to sway the voters away who elected Suu Kyi's party with a landslide victory, as a powerful and revered group in this Buddhist majority country, the fascist monks continue to rekindle the flames of intolerance and hatred to create problem for the new government. Typical of the genocidal maniacs of the past, they deny the very existence of the targeted victim - the Rohingya people.

In recent weeks, hundreds of demonstrators, including Buddhist monks, denounced the United States for its use of the term Rohingya to describe Myanmar's stateless Muslim community during a protest outside of the U.S. embassy in Yangon on Thursday. The demonstration was sparked by a statement from the embassy last week expressing condolences for an estimated 21 people, who media said were Rohingya, who drowned off the coast of Rakhine State and came just a day after President Htin Kyaw accepted the credentials of the new U.S. Ambassador, Scot Marciel.

"Today, we, from here, want to declare to the U.S. embassy and the ambassador to Myanmar, to all the other countries, that there is no Rohingya in our country," Parmaukkha, a monk and member of the hardline Buddhist group Ma Ba Tha, told about 300 people who gathered on a busy road across from the embassy compound. "If the U.S. accepts the term 'Rohingya,' you (U.S.) should take them back to your country."

Just imagine the audacity of these fascist monks who have hijacked Buddhism!

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy said the United States supports the right to demonstrate and added that "around the world, people have the ability to self-identify".

More importantly, Ambassador Marciel said on Tuesday he will keep using the term Rohingya for the persecuted Muslim minority, even after the government controlled by Suu Kyi asked him to refrain from it. "Our position globally and our international practice is to recognize that communities anywhere have the ability to choose what they should be called... and we respect that," said Marciel, in response to a question on whether he intended to continue using the term Rohingya.

He added that this has been Washington's policy before and that the administration intended to stick to it. It takes moral courage for a new ambassador to restate its government's policy on such an 'unpopular' matter. My sincere appreciation and salutation to the Ambassador for his courage to stand for what is right.

The US Embassy's stand on the Rohingya issue is morally right and laudable. Denial of the right to self-identify is tantamount to serious crime, e.g., genocide, and should never be taken lightly.

In a recent interview with Frontier at his Yangon home on March 26, the former chief minister of Arakan State, Gen. Maung Maung Ohn, was quoted to have said that the 2012 violence should never be repeated. This is a delayed realization from a former top official of the government but a good one, nonetheless. If they are really serious to avoid a repeat of the genocidal crimes, they must understand that the Burmese government's rejection of Rohingya claims to self-identification along with discriminatory citizenship and other laws fuels public animosity toward the group and encourages repressive local regulations.

The Rohingyas of Myanmar expect better from the Suu Kyi's government. They expect her to stand for what is right, away from the Buddhist mob culture of hatred and intolerance against the persecuted Muslim minorities. Before leaving office, outgoing President Thein Sein lifted the state of emergency in Arakan State that had been imposed following the outbreak of genocidal violence against the Rohingya and other Muslim minorities in 2012. Yet local authorities have maintained restrictions on the movement of Rohingya in IDP camps and in Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships that limit their access to health care and education, make it nearly impossible to work, and impinge on religious freedoms. Such restrictions must be lifted immediately.

International attention has focused on Arakan State since an estimated 31,000 Rohingya fled the region by boat in the first half of 2015. But so far the feared resumption of the maritime exodus of Rohingya asylum seekers and migrant workers has not materialized, partly the result of limits on boat departures and harsh pushbacks from Bangladesh, Malaysia and Thailand.

United Nations and European Union officials recently stated that the drop in maritime departures and a UN-backed government program to resettle 25,000 Rohingya in new homes heralds an improved situation. This is premature given the fact that Burmese government laws and policies that deny the stateless Rohingya their rights and basic freedoms remain. The latest maritime disaster again underscores the need to finding a genuine solution to the old Rohingya crisis urgently. The desperate humanitarian situation and the potential for anti-Rohingya violence needs to be urgently addressed. This is no time for complacency.

The new government of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy could markedly improve the everyday lives of the Rohingya by removing the restrictions that led to last month's boat accident, and from there establish the Rohingya's genuine inclusion in a more rights-respecting Burma. As we have learned from history, a nonchalance attitude towards growing fascism can be disastrous. As such, if NLD is serious about stopping such fascistic trends, it must come hard on those fascist Ma Ba Tha monks and their supporters within the Buddhist country. Failing this, the country can revert back to days of targeted pogroms again, thus seriously tampering its much needed economic growth through investments from the international community.

But will Suu Kyi tighten the screw against the criminal Ma Ba Tha? That question remains unanswered now.

Wednesday 11 May 2016

Magwe Abbot demands US ambassador in Burma to leave Burma immediately

Mandalay news: 
The below report in Burmese version is-
Magwe Abbot demands US ambassador in Burma to leave Burma immediately after responding in favour of Rohingya identity despite Ms. Suu Kyi requests not to use the word Rohingya.




"They get to choose what they want to be called": New US ambassador to Myanmar on word 'Rohingya'
Source Coconuts, 10 may

Scott Marciel speaks at the American Center in Yangon on May 10, 2016. Photo: Coconuts Yangon


Without using the word himself, Scot Marciel, the new US ambassador to Myanmar, said Muslims in Rakhine State have the right to use the word "Rohingya."

"They get to choose what they want to be called," he said in his first public remarks at Yangon's American Center, reiterating the US stance that communities have a right to self-identify.

It was an interesting first speech for Marciel, who started in late March. Fielding questions from journalists and civil society and business interests, Marciel talked about the possibility of removing sanctions (under review), traffic in Yangon (bad), the peace process (important but Myanmar, not US, is running point) and whether the US will use Myanmar and not Burma (probably making the change to Myanmar after Aung San Suu Kyi's comments about using either one, but Washington will make the decision).

The speech came weeks after nationalists protested outside the US embassy in Yangon after it used the word Rohingya in a statement, prompting Suu Kyi to reportedly ask Marciel not to do that any more.

While Marciel stood by the US position, he did so diplomatically, never uttering the controversial word himself and referring to "some communities" in Rakhine State when discussing the importance of intercommunal harmony.

Most of the Rohingya are confined to destitute camps and villages in Rakhine following Buddhist-Muslim violence in 2012.

Sunday 8 May 2016

Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi doesn’t even want to hear the term “Rohingya”

Source qz, 7 May
 
I don't want to hear about it. (Reuters/Vincent Kessler)
 

When Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, the Nobel committee praised her "non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights" and her desire for "conciliation between the sharply divided regions and ethnic groups in her country." She was under house arrest at the time.

Nearly 15 years later, she was swept into power as the de facto democratic leader of Myanmar, where she officially holds the titles of state counselor and foreign minister. It was a remarkable journey, both for her and her country. But her status as both a Nobel winner and a former political prisoner immediately threatened to complicate her legacy in regard to the plight of the Rohingya, her country's oppressed Muslim ethnic minority group.

Her months of silence on the topic have vexed human-rights advocates. The United Nations, who had once rallied behind Aung San Suu Kyi during her arrest by the Burmese military junta, now implores her to end the persecution of the Rohingya.

But, according to the New York Times, her government recently made an official request to the US ambassador to Myanmar to not even use the term "Rohingya."

"We won't use the term Rohingya because Rohingya are not recognized as among the 135 official ethnic groups," said Kyaw Zay Ya, a foreign ministry official quoted by the Times. "Our position is that using the controversial term does not support the national reconciliation process and solving problems."

Though they've lived in Myanmar for centuries, the Rohingya are viewed by many in the country as illegal immigrants. They have been been confined to concentration camps, where conditions are atrocious, and had their citizenship revoked. Some have attempted to flee by taking a dangerous ocean voyage in rickety boats, often with tragic results.

The Myanmar majority (approximately 80%) practices Buddhism and supports anti-Muslim policies. Like their government, they refuse to use the term "Rohingya," and instead use "Bengalis." The term further cements their beliefs that the Rohingya are illegal intruders from Bangladesh and should not be recognized as citizens.

Aung San Suu Kyi supporters including the Dalai Lama had hoped she would defend the stateless Rohingya after her party's big victory in elections last November. But this newest diplomatic request suggests an end to the crisis is perhaps even further away than expected.

Tuesday 3 May 2016

“Rohingyas' Legal Rights to Live as Dignified Human-Beings in Burma”

by Admin, 

The Rohingyas have their own history, culture, tradition and language different from other ethnic minority races who were living as a compact community in a geographical territory within the Union of Burma.

Although the call of Mr. Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations to the Burmese Government President Thein Sein is not too late to grant the citizenship to the ethnic Rohingya minority people of Burma, it is the moral responsibility of President Thein Sein not to delay the restoration of the citizenship rights of the Rohingya people to establish its democratic standing and show of respect to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) before ending his Presidency at the end of March, 2016 or newly elected NLD democratic government led by Nobel Peace Laureate and Burma’s Human Rights Advocate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi so as Burma becomes a dignified, democratic and credible nation in the world.

Not only Mr. Ban Ki-moon but also the Governments of Indonesia, United Kingdom, United States of America, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Australia, Malaysia, Turkey, Iran, Ambassadors form Islamic nations, ASEAN, OIC Secretary General, European Union, international Nobel Peace Prize winners, International NGOs and Humanitarian Organizations, Geneva based UN Human Rights Council, international civil societies and religious community leaders including world-wide Human Rights organizations urged and demanded the Burmese Government President Thein Sein to grant the citizenship rights to the Rohingyas to maintain the complete openness of democratic reform and free economy.

In fact, the government of Burma President Thein Sein is playing foul play to the international community still branding the Rohingya people as Bengali or foreigners who entered to Burma from Bangladesh during the British colonial period. Presenting unjustifiable show cause that Rohingya status must be verified and decide in the Burmese Parliament whether they should be granted citizenship or not which he says a risk factor for the security, sovereignty, and the national integrity of Burma.

The simple analysis is that the current Burmese Government is intentionally not providing the citizenship rights to the Muslim Rohingyas to continue their divide and rule policy against the people of Arakan State creating communal violence destroying the centuries old peaceful co-existence between the Muslim Rohingyas and Buddhist Rakhine in the name of superiority complex of Buddhist nationalism so that Arakanese people can never unite to establish peace, prosperity and freedom of restoration of the lost independence of Arakan kingdom which was forcibly occupied by the Buddhist Burmese King Bodaw in 1784.

The Rohingya people of the north-western region of Burma are an indigenous people of Arakan and sons of the soil known as Bumi-putra of Arakan home-land. They are living there from generation to generation since 8th century until today. History of the Rohingya people as an ethnic minority people in Burma is available in the net, media websites, and all ancient history books of Arakan.
The Rohingyas have their own history, culture, tradition and language different from other ethnic minority races who were living as a compact community in a geographical territory within the Union of Burma. They are the heroic and brave people who have been enduring all sorts of inhuman atrocities, racial and religious persecution at the hands of successive Burmese Government and its brutal security forces since last 60 years and now at hands of their own fellow countrymen Buddhist Rakhines.

Being an indigenous racial group with distinct quality of a civilized people ,who are law abiding and seekers of peaceful life with fellow Rakhine community on the spirit of peaceful co-existence, who are bona fide citizens of Burma based on the Declaration of Burma independence and 1948 Citizenship laws, their active participation in all democratic election since 1937 to 2011 without rejection by the Election Commission of Burma, the repeated assurance and issuance of statements by the previous Burmese Government leaders such as Bogyoke Aung San, Prime Minister U Nu, U Ba Swe, President U Sao Shwe Thaik, Lt. General Aung Gyi and other leaders confirming that Rohingyas are one of the races same as Shan, Kachin, Mon and Rakhine during the parliamentary democratic rule in Burma are the strong solid evidences that clearly manifests the legal rights of the Rohingya people as dignified human group in Arakan under the protection of rule of law and governance of the union of Burma. They have every rights same as other ethnic minorities and national races in the union of Burma.







The 1982 citizenship law which took away the citizenship rights of Rohingya people making them as stateless people in their own ancestral homeland is a conspiracy of previous military Government to create communal riots in Arakan on the basis of divide and rule policy of former military junta. This discriminatory citizenship law which violates the standard international laws and Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) must be repealed immediately when the country is opening as free economy and passing through a transition to a democratic society. The President Thein Sein who recently advocated to send the Rohingya people to third country under UNHCR supervision classifying the Rohingyas as foreigners was compelled to change his unrealistic and fabricated accusation and now pledged to the world to restore Rohingyas citizenship and accommodating the Rohingyas through national reconciliation process in their own places lost during the man-made tragedy and ethnic cleansing against the Rohingyas by the extremist Rakhine ruling Government of Arakan is a welcome sign to the right direction, but, continuation of violence, burning, arrest and harassment of the Rohingyas in the name immigration check forcing to accept as Bengali race is totally unacceptable which needs to stop without further delay.



Arakan is belonged to the Rohingya people same as other minority races like Rakhines, Mro, Thet, Kamwee and tribal people and all of them are citizens of the Union of Burma with same national rights rendered by the Burma current Constitution and they have every right to live safe, secure and free from fear with honor and dignity in Burma beyond the reasonable doubt. It is the responsibility of the Union of Burma Government to establish rule of law restoring all Rohingyas rights and provide the required protection to the Rohingya ethnic minority people disregarding race, religion and language.



Our great President Mr. Barack Obama during his 6 hours visit to the Union of Burma on November 19, 2012 clearly mentioned during his speech to the people and government of Burma that Rohingya people have dignity, dignity inside themselves same as the President Obama and Burmese people and no one such as Rohingya should be subjected to torture, inhuman treatment and violence due to race, religion and color in Burma.

The historic speech of our great President of USA, Mr. Barack Obama in University of Yangon should be regarded as an eye-opener, failure to heed this valuable advice by the Burmese Government will be self-destructive to people and country of the Union of Burma. Instead of exclusion of the Rohingyas from Burma main-stream society, the inclusion and embracing the Rohingyas as sons of the soil (Bumi-putra) will enhance the current on-going democratic process and establishment of free-economy with foreign investment leading the Union of Burma a most prosperous, peaceful and progressive country in the world within 15 years.

Shaukhat (aka) MSK Jilani
(Executive Director)
Rohingya American Society (RAS)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin State
USA.
Dated: March 15, 2016