128 Rohingyas languish in India's Andamans

December 30, 2012

Kolkata — The 128 Rohingyas, whose boat drifted into India's Andaman islands earlier this month, say they don't want to go back to Myanmar. 

Authorities in the Andaman archipelago say the Rohingyas were trying to reach Malaysia from Myanmar's Rakhine state, but their boat drifted towards the Andamans. 

The boat came ashore at Narcoddum islands on Dec 9. Indian coast guards who intercepted the boat were told by the Rohingyas that they were trying to reach Malaysia. 

"They said their condition in Myanmar is desperate and so they want to reach Malaysia. But now they are stuck here in the Andamans," said an Indian official. 

The Indians are in a fix. The Rohingyas are determined not to return to Myanmar because they anticipate trouble if they are handed back. Malaysia, or any other country, will not take them for obvious reasons. India can only keep them for some time. 

Hundreds of Muslim Rohingyas are trying to flee from Myanmar's Rakhine state ever since the riots between them and Buddhist Rakhines erupted in summer and then again in autumn. Close to 80,000 of them have been rendered homeless and herded into makeshift camps by Myanmar authorities. Many have died at sea when their boats capsized.

Security forces surround a Rohingya village for 10 hours in Maungdaw

Maungdaw, Arakan State: A joint security forces – police, Hluntin and Burma border security force (Nasaka) – had surrounded a Rohingya village from midnight 1:00am till morning 11:00am today, according to a politician from Maungdaw.

“The security forces had surround the Nyaung Chang (Khadir Bill) village- situated near the three miles checked point – at about 1:00 am midnight and blocked every points where all the villagers are not able to escape the village. The security forces kept all Rohingya villagers who are living in the farms and not allow to go to the village.”
The Nasaka Director Col. Aung Naing Oo, the district police officer Kaun Hla San and the officer in charge of Hluntin arrived at nyaung Chang early morning  and checked all the Rohingya villagers who were kept by security forces at night and released all the villagers, said a villager from Nyaung Chang.
“The security forces entered the village and checked one by one the houses of Rohingya villager till 11:00am. But, the security forces didn’t arrest any Rohingya villagers from the village.”
The security forces are looking some 18 Rohingya villagers, but they didn’t found them in the village and the security forces asked the villagers – children and female- about any strangers in the village, according to an official.
“The authority searched the village as there are some people who are aliens.”
“The villagers – children and female- become afraid while the security forces searched the homes inside the village.”
An elder from Maungdaw said, there is a so-called arrest warrant issued by Maungdaw court which was not published to the public and whenever police want to extort money from Rohingya, the police mention the so-called arrest warrant. But, there was not happened like this, it is look a operation to us.
“We fear that Rohingya community might the face the similar situation sooner or later.”

Authority forces to register as Bengali

Maungdaw, Arakan State:  The authority – Burma border security force (Nasaka) –is forcing Rohingya community to register as Bengali, with registration process which includes taking digital fingerprints and photographs since early this month, according to a village admin officer from Maungdaw.

“The Nasaka called the Rohingya villagers under their area, to register by forced to accept Bengali as their ethnicity which is not accepting by Rohingya community.”
The Nasaka personnel from Headquarters summoned Gyikanpin ( Kawarbil)  villagers to it office where the Nasaka forced the Rohingya to signature on a blank paper where the Nasaka mentioned  Bengali as ethnic on December 27. But, the Rohingya villagers didn’t signature on it, according to an elder from Gyikanpin village.
“It is the order of high authority, you must follow it, and otherwise you will fire for it,” said a Nasaka officer. “If you will not signature on this paper, you are not belong to this land.”
Similarly, Nasaka officer Win Hlaing and Tun Tun Naing are forcing Rohingya community from Ngarkhura village to register as Bengali under digital fingerprints and photographs registration process on December 22, according to a teacher from Ngarkhura village.
“When the Nasaka officers ordered to village admin officer to bring Rohingya villagers to their office, the Rohingya refused to go to the office and to register as per the Nasaka willing.”
It is the order of higher authority. If you don’t follow the order, will be arrested and prosecuted, the officer told the villagers.
But, the Rohingya community didn’t follow the order to register as per Nasaka plan. The Nasaka started again to made harassment the Rohingya while going to the Ngarkhura market where the Nasaka and village admin official called Rohingya community who were going to market to their office where the Nasaka and village admin official forcefully taking digital fingerprints and photographs for registration process, said an elder from the village.
“Now, the villagers are not going to the market to avoid from forcefully taking digital fingerprints and photographs for registration process. The market has no people and Rohingya become again helpless for their survival.”

Armies collect paddy in Rathedaung Township

Rathedaung, Arakan State:  Armies from Rathedaung Township have been collecting paddy from Rohingya villagers since December third week from their hired arable lands to Rohingya villagers after seizing from them, a village farmer said preferring not to be named.
“The armies collected 13 Tangs (one Tang = 35 kg) per acre from the villagers. The arable lands were owned by Rohingya villagers, but these were seized by armies earlier for their purposes and again hired to the Rohingya farmers year by year at the rate of 13 Tans per acre.”
This year, in 2012, Rohingya farmers fully did not able to grow paddy in their hired arable lands from the armies because of violence in June between Rakhine and Rohingya communities. But, army forcibly collected paddy for those arable lands in which they were not able to grow paddy during violence, said another villager from the locality.
The armies seized 200 acres of arable lands only from the Tha Pay Taw village tract of Rathedaung Township. In similar way, the armies moreover seized arable lands from other Rohingya village tracts of eastern Rathedaung Township.
The villagers are facing difficulties, as they have no paddy to pay army, so they have to buy paddy from outside to fulfill the demand of armies, said a local youth.
At present, Rohingya villagers are not free from movement restriction in Rathedaung Township. They have to get permission from Village Administration Officer (VAO) after paying Kyat 200 per head and also have to inform to local Nasaka camp to go to market. But all the villagers are not allowed to go to market, only for shopkeepers, said a villager elder on condition of anonymity.

Army arrests over 15 woodcutters in Maungdaw south

Maungdaw,Arakan State: More than 15 Rohingya woodcutters were arrested by a group of military on December 25, evening, said a villager.
"A group of military accompanied by some Rakhine youths arrested the Rohingya woodcutter while they were returning their home after collecting firewood."
A woodcutter said that some woodcutters from Khonzabill and Udaung village went to forest for collecting firewood on December 25, morning at about 8:00am. Of them, two are identified as Islam 50, of Udaung village and  Hashim, 25, son of Md. Noor hailed from Khonzabil.
On their way, they were arrested by military from the forest in the evening, he more added.
After arrest, they were severely beaten up on the spot. Later, they were brought to the military camp of Sommona.
In the camp, they were also severely tortured after taking off their shirts,sources said.
However, they were released after taking kyat 10,000 to 15,000, said a relative.

Rohingya Trucked North: Checkpoint Exposes 127 in Minivan Convoy

Rohingya arrested in southern Thailand await return to the Burma border

(Photo - 77 Nation Channel)

Chutima Sidasathian & Alan Morison 

Phuket Wan

December 27, 2012 

PHUKET: A total of 127 Rohingya have been arrested in southern Thailand and trucked back to the Thailand-Burma border. 

Those held were in five minivans in a convoy bound for the Malaysian border crossing at Padang Besar in Songkhla province.

On December 24 a police-Army checkpoint in Satun province pulled over two of the vans, which each contained 22 men and boys. 

The drivers of another three minivans fled after dropping off their passengers, who totalled 83. 

The youngest of those arrested was a boy aged 10. Most of the captured Rohingya were teenagers or young men. 

Hundreds are fleeing the Burmese state of Rakhine where thousands of homes have been torched since June in a simmering racial conflict between local residents and the Muslim Rohingya.

About 170 are reported to have been killed in the conflict, which has left thousands of Rohingya confined in displaced persons camps. 

Many prefer to take their chances by paying people smugglers and fleeing by sea, with Malaysia as the target for most.

How the Rohingya arrested on December 24 got to Songkhla province in southern Thailand is not known. Part of their journey was probably made by sea. 

Brokers on the Thai-Malaysia border are known to systematically transfer Rohingya south from camps hidden in plantations in Thailand with the connivance of officials in both countries.

The arrest of the 127 may have come because the officers at the checkpoint are not part of the system or rival brokers have perhaps fallen out. 

The arrests were made by officers from Khuankalong police station in Satun, where Lieutenant Sompong Meechoo said local police were not part of any smuggling group. 

''The Rohingya will be trucked straight back to Ranong,'' he said, referring to the Thai-Burma border port hundreds of kilometres to the north where the arrested men and boys could possibly have stopped off on their journey. 

Because the arrested Rohingya are inevitably all men and boys, some reports speculate that they could be heading to join the insurgency in Thailand's south.

Thailand's Internal Security Operations Command has checked out these reports over several years but never found evidence to justify them.

Isoc tallies 2817 Rohingya arrested or ''helped on'' in Thailand in October and November. 

Other experts in the deep south conflict say there has never been an instance where a single Rohingya has been killed or injured in incriminating circumstances in eight years of conflict. 

Chris Lewa, director of the advocacy group Arakan Project, said: ''Rohingya only transit through Thailand on their way to Malaysia, helped on by Thai authorities. 

''There has never been any evidence of Rohingya involvement in the deep South insurgency. 

''Why should countries in the region repeatedly make these kinds of assumptions just because they are Muslims?''

The Rohingya are protective of their womenfolk, who seldom venture far from home. However, having a boy of 10 among the latest batch of arrests indicates some are becoming more desperate to flee Burma. 

Hundreds of Rohingya are believed to be voyaging past the Andaman coast and the holiday island of Phuket this relatively tranquil October-April ''sailing season.''

Those apprehended on land north of Phuket are usually trucked quickly back to Ranong, often described as Burmese to reduce complications. 

As stateless non-citizens, the Rohingya are not wanted back in Burma so they are usually delivered to people smugglers. 

The smugglers demand extra payments and those who cannot meet the terms are usually put to work in fish factories or indentured to trawlers.

Earlier this month, Singapore refused to allow a Vietnamese cargo ship to dock with 40 Rohingya who survived a sinking in which 200 are thought to have drowned. 

All of Burma's Asean neighbors continue to turn a blind eye to the tacit ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya now underway in Burma.

Protect Rohingya human rights, including their right to a nationality: UN

The U.N. General Assembly has unanimously adopted a resolution by the 193-member world body on December 24, urges Burmese government action to improve the situation of the Rohingya Muslim minority “and to protect all their human rights, including their right to a nationality.”

The resolution noted substantial efforts by Burmese’s government towards political reform, democratization, national reconciliation and improvements in human rights. But it said there were still “systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
The General Assembly urged the government "to accelerate its efforts to address discrimination, human rights violations, violence, displacement and economic deprivation affecting various ethnic minorities," singling out the Rohingyas and Kachin.
The U.N. General Assembly has unanimously adopted a resolution welcoming positive changes in Burma, but expressing serious concern at an upsurge of sectarian violence between Muslims and Buddhists in Arakan state.
The European Union-sponsored resolution was adopted by consensus, with the assembly president banging his gavel.
EU foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton said earlier this month after the resolution's approval by the assembly's human rights committee that she was "particularly pleased by the constructive approach by the government of Myanmar in working closely on the text with the EU."
U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said earlier this month that for nearly six months, the U.N. has not able to provide assistance to the IDPs in Arakan State where Rohingyas were keeping in the camps which condition is dire.
The Rohingyas in the western state of Arakan, are in citizenship limbo, and the Burmese government refuses to do anything about the situation, despite the international community’s calls for Burma to give the Rohingyas legal status.
Rohingya Muslims have faced torture, neglect, and repression in Burma since it achieved independence in 1948.
Buddhist extremists frequently attack Rohingyas and have set fire to their homes in several villages in Arakan where hundreds of Rohingyas are believed to have been killed and thousands displaced in recent attacks. Burmese Army forces allegedly provided the extremist Buddhists containers of petrol for torching the houses of Muslim villagers, who are then forced to flee. Burmese’s government has been accused of failing to protect the Muslim minority, according to Human rights reports.
Rohingyas are said to be Muslim descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan origin, who migrated to Myanmar as early as the 8th century.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have issued separate statements, calling on Myanmar to take action to protect the Rohingya Muslim population against extremist Buddhists.

Couple arrested for marriage after 14 years in Mangdaw

Maungdaw, Arakan State:  A couple was arrested by Nasaka (Burma’s border security force) at Maungdaw north on December 21, over the allegation that he had married without permission from the concerned authority after 14 years later, according to a friend of the victim.
“The victims are identified as Shoffi Ullah (37), and his wife Ms Jubaida Khatun (30). Both of them belong to Maung Nama Aley Wra (village) of Maungdaw north.  Mohammad Sidique is the father of Shoffi Ullah.”
Fourteen years (14- year) ago, in   1998, Shofi Ullah had  tied the knot with Ms Juabaida Khatun after getting necessary documents from concerned authority of Village Peace and Development Council ( VPDC) Chairman. At that time, it was not necessary to get marriage permission from local Nasaka authority and the local VPDC Chairman’s permission was accepted for the marriage, said a local trader preferring not to be named. 
On that day, at night, a section of Nasaka went to the victim’s house and arrested Shoffi Ullah along with his wife Jubaida Khatun over the allegation that they had got married without permission from the concerned authority. The Nasaka was from Aung Mingala Nasaka camp of Maungdaw north.  After arrest, they were brought to Nasaka camp where they were detained. The arrestees showed the documents to the Nasaka about their marriage, but, the Nasaka rejected it, a local leader from the locality said on condition of anonymity.
The next day, on December 22, in the evening, they were released after taking Kyat 300,000 by Nasaka officer Myo Than, the local leader added.
“It is a deliberate action against the couple to get money,” said a close relative of the victims.
“It is a meaning less action against the Rohingya community by using their power. Arakan State becomes a lawless land only for Rohingya people,” said a local elder.
When contacted to the Nasaka camp, after getting a telephone number from a Nasaka aide, but the Nasaka did not response the call.

Nasaka arrests a boy with false allegation

Maungdaw, Arakan State: A Rohingya boy was arrested over allegation by a group of Burma border security force (Nasaka) personnel from Nasaka area No. 8 on December 24, said a local villager.

The arrested was identified Enayet Ullah (12), son of Aman Ullah, hailed from Myient Hlut of Maungdaw township.
He was arrested yesterday night with false allegation of using Bangladeshi mobile without knowledge of concerned authorities. But, the Nasaka personnel have no evidence, using the Bangladesh mobile, according to a local elder from the village.
After arrest, he was severely beaten up on the spot. He was also detained in the custody of Nasaka. However, he was released after taking kyat 100,000 today, said an aide of Nasaka.
According to sources, many Rohingya villgers were arrested and extorted money with false cases by the security forces.

Blankets need for the poor displaced people in northern Arakan

Maungdaw, Arakan State: Blankets and warm clothes are needed for the poor displaced people living in Maungdaw and Rathedaung Townships. Severe cold accompanied by dense fog for the last few days has disrupted normal life in the areas, said a businessman from Maungdaw who denied his name.
“Around 7,000 cold hit people are passing their days and nights   in misery without warm clothes and blankets. The people are living nearby Mountain areas beside rivers are the most vulnerable. Poor people do not have ability to purchase warm clothes to protect them from the biting cold.”
Many people, especially children and aged ones, have been attacked with different cold-related diseases like--- diarrhea and pneumonia--- in the towns. The people of low income group, specially the farm laborers, are the worst sufferers, he more added.
A village leader from Rathedaung Township said that the poor people of his area are the worst suffers due to burring down their villages and houses by racist Rakhines with the help of security forces, now; minimum 5,000 people are suffering from shortage of warm clothes and blankets because of destroying houses. They are leading a hand to mouth existence without shelter. They are getting some supports from some NGOs but it is not sufficient.
Besides, in Maungdaw township, especially in Maungdaw Town and Maungdaw southern side, at least 250 houses and two  markets were burned down or destroyed by some Rakhine mobs with the help of security forces such as---police, Hluntin (riot police), Nasaka (Burma’s border security police), Sarapa (Military Intelligence), and army. They (IDPs) have been taking shelters nearby villages and the relatives’ houses, a trader from Maungdaw said preferring not to be named.
But the Rohingya IDPs of Maungdaw and Rathedaung townships are not recognized by the Thein Sein’s government and did not get any support from any quarter, even from the present government. They have also been kept in the villages of nearby other Rohingya villagers without getting any access to do work to support their family members, said a local villager.
Whenever, the foreign or local delegations came to visit Maungdaw Township to oversee the situation of local people including Rakhine and Rohingya, the authority indirectly forced them to visit the Rakhine (Natala)IDPs camps  excluding  Rohingya IDPs  who have been  locking  in the villages.  But, few foreign members accidently met some Rohingya villagers who have been suffering from acute difficulties since long, said a schoolteacher from the locality.
As a result, the Rohingya IDPs of Maungdaw and Rathedaung Townships ask to international community to provide them shelter, blankets and warm clothes to protect from winter season, the teacher more added.

Humanitarian crisis for Burma's eternal outsiders

Life for the Rohingya
Since the ethnic fighting broke out in June, much of the Rohingya population have fled their homes, fearing more attacks.

Lindsay Murdoch

The Sydney Morning Herald
December 25, 2012

They scavenge for grass and plants to eat and live in makeshift camps and town slums surrounded by barbed-wire checkpoints, refugee prisoners in their own country. 

Sitting among filth and garbage in a bamboo hut Ali Hassan, a 24-year-old former brick worker, pleads for the lives of his newborn twins. 

''My babies are starving in front of my eyes. I cannot buy anything now I have no money,'' he says.

Dire … Haleema Ahmed, above, scavenges for plants among the weeds and grass to supplement her family's food intake. Photo: Steve Sandford

There is an abundance of fish in the sea and rivers of Burma's western Rakhine state, which borders Bangladesh. 

There are also coconuts in the trees and rice in the fields. 

But the United Nations's most senior humanitarian official, Valerie Amos, describes conditions in camps where more than 115,000 people displaced by ethnic violence are struggling to survive as ''dire''.

Displaced Rohingya children at the edge of Camp Coconut. Photo: Steve Sandford

''I have seen many camps during my time but the conditions in these camps rank among the worst,'' she says. 

The camp occupants are Rohingyas, members of a Muslim minority who are denied Burmese citizenship even though their families have lived in the country for centuries. The UN says they are among the world's most persecuted people. 

Following an outbreak of ethnic violence in June and again in October and a subsequent clampdown by Burma's security forces, tens of thousands of Rohingya are prohibited by soldiers from leaving designated areas to work, forage for food or seek medical treatment. 

Heartbreaking images emerging from Rakhine, also known as Arakan, point to ethnic cleansing of 800,000 Rohingya, who are seen by the Burmese government and many of the country's Buddhists as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. 

Video taken for Fairfax Media in a slum Muslim area of the Rakhine capital, Sittwe, shows a mother of seven, Haleema Ahmed, scavenging for grass and plants to help feed her family, reviving memories of images of starving villagers eating grass in North Korea. 

''The food that is being donated to us is not enough to eat. We have to help ourselves to find our own food,'' she says. ''I have to collect grass and plants to sell and eat to fill my empty stomach.'' 

Zaleena Hatwa, 33, a mother of two boys and three girls, is living in a one-room hut at ''Camp Coconut'', where beachside coconut trees mark a boundary the Rohingya may not cross. ''I fled my house only with the clothes I was wearing … they beat and killed many of us,'' she says. 

Zaleena Hatwa says before the violence she had a house and money. ''Now I am forced to live like a crazy street person,'' she says. 

There are few Rohingya leaders to speak up internationally for their people, who are referred to by the Burmese Buddhist majority as ''Bengalis'' or the pejorative term for foreigner, ''kalar''. 

Abdul Hakim, a cleric at a small Muslim mosque in the Aung Min Glar district of Sittwe, called for the United Nations to intervene to save his people. 

''The Rohingya have been living here for 800 years but now the Buddhist want to drive the Rohingya all out of Arakan … they don't want to live together with the Muslim,'' he said. ''We want equal rights and we want the rule of law. We want peace and justice. The UN has the power, if they want to do something, they can.'' 

Baroness Amos, who visited eight refugee camps recently, called on the Burmese government to promote reconciliation in Rakhine, where she said tensions ''between communities is running very high''. 

Her remarks underscored concerns about Burma's stability as it emerges from 50 years of repressive military rule under the reformist government of the President, Thein Sein. 

The government and Rakhine community groups have placed extreme restrictions on humanitarian agencies working in Rohingya camps and Muslim areas. 

People seen to be working with the Rohingya are often threatened. 

Aid workers report seeing starving babies and toddlers so weakened by hunger they sit limply in their parents' arms. 

The UN estimates there are 2900 babies and toddlers with acute malnutrition in the camps who may already be beyond help. 

Satellite imagery shows extensive destruction of homes and property in Muslim areas following a rapid escalation of violence since June that led to at least 170 deaths. 

One 14-hectare coastal area shows almost 1000 razed buildings, houseboats and floating barges. Reports have emerged of mass graves, and human rights organisations cite executions, torture, rapes, beatings, mass arrests and burnings by security forces, mainly against Rohingya. 

The violence erupted after reports circulated that on May 28 a Rakhine Buddhist woman had been raped and killed. Retaliation was swift after details were circulated in an incendiary pamphlet. 

On June 3, a large group of Rakhine Buddhists stopped a bus and killed 10 Muslims on board. Violence between Rohingya and Rakhine then swept through Sittwe and surrounding areas. 

Since October more than 4000 Rohingya have paid smugglers to get on typically leaking and unsafe boats to make the perilous voyage to Muslim-majority Malaysia, where their presence is mostly tolerated. Several hundred have drowned in at least four boat sinkings. 

At least one boat a day now leaves the region, its passengers mostly Rohingya men and teenage boys seeking a new life. Many others have fled to Bangladesh, where 400,000 Rohingya are languishing in camps. Bangladesh also considers them illegal immigrants. 

In Rakhine state, authorities have begun a process of verifying the nationality of all Muslims, but there are widespread calls for those deemed ''illegal'' to be deported. The goal of the survey is unclear. 

A 1982 law enshrines the citizenship of Burma's officially-recognised ethnic groups but the Rohingya were excluded despite their claims to have met the criteria of having ancestors in the country before 1823, the date of the first Anglo-Burmese war. Rohingyas say they can trace their ancestry back to an eighth-century shipwreck on an Arakan island. 

Observers say widespread hostility towards the Rohingya throughout Burma is likely to inhibit their naturalisation. 

''We have no plan to accept as an ethnic group those who are stateless, or any new tribes who are not officially recognised, like the Rohingya,'' said Zaw Htay, a high-ranking government official. 

The opposition leader and democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi has disappointed international supporters by failing to speak up strongly for the Rohingya, prompting speculation she has her eye on 2015 elections. 

In a squalid camp near Sittwe, Rashid Ahmad, 63, tells how security forces watched as a Rakhine mob attacked Rohingya residents in his village. 

''They started beating and killing people, so my family and my niece's family ran away from the village to the seashore to take a boat,'' Rashid Ahmad said. 

''My niece had already got on a boat but a mob of Rakhine people pulled her off the boat with her two children. 

''One was a boy and the other a girl. They killed the boy with a long knife and spears … my niece was raped and then killed by the Rakhine mob.'' 

Rashid Ahmad said his people had lived in Burma for a long time and have a proud history as Muslims ''but have never felt law and justice from the government''. 

''We are helpless unless we get help from another country,'' he said.

Lawmakers - Arresting Rohingyas Alive, Returning Dead!

Maung Than Soe (aka) Mohammed Khan

RB News

December 25, 2012

(Translated into English by M.S. Anwar) 

A Letter from a Bleeding Heart to RB News 

I, Daw Kyaut Khin at my 41, daughter of U Hla Kyaw, a widow and mother of three children, was born and brought up at the quarter of MyoThuGyi in Sittwe (Akyab), a place where we have been living for generations. On 10th June 2012, when Rakhine terrorists were killing and annihilating Muslims in our quarter, I was struggling to escape the horrific scenes with my two children (my eldest son was away from home on his trip) to save our lives. Meanwhile, my second son, Maung Than Soe @ Mohammed Khan (Son of U Maung Oo Shwe), was arrested and abducted by the two Police officers, Win Tun Oo and Than Shwe, from Police Station No.1. 

My Son was trying to escape from the hands of the two Police officers and run away as he was too frightened, he was hacked with sword by the waiting Rakhine (Buddhist) terrorists and consequently got severe injuries on his head and right arm. I could not help and do anything as Police dragged away my son with such injuries. As I was attempting to run for life with my four-year-old child with a broken and bleeding heart, we were beaten and hacked by the Rakhine terrorists. As a result, I had to get my head stitched nine times and my four-year-old daughter also got injuries on her hand. 

As I was getting treatment in hospital for the severe injuries I was given, I got a chance to see my son, Maung Than Soe, from a distance, ailing from the critical injuries. 

The lawmakers and authority of this country, feel it being in my shoes what and how I would be feeling going through such pains! I can’t explain! 

On 19th December 2012, to make my heart bleed more, only the dead of my son, Maung Than Soe, was delivered to me from the above mentioned Police Station No.1. His dead body was full of injuries resulted from the tortures by the inhumane police. 

My son was arrested 6-7 months ago and I was never given a chance to see him in the prison. I was never given a chance to provide him with foods and medicines. Which country on earth will have such lawmakers who arrest innocent people alive and return their mere dead bodies!!! 

Feel it, how much pain we, weak and vulnerable people, are going through! My father is also a pure Rakhine and my mother is Kaman. 

What fault have we done? 

Is our fault that we are Muslims?

Concerning the arrest of my son, Police had never given me any notice or any other documents. 

Is it that anybody here can be killed, hacked or chopped on mere reason that he/she is Muslim?? 

Daw Kyaut Khin 

Sittwe

“We Need to go Home” - Rohingya Refugees in Malaysia

Protesters in Malaysia are asking the Myanmar government to end the violence in Western Myanmar and the atrocities committed against Rohingya people. (Photo - Mohd Fazrul Hasnor @ Demotix)

Rebecca Henschke

Asia Calling

December 15, 2012

When 28-year-old Khairul Bashar took to sea for the first time, he left behind all that he had ever known. He is a Rohingya, born in Burma from the Maung Saw Township but he has never been given citizenship.

After suffering years of discrimination things go worse in June. The rape and murder of a Buddhist woman triggered a wave of violence against the Rohingya.

After seeing members of his community being killed Khairul fled to Malaysia.

Rebecca Henschke spoke with him in an apartment block in Kuala Lumpur where many Rohingya are now sheltering in.

“To save my own life I had to leave my own native land.”

Q. Can you tell me what happened? What happened to you and your family? 

“With out saying anything they attacked.”

Q. What did they do?

“They killed.”

Q. You saw that with your own eyes?

“I saw 50 people with knifes come and attack and killed 5 members. Two are a little young and one is old over 60 years.”

Q. You saw these people being killed. Did you know the killers? Were they your neighbors?

“See. Everyday they are not far from our village. Their village is beside our village. We are from Kayin, Maung Saw Township. Continously they attack. So killing for two days and then they start arresting people who are educated and a little wealthy. After they are arrested we don’t where they go.”

Q. Educated wealthy Rohingya started to be arrested?

“Only our Rohingya not Rakine. They explain to us that they are concerned about that problem so we need to arrest you.”

Khairul has a degree in sociology. His family feared that he would be arrested next, so he left... 

First to Bangladesh, where he has relatives living in refugee camps. He crossed the border by swimming across a river.

“We collected 75 members we gathered some money and we buy one boat which is suitable for 75 members. It’s an old boat not new. They had no driver. I drive. I have some experience about diesel engine.”

Q. Was it dangerous with the waves?

“So dangerous! After 19 days we are in Thailand.”

Q. How did you cross the border from Thailand into Malaysia illegal?

“There is forest. So we come through the forest. We walked 11 hours and then take a car.”

Q. Do you free safe now?

“What kind of safe! I am illegal here. I can not work. If I am arrest by the police what can I say to them? So i can not work.”

So we have climbed up the stairs of an apartment building not far from the centre of Kuala Lumpur. 

If you look out from the apartment building you can see the Twin Towers. Here many of the Rohingya refugees are now living because this is where the community head lives. 

We have just been told that someone arrived yesterday from the Rakhine state so we are going to met them....

Q. Are there many Rohingya families here?

“Around six or seven.”

We enter an empty two-bedroom apartment. Around eight people are sitting on the floor.

Khin Tun greets us. He arrived with his family of four yesterday by plane from Rangoon where he used to run an art gallery. He and his family have Burmese citizenship.

His wife’s family is from the Kyaukphyu township. In October the entire Muslim quarter—more than 300 houses belonging to the Rohingya community was burned to the ground in communal violence.

Khin’s family now lives in a refugee camp. But he described to me how they called him when their houses were on fire in October.

“All my family is there. Everyday they call crying...crying..”

“Hour by hour they call me what is happening now.”

Q. What did they say?

“I hear lots of sounds that I had never heard in my life. Some are crying. So are calling the God Allah, some say the water...lots of things. It was very noisey. I cry all the time. I am listening on the phone and I say Run!.. so they run. Especially the women and children are crying.”

“She fears that the same conflict that is happening in Rakhine will come to Yangoon. Now they are sending all the people to the camps. What is the meaning of the camps? Why do these people have to be refugees? These people have their own lives, they have their own homes and business they are human beings now they are in the camp. I think the next person will be me. Eventhough I live in Rangoon, they will come and pick me up.”

Q. Where you getting any phone call or messages to tell you that you would be taken to the camps?

“I have friends working in the government, they are my university friends they told me that I should leave before you have to go to the camps so that’s why I decided to leave.”

Q. Did you imagine that this kind of violence would happen against your people? Did you think it would get this bad?

“No I never thought. I never thought they would kill and try and wipe us all out. Then they say we are the immigrants...immigrant from 300-400 years! What do they want from us?”

Q. What do you want to do now? What are your plans for the future now that you have arrived in Malaysia?

“Right now I am on a passport for Malaysia but after two months it will expire and after that I will have to run illegally. Right now I am trying to get in contact with the UN and trying to get in contact with lots of people in the whole world because two years ago I was working in an American company in Afghanistan so I have lots of friends world wide...So I sent an email to them and they cry. We cannot live in Malaysia; this is their country not ours. We need to go home. No one can get your home back for you we need to get our home back!”

Khin Tun, a Rohingya Burmese who recently arrived in Malaysia with his family of four seeking asylum. He was speaking with Rebecca Henschke.

Self-Inflicted Harm: The ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights

Rohingya Muslims, trying to cross the Naf river into Bangladesh to escape sectarian violence in Burma, look on from an intercepted boat in Teknaf on June 13, 2012. (Photo - AFP) 

Caryl Thompson

Global Policy

December 21, 2012

ASEAN Human Rights Declaration Provokes Controversy 

Since its inception in 1967, the ten-member Southeast Asian alliance, ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) has focused on promoting regional co-operation, regional identity and trade links. For the most part, the human rights of its 600 million inhabitants have failed to attract the Association’s attention. 

The ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights announced recently at the ASEAN leaders’ 21st summit held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, would, therefore, ostensibly appear to be a positive new direction for the organisation. However, rather than welcoming this development, civil society and grassroots groups across the region and globally have united in criticising the document. The U.S. Department of State has announced that “we are deeply concerned that many of the ASEAN Declaration’s principles and articles could weaken and erode universal human rights and fundamental freedoms as contained in the UDHR [UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights]”. 

That such opposing views have developed in a region that is increasingly regarded as pivotal in International Relations should be a cause for concern. By adopting a rigorous non-interventionist approach to human rights violations in other member states, are the nations of ASEAN simply recognizing the sovereignty of others or could they be unwittingly fostering conditions that may threaten their own security? 

The mutual recognition of sovereignty adopted by ASEAN members is fundamental to its decision-making processes, encapsulated by “consultation and consensus ” and an enduring principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of member states. Thus while espousing the rhetoric of human rights, the Declaration firmly maintains that it is the responsibility of individual sovereign member states to establish and maintain freedom and rights for their national citizens, a principle to which several appear reluctant to commit. 

As a result the Declaration has been denounced as “culturally relativist” with domestic laws superseding universal principles of freedoms and basic rights. While such external critiques may be dismissed by the members of ASEAN, they cannot ignore the more immediate internal consequences of their adopted position and the very real possibility that human rights violations in one member state will have potential repercussions for the security of others. 

To Interfere or Not to Interfere: The Rohingya Question 

One example of the unintended consequences of the communal silence that ASEAN has adopted on human rights violations by member states is demonstrated by the spill-over effects of the ethnic tensions that have erupted and the resultant state-sponsored repression in the Rakhine district of Western Myanmar. 

The ethnic and religious tensions currently engulfing Rakhine state, a strip of land on Myanmar’s western coast are a legacy of British colonialism. Under British rule, thousands of Bengalis from the neighbouring region that today is Bangladesh were encouraged to migrate to the Rakhine area largely as indentured labour. This predominantly Muslim community who have lived in the area for generations and those that have followed them more recently, the Rohingya, are currently caught in a cycle of violence of lethal intensity with the indigenous, largely Buddhist majority. 

While tensions have existed historically between the communities and violence has occurred previously, the government has been firm in resisting international demands for a peaceful resolution to the current situation and has deflected criticism by portraying the situation as a domestic issue. 

The Myanmar government only recognizes as citizens those who were settled in the country prior to independence in 1948. Those unable to meet these stringent criteria are denied citizenship and are effectively stateless, condemned as illegal immigrants and denied basic human rights. 

Following the rape and murder of a young Buddhist woman in the region in May 2012 , a humanitarian crisis has developed in which both Rohingya and Buddhist communities have acted with lethal mutual animosity. Inter-communal violence has led to the killing of hundreds; thousands of homes and many villages have been destroyed. The UN estimates that over 100,000 Rohingya have been forcibly displaced to camps and villages along the Bangladeshi border, where conditions have been described by the UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Baroness Amos as “dire” . 

So what has been ASEAN’s response to this humanitarian crisis in its own back yard given its recent Declaration of Human Rights? 

Following the Phnom Penh summit, the ASEAN Chairman’s statement of November 18, 2012 offered support for the “humanitarian challenges” arising from the violence in Rakhine state but fell short of overt criticism of the Myanmar government. Indeed, in a joint statement following a subsequent meeting two days later with US President, Barack Obama, ASEAN leaders “welcomed positive steps being taken in Myanmar that could facilitate national reconciliation, and encouraged further progress towards a democratic and open political and economic system ”, thereby heaping praise on the Myanmar regime for its apparent move towards democratization whilst ignoring the systematic human rights abuses that continue within the state. 

However, the impact of the situation in the Rakhine district has repercussions beyond Myanmar’s national borders and affects other ASEAN members.

Shooting Yourself in the Foot ASEAN–style 

While, as noted above, many Rohingya have sought refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh, others have fled further afield for sanctuary in Malaysia, another ASEAN member also predominantly Muslim, which has become a preferred destination for those seeking a safe haven from the violence. The UNHCR in Malaysia estimates that there are approximately 25,000 Rohingya in Malaysia, but other estimates put the numbers much higher at around 90,000. 

While Malaysian Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, has expressed concern about the plight of the Rohingya community in Myanmar and called for the “violence committed against them to be stopped immediately” in a speech to the UMNO General Assembly on 29th November, 2012, his country faces the predicament of having to receive sudden large inflows of displaced Rohingya into the community. 

Moreover, as Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN Convention for Refugees, the Rohingya in Malaysia are denied official access to temporary employment, medical and health services and education, thereby further undermining their human security. Furthermore, concerns have been expressed that the desperate conditions facing the Rohingya could lead to radicalization. 

While criticism has been targeted at the recent ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights for apparently privileging domestic laws over universal principles, it could also be argued that the Declaration is myopic and self-defeating. While upholding the inviolability of state jurisdiction on human rights issues, it fails to recognize that the effects of human rights violations cannot necessarily be confined within national borders and may have ramifications that affect other members, as the current situation emanating in Myanmar all too sadly demonstrates. If the members of ASEAN are really dedicated to human rights for all the peoples of the region then a more critical stance may be called for.

Caryl Thompson is a researcher with the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the University of Nottingham.

Self-Inflicted Harm: The ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights

ASEAN Human Rights Declaration Provokes Controversy 

Since its inception in 1967, the ten-member Southeast Asian alliance, ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) has focused on promoting regional co-operation, regional identity and trade links. For the most part, the human rights of its 600 million inhabitants have failed to attract the Association’s attention. 

The ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights announced recently at the ASEAN leaders’ 21st summit held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, would, therefore, ostensibly appear to be a positive new direction for the organisation. However, rather than welcoming this development, civil society and grassroots groups across the region and globally have united in criticising the document. The U.S. Department of State has announced that “we are deeply concerned that many of the ASEAN Declaration’s principles and articles could weaken and erode universal human rights and fundamental freedoms as contained in the UDHR [UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights]”. 

That such opposing views have developed in a region that is increasingly regarded as pivotal in International Relations should be a cause for concern. By adopting a rigorous non-interventionist approach to human rights violations in other member states, are the nations of ASEAN simply recognizing the sovereignty of others or could they be unwittingly fostering conditions that may threaten their own security? 

The mutual recognition of sovereignty adopted by ASEAN members is fundamental to its decision-making processes, encapsulated by “consultation and consensus ” and an enduring principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of member states. Thus while espousing the rhetoric of human rights, the Declaration firmly maintains that it is the responsibility of individual sovereign member states to establish and maintain freedom and rights for their national citizens, a principle to which several appear reluctant to commit. 

As a result the Declaration has been denounced as “culturally relativist” with domestic laws superseding universal principles of freedoms and basic rights. While such external critiques may be dismissed by the members of ASEAN, they cannot ignore the more immediate internal consequences of their adopted position and the very real possibility that human rights violations in one member state will have potential repercussions for the security of others. 

To Interfere or Not to Interfere: The Rohingya Question 

One example of the unintended consequences of the communal silence that ASEAN has adopted on human rights violations by member states is demonstrated by the spill-over effects of the ethnic tensions that have erupted and the resultant state-sponsored repression in the Rakhine district of Western Myanmar. 

The ethnic and religious tensions currently engulfing Rakhine state, a strip of land on Myanmar’s western coast are a legacy of British colonialism. Under British rule, thousands of Bengalis from the neighbouring region that today is Bangladesh were encouraged to migrate to the Rakhine area largely as indentured labour. This predominantly Muslim community who have lived in the area for generations and those that have followed them more recently, the Rohingya, are currently caught in a cycle of violence of lethal intensity with the indigenous, largely Buddhist majority. 

While tensions have existed historically between the communities and violence has occurred previously, the government has been firm in resisting international demands for a peaceful resolution to the current situation and has deflected criticism by portraying the situation as a domestic issue. 

The Myanmar government only recognizes as citizens those who were settled in the country prior to independence in 1948. Those unable to meet these stringent criteria are denied citizenship and are effectively stateless, condemned as illegal immigrants and denied basic human rights. 

Following the rape and murder of a young Buddhist woman in the region in May 2012 , a humanitarian crisis has developed in which both Rohingya and Buddhist communities have acted with lethal mutual animosity. Inter-communal violence has led to the killing of hundreds; thousands of homes and many villages have been destroyed. The UN estimates that over 100,000 Rohingya have been forcibly displaced to camps and villages along the Bangladeshi border, where conditions have been described by the UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Baroness Amos as “dire” . 

So what has been ASEAN’s response to this humanitarian crisis in its own back yard given its recent Declaration of Human Rights? 

Following the Phnom Penh summit, the ASEAN Chairman’s statement of November 18, 2012 offered support for the “humanitarian challenges” arising from the violence in Rakhine state but fell short of overt criticism of the Myanmar government. Indeed, in a joint statement following a subsequent meeting two days later with US President, Barack Obama, ASEAN leaders “welcomed positive steps being taken in Myanmar that could facilitate national reconciliation, and encouraged further progress towards a democratic and open political and economic system ”, thereby heaping praise on the Myanmar regime for its apparent move towards democratization whilst ignoring the systematic human rights abuses that continue within the state. 

However, the impact of the situation in the Rakhine district has repercussions beyond Myanmar’s national borders and affects other ASEAN members.

Shooting Yourself in the Foot ASEAN–style 

While, as noted above, many Rohingya have sought refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh, others have fled further afield for sanctuary in Malaysia, another ASEAN member also predominantly Muslim, which has become a preferred destination for those seeking a safe haven from the violence. The UNHCR in Malaysia estimates that there are approximately 25,000 Rohingya in Malaysia, but other estimates put the numbers much higher at around 90,000. 

While Malaysian Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, has expressed concern about the plight of the Rohingya community in Myanmar and called for the “violence committed against them to be stopped immediately” in a speech to the UMNO General Assembly on 29th November, 2012, his country faces the predicament of having to receive sudden large inflows of displaced Rohingya into the community. 

Moreover, as Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN Convention for Refugees, the Rohingya in Malaysia are denied official access to temporary employment, medical and health services and education, thereby further undermining their human security. Furthermore, concerns have been expressed that the desperate conditions facing the Rohingya could lead to radicalization. 

While criticism has been targeted at the recent ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights for apparently privileging domestic laws over universal principles, it could also be argued that the Declaration is myopic and self-defeating. While upholding the inviolability of state jurisdiction on human rights issues, it fails to recognize that the effects of human rights violations cannot necessarily be confined within national borders and may have ramifications that affect other members, as the current situation emanating in Myanmar all too sadly demonstrates. If the members of ASEAN are really dedicated to human rights for all the peoples of the region then a more critical stance may be called for.

Caryl Thompson is a researcher with the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the University of Nottingham.

The Trip of UN Special Envoy Mr. Vijay Nambiar to Myanmar Ends

December 21, 2012 

(Translated into English by M.S. Anwar)

Yangon, Myanmar- UN Special Envoy Mr. Vijay Nambiar visited refugee camps in Arakan, Myanmar from December 16 to December 20. During his trip to Arakan, he was accompanied by U Khin Yi, the Minister for Immigration and Population Affairs of the country. 

Even though Mr. Nambiar visited Maung Daw in Arakan, he did not visit Rohingya refugees over there according to the locals of Maung Daw. Although there are only few Rakhine refugees in Maung Daw, government set up some temporary tents with the unemployed and poor Rakhines along the road of HaisshuRate (Alay Than Kyaw)-Maung Daw Highway in order to portray that there are many Rakhines affected by the recent violence. And government showed these unemployed Rakhines to Mr. Nambiar as though they are genuine refugees displaced during the violence. 

And then, he visited refugee camps in Akyab (Sittwe) and Mye-bun. He, together with U Khin Yi, held a meeting and discussion with five representatives from Rakhine community and five from Rohingya community respectively. (That meeting was stated by Radio Free Asia (RFA), Burmese Program, as “Five Representatives from Rakhine Community and other Five Representatives from ILLEGAL INVADERS attended the meeting.” RFA used the term ROHINGYA instead of ILLEGAL INVADERS in translating the same news into English. Besides, in the news by RFA, they have written the report as if Mr. Vijay Nambiar has prevented using the term “Rohingya.” However, it is found that the news by RFA is different from the news officially released by UN News Centre. Even the President of the Country, U Thein Sein, himself, has admitted that there were NO Rohingyas (Bengali in his term) entered and settled in Arakan after the independence of the country. Therefore, the staffs of Radio Free Asia (RFA) in Burmese Language Section have become worse extremists than the Myanmar government has. And hence, it has become clearer that they have intentions to create more problems in Arakan. It is really SHAMEFUL for such a World-Famous Media like RFA to make such arbitrary and baseless accusations. However, the accusation was made by the staffs in its Burmese Language Section and they must bear the responsibility for that.) 

In the meeting, the representatives of the two communities criticize and blamed each other. Moreover, as to whether to or not to use the term “Rohingya,” Rohingya representatives demanded to hold meetings with internationals scholars and historians to discuss the matter.

On Myanmar visit, UN envoy meets civilians uprooted by Rakhine violence

A group of internally displaced people in Myanmar's Rakhine state. Photo: UNHCR Myanmar

UN News Centre
December 20, 2012

A United Nations envoy, Vijay Nambiar, has wrapped up a visit to Myanmar during which he was able to meet with people displaced by the inter-communal violence this year in Rakhine state, as well as discuss with the Government how to address the problems facing the communities there. 

Several waves of clashes between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, the first of which occurred in June, have left 115,000 people displaced, as well as more than 100 dead, according to UN estimates.

Mr. Nambiar, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Myanmar, accompanied the Minister for Immigration and Population Affairs, U Khin Yi, on a visit to Rakhine state, located in the Asian nation’s west.

“This visit helped the Special Adviser see the current conditions of the internally displaced persons from both communities in the area and also allowed him to participate in the discussions which the Minister was holding with the representatives of the two communities, together and separately,” said a news release issued in Yangon.

During those discussions, the Minister presented some ideas on the way forward, especially on a framework for addressing the problems afflicting the communities there. 

In his comments to the communities, Mr. Nambiar underlined his initial impression that the Minister’s outline of his proposal was “forward-looking and realistic, while taking into account the dignity and essential interests of the affected communities.”

Mr. Nambiar’s visit, which began on 16 December, was at the invitation of the Myanmar Government, which has pledged to take measures to address the violence in Rakhine. 

Last month, President Thein Sein wrote to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that his Government was prepared to address “contentious political dimensions, ranging from resettlement of displaced populations to granting of citizenship.” 

It would also look at “issues of birth registration, work permits and permits for movement across the country for all, in line with a uniform national practice across the country ensuring that they are in keeping with accepted international norms.”

In addition, the President underlined the commitment of the Government to meet the humanitarian needs of individuals and communities in the affected areas of Rakhine state and sought wider international assistance and cooperation in this regard.

Rohingya Arrested By Nasaka, Maung Daw

      On 16^th Dec 2012, at about 11:00PM, Nasakas from sentry camp of Maung Ni village, Kayin Dan(myoma) village tract entered to a house of Rohingya, Mohamed Hasson s/o Azhar Meya(28Yr) and arrested him over the false accusation of using Bangla phone. He is still remains in the Nasaka custody as he is not able to pay the Nasakas’ demand of 1200,000Ks.

      The Nasakas have extorted from almost every houses of Maung Ni village. There is no possibility to use Bangla phones in the presense of such a Nasaka sentry camp. But Nasakas want money from Rohingyas no matter they are innocents or guilty and no matter they are poor or rich. Similar cases on Rohingyas have been being carried out by polices, Sarapa, etc also.

Election without Rohingya for village admin post in Maungdaw

Maungdaw, Arakan: An election was held at Ward No.4 of Maungdaw Town on December 18; without inviting any Rohingya though there is 1/3 of Population is Rohingya community, according to a local who preferred not to be named.
“The election was held by U Kyi San, the Township Administration officer with permission of U Aung Myint Soe, the District Administration officer of Maungdaw District. The District officer ordered the Township officer not to call any Rohingya to take part in the election.”
The authority elected  ward administration officer, as head of 100 houses and head of 10 houses with other village administration Council members from Rakhine community without voting, just selected, said a villager of Ward No.4.
This kind of election encouraged to the Rakhine community because of excluding the Rohingya community. This will be a testing matter in Maungdaw Town without participation of Rohingya community in the election, said a business man from Maungdaw Town.
“Rohingya people think that the situation in Arakan State will not be better in future and they become upset.”
“Where is the rule of law and equality in the country”, said a politician from Maungdaw Town.

No Rohingya for village admin: Township officer

Maungdaw Arakan State: The Township administration officer, U Kyi San stated no Rohingya will hold the post of village admin officer in the village where at the monthly village administration officers meeting which held in Township office hall, according to a village administration officer who attend the meeting who deny to mention his name.
“The Township admin officer stated no Rohingya will hold the post if the village has Rakhine staying, even the Rakhines are a very little in the village.”
“The Burma is reforming towards democracy, why the authority will not hold the willing of majority wish,” said a Rohingya village administration officer. “The voting for the village post must be the willing of villagers and the authority must follow the law of election. We don’t selection and it is right of villagers.”
The Township officer said, if you don’t want to follow the order, you must leave the country in the meeting.
The Burmese government has been quick to deny international media reports of genocide and has instead described the situation as an inter-communal conflict due to underdevelopment in the state.
Last month President Thein Sein promised that his government would look at a range of solutions – among them resettlement and citizenship – in what has become Burma's most pressing conflict since its transition to democracy last year.

Soldiers extort money from sentry men in Maungdaw

Maungdaw, Arakan State:  Burmese soldiers extorted money from village sentry men on December 18, over the allegation that they had broken the law of sentry post, according to a local businessman preferring not to be named.  
A section of soldiers from Labaw Zaar army camp of Nasaka area No. 6 of Maungdaw north went to the Labaw Zaar village of Maungdaw Township and allegedly blamed the sentry men while paying sentry duty at the sentry posts and then brought to its camp where they were detained.
“But the army did not explain what kind of rule, they had broken,” said a local trader who denied to be named.
On that day, 15 sentry men were arrested and brought to the army camp.
The innocent villagers (sentry men) did not know anything about their arrest. They have to pay sentry at the village from dusk to down, said a youth from the village.
The army asked to provide them one CDM phone card per each to be released. One CDM Mobile Phone card is cost at Kyat 12,000. However, they were released after paying money the next day, the youth more added.
“The army did it deliberately against the Rohingya community,” said a local elder.
“The sentry are very poor, I don’t know how they managed the money to be released,” said another local elder who denied to be named.
There is no rule of law in Arakan State. Those who are only suspicious persons, they are identified as criminals, detained and extorted money.
Human rights groups have long accused the Burmese security forces of arbitrarily arrest, detentions and torturing suspects to extract confession or money. There are many records of people dying in custody, according to the Asian Human Rights Commission.

Trapped inside Burma's refugee camps, the Rohingya people call for recognition

Rohingya refugees at the Pauktaw camp in west Burma. Photograph: Kate Hodal for the Guardian

Kate Hodal
The Guardian
December 20, 2012

Muslim group languishes in makeshift homes with no work, no schools and no citizenship rights from Burmese government

The helicopter cuts a sharp arc away from the sea and sweeps over pagoda-topped hills and dusty farmland until a mass of dirty white tents comes into view. Soon throngs of people can be seen coming out of their makeshift homes and rushing towards the airfield, until they resemble a human fence, snaking five-deep around the camp. There are mothers in pastel hijabs, men in T-shirts and longyis, and naked children clutching on to grandparents, jostling for space among puddles and dust, held back by guards with rifles.

Here at Pauktaw refugee camp in Rakhine state – home to the inhabitants of five Rohingya Muslim villages who fled intercommunal conflict in western Burma this year – there are no schools, no work and no fields to cultivate – because no one is allowed to leave. When a helicopter lands, they hope it will bring either more supplies or some end to a way of life that has been unchanged for six months.

Since June Rakhine state, on the border with Bangladesh, has been ripped apart by violence between the majority Rakhine Buddhists and minority Rohingya Muslims, sparked by the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman. Thousands of homes have been destroyed, 200 people have been killed and more than 115,000 displaced. Communities that once coexisted peacefully have been sent to segregated refugee camps all around the state, the majority of them filled with Rohingya – a population of roughly 800,000 who claim to be rightful citizens of Burma but whom the Burmese government widely calls "Bengali immigrants", denying them citizenship and placing restrictions on their rights to travel, attend higher education and even marry.

Accompanying a high-level delegation of Burmese officials and British diplomats – including the British ambassador to Burma, Andrew Heyn, and the minister for south-east Asia Hugo Swire – to five refugee camps over a two-day period, the Guardian was escorted by gun-wielding Buddhist border guards to meet Pauktaw camp's Muslim leaders, who sit cross-legged on plastic sheeting underneath ripped tents suspended by salvaged wood.

Entirely reliant on aid, they said they needed greater medical care and want recognition as an ethnic group. "Rakhines came to our villages and burnt down our houses, that's why we're here," said one elder, his hands clasped tightly at his waist. "We've been living here for generations and never had a situation like this, so I don't know why it happened. But now we have no documents – everything was burned."

Tents are so scarce that many families have cobbled together thatch-and-corrugated iron shelters, sleeping on hay and torn blankets. Those that do exist bear Saudi Arabia's logo, but they are torn and thin – leftovers from a huge aid donation during Cyclone Nargis. Aid workers said the UNHCR has been forbidden to provide the camp with new tents, but the reasons were unclear from both U Hla Maung Tin, chief minister of Rakhine state, and General Zaw Winn, deputy minister for border affairs, both of whom were part of the visiting delegation.

The British government is Burma's largest aid donor and through various NGOs is providing water, sanitation and healthcare to some 58,000 Buddhists and Muslims across the state. But it seems that camp conditions vary wildly in their size and ethnicity. In Mingan, a Rakhine camp of 300 people in Sittwe, water pumps, kitchen crops and rubbish bins make neat little rows next to the newly issued tents and their inhabitants are allowed to go into town and work. In contrast, no Rohingya the Guardian met said they were allowed to leave – "for their own security", officials explain – and they have watched instead as their farmland and animals have been taken over by Rakhine Buddhists.

Villages razed to the ground since the conflict began this summer, and later reignited in October, have turned into breeding grounds for discontent. In Sittwe, the regional capital where much of the violence took place, the city is segregated along Muslim and Buddhist lines and a tight curfew is still in place. "It is impossible for the Muslims to stay here now," said Cho Cho Lwin, 41, from her tent in Mingan. "If we forgive them, they'll just do it again. They have always wanted to expand their land but until now didn't have the chance."

Many Burmese believe that the Rohingya are "illegal Bengali immigrants" who crossed over from Bangladesh during the British occupation, and who aim to turn Rakhine into a Muslim state. As many Rakhine are fervent nationalists – Rakhine was an independent kingdom until 1784 – they worry that the Rohingya are extremists in disguise. "There are outside radical elements [at play] and this [Rohingya issue] is a tool of Islamicisation," said Oo Hla Saw of the Rakhine Nationalities Development party (RNDP). "That is why we are afraid."

Most Burmese refuse to consider the Rohingya as an ethnic group and claim the name has been fabricated and used to win international support. Anti-Rohingya animosity is so strong that it can be felt ddown in the former capital, Rangoon, where discussions on the issue turn into rants about Burma's porous borders and a government that has been too soft on the "illegal Bengalis".

While the government has seemingly taken steps to address the issue, a Rakhine inquiry commission set up in August raised eyebrows after it emerged that there was not a single Rohingya representative on the commission, yet its chairman, Aye Maung, heads RNDP, and another of its representatives, Ko Ko Gyi, has previously stated that Rohingyas are "invading" Burma.

Multiple allegations of abuse against Rohingya by security forces, including rape and torture, have been lodged with human rights groups, who have expressed concern about the prevalence of Muslims in detention. According to official figures released last week, more than 1,100 suspects have been detained in connection with this year's violence, but three-quarters of those currently detained are Rohingya.

Abu Tahay, of the Rohingya political group National Democratic Party for Development, says that authorities have acted without warrants and Rohingya detainees have been held without bail or access to lawyers.

The Burmese government has been quick to deny international media reports of genocide and has instead described the situation as an intercommunal conflict due to underdevelopment in the state. Last month President Thein Sein promised that his government would look at a range of solutions – among them resettlement and citizenship – in what has become Burma's most pressing conflict since its transition to democracy last year.

Local immigration authorities recently began the mammoth task of verifying the citizenship of Rakhine's Muslim population in an effort to settle the explosive question. While some Rohingya hold temporary registration cards that grant them the right to vote but little else, citizenship revolves around a contentious 1982 law requiring proof that the past three generations of an applicant's family have lived in Burma. It is a touchy subject for Rohingya, many of whom lack any documentation but insist that their ancestors were born and bred in the state.

The census is expected to continue until 2014, although it is still unclear whether Buddhist and Muslim communities will be expected to live together once more or will continue to be segregated. It is also unknown what will happen to those who are incapable of providing documentation.

Swire – who initially travelled to Burma to lead a trade delegation – said that "conditions [in Rakhine] remain extremely worrying" and stressed that without greater determination and urgent action, "this tragedy will continue to deepen for all concerned".

To date, Aung San Suu Kyi – who is considered internationally as Burma's most unifying political figure and who herself has previously stressed the significance of ethnic rights – has been largely absent from debates on the issue and it is unclear why she has not taken more of a lead role.

However, analysts largely believe that her reticence may stem from a political desire to maintain majority Burman votes for her NLD party, particularly in the lead-up to the 2015 presidential elections.

According to Swire, who briefly met Aung San Suu Kyi and raised the Rohingya issue, the Nobel laureate is prepared to help in the reconciliation process if invited by the Burmese government to do so. "[Suu Kyi] herself has been very clear about this– she is extremely busy. She can't do everything in this country," said Swire. "If she is formally invited to get involved, she has indicated to me that she would be very willing to do that."

With aid workers expecting Rakhine's refugee camps to remain in place for at least another year, it seems many Rohingya are still at the mercy of the Burmese government and the few media and foreign dignitaries able to visit.

When one teary-eyed Rohingya man pleaded with Zaw Winn, telling him, "We are real Rohingya – please recognise us", the minister looked at his colleague and laughed.

It is perhaps no surprise that, at the end of the tour of Pauktaw, a few brave Rohingya slipped handwritten letters into the hands of the delegation, including one to the Guardian that read: "We are real citizens of Burma … We hope that you will save and rescue [us]."

Who are the Rohingya?

• The Rohingya are an 800,000-strong Muslim minority in Rakhine state, western Burma, which borders Bangladesh. Though many claim to have lived in Burma for generations, they are not recognised as one of the country's 135 ethnic groups.
• A document on Burmese languages dating back to 1799 refers to "Rooinga" as "natives of Arakan [Rakhine]", but it is widely believed that most Rohingya came over from Bangladesh around 1821, when Britain annexed Burma as a province of British India and brought over migrant Muslim labourers.
• Large-scale Burmese-government crackdowns on the Rohingya, including Operation Dragon King in 1978, and Operation Clean and Beautiful Nation in 1991, forced hundreds of thousands to flee to Bangladesh. Thousands of others have also left for Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, many of them by boat.
• This latest crisis to befall Rakhine state, which has seen 200 killed and 115,000 displaced – most of them Rohingya – tests Burma's recent transition to democracy and its commitment to establishing full human rights for those within its borders.