Govt Wants to Start Resettling Refugees: Minister

A KNPP peace delegation signs a ceasefire agreement in the Karenni capital Loikaw on March 7, 2012

Burmese Railways Minister Aung Min, the chief government negotiator in talks with ethnic armed groups, has said that Naypyidaw wants to begin resettling internally displaced persons (IDPs) and war refugees before the start of the rainy season, which begins in June.
Aung Min mentioned the plan during informal talks on Saturday with the ethnic Karenni armed group, the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), in the northern Thai border town of Mae Hong Son, said KNPP Secretary 1 Khu Oo Reh.
“He [Aung Min] told us that the government has plans for the resettlement of IDPs and refugees and also wants migrant workers to return,” said Khu Oo Reh.
“They want to start resettling IDPs and refugees by the start of the upcoming rainy season,” he said. “But we think it is impossible and unrealistic, because we don’t know how sure our peace process is. We are just in the process of negotiations.”
There are about 150,000 mostly ethnic Karen refugees from Burma living in nine refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border and an estimated 1.5 million IDPs inside the country, according to relief and humanitarian aid agencies.
It is believed that Thailand alone is host to as many as two million migrants workers from Burma, most of them unregistered.
Khu Oo Reh noted out that before any resettlement program can begin, a number of issues needed to be addressed, including the demining of conflict zones, deciding where the returnees would live and getting the support of international humanitarian groups.
Aung Min met the KNPP on Saturday, the same day he returned from a trip to Europe, where he briefed Norwegian government ministers on the progress of Naypyidaw’s efforts to reach peace deals with ethnic armed groups.
Despite reaching a series of ceasefire agreements with armed groups representing Burma’s Wa, Karen, Shan, Mon, Karenni and Chin minorities, the government has yet to end nearly a year of fighting with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the country’s second-largest ethnic militia.
Sources in Laiza, the headquarters of the KIA’s political wing, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), said that heavy fighting in the area on Sunday left two Burmese soldiers dead and two injured.
Despite such incidents, however, there is still unprecedented hope of an eventual end to ethnic conflict, though observers say it could take years before a lasting peace takes hold.
Saw Htun Htun, the chairman of the Mae La camp, the largest refugee camp on the Thai-Burmese border, said that refugee repatriation would remain impossible in the near future due to continuing security concerns, but added that it could happen within the next five years.

Police kills a Rohingya in Maungdaw

Maungdaw,Arakan State: Police personnel from Ramawaddy village outpost had beaten a Rohingya beggar  on April 20 in the evening  and died in the hospital at about 9:00pm,said a village administration office member.

Hussein, the Rohingya beggar in the hospital after dead

“The Rohingya beggar- Hussein- is living a village of Alay Than Kyaw who is begging for money for his survival around the village near the Alay Than Kyaw.”

Hussein had crossed the police outpost after begging in the villages and had returned to his village in the evening of April 20 where the Rakhine community had come and enjoying for their water festival in Alay Than Kyaw from every corner of Maungdaw township. All the Rakhine community was also drunk at that time. The outpost police officer- a sergeant - who beat the beggar severely without any question until the beggar become unconsciousness, said a village who is the eyewitness from the village.

Assistant Inspector, Hla Myo Htun-the outpost officer in charge- had taken the beggar to the Alya Than Kyaw hospital for treatment but the bagger died in the hospital at about 9:00pm at night, said a staff of hospital who deny to name.

The bagger is an old man who begs for money or foods in the village by village to survival his family as he was old age and not able to work hard. He never asked the sergeant for money or foods. He was only passing in front of outpost and the sergeant had beaten the beggar until dead. Why? One things, he is Rohingya and not a Buddhist, said the hospital staff.

In Maungdaw, the government staff – police and Nasaka – didn’t care the Rohingya as a human. Whenever they want to do some things against the Rohingy they don’t care any law. What they say is the Law, said a student from Alay Than Kyaw.