Update News of Northern Arakan State, July 8, 2012

Maungdaw Township:

A 34-member parliamentary team —consisting of no local Rohingya MPs—led by Thura Shwe Mann visited Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, on July 8. But, the team only visited with Buddhist community, especially the Natala villagers and Monks who are  giving shelter  Mogh  and distributed relief goods to them. The team neither met with Rohingya Muslims nor gave any relief to them, said an elder from Mungdaw.

“There are some Buddhist refugees in Maungdaw Township who are Natala villagers – were brought to northern Arakan from Burma proper for new settlement.  On June 8, some of the houses of Natala villagers were burned down by Rohingya villagers and become refugees. Within two days, all the Natala villagers were brought to under Nasaka camps and some are being kept in Buddhist monastery at Maungdaw.  Whenever international visitors paid visit to Maungdaw Town, they only visited the Buddhist refugees by the local guidance. To show the international visitors, the concerned authorities such as— Nasaka and army— brought the Natala (Model) villagers from northern side of Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung Townships to Maungdaw town.”
Rohingya villagers have been keeping in their villages since the violence was occurred. At present, they are facing acute crisis of ration, medicines and essentials, and are not allowed to buy anything from outside. Nasaka or police or Hluntin with the collaboration of Rakhine youths shot dead Rohingyas, if he will meet out of his home. As a result, many children, pregnant women, wounded patients and other chronic patients are daily dying without medicine and proper medical treatment. Rohingyas become refugees in their own houses, so the outsiders cannot see the Rohingya refugees, the elder more added.
Police, Hluntin, Nasaka, army and Rakhine goons are — killing, arrest, rape, extortion, destruction and confiscation of properties of Rohingys and looting of goods from the Rohingya community.
Nasaka with Mogh goons went to Nyaung Chaung (Kadir Bill) village of Maungdaw Township, yesterday at night and fired to the village and arrested some Rohingya youths and brought to Maungdaw Town, said a businessman.
Nasaka also went to Ghunar Para of Shwe Zaar village tract, today, at about 10:00 am, and checked the family lists and arrested 18 young boys;- Baser son of Fazal, Azzad son of Adul Razark, Aman Ullah son of Sham Shu, Anwer Saddek son of Sham Shu,Lala son of Nur Ahmed, Sadek son of Hussin Ahmed,Ismail son of Abdul Jalil, Sadek Husson son of Kala Meah, Fayas son of Husson, Mohamed Rafique son of Dil Mohamed, Yasein son of Daliya, Nur Alam son of Amir Rawddin, Mohamed Isque son of Hamid, Mufis, Seras Khan, Azizul  Rahaman and Dilu, according to a villager from Shwezarr.
Today early morning, a group of Rakhine youths and Nasaka went to Warrcha Para of Mawaungdaw south and tried to kidnap some of the Rohingya girls while the male villagers were not present at the village for fear of arrest by the army or Nasaka or police. Meanwhile, the girls made hue and cry, hearing of the noises, the male villagers came out from the hiding place and rescued the girls, said an elder from the village.
Today at about 2:00 pm, four villagers namely Maulana Ibrahim and Master Zubair and two others went to Myoma Khayoungdan (Shikdar Para) from Kyiganpin (Kawar Bill) village for their personnel purposes. On the way, the Nasaka of Butkargonah (Koliza Baga) camp arrested them and demanded Kyat 200,000 per head to be released, a trader from the locality said.
In the same way, three villagers from Kyiganpin (Kawar Bill) village went to Kyein Chaung (Bawli Bazar) to buy rice and other necessary things. But on the way, the villagers were arrested by Nasaka and extorted Kyat 60,000 from them, said a businessman.
Buthidaung Township:
Yesterday, a meeting was held by police officers of Zaditaung camp and Buthidaung Town police camp inviting local villagers.  After meeting, the police officers arrested 10 villagers who are USDP (Union Solidarity and Development Party) members.  They are identified as —Salim, Chairman of USDP, Osman Gani, secretary of USDP, Noor Ahmed, USDP member, Gurason, USDP member, Ali Ahmed, USDP member of Bawli Para, Kala, Ismail, Abdullah and other two members. They were severely tortured by police RNDP members.  After arrest, they were brought to Buthidaung police station, said a villager from the locality.
Earlier, Mohamed Noor, son of Seraz of Buthidaung Town and Azad, son of Master Saw Maung were arrested by police four days ago. They are also the USDP members of Buthidaung Town.
The villagers of Pyin Hla village, Parapyin Thein Tin village, Saykan Kwason village, Mostabiz Para, Sie Oo Kya village and Wat Makya village are living with great fear of arrest by the police.
In Buthidaung jail, the arrested villagers from Maungdaw and Buthidaung Townships are sent to Buthidaung jail. No relative is allowed to visit the jail. Every day, 40 prisoners in the morning and in the evening, take out from the Wards and torture severely and die two to three persons in daily basis. The dead bodies were not handed over to the relatives and buried nearby a brick field. Almost all prisoners have only one pair of clothes, said a youth on condition of anonymity.
So far, Burmese has not taken any step to end the suffering of the Rohingyas. There is a serious food crisis and the Rohingyas are daily dying of starvation. The patients and bullet injuries are in acute mental and physical pain without medical treatment. Urgent international humanitarian intervention is the only option to prevent the defenseless Rohingya people, said a Rohingya elder.

Burma's ethnic hatred

Outcasts ... a man weeps after his arrest in Bangladesh.  

The recent brutal religious violence in Burma's western Arakan state has cast a shadow on the country's democratic progress. Dozens of people have been killed and hundreds of homes destroyed as Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims clash near the Bangladeshi border in the country's worst sectarian violence in decades.
Even more shocking than the violence has been the public outpouring of vitriol aimed at the Rohingya, the stateless minority group at the centre of the conflict.
Considered ''illegal Bengali immigrants'' by the government, they are denied citizenship and are widely despised within Burmese society. Anti-Rohingya views have swept both social and mainstream media, seemingly uniting politicians, human rights activists, journalists, and civil society across Burma's myriad ethnic groups.
''The so-called Rohingya are liars,'' one pro-democracy group said on Twitter. ''We must kill all the kalar,'' another social media user said. Kalar is a racial slur applied to dark-skinned people from the Indian subcontinent.

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Burmese refugees, who themselves have fled persecution, gathered at embassies around the world to protest against the ''terrorist'' Rohingya invading their homeland. Even the prominent student leader Ko Ko Gyi, who played a key role in the 1988 democratic uprising, lambasted them as impostors and frauds.
No doubt Burma's nascent media freedom has played a key role in stirring up religious tensions. Vast swaths of inflammatory misinformation are circulating inside Burma, with mainstream media largely accusing al-Qaeda and ''illegal Bengali terrorists'' of staging the violence in a bid to spread Islam in Asia. Many allege that the Rohingya are burning their own houses to attract attention.
One newspaper published a graphic photograph of the corpse of Thida Htwe, a Buddhist woman whose rape and murder - allegedly by three Muslim men - instigated the violence, prompting the President, Thein Sein, to suspend the publication using censorship laws.
These are the same papers that in recent months have openly criticised the government for the first time since a nominally civilian administration took over last year.
Ironically, this freedom has also led to a virulent backlash against foreign and exiled media, who have reported on the plight of the Rohingya, described by the United Nations as one of the world's most persecuted groups.
Following the latest violence, a number of online campaigns have been set up to co-ordinate attacks against news outlets that dare to report on the Rohingya's plight. Angry protesters rallied in Rangoon this week, brandishing signs reading ''Bengali Broadcast Corporation'' and ''Desperate Voice of Bengali''.
The latter was a reference to this reporter's employer, the Democratic Voice of Burma, the Norwegian broadcaster that has made a name for itself among many Burmese as one of the most reliable sources of information about their country.
Recently the broadcaster faced the biggest attack on its website in its history, and its Facebook page is still under constant assault from people issuing threats and posting racist material.
As the International Crisis Group explains, the violence is both a consequence of, and a threat to, Burma's political transition.
The ongoing crisis illustrates the need for Burma to embrace not only independent, but also responsible and inclusive, journalism. To facilitate this transition, the government must take concrete steps to address the underlying dispute about the Rohingya. The sheer level of racism against them in Burmese society, enforced by a government policy of discrimination and abuse, lies at the core of the matter.
A politician from the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party has called for a ''king dragon operation'', the name for a 1978 military operation run by the dictator General Ne Win to stamp out the Rohingya population from Northern Arakan state.
Meanwhile, reports of army complicity in attacks on Muslim homes are growing after a state of emergency was declared last month. The immigration minister, Khin Yi, has again reiterated that ''there are no Rohingya in Burma,'' while Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy continues to carefully sidestep the hot-button issue.
State media has also fanned tensions by using the racial slur kalar in their official appeal for calm after 10 Muslim pilgrims were murdered to avenge Htwe's death.
While the government has taken ostensible steps to calm the violence, including publishing a retraction for the racial slur, it is far from sufficient. Neither is invoking draconian censorship laws a viable solution.
There must be a rational public debate on the future of the Rohingya minority in Burma.
The issue is sensitive and complex, but it cannot be ignored. Political leaders, especially Thein Sein and Aung San Suu Kyi, along with the international community, have an obligation to drive this process. A failure to do so threatens to unravel Burma's democratic reform at a time when it cannot afford to regress.

Burma’s massacres and the world’s conscience

• 
  Abdulateef Al-Mulhim
  

Burma is located in Southeast Asia covering an area of more 250,000 square miles and with a population of more than 60 million people. In recent history it was under British rule from 1886 until 1948, and Burma is a country that never been part of the Commonwealth after the departure of the British.
During the British rule, many people from nearby countries, especially from India, came to Burma. But many Muslims have been in the country for centuries. Burma’s main religion is Buddhism with about 4 percent Muslims and other minorities. The foreigners who came to Burma started to dominate running the services in the country.
They were met with extreme resistance and violence. Burma was and still is one of the poorest countries with one of the lowest GDP and per capita in the world. Burma never caught up with the other Southeast Asian countries in regard to development and economic advances, even thought it has far many more rich resources than some of the Southeast Asian countries. Burma drastically declined in development. It moved from a free market to a Soviet style governing body.
The economy of Burma used to be the strongest among Southeast Asian countries. They were the world largest exporter of rice and it has a lot of untouched forests with the best teak. But poor planning and mismanagement brought economic and social disaster to the people of Burma, and with poverty and lack of education, the country went into chaos.
The recent outbreak of violence is spreading even with efforts of Suu Kyi, the leader of the democratic opposition, who spoke to many world leaders about the situation in her country.
But the atrocities against Muslim minorities had been going on for a long time. It has to be dealt with once and for all. The northern area is only one part of the violence. The chaos is spreading and there is fear that an all out civil war can be near. The president of Burma, Thein Sein, has no control over his own armed forces. He was pressured by the west to calm down his own forces, but, the field commanders are not obeying his orders.
Now Muslim minorities started to leave Burma out of fear. Many of the refugees went to neighboring Bangladesh, but their treatment is not far better than when they were back in Burma. And many more refugees went to China, but the areas are not receiving any aid and now there is fear of wide spread starvation and diseases.
The violence in Burma is widespread with summary executions, torture and rape. The situation of the Muslim minorities is more complicated because they are not recognized as citizens and any scope of any reconciliation will not give them any protection. And it is very difficult to get any information about any solid agreement for the protection of Muslims because the country is very isolated.
The Muslim ethnic group, which is called Rohingya, has always been under constant threats and the massacres and it had been going on for so long, the world simply ignored the whole thing. The Muslims in Burma had been living like refugees in very desperate conditions and they are basically stateless people. And they are not allowed to own land and not allowed to travel outside their area (Rakhine). The world has to look at the Muslim minorities in Burma with serious steps to solve their chronic problem. The Rohingyas who live in the northern part of Burma are always called Bengalis regardless of his origin.
Because most of the fleeing Muslim Burmese are heading to Bangladesh, a country considered one of the poorest countries in the world, will not be able to accommodate or take care of the refugees. Also Bangladesh is having political problem of their own and don’t want to be dragged into a direct conflict with Burmese armed forces. The Burmese army did in fact attack the Bangladishi border in their efforts to pursue some Rohingyas.
Now, the situation in Burma is deteriorating for the Muslim minority and the official announcement about the reason behind the riots is not an excuse for many years of mistreatment of Muslims.
The Burmese government officials said the reason for the attacks on Muslims is because of the attack and rape by three Muslims of Buddhist women, but these attacks had been the norm for many years. Now the United Nations must to find a way to solve the suffering of the more than a million Muslims in Burma. There is an urgent need for medical supplies and food aid. And the only visible assistance came through some Saudi doctors who wanted to help, but there are many difficulties, which hamper their efforts. The number of people in need is very large and the access to where the refugees is very difficult to reach and hard to track. Burma is very isolated and very poor in every basic infrastructure.