Sunday 2 September 2012

Nasaka arrest four youths


Maungdaw, Arakan State: Yesterday, Burma’s border security force (Nasaka) arrested two Rohingya youths while they were sitting in a village sentry house at about 4:00 pm, a local elder said preferring not to be named.
The victims were identified as Noor Kabir (22), son of Abdu Rajak and Arafat (25), son of Abdu Salam. Both of them hailed from Naribill village of Maungdaw north.
They were arrested by the Nasaka of Naribill out-post camp of Maungdaw township.
After arrest, they were brought to the Nasaka camp where they were detained. They are the students of class ten.
However, they were released after taking Kyat 100,000 per each.
A local elder said, “What are the faults of the victims.”
Besides, on August 29, Ramuya (28), Lita (40), Yonus (25), son of Kafetullah were arrested by Nasaka (Burma’s border security force) of Udaung Nasaka camp of Maungdaw south. They all belong to Udaung village of Maungdaw Township. The Nasaka with the collaborator on of U Thein Maung  ( Rakhine), the village chairman harass the Udaung villagers in daily basis, said a local elder from the village who denied to be named.

Woman dies for delivery case at Maungdaw

Maungdaw, Arakan State: A pregnant woman was dead today at about 2:00 am for the lack of medical treatment at Maungdaw north, said a relative of the victim on condition of anonymity.

“The dead body was identified as Ms. Tareso (32), wife of Feros Ahmed, hailed from Borgoa Bill village of Kyauk Hla Gaar village tract of Maungdaw Township.”
Yesterday, she was serious condition, so her husband and her parents tried to send her to Maungdaw General Hospital, but, they were barred to go hospital because the time was 7:30 pm. There is curfew, which is still imposed from 5:00 am to 7:00 pm.
As result, they didn’t able to take her to the hospital for delivery case. However, the woman gave to birth a dead baby at about 11:00 pm. After giving birth, the woman became very critical condition.
After four hours later of giving birth, the mother was dead, said her neighbor.
There are many pregnant women in north Arakan died of delivery case for the lack of medical treatment as they are not allowed to admit at hospital. If the Rohingya women get admission in hospital, they will not get proper treatment in the hospital, said schoolteacher from the locality.

Nasaka shot dead two Rohingya youths


Maungdaw, Arakan State: Burma’s border security force (Nasaka) shot dead two Rohingya youths yesterday after releasing them at Maungdaw Township, a close relative of the victims said on condition of anonymity.
The victims were identified as Jaber (25), son of Shab Meah and Saber (30), son of Ramjan Ali. The two youths belong to Dagriza village under the Nasaka headquarters of Kawar Bill of Maungdaw north.
The two youths were arrested by the Nasaka personnel of Nasaka Headquarters on August 26, over the allegation that they had been holding mobile sets without permission of concerned authorities. After arrest, they were brought to the Nasaka Headquarters where severely tortured and became critical position.
However, on August 30, in the morning, they were released after taking Kyat 1, 50,000 per each. But, they were shot dead by the Nasaka, when they were passing the gate of Nasaka Headquarters, said another relative of the victim.
“Villagers believe that the arrestees were seriously tortured in the camp and were released on serious condition. It will be risky for the Nasaka in future, so Nasaka killed them by shooting.”
A close friend of the victims said, “The victims were killed on suspension of holding Bangladeshi mobile phones. The life of the Rohingya is cheaper than the life  of a street dog.”

Update news of Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships

Maungdaw, Arakan State: The Rohingya villagers are not free from the arrest of Nasaka, army, Hluntin and police personnel at Maungdaw Township. The higher government authority lets them free to harass the Rohingya community without any fear, according to a school teacher from Maungdaw south requesting not to be named for security reason.

On August 25, Aman Ullah (40), son of Madi, Abulu (35), son of Khadir Hussain were arrested by Nasaka with the collaboration of village Chairman U Thein Maung. Both of them belong to Udaung west village of Maungdaw south, Arakan State. Villagers said that the village chairman pushes the Nasaka to harass the Rohingya villagers while the concerned authorities want calm in northern Arakan.
Besides, on August 27, the Nasaka also arrested Mohamed Hussain (20), son of Abdu Shukur and Lalu (30), both of them hailed from Fokira Para of Udaung village tract over the allegation that they were involved in the recent riots.
Earlier, on August 23, eight villagers were arrested from this village tract by Nasaka over the allegation that they were involved in riots between Rohingyas and Rakhines on June 8. Nasaka frequently attack this village, so that the villagers cannot live in the village for fear of arrest by the Nasaka. Those, who were arrested by Nasaka were severely tortured in the Nasaka camp. Some of the villagers were released after paying money and the villagers who are not able to pay money are being detained in the camp, according to local villagers.
On August 28,   Aman Ullah (55), son of Fokurul, hailed from Nari Bill of Maungdaw north was arrested by the Nasaka personnel of Nari Bill out-post camp, over the allegation that he didn’t provide the fish to the Nasaka that he caught from the fishing project. He was arrested at noon and brought to their camp where he was detained for money, said a youth from the village who is relative of the victim.
On August 28, five girls and three youths of Fokira Bazar of Mauungdaw north were arrested by Nasaka and brought to their camp and detained there. The girls were accused for not giving information to the concerned authorities where they stayed as guests and the said three youths were accused for holding mobile phones. However, at night, the village administrator brought the girls to his home by giving grantee to the Nasaka that the next day the girls will be sent to the camp again. The next day, the girls were sent to the camp. Their relatives till know, didn’t know the fate of the girls, said a village elder.
The Rohingya prisoners, who were arrested during the recent violence between Rakhines and Rohingyas were produced at the courts of Buthidaung and Maungdaw in recent times. The concerned authority produced 30 to 40 prisoners at a time to the courts, but, the relatives of the prisoners are not allowed to meet them and also barred them to supply any food to the prisoners. The prisoners also do not get any access to fight their cases by lawyers. So, the parents don’t know what kinds of cases that the authority filed against the prisoners. Some of the parents, who went to the court on August 28, were humiliated by the officials of the court.
“One  of the prisoners said to his relative that don’t give us food with meat as our teeth  were broken in the jail by torture, ” said one of the parent who met his son at the court giving bribe to the security force secretly.
The prisoners will get one year or ten years or life term jailed for their guilty. They were accused Act 436, which means, torching houses, killing people, organizing the people to involve in the riots, and giving encouragement, said a lawyer on condition of anonymity.
Rohingyas give security for Pagoda:
On August 23, at night, a group of Rakhines was trying to destroy the Buddhist Pagoda of Tha Yae Kumbo village, which was built at the center of the Rohingya village. The Rohingya villagers, seeing the event, they informed the matter to the local Commander of Nasakra area.. So, the commander immediately sent a group of Nasaka (Border security force) to the spot. When the Nasaka reached near the Pagoda, seeing them, the Rakhine villagers ran away to a nearby mountain and disappeared. But, the authority did not take any action against the villagers who involved in the event, said a village elder from the locality preferring not to be named
Actually, the Rakhine villagers are trying to make Rohingyas to be guilty because the Rakhine villagers had already destroyed the Khala Mosque of Tha Yae Kumbo village, recently. As a result,   Rohingya villagers have to give security to the Buddhist Pagoda not to be guilty in government’s sight, said a local youth on condition of anonymity.

Fear, loathing and lies in Rakhine state

Rohingya in the region are confined to designated areas while all around them monks and authorities stoke anti-Muslim sentiment. And this disdain for the group seems to be receiving the tacit approval of the majority of Myanmar people _ with even Aung San Suu Kyi silent.

he violence started after it was reported on May 28 that a 26 year-old Buddhist woman had been raped and killed by Muslim men. Three Muslim men were detained the following day. 

The case lit the fuse for communal violence in the area and on June 3 about 300 Buddhists attacked a bus in Taungup, killing 10 Muslim men, reportedly in front of policemen and soldiers who did not intervene. 

It is difficult to determine exactly what happened next as there were no independent observers in the area and most people involved claim to have acted in self-defence, but within one week the state was plunged into in an orgy of violence that saw both Rakhine and Rohingya mobs torching houses and committing horrific acts of violence against one another. 

NEGLECTED: Rohingya at Taungup refugee camp about 10km from Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State. 

According to a recent report by Human Rights Watch, security forces stood idly by at the outset of the violence before they began shooting at the Rohingya. At one point the conflict even threatened to spread to the rest of the country, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency in Rakhine State. 

Official estimates put the overall death toll at 78, a gross underestimate in the opinion of several human rights groups. Thousands of Rohingya refugees tried to flee to Bangladesh, only to be blocked, and sometimes shot, by Bangladeshi security forces. Now there are around 70,000 displaced people in the region, most of them Rohingya living in villages or camps around Sittwe, but also Rakhine people, mainly sheltered in Buddhist monastery camps. 

AN UNEASY PEACE 

``The city is now getting back to normal. Everything is peaceful and quiet now,'' said a local member of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, who, like many others in Sittwe, refused to be identified. 

His assessment seems correct at first glance. Apart from the curfew imposed by authorities, a sense of normalcy prevails downtown. 

However, that impression changes the further out one moves. All around the city, vast neighbourhoods were burned or destroyed during the riots. One of these is Narzi, a Muslim-majority quarter with a population of 10,000 on the outskirts of Sittwe. After being evacuated by authorities, it now gives the impression of a city devastated by a natural disaster or war. Its streets are deserted apart from the stray dogs and buildings on huge swathes of land have been razed to the ground by fire. 

SECURITY STOP: A checkpoint at the entrance of Sittwe set up after the imposition of a night-time curfew. 

But the most stark reminder of the violence in Sittwe, a city where Muslims once accounted for as much as 40% of the population, these days there is not a single one to be found on most of its streets. 

According to the official narrative the Myanmar government is playing the role of ``a good referee'' in Rakhine State. 

In a report leaked to AFP, President Thein Sein stated that ``political parties, some monks and some individuals are increasing the ethnic hatred'' against the Rohingya in Rakhine State. The comments came just one month after he publicly called for the expulsion of the Rohingya from the state. 

However, the official view is that security forces from Yangon are less biased towards the Rohingya than their counterparts in Rakhine State and have been sent there to separate both communities to prevent further violence. 

But the situation on the ground tells a different story. Security forces have not merely separated the two communities; they have confined the Muslim population into specific areas: internally displaced person camps outside the city and small ghetto-like quarters heavily guarded by the police and army. And while the rest of the population can move freely, Muslims are confined to their designated camp or specified areas. 

The conditions are dire in Muslim camps like Tat Kal Pyin. A clutch of buildings in the middle of an area reserved for the Rohingya, it houses 3,100 people, living in cubicles of three square metres for each family. The World Food Programme, with the assistance of donors and the government of Turkey, supplies food for the refugees, but some children there show signs of malnutrition. 

The Muslim quarters are off-limits for visitors and journalists, but some residents there said by phone that they don't receive any aid and, as such, their supplies are exhausted and they are forced to buy food from the police at as much as 10 times its market price. They also claim that they do not have access to medical care because most Rakhine doctors refuse to treat them. 

The Myanmar government has not announced any plans to end the confinement of the Rohingya. Meanwhile, the number of refugees in Rakhine camps is dwindling as they return to what is left of their normal lives. Many of them believe that the economic impact of the recent violence will be felt for a long time. 

LONGSTANDING SECTARIAN TENSIONS 

There is a pervasive siege mentality in the Rakhine community and a deeply embedded fear and hatred of the Rohingya and Muslims in general in Sittwe, with damning rumours about them constantly circulating throughout the city. 

Some Buddhist monks Spectrum spoke to were keen to spread such rumours. 

U Chuzarthar, the abbot of Budawmaw monastery in the city, said that the Muslim community in Rakhine State has been infiltrated by al-Qaeda and other extremist foreign organisations. 

To prove his point, he showed a VCD featuring images of violence and ``Muslim extremists'', among them a picture of the Thai army detaining insurgents in southern Thailand. He claimed, however, that it was the Myanmar army and that nobody was able to trace the source of the video. 

U Pinnyarthami, the abbot of another monastery, said that he believed al-Qaeda was using international NGOs working in the area and the United Nations to supply local terrorists with weapons. 

His comments were symptomatic of the widespread distrust among the Rakhine towards international NGOs and the UN, who they believe work exclusively for the Rohingya and neglect the Rakhine people, who also suffer in Myanmar's second poorest state. 

Tensions between the two communities have been simmering for decades in Rakhine State, occasionally boiling over into sporadic episodes of violence. These episodes have often been provoked by the government in a bid to divert attention of political problems. 

Rakhine natives and large sections of the rest of the country's population view the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh poised to invade the country and establish an Islamic state in Rakhine. 

Abu Tahay, the head of the political department for the National Democratic Party for Development, a Rohingya party, denies this accusations: ``This is a totally fabricated accusation by some racist politicians. There is no organisation trying to establish a Rohingya state. We are only looking for ethnicity and to qualify for citizenship.'' 

At the heart of the problem lies Myanmar's 1982 Citizenship Law, which only grants citizenship to those who belong to one of the 135 ``historical ethnicities'' that were in Myanmar prior to 1823, when the British conquered the southern part of the country. 

TAKING SHELTER: Above, Rakhine people at a Buddhist monastery in Sittwe. 

There is much debate among scholars about when the Rohingya arrived in Rakhine State, but there is no doubt that they have been there for generations. In 1820, for example, British ethnologist Walter Hamilton referred to the ``Rooinga'' as ``the Mahommedans [sic] who have been long settled in the country''. 

Regardless, the Myanmar government contends they arrived much later, making them ineligible for full citizenship. 

As a stateless people, it is virtually impossible for most Rohingya to prove that they or their ancestors were born in Myanmar. They do not have freedom of movement, cannot marry without permission from the authorities and their religious freedoms are severely restricted. 

THE LADY'S SILENCE 

The recent wave of sectarian violence broke just before Aung San Suu Kyi made her first trip to Europe in 24 years. 

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has thus far avoided taking a clear position on the issue, except to say that she doesn't know if the Rohingya should be considered Myanmar nationals and that ``we are not certain exactly what the requirements of citizenship laws are''. It is commonly assumed abroad that Mrs Suu Kyi does not want to take a pro-Rohingya stance for fear of alienating voters prior to elections scheduled for 2015. 

While Mrs Suu Kyi has remained silent, other members of her party have not. 

U Win Tin, a founding member of the NLD and perhaps its second most influential member, told this reporter in late July that the conflict in Rakhine State was ``created by foreigners, by Bengalis''. He said the people of Myanmar ``cannot regard them as citizens, because they are not our citizens at all, everyone knows here that''. He said the problem was that ``they want to claim the land, they want to claim themselves as a race, they want to claim to be natives and this is not right''. 

U Win Tin believes that ``we have to keep our citizenship law very tight''. He refused to comment specifically on the 1982 law, but said: ``We can worsen the problem if we change the law now. The problem must be solved according to the law, maybe the 1982 [legislation], but if that law is not enough we will have to change it.'' 

He also suggested a solution to the crisis: ``The problem are these Rohingya foreigners and we have to contain them one way or another; something like what happened in the United States during World War II with the Japanese. The US government contained them in camps and after the war they were sent to Japan or they could apply for citizenship. We can solve this problem that way.' 

``My position is that we must not violate the human rights of these people, the Rohingya, or whatever they are. Once they are inside our land maybe we have to contain them in one place, like a camp, but we must value their human rights.'' 

Other NLD members expressed similar sentiments. 

Nyo Aye, one of the members of the NLD's Rakhine State commission, said she agreed with the proposal of President Thein Sein to put Rohingya people in camps managed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees until they can be sent to other countries. She also stated that the Rohingya "migrated from Bangladesh, so they are not our ethnic people," and added that ``this conflict is related with foreign Muslim extremists''. 

Some in Myanmar defend the Rohingya. Among them is the famous comedian and political activist Zarganar, the monk Ashin Gambari, a leader of the 2007 ``Saffron Revolution'', and Htuu Lou Rae Den, a young Buddhist from Yangon who has launched a campaign called ``Coexist'', advocating peace among Buddhist and Muslim communities in Rakhine State and throughout the country. 

Nevertheless, such voices are in the minority in a country where Islamophobia runs deep. And it is likely that much of this anti-Rohingya sentiment stems from a general consensus on ethnicity as it pertains to nationhood. As Myo Yan Naung Thein, an activist from Yangon and director of Bayda Institute, closely linked with the NLD, put it: ``The military, Aung San Suu Kyi, the 88 generation students and the politicians, we all share the same opinion about national identity.''

Rakhines on their Way to Cover Up their Crimes | M.S Anwar

It is known to the world that there has been a state-sponsored violence going on against Rohingyas with the cooperation of Rakhine extremists in Arakan of Burma. Rohingyas, old, young, children, educated, uneducated, religious leaders all alike, are being arrested and subsequently killed. Their women including under-aged girls are being raped. Their properties are being looted and torched. Mosques were locked and destroyed using bulldozers and there have been no five times prayer and Juma’at prayer in the mosques for more than two months. In short, they all are physically crippled and mentally demoralized. 

Though Rakhines are the main culprits of the crimes against Rohingyas, the involvement of Burmese government in the crimes is equally undeniable. When the Human Rights Watch (HRW) had rightly pointed out that the government did not stop but fuel the riot despite being able to stop it, the international community started to pressure the Burmese regime to accept international investigation teams. The regime well knows that if they allow the international investigation teams into Arakan, their crimes against Rohingyas in particular and against humanity in general will be exposed. 

Therefore, with the fear of being exposed, now President Thein Sein himself has set up an inquiry commission to investigate the ongoing crises in Arakan. Though one cannot expect impartial investigations when the culprits (Rakhines and the government) who started this ugly racism and committed all these crimes themselves have also taken charge of the investigation, yet investigation is an investigation and it needs to be carried out formally. In the investigation team, there are some neutral and good people who also are given the charge. 

Therefore, with a view to hiding the actual situation and deceiving the visiting investigation team, Rakhines in Maung Daw been rushing to set up temporary camps (tents) in rural areas all over Maung Daw. According to Rohingyas in Maung Daw, there are 100-200 tents that have already been built at almost every village. The few affected Rakhines during the riot are kept safe and sound in the monasteries in Maung Daw. Now, it is said that all Rakhines in Maung Daw will move to the temporary camps irrespective to rich, poor, affected or unaffected ones before the investigation team arrives to the region. Hence, they will stay there as long as there is the investigation team. 

Therefore, it is a clear move of Rakhines to deceive the world and investigation team so as to be able to cover up their crimes. “They are trying to portray a situation or condition in which they actually are not. They are trying to portray a situation to force people think that they all have become displaced. And it is all done according to the direction of Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP) in cooperation with local Rakhine authorities. The victimized Rohingyas in the region hope that the conspiracies and deceptions of the Rakhine extremists led by RNDP will become transparent and clearer to the international community as well as Burmese community” said A. Faiz, a victimized Rohingya, from Maung Daw.

Myanmar Rape-Murder Sparks Outrage Over Abuse of Rohingya Muslims


By Flavia Krause-Jackson and Daniel Ten Kate

Seamstress Thida Htwe was walking home from her tailoring work on a remote Myanmar road in late May when attackers took the 27-year-old by knife point to a forest where they raped her, slit her throat, and took her gold jewelry before dumping her body in the mangrove trees.

Local Burmese, including Buddhist monks, distributed incendiary pamphlets about the crime, and allegations quickly spread among the Buddhist majority in Rakhine state that Rohingya Muslims were to blame, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch. The group based its report on the incident and its aftermath, which United Nations officials confirmed, on 57 interviews with both Rohingya and Burmese.

Six days later, as three Rohingya suspects sat in jail, a Buddhist mob stopped a bus in a nearby town and killed 10 Muslim men on board. Local police and soldiers watched without intervening, according to Human Rights Watch and UN officials. Within a week, President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency to quell riots that have killed 88 people and left villages in ruins.

The ethnic strife is complicating Myanmar’s evolving ties with the U.S. and Islamic nations such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, as authorities struggle with how to treat the Rohingya, a minority that’s denied citizenship in Myanmar and faces persecution in Asia similar to that of other stateless Muslim groups such as the Mideast’s Kurds.
‘Serious Issue’

“It’s a serious issue that will hurt Myanmar’s reputation in the long term,” said Jim Della-Giacoma, Southeast Asia project director for the International Crisis Group, a Brussels- based policy research organization. “If Myanmar wants to enter the fold of modern and democratic states, it needs to grapple with this very fundamental issue to give equal rights to all ethnic groups, all religious groups.”

The Rohingya’s status leaves them trapped doing unskilled, poorly paid labor in one of the world’s poorest nations.

While Myanmar has begun to attract companies such asVisa Inc. (V) and Coca-Cola Co. (KO) after taking steps toward democracy, the Rohingya’s plight has flummoxed both Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Neither openly supports citizenship for the Rohingya, and Suu Kyi, though a democratic icon, skirted the issue on a European tour in June when she collected a Nobel Peace Prize she won during her 15 years under house arrest.

“They are very loath to discuss this issue directly, publicly and internationally,” Vijay Nambiar, the United Nations’ top adviser on Myanmar who visited the area immediately after the unrest broke out, said in an Aug. 6 interview in New York. “They see this very firmly as a refugee issue and an issue that the international community should solve and ‘take away these people.’”

Three Convictions


The three Rohingya suspects were convicted for the rape and murder, according to Human Rights Watch. One reportedly committed suicide in prison, and the other two were sentenced to death, the rights group said in its report. In contrast, there have been no convictions in connection with the killing of the 10 Muslim men “despite hundreds of witnesses to the attack,” according to the report issued last month.

Human Rights Watch says about 800,000 Rohingya live in Myanmar. The country, formerly known as Burma, has a population of about 64 million, according to the International Monetary Fund. Many Burmese consider the Rohingya illegal migrants from what’s now Bangladesh, according to Human Rights Watch, which says their presence in modern-day Myanmar predates the start of British colonial rule in 1824.
‘Potentially Destabilizing’

Thein Sein said in June that the violence spread because of “instigations based on religion and racism” and called on all people to show “a sense of wisdom” and “loving kindness” to halt the fighting. In July, he urged the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to accept Rohingya as refugees and resettle them in third countries -- a suggestion the UNHCR promptly rejected.

Even as the nation undertakes economic and political reforms, the tension among its more than 100 ethnic groups “remains a potentially destabilizing factor,” the Asian Development Bank said in an Aug. 20 report, “Myanmar in Transition.”

Spurred by increased foreign investment and commodity sales, Myanmar’s economy may grow as much as 8 percent a year over the next decade as inflation remains low and the government increases trade ties with neighbors China and India, according to the bank.

While U.S. President Barack Obama last month eased some sanctions that were placed on Myanmar’s former military regime, he’s still considering whether to waive an import ban that Congress voted to extend this month, partly due to concern about the Rohingya.




‘Ethnic Cleansing’


The 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation condemned the “ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the Myanmar government,” according to a statement released in May. The group, which includes Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria, called for the Rohingya to have citizenship and offered humanitarian assistance for Rakhine state.

Myanmar has gone on the defensive, forming a 27-member commission on Aug. 17 that includes Muslim leaders to investigate the violence. Authorities moved to halt the ethnic fighting as quickly as possible, the government said in an Aug. 21 statement, saying the clashes occurred “between two communities within a State of Myanmar following a criminal act.”

“We will not accept any attempt to politically regionalize or internationalize this conflict as a religious issue,” the government said. “Such attempts will not contribute to finding solutions to the problem, but will only complicate the issue further.”


Turned Away


Bangladesh, Myanmar’s predominantly Muslim neighbor, has turned away Rohingya trying to reach safety in makeshift wooden boats. Human Rights Watch says about 200,000 Rohingya live in Bangladesh, a nation with a population of about 169 million, according to the IMF.

In one account chronicled by Human Rights Watch in its 56- page report this month, a Rohingya mother of six said her five- year-old daughter died of starvation after Bangladesh authorities denied entry three times and left her floating under a hot sun in the Bay of Bengal for four days.

“Why should we allow them to enter our country?” Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed told Al Jazeera television in a July 27 interview. “It is not our responsibility; it is theirs. Bangladesh is already an overpopulated country.”

Bangladesh had influxes of about 250,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in 1978 and in the early 1990s, followed by repatriation efforts “that were not wholly voluntary,” the UN’s refugee agency said in a December report.



Not Recognized

Ethnic violence against the Muslim minority there can be traced to the departure of the British after Burmese independence in 1948, the paper said.

A 1982 citizenship law grants nationality to people in ethnic groups that were present in the country before the British conquest. That law excludes the Rohingya, along with other minorities of Indian and Chinese descent that aren’t on a list of 135 official ethnic groups.

Myanmar’s recent moves to allow greater Internet freedom have exposed deep-seated hatred toward the Rohingya on social- media sites. Burmese bloggers refer to the Muslim minority as “dogs” or “black,” according to two UN human-rights officials who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.
‘Absolute Denial’

When asked about Burmese attitudes toward the Rohingya, the UN’s Nambiar said, “There is a kind of scare that ‘these’ people from outside are coming over and taking over ‘our’ resources.”

“This has now taken a life of its own,” with “a large number of Burmese in absolute denial,” he said.

Thein Sein undoubtedly will face questions about the Rohingya when he makes his first appearance as president at the UN General Assembly in the final week of September, Nambiar said.

UN officials have told the president, directly and indirectly, “you have to take this head-on. It is incumbent on the government to do more to allay the fears, anxieties and suspicions,” he said.

Suu Kyi may be asked about the issue when she travels to Washington for a scheduled Sept. 19 ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda to accept the Congressional Gold Medal, which lawmakers awarded in 2008 while she was under house arrest in Myanmar. She is also scheduled to receive an award from the Atlantic Council in New York on Sept. 21. It will be her first return to the city where she worked at the UN Secretariat from 1969 to 1971.
Denied Citizenship

“We have to be very clear about what the laws of citizenship are and who are entitled to them,” Suu Kyi told reporters in Geneva on June 14. “All those who are entitled to citizenship should be treated as full citizens deserving all the rights that must be given to them.”

For a democracy icon who endured years in detention to protest an oppressive military regime, Suu Kyi’s equivocation on the Rohingya has drawn rare criticism.

“There are a lot of theories on why she is silent,” said John Sifton, director of Asia advocacy at Human Rights Watch. “The simplest and most plausible is that it does not win you friends.”

Rohingya Women: the World's Forgotten Plight | Tehmina Kazi


During the past week, the media spotlight has zoomed in heavily on rape. Everyone - from Salma Yaqoob to Laurie Penny - has weighed in on the subject. George Galloway sparked off the debate in the UK, with a video podcast describing the allegations against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange as "bad sexual etiquette." The feverish speculation ("Did he use a condom every time?") continues, with little in the way of resolutions.

What has seemingly been forgotten about, however, is a crisis of grave proportions on the other side of the globe. A crisis that features systemic violations of women's bodily integrity as its currency. As John Hemming MP pointed out in his blog, the Assange saga may be entertaining for the media, but there is another situation that warrants our urgent attention, on a continual basis: (http://johnhemming.blogspot.co.uk/).

Two months ago, as Burmese Nobel Laureate Aung San Syu Kii toured the UK to great acclaim, her countrywoman Amina (not her real name) met her death in the most terrifying way possible. Having been assaulted and held down by soldiers, Amina was gang-raped in the village of Pandaung Pin (Nalwborna Para) in Maungdaw, Myanmar. Since 8th June 2012, dozens of girls and women - some as young as twelve and barely acquainted with menstruation - have suffered the same fate. As a 27-year-old man told Human Rights Watch in July 2012: "They tried to snatch the gold jewellery she had, her earrings and her nose ring, but she didn't let them. Then they cut her ear lobe and her nostril with a knife to take it. When she tried to stop them, they tore her blouse open and then raped her. Twelve military and Nasaka [Myanmar's border security force] entered two houses and they raped the women."

Nobody knows the names or faces of these women, or the fact that they come from one of the most under-reported minorities in the world - the Rohingya.

The Rohingya constitute an ethnic and linguistic minority group, who profess Islam as their religion and are related to Chittagonian Bengalis. Based in Myanmar's Northern Rakhine state, their number is estimated at 725,000 or about 80% of the total population of that area (UNHCR). They have faced many years of discrimination at the behest of state authorities, which led to thousands of refugees fleeing to Bangladesh during 1978 and 1991. The role of Bangladesh has come under scrutiny once again (due to the latest clashes), but it has adopted a closed border policy. In any case, Rohingya women get a rough deal in the existing refugee camps, where they are also likely to suffer from sexual violence.

Back in Myanmar, rape has been used as an age-old weapon of war. Many Rohingya men have been killed or put into concentration camps, handing security forces further opportunities to assault women from the inside out. This, in turn, enables them to expunge the men who are still alive. The upshot is the kind of damage which will reverberate for decades, long after the restricted-access cameras have stopped rolling and the bloggers have stopped blogging.

There are additional dimensions to the problems faced by Rohingya women and girls (as cited in the Arakan Project's submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in October 2008). The social norms imposed on them by their own milieu have long since excluded them from decision-making on community matters. Divorced women and widows are ostracised, and once again, find themselves vulnerable to sexual violence. While arranged marriages operate with a reasonable degree of success, forced marriages are not uncommon, and are sometimes initiated for the purpose of trafficking.

The longer this crisis - and its attendant implications for women's autonomy - lasts, the more intractable it seems. However, there are two measures that would get the ball rolling. Firstly, the international community should increase pressure on the Myanmar Government to repeal its 1982 Citizenship Law, as this has effectively rendered the Rohingya stateless. Any new legislation must comply with international human rights standards, including Article 9 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (which establishes equal citizenship rights for women). Secondly, further evidence needs to be collected, in the form of victims' testimonies and presented at the UN Committee Against Torture. The late Professor Rhonda Copelon, a personal heroine of mine, was instrumental in re-characterising rape as a form of torture in international law. As Co-Founder of the International Women's Human Rights Clinic at City University New York, she made tremendous strides for sexual violence victims in Haiti and Iraq, among others. It is high time the abuse of the Rohingya women was treated with the same urgency, regardless of their citizenship status in a country they have existed in since (at least) the 15th century.

UK Prime Minister urged to end Rohingya plight



LONDON - Al Mustafa Welfare Trust (AMWT) Chairman Abdul Razzaq Sajid has said that his charity organisation is working for int’l humanitarian relief and disasters and he has approached UK PM David Cameron to take a stronger stance over the killing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. He urged the UK govt that killing of Rohingya Muslims was a matter of basic human rights which cannot be ignored, says a press release. Sajid said in a statement on Wednesday that on the request of Al Mustafa Welfare Trust, Muslim Charities Forum (MCF), an umbrella of leading Muslim charity organisation in UK, has written a letter to the PM David Cameron.


and requested him to end the plight of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and Bangladesh. Sajid said that plight of the Burmese Rohingya has taken a significant turn for the worse following violent clashes with Rakhan community in western Myanmar. 

Government restrictions on humanitarian access to the Rohingya community have left over 100,000 displaced people in desperate need of food, shelter and medical aid. Malnutrition rates in the northern Arakan state where some 800,000 Rohingya lives are far above the global indicator for a health crisis and are likely to further deteriorate as international NGOs have been forced to leave the area. Meanwhile, the tens of thousands of Rohingya that fled to neighboring Bangladesh to escape the brutal attacks have ended up as unregistered refugees with little access to aid or assistance. 

The Bangladesh authorities have refused to help the refugees and have ordered several international charity organisations to cease essential humanitarian aid operations. Conditions in campsites where Rohingya are stationed are atrocious, with disease rampant and standard of living extremely poor.

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Maung daw, Arakan state, Myanmar (Burma)
I am an independent man who voted to humanitarian aid.