One government, two different statements

Maungdaw, Arakan State:  Two ministers of Thein Sein government had stated two different statements on Rohingya rights issue in Burma, according to a politician who didn’t want to mention his name.
“In an interview with The Hindu newspaper, Burma’s information minister, U Aung Kyi, said his government is working towards a “win-win solution for all stakeholders” and acknowledged that the statelessness of its Rohingya Muslim minority is a key cause of its suffering in the country, according to Telegraph.co.uk on November 1, 2012.”
“The local Rakhine also have this belief, and from this situation we are going to create a win-win situation for all stakeholders, a solution that will benefit everybody,” he said.
“Rohingyas are denied citizenship by Myanmar [Burma] and as a consequence the rights that go with it,” he added.
“The government is understood to be considering new moves to confer citizenship on several hundred thousand ‘third generation’ Rohingya who are already entitled to it under Burmese law but who were illegally denied it by previous governments.”
But, the Immigration minister U Khin Ye said that the government has no plan to enlist a new group who are stateless or illegal immigrant in the country, according to The Myanmar post Global Journal, on November 2, 2012.
“Anyone who live in Burma before 1948, we will issue for them “White Card”. While collecting census, must show evidence of staying in Burma since long , otherwise we will take action as per immigration law.”
Diplomatic sources in Burma said the government is now focused on granting citizenship rights on third generation Rohingya, but has yet to decide what to do with several hundred thousand first and second generations Rohingya who are regarded as Bengali immigrants by local Rakhine.
The government is also understood to be considering whether to accept the Rohingya as a ‘national race’, but progress is expected to be slow because of Rakhine opposition, the information minister said.
“Lots of people are being denied basic rights of citizenship to which they are entitled….and it undermines the rule of law,” said one source.
According to The Myanmar post Global Journal, the minister U Khin Ye said any race who stayed in Burma after independent without registered or list, will check for national security and if found any false , we will not issue them White card.
“We will allow anyone to stay in the country without proof of identity and proof of long staying. It is for our national security proposed.”
Similarly, All the non-ethnic group ( Rohingyas)  who flee from their homes and homeland will sent to a place – Taungbro, Maungdaw -  where the government is planning to set up refugee camps near the Bangladesh border, according to U Aung Mra Kyaw, Arakan State MP.
The government officials are saying different statements on Rohingyas, in Burmese statement show anti-Rohingya while English statement showed pro Rohingya. Which one, we have to accept and to follow, said the politician.
“The president office also declared that the government had evidence who is behind the ethnic cleanse of Rohingya, but never mention who is the person.”

Rohingyas sentenced to jail in Buthidaung

Buthidaung, Arakan State: The Judge court of Buthidaung sentenced to some Rohingyas from Buthidaung jail to 10-year imprisonment per each on October 29, who had been arrested by security forces after the June riots, said a relative of the victim on condition of anonymity.
“The Rohingya villagers were arbitrarily arrested by police and Hluntin (riot police) after the June 8 riots between Rakhines and Rohingyas in Maungdaw Township.”

“The arrestees (prisoners) were produced two to three times in the court and asked no questions from them. They have no rights to say anything and did not make any interrogation from the witness.”
After arrest, the people were severely tortured by police, Hluntin or Nasaka (Burma’s border security force) in the Nasaka camp or in the Nasaka Headquarters (Kawar Bill) or in police detention center of Maungdaw town where many Rohingya people were dead by torture and were buried by the authority to unknown places to be not seen by their relatives and local public.  As a result, the dwellers of Maungdaw town do not know, so far, how many people were arrested and killed by the authorities, said a town dweller who denied to be named.
Earlier, on October 12, nineteen Rohingya detainees were sentenced to 10 to 20 years jail to some villagers mostly from Maungdaw south.
But, the accused were not allowed to borrow lawyers to give them protection and asked any question from the defendant, said a trader from Buthidaung town.
One Rohingya villager from Buthidaung said, “Whether the accused is guilty or not, this question is must be asked from the defendant.”
The situation of the Buthidaung jail is very bad. Rohingya prisoners are tortured inhumanly by jail police and are being fed inadequate food in daily basis. The beard of all Maulanas (religious leaders) and others had already been shaved. They have no clothes and medicines. Some prisoners are staying there with naked position. There is no medicine, said a released prisoner recently from Buthidaung jail.
It is very important to visit International Red Crescent (IRC) to observe the situation as relatives are not allowed to see their sons, brothers, fathers and husbands. Many prisoners died in the jail and did not inform to their relatives, said a businessman from Bthidaung whose relative was also arrested by police.
In similar way, the prisoners of Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State have been facing many difficulties.

Fear, hunger stalk crowded Myanmar 's Rohingya camps

SITTWE - Crammed into squalid camps, thousands of people who fled communal violence in Myanmar face a deepening humanitarian crisis with critical shortages of food, water and medicine, aid workers say. More than 100,000 people have been displaced since June in two major spasms of violence in western Rakhine State, where renewed clashes last month between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims uprooted about 30,000 people. Dozens were killed on both sides and thousands of homes were torched. Even in the camps near the state capital Sittwe housing ethnic Rakhine Buddhists - who have freedom of movement and are able to work if they can find employment - people are going hungry.

“We don’t have enough to eat,” said Phyu Ma Thein, 33. “The abbot gave us a bowl of rice but we have no pots, no plates. We have nothing. We’re just trying to survive.”

The situation is likely to deteriorate, the UN Refugee Agency warned this week, as a new influx of refugees pushes the camps “beyond capacity in terms of space, shelter and basic supplies such as food and water”.

“Food prices in the area have doubled and there are not enough doctors to treat the sick and wounded,” it added. Most of the displaced are Rohingya, described by the UN as among the world’s most persecuted minorities. Seen by the government and many Burmese as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh, Myanmar’s 800,000 stateless Rohingya have long faced severe discrimination, according to rights groups.

Their displacement camps are at crisis point, according to Refugees International (RI) which estimates that even before last month’s flare-up nearly a quarter of children in the squalid facilities were malnourished.

“Conditions in these camps are as bad if not worse than ones in Eastern Congo or Sudan,” Melanie Teff, a researcher with the charity who visited Sittwe in September, told AFP from London. “Child malnutrition rates are startlingly high. There’s an urgent need for clean water and food. If further aid does not come through there will be some unnecessary deaths,” she said.

With tens of thousands of Rohingya in outlying villages struggling to make a living since security collapsed after June’s unrest, Teff fears official camps could be overwhelmed by a new wave of refugees over the coming months. Myanmar, which is opening up after decades of secretive junta rule, has said it has to accept aid from Muslim countries or face an international backlash. That concession by President Thein Sein last month came despite a series of angry protests by Myanmar Buddhists against efforts by a world Islamic body to help Muslims affected by the violence in Rakhine.

But the flow of aid is still sluggish to the tinderbox province.

In Baw Du Pha relief camp, where several thousand Rohingya refugees from Sittwe live cheek-by-jowl, surviving on rations and severly short of medical care, a mother-of-four told AFP Friday of her family’s desperation. “I cannot give my baby rice when she needs it. We are suffering,” said Laila, 20. “When my daughter gets sick we have no money for medicine.” Compounding the immediate need for essentials such as rice, water and oil, aid workers say refugees are facing a mounting psychological toll with terrified children bearing the brunt. “They lost their houses in the fires. Children cannot be left alone like before. So they’re depressed,” said Moe Thadar, a local Red Cross worker. With tensions still at boiling point despite beefed-up security, the relief effort is in jeopardy and the outlook for peace is grim unless the two communities can somehow reconcile, according to Teff. “As it stands there is a total lack of hope for the Rohingya. They have been rejected by many countries. They have suffered all around,” she said. “The only way out is for the international community to act on the current situation.” The UNHCR said the recent bloodshed spurred several thousand Rohingya to take to rickety boats this week in the hope of finding shelter at camps on the coast near the outskirts of Sittwe or escaping the country altogether.

But tragedy awaits even in flight, as around 130 people went missing after one boat sank off the coast near Bangladesh’s border with Myanmar while carrying Rohingya refugees heading for Malaysia.

Dozens of other boats were repelled by nervous Myanmar security forces near Sittwe, leaving them with no choice but to dock on the barren shoreline, according to an AFP reporter who visited the scene this week. “Humans need shelter, a place to sleep and eat,” said Myint Oo, a displaced Muslim who has lost his house and fishing business. “If you cannot eat and sleep, it’s worse than dying.”