A local tabbe Sultan has extorted 3,000 kyats from almost every family in Kiladong (Du Char Yar Taan) as census reaches the troubled spot on Thursday, according to our local correspondent.

The controversial census which began at the end of January has resulted in the harassment of many innocent Rohingya Muslims and Kiladong residents fear that since they are especially marked by the authorities, ‘special measures’ might be in adopted against them.

The ongoing census has resulted in arbitrary arrest, torture and detention of Rohingya Muslims.

Kiladong is the site of the infamous massacre of January 2014 when a Rakhine mob backed by security forces killed scores of men, women and children.

Anti-Muslim groups and the government alleges that Kiladong is a terrorist hotspot. Another reason for the bias against Kiladong is that authorities want to prevent the residents from speaking to international rights groups and the media about the massacre and the subsequent crackdown.

To this day, the government refuses to acknowledge that any killings of civilians had occurred in the area in spite of clear evidence to the contrary.

In the aftermath of the killings, security forces combed surrounding regions in search of Kiladong survivors, arresting and torturing many, including those who had sheltered them.

This year, on January 18, the security forces arrested Abdu Monaf, Md Taher, Md Ayoju and Zohur Hossain from Kiladong and subjected them to brutal torture.

Sultan have assured Kiladong residents that he will take care of their safety for 3000 kyats. But for those families who have a relative on the police list have to pay 50,000 kyats.

Almost forty names were incorporated on the list for murdering a policeman last year. Most of them have fled the country.

BGP personal arrested a man at Feram Puru, Maungdaw North on Sunday for giving information to Rohingya media based abroad, according to our local correspondent.

Imam Hossain, s/o Ola Miah was arrested from in front of his house at around 10pm. BGP said that he was using a Bangladesh SIM card for passing fake information to media personal based in that country.

Many Rohingyas use Bangladesh SIM card to contact with their friends and relatives in the neighbouring country. Almost half a million Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh following brutal persecution at home.

Imam was assaulted in custody throughout the night. He was released the next day on payment of 400,000 kyats.

Three more houses have burned down on Wednesday in Boli Bazar, Maungdaw, according to our correspondent.

The identities of the victims have not been confirmed.

Arson attacks of this type have been occurring in regular intervals in February.

In each case, a mysterious fire occurs generally from the stove burning down the entire house and adjoining ones within minutes. The government then blames the victims for setting fire to their own houses to discredit the Buddhist nationalist movement.

In some cases, the owners of the households are on the run, while in others wntire families live out in the open. The affected households are forbidden to raise new shelters, and others are strictly forbidden to house them. As a result, many including children and women are spending their nights without any shelter.

Myanmar, Abdus Sufi son of Shona Mia 42 years old , has on 28 Feb 2015 attacked and serious injured by the member of terrorist group of RNDP when he was looking after his cattle in the field .

By Hanna Hindstrom

Both government and opposition see bashing the besieged Rohingya minority as a sure-fire path to electoral success.

The Burmese government recently came under fire for back-pedaling on a pledge to grant the country’s beleaguered Rohingya minority the right to vote. On Feb. 12, the government announced the imminent suspension of all temporary ID cards held by over half a million Rohingya Muslims in western Burma, dashing hopes that they might be allowed to vote in Burma’s first general election in over 50 years, scheduled for the end of this year.

The proposal to grant the Rohingya voting rights — aggressively promoted by Burma’s ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and passed by parliament on Feb. 2 — had been seen as a flicker of hope for the stateless Muslim minority squeezed into apartheid-like conditions near the Bangladeshi border. But President Thein Sein quickly bowed to a growing Buddhist protest movement and withdrew his support. A spokesperson for the U.S. government criticized his decision as “counter to reconciliation in Rakhine [state],” where outbursts of religious violence between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims have claimed dozens of lives since 2012. The sad reality is that the proposal was never more than a cynical political ploy to harness votes for the military-aligned USDP ahead of the highly anticipated elections. The government’s rapid U-turn only exposes its two-faced policy toward the Rohingya.

Indeed, the military and its proxy parties have simultaneously suppressed and courted the Rohingya vote since 2008, when the military welcomed their support to help rig a referendum approving a controversial new constitution. In the flawed 2010 election, many stateless Rohingya were offered the prospect of citizenship in exchange for casting their ballots for the USDP, which subsequently grasped power in three Muslim-majority constituencies in northern Rakhine State. Once in office, President Thein Sein’s government quickly reneged on these commitments.

There are currently six ethnic Rohingya legislators representing the USDP in northern Rakhine: three at the state and three at the national level. These politicians, who took up their posts promising to secure greater rights and freedoms for their people, have proven troublesome for the ruling party. Shwe Maung, a Rohingya member of the national parliament, has drawn considerable ire for his unapologetic activism on behalf of his constituency. Last year a presidential spokesman accused him of “defamation” for implicating local police officers in an alleged massacre of Rohingya in the western town of Maungdaw.

Nonetheless, in 2010 the Rohingya vote was essential to the USDP, with nearly half of its legislators in Rakhine elected by the minority (while several more seats were obtained through electoral fraud). The USDP’s overtures to the Rohingya also provoked hostility from the Buddhist-majority ethnic Rakhine — another minority group long persecuted by the military junta — who mostly view the Rohingya as “illegal immigrants” from neighboring Bangladesh, and see the government’s courting of their vote as a betrayal of their state for political profit. Buoyed by hostility toward the Burman-dominated military, a nationalist Rakhine party (now known as the Rakhine National Party or RNP), won a majority of seats in the national and regional parliaments. The RNP and other Rakhine nationalist parties have since spearheaded efforts to marginalize and disenfranchise the Rohingya, whose plight became more acute in 2012, when religious violence forced some 140,000 of them into cramped, disease-infested camps. With its new influence in parliament, the RNP has successfully pushed through a law banning undocumented Rohingya from forming political parties.

As in 2010, the RNP now poses a significant electoral threat to the USDP in Rakhine State, where the ruling party is likely to lose most of its remaining seats in the 2015 poll without the Rohingya vote. This is why the USDP once again turned — briefly — to the Rohingya in an effort to attract voters in the region this year. This is not without a small tinge of irony, considering the government’s oppression of the minority, who Thein Sein has repeatedly threatened to deport from Burma.

Unfortunately, a tide of Buddhist nationalism has now made it more politically profitable to vilify the Rohingya than to woo them for their votes. Since the 2012 violence, the unpopular minority has become a rallying tool for both ethnic Rakhine and Burman political parties — boosted by a nationwide crusade to “defend” Buddhism against Islam. The government has never recognized the term “Rohingya” and has been accused of complicity in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the minority. President Thein Sein has even publicly defended the country’s most venomous hate preacher,Ashin Wirathu, who has likened Muslims to “mad dogs.”

Wirathu’s powerful Buddhist nationalist group, known locally as the “Ma Ba Tha,” has collaborated with the government to draft a set of “race and religious protection” laws designed to restrict the rights of Muslims. In turn, Wirathu has backed Thein Sein and warned against amending the constitution to allow opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi a chance at the presidency. This cozy relationship exposes the political value of exploiting, rather than soothing, anti-Muslim sentiments in the run-up to the elections. In this context, it should come as no surprise that the USDP leadership quickly abandoned its flirtations with the Rohingya vote.

The military, which has a long history of pitting the country’s myriad ethnic and religious groups against each other, has even less incentive to support the reviled minority. Since 2012, ethnic Rakhine have welcomed thousands of Burmese troops into the restive state to maintain security. The military’s role has been amplified by persistent rumors — often repeated by the government — that Rohingya separatists are now active along the Bangladeshi border. The threat of instability and violence may thus serve as an alternate strategy to boost the army’s popularity in Rakhine and defend its grip over Burmese politics.

Shwe Maung, one of the Rohingya lawmakers from Rakhine, concedes that the USDP leadership “may have another plan” in place for winning support in Rakhine. He says he feels “betrayed” by the government, and will not stand in the 2015 election unless temporary ID or “white card” holders are allowed to vote. This looks increasingly unlikely, as white cards will be invalidated from March 31, rendering their owners unable to vote under Burmese election law. As some 95 percent of Shwe Maung’s constituency are Muslim Rohingya, the disenfranchisement of its population could be devastating — not least if Rakhine nationalists secured his seat.

The Burmese government continues to push ahead with its controversial nationality verification process, which will require Rohingya Muslims to label themselves as “Bengali” in order to obtain citizenship. The few Rohingya who have accepted this designation have seen no significant changes to their standard of living, remaining confined to peripheral slums or displacement camps with limited access to education and healthcare. All Rohingya “white card” holders will now be obligated to undergo this process after their documents expire next month. Those who refuse risk deportation.

The idea of using the Rohingya as pawns rather than allies seems to have permeated the opposition party as well. Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), also fought against the bid to enfranchise the Rohingya, with one of the party’s lawmakers dismissing the proposal as “inconsistent” with other legislation. It is not the first time the Nobel laureate has drawn criticism for her silence on the oppression of the Rohingya or Burma’s escalating anti-Muslim sentiments. In December, the NLD fired one of its leaders for making a public speech criticizing the proliferation of Buddhist extremism. He is now facing a three-year jail sentence for “insulting” religion. Suu Kyi has never spoken in his support.

Her silence has been widely interpreted as a Machiavellian gambit designed to avoid controversy ahead of the 2015 election that, assuming it is free and fair, her party is expected to win by a landslide. The upsurge in religious hostility — which has claimed hundreds of mostly Muslim lives across the country since 2012 — is seen by some as a manufactured attempt to fracture her popular support base. Either way, Suu Kyi – like her uniformed opponents — seems to have prioritized political cunning over human rights.

As Burma’s historic elections draw nearer, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Rohingya have little to gain from the country’s political transition, which ended five decades of military rule in 2011. Neither the ruling party nor the opposition has ever been genuinely interested in promoting their rights. On Wednesday, a UN human rights chief warned Burmese politicians against fanning the “flames of prejudice” to win votes in the upcoming poll. Unfortunately, it would appear that the besieged minority carries far greater political currency as scapegoats than as full-fledged participants in Burma’s fragile democracy.

The four innocent (Rohingya) women arrested in Buthidaung Township on Monday early morning were released later at night on bails and upon seizure of their respective family registration lists by the Border Guard Police (BGP), the local sources reported.

The Myanmar BGP arrested 18 Rohingya women as some of their family members were absent for the re-conducting prejudicial census at ‘Nga Ran Chaung’ village in the township. Of them, 14 women were released and four were detained in the lock-up until the late night. (Read the Earlier Report HERE)

“The women were harassed in the detention until they were released on bails and upon seizing their family registration lists around 10:00PM of the day. On Wednesday, February 25, morning, the families of the four women arrested went to the Border Guard Police Station for taking part in the survey of the census as per the forced conditions in the bail.

The BGP took group pictures of the three families but the whole family of Daw Halidah was forced to sit tight under the hot sun until 4:00PM of the day” said a local Rohingya asking not to be named.

Moreover, on Wednesday morning, a BGP officer confiscated the registration lists of the families of U Mohammed Toyub and U Sultan Ahmed on pretext of putting back their family members in the list that had been delisted earlier. Although in the evening, U Sultan Ahmed went to the police to have his family list back, the BGP didn’t return it, it has been learnt.

And they police and other departments in the census enumeration didn’t charge money at the beginning stage. But now they have started arbitrarily squeezing Kyat 5,000 respectively for ‘Delisting the Deaths’ and “Listing down the Newly Born Babies.’

The United Nations and Amnesty International have warned that Burma is backsliding on its commitment to human rights.

In it annual report, Amnesty said the human rights situation in the country has “stalled” while in a UN statement, High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said on Wednesday that Burma “seems headed in the wrong direction and needs urgently to get back on track”.

Criticism comes at a time when thousands of people have recently been displaced during conflict in the Kokang region of northeastern Shan State and during a period of simmering tensions between Muslims and Buddhists in the country following pogroms targeting the Rohingya community in Arakan State.

Over the past year, human rights abuses saw political exclusion of the disenfranchised Rohingyas, the shooting of protestor Khin Win at the Latpadaung mine, and the manslaughter of freelance journalist Par Gyi while in Burmese army custody.

“The international community has seen the transition in Myanmar [Burma] as a story of promise and hope, but recent developments are calling into question the direction of that reform, and even threatening to set it back,” Zeid said.

He warned that the denial of Rohingyas’ right to self-identification “should sound a clear warning bell” to the international community, and called for “a new democratic Myanmar [to be] built on the strength of its diversity.”

Supporting the decentralisation of military governance, he said thew ongoing civil conflicts in the country must stop, otherwise an impasse will be “tragic for Myanmar’s peace process”. The UN human rights chief added that “ensuring accountability for the military will be a key test for the transition.”

A day earlier, Amnesty International Secretary-General Salil Shetty noted: “This has been a devastating year for those seeking to stand up for human rights and for those caught up in the suffering of war zones.”

Shetty said that it is “essential to confront violations against civilians, and to bring to justice those responsible”, adding that it is imperative to have “true accountability and justice” when rules to protect civilians are violated.

“One obvious and practical step is waiting to be taken: Amnesty International has welcomed the proposal, now backed by around 40 governments, for the UN Security Council to adopt a code of conduct agreeing to voluntarily refrain from using the veto in a way which would block Security Council action in situations of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.” she said.

The Burmese military has stood accused on several occasions of violations of human rights that may constitute war crimes.

More Rohingya Muslims are on the run from after three houses burned down from an arson attack. This is the third such incident in less than a fortnight.

On Friday, as the jumma prayers were taking place at Hati para, Maungdaw North, there was a loud burning noise. Witnesses say that as soon as the congregation finished, they rushed to the spot finding that a fire was burning the home of Ladu, s/o Abdur Shukkur.

Within moments, the fire spread to the adjoining homes of his brothers – – Habib Ullah and Solim Ullah.

Locals allege the Buddhist nationalist group 969 is behind the arson attack.

When the authorities heard of the incident, they said that the three brothers had masterminded the arson to give Buddhist nationalist groups a bad name.

Earlier on February 8, eight Rohingya houses burned down at Garaita Beel, Maundaw North. Witnesses say there was the presence of an inflammable chemical in the stove of the house where the fire originated and the presence of suspicious Rakhine nationalists in the neighbourhood during day time.

The government blamed Rohingya Muslims for setting their own houses on fire to discredit Buddhist nationalists.

Then on February 12, four houses burned down at Saheb para, Maungdaw South in a similar incident. Once again the authorities blamed the victims for trying to discredit Buddhist nationalists. They are currently in hiding to evade arrest.

BGP men have heavily assaulted five Rohingya Muslims, including four children last Sunday, according to our correspondent.

At around 10 pm, seven soldiers of the 550 battalion came to Koodan Kauk, Rathidaung under the influence of alcohol. There they found a Rohingya night guard Sabbir Ahmed (s/o Izhar Miah) wrapped in blankets in the company of his four children.

The BGP then told him why he is dozing in a blanket and playing with his children when he should be on alert duty. They then started assaulting all of them including the children.

They then took two chickens from the household leaving the Rohingyas bleeding on the ground.

Rohingya night guards are chosen arbitrarily by a local tabbe in coordination with authorities.

A Rohingya woman was raped by BGP personal as she attempted to cross over to Burma from Bangladesh on Friday.

Our local correspondent says that two young religious scholars (maulavis) were taking the women to her home to Rathidaung from Shaplapur in Bangladesh for the census.

As they began their journey from Bangladesh, the boatmen kept all their money and belongings before dumping them near barbed wires on the Burmese border.

Then as they tried to cross the barbed wire, a BGP patrol intercepted them and asked them to halt. At this point, the maulavis panicked and ran leaving the woman behind.

The woman was then raped and assaulted by the BGP men.

BGP later handed the woman to a Rohingya Muslim settlement at Nagpura, Maungdaw.

Rohingya Demonstration World-Wide on March 11, 2015 .

Please join this kind of demonstration around the world against discrimination,human rights violation , basic rights, voting rights, citizenship rights and much more by the illegal , barbaric Burmese military regime , their allies the terrorist group of RNDP Bengali Mogh group and their supporter monkeys much more...

WORLD WIDE DEMONSTRATION :

1. PHYSICAL DEMONSTRATION 

It is refers to those who able to demonstrate physically in front of the Embassy, UN, Parliament, or Court etc. 

2. Internet Demonstration 

It is refers to those unable to demonstrate physically. Internet demonstration could by done by Middle East countries, Thailand and all other countries.

This demonstration could be implemented by sending emails to Embassy, Parliamentary, ICJ, UN, etc. Moreover, the letters or articles of demanding, could be shared in Facebook, Twitter, etc. 

Furthermore, we can like each others status or demands to promote it for the viewer. 

Most importantly, we have to like the Facebook page and official website's of the physical demonstration'sorganizations to promote the demands we are seeking Globally. 

PLEASE SHARE THIS EVERY WHERE AND PLEASE CAMPAIGN THIS IN THE AREAS YOU ARE LIVING IN.

Myanmar’s backsliding on human rights reforms – only a few months before the general elections – underscores the necessity of the UN Human Tights Council to adopt a strong resolution on the situation of human rights in the country and to extend their mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, according to Amnesty International on February 18. 

The international rights group has just issued a written statement to be presented at the 28th session of the UN Human Rights Council to be held from March 2 to 27 in New York. 

The NGO says Human Rights Council resolutions on the situation of human rights in Myanmar and the mandate of the Special Rapporteur have been critical to demonstrating the international community’s support for human rights in Myanmar and have made a positive contribution towards improving the human rights situation there. 

Amnesty says continued strong engagement by the HRC is warranted as the human rights situation in the country remains serious. Myanmar is failing to make progress in several important areas and has slid back worryingly in others, just a few months before general elections. It is crucial that international scrutiny continues at such a critical juncture in the country’s history. 

The following is an overview of Amnesty International’s concerns on the human rights situation and recommendations for the HRC’s consideration, provided in full. 

In addition to this statement, the organization has submitted to the UN Human Rights Council session a written statement with concerns and recommendations relating to protection of people from abuses linked to extractive projects in Myanmar. 

Amnesty International’s key points 

Increased restrictions on freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly 

Since the last HRC resolution on Myanmar, Amnesty International has documented an increase in the number of prisoners of conscience in the country, in addition to an alarming rise in the harassment, arrest and detention of individuals who are simply exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. These include human rights defenders, political activists, journalists, land activists, and farmers. 

Furthermore, the government has not taken any effective steps to repeal or amend laws that violate the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly or are used to punish the exercise of these rights. This creates an environment in which human rights defenders and journalists fear reprisals, which undermines their ability to carry out their legitimate work. 

Amnesty International also continues to receive reports of other violations within the criminal justice system, including torture and other ill-treatment and unfair trials. 

Crisis in Rakhine State 

The situation of the Rohingya has continued to deteriorate. In Rakhine state, what started as a humanitarian emergency has increasingly become an entrenched human rights crisis. 

The dire humanitarian situation of an estimated 139,000 displaced people in Rakhine State – mostly Rohingya – worsened following the expulsion of some humanitarian organizations in February and March 2014, and the withdrawal of others following attacks against them in March. Although access has resumed for some organizations, humanitarian assistance has not returned to the levels prior to the attacks. 

The situation in Rakhine state is fragile, and security concerns for people there are high. The Rohingya remain deprived of nationality under the 1982 Citizenship Act, and as a result they have continued to face restrictions on their freedom of movement, with repercussions for their access to livelihoods. Amnesty International is particularly concerned about the proposed Rakhine State Action Plan, a leaked copy of which looks set to further entrench discrimination against the Rohingya. Furthermore, the government has not made the plan publically available – or consulted with affected communities. 

The dire humanitarian situation, coupled with pervasive discrimination, increasing advocacy of hatred and threats of further restrictions, has pushed growing numbers of people to leave the Myanmar in recent months. In 2014 alone, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated 53,000 people left the Bay of Bengal by boat. Between October and December, UNHCR recorded a 37 per cent increase in the number of people departing compared to the previous year. 

Rising religious intolerance 

Amnesty International is particularly concerned about the package of laws aimed at “protecting race and religion”, which are currently under consideration by the Parliament. The four laws – the Religious Conversion Bill, the Population Control Bill, the Myanmar Buddhist Women’s Special Marriage Bill and the Monogamy Bill – contain many aspects that do not comply with international human rights law and standards, including Myanmar’s legal obligations as a state party to the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Many provisions in these four laws discriminate on multiple grounds, including gender, religion and marital status.

Amnesty International is concerned that the passage of these four laws will not only result in increased discrimination, it could further heighten existing tensions between religious groups. We are deeply concerned about the continued rise in religious intolerance and hardline nationalist attitudes. The government has failed to speak out against the growing use of advocacy of hatred to incite discrimination, hostility and violence. 

We share the condemnation by the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights of the deeply offensive and sexist comments made against the Special Rapporteur at the end of her visit to Myanmar. We note that others who speak out against hardline religious and nationalist views have also faced retaliation from state and non-state actors, including threats, harassment and even possible arrest. 

For example, writer Htin Lin Oo is currently in detention and facing imprisonment for making a speech criticizing the use of religion to promote discriminatory views. He faces up to three years in prison.

Failure to address human rights violations and abuses, including discrimination against Rohingya, and to address growing hardline nationalist attitudes and advocacy of hatred is a recipe for further violence.

Human rights violations and abuses in conflict areas

The situation in Myanmar’s ethnic minority areas also deteriorated in 2014, with fighting in Northern Shan State and Kachin State now in its fourth year. Worryingly, violence appears to have intensified since the beginning of 2015, displacing parts of the civilian population.

Violations of international humanitarian and human rights law continue, with ongoing reports of unlawful killings and torture and other ill-treatment, including rape and other crimes of sexual violence – in particular by the Myanmar security forces. Amnesty International also receives reports of human rights abuses by armed groups aligned with certain ethnic groups. However, impunity persists for such violations and abuses, with perpetrators rarely, if ever, brought to justice.

Around 98,000 people remain displaced in Kachin and Northern Shan States. However, the Myanmar government continues to deny full and sustained access for humanitarian actors to displaced communities, particularly those displaced in Kachin Independence Army-controlled areas.

Impunity

Immunity from prosecution for past violations by the security forces and other government officials remains codified in Article 445 of the 2008 Constitution, meaning that perpetrators of both current and past human rights violations continue to enjoy impunity. As a result, victims of both past and current human rights violations and their families have continued to be denied truth, justice, compensation and any other form of reparation.

Need for the prompt opening of an OHCHR Country Office

Despite commitments from the Myanmar government, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has not yet been able to establish an office in the country. The establishment of an OHCHR office, with a full protection and promotion mandate and access to all areas of the country, is crucial to ensure monitoring of and reporting on the human rights situation in the country. While Amnesty International notes that there are several OHCHR staff able to work in Myanmar, the organization is concerned that they do not have full and sustained access to the country. This not only seriously impedes their ability to undertake their work, it raises serious questions about the extent to which the Myanmar government is co-operating with OHCHR.

Recommendations

Amnesty International recommends that the HRC extend the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar and urge the government to co-operate fully with the Special Rapporteur and other Special Procedures.

Further, Amnesty International recommends that the HRC, its members and observer States urge the Government of Myanmar to:

Release immediately and unconditionally all prisoners of conscience and drop charges against those currently not detained, but who are facing imprisonment simply for the peaceful exercise of their human rights;

Ensure human rights defenders and journalists can carry out their legitimate work without fear of reprisal;

End all discrimination in law, policy and practice against ethnic and religious minorities, and ensure Rohingya have equal access to citizenship rights;

Ensure that humanitarian aid organizations have full and unfettered access to all displaced persons throughout the country;

Immediately put an end to violations of international human rights law – including rape and other crimes of sexual violence – especially against members of ethnic minority groups;

Ensure all those who are responsible for human rights violations and abuses – including those with command responsibility – are brought to justice in fair proceedings, without the imposition of the death penalty, and that victims can access truth, justice and full and effective reparation;

Ratify and effectively implement international human rights treaties including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment;

Engage constructively in the Universal Periodic Review when Myanmar is reviewed in late 2015; and Facilitate the establishment of an office of the OHCHR able to operate throughout Myanmar with a full promotion and protection mandate.

Myanmar’s Border Guard Police (BGP) in Rathedaung Township daily harass, beat up and torture the local Rohingya people for no reasons, a local said.

The seven BGP personnel under the regiment ‘550’ based at  ‘Koodan Kauk’ village in Rathedaung Township and the second in command of the regiment, U Mra Htay, are responsible for the atrocities being committed against the local Rohingyas in the region, according to the sources.

They, under the influence of alcohol, severely beat up a Rohingya night-guard and four innocent children in ‘Chin Khali (Sheel Khali)’ hamlet of Koodan Kauk village tract last Sunday night. Now, the people are languishing with injuries in the village due to the lack of medical treatment.

“Seven BGP personnel and U Mra Htay, the Second in Command, arrived at Sheel Khali village around 10:00PM on Sunday night. They were high on alcohol. They are ethnically Rakhines and notorious to be extremists.

As soon as they arrived at the village, they started unnecessary gun-firings in the air. They were abusing the local Rohingyas using nasty slangs.

Then, they called up U Shabbir Ahmed (son of) U Izhar Meah serving as a nigh-guard in the village and other four children. Then, they started severely beating them up in gang for no reasons at all. As a result, they suffered heavy injuries and are now in critical condition as there are no facilities for the Rohingyas in the township” said an elder Rohingya in the village on the condition of anonymity.

Locals say that similar or more atrocities such as tortures, rapes, robberies and even murders targeting the Rohingya community have been taking place in other parts of Rathedaung. They are extremely worried as the situation is worsening day by day. Therefore, the locals urge the responsible authority to take actions to stop the atrocities.

Military men desecrated a mosque at Koshai para, Akyab on Wednesday, according to our local correspondent.

On Wednesday night, a military group camped at a local mosque. Here they carried their dogs inside, did not remove their shoes, smoke and drank, and made the mosque very dirty before leaving the next day at dawn.

They also looted valuables from the mosque.

(New Statesman): Last month Yanghee Lee, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Burma (also known as Myanmar), criticised the Burmese government’s attitude towards its own Rohingya people. In Burma’s Rakhine province, there are currently more than one million Rohingya – an Islamic ethnic group – living in apartheid-like conditions.

Don’t feel too guilty if you don’t know much about this humanitarian crisis; coverage in the mainstream western media has been gradually tailing off since 2012. What you should be made aware of, though, is the fact that the Rohingya were previously recognised as the most persecuted people in the world. Just let that sink in. It has actually been possible to identify one ethnic group as the world’s most persecuted people.

But on Wednesday, rather than address its deliberately poor handling of the crisis, Burma’s ministry of foreign affairs issued a statement saying it “unequivocally” rejected the term Rohingya and labelled it “terminology which has never been included among over 100 national races of Myanmar”. The ministry went on to accuse Lee of exceeding her jurisdiction, warning that insistence on using the term Rohingya would make the current crisis more difficult to address.

The Burmese government is complicit in the persecution of the Rohingya, a group it declared stateless through the passing of the country’s 1982 citizenship law. With that law, the Burmese government effectively declared the Rohingya to be illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. Subsequently, Burmese officials have made it impossible for them to seek any help and now, following clashes with Burmese Buddhists in 2012, 140,000 Rohingya currently live in displacement camps.

“The displacement camp is no different to a concentration camp,” says Nurul Islam, chairman of the London based Arakan (Rakhine) Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO). Formed in 1998, ARNO campaigns for the self-determination of the Rohingya within the Burmese federation, as well as the repatriation of displaced peoples and “the establishment of a welfare society based on equality, liberty, democracy, human rights and freedom for all peoples”.

While the crisis has been on-going for the last five decades, Islam says that the Rohingya are now waiting for the rest of the world to increase pressure on the Burmese government. “[The Burmese government] are persecuting their own people,” he says. “It is now up to the international community to help us. People are dying; all the ingredients for genocide are in place – a slow genocide is taking place in Burma.”

David Mathieson, a senior research for the Human Rights Watch in Burma, explained that through rejection of the term Rohingya the Burmese government are perpetuating a culture of violence against its own people. “[This] is a betrayal of the principle of self identity, and has acted to justify decades of appalling violence and repression,” Mathieson says.

“This denial has been exacerbated by growing numbers of international donors, diplomats and dubious analysts and experts who kowtow to Rakhine extremists and government hardliners like callow collaborators.

So what needs to happen? Well, most importantly, western governments need to be more vocal in their condemnation of the crisis as it stands. Military aid, supplied by countries including the UK, should of course be halted. We need sanctions and, most importantly, our politicians must use the term Rohingya. Loudly.

Both Islam and Mathieson are vocal in their condemnation of nations that have not spoken out about the rejection of the term Rohingya, describing it as “tantamount to being a co-conspirator in ethnic cleansing”. As Mathieson says, the crisis has turned into “a protracted, squalid, stateless status-quo”; it is becoming increasingly clear that we need to do more to bring about a swift resolution.

A Myanmar soldier hacked an army physician to death at Sin Htet Maw village in Pauktaw Township this morning, according to the reliable sources.

The soldier that committed the crime and the killed physician had served under the same battalion, number 227, based in Sin Htet Maw village before the incident happened.

After the incident happened, the criminal soldier was arrested by the commander of the battalion and the battalion has been replaced with a new one around 5:00PM of the day.

“Being a doctor, the army physician duly and rightfully used to treat the Rohingya patients at the camps of internally displaced people in Sin Htet Maw. Another soldier of the same battalion 227 (KhaMaRa 227) hated him for giving treatments to the Rohingyas.  

Therefore, out of sheer hate and malice for treating Rohingya patients by the physician, the soldier is said to have started hacking him with a sword. The physician got severe sword-injuries on his neck and head. And he passed away subsequently. The incident happened around 6:00AM today” said an internally displaced Rohingya in Sin Htet Maw.

Myanmar’s Border Guard Police (BGP) has been heavily assaulting ‘Gawduthara,’ a Rohingya village in southern Maungdaw, since post 8:00PM tonight, the locals say.

The Rohingya village, located adjacent to Duchiradan (also known as Kilaidaung) village hit by the government-sponsored violence in January last year, came under attack as the Border Guard Police (BGP) under the commandment of Major Nyein Chan Aye tried to arbitrarily siege a Mosque where the Muslim people were offering Eeshaa (night time) prayer.

“A team of the BGP attempted to siege the mosque at ‘Karachi’ hamlet of Gawdusara village tract and arrest the devotees. Hence, the devotees started fleeing the mosque as soon as the prayer was done. Amidst the chaotic situation, a religious scholar named Hafiz Shomsul Alam (son of) Abdu Sattar, 30, got caught by the police. Therefore, other people tried to free the person from the hands of the BGP.

The BGP started firing and shooting at the people. At least for 30 times! So, people had to flee. The scholar was held and taken away. Afterwards, other government armed forces likely to be both Border Guard Police (BGP) and Military on nine trucks arrived at the village. They started raids, destruction and loots in the village” said an eyewitness asking not to be identified.

“So, since the government armed forces are targeting men, they had to flee. Only children and women remained. How many people got arrested and how many died during the firings have not been known yet. Meanwhile, the attacks on the village continue” he continued.

Locals view that the Myanmar government is blatantly manufacturing violence once more time in the region in order to divert the attention of the general Burmese people from supporting the ongoing student strikes in the mainland Myanmar. Besides, by scapegoating Rohingyas once again, the government wants to divert the Rakhine extremists’ attention from protesting against the suffrage of the white card holders in the forthcoming election (whether or not such Rakhine extremists’ protests are legal or illegal).

At least 7 innocent Rohingyas were arrested yesterday in a village in Rathedaung Township over the blatant allegations of refusing to participate in the census re-enumeration process, while many other villagers have been being tortured since then, the local reliable sources say.

The arrested victims were identified: 1. Mv Ataullah son of Tazuddin 44, 2. Mv. Yousuf Jalal son of Sayed Ahmed 52, 3. Mv Mohd Ali son of Hafez Ahmed 42, 4. Mr. Matalab son of Mohammed 58, 5. Iman Hussain son of Furuk Ahmed 42, 6. Abdu Salam son of Sultan 48, and Boni Amin son of Ayub 22 all are from Rajarbill Rathedaung.

In November 2014, a group of authorities and census holders came to Rajarbill and called up all the villagers in the name of a meeting but forced them (the villagers) to fill up a form (in which their ethnicity is pre-mentioned as Bangali). However, even after trying for 8 days, they only managed to force 15 families to fill up the forms. Later, the other villagers refused to attend anny meeting as they came know the reality behind such meetings.

Hence, the authorities left the village without getting any more people filled up the forms. A few days later, they sent a letter to village headman mentioning “we will come on 10th February 2015 once again and all the villagers must attend to participate in census enumeration and taking family-group photos. If you refuse, we will take action against them.” And they also listed down 6 elders and respected persons from the village accusing that they (the six people) are campaigning to urge the villagers not to take part in the census re-enumeration.

These 6 people are: 1. Mv. Abdul Shukkur (Principle of the Madarasah, the religious school) 2. Mv. Ataullah (former principle of the Madarasah) 3. Mr. Bandula, 4. Mr. Matalab, 5. Mr Amir Ahmed, 6. Mr. Nizam. Later on the day, some military personnel came to village and inquired about the people. Since the people had gone into hiding, the military were unable to arrest them. Hence, the military broke into their homes and seized away some things suspected to be very important.

Around 8:00AM yesterday, about 26 members of the census enumerating body arrived in the village and summoned all the villagers for a meeting at the school premise in the village. About 40 people attended the meeting. During the meeting, the authority threatened and tortured the villagers to bring on their families and to sign on census paper and to fill up the so-called census forms along with family-group photographing.

About 14 families came up due to the force used by the authority and filled up the form and took family-group photographs and 26 families still refused to attend. Of the absent families, two are respectively families of Mv. Ataullah and Mr Matalab targeted by the government since before.

These two people were arrested by the Border Guard Police (BGP) subsequently and taken to custody with their hands cuffed. And the census papers of other 26 family were forcibly taken away to the border guard police station in the township and the police ordered these families to be present at the police station next morning (i.e. this morning) with all the family members for the census papers.

The BGP, on their way back, also arrested Mv Yousuf Jalal and Iman Hussain and took them away to their station. Again about 4PM yesterday, a group of 10 BGP personnel came to the village and arrested 3 more people from blacklisted by the authority mentioned above. And the police ordered all the Rohingya passers-by to attend the police station the next morning for family census verification.

Among the last 3 arrestees, Boni Amin son of Ayub was sent to jail as he was not in the family registration list for a year.

At about 8PM, the village headman went to the police custody for their bails. He was rather insulted and ordered to bring more 3 warranted persons the next day and 70 more families for the census at the police station.

The arrested people were not given any food and tortured in the custody for whole night.

Around 8am this morning, 19 families of the 26 families went to the police station for census. And of the remaining 7 families, six were forced to attend the police station for the census. The police harrassed them; forced the women to take off their veils and scarves; the men to take off their caps; and took family group photos.

“This was the worst ever treatment of our people under the banner of census enumeration and taking family group photos. So brutal and humiliating!” said a victim.

At about 11am today, the 6 people arrested the previous day were released and threatened of getting arrested once again if they disclosed the matter to other villagers.

There were only 24 Rohingya village hamlets in Rathedaung Township amidst 24 Rakhine villages tracts. 3 of the villages were uprooted during the violence against Rohingya in 2012 and placed them in IDP camps in Shilkali (Chinkali) village located nearby southern-most Maungdaw. Now, “the besieged Rohingya community in Rathedaung is under pressures of the Rakhine extremists and the government forces. And we have become victims of harassments and tortures. We are living without any hope” said a local Rohingya victim.

Myanmar’s Border Guard Police (BGP) severely beat up three Rohingya firewood gathering teenagers and robbed their belongings in Maungdaw Township on January 31, according to the local sources.

The incident took place when the teenagers, on their way back home in the evening, encountered a gang of BGP from the head-quarter based in Kyi Kan Pyin village also known as Khawar Bil. Upon that, the BGP held them for no reason, arbitrarily beating them up and robbed their firewood and wood-cutter knives.

The victims are identified to be Shakir (son of) Tahir, 13; Nabi Hussein (son of) Bashar, 12; and Hussain (son of) Bashir Ahmed, 13. All of them hail from the southern Hamlet of Khawar Bil, northern Maungdaw.

A villager dishearteningly said “we, Rohingyas, here even including teenagers have to work so hard to make our daily ends meet because we are boycotted and economically crippled. On top of that, the BGP always harasses and beats up Rohingya firewood gatherers like this.

They extort money from the sole-traders of vegetables, fishes and other basic commodities and sometimes, loot their goods to their (BGP’s) hearts’ content. If the situation continues like this, what else we could do for our livelihood when our movements are restricted within a specified region

Convicted again of sodomy, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim told families and supporters here to pray that he is robust enough to endure the five years of prison that he was sentenced to by the Federal Court today. He also said that he did not know where he will be incarcerated for the duration of his sentence, as he bade them farewell before being led out of the courtroom after sentencing. “For our future we have to be patient, pray that I am in good health unlike the past,” he said when addressing the gallery. “It is a price I have to pay for freedom of justice.” An aide told reporters that Anwar will be allowed to have lunch with friends and families before he is taken to prison. “My time is up. I’ll miss you guys,” he tells supporters as he was led away by bailiffs. Earlier, Anwar launched into a diatribe accusing the Federal Court of being “partners in crime to the murder of the judiciary” and staying on the “dark side” with its decision to uphold the Court of Appeal decision to reverse his acquittal. The ruling by the Federal Court today upholding an earlier Court of Appeal decision that reversed Anwar’s acquittal of sodomising former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhary Azlan effectively ends the opposition leader’s legal options to challenge the conviction. He now stands to lose his Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat as the law bars anyone fined over RM2,000 or imprisoned more than one year from serving as a lawmaker. The decision also leaves the Pakatan Rakyat federal opposition pact without a leader.

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has lost his final appeal against a conviction and been sentenced to five years in jail for sodomy. Malaysia's Federal Court in Kuala Lumpur upheld the charge and sentence against Anwar over the accusations which date back to 2008. Last year, the Court of Appeal found the 67-year-old guilty of sodomising a former political aide Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan. He has denied the charge and claimed it was politically motivated.

Ya Allah save Rohingya muslims in Burma. Ya Allah be with Rohingya muslims in Burma. Ya Allah keep an eyes on them with you hand. Ya Allah don't ignore innocent people. be with them all the way ...😭😭😭