July 13, 2025

News @ RB

Announcement of New Website: Rohingya Today (RohingyaToday.Com) Dear Readers, From 1st January 2019 onward, the Rohingya News Portal 'Rohingya Blogger' will be renamed and upgraded as 'Rohingya Today'. Due to this transition to a new name, our website will be available at www.rohing...

Rohingya News @ Int'l Media

Maung Zarni, leader of the Free Rohingya Coalition, speaks at a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo on Thursday. | CHISATO TANAKA By Chisato Tanaka, Published by The Japan Times on October 25, 2018 A leader of a global network of activists for Rohingya Mu...

Myanmar News

By Sena Güler | Published by Anadolu Agency on December 1, 2018 Maung Zarni says he will boycott Beijing-sponsored events until the country reverses its 'troubling path' ANKARA -- A human rights activist and intellectual said he withdrew from a Beijing-sponsored forum in London to pro...

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Article @ RB

Oskar Butcher RB Article October 6, 2018 Every night in an unassuming shop space located in Mandalay’s 39thStreet, Lu Maw and Lu Zaw – the remaining members of the Burma’s most famous comedy trio, the Moustache Brothers – present their show: a curious combination of comedy, political sa...

Article @ Int'l Media

A demonstration over identity cards at a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh in April, 2018. Image: NurPhoto/SIPA USA/PA Images. By Natalie Brinham | Published by Open Democracy on October 21, 2018 Wary of the past, Rohingya have frustrated the UN’s attempts to provide them with documenta...

Analysis @ RB

By M.S. Anwar | Opinion & Analysis The Burmese (Myanmar) quasi-civilian government unleashed a large-scale violence against the minority Rohingya in the western Myanmar state of Arakan in 2012. The violence, which some wrongly frame as ‘Communal’, was carried out by the Burmese armed forces...

Analysis @ Int'l Media

By Maung Zarni, Natalie Brinham | Published by Middle East Institute on November 20, 2018 “It is an ongoing genocide (in Myanmar),” said Mr. Marzuki Darusman, the head of the UN Human Rights Council-mandated Independent International Fact-Finding Mission at the official briefing at ...

Opinion @ RB

Rohingya refugees who fled from Myanmar wait to be let through by Bangladeshi border guards after crossing the border in Palang Khali, Bangladesh October 9, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj MS Anwar RB Opinion November 12, 2018 Some may differ. But I believe the government of Bangladesh is ...

Opinion @ Int'l Media

By Maung Zarni | Published by Anadolu Agency on December 15, 2018 US will not intercede, and Myanmar's neighbors see it through economic lens, so international coalition for Rohingya needed LONDON -- The U.S. House of Representatives Thursday overwhelmingly passed a resolution ca...

History @ RB

Aman Ullah  RB History August 25, 2016 The ethnic Rohingya is one of the many nationalities of the union of Burma. And they are one of the two major communities of Arakan; the other is Rakhine and Buddhist. The Muslims (Rohingyas) and Buddhists (Rakhines) peacefully co-existed in the A...

Rohingya History by Scholars

Dr. Maung Zarni's Remark: The best research on Rohingya history: British Orientalism which created the pseudo-scientific biological notion of "Taiyinthar" or "real natives" of #Myanmar caused that country's post-colonial cancer of official & popular genocidal Racism.  This co...

Report @ RB

(Photo: Soe Zeya Tun, Reuters) RB News  October 5, 2013  Thandwe, Arakan – Rakhinese mob in Thandwe started attacking Kaman Muslims on September 28, 2013. As a result, 5 Kaman Muslims were mercilessly killed and 1 was died in heart attack while escaping the attack. 781 Kaman Mus...

Report by Media/Org

Rohingya families arrive at a UNHCR transit centre near the village of Anjuman Para, Cox’s Bazar, south-east Bangladesh after spending four days stranded at the Myanmar border with some 6,800 refugees. (Photo: UNHCR/Roger Arnold) By UN News May 11, 2018 Late last year, as violent repressi...

Press Release

(Photo: Reuters) Joint Statement: Rohingya Groups Call on U.S. Government to Ensure International Accountability for Myanmar Military-Planned Genocide December 17, 2018  We, the undersigned Rohingya organizations worldwide, call for accountability for genocide and crimes against...

Rohingya Orgs Activities

RB News December 6, 2017 Tokyo, Japan -- Legislators from all parties, along with Human Rights Now, Human Rights Watch, and Save the Children, came together to host the emergency parliament in-house event “The Rohingya Human Rights Crisis and Japanese Diplomacy” on December 4th. The eve...

Petition

By Wyston Lawrence RB Petition October 15, 2017 There is one petition has been going on Change.org to remove Ven. Wira Thu from Facebook. He has been known as Buddhist Bin Laden. Time magazine published his image on their cover with the title of The Face of Buddhist Terror. The petitio...

Campaign

A human rights activist and genocide scholar from Burma Dr. Maung Zarni visits Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi Extermination Camp and calls on European governments - Britain, France, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Denmark, Hungary and Germany not to collaborate with the Evil - like they did with Hitler 75 ye...

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Editorial by Int'l Media

By Dhaka Tribune Editorial November 5, 2017 How can we answer to our conscience knowing full-well what the Myanmar military is doing to the innocent Rohingya minority -- not even sparing children or pregnant women? Despite the on-going humanitarian crisis involving Rohingya refugees ...

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Burma's New Political Dynamics

The recent landmark talks between democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein may have set the pace for significant reforms but much will depend on the government releasing political prisoners, perhaps in stages.


AFP
File pictures of Thein Sein (L) and Aung San Suu Kyi.

Like most things in Burma, news takes a while to seep out—even in the case of the historic meeting between President Thein Sein and the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Naypyidaw recently. While the Nobel Peace Laureate declared herself happy with the outcome, she has revealed few details of their talks.

But some things are beginning to emerge which indicate that this meeting was far more significant that most analysts have so far suggested.

In Burma everything has to be gleaned for the appearances and formalities of the process, rather than for anything that is said. There were important public indicators that this meeting was highly significant—even if the first-ever meeting between the pro-democracy leader and the president was important in itself.

The two met privately—"four-eyes," as Asian diplomats like to call it—for a little over an hour. Few others have had that kind of access to the Burmese leader.

Atmospherics are always important, and both came out of the meeting relaxed and smiling. More importantly, a photo of General Aung San was hanging in the presidential palace in which they met. This was no accident, Burmese government officials have told me. It was purposely hung to show that the president regards Aung San Suu Kyi’s father as the founder of the country.

In the past decade, former ruling general Than Shwe has tried to obliterate his name and image. But Thein Sein has pointedly shown his respect for the independence hero."It was important to show the Lady that we are willing to work with her," said a government official close to the president.

But the other message was that she is seen as an important public figure, rather than as a politician or leader of the National League for Democracy. In the meeting, Thein Sein talked about the role she could play in the future, according to sources in Naypyidaw.

It was not a negotiation, but a trust-building meeting in which both leaders laid out some scenarios that could help the process of genuine reform and democracy take root. Thein Sein assured the pro-democracy leader that although her party is currently illegal, it would left alone and she would be free to travel wherever she wants.

Of course the issue of political prisoners was high on the agenda for the pro-democracy leader, who told her host that there could be no movement forward without their release first. Thein Sein knows that this is also the key to improved relations with the outside world—and even with their neighbours and supporters in ASEAN. It would certainly smooth the path to Burma being confirmed as ASEAN chairman for 2014 later this year.

Aung San Suu Kyi promised to consider making concessions too, though not necessarily as a quid pro quo. The two main compromises on the table are asking Washington to lift its ban on funding United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) operations in Burma and allowing UNDP to boost its presence in the country.

Secondly she is believed to have offered to approve the full entry of international financial institutions—the Asian Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund—into the country as an exception to the current sanctions policies of the West.

This would be very important, as it would help the government solve some of its economic priorities—getting training and expertise, allowing a significant transfer of know-how, building much-needed infrastructure, and reducing the country’s international isolation. But the key to this is the release of political prisoners, which remains a delicate and fraught matter.

Than Shwe has made it clear on at least two occasions—just after the elections last year and again earlier this year before Thein Sein took over the reins of government—that the release of political prisoners and jailed military intelligence officers was not an option. Both Thura Shwe Man and Maung Aye tried to convince him to make the gesture, but he remained entrenched. Of course, the recent motion to free political prisoners adopted by parliament by a large majority may have set the seal on the release of some them at least in the near future.

The most important thing to come out of the meeting may be the personal warmth that has developed between the two. There are several private matters that the two exchanged views on, according to sources in the Burmese government. Thein Sein has intervened to save the house in which Aung San and his family lived in Pymina, while he was leading the battle against the British.

It is run down and was about to be demolished. Thein Sein intervened recently to ensure the building is left standing and is reportedly paying for its refurbishment. Aung San Suu Kyi has reportedly sent the president an old photo of the house with her standing outside it when she was a very young child in appreciation for his actions.

So it seems certain that the meeting between the two was very successful and may have set the scene for significant changes in the future, including a role for Aung San Suu Kyi, though not in the recently formed peace committee. But whether the next big step is taken will depend on Thein Sein and the government releasing political prisoners, perhaps progressively.

If Thein Sein does move forward, the comedian Zarganar, the Shan leader Khun Htun Oo, and the 88 student leader Min Ko Naing must be in the first batch released.

Larry Jagan is a former BBC regional correspondent who is based in Bangkok and has extensively covered Burma issues.
Credit : RFA

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