NAYPYIDAW, Burma – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's handshake Thursday with the president of Burma may be the start of a new dialogue between the two nations, but one U.S. lawmaker is warning that the regime's "DNA remains fundamentally brutal." 

In the first top-ranking visit by a U.S. official in more than 50 years, Clinton praised the next generation of leadership in Burma -- also known as Myanmar -- but tempered her enthusiasm by saying the country must expand political freedom and cut off its ties to North Korea.

"It is encouraging that political prisoners have been released, but over 1,000 are still not free," Clinton said during a visit to the presidential palace in the new capital of Naypyitaw. 

Clinton added that the release of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who is now allowed to participate in politics after being under house arrest for most of the past 20 years, is a milestone, but freedoms must be extended to all political parties that wish to participate in the nation's political development. 

"The United States is prepared to walk the path of reform with you if you keep moving in the right direction," Clinton said. 

But some members of Congress and outside observers have expressed concern that the trip is an undeserved reward for the regime. 

"I am concerned that the visit of the secretary of state sends the wrong signal to the Burmese military thugs," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "Secretary Clinton's visit represents a monumental overture to an outlaw regime whose DNA remains fundamentally brutal." 

"The United States is taking a gamble, but much of the outcome rests on its own insistence on human rights progress," Benjamin Zawacki, a specialist on the country for Amnesty International. 

Indeed the new leadership is still far from legitimate. Thein Sein's ascension to the presidency is marred by claims his election last year was neither free nor fair. Amnesty notes that the country still mistreats ethnic minorities, and put in its new constitution immunity for past misdeeds by the ruling junta. T. Kumar, Asia and the Pacific advocacy director for Amnesty International USA, said leaders there know how to manipulate foreign advocates. 

"There are over 1,500 political prisoners, including some in cells designed to hold dogs," Kumar said. "Abuses in ethnic minority areas are continuing, including rape. What is disturbing is that the regime in Myanmar seems to have taken for granted that the U.S. government has other priorities than promoting respect for human rights and freedoms in the country." 

Still, the U.S. is trying to incentivize the new civilian government's movement toward a pro-democratic direction. The U.S. has given the go-ahead for Burma's participation in a U.S.-backed grouping of Mekong River countries. Clinton said the U.S. will no longer block enhanced cooperation between Burma and the International Monetary Fund, and will support intensified U.N. health, microfinance and counternarcotics programs. 

Clinton also delivered a letter from President Obama. 

"I have asked Secretary of State Clinton to visit your country to discuss your vision for reform, explore how the United States can support and advance your efforts to transition to democracy and promote protection of human rights, and talk directly to your government and citizens about prospects for enhancing relations between our two countries," Obama wrote. "There is much work to be done, and as Secretary of State Clinton and I have said previously, the United States stands ready to serve as a genuine partner in your effort to achieve lasting change." 

To the extent that Burma is ready for change, Sein told Clinton that her visit is "a "historic milestone" that would "enhance relations and cooperation." According to a senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press, Sein also delivered a 45-minute presentation in which he acknowledged Burma's troubled history and asked for U.S. help in making the transition from military to full civilian rule. 

Clinton replied that the U.S. was "encouraged by the steps that you and your government have taken to provide for your people," the official said. 

U.S. officials concede that the U.S. is taking a risk with offering an opening to Burma, which has been under near-blanket economic sanctions that block almost all American commercial transactions with the country. But with China's regional dominance, the U.S. is moving to warm relations with Vietnam, Indonesia and other countries that fall inside China's sphere of influence. 

But breaking Burma's ties to North Korea, and a mutual pursuit of nuclear weapons, is also high on the agenda. 

"We support the government's stated determination to sever military ties with North Korea," Clinton said. 

Sein promised to honor the U.N. sanctions against North Korea but said he wants friendly relations with the country to continue. He also told Clinton that Burma is weighing whether to sign a new agreement with the U.N. nuclear watchdog that would allow unfettered inspections of atomic sites in the country, the U.S. official said. 

Burma's behavior toward North Korea --and its pursuit of nukes -- is a marker for Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 

Before Clinton's trip this week, he warned that Burma's "sincerity" in its commitment to reforms "must be judged by whether the words are followed by actions." 

"Missing from the long list of good intentions has been reference to the growing relationship between North Korea and Burma, and close cooperation between their two militaries," Lugar said in a statement. "An early goal of the tentative U.S. re-engagement with Burma should be full disclosure of the extent and intent of the developing Burmese nuclear program." 

Even with Clinton's historic visit, the enthusiasm toward her arrival was muted within Burma Her arrival was overshadowed by the arrival Thursday of the prime minister of Belarus and his wife, to whom two large welcoming signs were erected at the airport and the road into the city. No such displays welcomed Clinton. 

The Belarus prime minister also made the front page of Thursday's edition of the government-run New Light of Burma newspaper. Clinton's visit was mentioned in a two-paragraph story on page 2. 

Still, some in Burma welcome the attention from the U.S. 

"I watched the arrival of Ms. Clinton on Burma TV last night," 35-year-old taxi driver Thein Zaw said. "I am very happy that Ms. Clinton is visiting our country because America knows our small country, whether it is good or bad." 

The Associated Press contributed to this story. 

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(Commentary) – As the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Burma in 50 years, Hillary Clinton’s trip marks a turning point, and there is high expectation that Burma may finally be coming out of the cold.


U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during the Special Session on Gender at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Korea on November 30, 2011. Photo: AFP

Soon after its independence from Britain, British travel writer Norman Lewis wrote in the early 1950s that in comparison to Vietnam, Burma had remained isolated and mysterious. He wrote that “while in Vietnam the established authority was challenged by a united opposition with a single ideology, the Burmese government was opposed by two separate bands of communists, two versions of a heterogeneous organization called the People’s Voluntary Organization, in which many bandits had enrolled, 10,000 or so Seven Day Adventist Karens, and a small army of mutinous military police.”

Even today, while resisting the central government’s ethnocentric nationalism and chauvinism for decades, Burma’s various opposition groups, while they share a common goal for democracy, have never unified under a common leadership or set of principles.

Following the Saffron Revolution of 2007, the Burmese military regime was viewed negatively by the world at-large. With the fresh memory of monks’ blood on their hands, it could no longer use the blunt force of violence against Aung San Suu Kyi, as it did during the 2003 Depayin Massacre. The army finally released Suu Kyi from house arrest in 2010, but it has continued its brutal assaults on ethnic minorities in conflict areas. However, simultaneously, the new government began a concerted charm offensive on all fronts, including it pursuit of separate cease-fires with armed ethnic groups.

The military’s rapid warming up to Suu Kyi and the NLD caught many in the political opposition camp by surprise. There was no time to openly discuss or mull over the political choices made by Suu Kyi, but people trusted her instincts. However, some political factions still remain far apart in areas throughout the country.

Looking back to 1886, James George Scott wrote, “Large trading towns of Burma will be for all practical purposes absorbed by the Chinese traders, just as in Singapore... And Burma is a country that has never known, and can never know, famine except as a direct result of civil war and misrule. It is perhaps a pity that the Burmese have not more vigor about them, but, on the other hand, it would be a pity if so simple and contented and genial a people were to be spoilt by a new and sordid desire for the acquisition of wealth.”

Burma and China seemed so utterly different then, but since the 1988 crackdown in Burma and the 1989 uprising in China, the two countries have become key political and economic allies. The question is whether the United States can now move Burma from its deep embrace of China?


Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi meets with musicians in November to discuss songs to use in the campaigns of National League for Democracy candidates. Photo: MizzimaWith the assassination of General Aung San, the father of Suu Kyi, after Burma’s independence from Britain, the dream of a peaceful and democratic Burma quickly faded. Distrustful of the population, the Burmese army took over political and economic control, and according to commentator Mary P. Callahan, “after cleaning house inside the army, Gen. Ne Win led the ultimate offensive against civilian parliamentary rule in March 1962.” Again in 1990, under a new name and a new set of army generals, an even more brutal military junta grabbed political power back from the election-winning National League for Democracy.

Callahan concluded that there would be no easy solutions to the problem of dissembling this security-obsessed state and replacing it with a new one that treats citizens with dignity and accountability. The removal of the handful of top generals and colonels from the government, and their replacement with fraudulently elected officials, will not transform the century-old command relationship between the state and society overnight.

Callahan also rightly noted that many ethnic minority leaders question whether a democratic government based in central Burma would really commit national resources to development programs in ethnic border areas. And as the world focuses on Suu Kyi and her political party, many minority leaders worry that their needs are not being taken into account.

The political uncertainty in Burma’s tortured history rivals that of Gorbachev and Deng Xiaoping. Surely a change of clothes from military uniforms to civilian garb cannot, at this stage, be equated with a true change of heart to embrace genuine democratic reforms in Burma.

Regardless, Clinton’s visit signifies the Americans’ willingness to invest major political capital in Burma. Clinton brings with her not only the momentum of a global outcry for freedom, but also as a leading member of the U.S. administration, she can also use her influence to help reconcile Burma’s various political factions, including the military, democracy activists, and ethnic nationalities.

As Suu Kyi says, most Burmese may not understand English, but they all know the meaning of democracy and freedom. So far, Suu Kyi seems to have set aside her differences with Thein Sein. The recent gains, including the halt of a major dam project, the symbolic release of a handful of political prisoners, and the slight relaxation of press freedoms have been attributed to their renewed relations.

Whether it is only a superficial gesture or a true commitment on the part of the current Burmese government, as Ko Myat Soe, a former student leader now living in the United States, observed, twilight is finally descending on the dictators. This is a perfect time for Clinton to go to Burma and meet with Suu Kyi.

Even though she has been released from house arrest, like all other Burmese, Suu Kyi is not yet truly free. In order to fulfill her promises and those made by her father, Burma still has to release all political prisoners and must bestow equal political rights on ethnic nationalities by laying down the groundwork for a true and democratic political process.

For Clinton, it’s a little bit of a tightrope walk right now. It requires delicate steps, one by one. But one thing is certain: it’s the twilight of the military dictators in Burma. Everyone in Burma, including the generals, wants U.S. help. Expectations are high. This is a once in a lifetime opening in which the world’s two most respected women can bring positive change to Burma.

Can history be made while the two ladies quietly sip tea together and the Burmese generals wait outside?

Credit herehttp://www.bnionline.net/index.php/news/mizzima/12184-can-clinton-suu-kyi-change-burma.html :

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Myanmar, the Southeast Asian country also known as Burma. It’s the first visit by a State Department head in fifty years and it comes after signs of change in the country. In recent months, Myanmar’s leaders have released some political prisoners, defied China -- a longtime backer and supporter -- over a dam project, and put in place election reform that has allowed opposition leader Aung Saan Suu Kyi to re-enter the political process. But substantial reforms remain. One of those is the regime’s long-running mistreatment of the country’s ethnic groups.

The Rohingyas are a Muslim minority group living in the Arakan state in western Burma.For a perspective on this, we’re joined by Maung Tun Khin, a Rohingya human rights activist and president of the Burmese Rohingya Organization UK. He joins us from London.

PHUKET: Human Rights Watch is calling on the Government of Thailand to reveal the whereabouts of a boatload of would-be refugees and explain the Army's role in the unconventional apprehension and detention of the group.

The 92 Rohingya waded ashore on the Thai mainland north of Phuket on Thursday and were last seen being trucked to an unknown destination. Locals were told the men and boys were headed for an Army base.

The deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, Phil Roberson, said yesterday evening: ''We are concerned by these reports and we would like the Government to clearly explain where these people are and what they plan to do with them.''

It was a ''worrisome development'' to have the detention of illegal arrivals in Thailand once again removed from the Immigration authorities who usually handle such matters, he said.

Fresh questions about Thailand's policy towards the Rohingya boatpeople are being raised as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepares for a history-making visit to Burma, where the Muslim minority is deprived of citizenship and driven to pay people traffickers to escape by sea.

While the Burmese government wants to chair the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2014 and has recently shown limited but encouraging signs of reform, its most repugnant policy, under which the Rohingya are denied every basic human right, remains in place.

Burma's denial of Rohingya rights leaves the whole region without a hope of resolving the Rohingya boatpeople issue. Thousands are expected to put to sea between now and April, aiming for neighboring countries, to try to flee Burma's repression.

In 2008-2009, after almost 5000 boatpeople arrived in a single ''sailing season'', Thailand took the covert and drastic measure of towing unwanted Rohingya out to sea and cutting them adrift.

Hundreds drowned before survivors arrived in Indonesia and India's Andaman and Nicobar islands, as Phuketwan and the South China Morning Post newspaper in Hong Kong were the first to reveal.

The concern of Human Rights Watch and other international bodies is that the disappearance of the latest batch of unwanted arrivals is a ghastly reminder of that tragic failed policy.

''Thailand needs to produce these people,'' Mr Robertson said. ''Trucking them off into the distance is no answer to this problem.''

There was a whole list of questions about the unexplained detention of the group that needed to be answered to ensure Thailand was meeting its human rights obligations, he said.

The absence of information from the Thai Government was cause for ''very serious concern.''

The latest Rohingya arrivals scuttled their rickety vessel on Thursday and waded ashore near the port of Kuraburi, in Phang Nga province, north of the international holiday island of Phuket.

Local authorities were told the men and boys would be handed to the Army, which has a base in the province of Ranong, further north on the border with Burma.

It was on a small, uninhabited island off the coast near the Army base that Rohingya were first secretly detained in 2009, then towed out to sea and cut adrift.

After that reprehensible treatment was revealed, boatloads were again handed over in the conventional manner to Thai Immigration officials. Immigration detained groups who landed on Phuket and south of Phuket earlier this year.

Because the Rohingya do not have citizenship, they cannot be officially returned to Burma. It is believed groups apprehended in Thailand earlier this year have been surreptitiously returned to the people traffickers.

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The authorities take moulawies (religious leader) from northern rakhine to meet with U.S Secretary of state , Hillary Clinton who will visit to YGN on 1st December. 

In three days, Hilary Clinton will visit Burma. If she heeds the words of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, her message could finally force this brutal regime to make major democratic reforms. But if she simply applauds initial changes and speaks of lifting sanctions, the country could be thrown back into crisis.

This year the regime has made moves to open up politics and the media, but military rule is still entrenched. Most political prisoners remain in jail and the Burmese army's brutality has kicked into high gear targeting ethnic civilians. US companies are lobbying to go back into Burma now. Only if we keep up the pressure and let Clinton know that people across the world are watching her every word, can we ensure she calls for an end to the bloodshed and for real reforms. 

The Burmese regime wants the US to recognise them and lift sanctions now. Aung Sang Suu Kyi says the regime must release all political prisoners and end the atrocities. Let's make sure Clinton sends that clear message to Burma’s regime. Click to the right to sign this urgent petition to Clinton and forward this to everyone -- brave families of political prisoners and ethnic leaders will deliver it directly to her at the US Embassy in Burma.

Please sign here 

အေမရိကန္ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရးဝန္ႀကီး ဟီလာရီ ကလင္တန္ ျမန္မာျပည္ကို ဒီတပတ္မွာ သြားေရာက္လည္ပတ္မွာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

ႏွစ္ ၅၀ အတြင္း ပထမဆံုးအႀကိမ္ သြားတဲ့ ဒီခရီးစဥ္မွာ သူဟာ သမၼတ ဦးသိန္းစိန္ အပါအဝင္ ျမန္မာအစိုးရအဖြဲ႕ဝင္ေတြ နဲ႔ေရာ၊ အတိုက္အခံေတြနဲ႔ပါ ေတြ႕ဆံုမွ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံတြင္းက လူမႈအဖြဲ႕အစည္းေတြ၊ NGO အဖြဲ႕အစည္းေတြ၊ ႏုိင္ငံေရး အက်ဥ္းသားေဟာင္းေတြကိုလည္း ေတြ႕ဆံုမွာပါ။

ဒီခရီးစဥ္နဲ႔ ပတ္သက္ၿပီး ျပည္တြင္းျပည္ပ သတင္းစာဆရာေတြက ေထာင့္မ်ိဳးစံုက ေဝဖန္ေရးသားၾကပါတယ္။ ကလင္တန္ ျမန္မာျပည္ကို သြားရမယ္၊ ႀကိဳဆိုရမယ္ ဆိုတဲ့သေဘာထားကိုေတာ့ ျမန္မာျပည္တြင္းမွာေရာ ျပည္ပမွာပါ ဒီလိုင္းကို သေဘာတူတယ္လို႔ ဆိုရမွာပါ။

ဒါေပမယ့္ ဒီခရီးစဥ္ဟာ ဘယ္လို သက္ေရာက္မႈေတြ ရွိမွာလဲ၊ ဘယ္လို Strategy နဲ႔ ျမန္မာအစိုးရနဲ႔ အတုိက္အခံေတြကို ခ်ဥ္းကပ္မွာလဲဆိုတဲ့ေနရာမွာေတာ့ သေဘာထားတခ်ိဳ႕ ကြဲလြဲပံုရပါတယ္။

ပထမဆံုး အေနနဲ႔ ကလင္တန္ကိုယ္တုိင္ ေျပာခဲ့တဲ့စကား တခ်ိဳ႕ကို ေလ့လာမယ္ ဆိုရင္ေတာ့ ျမန္မာျပည္ကို သြားတဲ့ ခရီးစဥ္ဟာ ျပစ္ဒဏ္ခ် ပိတ္ဆို႔အေရးယူမႈေတြကို ပယ္ဖ်က္ဖို႔ မဟုတ္ပါဘူး၊ ျမန္မာျပည္မွာ ေလာေလာဆယ္ ျဖစ္ေပၚတိုးတက္ ေျပာင္းလဲေနတဲ့ ႏုိင္ငံေရးျဖစ္စဥ္ေတြကို သူကိုယ္တုိင္ မ်က္ဝါးထင္ထင္ ေလ့လာဖို႔၊ ၂ ဘက္စလံုးနဲ႔ ေတြ႕ဆံုဖို႔၊ ၿပီးေတာ့ အေမရိကန္ အစိုးရရဲ႕ ျမန္မာျပည္ အေပၚထားတဲ့ သေဘာထားကို ေတ့ေတ့ဆိုင္ဆုိင္ပဲ ထိပ္ပိုင္း အစိုးရေခါင္းေဆာင္ပိုင္းကို မ်က္ႏွာခ်င္းဆိုင္ ေတြ႕ၿပီး ေျပာဖို႔ အျပင္ အခု ျပည္တြင္းမွာရေနတဲ့ အရွိန္ကို ေသမသြားေအာင္ ဆက္တြန္းအားေပးဖို႔ ဆိုတာေတြပဲ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ ဒါေပမယ့္ ဒီခရီးစဥ္မွာ ျမန္မာနဲ႔ အေမရိကန္ အနာဂတ္ စီးပြားကုန္သြယ္ေရး ကိစၥေတြနဲ႔ သံတမန္ေရးရာ ဆက္ဆံေရး တိုးျမႇင့္ဖို႔ ကိစၥေတြကိုလည္း ေဆြးေႏြးႏုိင္ပါတယ္။

ျမန္မာျပည္ အထီးက်န္ျဖစ္မွာကို စိုးရိမ္တဲ့ က်ေနာ့္သေဘာထားကေတာ့ ကလင္တန္ရဲ႕ ခရီးစဥ္ကို သေဘာက်ပါတယ္။

အေမရိကန္ရဲ႕ ျမန္မာျပည္ေပၚလစီဟာ အျငင္းပြားဖြယ္ရာေတြ ႏုိင္ငံတကာမွာ ရွိေပမယ့္ သူ႔ရဲ႕ ေလာေလာဆယ္ ေဖာ္ေဆာင္ ေနတဲ့ Principled engagement နဲ႔ Sanction ဟာ အသင့္ေတာ္ဆံုးလို႔ ယူဆရတဲ့အတြက္ ကလင္တန္ဟာ ျမန္မာျပည္က ေခါင္းေဆာင္ေတြနဲ႔ ေတြ႕တဲ့အခါမွာလဲ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး၊ ဒီမိုကေရစီအေရးနဲ႔ တိုင္းရင္းသား ပဋိပကၡ အေရးေတြနဲ႔ ပတ္သက္လာရင္ အားမနာတမ္း ပြင့္ပြင့္လင္းလင္း ေျပာမွာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

အေမရိကန္အစိုးရရဲ႕ အထူး ကိုယ္စားလွယ္ ဒဲရစ္ မစ္ခ်ယ္ ကလည္း ျမန္မာအစိုးရ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ေတြနဲ႔ ေတြ႕ရာမွာ အေမရိကန္ရဲ႕ ေပၚလစီကို ထပ္ခါတလဲလဲ ရွင္းျပေျပာဆိုခဲ့ၿပီး ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

ဒဲရစ္ မစ္ခ်ယ္ ရွိေနရက္နဲ႔ ကလင္တန္က ဘာေၾကာင့္ သြားခဲ့တာလဲဆိုရင္ေတာ့ ဒါဟာ အေမရိကန္အစိုးရရဲ႕ Plan B ျဖစ္သလို၊ ျမန္မာဘက္ကလည္း ဒီခရီးစဥ္ကို လိုလိုလားလား ရွိတဲ့အတြက္ေၾကာင့္ ၂ ဘက္ လမ္းဖြင့္ၾကတဲ့ ကိစၥျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

ဒါ့အျပင္ လက္ရွိအေနအထားအရ ျမန္မာအစိုးရကို ဆက္ၿပီး တြန္းအားေပးဖို႔ အေကာင္းဆံုးကာလလို႔ အေမရိကန္ဘက္က ယူဆလို႔လည္း ျဖစ္ႏုိင္ပါတယ္။

Air Force One ေပၚကေန သမၼတ အိုဘားမားက ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ကို ေျပာခဲ့တုန္းကလည္း အတုိက္အခံ ေခါင္းေဆာင္က ကလင္တန္ရဲ႕ ခရီးစဥ္ကို မီးစိမ္းျပခဲ့ၿပီးသား ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

ဒီခရီးစဥ္ဟာ အေျပာင္းအလဲကာလတခုကို သြားေနတဲ့ ဒီေန႔ ျမန္မာျပည္မွာေတာ့ အေကာင္းဘက္ကို ေရွးရႈတယ္လို႔ပဲ က်ေနာ္ျမင္ပါတယ္။

ဒီခရီစဥ္သတင္းနဲ႔ ပတ္သက္ၿပီး ရန္ကုန္က ကုန္သည္စီးပြားေရး ေလာကမွာ တခ်ိဳ႕ေျပာေနတဲ့အသံေတြ ကေတာ့ ျမန္မာျပည္နဲ႔ အေမရိကန္အၾကား ဆက္ဆံေရးေတြ ျပန္ေကာင္းလာေတာ့မယ္၊ သံတမန္ ဆက္ဆံေရးကို ပံုမွန္ကေန ပုိၿပီးတိုးျမႇင့္မယ္၊ သံအမတ္အဆင့္ ျပန္ထားမွာကို ေျပာတာပါ၊ ၿပီးေတာ့ ပိတ္ဆို႔မႈေတြကို ေနာက္ႏွစ္ထဲမွာ ရုပ္သိမ္းေတာ့မယ္ ဆိုတဲ့အသံေတြပဲ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

အေမရိကန္ဟာ ျမန္မာနဲ႔ ဆက္ဆံေရးမွာ သူ႔ရဲ႕ စံေတြရွိပါတယ္။ အဲဒီဘက္မွာ ႏုိင္ငံေရးအက်ဥ္းသား အားလံုးကို လႊတ္ေပးဖို႔၊ တုိင္းရင္းသားနယ္ေတြအတြင္း ျဖစ္ေနတဲ့ ဖိႏွိပ္မႈေတြကို ရပ္တန္႔ဖို႔၊ အမ်ိဳးသားျပန္လည္ စည္းလံုးညီညြတ္ေရးကို ေဖာ္ေဆာင္ဖို႔ စတဲ့ အဓိကအခ်က္ေတြ ပါဝင္ပါတယ္။ ဒါ့အျပင္ ျမန္မာ အစိုးရနဲ႔ ေျမာက္ကိုရီးယား ဆက္ဆံေရးကလည္း အဖုအထစ္ျဖစ္စရာ ေတြ႕ခဲ့ရပါတယ္။ အရင္စစ္အစိုးရလက္ထက္ ျမန္မာ့တပ္မေတာ္ဟာ ေျမာက္ကိုရီးယား ဆီက ႏ်ဴကလီးယား နည္းပညာေတြ လက္ခံရယူဖို႔ ႀကိဳးစားခဲ့တယ္ဆိုတဲ့ စြပ္စြဲခ်က္ေတြကို အေမရိကန္က ေျပာခဲ့တာေၾကာင့္ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

အေမရိကန္ အထက္လႊတ္ေတာ္အမတ္ ရစ္ခ်က္ လူဂါက ဒီကိစၥကို ၿပီးခဲ့တဲ့အပတ္က ထုတ္ေဖာ္ ေျပာဆိုခဲ့ပါတယ္။ ကလင္တန္သြားမယ့္ အခ်ိန္နဲ႔ကိုက္ၿပီး အထက္လႊတ္ေတာ္အမတ္က ေျပာခဲ့တာပါ။ ကလင္တန္ဟာ ေျမာက္ကိုရီးယားနဲ႔ ဆက္ဆံမႈေတြကို ျမန္မာေခါင္းေဆာင္ ေတြနဲ႔ ေတြ႕တဲ့အခါမွာ ထပ္ၿပီး မျဖစ္မေန ေျပာဆိုရမွာပါ။

ဒါေပမယ့္ ဆက္ဆံေရးေျပျပစ္ဖို႔ အလားအလာေကာင္းေတြ ရွိပါတယ္။

ဘာျဖစ္လို႔လဲဆိုေတာ့ ဒဲရစ္ မစ္ခ်ယ္ ကေရာ ကလင္တန္ကပါ တရားဝင္ေျပာခဲ့တဲ့ စကားေတြရွိပါတယ္။ ျမန္မာဘက္က ႏိုင္ငံေရး ေျပာင္းလဲတိုးတက္မႈေတြဟာ ေရရွည္တည္တံ့မယ္ဆိုရင္ အေမရိကန္ကို ျမန္မာကေန မိတ္ေဆြအျဖစ္နဲ႔ ျမင္ရမယ္လို႔ ေျပာခဲ့ၿပီး ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ ဒီလို တံခါးကို ဖြင့္ေပးလိုက္တာဟာ အခြင့္အလမ္းေကာင္းလို႔ပဲ က်ေနာ္ ယူဆမိပါတယ္။ ဒီအခြင့္ အလမ္းကို လက္ဆုပ္လက္ကိုင္ ယူၿပီး အေမရိကန္နဲ႔ ျမန္မာဆက္ဆံေရးကို ျပန္လည္ေကာင္းမြန္ေအာင္ တည္ေဆာက္ ရမယ္လို႔ ထင္ပါတယ္။

သမၼတ အိုဘားမားကလည္း သမၼတ ဦးသိန္းစိန္ အစိုးရကုိ ဒီအခြင့္အေရး လက္လြတ္မခံဖို႔ ေျပာခဲ့ၿပီးျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

ပိတ္ဆို႔မႈေတြကို အၿပီးရုပ္သိမ္းေရးကေတာ့ လြယ္လြယ္နဲ႔ ျဖစ္လာမွာ မဟုတ္ေသးပါဘူး။ ဒီဥပေဒေတြက အေမရိကန္သမၼတ တဦးတည္း အမိန္႔ေပးၿပီး ဖ်က္ပစ္လိုက္လို႔ ရတဲ့ ဥပေဒမဟုတ္ပါဘူး။ ဒါဟာ အေမရိကန္ႏိုင္ငံရဲ႕ ဥပေဒပါ။ ကြန္ဂရက္ရဲ႕ အတည္ျပဳခ်က္ကို ယူရမွာျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

၂၀၀၇ – ၂၀၀၈ မွာ ျပဌာန္းခဲ့တဲ့ JADE ACT ကိုေတာင္ အခုထိ ေဖာ္ေဆာင္ အေရးယူမႈေတြ မလုပ္ရေသးဘူး ဆိုရင္ေတာ့ ပိတ္ဆိုမႈကို ရုပ္သိမ္းဖို႔ မလြယ္လွပါဘူး။

ဝါရွင္တန္က ၾသဇာကိတၱမ ႀကီးမားတဲ့ ဝါရွင္တန္ပို႔စ္ သတင္းစာႀကီးရဲ႕ အယ္ဒီတာေတြရဲ႕ အာေဘာ္ေတြမွာလည္း ျမန္မာျပည္ဟာ ဖိႏွိပ္မႈေတြ ရွိေနေသးတဲ့ ႏုိင္ငံလို႔ သတိေပးေရးသားခဲ့ၿပီး ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

၂၀၁၂ မွာ ျပဳလုပ္မယ့္ အေမရိကန္ ေရြးေကာက္ပြဲကလည္း ရွိေသးေတာ့ အိုဘားမား အစိုးရအေနနဲ႔ ျမန္မာျပည္ကို လြယ္လြယ္ကူကူနဲ႔ ပိတ္ဆို႔ အေရးယူထားတဲ႔ ေပၚလစီကို ေလွ်ာ့ေပးမွာ မဟုတ္တာေတာ့ အေသအခ်ာပါပဲ။

ဒါေၾကာင့္ ကလင္တန္ရဲ႕ ခရီးစဥ္အတြင္းမွာ သမၼတ ဦးသိန္းစိန္အပါအဝင္ အားလံုးဟာ အေမရိကန္ ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရးဝန္ႀကီးနဲ႔ ေတြ႕မယ္၊ စကားေတြ ေျပာၾကမယ္၊ ဓာတ္ပံုေတြရိုက္ၾကမယ္၊ ဆက္ဆံေရးေကာင္းဖို႔ ႀကိဳးစားၾကမယ္၊ ကတိကဝတ္ တခ်ိဳ႕ကို ေပးၾကမယ္၊ ဒါေပမယ့္ တကယ္ဆက္ၿပီး လုပ္ျပရမွာကေတာ့ သမၼတ ဦးသိန္းစိန္အစိုးရအေပၚမွာပဲ မူတည္ပါတယ္။

အတိုက္အခံေတြ၊ ေထာင္ကလြတ္လာတဲ့ ႏိုင္ငံေရး အက်ဥ္းသားေတြ၊ ရပ္တည္ခ်က္ကို ခိုင္ခိုင္မာမာ ကိုင္စြဲၿပီး ၁၉၈၈ ကတည္းက ေလွခြက္ခ်ည္းက်န္ အလံမလဲွဘဲ မဆုတ္မနစ္တဲ့ ဒီမိုကေရစီ ဇြဲလံု႔လနဲ႔ ရင္ဆိုင္ျဖတ္သန္းလာခဲ့တဲ့ သူေတြကိုလည္း ကလင္တန္က ေတြ႕ဆံုမွာပါ။

သူတို႔ဟာ ျမန္မာျပည္ရဲ႕ သူရဲေကာင္းေတြပါ။ ဒီခရီးစဥ္ဟာ အေရွ႕ေတာင္အာရွမွာ ပိတ္ဆို႔မႈေတြ ႏွစ္ရွည္ခံစားေနရၿပီး မ်က္ႏွာ ငယ္ခဲ့ရတဲ့ ျမန္မာျပည္သားေတြ အတြက္ကေတာ့ တန္ဖိုးရွိတဲ့ ခရီးစဥ္ပါ။

ဒီလိုျပည္တြင္းေရးေတြအျပင္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံဟာ အင္အားႀကီး တရုတ္နဲ႔ အိႏၵိယၾကားမွာ ရွိေနတဲ့ ႏိုင္ငံငယ္ေလးပါ။ ၁၉၈၈ – ၈၉ ေလာက္က စၿပီး တရုတ္အစိုးရနဲ႔ တရုတ္ႏုိင္ငံအေပၚ မီွခိုခဲ့ရတာေတြ ရွိတဲ့အျပင္ ျမန္မာျပည္ရဲ႕ သယံဇာတ တြင္းထြက္ေတြ ဟာလည္း တရုတ္ရဲ႕ လက္ထဲ အပ္ခဲ့ရတာမ်ားပါတယ္။ ျမန္မာဟာ တရုတ္ရဲ႕ ကိုလိုနီျဖစ္ေတာ့မယ္ဆိုၿပီး ေျပာၾက၊ ေရးၾက တာေတြလည္း ရွိပါတယ္။ ျမန္မာဟာ မဟာဗ်ဴဟာအရ အေရးပါတဲ့ ဘဂၤလားပင္လယ္ေအာ္ကို ေဖာက္ထြက္ႏုိင္မယ့္ လမ္းေၾကာင္းလို႔ တရုတ္က တြက္ဆထားတာပါ။

ဒါေၾကာင့္ တရုတ္ကို မီွခိုခဲ့ရတဲ့ ျမန္မာျပည္ဟာ တျခားအင္အားႀကီးႏိုင္ငံေတြနဲ႔ ခ်ိန္ခြင္လွ်ာညႇိဖို႔ လိုပါတယ္။

လက္ရွိ အေမရိကန္အစုိးရရဲ႕ မူဝါဒကလည္း အာရွ – ပစိဖိတ္ေဒသက တဖဝါးမွ မခြာဘဲ သူ႔ရဲ႕ လက္ရွိ မဟာမိတ္ေတြအျပင္ တျခားေဒသတြင္းက ႏုိင္ငံေတြနဲ႔ ပူးေပါင္းၿပီး အာရွ – ပစိဖိတ္ရဲ႕ လံုၿခံဳေရးနဲ႔ အက်ိဳးစီးပြားေတြကို ကာကြယ္ေစာင့္ေရွာက္ဖို႔ ျဖစ္တယ္လို႔ အိုဘားမားတို႔ဘက္က ေျပာၿပီးျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

ဒါေၾကာင့္ အေမရိကန္နဲ႔ ျမန္မာ ႏွစ္နိုင္ငံဟာ ေရရွည္မွာေတာ့ အက်ိဳးတူပူးေပါင္းစရာေတြ အမ်ားႀကီး ရွိတယ္လို႔ပဲ ေျပာခ်င္ပါတယ္။ ႏွစ္ဘက္ စလံုး အက်ိဳးရွိႏိုင္ပါတယ္။

တခ်ိန္ခ်ိန္မွာ ျမန္မာျပည္ဟာ ႏုိင္ငံတကာကို ျပန္ဝင္ၿပီး အေမရိကန္လို အင္အားႀကီး ဒီမိုကေရစီႏုိင္ငံ တႏိုင္ငံနဲ႔ ဆက္ဆံေရး ေကာင္းမြန္ရမယ္၊ မဟာမိတ္ ျပန္လုပ္ရမယ္လို႔ က်ေနာ္ယံုၾကည္လို႔ပဲ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။

Credit  : Irrawaddy News

Who are the Rohingyas? An Arakani xenophob named Aye Chan says they are "Bengalis" from Bangladesh, and many of his hoodlum followers even call Rohingyas the "Talibans"; some even call them as "terrorists" perhaps because most Rohingyas are Muslims and some racist people it is easy to find all Muslims as being terrorists. However, research shows that Rohingyas look like Bengalis but aren't Bengalis.

If Rohingyas are not Bengalis, who are they? Rohingyas are a mixture of people beginning from indigenous Chandra people of pre 10th century Arakan, and also Rohingyas in them had Arab and Persian traders from the 7th century settled in Arakan, and the Bengali Sultan's soldiers send to Arakan with General Sindi Khan to help restore Noromikhala in the mid 15th century, and finally they also had in their people Bengali slaves captured from lower Bengal during the 16th and early 17th century from raids by Mogh (Rakhine) pirates in the Bay. These flows of people from the north and west of Arakan are recorded in history.

(1) These people who looked like Indians and Bengalis were scattered all around Arakan but due to their racial differences, eventually were pushed out to the Mayu frontier in the north. "Rohingya" as an official name adapted during the 50's in the last century by its leaders to serve as a survival mechanism for its people to unitedly face the destiny of attack and expulsion by the brutal military regime and its Arakanese collaborators. However, the name "Rohingya was in use recorded by an early British historian of Burma.

(2) In Arakan not surprisingly, "Rakhine" is also a new name changed from the historic name "Mogh" Most of the Rohingyas look like Bengalis because Bengalis have similar historic backgrounds as the Rohingyas have from the past. The racially motivated discrimination and expulsion of the Rohingya people has been an ongoing phenomenon for years for these people.The latest large scale push was during 1942, the 1978 and 1993 and even now in a smaller scale.

(3)Historically speaking, Arakan was an Indian land but occupied by the racially mongoloid people during the 11th century removing the Indian Chandra dynasty. The dark skinned

Rohingyas called by the Rakhines as "Kalas" are the indigenous Rohingyas. Rohingyas look like Bengalis but aren't Bengalis. Like the Rakhines (moghs) are racially like Burmese, so racially Rohingyas are like Bengalis. This is clearly because Arakan is a racial faultline. It is for this reason that there are Rakhines, Chakmas, Thanchaingas, Moghs, who are racially mongoloid people in Bangladesh. They are now Bangladeshi citizens. In contrast the Rohingyas in Arakan, Burma were denied of their citizenship in the 1982 constitutional reform by the racist military government of Burma. This change was done unfortunately (on record) with the help of some Arakani xenophobs like Aye Kyaw, Aye Chan and Ashin Nayaka who enjoy freedom and democracy in abroad but keep racist skeletons at home in Arakan; calling the Rohingya people as the "Influx Viruses". In this act of suffering of a people, causing genocide and crime against humanity, the xenophobes even call themselves as democrats-ofcourse, it is acceptable in Burma to the military's Burmese way to democracy. Thus Rohingya issue remains unresolved and the suffering of these racially different Burmese people living in the faultline continues.

References:

(1) O, Malley, Chittagong Gazettier, p.20, Abid Bahar, Burma's Missing Dots, p.54, D.H.L. Hall, Burma, 37, Phayre, History of Burma, p. 172
(2) Francis Buchanon,"A Comparative vocabulary of some of the languages spoken, in the Burmese empire"SOAS, p. 40-57.
(3) Abid Bahar, Burma's Missing Dots, 23-50.
(4) Abid Bahar, Dynamics of Ethnic Relations in Burmese Society. An Unpublished thesis on Burma 1982.

(Dr. Abid Bahar is a playwright and public speaker teaches in Canada)

Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
Washington, DC

Dear Madam Secretary:

As you prepare to travel to Burma, I am writing on behalf of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to urge you to raise concerns about freedom of religion publically during your trip. Religion drives serious human rights abuses in Burma, particularly against ethnic minorities and Buddhist monks who participated in peaceful protests in 2007. We believe improvements in religious freedom should be a critical benchmark for gauging the government of Burma’s commitment to genuine reform.

After almost fifty years of brutal military rule, there may be “flickers of progress” occurring in Burma, as President Obama recently stated. We commend the administration for sending you to assess the government’s commitment to reform. We note, however, that serious human rights violations continue to occur daily in Burma and any recent positive steps can easily be reversed. We hope you will maintain pressure on the regime to match its reformist rhetoric with concrete initiatives to release all political prisoners, call an immediate ceasefire in ethnic conflict areas, end attacks and discrimination against minority religious groups, and improve religious freedom and related human rights.

The Burmese government’s actions thus far have not improved religious freedom conditions, which remain acute. Since 1999, Burma has been designated as a Country of Particularly Concern (CPC) for particularly severe religious freedom abuses. Burma’s military continues its brutal attacks on Christian churches in Chin minority areas in Kachin State, as it also has in Karen, Karenni, and Naga areas. Rohingya Muslims continue to face severe discrimination and restrictions on their religious activity, causing large refugee problems in Bangladesh and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Hundreds of Buddhist monks, such as U Gambira, continue to serve long sentences. In addition to raising these concerns with Burma’s government, we encourage you to discuss religious freedom issues during meetings with representatives of Buddhist, Christian, and Muslim communities.

We believe it would be premature to consider lifting existing economic or political sanctions, like the CPC designation, until there is concrete and verifiable progress on the benchmarks cited above. However, if Burma pursues genuine reform, then the international community should respond proportionately and positively. We urge you to coordinate diplomatic actions with allies such as India, Japan, Thailand, and any ASEAN nation interested in religious freedom, democracy, and the rule of law in Burma.

We hope your mission to Burma is successful and would welcome the opportunity to discuss religious freedom concerns in Burma with you upon your return. We have included the USCIRF 2011 Annual Report chapter on Burma for your reference.

Sincerely,

Leonard Leo
Chair

cc: Michael Posner, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
Suzan Johnson-Cook, Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom
Derek Mitchell, Special Representative and Policy Coordinator for Burma

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, contact Tom Carter, Communications Director at tcarter@uscirf.gov or (202) 523-3257.

Credit: USCIRF

ARAKAN ROHINGYA NATIONAL ORGANISATION
ARAKAN, BURMA
PRESS RELEASE
(28 November 2011)

ARNO welcomes the visit of US Secretary of State to Burma

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) warmly welcomes the forthcoming visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to Burma, while inviting her attention to the grave human rights violations and growing anti-Rohingya propaganda by U Thein Sein government and sate patronized racists.

Grave human rights violations that amount to crimes against humanity are widespread in Rohingya and other ethnic areas. Most political prisoners are not released; Burmese military offensive against Kachin and other ethnic peoples continued; no significant changes towards national reconciliation have been done. In addition, ‘systematic racism’ against Rohingya has been institutionalized; and religious persecution against non-Buddhist people especially Muslims and Christians has been increased.
It is worth-mentioning that the rejection of Rohingya’s citizenship rights and ethnic rights by U Thein Sein government is the main contributing factor to the growth of the refugee problem and boat people crisis in the region. The Junta’s policy towards Rohingyas has been intolerable. The extreme situation forced them to prefer to take perilous voyages by rickety boats across seas and oceans; as a result hundreds of Rohingya boat people drowned over the years.


Since last week about 140 boat people have drowned. But the Nasaka border security forces disallow the villagers to collect and bury the dead bodies floating in the Naf River. The government of U Thein Sein is responsible for this human tragedy. It is a regional problem with international dimension; and the regional bloc of ASEAN in which Burma was awarded chairmanship for 2014, has an obligation for a regional solution.
The regime has blacklisted the name ‘Rohingya’ despite the fact that Rohingya as an ethnic group of Burma was recognized by the former parliamentary government (1948-1962). It is a part of the regime’s malevolent design to deny the Rohingya of their ethnic rights in Burma. Historically and genealogically, the Rohingya are a people who developed in Arakan from peoples of different ethnical backgrounds over the many centuries.
Democratic and political changes in Burma cannot be expected unless all oppressive laws are scrapped. The regime continues applying, on the Rohingya in particular, the Burma Citizenship Law of 1982 enacted by former dictator U Ne Win, in violation of customary international law. This unjust law has put the Rohingya in a situation of statelessness.
We, therefore, urge upon the U.S. Secretary of State to highlight over the following issues during her visit to Burma:
To restore citizenship rights and ethnic rights of the Rohingya people. To stop persecution and human rights violations against Rohingya and other peoples.
To treat Rohingyas as human beings, and lift all restrictions on their freedom of movement, marriage, education, trade and business.
To find a permanent solution to the Rohingya boat people crisis.
To accept Rohingya as a part of the Burma’s democratic and political process along the line of other ethnic nationalities of the country.
To scrap the Burma Citizenship Law of 1982.
To stop attacking ethnic peoples, declare a nationwide ceasefire; and to release all political prisoners.
To engage in a meaningful process of dialogue with the ethnic nationalities and the democracy movement led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
.
For further information, please contact:


Nurul Islam: + 44 07947854652
AFK Jilani: + 880 1674811079
Email: info@rohingya.org
website: www.rohingya.org

REFUGEE advocates expect a new wave of "stateless" Rohingya asylum seekers to attempt perilous sea voyages in rickety boats from ports in Bangladesh, raising concerns about how they will be treated if they land in Thailand.


A boatload of 92 Rohingya fleeing persecution in Burma's border regions has been handed over to the Thai army near a fishing port north of the resort island of Phuket.Three years ago the Thai army was behind a then secret policy of casting Rohingya adrift, causing hundreds of deaths.


One group of almost 100 was pushed back out to sea in an engineless boat with little food or water.
The policy was exposed after photographs of asylum seekers in distressed conditions on boats and beaches were published worldwide.Following international condemnation of the policy, immigration officials began to handle groups of Rohingya who landed in Thailand earlier this year.But the handing over of the latest asylum seekers to the army indicates a reversal of the policy.

The whereabouts of the boys and men who waded ashore last Thursday after apparently scuttling their boat is unknown.

A photograph published on the Phuke-tWan website showed them crammed into the back of an army truck.

The Rohingya, a Muslim minority group, usually attempt the voyages during the "sailing season" between November and April when conditions on the monsoon-prone Andaman Sea are tranquil.

They are trying to reach Malaysia, where an estimated 50,000 Rohingya live. Some are also expected to chance their luck with people smugglers to try to reach Australia.

Human Rights Watch says that for more than 30 years the Rohingya have faced extra-judicial killings, forced labour, religious persecution and restrictions of movement by Burmese authorities.

As many as 300,000 have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh, where they live in primitive and squalid conditions in makeshift refugee camps.

Bangladesh does not give them official resident status or work papers.

An estimated 800,000 Rohingya remain in Burma, primarily in western Arakan state and Rangoon where their citizenship is not formally recognised.The Rohingya are descended from a mix of Arakanese Buddhists, Chittagonian Bengalis and Arabic sea traders.

Their leaders have not been included in preliminary peace talks with other ethnic groups in Burma's border areas, some of which have small armies that have been fighting the Burmese for decades.

Hillary Clinton is due to travel to Burma later this week in the first visit to the isolated and impoverished country by a US secretary of state for 50 years.

US envoys have told Burma's military-dominated government that economic sanctions would not be lifted until the Burmese army ended its repression of ethnic groups despite the government appearing to have embarked on a path of economic and political reform.