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In this Jan. 17, 2014 photo, Raduan, left, helps her ailing mother Noor Jahan to steady her weak body at their living room in The' Chaung village in north of Sittwe, Rakhine state, Myanmar. As part of one of the community's richest families, Jahan, who later died, should have been in a hospital getting tests and medicine for her failing liver and kidneys, but it wasn't available to her. She was an ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar's northwestern state of Rakhine, forced to live segregated behind security checkpoints in a dirt-floor bamboo hut about a quarter mile from the sea. Photo: Gemunu Amarasinghe, AP

By Margie Mason
March 12, 2014

THE' CHAUNG, Myanmar — Noor Jahan rocked slowly on the floor, trying to steady her weak body. Her chest heaved and her eyes closed with each raspy breath. She could no longer eat or speak, throwing up even spoonfuls of tea.

Two years ago, she would have left her upscale home — one of the nicest in the community — and gone to a hospital to get tests and medicine for her failing liver and kidneys. But that was before Buddhist mobs torched and pillaged her neighborhood, forcing thousands of ethnic Rohingya like herself to flee to a hot, desert-like patch of land on the outskirts of town.

She was then stuck in a dirt-floor bamboo hut about a quarter-mile from the sea. She and others from the Muslim minority group have been forced to live segregated behind security checkpoints and cannot leave, except for medical emergencies. Often not even then.

Living conditions in The' Chaung village and surrounding camps of Myanmar's northwestern state of Rakhine are desperate for the healthiest residents. For those who are sick, they are unbearable. The situation became even worse two weeks ago, when the aid group Doctors Without Borders was forced to stop working in Rakhine, where most Rohingya live.

The government considers all 1.3 million Rohingya to be illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh, though many of them were born in Myanmar to families who have lived here for generations. Presidential spokesman Ye Htut accused Doctors Without Borders of unfairly providing more care to Muslims than Buddhists and inflaming communal tensions by hiring "Bengalis," the name the government uses to refer to the Rohingya.

Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist nation of 60 million, emerged from a half-century of isolating military rule in 2011. Nascent democratic reforms have generated optimism in the international community — the World Bank recently pledged $2 billion in development aid — but waves of ethnic violence, mainly against the Rohingya, have raised concerns from the U.S. and others.

Before Doctors Without Borders was shut down, Rakhine Buddhists regularly protested the group in what Vickie Hawkins, its deputy head of mission in Myanmar, described as a slow strangulation. Staff members were intimidated. Landlords became too fearful to rent houses for their operation. Boat captains declined to ferry patients.

The situation intensified after the organization said it treated 22 Rohingya patients who were wounded and traumatized following an attack in January. The government has staunchly denied that a Buddhist mob rampaged through a village, killing women and children, but the United Nations concluded more than 40 people may have been killed.

Talks are still ongoing between the government and Doctors Without Borders over whether the group will be allowed to continue working in Rakhine state. Dr. Soe Lwin Nyein, the Health Ministry's deputy director general, said Wednesday that the government was continuing to accept HIV and tuberculosis drugs from the group for patients in Rakhine.

Many sick patients located in the camps outside of the state capital, Sittwe, prefer to visit Doctors Without Borders' small facility that sits among a tangle of flimsy thatch-roofed shacks. It is a trusted source of care, having worked in Rakhine state for two decades.

To see a doctor now, patients living in the camps must secure referrals from government physicians and frequently pay bribes to security guards to get past checkpoints. Treatment is then only permitted at one hospital, forcing some from remote areas to travel for hours.

Additionally, many fear violence outside their Muslim area. Aid workers said protesters once stormed a hospital in town, forcing officials to lock the doors while some Rohingya patients fled in terror.

Rohingya in Myanmar have faced decades of systematic discrimination that bars them from certain jobs and requires special permission for them to marry, among other restrictions. But their lives were far more peaceful before ethnic violence erupted in mid-2012. Up to 280 people have been killed in Rakhine and tens of thousands more have fled their homes, most of them Rohingya.

Before the clashes, Jahan's family lived comfortably in the heart of Sittwe. They were well-known among both Buddhists and Muslims, owned five houses and ran a construction supply business. When surrounding Muslim areas started burning nearly two years ago, they paid the police to guard their concrete home and believed they were protected. But mobs torched and looted it anyway.

The family fled their now-bulldozed house with some jewelry and around $5,000 in cash. They can no longer access additional money in their bank accounts because they left their identity cards behind.

The stress was especially hard on 48-year-old Jahan. Suffering from diabetes, liver and kidney disease, she started deteriorating about three months after being corralled into the Muslim area, when the family ran out of medicine and food became scarce.

She fell unconscious in December, and her husband, Mohamad Frukan, traveled with her to a nearby government clinic and waited for an emergency referral. Eventually, the Red Cross was able to take them to a Sittwe hospital since the clinic itself has no doctors.

Once in town, Frukan said, a security guard shouted ethnic slurs at them and a nurse tried to give them different drugs than the doctor had prescribed. The family was not able to leave the facility, and was forced to rely on guards to bring them food. He said some were helpful, while others were indifferent or downright mean.

Jahan was told she needed to see a specialist in the country's main city of Yangon, but Rohingya need special permission for such a trip — a process that was too complicated and costly for the couple. Instead, after being treated for nine days, she was sent back to the dilapidated house made of bamboo slats and pieces of corrugated tin — still one of the nicest homes in the neighborhood, when compared to the saggy huts surrounding it.

Jahan's condition soon worsened. She couldn't stand or lie down, so she sat, drawing one agonizing breath after another. The doctor asked that she return a week or two later for a checkup, but by then, Frukan said, security around the camp had tightened and there was no way for the family to leave.

Instead, he decided to pay $300 for a boat to take his wife to Bangladesh. He was prepared to carry her through chest-high water for 45 minutes to reach the vessel, but when he tried to arrange it, the boat captain took a look at her and simply shook his head. He wouldn't take the risk of her dying on the way.

There was little that Frukan could do but cry. The couple had traveled to Yangon for care just four years ago, and if the violence hadn't uprooted their lives, they could have done it again.

"Life is so miserable for us," Frukan said. "Sometimes I am out of my mind thinking about her, but she never knows that. Whenever I look at her, it just hurts so much, and it's so painful. I think my daughters might even die seeing their mother every day and night."

Lives have always been at greater risk in Rakhine, the second-poorest state of one of Asia's poorest countries. The situation is worse away from the Sittwe camps, in isolated and predominantly Muslim northern Rakhine state.

In 2011, before the violence erupted, the European Community Humanitarian Office reported that acute malnutrition rates in parts of northern Rakhine reached 23 percent, far above the 15 percent emergency level set by the World Health Organization. In one township, the number of deaths among children under 5 is nearly triple the national rate, according to the U.N.

Now the situation is even more dire, with families split and lives disrupted. An estimated 75,000 Rohingya have left the country by boat, including Jahan's son and son-in-law, though neighboring countries are reluctant to accept them.

In the camps, many suffer from diarrhea and respiratory illnesses, including tuberculosis, in cramped shelters with no ventilation. Agencies such as UNICEF highlight poor hygiene, sanitation and a lack of clean drinking water. It's a possible public health disaster in the making, especially during the rainy season, when the choking dust turns to gooey mud. Potential outbreaks such as measles and cholera remain a worry.

Pregnant women are particularly at risk. A quarter of Doctors Without Borders' emergency referrals involved complications during labor. One Rohingya woman, Asamatu, started bleeding four days before giving birth to a baby girl last month and died three days later in a camp filled with barefoot children and open sewage ditches.

"She was so weak at the end she couldn't stand," said sister Hasinara as she breast-fed her 15-day-old niece. "If we hadn't been here, the father would be working normally and earning money and she would have given birth in a better place."

The strain is hardest on the poor, who cannot even afford basic medication sold at small pharmacies along a road near several of the camps. An underground group has been smuggling everything from antibiotics to aspirin into the area using business channels, but it's far from enough.

And sometimes, money doesn't matter.

In early March, two months after his desperate efforts to get his wife to a doctor, Frukan walked along a dusty potholed road before sunset in a white skull cap and a crisp shirt. He had been praying for Jahan, whom he fell in love with and married 35 years ago. He would have handed over his entire fortune to save her.

"She died in the middle of nothing," he said. "We couldn't do anything in the middle of nothing."

Now all Frukan has left is his guilt and a mound of fresh dirt surrounding a large white concrete grave. The best he could give her.

"If I talk about her, I feel I will die," he said sitting in a shady courtyard outside the house. "I try to make myself comfortable by going to the mosque, but if I talk about what happened to her, I will die."

____

Associated Press writers Esther Htusan in The' Chaung and Robin McDowell in Yangon contributed to this report.

In this Jan. 17, 2014 photo, ailing Noor Jahan, right, sits with her husband Mohamad Frukan, left, and children while she suffers in pain in their living room at The' Chaung village in north of Sittwe, Rakhine state, Myanmar. As part of one of the community's richest families, Jahan, who later died, should have been in a hospital getting tests and medicine for her failing liver and kidneys, but it wasn't available to her. She was an ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar's northwestern state of Rakhine, forced to live segregated behind security checkpoints in a dirt-floor bamboo hut about a quarter mile from the sea. Photo: Gemunu Amarasinghe, AP 
In this Feb. 27, 2014 photo, Mohamad Frukan stands next to the grave of his wife Noor Jahan, an ethnic Rohingya who died due to kidney disease, in The' Chaung village, north of Sittwe, Rakhine state, Myanmar. Photo: Pyae Phyo Thant Zin, AP 
In this Jan. 17, 2014 photo, trainee Rohingya nurses at Dapaing Village Hospital in north of Sittwe, Rakhine state, Myanmar. Data on Rohingya health is almost nonexistent. However, Rakhine is the nation's second-poorest state and lives have always been at greater risk there. Away from the camps, in isolated and predominantly Muslim northern Rakhine state, the health situation is even worse and reaching a hospital is nearly impossible. Photo: Gemunu Amarasinghe, AP 
In this Jan. 17, 2014 photo, an empty ward at Dapaing Village Hospital in north of Sittwe, Rakhine state, Myanmar. Data on Rohingya health is almost nonexistent. However, Rakhine is the nation's second-poorest state and lives have always been at greater risk there. Away from the camps in isolated predominantly Muslim Northern Rakhine, the health situation is even worse and reaching a hospital is nearly impossible. Photo: Gemunu Amarasinghe, AP
In this Feb. 27, 2014 photo, Hasinara, left, holds 15 day-old Minara Begum, whoes mother died after giving birth to Minara as Anawara Begum watches at a camp for refugees in Thatkapyin village, north of Sittwe, Rakhine state, Myanmar. Data on Rohingya health is almost nonexistent. However, Rakhine is the nation's second-poorest state and lives have always been at greater risk there. Away from the camps, in isolated and predominantly Muslim northern Rakhine state, the health situation is even worse and reaching a hospital is nearly impossible. Photo: Pyae Phyo Thant Zin, AP 
In this Feb. 27, 2014 photo, a 7-year old malnourished ethnic Rohingya boy, Rabi Allarm sits at The' Chaung village, north of Sittwe, Rakhine State, Myanmar. According to a 2011 report by the European Community Humanitarian Office, even before the latest burst of violence erupted in June 2012, acute malnutrition rates in parts of northern Rakhine reached 23 percent, far above the 15 percent emergency level set by the World Health Organization. Photo: Pyae Phyo Thant Zin, AP 
In this Jan. 17, 2014 photo, an empty bed at Dapaing Village Hospital is seen in north of Sittwe, Rakhine State, Myanmar. Data on Rohingya health is almost nonexistent. However, Rakhine is the nation's second-poorest state and lives have always been at greater risk there. Away from the camps, in isolated and predominantly Muslim northern Rakhine state, the health situation is even worse and reaching a hospital is nearly impossible. Photo: Gemunu Amarasinghe, AP 
In this Feb. 27, 2014 photo, a Rohingya man rides on a bus on near The' Chaung village, Rakhine state, Myanmar. Thousands of Muslims from the persecuted ethnic minority were forced to flee to this dusty patch of land after sectarian violence erupted nearly two years ago when Buddhist mobs burned their homes. The segregated group faces health issues because they cannot easily access care at hospitals outside their encampment area. Photo: Margie Mason, AP
In this Feb. 26, 2014 photo, Rohingya children play along a road in The' Chaung village, Rakhine state, Myanmar. Thousands of Muslims from the persecuted ethnic minority were forced to flee to this dusty patch of land after sectarian violence erupted nearly two years ago when Buddhist mobs burned their homes. The segregated group faces health issues because they cannot easily access care at hospitals outside their encampment area. Photo: Margie Mason, AP
In this Jan. 15, 2014 photo, a Rohingya child and an elder sibling stand in the foreground of Saytamar Gyi school in north of Sittwe, Rakhine state, Myanmar. According to a 2011 report by the European Community Humanitarian Office, even before the latest burst of violence erupted in June 2012, acute malnutrition rates in parts of northern Rakhine state reached 23 percent, far above the 15 percent emergency level set by the World Health Organization. Photo: Gemunu Amarasinghe, AP 
In this Jan. 17, 2014 photo, ethnic Rohingya people gather around a makeshift pharmacy in The' Chaung village in north of Sittwe, Rakhine state, Myanmar. Small pharmacies dot the road leading to several camps, but only people with money can afford basic medication. An underground group has been ferrying everything from antibiotics to aspirin and diarrhea medicine into the area using business channels, but it's far from enough. Photo: Gemunu Amarasinghe, AP 
In this Feb. 27, 2014 photo, Rohingya women wash clothes in Thatkapyin village camp, Rakhine state, Myanmar. Thousands of Muslims from the persecuted ethnic minority were forced to flee to this dusty patch of land after sectarian violence erupted nearly two years ago when Buddhist mobs burned their homes. The segregated group faces health issues because they cannot easily access care at hospitals outside their encampment area. Photo: Margie Mason, AP 
In this Feb. 26, 2014 photo, Mohamad Frukan stands outside his makeshift bamboo house in The' Chaung village, Rakhine state, Myanmar. His wife died in January 2014 after not being able to access proper medical care. Thousands of Muslims from the persecuted ethnic Rohingya minority have been forced to flee to this dusty patch of land after sectarian violence erupted nearly two years ago when Buddhist mobs burned their homes. Photo: Margie Mason, AP


By Protect the Rohingya

Protect the Rohingya, a South African based awareness organisation that advocates for the rights of the Rohingya, and the Muslim Lawyers Association of South Africa have co-authored a report on behalf of the Rohingya which they call, ‘Hear Our Screams, Making a case for the Rohingya Genocide’.

The information is structured in relation to the eight stages of genocide, as proposed by Gregory H. Stanton on Genocide Watch[1]. The facts presented within the eight stages are analysed normatively within the framework of the international law on genocide. 
The outcome is that, amid an atmosphere of extermination, a genocide against the Rohingya is both probable and possibly already underway. 

The report contains maps of the areas affected by the violence, a historical overview of the conflict followed by an exposition of the legal instruments pertaining to genocide within the framework of international law and a detailed presentation of the brutal conditions the Rohingya are subjected to. 

This report is based on locally sourced information and numerous reports by human rights organisations and articles and presents both an update to previous reports outlining the risks of an imminent genocide against the Rohingya and a detailed analysis of the developments leading to genocide[2]. 

In conclusion, the report includes practical steps by which this imminent genocide against the Rohingya may be averted as well as calls to the United Nations, international community and the Burmese authorities to take immediate and effective action if genocide is to be averted. 

[1] An earlier article using this approach is to be found at http://www.undispatch.com/the-8-stages-of-genocide-against-burmas-rohingya/

[2] A good collection of prior reports is to be found at http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/index.php/news-and-reports/burma-briefing/

Enquiries

Protect the Rohingya: 

Andrew Day +1 709 690 9352
Geor Hintzen +31 6 1415 4589

The Full text of the report can be read here:



Duchiradan Middle hamlet after fire on March 9, 2014


RB News 
March 11, 2014

Maungdaw, Arakan – 113 Rohingya houses were torched by a group of extremists in Maungdaw Township of Arakan State yesterday. The Rohingya residents claimed that the chemical could have been used by the group to spread the fire.

The fire started from the roof of a house in Rashidullah which is located in Sin Thay Pyin east hamlet of Longdon village tract. 40 houses in that village burnt down. 

“Rashidullah and family was having lunch when the fire started on the roof of his house. Rashidullah’s mother and his 7 year old son sustained injuries. Firstly, only 4 houses burnt down and the fire started again in another place which is 10 houses away from Rashidullah’s house. The houses are a little bit far away from each other. Normally an accidental fire can burn a house or a couple of houses in the village but this fire very surprisingly burnt one by one very quickly. We have total 40 houses in our hamlet. All were burnt down within a few minutes. The worst is all houses roof are made with nipa plam and thatches. The police arrested the wife of Rashidullah and took her to Kyain Chaung outpost.” a local told RB News. 

There is a stream which is 100 feet wide between Sin Thay Pyin east hamlet and Phan Myaung hamlet of Nga Sar Kyu village tract. The fire started in Phan Myaung after Sin Thay Pyin east hamlet burnt down. 72 houses and 3 shops burnt down in Phan Myaung hamlet. 1 cow, 1 goat, a paddy grain machine, two water pumps, 208 raw-rice bags, 500 rice bags and all of their other possessions got lost in the fire. There are total 123 houses in Phan Myaung hamlet and 72 burnt down in yesterday's fire. 

Local authorities came to the villages after the fire and ordered the villagers not to leave. Ordered stay inside the villages with temporary tents. But they didn’t provide any assistance for living nor foods. The fire in two hamlets left 362 people homeless. 

Sin Thay Pyin hamlet is located in the northern side of Longdon village, Southern side of Kyain Chaung village and Eastern side of Nga Sar Kyu village. The other of Sin Thay Pyin is Rakhine Natala village. Two months ago the Rakhines from Natala village left a Rakhine corpse in Sin Thay Pyin and tried hard to break the peace but as the villagers informed the authorities quickly the situation was controlled and nothing happened. 

“A 50 year old Rakhine woman and a young Rakhine woman came to our Sin Thay Pyin hamlet at 12:20 pm before the fire broke out. They were selling cosmetics. The fire broke out soon after they left from the village. The police from Natala village came into our hamlet and they stopped us from extinguishing the fire. Now we have learned that a chemical was used to torch our houses. Some people saw that some Rakhines are going around with some remote control devices. As the fire power is not like normal torching we assured that this time the torching method is different. The houses are also a bit far each other.” a local villager explained about the fire to RB News. 

Yesterday was Kyain Chaung weekly bazaar day and most of the men from the hamlets were in the bazaar, shopping for their daily livelihood. So as the women and children tried to save their lives themselves they were unable to save their properties. 

Moreover, a house of Shabir Ahmed caused fire in Wat Kyain village in northern Maungdaw Township.

“As per our investigation we heard that a Rakhine extremist group, RNDP led by Dr. Aye Maung brought some chemicals from India. We still have some good Rakhine Buddhist friends and they sympathize our plights and they are still like our families. So they are sharing some confidential information with us to avoid unnecessary problems. I can assure that yesterdays fire wasn’t a normal torching like they did in the past with petrol pouring. They have used some type of chemical.” a local Rohingya told RB News.

Additional reporting by MYARF and Sindi Khan.

The Burma Army remains heavily implicated in alleged human rights violations. (Photo: DVB)

By Angus Watson
March 11, 2014

The European Burma Network (EBN) has called on the UN to remain vigilant as human rights violations continue in Burma.

As the elements of the upcoming United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Resolution on Burma is discussed by the European Union, 14 Burma-focussed NGOs released a statement on Monday highlighting continuing breaches of international law by the Burmese government.

The EBN told the EU to ignore any notion that human rights violations in Burma were a thing of the past and to advise the UNHRC to maintain pressure on the Thein Sein government.

Burma Campaign UK director Mark Farmaner told DVB on Tuesday that “not only has the reform process slowed down, but we are starting to see some small reverses. This in undoubtedly connected to the fact that Thein Sein is no longer facing significant international pressure.

“A weak Human Rights Council Resolution will undermine incentives for making improvements in human rights,” Farmaner added.

The EBN statement outlined unwillingness on the government’s part to “take the necessary steps to end human rights abuses”.

The report alleges that of the 63 recommendations to the United Nations General Assembly made in September 2013 by former Special Rapporteur on Burma Tomás Ojea Quintana, “Not one has been fully acted upon by the government of Burma.”

As a result, “members of the EBN believe that ongoing impunity for serious human rights abuses means that international law mechanisms are the most appropriate framework through which to address these crimes.”

According to Farmaner, “There is already enough documentation by the United Nations to justify Burma being referred to the International Criminal Court.”

In its last resolution, the UNCHR outlined instances of human rights abuses which meet the criteria for international crimes, including arbitrary detention, forced displacement, the use of child soldiers, rape and other forms of sexual violence, military attacks on civilians, and torture.

The EBN sees Thein Sein’s failure to release all political prisoners, despite his claims to the contrary, as providing a strong example of his “unwillingness” to comply with UNHRC edicts and a breach of international law.

The first recommendation listed in Quintana’s report of September 2013 states that “all prisoners of conscience should be released immediately and unconditionally.”

Despite this, Thein Sein’s government currently enjoys a positive relationship with one-time detractors in the international community. Last year, the EU itself lifted the last of its trade sanctions on Burma, leaving only an arms trade embargo in place.

However BCUK’s Farmaner believes that the EU’s firmest foreign policy weapon was sheathed prematurely:

“The EU lifted sanctions without any of its own human rights benchmarks being met, and shortly after state involvement of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya and multiple cases of the Burmese army raping Kachin women.

“The way the international community treats Thein Sein is the equivalent if the police in one country said, ‘this man might have committed murder several times but we’ll let him get away with it because he is more friendly than his predecessor and does some good work in his local community’,” Farmaner added.

Galagoda Atte Gnanasara, left, and Ashin Wirathu are spearheading a new vision for a religion once based on principles of non-violence.

By Jake Scobey-Thal
March 11, 2014

The photo of two monks looks innocent enough. One of the men presents the other with a birthday present. It’s difficult to make out, but it looks to be some sort of gold figurine on a red velvet base. In fact, the photo would be totally uninteresting if it weren’t for the fact that these men are two of the world’s most important leaders of a dangerously radical brand of Buddhism.

The man on the right is Myanmar’s Ashin Wirathu. Known as the ‘‘bin Laden of Buddhism'', Wirathu leads the country’s 969 movement, which sees the country’s Muslim minority as an existential threat to its majority Buddhist population. The man on the left is Sri Lanka’s Galagoda Atte Gnanasara, the face of hardline Buddhism in the island nation.

Together, these two robed radicals anchor a powerful, violent and new political force in Asia.

Over the course of the past three years, Myanmar’s former military government has embarked on a series of significant democratic reforms, but the departure from military dictatorship has also coincided with a flowering of a radical Buddhist nationalism that has crystallised in communal violence against the country’s Muslim minority. Wirathu has emerged as the public face of that movement, and the monk’s anti-Muslim rhetoric has helped incite attacks on Myanmar’s Muslim civilians -- particularly its ethnic Rohingya -- over the past 18 months. Last year, Time magazine featured Wirathu on its cover under the headline ‘‘The Face of Buddhist Terror''.

But Wirathu is not alone in setting out a dangerous new vision for a religion grounded in the principle of non-violence. Gnanasara, who serves as a spiritual leader of sorts, is using his position to stoke the same type of religious bigotry in his home country of Sri Lanka.

Gnanasara is the co-founder of Sri Lanka’s Bodu Bala Sena, or Buddhist Power Force. The group, which was formed in 2012, agitates against what it sees as the threat Islam poses to Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese-Buddhist identity. As in Myanmar, Muslims in Sri Lanka are a small, largely peaceful minority. But that hasn’t stopped Gnanasara’s group from stoking fears of extremism.

According to a January report by the Associated Press, Buddhists in Sri Lanka have ‘‘attacked dozens of mosques and called for boycotts of Muslim-owned businesses and bans on headscarves and halal foods. At boisterous rallies, monks claim Muslims are out to recruit children, marry Buddhist women and divide the country.’’

In August 2013, a group of Buddhist monks attacked a mosque in the capital of Colombo. The mob struck the mosque while congregants were engaged in prayer, breaking windows and damaging the building. Both Muslims and Sinhalese Buddhists were injured in the clashes that followed the incident.

The vilification of Muslims is not simply base intolerance; it also serves a convenient purpose for Sri Lanka’s largely Sinhalese powerbrokers. Five years after the end of the civil war with the Tamil Tigers, President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s political machine needs a new scapegoat for the everyday frustrations of their constituents, many of whom have grown unhappy with the government’s heavy-handed security policies and its failure to deliver robust growth. The government seems to be ‘‘tacitly encouraging, and in some cases directly supporting, the anti-Muslim campaigns led by militant and often violent Buddhist organisations,’’ according to a November 2013 Crisis Group report.

If Gnanasara is indeed in Myanmar -- the photos have emerged only on minor Sri Lankan news outlets -- his visit comes at a sadly appropriate time. The Myanmar government is considering a law governing inter-faith marriage law that would ‘‘protect’’ Buddhist women by requiring their non-Buddhist suitors to convert and gain permission from the women’s parents if they wish to wed. Wirathu has campaigned aggressively in support of the law.

Despite pushback from local activists, public officials in both Sri Lanka and Myanmar have been loath to challenge Wirathu and Gnanasara. It seems these two men, and the radical brand of Buddhism they represent, are here to stay.

Duchiradan Middle hamlet after the fire on March 9, 2014

Qutub Shah 
RB Opinion 
March 10, 2014

A fire burning on March 8, 2014 in Dar Paing Village of Sittwe caused approximately 40 households burnt to ashes and and 362 Rohingya homeless.

The next day, March 9, 2014, another fire broke out in Duchiradan that burnt down 11 homes, one shop and one mosque. Reportedly, the fire broke out 20 minutes after two motorbikes entered the village.

Today the villagers of Sin Thay Pyin village have come suddenly upon a fire on Rashidullah s/o Murshedullah’s house at around 1:00 pm. The fire burnt 40 houses from Sin Thay Pyin and 72 houses from the neighboring village, Phan Myaung. The fire moved from one house to another quickly. The tragedy made around 200 families homeless. No death is recorded except the huge loses of properties and belongings. Normally in this kind of rural region accidental fire burns one to two houses. 

Remote control Fire

As mentioned, the fire at Duchiradan broke out after two motorcyclists entered into the village. In the same way, today at Sin Thay Pyin, the villagers saw some Rakhine motorcyclists moving to and fro before the incident, holding remote control devices. In addition, the way of fire moved from house to house with an equal period of time apposed to one after another. Also, the firewood cutters saw some Rakhine youth at the nearby forest yesterday. The fire spread with a speed that it was impossible to extinguish. Though the I houses are apart from each other. All of the signs prove that it was not an accidental fire but preplanned.

Current incidences and 2014 Census

The granting freedom of writing “Rohingya” as the ethnicity name in the coming census has shocked the Rakhine. As the government is granting much freedom to these Rohingyas which is not supposed to be given. As the RNDP Aye Maung has expressed his anger to this and threatened directly that giving this kind of freedom to Rohingyas is a threat to the stability of the state. It was an indirect denotation to what happens nowadays.

In conclusion, these frequent disasters are Aye Maung’s conspiracy to prevent the government to take back the Rohingyas right to choose their ethnic name as their own. The Rohingyas have to be aware of possibility of more tragedies occurring.

People from a Rohingya internally displaced persons (IDP) camp wait for a vehicle to return to their camp after waiting out cyclone Mahasen in a mosque outside Sittwe. (Photo: Reuters)

Gabrielle Paluch
Voice of America
March 10, 2014

SITTWE, BURMA — In western Burma’s Rakhine state, authorities asked international aid group Doctors Without Borders (known by its French name Medecins Sans Frontieres or MSF) to cease operations after accusations of aid bias. Activists say the ban will leave nearly 700,000 people without access to much needed medical care in the country's second-most impoverished region.

HIV-positive Ba Sein is also suffering from tuberculosis. He is living in close quarters with his wife and two children in a temporary camp for ethnic Muslim Rohingya on the outskirts of Sittwe.

Three months ago, doctors at a nearby clinic operated by Doctors Without Borders gave Ba Sein the diagnosis. But he cannot go in for his follow-ups because the clinic has closed.

Sittwe General Hospital is not far, but Ba Sein cannot travel there because security officers charge fees from the ethnic Rohingya minority. He said he has fevers every day, and wants to seek treatment but doesn't know where to go.

In this remote region of Burma, MSF has long been the primary source of reliable healthcare for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people. The group has been the primary responder to outbreaks of infectious diseases, and provides regular treatments for tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV.

But Doctors Without Borders drew controversy last month following an alleged attack on ethnic Rohingya Muslims in northern Rakhine state. MSF confirmed to international media that its doctors treated patients for wounds after a violent incident in Du Chee Ya Tar village. Human rights groups said at least 40 ethnic Rohingya were killed, a claim denied by the Burmese government.

Shortly after the group reported treating victims, authorities sent MSF an order to cease operations.

Although the Rakhine State Health Department said MSF’s suspension from operating in the region is only temporary, Burmese health authorities are consulting with the United Nations to plan for the sudden increase in patients. They said they will relocate staff from elsewhere in Burma to help with the workload.

"There is huge need here in Rakhine, there are a lot of people who already have inadequate access to health services and other basic services," explained Mark Cutts, who is responsible for the U.N.'s coordination office in Burma. He said they must put the needs of the people first.

"That's why we have a massive humanitarian operation in Rakhine state that's why we're working to support the government to ensure that vulnerable people here receive the essential life-saving services they need," Cutts said. "So when one of the biggest humanitarian organizations is asked to leave clearly that is a huge concern to us but the government have told us that there will be no gap in services."

The ban will primarily affect health care services for the ethnic Rohingya minority, the vast majority of whom live in northern Rakhine state. The ministry of health suggested it would bus patients in northern Rakhine state to Sittwe for treatment, but bringing ethnic Rohingya to a predominantly Rakhine area poses a security threat.

MSF provided anti-retroviral treatment for HIV for at least 650 patients living in northern Rakhine state.

A health professional who wished to remain unnamed told VOA that the government-run clinic in Da Paing IDP camp near Sittwe is already understaffed and lacks the facilities and resources to treat people. He said they often refer their patients to MSF.

By Fiona MacGregor
March 10, 2014 

Nazir Ahmed is dying. It is the rasping, frightened-eyed passing of a man denied even the most basic medical care – an undignified and distressing end he is condemned to suffer because his ethnicity means that he is refused fundamental human rights.

Aung Mingalar resident Rhahim Katu (centre) holds a container that measures an entire day’s rice rations for her family of nine in Sittwe, Rakhine State, on March 5. (Photo: Fiona MacGregor/The Myanmar Times)

But Nazir Ahmed is a prisoner in Aung Mingalar ghetto, an enclosed area in the centre of the Rakhine State capital Sittwe where – just metres away from bustling town life and tourists sampling the local seafood – about 4000 Rohingya Muslims are trapped in an existence of hunger and misery.

The Rohingya live here without access to healthcare, education or sufficient food. Armed guards and fear prevent them from leaving.

As Nazir Ahmed lies on a thin bamboo mat on the wooden floorboards of his roughly constructed home, his two sons attempt to comfort him by stroking his head and soothing his convulsing limbs.

Everyone in the house is aware that there is a state hospital just a few minutes’ walk away, as well as a team of international healthcare workers nearby who would be happy to help the sick man.

But the staff of Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF), the only INGO that had been allowed access to Aung Mingalar and had been treating Mr Ahmed since he suffered a stroke in early January, have been banned from working in the region by Myanmar government.

Tensions between the majority ethnic Rakhine and the Rohingya – a minority group not recognised by the government – are so high these days that, even if they could afford to pay the guards to let them out of Aung Mingalar, many Rohingya fear for their safety at the local Rakhine-run state hospital.

“People are frightened they will be attacked if they go the hospital,” explained one community representative, who said Rakhine hardliners patrol the medical facility’s grounds.

He asked not be named for fear of reprisals.

Nazir Ahmed’s condition started to deteriorate in the days before The Myanmar Times met him in Aung Mingalar on March 5.

Three days previously, residents with some medical understanding had urged his family to take him to the hospital in a bid to save his life. But like many in Aung Mingalar, they have no opportunity to work and could not afford the K10,000 required to pay the guards to allow him to leave.

Before MSF staff were expelled from Rakhine, they had facilitated the movement of patients who required hospital treatment and had given them the necessary referrals so they could receive treatment at Sittwe General Hospital.

By the time enough cash had been raised to get Nazir Ahmed to Sittwe General, his family felt it was too late. They said they did not want him to die in a hospital where they believed the Rakhine medical staff would mistreat him because he was Rohingya.

“We did not want to send him there to die,” said his son, Jamal Nasir.

He displayed two notebooks with his father’s name and age, 58, written on the front. The notebooks contained Nazir Ahmed’s MSF medical notes.

The first date recorded was January 7, 2014. There were no entries after February 28, the date MSF was ordered to cease operations in a move the government said was aimed at preventing further community conflict in the region.

The decision to evict MSF at the end of last month came amid growing resentment from Rakhine residents who claimed the organisation was

giving preferential aid to the Rohingya, and government concerns that the INGO’s reports regarding Rohingya patients they had treated following alleged attacks against them were at odds with the authorities’ accounts.

The group had been working in the region for more than 20 years and had 600 staff operating in Rakhine alone, providing vital medical care across the state. They were particularly important in remote communities as well as to those in the IDP camps who had restricted access to state services.

INGOs and UN organisations have expressed concern that local health authorities in Rakhine – Myanmar’s second-poorest state – do not have the facilities to replicate MSF’s services.

However, the deputy director general of the Ministry of Health, U Soe Lwin Nyein, has insisted they do and that state health workers will also provide care for those in the “Bengali” (the term Myanmar officials use to refer to the Rohingya) camps.

He has also asserted the ban is “temporary”, though MSF sources say they have had no confirmation of that.

Temporary or otherwise, any reinstatement will come too late for Nazir Ahmed, and very probably for many other vulnerable patients in Rakhine.

Five days after the MSF ban had come into effect, as Mr Ahmed lay dying, no one from the Ministry of Health had yet visited Aung Mingalar to ask about the residents’ medical needs, according to village head Shwe Zan Aung.

In a tiny bamboo hut a few streets away from Mr Ahmed’s house, a mother showed off her new baby boy, born the night before without medical assistance.

Other mothers soon gathered around to show infants they have given birth to while surviving on the most meagre rations: a tin can full of rice a day to feed a family of nine, a few handfuls of homegrown watercress, and what little extra food they might be able to afford from what is brought into the village by a truck that, after the guards have been paid off, is allowed to leave twice a week to go to a nearby market for supplies.

There is little firewood left in the village, so residents have been reduced to cooking over burning rubbish that often produces toxic fumes.

“Sometimes we just have to eat the leaves from the banana trees,” said Zorina Khatu, 45.

One young woman appears with twins. They are six weeks old but still tiny. They are lucky: Their grandmother is a traditional midwife.

But while the Ministry of Health insists that it can manage vaccinations for all communities without MSF’s help, it remains unclear how, when and who will facilitate the provision of polio and other inoculations to these new Aung Mingalar infants.

The elderly too fear for their future now that the INGO has been banned. Maung Maung, 63, has diabetes. While village residents say MSF did not usually supply regular diabetes medicines in the area, the INGO was able to do so in emergency cases.

Asked how he feels about the MSF ban, U Maung Maung said, “There’s a lot of trouble because of the lack of doctors and treatment, and we cannot go out for treatment. I am frightened I will die.”

The union government is aware of how banning a respected INGO from Myanmar appears on the global stage, especially at a time when the country is doing its best to present itself as a fledgling democracy.

While officials at the state level seem more concerned with appeasing Rakhine hardliners who demonstrate in the streets and make online threats against international aid workers, those heading up the union government’s response appear keen to show they are taking a balanced stance.

During a visit to Sittwe State Hospital on March 3, The Myanmar Times witnessed a police chief interviewing a senior medical official regarding allegations that a three-year-old boy who had been brought to the hospital from Aung Mingalar with breathing problems on February 26 had died five days later due to the mistreatment by medical staff.

Police officers were later seen questioning nurses at the hospital.

According to the policeman, the allegations had appeared online. Aung Mingalar residents said sources in the hospital reported that, while the doctors there “do their best”, other medical staff are less than caring toward Rohingya patients.

It may or may not have been a coincidence that part of the investigation into the boy’s death took place in front of journalists.

According to U Soe Lwin Nyein, who said he was not aware of the incident but would look into it, the government expected the decision to remove MSF would provoke rumours and allegations, and authorities were ready “for [the Rohingya] to test us”.

Under such circumstances, he suggested, it was important that such claims be properly investigated.

While allegations about the boy’s mistreatment remain unsubstantiated, a European medical professional who visited the hospital around the time of the boy’s death said he had been shocked by other treatment he had witnessed there.

He said he had looked into an operating room and seen nurses sewing up the badly slashed face of an elderly Rohingya woman from an IDP camp. Seeing that they were doing a rough job and using thick sutures, he had asked why they weren’t using finer thread on a face wound, and offered his own supplies if necessary.

The response he received, he said, was that “it doesn’t matter. She has no money, she’s a woman and she’s Muslim.”

In a tacit acknowledgement that Rakhine medical staff might not always be the best people to treat the Rohingya population, and might find it difficult to work in the IDP camps, U Soe Lwin Nyein said a rapid response team comprising medical staff from other parts of Myanmar was to be drafted into the region.

However, he said it was expected to be deployed for only a week or two.

With state officials suggesting that it is likely to be at least seven months before MSF will be allowed to resume operations in Rakhine, the future for Rohingya healthcare remains bleak.

They will have to go without care or, if they can find the money, put themselves in the hands of medical staff they do not trust.

As The Myanmar Times left Aung Mingalar, village head Shwe Zan Aung made this plea: “I would like to ask the union government if they will substitute another INGO to bring us medical treatment.”



It does not seem too much to ask.
President Thein Sein walks with ministers and other high-ranking civil servants in Naypyidaw. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

By Thin Lei Win
March 10, 2014

BANGKOK — Three years ago, a quasi-civilian government took office in Burma, shedding the country’s pariah image and introducing democratic reforms that have won widespread praise. Yet events last week have raised doubts about the government’s reformist credentials and its commitment to a genuine democratic transition.

The government’s expulsion of Nobel-prize winning charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) from the needy and conflict-torn Arakan State in western Burma on Feb. 28 was met with shock and condemnation from the aid community and human rights defenders.

Local media reported that government officials had been angry with MSF for saying it had treated victims near the scene of an alleged massacre of stateless Rohingya Muslims in the north of Arakan. Burma’s government denies any killing took place.

MSF, one of the biggest providers of healthcare in the state, said it was originally ordered to suspend all activities in Burma. The government later allowed the group to resume its work in other parts except Arakan.

A day earlier, Burma media reported that Shwe Mann, the speaker of Parliament, asked ministries to draft controversial laws on population control, religious conversion, monogamy and restricting marriages between Buddhist women and Muslim men after President Thein Sein sent a letter to the Parliament essentially endorsing calls by Buddhist nationalists to pass these laws.

The developments came after Bangkok-based Fortify Rights published a report detailing discriminatory policies toward the Rohingya, drawing on leaked government documents. Ye Htut, the presidential spokesman, responded by calling the authors “a Bengali lobby group.”

Like many in Burma, Ye Htut used the term “Bengali” to refer to the Rohingya, to assert they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The Rohingya say they have been in majority Buddhist Burma for generations.

“Looking at recent worrying signs in Burma, I can say that ‘reform’ in Burma is at a very early stage … Since late last year I detect the signs of regression on every front,” Aung Zaw, founding editor-in-chief of the Burmese online news journal The Irrawaddy, told Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“The honeymoon is over—what is worrying is the rise of radical elements and anti-reform sentiment,” he added.

Reality Check

Since June 2012, religious conflict across Burma has killed at least 240 people and displaced more than 140,000—most of them Rohingya in Arakan. Even before MSF was banned, aid agencies working in the state had been threatened and harassed by Buddhist nationalists who accused them of bias toward the Muslim Rohingya.

Since Thein Sein’s government took power, ending five decades of iron-fisted military rule, it has abolished media censorship laws, allowed protests and started negotiating for peace with the country’s many ethnic armed groups. Western governments have lifted or suspended sanctions in response.

So far, supporters of the Burma government have blamed any shortcomings in reform on a lack of experience and technical capacity in long-isolated state institutions. But some analysts say recent moves, especially the contentious legislation being planned, show that anti-reform elements are embedded within government.

“There clearly are capacity issues but some of the current concerns relate not to capacity but to policy directions that are being suggested or promoted by the government or the legislature,” said Richard Horsey, an independent political analyst based in Burma.

“I don’t think it is a sign of transition stumbling but it is reflective of just how powerfully these issues resonate with the Bamar majority and some members of the administration,” he added.

Phil Robertson, deputy director in Asia for Human Rights Watch, said too many Burma watchers based overseas believed that with the right amount of money and technical assistance, “everything would naturally progress towards a bright shining future.”

“The problems and conflicts were always more intractable than that … These recent events constitute a reality check,” he said.

“What is particularly worrying is that the Myanmar government is playing with fire with its willingness to look the other way on ethnic and religious extremism,” he added, describing the draft inter-faith marriage law as an “impending disaster”.

Where Is Burma Heading?

Especially worrying for observers is that in contrast to the response to previous bouts of violence in which the president called for tolerance and unity, the government has issued blanket denials of the alleged January massacre in Arakan and used MSF’s public comments as one of the reasons for the group’s expulsion.

The government has also resisted calls by the United Nations and rights organizations for an independent investigation.

Tomas Ojea Quintana, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, said the situation in Arakan, which has seen nearly two years of conflict between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, must not be separated from the broader issues of ethnic minorities and national reconciliation.

“Depending on how this will be assumed, Myanmar can then be regarded as a country committed to basic human rights for all. So far, the prospects are not encouraging and both the local and central authorities are responsible,” he said.

“My opinion is that keeping MSF apart from Rakhine State is part of a strategy toward consolidating not only the segregation of Rohingyas, but also the oppression against them, including complete limitation to access to health,” he added.

Another issue which has raised concern is the government’s plan to carry out the first census in 30 years in March and April. The Netherlands-based Transnational Institute (TNI) released a report on March 3 suggesting the survey could inflame ethnic tensions, further marginalize ethnic groups and be used as a tool for repression.

According to Horsey, events of the past week highlights that Burma’s transition is not a “simple, easy, linear change from all that is bad to all that is good.”

While Burma would not go back to what it was before reforms, there are many future trajectories it can take, some better than others, he said.

“If other countries start to see Myanmar and the Myanmar government as one which is promoting discriminatory policies, then I think that could have a significant impact on relations,” Horsey said. “It would inject a much greater note of caution in relations between the West and Myanmar.”



March 10, 2014

BUDAPEST – The anti-Muslim rhetoric of Sri Lanka is similar to that of Myanmar, an international panel of experts at a conference on violence in the two countries concluded this week. 

Although no one has died in anti-Muslim violence in Sri Lanka, speakers at the March 6 discussion said that the language of hatred is similar to that in Myanmar where hundreds of Rohingya Muslims are reported to have lost their lives.

Held at the Central European University's School of Public policy in Budapest, "Buddhist Fury: violence against Muslims in Sri Lanka and Myanmar" sought to answer questions on conflict solution, develop policy ideas and share news on the current situation in both countries, with a purpose of releasing a policy paper to help deal with anti-Muslim hatred.

The audience heard that although Muslims make up just 9 percent of Sri Lanka's population, Buddhists, who number around 70 percent, appear to fear an increase in their population - fears which have also been expressed in Myanmar. But whereas violence in Myanmar has led to hundreds of deaths, attacks in Sri Lanka have been limited to mosques and the removal of Muslim women’s headscarves, with a few people injured. 

The Muslim minority expressed concern this week when Sri Lankan leaders of the extremist Bodu Bala Sena group visited Myanmar and met with 969 Movement leaders, extremist monk Ashin Wirathu. 

Buddhist mobs in Myanmar have killed more than 200 Muslims and forced more than 150,000 people, mostly Muslims, from their homes. Many Rohingya Muslims now live in large camps in Sittwe, the capital of the Rakhine State in Western Myanmar.

Wirathu has denied any role in the violence, but critics have said that his anti-Muslim preaching has helped to inspire it. Like Bodu Bala Sena, he has criticized the halal slaughter method, and told Buddhists not to do business with Muslims, urging them to seize their land.

The government of Myanmar denies any massacre of Rohingya has taken place. A presidential spokesman, Ye Htut, in a recent interview with The Myanmar Times, described accusations that Rohingya have been persecuted as "baseless."

The Budapest panel debated different solutions to anti-Muslim violence, among them the involvement of 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. 

Dr Richard Horsey - a Myanmar adviser for both the International Crisis Group and Myanmar Peace Centre - said that Suu Kyi “had used her political capital on other unpopular causes, there is no reason she cannot speak up for the Rohingya.”

Suu Kyi - for long a beacon of the Human Rights community - has been criticized for not playing a role in raising attention to the Rohingya's plight and easing the hatred.

The panel discussed tactics used by extremist Buddhist groups and how widespread anti-Muslim language had become in the two societies.

Professor Robert Templer, Director of the Centre of Conflict Negotiations and Recovery, asked Richard Reoch, President of Shambala, a Buddhist organization based in London, why are Buddhists killing? 

“It comes down to three factors,” answered Reoch. “Emotion, culture and identity.”

Reoch said that the three factors together could make people forget about their faith and carry out acts that are unbefitting to them, regardless of the faith of the individual.

By Pawan Bali
March 10, 2014

WASHINGTON, DC: It was the summer of 2004 when I first ran into the Rohingyas in Jammu, a town in northern India. Over 300 families had settled in a squalid camp next to a noisy rail track, seeking a fresh start. When I mistook them for illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, they were quick to defend, waving the one piece of identity they had- a refugee card from United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Ten years later, I met the community members again in Washington, DC. A few dozens of them gathered outside the Burmese Embassy to protest and raise awareness about their plight. A decade has not changed much for them. They still carry the only identity they have known- an identity of being a perpetual refugee. Stateless and thousands of them still homeless.

The Rohingyas are the Muslims, mainly living in Rakhine or Arakan region of Western Myanmar. The Burmese government does not recognize them as citizens and terms them as “Bengali” migrants. The United Nations describes them as one of “the most persecuted minority”. They call themselves refugees.

Muhamed Husson Ali, one of the Rohingya protestors in DC, says he has aged waiting for a home he can call his own. Ali, who worked as a public school teacher in Maungdaw township in Myanmar, first escaped in 1978-the time when military launched Operation Naga Min (King Dragon) to drive the Rohingyas out. In the thick of the night, Ali and his 12 family members packed themselves in a small boat, crossing the river Naff to Bangladesh for refuge.

“Over eight camps had been set up then and within six months, more than 30,000 people died from diarrhea, disease and hunger. For months we lived on handful of flour and fish-powder”, he recalls.

A few months later he was repatriated to Rakhine. Ali’s home was a pile of rubble and the old job was no longer available. He started work as a community teacher, became a public writer-and then a World Food Program employee. On the sides, he was always a vocal advocate of the community rights. His voice got him into trouble, invited threats from the Burmese military and constant surveillance. In 2008, he sought refuge once again in Bangladesh, Malaysia and finally in United States. Ali says his eight children and rest of the family are still in Maungdaw, battling life every day.

“During 2012, when the riots broke out I called my family back home. They told me six young people in my town had been killed. I felt so helpless,” he says.

The only way Ali and his fellow activist Kyaw Soe Aung find strength is to raise awareness amongst the international community about their plight and persecution. They tour states, hold camps. Sometimes they protest, sometimes appeal. Sometimes they seek hope, sometimes help. More often, they seek a voice to join in their cry. “Our people live in detention camps. They need help from all of you. It is their only hope,” says Aung, as he implores the students at American University for support.

The estimates in numbers reflect their plight. There are 800,000- to one million Rohingyas living in Myanmar facing persecution, threat and daily discrimination. Over 1.4 million are scattered worldwide into nameless locations, temporary addresses and refugee camps. Over 180,000 are internally displaced, living in inhumane conditions. The situation could possibly be worse.

The Burmese government does not recognize their identity. Even as the Rohingyas trace their Burmese ancestry to 8th Century, they are still called Bengalis. In 1871, the British who then ruled Burma, brought in some of the migrant labors from neighboring Bangladesh to Rakhine region for farming. More than 150 years of living in and tilling the land has not earned them any state rights. The 1982 Citizenship Act of Burma recognizes 135 other ethnic identities, but not the Rohingyas. They face constant harassment under the two-child policy, which restricts their number of children to two. For travel, marriage, cattle ownership and even house repairs, they need prior permission of the government-a government that is never on their side.

International aid is often inaccessible. Recently, Burmese government restricted operations of Medicine Sans Frontier, which was one of the few sources of relief for internally displaced Rohingyas.

The Rohingyas remain unwanted not only in their own land, but also in the neighboring states. Bangladesh often returns boatloads of refugees. Thailand recently repatriated over 1400 of them. Australia had pushed back some. If that is not all, nature has been cruel. In November 2013, 70 refugees died when an over-crowded boat was capsized.

Beyond the deep sea, lies the devil. Violence against them in Rakhine region ebbs and rises. Clashes of 2012 had claimed over 200 lives. More recently, over 40 of them were killed in Du Chee Yar Tan in Ali’s town of Maungdaw.

Mention the Maungdaw incident and Ali breaks down. In his frail voice he attempts to make a coherent appeal to the international community, hoping to find some strength. States have been cruel. Nature has been perilous. International community has been indifferent. Who is on their side, he asks.

Ali walks out of the panel discussion to yet another event at the Capitol. It seems as if the cold has shrunk him. It is just not the weather. It is the tireless struggle, he says, hoping that someone heard him this time.

(Pawan Bali has been a journalist with The Indian Express newspaper and CNN-IBN in India. Currently, she is pursuing her Master’s in International Peace and Conflict Resolution at American University, Washington, DC.
An Event on Rohingya Muslims, the Hidden Genocide, was organized at American University by Creative Peace Initiatives.)



March 10, 2014

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) Secretary General Iyad Ameen Madani has urged Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to take initiative to repatriate Myanmar's Muslim refugees.

Madani appealed to Hasina during a meeting with her at her office on Sunday evening, her Special Assistant Md Mahbubul Hoque Shakil said.

Bangladesh gave shelter to thousands of Muslim Rohingya refugees, fleeing Myanmar's Rakhine province following years of sectarian clashes.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, put the number at over 200,000 with 30,000 documented refugees living in two government-run camps – the Kutupalong and Nayapara.

The government says more than 500,000 of them were living outside the camp in the country.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Shakil said the Prime Minister told the OIC chief that she had already discussed refugee repatriation when she visited Myanmar in 2011.

The Prime Minister also raised the issue while meeting Myanmar President Thein Sein during the BIMSTEC conference held recently in Naypyidaw.

Madani, a former Saudi Arabian minister, arrived in Dhaka on Sunday morning on a three-day visit, his first after he took up OIC post in Jan.

He congratulated Hasina for her return to the power for the second successive term after Jan 5 elections, which BNP-led oppositions had boycotted.

As chief of the world’s largest Muslim grouping, he termed ‘extremism’ as the enemy of Islam and urged Hasina to take firm steps against it.

Shakil quoted him as telling the Prime Minister: “Extremism is our main enemy. We have to be vocal against fundamentalism. We have to save Islam from their hand”.

Madani also expressed similar concerns while talking to journalists at the foreign ministry, where he met foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali and foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque.

During his meeting with the Prime Minister, Shakil said, he also stressed working together to cut poverty in Muslim nations.

He said the member states would benefit if the Muslim world worked together for development and peace.

OIC was established through a decision of the Summit in Rabat, Kingdom of Morocco, on Sep 25 in 1969 in response to an act of criminal arson of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem in Palestine.
---

OIC to play key role in solving Rohingya problem

March 10, 2014

DHAKA - The Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has said that the organization expects a quick solution to the Rohingya issue and it aims to play a key role in solving the problem.

The issue was a major talking point during a meeting between Iyad Ameen Madani and Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmud Ali in Dhaka on Sunday morning, Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Md. Sahidul Haque told media.

The OIC secretary general - a former Saudi Arabian minister - said that the OIC will raise the issue at international forums, including the United Nations.

He called the issue a matter of citizenship issue between Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Outside of the Rohingya issue, Madani said that chief among the challenges that face Muslim Ummah today is sectarian violence between Shias and Sunnis, and sometimes between Sunnis.

"In that situation, there is no winner and all are losers," he said, adding that Islam is a religion of tolerance and peaceful co-existence.

The visit was the first to Bangladesh by Madani since he assumed office as the 10th secretary general of the OIC in January.

The purpose of his visit was to strengthen existing co-operation between Bangladesh and the OIC.

The OIC is the largest organization of Muslim countries in the world. It was established in Morocco in 1969.

RB News 
March 9, 2014

Maungdaw, Arakan – A fire broke out in Duchiradan middle hamlet on the morning of March 9, 2014 at 10:30am in the middle hamlet in Duchiradan village in the Maungdaw Township of Arakan State. 11 Rohingya houses, a shop and a mosque burnt down into ashes there.

A local told RB News; “Maungdaw district and township administrator came to Duchiradan after the incident. Two Rohingya women from the east hamlet claimed that they saw four police entered into the village by riding two motorbikes and the fire broke out 20 minutes after they got into village. The women were arrested immediately and taken to the Maungdaw police station.”

Another local from Duchiradan said; “Only two houses and a mosque were burnt down in the beginning but another fire broke out from northern side after the police forces entered into the village from all sides while we were extinguishing the fire at the first two houses and the mosque. Finally we lost another 9 houses and a shop.” He explained RB News how he saw the two houses and a mosque were burning and how the fire popped up from another side of the village as a different group of police entered. Villagers who were fighting the fire were forced to flee from their effort when the police entered. 

The owners of the houses and shop lost in the fire are:

(1) Muzawbawr S/o Issali 
(2) Salimullah S/o Mamed Hussein 
(3) Zawfaw Hussein S/o Issali 
(4) Sawmaid S/o Zawfaw Hussein 
(5) Ameen S/o Musali 
(6) Shabir Ahmed S/o Saleh Ahmed 
(7) Sultan Ahmed S/o Tawzum Ali 
(8) Yaseen S/o Tawzum Ali 
(9) Noor Ameen S/o Kalaya 
(10) Mamed Alam S/o Dawbir 
(11) Noor Ahmed S/o Ruskum Ali 
(12) A Shop of Shukur Ahmed

The police torched the houses in at that time, mostly abandoned Duchiradan's west hamlet on the last week of January 2014 and made false news that the houses were torched by the owners themselves. Often holding witnesses and forcing them to sign papers to clear local authority of any wrongdoing. Placing blame on the owners of the property. 

The two female witnesses who were arrested after talking about the police presence for the fire began were held in similar fashion as the witness in January. Forced to say that the fire was started by the locals. Their names are Daw Lay Doe and Daw Halima. They were released by police after fulfilling this demand. Now the Ministry of Information of Myanmar posted in their news portal and said that the burnt properties in were also torched by the owners themselves.

“As usual it is a joke by Ye Htut, presidential spokesman. Everyone who has good ability in thinking can imagine whether it could be true or not. Ye Htut will never torch his house to get promotion. Ministry of Information is (there) to propagate and they never write anything about their crimes. They are (there) to protect their government. They never circulate any correct information in their life time. Now this type of propaganda is becoming nothing but a big joke for the international community.” a Rohingya activist told RB News.

Additional reporting by MYARF.



    • Rohingya Exodus