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A Rohingya house in Sin Thay Pyin after stripping the materials from the roof


RB News 
March 20, 2014

Maungdaw, Arakan – Burning houses in Maungdaw Township of Arakan state is happening every day now. Today some houses were again torched systematically but the villagers managed to extinguish it very quickly. 

In the afternoon of March 20th, the fire started in Myaw Chaung (Mawrik Kaung) village. The Rohingya villagers managed to extinguish the fire very quickly and there was only little damage, according to locals. 

Another fire started at 12:30 pm in Laung Boak hamlet of Thet Kaing Nyar village tract. The fire started from the roof of the house belonging to Razibul Hoque S/o Rawzawk Ali (Age 36). Razibul Hoque wasn’t at home at that time. His wife and two children were sleeping but they could manage to leave before the house was completely burnt down in to ashes. According to locals, the fire wasn’t an accidental one but it was systematic torching. “Thet” Buddhist village is nearby them and they said the extremist group managed to get in through that village. 

At the same time, a fire started again in the village where a house and a madarasa burnt down on March 19th in Longdon village tract. However, the villagers managed to extinguish the fire and not much was damaged. 

As there is arson everywhere in Maungdaw everyday, the Rohingya villagers in Sin Thay Pyin are afraid that the remaining houses will be torched by the extremist group. So they removed the nipa plam and thatches from their roofs. 

“Our houses’ roofs are very dangerous now. They sprinkle the chemical powders and liquid over our house by using some remote controlled balloons. The fire blasts when it hits the required temperature. So now we removed the nipa plam and thatches from our roofs. We will know once they sprinkle the powder. Those will come in to our houses. We are in trouble under the sun. But we have no choice. On the other hand the government is accusing us that we are torching our own houses. Now everyone should know the truth. That’s the reason we removed them.” a villager told RB News.

MYARF & Rohingya Eye contributed in reporting.

RB News 
March 19, 2014

Maungdaw, Arakan – For the third time, a fire has been reported in Longdon village tract in Maungdaw Township of Arakan state. The fire didn’t burn many houses but it wasn’t accidental. As usual, it was a systematic torching.

The fire started on the roof of a Rohingya house at 10 pm on 19/03/14 in Kyun Gaung hamlet of Longdon village tract in Maungdaw Township. The fire spread to the Madarasa (Islamic School) but the Rohingya villagers managed to extinguish the fire once it did. The house and the Madarasa were damaged by the fire but not completely burnt.

The villagers said that the fire wasn’t an accidental one as it started from the roof of the house. They said that extremists are systematically torching the structures.

At 9 pm a group of 5 Rakhine extremists holding swords and patrol gallon cans entered Ridaa hamlet of Aung Sit Pyin village tract in Maungdaw Township to torch the houses but the extremists couldn’t implement their plan as the villagers saw them. Although the Rohingya villagers tried to catch them in order to hand them over to the authorities, all five managed to escape from the village.


By Tim McLaughlin
March 19, 2014

A political party has called for Rohingya to participate in the upcoming national census but also urged the government to ensure they are able to respond to questions freely and without intimidation.

The Democracy and Human Rights Party said it “enthusiastically welcome[es] the 2014 nationwide census” and “urged all Rohingya to fill in your ethnic name correctly and independently without any spelling errors”. The statement was released by the group’s chairman last week.

Because the Rohingya is not an officially recognised ethnic group it has not been assigned a numerical code for the census. However, individuals who wish to identify as Rohingya will be able to select “other” and then write in Rohingya. Members of the DHRP and the National Democratic Party for Development (NDPD) had in January called for Rohingya to be given a numerical code, but their attempts to have the census changed were unsuccessful.

The Democracy and Human Rights Party, a Rohingya group, is now focusing its attention on security surrounding the census. It has warned that some groups and individuals may attempt to intimidate census enumerators and respondents in order to stop the word “Rohingya” appearing on census documents.

The party has called on the government to take action against “social networks, organisations and political groups” that are issuing threats against anyone who lists Rohingya as their ethnicity on a census form.

On March 18, Rakhine Buddhists held demonstrations in cities across Rakhine State to protest against individuals being allowed to self-describe as Rohingya on the census. The demonstrations were organised by Rakhine civil society groups, members of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party and Buddhist monks, including U Wirathu, leader of the “969” movement who was preaching in Rakhine State over the weekend.

DHRP officials also expressed concerns that many of the government school teachers who are acting as enumerators in Rakhine state for the census do not speak the language of the Rohingya. A number of teachers previously told The Myanmar Times that they were mis-identified as speaking the language on census-related materials posted at schools in northern Rakhine.

The DHRP has said that they would like the government to provide interpreters but the request seems unlikely to be filled, as the government has indicated it will likely not allow Muslims to act as enumerators.

The census is set to take place March 30 to April 10 and is being implemented with help from the United Nations Population Fund.

(Photo: Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun)

By Gemima Harvey
March 19, 2014

It has been a tragic start to the year for Myanmar’s persecuted Muslim minority.

The ongoing plight of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority has seen some tragic developments this year.

In the early hours of January 14, a series of events spiralled into the deadliest atrocity against the Rohingya since sectarian violence swept the nation in 2012, when security forces and Rakhine Buddhists reportedly attacked Du Char Yar Tan village in northern Rakhine State, killing 40 Rohingya, including women and children.

The Myanmar government continues to deny that the massacre took place. But numerous reports conflict with the official narrative.

United Nations (UN) high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay said in a statement she had received “credible reports” of killings in Du Char Yar Tan village. Details later emerged that the massacre was discovered when a group of men found the severed heads of at least 10 Rohingya, including children, bobbing in a water tank.

Calls for an international investigation were promptly rejected, with presidential spokesperson Ye Htut laterinvoking the United States’ refusal of an international probe into Guantanamo to justify the decision. An internal inquiry by the Myanmar Human Rights Commission (MHRC) concluded there was no “solid evidence” to prove the attack took place, making the allegations “unverifiable and unconfirmed.”

UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tomás Ojea Quintana, has questioned the independence of the MHRC and told Democratic Voice of Burma, that he “remains convinced that serious violent incidents took place.”

Associated Press (AP) was the first international media outlet to report on the attack in an article headed,“Myanmar mob kills more than a dozen Muslims.” This quickly drew government disapproval. AP journalists in Yangon were summoned by the Ministry of Information for reporting events that “differed from the real situation.”

Evidently, there is a disparity between what the international community is seeing and hearing and what the Myanmar Government wants the world to believe. In handling the January massacre, the government appears to have adopted two strategies — deny that it happened and discredit any conflicting versions of events.

Unfortunately, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is now discovering what happens when you report details that differ to accounts given by the government, while relying on its permission to carry out vital projects. Following the massacre in Du Char Yar Tan village – which “officially” did not happen – MSF reported treating 22 patients for injuries sustained during the violence. The government portrayed this as“wrong information” and last month, scores of protestors took to the streets hurling accusations of Rohingya bias and calling for the international non-government organisation (NGO) to be ousted from the country. Presidential spokesperson Ye Htut told media on February 28 that MSF had become less transparent. ‘‘They even hired Bengalis [Rohingya].’’ He said the government would not be extending its MoU with the medical charity and that it had been ordered to cease all operations in the country.

Past accusations of “bias” favouring the country’s Rohingya Muslims prompted Peter Paul de Groote, MSF’s head of mission in Myanmar, to write a piece for the Myanmar Times. ‘‘If providing medical care can ever be referred to as ‘biased’, it is a bias toward patients. It is a bias that is based on medical need, regardless of any other factor. MSF sees only patients, nothing else.’’

After negotiations, MSF was given permission to resume its projects – except in strife-torn Rakhine State, where about 80 percent of Myanmar’s estimated 1.33 million Rohingya live. In a March 2 statement MSF expressed concern for ‘‘tens of thousands of vulnerable people in Rakhine State who currently face a humanitarian medical crisis.’’

MSF was the major NGO provider of healthcare in the state. Along with supporting local Rakhine, the medical group offered a lifeline to the segregated Rohingya who have difficulty accessing medical services because of travel restrictions and discrimination that prevents them from being treated at public hospitals. Human Rights Watch has slammed the move as “simply deplorable.”

The latest news from the Myanmar Times indicates that the expulsion of MSF from Rakhine State will be temporary, but could last at least seven months. A state government official said that if MSF were allowed to stay in the state, the organization’s workers, and government staff, could be targeted by Rakhine community groups carrying grievances of bias. The article notes that a number of international NGOs and UN agencies have been subjected to online threats since the suspension of MSF’s operations.

Policies of Persecution

Damning revelations in a new report by independent human rights group, Fortify Rights, implicate government authorities in policies that discriminate against and repress its Rohingya minority.

The report, Policies of Persecution: Ending Abusive State Policies Against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, draws on leaked official documents to expose the government’s hand in human rights abuses. For two decades UN envoys have reported widespread rights violations against the Rohingya, describing the abuses as “systematic” and resulting from “state policy.” But Fortify Rights has gone a step further, providing evidence of the government’s complicity.
In response to the report, Ye Htut told the Myanmar Times that the government does not remark on “baseless accusations from Bengali lobby groups.”

The government vehemently denies the existence of a Rohingya ethnicity, referring to the group, even in official documents, as “Bengali.” This stems from a pervasive belief that all Rohingya are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, a conviction widely held despite records of Rohingya families living in Myanmar for centuries. Rakhine State, where the Rohingya are concentrated, is a crescent of land sitting along the coast of the Bay of Bengal in Western Myanmar, bordering Bangladesh to the north. The 1982 Citizenship Law does not recognize the Rohingya as belonging to Myanmar and with this reform they were rendered stateless. An appeal by the UN last year, calling on the government to grant its Rohingya minority citizenship was rejected. This should not come as a surprise considering President Thein Sein has suggested that the solution to ethnic enmity in Rakhine State was to send the Rohingya to another country or have the UN refugee agency look after them.

Documents obtained by Fortify Rights detail restrictions on the Rohingya relating to: ‘‘movement, marriage, childbirth, home repairs and construction of houses of worship, and other aspects of everyday life.’’ These policies, created and implemented by Rakhine State and central government authorities, apply solely to the Rohingya and are reportedly framed as a response to an “illegal immigration” problem and threats to “national security.”

This notion of national security requires context on the volatile situation in Rakhine State.

Ongoing tension between Rohingya (as well as other Muslims, including Kaman) and Rakhine Buddhists reached tipping point in 2012. Bloody bouts of sectarian violence, including two major waves in June and October, resulted in the deaths of more than 200 people and displaced another 140,000 (the vast majority of those dead and displaced were Rohingya).

Conflict that began as tit-for-tat communal clashes soon escalated into what multiple human rights groups have condemned as ethnic cleansing.

June violence was reportedly sparked by the rape and murder of a Rakhine woman by three Muslim men. A few days later, a group of Rakhine stopped a bus and beat to death ten Muslims who were on board. A 2013 Human Rights Watch report explains that violence then escalated into mob assaults, with atrocities committed by both sides. However, according to the report, the attacks that occurred in October were more “orchestrated” and were organized, incited and committed by “political party operatives, the Buddhist Monkhood and ordinary Arakanese [Rakhine], at times directly supported by state security forces.” On October 23, “after months of meetings and public statements promoting ethnic cleansing,’ in apparently coordinated assaults, Rakhine men attacked Muslim villages in nine townships across the state, killing residents and razing homes ‘while security forces stood aside or assisted the assailants.”

Despite this, the government has consistently denied any wrongdoing and no members of security forces have been prosecuted for their alleged roles in the attacks.

Since then, the Rohingya have been living an excruciatingly limited existence under apartheid-like policies. They are prevented from leaving the internally displaced persons (IDP) camps and cordoned off areas where they are allowed to live in Rakhine State, without a special permit, which is reportedly difficult and expensive to obtain. This means access to basic rights – livelihood, food, water, health care and education – is severely restricted. Once flourishing mixed market places are now devoid of Muslim businesses and hundreds of Rohingya university students have been prevented from getting higher education because “authorities cannot guarantee their safety.”

Notably, the Fortify Rights report states that, ‘‘Senior government officials have gone so far as to blame violence in Rakhine State on rapid population growth of Rohingya.’’

Reflecting this concern with population growth, Rakhine State spokesperson Win Myaing told media last year that “overpopulation is one of the causes of tension.” He added, “The population growth of Rohingya Muslims is 10 times higher than that of the Rakhine [Buddhists].’’

Reliable population statistics are lacking and this year Myanmar will conduct its first census in more than 30 years. However, challenging the construction of a Rohingya “breeding problem,” a study of official data by Harvard University researchers, found that the population growth rate in Rakhine State was slightly lower than the rest of Myanmar (for the period 1955-2010).

Whether this claim, that Rohingya have bigger families than Rakhine, has any factual basis is hardly the point, but it does explain the abusive population control measures the Rohingya are forced to endure. Since 2005, Rohingya in two majority Muslim townships in northern Rakhine State have been subjected to a strict two-child policy. A regional order obtained by Fortify Rights apparently underpins this policy, stating that Rohingya “who have permission to marry” must “limit the number of children, in order to control the birth rate so that there is enough food and shelter.”

Authorities are instructed to take family photos to ensure that children cannot be substituted into other households. ’’If the child is an infant, the mother will be made to breastfeed the child. Young children will be questioned separately.’’

Flouting the two-child policy can lead to imprisonment, prompting Rohingya women to have unsafe abortions, typically, the report states, by using the crude “stick method.”

The report notes that as a direct result of birth restrictions, in 2011, more than 14 percent of Rohingya women in northern Rakhine State had undergone at least one abortion and 26 percent of those had had multiple abortions. These figures represent only those women who admitted resorting to abortion and do not include deaths resulting from unsafe terminations, for which statistics are not available.

Additionally, spot checks are carried out to ensure that restrictions are followed. Along with having “illegal children,” banned activities include living together when you are not married (permission and unofficial payment required for Rohingya to get married are reportedly a barrier for many couples) and repairing a building without a permit, among others. According to Fortify Rights, ‘‘Spot-checks typically occur in the evening, ostensibly to ‘check’ for ‘illegal Bengalis [Rohingya],’ though the practice has been reported as violent, insidious, and a pretext for law enforcement officials to commit violent abuses against Rohingya and extort money from Rohingya families. Reports have emerged of ‘spot checks’ resulting in the rape of Rohingya women by security forces.’’

A Volatile Landscape

Muslims make up about 5 percent of Myanmar’s majority Buddhist population of 60 million people. Hostility towards Muslims is not limited to Rohingya living in Rakhine State; this is merely the most tangible part of a larger wound inflicted by religious intolerance. The 969 movement — characterized by extremist Buddhist monks who preach about the need to protect Myanmar and Buddhism from the existential threat that Islam poses — has fuelled anti-Muslim violence. The most vocal and virulent among this fringe group of militant monks is Ashin Wirathu, whose photo featured on a TIME Magazine cover along with the words “The Face of Buddhist Terror.” The edition was banned in Myanmar.

Wirathu told the Global Post last year, “Muslims are like the African carp. They breed quickly and they are very violent and they eat their own kind. Even though they are minorities here, we are suffering under the burden they bring us.’’

Anti-Muslim sentiment materializes in a variety of forms.

A recent public discussion organized by the National League for Democracy was cancelled after dozens of monks, protesting the inclusion of two Muslim speakers, threatened to disrupt the event.

In late February hundreds rallied in support of a draft law banning inter-faith marriage between Buddhist women and non-Buddhist men. If passed this would mean, for instance, that a Muslim man must convert to Buddhism if he wants to marry a Buddhist woman. The notorious Wirathu reportedly told those attending the rally that “without such a law there would be no security for the Myanmar race and Buddhism.” President Thein Sein has expressed support for the proposed law.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been criticized for not standing up for the long-persecuted Rohingya, has touched on Myanmar Buddhists’ fear of Islamic encroachment. She told the BBC late last year that tensions in the country were stoked by “a perception that Muslim power, global Muslim power, is very great.”

Although fanatical, these fears are certainly real for those that harbor them, and for those who bear the force of actions these fears incite.

Myanmar national and senior analyst at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, Kyaw San Wai recently wrote that the nuances underpinning extremist Buddhist mentality are often overlooked in reports about the country’s ethno-religious tensions. He expresses that these disregarded elements give rise to a certain narrative: “that Islam might be Buddhism’s nemesis and that the 21st century will be a decisive juncture in Buddhism’s prophesised destruction.’’

‘‘While international coverage points to Myanmar’s religious demographics to discredit fears of Islamic encroachment, Burmese Buddhists have a starkly different world view where their faith is besieged by larger, well-endowed and better-organised faiths. This millenarianism can be traced to a scripturally unsupported but widely believed ‘prophecy’ that Buddhism will disappear 5000 years after the Buddha’s passing. As 1956 is considered the halfway point, the belief is that Buddhism is now declining irreversibly.’’

In Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, where the majority of IDP camps are clustered, the suspicion and fear simmering inside many Rakhine Buddhists has manifested in animosity toward anyone appearing sympathetic to the Rohingya. Last month, three activists from the Malaysia Consultative Council of Islamic Organizations (MAPIM), after visiting Rohingya IDP camps in Sittwe, were reportedly surrounded by a mob of extremist Buddhists outside their hotel. Fortunately, police intervened and took them into protective custody. Previously, an aid worker with Malaysian Relief Agency was not so lucky.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “community resistance and increased intimidation of UN and NGO staff” has hampered aid and development efforts in Rakhine State. An aid worker in Sittwe described one type of threat humanitarian personnel faced to The Irrawaddy, saying that local Buddhists put letters at houses where NGO workers stay, warning that if the aid worker does not leave within 48 hours the house will be burnt down.

A foreign national, who requested anonymity, said that the situation in Sittwe is extremely tense. While on a recent trip visiting IDP camps, he reported being regularly followed, including by a man who was at one stage seen in police uniform.

’’People follow you, shout things, stand by you and listen to your conversations, motorcycles will tail you, many of them with 969 stickers on them. At one point someone jumped on to our tuk tuk and our driver and his brother had to chase them off.’’

When even aid workers are threatened, harassed and attacked for providing basic support to the Rohingya, the world is given insight into how big the wound of bigotry has become.

The Rohingya have been backed into a corner, their lives made so intolerable that tens of thousands have fled by sea, seeking safety and a sense of dignity elsewhere. Surviving the perilous journey to Bangladesh, Thailand or Malaysia is, too often, seen as the only way to finally be free from persecution.

Gemima Harvey (@Gemima_Harvey) is a freelance journalist and photographer.



By Joshua Carroll
Anadolu Agency
March 19, 2014


Some fear census information could be used to facilitate state oppression


YANGON, Myanmar -- The notorious anti-Muslim monk Ashin Wirathu arrived in Myanmar’s violence-torn Rakhine state last week, flanked by columns of subordinates wielding dainty ceremonial umbrellas. Children beat drums to mark his appearance. 

His visit was timed to coincide with the country’s upcoming census. The monk, who describes himself as the “Burmese Bin Laden,” is a potent symbol of the daunting challenges facing Myanmar’s first headcount in 30 years. 

The UN-backed project is threatening to reignite violence between Buddhists and Muslims, particularly in Rakhine, and questions on the census form about religion and ethnicity are churning up tensions across the country. And as the government tries to secure a nationwide ceasefire with militias, tens of thousands of people living in rebel-controlled land will be off-limits for the census. 

Still, an army of 150,000 census-takers will spread out beginning Sunday across crumbling colonial cities, vast mountain ranges and remote refugee camps, each armed with nothing more than 41 questions and a black 2B pencil. Some will likely face resistance. 

In northern Rakhine, Buddhist nationalists object to the local Muslim population being allowed to list themselves under their ethnic name, Rohingya. Instead, they want Rohingya to be forced to register as Bengali, a name used to reinforce the notion that the group is formed of illegal immigrants who do not deserve citizenship. 

Wirathu, after giving a sermon in the capital Sittwe in which he warned that Muslims were threatening to overwhelm the local population, headed 60 kilometers east to join a nationalist protest in Myebon on Sunday against the census. “There is no such name as Rohingya in our country,” he told local reporters. 

The last census was conducted in 1983 under a brutal military dictatorship known for manipulating figures to suit its own ends. Rights groups claim it deliberately undercounted Muslims. More accurate figures could reveal a much larger Muslim population than the 4 percent previously reported. 

“This could be exploited by nationalist extremists who are inciting hatred and violence against Muslims,” the European Burma Network said in a statement calling for the census to be postponed. Other international groups have also called for a postponement. 

Burma Campaign UK said the census is “not worth dying for,” and a coalition of 28 international groups representing ethnic Karen people in Burma have warned that it could undermine the peace process. 

K'nyaw Paw, secretary of the Karen Women’s Organization, believes the Burmese military might use the information to “crush” ethnic rebels. It “will give the numbers of ethnic armed groups, the numbers of the family of ethnic armed groups, and the situation of people who support ethnic armed groups,” she told The Anadolu Agency. “It will make it very easy for them to develop a strategy.” 

Daniel Gray of the UK-based risk analysis firm Maplecroft agreed.

"Giving the state detailed information on the whereabouts and particulars of politically active citizens is likely to facilitate more effective state oppression," Maplecroft said.

But Myanmar desperately needs a headcount. Estimates of its population vary from 48 million to 65 million, a divergence greater than the number of people living in The Netherlands. And the census should help the reform-inclined government to develop the impoverished country, telling it where hospitals, schools and new roads are needed most. 

Supporters argue it is an integral part of reform in a nation crippled for five decades by an opaque dictatorship. The United Nations Population Fund, which along with the UK, Germany and others is paying for most of the $75 million project, says the census will help unify the fractured country. 

Janet Jackson, the UN Population Fund’s senior representative in Myanmar, described the census as “timely and historic” at a press conference last month. “This is a chance, at least for the next ten years, for each person to tell their story.” 

But it is not certain the data will be accurate. Despite sweeping reforms since president Thein Sein took office in 2011, many people remain apprehensive about giving personal information to a government that contains key figures from the former military junta -- including Thein Sein himself. 

Some parts of the country could be off-limits to census takers. In northern Kachin state, where the majority is Christian, rebels battling the government said this month they will refuse access to territory under their control, which contains about 80,000 people. 

Kachin groups say many in the state resent being divided into 12 official ethnic subcategories by the government – a practice they say is designed to dilute their ethnic identity and political power.

Others, including the Palaung people of Shan state, have complained of the opposite problem: being bundled together with larger neighboring ethnic groups instead of being allowed their own category. 

At the root of the complaints is the use of a much-derided list of 135 officially recognised ethnicities drawn up in 1982. It split Myanmar’s eight major ethnic groups into subcategories, and excluded other minorities like the Rohingya altogether. 

Thein Sein acknowledged in a statement last month that the census may have approached ethnicity in the wrong way, but maintained his determination to go ahead with it. 

In eastern Shan state, minority groups have made clear their lack of trust in the official census by vowing to hold their own, once the government census-takers leave. 

“We aim to determine the exact populations of different ethnic groups under our own terms,” said Win Myint, a Shan state minister. 

The Rohingya are excluded from the list of 135 ethnicities used in the census. Instead they will have to identify themselves under the “other” category. 

The immigration minister, Khin Ye, along with Jackson, met this month with Rakhine and Rohingya leaders in Sittwe to discuss the census. The immigration minister encouraged the Rohingya to record their ethnicity as Bengali and said putting "Rohingya" could lead to more violence, according to Islamic community leaders who attended the meeting. 

Sittwe was one of the first flash points in a series of ethnic riots that started in mid-2012 and have since erupted across the country. The majority of the tens of thousands displaced and hundreds killed are Muslims of varying ethnicities. 

Since the violence, the mostly stateless Rohingya of northern Rakhine have been subject to restrictions on movement enforced by armed police and checkpoints.



“We are not looking to form an autonomous state,” said Noor Alarm, a religious and community leader. “We are Rohingya and we are going to put Rohingya on the census, whether the Rakhines like it or not.”
(Photo: MSF/Kaung Htet)

By Mashhood Roohul Amin 
March 19, 2014

Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar have been the target of atrocities perpetrated by the local population. The international community has all along been indifferent to their plight. World leaders who claim to be the protagonists of human rights have done nothing to alleviate the sufferings of these people. More international issues have lately cropped up placing the Rohingya problem on the back burner. Syria, Ukraine and Iran are a few of them. 

Although Myanmar claims it is moving toward democracy and human rights icon Suu Kyi, who had endured hardships for two decades under Burma’s former military junta, is now a parliamentarian things have not changed, instead they have worsened. 

It is an irony that Suu Kyi had been fighting human rights violation all along her life but when she got an opportunity to act she chose to keep silent at the brutalities perpetrated on the Rohingya Muslims. 

Doctors Without Borders had announced on Feb. 28 they had been expelled from Myanmar, adding that the decision had put tens of thousands of human lives at risk. Later, the government said the group might be allowed to resume operations anywhere in the country but the Rakhine state. 

The humanitarian group is considered as a lifeline to the impoverished country as it has operated there for two decades. Denying it access to Rohingya Muslims is a gross violation of human rights that warrants international attention.

According to a UN report, a large number of Rohingyas were killed in January in an attack by Buddhist nationalists. These groups are running political campaigns urging the government to do whatever it can to persecute Muslims. 

It also exposes the true face of the Myanmar government, which pretends to sympathize with the Muslim community and at the same time provides tacit support to nationalist groups to carry out ethnic cleansing of the Rohingyas. 

Experts believe the Myanmar government will continue its brutal policies toward the Rohingyas, who are considered to be one of the most neglected ethnic groups in the world, until and unless the UN and the European states slap economic sanctions on the country. The world must act to save the Rohingyas before it’s too late.



RB News 
March 19, 2014 

Maungdaw, Arakan – Rohingya houses in Sin Thay Pyin hamlet of Longdon village tract and Phan Myaung hamlet of Nga Sar Kyu village tract in Maungdaw Township of Arakan state burnt down to ashes again on March 15, 2014, and four women were arrested. 

The fire started from the house of Noor Bashar son of Sultan Ahmed, in Sin Thay Pyin hamlet on March 15th at 11:25 am. Then after four minutes another fire started from the houses of Mohammed Husson, son of Zawbul Husson, and Noor Husson, son of Batha Miah, simultaneously. The fire didn’t spread from house to house, but rather started from the houses of Ayub S/o Noor Hussein, Dudu Miah S/o Alam, Amir Hussein S/o Fawkir Ahmed, Noor Hussein S/o Abdul Munaf and Noor Amin S/o Siddique, simultaneously and all were burnt down into ashes. 

At the same time a fire started in Phan Myaung hamlet of Nga Sar Kyu village tract and the house of Bawdi Alam S/o Abdul Zawbor caught fire and burnt down the houses of Abu Siddique S/o Kala Miah, Abu Lu, Shabbir S/o Sayed Alam, Noor Kabir S/o Eisof Ali and Ahmed Kabir S/o Eisof Ali. 

The fire started at 11:25 am and was not extinguished until 2 pm. According to the locals, they said they could have extinguished the fire earlier but the security personnel had prevented them from doing so for some time before they confronted and extinguished the fire. The fire left 145 people homeless. 

Evidence suggest that it wasn’t a normal accidental fire, but rather it was systematically torching by the local Rakhine extremists group. The authorities arrested three Rohingya women from Sin Thay Pyin and one from Phan Myaung. They are (1) Sha’ Ah Nu D/o Hamid Hussein (Age 29), Noor Ankis D/o Jamal Hussein (Age 46) and Hasina Zuhar D/o Iman Hussein (Age 35) from Sin Thay Pyin hamlet and Gul Zuhar D/o Abdul Rahman from Phan Myaung. The authorities forced them to stand in front of burnt houses and took the photos. Then they were taken to the police station in Kyain Chaung village. 

Reportedly four women and the one woman arrested on March 10, 2014 were brutally beaten and tortured in the lockup in Kyain Chaung. They were forced to say that the Rohingyas torched their homes by themselves. As they were severely injured after inhumanly beaten they were taken to Kyain Chaung hospital on March 16th. And then they were brought to Maungdaw court on March 17th and now under police custody at Kyain Chaung police station. 

MYARF and Rohingya Eye contributed in reporting.



RB News 
March 18, 2014

Maungdaw, Arakan – Western Command Commander Brigadier General Ko Ko Naing who is based in Arakan state warned the local Rakhines not to torch Rohingya houses. 

This morning Western Command Commander Brigadier General Ko Ko Naing checked the mile post no. 58 in Myanmar-Bangladesh border. Then he went to Nga Ku Ra village through Kyain Chaung (Boli Bazar) to check the fences along the Bangladesh border. 

Afterward he arrived at the monastery situated in Chan Pyin village tract. The Rakhine Buddhist villagers greeted him by shouting not to allow the term “Rohingya” in upcoming census. He then checked the treatment of three military medical officers who have been in that village since March 17th and giving treatment to the heart sickly persons and blind persons. 

He told the Rakhine villagers that Myanmar is small fry in front of international community because of the behaviours of Rakhine people. He said he knows that torching houses in the region were done by Rakhine people. So the Rakhines must avoid this in the future. He said nobody will be forgiven if this happens again. 

After that, Brigadier General Ko Ko Naing attended the ceremony of ex-village chairman Ba Than Hlaing’s dead father's memorial party with the villagers and then left from there to Sittwe.

There are more than 800,000 Rohingyas residing in Burma, mostly in the province of Rakhine. The Rohingya are considered by the United Nations to be one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Photo courtesy of IFRC.

By David I Steinberg
March 18, 2014 

A special commission in Myanmar is now drafting legislation that if passed would effectively limit the rights of certain minority groups. At the request of the speaker of the parliament, President Thein Sein earlier this month formed a commission charged with drafting legislation on two laws: one concerning restricting religious conversions and another on controlling population growth.

Although the official notification creating the commission does not mention religion, both laws are directed against the country's minority Muslim community. The first will severely limit the conversion of Buddhist women to Islam and the second will restrict Muslim families to no more than two children. 

A wide spectrum of Burmese society will be questioned "in a transparent manner" by the commission, while any proposed legislation should be in conformity with the constitution, diverse beliefs, national unity, and Myanmar culture, according to the notification. Regulations of other countries will also be examined in the process, the notification said. 
The commission is the result of an intense anti-Muslim prejudice that has swept many areas of Myanmar. Spurred by some highly nationalistic Buddhist monks, petitions with well over a million signatures have circulated among the population calling for such legislation. Buddhist boycotts of Muslim-owned shops have also recently proliferated. 

Anti-Muslim activities have resulted in riots in central Myanmar. There is a particularly intense feeling against the stateless Rohingya, referred to as "Bengalis" by the government, concentrated in the country's western Rakhine State along the Bangladesh border. The persecuted Rohingya are perhaps the most deprived people in East Asia. 

No issue is presently more politically explosive in Myanmar. Politicians of neither the government nor the opposition have specifically stood up for Muslim rights. This anti-Muslim sentiment did not emanate from the Arab uprisings in the Middle East, potential terrorism or other fears that have engulfed much of the West. 

Rather, it is an expression of a deep-seated Burman Buddhist sense of the fragility and inundation of their culture in the wake of the three Anglo-Burmese wars of the 19th century, British colonialism, unrestricted immigration from neighboring India during that period, and the overwhelming nearby populations of China, India, and Bangladesh. 

Former national leader General Ne Win in the 1960s prohibited legal abortions without government party approval to bolster the Burman population against overwhelming neighbors. Many foreign observers would dispute the frail nature of the Burman cultural tradition, which they regard as very strong and powerful, but this inchoate fear is pervasive. 

The significance of Buddhist monks leading this campaign cannot be underestimated, as few, if any, in the Burman community can publicly dispute a monk's announcement on an ostensibly religious issue. The Christian right wing fundamentalists in the United States pale in US political influence in comparison with the Burmese monkhood. Yet the 2008 constitution theoretically respects the right to practice other religions, subject to the usual caveats about national unity, morality, and public order. 

Myanmar has progressed remarkably since the inauguration of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and installation of a quasi-civilian government in March 2011. The space between the state and individual has widened to a degree almost unimaginable in such a short period of time since the end of direct military rule. 

Politics is open, censorship basically gone, freedom of assembly allowed, labor unions have been formed, and the beginnings of pluralism are apparent, witnessed in the frequent differences expressed between the executive and legislative branches. Still, problems remain between ethnic minority groups and the dominant Burman Buddhists. Glass ceilings are prevalent and opportunities lacking for both ethnic and religious minorities. 

Many in the West are besotted with a romantic and erroneous impression of Buddhism - monks quietly meditating and seeking enlightenment in forest or jungle surroundings and an openness that has been lacking in Western religions. The Buddhists, after all, had no crusades and the Buddhist scriptures are indeed models of toleration and humaneness. But to interpret Asian history only on the basis of those documents would be like interpreting the history of Western Europe's wars through the Sermon on the Mount. 

Elements of the Buddhist sangha (clergy) in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Japan, and Korea have played political roles and sometimes engaged in politically inspired violence. The present situation of religious persecution in Myanmar is thus not new, but is disturbing because the attitudes undercut the very democratic reforms the government is undertaking. 

They would also effectively restrict the rights of women - rights that have historically been one of Myanmar's richest heritages. The constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion or culture or anything that promotes feelings of "hatred, enmity, and discord" between racial or religious communities. 

In its search for foreign examples, the newly created commission no doubt will explore China's one child per family policy. However, even in China's authoritarian state this policy did not apply to minority groups. There are several disturbing examples of quests for racial and religious purity in history, and none seem to have gone well. 

The issue is further complicated by the forthcoming 2015 elections and the positioning of various leaders to win popular support by essentially condoning anti-Muslim sentiment. The insecurity of this transition period could intensify if the results of the 2014 census shows non-Buddhist populations have markedly expanded since the last national census was held in 1983. 

The census results will require deft handling by the government and civil society to avoid further fueling of ethnic and religious tensions. Foreign observers can only hope that wise counsel will prevail and that the nationalism that was so important in securing Burmese independence and preserving its culture will not be corrupted by undemocratic social legislation and activities. 

David I Steinberg is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Asian Studies, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, and a Visiting Scholar at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University.

Displaced Rohingya Muslims carrying bags of aid after they collected from a humanitarian center at a camp on the outskirts of Sittwe in Rakhine state, western Myanmar on February 26, 2014. For Muslim communities eking out an existence in segregated camps in Myanmar's Rakhine State, aid groups provide a lifeline but their work is coming under threat from Buddhist nationalist campaigns that have pushed the government to eject Doctors Without Borders (MSF) from the region. (Photo: SOE THAN WIN/AFP/Getty Images)


By Emanuel Stoakes
March 18, 2014

The government has said restrictions on the organization are a result of a broken agreement with the capital. A leaked document suggests there is more to the story.

YANGON, Myanmar — Last month’s decision by the government of Myanmar to suspend the operations of the medical aid charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) prompted widespread concerns about the impact the organization’s withdrawal would have on the tens of thousands reliant on the support they provide.

Since that time, the temporary ban has been revised, and now only covers Rakhine state, on the country’s western coast.

In the wake of the announcement, government spokespersons stressed that the chief reasons for this decision were that MSF had breached the terms of a memorandum of understanding with Naypyidaw—the capital city of Myanmar—and had shown favour unduly toward one ethnic group in Rakhine.

However, documentary evidence and testimony obtained by GlobalPost appears to contradict this publicly stated rationale and instead suggests that the action may be punitive, linked to MSF’s response to a massacre that occurred at the end of January in northern Rakhine state—the same area where the charity's ability to operate remains frozen.

The village of Du Chee Ya Tan lies a few miles south of the town of Maungdaw, not far from Myanmar's border with Bangladesh.

The now near-deserted settlement is reported to have been the site of mass slayings perpetrated by ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and riot police in the early hours of Jan. 14. The attack is believed to have targeted the village's ethnic Rohingya Muslims, and to have been prompted by the alleged killing of a policeman several hours before.

The official position of Naypyidaw on the event in question remains that no massacre occurred and that only the police officer died, a stance affirmed in a recently released internal report commissioned by the government.

By contrast, the United Nations issued a statement in January estimating that up to 48 people, mainly women and children, had been slaughtered; for their part, MSF reported that they had treated 22 people from the village suffering from a variety of injuries, including gunshot wounds.

Spokesmen for Naypyidaw described the UN's statements on the matter as "unacceptable" and later cited MSF’s statement on the incident as a peripheral reason for their removal, along with the complaint that the charity had employed Rohingya.

Rights groups are now concerned that the operational ban and persistent denial is just a government effort to silence witnesses and those who treated victims of the alleged attack.

“The Myanmar government's total denial of deaths in Du Chee Ya Tan, combined with its effort to prevent international reporting about that violence, raises serious suspicions that they are seeking to muzzle all outside observers—with MSF being first and foremost in that category," said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch, adding to a chorus of concern from others consulted in the NGO community.

What’s more, a purported government-issued document shared with this writer by concerned professionals within the NGO community, and judged authentic by Burmese sources who have asked to remain anonymous, appears to indicate that the shutting down of MSF's two decades of work in the area was directly prompted by the organization’s response to Du Chee Ya Tan.

The document appears to be a “telegraphic order” dated Feb. 26, circulated among high officials in Naypyidaw, Yangon and Rakhine state, and signed by the deputy chief of the Police Information Bureau, acting under orders from Burmese President Thein Sein.

It states that a letter sent by MSF to Rakhine state's department of health reporting on the alleged massacre was “provocative” and “biased toward one ethnic group” in such a way as was intended to “instigate violent conflict.” “For that reason,” the document continues, “the President's Office has given an order to strike off [MSF] from registry of INGOs and not to grant an extension when their permit expires.”

Orders to monitor the work of the organization are then outlined in the following paragraph.

While the authenticity of the latter document could not immediately be verified, its contents appear to corroborate the testimony of high-ranking staff within an authoritative non-governmental organization operating in Myanmar.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the staff stated that the MSF move was “precisely because of their reporting on Du Chee Ya Tan,” especially owing to the fact that they “provided corroborating evidence” to the findings of rights groups and the UN on the alleged massacre.

One of the sources, who has access to privileged information, added that “the government is trying to work out who helped these organisations with... information [on the massacre]” and has engaged in a “cover up” of the events near Maungdaw.

Another source, who also declined to be identified, referred to the government's removal of MSF as an attempt to take “eyes off the ground” in Rakhine state.

Matthew Smith of Fortify Rights, a human rights organization based in Bangkok, opined that “it appears MSF was evicted because they provide vital aid to Rohingya and because they know too much about what happened in Maungdaw. This was a brazen demonstration of power and abuse. Naypyidaw is sending a disturbing message to the humanitarian community.”

He also referred to the decision to pull the medical aid group as “the latest act of persecution against the Rohingya,” many of whom rely on foreign aid due to their statelessness, a result of the official policy of both Myanmar and neighboring Bangladesh, neither of whom recognise the ethnic group as citizens.

As a result, access to basic healthcare, education and other services that would otherwise be provided by the state are severely restricted for the minority.

Smith’s assessment has been echoed by statements recently issued by Myanmar’s outgoing Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, Tomas Ojea Quintana, who said that the expulsion of the charity could be “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.”

Whatever the veracity of the above claims, the limitation of MSF's work in Myanmar will undoubtedly have a profound impact on affected populations in one of the country's poorest and most restive provinces.

MSF are concerned that thousands will be affected by their eviction from Rakhine state, including many reliant on HIV/AIDS treatment and other urgently needed programs. A recent report in the New York Times indicated that 150 people had already died as a result of the charity’s exit, many of them pregnant women.

The government has said it believes it is capable of filling the medical aid gap left by the organization; however, Pierre Peron, a spokesman for the United Nation’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) appeared to cast doubt on this confident assessment, telling GlobalPost that “replacing the MSF operation will be very difficult due to the scale and complexity of the operations that MSF has built up over many years, particularly in the northern part of Rakhine.”

MSF declined to comment on the either the purported document or their expulsion from Rakhine state.



March 18, 2014

The present controversial census of the Burmese population should not be abandoned. The concerns coming from government quarters that the first survey of the population since 1983 will stoke ethnic tensions, do have some merit, but should nevertheless be ignored. The multiethnic patchwork of this country needs clear definition, in order to allow the formulation of realistic policies that will encompass it.

There are no less than 135 different ethnic groups within the country. The largest of these is the Bamar, who give their name to the country. The last census 31 years ago, conducted by the military junta was widely disputed, since it was believed to have exaggerated the number of the Bamar and fellow Buddhist communities and downplayed the importance of the significant proportion of Muslim communities, not least that of the long-persecuted Rohingya.

Then there are remote tribes such as the Kachin who have been in almost-permanent rebellion against the central government, whether it was the British colonialists, the Japanese wartime occupiers or the post-independence Burmese authorities themselves. Some of these insurgent communities have said that they will not cooperate with the population headcount.

Since the impetus for the census is being driven by the international community, this attitude will be quietly welcomed by the government. Nevertheless, United Nations, which along with Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom, is picking up the $75 million tab for this year-long exercise and is pressing ahead. 

Opponents of the survey argue that by producing an accurate ethnic breakdown of the Burmese population, there is a very real danger of increasing division within the country. The UN sponsors have said that the census forms will include the option for people to tick a box marked “Other” when they are asked to define their ethnicity. However, it may be pondered if a population that has been subjected to years of ruthless dictatorship has the political sophistication to appreciate that by eschewing an ethnic label and if it is promoting a status primarily as Burmese citizens rather than members of any particular community.

Moreover it is surely desirable that the truth about the ethnic make-up of this remarkable country is fully understood. Providing that groups such as the Kachin can be persuaded to change their mind about cooperating, perhaps by making special arrangements for their areas, the outcome ought to be a crucially important set of figures upon which the emergent Burmese economy can base its national planning. 

And herein lies a very important point. The census, which is expected to show something like doubling of the population to near 70 million, should not be seen, of itself, as controversial. What could be controversial is how the government of retired general Thein Sein handles these data, which has to be available ahead of elections scheduled for later next year. It is absolutely crucial that there be no attempt to massage or manipulate the figures to protect or impair the interests of any particular community. In particular, the census is going to demonstrate the strength of the Muslim minority within the country. 

Buddhist bigots have already caused near genocidal horrors among the Rohingya. The guilt of the Burmese government has been compounded by its refusal to accept that the Rohingyas, a community which has lived in the country for many generations, are entitled to Burmese citizenship. Not only should all Burmese politicians, including Aung San Suu Kyi, give assurances that they will accept the findings of the census, but that also that they will not use them to promote further persecution of minorities, not least the Rohingya.

A visitor to a gallery in Jakarta examines shots by photojournalist Greg Constantine portraying the plight of persecuted Rohingya people in Burma and Bangladesh. [Photo: Ismira Lutfia Tisnadibrata/Khabar]

By Ismira Lutfia Tisnadibrata
Khabar Southeast Asia
March 18, 2014

A lack of belonging created "the general sense of not having any kind of future ahead of them," photographer says of the beleaguered Rohingya.

The plight of the stateless Rohingya Muslim ethnic group has been captured in black-and-white by photojournalist Greg Constantine, who spent eight years documenting their lives in Burma and neighbouring Bangladesh.

The photos were on display for ten days in February at Jakarta's Cemara 6 Art Centre. The exhibit, titled "Exiled to Nowhere: Burma's Rohingya", is as part of Constantine's long-term "Nowhere People" project spotlighting the struggles of stateless communities.

"The title could also mean exile from everywhere. It is quite fitting," said Lars Stenger of Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), an international NGO that co-organised the exhibit.

The Rohingya live primarily in Rakhine state in western Burma, but a 1982 law revoked their Burmese citizenship. In June 2012, riotous fighting between Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists resulted in at least 200 deaths, and displaced thousands of Rohingya.

Constantine said he never frames his work religiously, instead focusing on the context of being denied a sense of belonging to a country.

"It is the various kinds of human rights abuse that the Rohingya community face every single day and the general sense of not having any kind of future ahead of them, which most people from the Rohingya community feel," the American artist told reporters at the opening of the exhibition on February 6th. "It is the most extreme example of statelessness."

Constantine's photos were taken in Burma's Sittwe and in southern Bangladesh. The photos show them living in small, primitive huts made primarily of bamboo straw and hay.

One captured burial preparations for a 15-year-old who died of typhoid. Others show Rohingya facing intolerance in Bangladesh, where they are considered illegal economic migrants.

Photos also showed the shell of a broken-down, 200 year-old mosque in Sittwe's Zaldan Kama quarter. Another shows a Rohingya child scavenging for iron or metals to sell from a destroyed Muslim neighbourhood in Kundar, Sittwe.

Rohingya in Indonesia

Though no photos were taken of Rohingya in Indonesia, Febionesta, chief of the Indonesian Civil Society Network for Refugee Rights Protection (SUAKA), said the exhibit would increase awareness regarding problems they face here.

Febionesta said there are currently 711 Rohingya asylum seekers in the country, 10% of Indonesia's total asylum seeker population and its second largest group after Afghans.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees' (UNHCR) meanwhile granted another 781 Rohingya Muslims refugee status. But 98% of them still await resettlement to a third country, Febionesta said.

Because Indonesia is not a party to the United Nations' 1951 refugee convention, resettlement could take years.

"So far, there has been no resettlement. So, there is a big question on what we can do, countries can do, to stop them from being exiled," Febionesta said, adding that NGOs can help push the government to establish a policy creating a legal framework for the Rohingya in Indonesia.

Constantine hopes his work generates more discussion in Indonesia on the plight of the Rohingya, whom he describes as "very determined people".

"That's my role. It's very specific and that is to use documentary photography and photojournalism as a way to spark an active discussion," Constantine said.

By Huson Salm
RB Opinion
March 18, 2014

1) President U Thein Sein’s led Myanmar quasi-democratic government has systematically arranged everything to collect the coming census throughout the country with the help of the UK, USA, UNFPA, and the combination efforts of all ethnic groups, department staffers and concerned authorities, starting from the 30th of March 2014. The census movement is particularly aimed to collect the accurate data of the roughly estimated 60 million people of the nation for all round equal development of the social projects in future, in accordance to the nation’s statement. 

2) Though the coming nation-wide census progression is unanimously and warmly welcome by Rohingyas in Rakhine state to participate together with the entire nation as a welcoming step of the Union. The entire pessimistic Rakhine people and vigilantes are well organized to sternly discard the label of ‘Rohingyas’ during the census. It has seen continuous mass people at hostile demonstrations against the innocent, helpless and frustrated Rohingyas and Muslims in almost all townships of Rakhine state under the coordinated leadership and guidance of RNDP while the census commencement draws near. 

3) As a matter of fact, while the majority of Rohingyas are weak in knowledge and uneducated to understand the queries of the census, the Union Minister U Khin Ye has had a good initial plan to train some Rohingya intellectuals to perform in the census where there are Rohingyas, who will then be undertaking in the process among the Rohingya community to overcome the questionnaires which are both in Burmese and English languages. Inconsiderately though, the Minister U Khin Ye has unreasonably cancelled the plan. Instead the preparation is arranged with school teachers (Rakhine) in the process. After learning this mood of the Union Minister, the entire Rohingya people get loose hope due to the smoothness of the census in Rakhine state. 

4) In the meantime, wherever U Khin Ye goes along the state, he usually articulates to the gatherings to fill up correctly in the form, to tell the true identity of the relevant ethnic group whatever they want without hesitation. He also said that the individual filling up of the data is not to be applied in any particular purposes except population counting – whatever identity may be, anyone can fill up as per his/her wish, he said. Of course it has been true throughout the course of his articulation. 

5) Right now, the Rohingya people’s concern in Arakan state is that they believe and embrace the identity as “Rohingya” rather than any other term. The Rohingya from Rakhine are standing in line principal of census procedure and under the guidance of the government. But right now, entire Rohingya people are worried that the census collectors -who are already Rakhine- will only write down the term “Bengali” instead of “Rohingya” in the race column though “Rohingyas” would correctly spell their identity as ‘Rohingyas’. Rohingyas are also severely concerned that they could not be able to stand tall and face the unjust and incorrect action of the census collectors while Rohingyas are under oppressive, suppressive, threat, unjust, bias, intimidation and limbo situation in front of Rakhine state authorities who have been all along the unfriendly ,antagonistic, aggressive, unsympathetic and inhumane nature in the past three years. This is not totally exaggeration. 

6) In these days, the slogans, chanted by Rakhine people throughout Rakhine state are totally unacceptable and all these have been systematically designed by RNDP and local Rakhine leaders who have been well-built destructive forces to devastate overall social destruction of the Rohingya people. Rakhine people’s demonstration after demonstration are very dreadful, shocking, awful and these have been galvanizing more and more turmoil which leading to social instability and uncertainty of the fate of Rohingyas people in Rakhine state in the future. Rakhine MPs from respective townships, Rakhine state government, district authorities, township administrators and Rakhine ill feeling elders are accountable for these criminals and they are totally responsible for further social unrest and they are co-conspirators in these crimes. 

7) Regarding the census, the entire mass and class Rakhine people will earnestly attempt to undermine the census process in Rakhine state, spoiling the situation after finding scapegoat, the Rohingya people-- to blemish the face of Myanmar government which has been tarnished again and again because of Rakhine people’s inhumane famous criminal calamity to the world. 

8) This is now up to the central government to manage timely the Rakhine marauding forces and mad people not to be erupting the social dispute between two communities again and not to be worsen the situation because of the census --as every citizen has the right to take up in the census to fill up freely and correctly as per his/her wish. It also not suited that an ordinary Rakhine people should be governing against the other community whatever he wants to with big hand without reason. Rohingyas are getting loosing their patience. Suffering again and again by the hands of even ordinary Rakhine Buddhist people. 

9) In this regards, Rohingya people’s earnest request to the Union government is to exert pressure on Rakhine state government to maintain rule and restoration of law and order to suppress the Rakhine mob and that of the aggressive people from all along Rakhine state’ townships to peacefully wrap up the census operation. Or, to successfully finish the census activities, if the Rakhine state government is not interested to suppress the destructive forces that carry out atrocities against Rohingyas, the military forces should be assigned to control the mob so that Rakhine state would be calm and the census would be accomplished as per the standard of state policy. Otherwise Rakhine people again blotch the profile of the nation and that of the head of the state -- which will be stanching to every corner of the world.


    • Rohingya Exodus