By Saudi Gazette Editorial

September 5, 2016

Malaysia is considering opening up its job market for thousands of refugees who have no legal right to work. There are some 150,700 refugees and asylum seekers in in that Southeast Asian country. About 90 percent of them are from Myanmar, with Rohingya (53,140) topping the list.

As Malaysia is not a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention, these refugees do not have formal status in the country. The Malaysia government does not extend protection, job opportunities or education to these illegal migrants. Lack of a formal status often leaves refugees vulnerable to exploitation by employers and law enforcement officials. So they felt relieved when the government announced last moth the creation of a task force to handle refugee registration issues. The government-led task force would also look into the possibility of opening up the job market for refugees and allowing their children formal education.

Also last week, UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon called on Myanmar authorities to give the right to citizenship to Rohingya. “People who have been living for generations in this country should enjoy the same legal status and citizenship as everyone else,” he said. What he said is important. More important is where he said it. Ban made this appeal on Tuesday at a press conference in the capital Naypyitaw alongside Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Of greater significance is the fact that the UN chief used the word “Rohingya”, ignoring the sensitivity of Myanmar authorities who want the group labeled “Bengalis” so they can cast them as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.

Unfortunately, Suu Kyi who leads Myanmar with the title of state counselor and is also her country’s foreign minister, is on the same page with the majority Buddhists on this issue. In fact, she advised the incoming US ambassador to Myanmar to refrain from using the term “Rohingya”. She says her government will not recognize the name, singing the same tune as its military predecessors.

This also means her government is following the same policies as the military government toward Rohingya though the UN believes the entrenched discrimination this community suffers is so deep that it may amount to crimes against humanity.

Rohingya comprise nearly two percent of the country’s predominantly Buddhist population but are excluded from the official list of ethnic minorities and remain without citizenship — denied freedom of movement, access to education and the ownership of property.

Conflict over land and resources in the western state of Rakhine, where most Rohingya live in squalid camps, often lead to unrest. More than 100,000 people had to flee their homes in Rakhine state in 2012, following deadly violence driven largely by Buddhist mobs.Thousands have fled to other Southeast Asian countries on rickety boats in search of better lives, only to drown or fall victim to human traffickers. International attention grew last May when a boatload of Rohingya was found adrift in the Andaman Sea en route to Malaysia.

But Suu Kyi who fought and suffered long imprisonment for human rights says little or nothing about the abuses faced by the Rohingya. There was a case for reticence when she was fighting the military authorities and wanted to enlist the support of the Buddhist majority in the elections in which her National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory. Now that she is in power, there is no reason why she should continue the same apartheid policies unless she actually believes in them.

The West has rejoiced at the election of a new government headed, in effect, by Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate. It’s up to countries like US and Britain to exert all the pressure they can on Suu Kyi’s government over this issue in the same way they applied pressure on the military junta to release the NLD leader and allow the Myanmar people to choose their leaders through a free and fair election.

By Simon Lewis

Reuters
Septemberr 5, 2016

Yangon -- Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and former U.N. chief Kofi Annan on Monday oversaw the first meeting of a panel tasked with bringing peace to a region where violence between Buddhists and minority Rohingya Muslims has cast a pall over the country's democratic transition.

The plight of the Rohingya has raised questions about Suu Kyi's commitment to human rights and represents a politically sensitive issue for her National League for Democracy, which won a landslide election victory last year.

The commission, whose aim is to stop human rights abuses in the northwestern state of Rakhine, was chaired by Annan.

"This is an issue that we have failed to meet squarely and fairly, and to which we have not been able to find the right solution," Suu Kyi said at the meeting in the commercial capital, Yangon.

"We hope that this commission will help us to find solutions to the problem."

More than 100 people were killed in violence in Rakhine in 2012 and some 125,000 Rohingya Muslims took refuge in camps where their movements are severely restricted. Thousands have fled persecution and poverty by boat.

The Rohingya are considered by many in Myanmar to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and most do not have citizenship.

Suu Kyi, who is constitutionally barred from being president but leads the government as state counselor and foreign minister, last month announced the nine-member commission, made up of six Myanmar citizens and three foreigners, to advise her government on the Rohingya issue.

Suu Kyi plans this month to visit the United States, where she is thought to be seeking further sanctions relief for her country but is likely to face questions over her efforts to improve conditions for the Rohingya. 

The panel's members were set to travel to the state capital of Sittwe, where Annan will deliver a speech on Tuesday, and commissioners are expected to meet with members of both the Rohingya and Buddhist Rakhine communities.

Annan said the panel would come up proposals to the issue over the coming months.

"I can assure you, and the people of Rakhine, that the advisory commission will deploy every effort with rigorous impartiality to find and propose ways to address these challenges," he said.

The largest political party in Rakhine State, the Arakan National Party (ANP), has criticized the commission, insisting that foreigners cannot understand the history of the area, raising the prospect of tensions or protests during the visit, expected to last two days.

Some members of the ANP - formed by hardline Rakhine Buddhists - will participate in a protest against the commission on Tuesday.

By Motokazu Matsui

Nikkei Asian Review

September 5, 2016

YANGON -- Myanmar's new government led by State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, which was formed at the end of March, is unsympathetic toward the Rohingya people, a persecuted Muslim ethnic minority. Suu Kyi, who also serves as foreign minister, was reluctant to intervene in the Rohingya issue when she was an opposition leader for fear of angering the Buddhist majority. Since she became the de facto government leader, she has yielded to Buddhists' pressure and has even refused to use the term Rohingya. She is facing growing criticism from the international community for appearing to avoid responsibility.

In late April, a boat carrying a full load of Muslim refugees capsized off the coast of Rakhine, a western state of Myanmar, resulting in more than 20 deaths. When the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar expressed condolences for the tragedy of the Rohingya in a statement, angered Buddhists staged protest demonstrations in Yangon and Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State.

A great majority of the Myanmar people regard Muslims in Rakhine State as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and are critical of them calling themselves Rohingya, which originally means Muslims who settled in Myanmar during the British colonial period. It offended them that the U.S. Embassy used the term "Rohingya" in the statement. The demonstrators also called on the new government to use the term Bengalis, which means Bangladeshis, to refer to the people who identify themselves as Rohingya.

Since the time she was a pro-democracy opposition leader, Suu Kyi has consistently kept her distance from religious issues. In the general election last November, she made no mention of the Rohingya issue and did not express her opinions about the government's religious policy. Now that she is in the position of leading the government, she has become much more cautious about the issue.

Soon after the demonstrations took place, Suu Kyi asked the U.S. Embassy to refrain from using the term Rohingya, which could aggravate religious antagonism. In a meeting with resident representatives in Myanmar of international organizations, including the World Bank, she reportedly asked them to avoid exaggerating the Rohingya issue, saying the religious antagonism in Rakhine State is one of the many problems Myanmar has.

Aung San Suu Kyi's stance has disappointed the international community. The U.S. has criticized the Myanmar government's policy on the Rohingya since the days of former President Thein Sein's administration. On May 22, during his visit to Myanmar, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry asked Suu Kyi again to improve the Rohingya's human rights situation. Suu Kyi set up a special committee in June to secure peace and stability in Rakhine State, becoming its chairperson, but has not accepted the U.S. request to grant citizenship to the Rohingya.

In this year's "Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report," released on June 22, the U.S. downgraded Myanmar to Tier 3, the lowest grade. Myanmar had been rated Tier 3 until 2010 in the annual human trafficking report, but it was upgraded a notch to Tier 2 Watch List in 2011 and stayed on the list as it underwent democratization. The first downgrading in five years can be seen as the U.S.'s "punishment" for the new government.

The United Nations also pointed out in a report on Myanmar's human rights problems released on June 20 that violence against Rohingya was increasing in the country. Yanghee Lee, a special U.N. rapporteur, visited Myanmar around the same time and requested the new government to have a third party investigate the Rohingya's human rights situation. A Rohingya man who has lived in Thailand for over 25 years said he had expected before the start of the new government that the situation would be improved, but that he was disappointed that nothing had changed.

On July 21, the religious composition of Myanmar's population based on a national census conducted in 2014 was published. The population ratio of domestic Muslims was 4.3%, a modest rise from 3.9% in the previous census in 1983. Before the data was released, some analysts estimated that the percentage of Muslim population would reach a double digit, and there were voices of concern that the publication of the survey results might intensify the religious hostility.

In the country, a nationalist Buddhist organization that calls for the exclusion of Muslims remains influential. In Rakhine State, the Arakan National Party, an ethnic political party that became the third-largest group in the national legislature through the latest general election, pushes forward its anti-Muslim principle and tries to prevent the government from helping the Rohingya. Suu Kyi remains in a predicament, pressured by both the ANP and the international community.

In Rakhine State, as a result of massive clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in 2012, more than 120,000 Muslims remain isolated in refugee camps. It is difficult to expect that the change of government will improve their situation.

By AFP & DPA

September 3, 2016

A summit designed to help end Myanmar's long-running civil war has ended. Aung San Suu Kyi expressed optimism about achieving a long-lasting peace, though she emphasized there's still work needed to be done.

The last day of the peace conference drew to a close one day earlier than expected on Saturday with no concrete resolution, though Suu Kyi insisted it was only the first step toward ending insurgencies that have divided the nation for years.

Myanmar has been embroiled in an ongoing civil war since 1948, when once-independent ethnic minorities suddenly found themselves under Burmese control following the country's independence from Great Britain.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Prize-winner who became the country's de facto leader after speaking out against the ruling junta, has made a peace agreement between the military and ethnic rebels one of her major priorities.

The UN-backed summit, which began on Wednesday and gave more than a dozen rebel groups the opportunity to come to the table and make their voices heard, was not without its achievements. Among the participants, for example, were rebel groups that had not signed a ceasefire agreement with the former government last year.

More meetings ahead

The summit also faced its share of obstacles. Three rebel militaries refused to participate, and one of the biggest groups, the United Wa State Army, stormed out on the second day after it was only granted observer status. The government insists it was an administrative problem.

"To achieve peace is very difficult," Suu Kyi told the conference. "This is the first meeting. After this, there will be more meetings. And there are many things we have to do during the time in between."

Despite the leader's optimism, many rebel groups remain skeptical of her leadership, and some observers believe a truly sustained peace will be difficult to achieve.

Among the challenges Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) faces is the fact that the military still retains influence in the government post-junta. In order to settle on a federal arrangement that satisfies all the disparate rebel groups, Suu Kyi will need the support from the army.

Challenges ahead

Geographic hurdles are another factor. The ethnic Burmese reside mostly in the center and coastal regions of the country, while many of the ethnic minorities live in areas containing valuable natural resources like wood, jade and ruby. Many of these groups - not necessarily on good terms with each other - have been fiercely defending their access to these resources.

Experts have expressed skepticism that a deal was within reach, partly due to the rebels' inherent distrust of the military. "The ethnic groups know precisely that Suu Kyi is speaking up front, but that the military is standing behind her," academic Marco Bünte told DW earlier this week.

Nonetheless, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the meeting "historic" and, like many international leaders, has expressed optimism that Suu Kyi could lead the way toward peace.

The next peace conference is slated to take place in March.

By Sai Latt

The Irrawaddy

September 3, 2016

A few days before the start of this week’s 21st Century Panglong peace conference, the State Counselor’s Office announced the formation of an advisory commission on Arakan state, to be chaired by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. In late May this year, President U Htin Kyaw formed the Central Committee for the Implementation of Peace and Development in Arakan State. It has 27 members, all of whom are government officials, and State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is the chair.

The creation of these bodies, and the holding of the Panglong conference, indicates that peace is high on the government’s agenda.

For some time now, two of the most important elements in the current political landscape have been seen as distinct problems: the peace process involving the government and ethnic armed groups, and the violent and racist ultra-nationalist campaign against the Rohingya, and Muslims in general, by the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion, better known by its Burmese language acronym Ma Ba Tha. Very few people working on the peace process take the nationalist campaign seriously, and vice versa.

Yet there are clear connections between the two, in terms of how the nationalist movement can undermine the peace process. For a start, lessons can be learned by looking at how Ma Ba Tha’s populist campaign against Rohingyas/Muslims turned democratic forces from “state enemies” into “public enemies,” and from the “people’s friends” to the “nation’s traitors.”

Democratic forces: from ‘state enemies’ to ‘public enemies’

One of the prime victims of the nationalist movement is the cohort of democratic forces (however problematic and racist some may have been) that have dissented from the junta since 1988. These forces include the (once) exiled media, the international community, human rights activists and monks, as well as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her loyal dissident groups.

Past regimes consistently accused them of trying to break up the Union. State propaganda called overseas and once-exiled media—including the BBC, VOA, RFA, DVB, The Irrawaddy and Mizzima—“killer media, liars and troublemakers.” State media described the international community as neocolonialists who were manipulating opposition groups in order to control the country. Human rights groups were accused of destabilizing Burma, and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi described as a threat to sovereignty and culture.

But twenty-five years of such state propaganda did not work. People always supported the anti-junta forces and saw them as saviors. People looked up to them as agents of change and as friends of the people.

However, after the Arakan State riots broke out in 2012, people started believing nationalist rhetoric—that all these forces were betraying the nation by supporting the Rohingya. As the Rohingya issue was increasingly framed as a threat to sovereignty, people started seeing the democratic forces too as threatening sovereignty, religion and culture.

For instance, various media organizations were accused of taking money from the international Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in exchange for producing pro-Rohingya news. Some cartoonists portrayed them as dogs fed by the Rohingya. The Democratic Voice of Burma, whose radio and TV output people have relied on for decades, was called the Democratic Voice of Bengali. Human rights activists were accused of exchanging sovereignty, and race-and-religion, for dangerous foreign ideas. Articles were written condemning “human rights” as infringing sovereignty. Public protests against international and local nongovernmental organizations were organized. Senior UN official Tomás Ojea Quintana’s convoy was attacked. UN envoy Yanghee Lee was called a “whore.” Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was criticized and insulted in ways previously unimaginable.

Within a few months, groups and individuals long known for challenging the regime were being framed as the “people’s enemies.” Members of the public started saying things about these groups that those in power had been unable to get them to say for more than two decades. Ironically, this was achieved not by the traditional state propaganda machine, but by a “people’s movement” led by monks.

This points to the need to see the anti-Rohingya/Muslim campaign as something rather more than just a distraction from the “real issues,” as some describe it. In fact, the campaign became a populist political instrument whose direct opposition to Rohingya/Muslims eventually, and ironically, weakened public support, trust and confidence in the democratic forces that had been trying to weaken the oppressors.

This raises questions around whether the Rohingya/Muslims are indeed the ultimate targets of the nationalist campaign. It may be asked if, (i) the nationalist campaign has been strategically orchestrated in unknown bunkers; (ii) those in power have just turned the violence of an unfolding nationalist campaign to their own advantage; or (iii) the outcomes have been uncalculated and merely the result of coincidence.

Whether the outcomes were orchestrated or coincidental, it is certain that the forces of democratization have been discredited and transformed into “public enemies” in sudden and shocking ways.

Moving targets

The obvious target being one thing and the result something else is not an isolated phenomenon; it is part of a pattern. Take the way many more people, for a time, came to see Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as a threat to sovereignty, and to race-and-religion. The previous military junta spent 25 years painting her as a threat to the nation—for marrying the late Dr. Michael Aris, a British historian of Himalayan cultures—but the people did not buy that propaganda. Yet, in late 2014 and 2015, the number of people opposing her, at least on social media, seemed to rise rapidly. How did this happen?

The racist ultra-nationalist narratives are often all about women in danger, mostly in terms of sexual violence and marital strife, caused by lu myo char, bar thar char (people of a different race and religion), i.e. foreigners.

When the Arakan State riots broke out in 2012, the initial narrative had to do with “Bengali” men raping an Arakanese Buddhist woman. The narrative around victimhood shifted gradually to become about “kalar” (a derogatory term for Muslims and those of South Asian descent) assaulting Burmese women—then about “lu myo char, bar thar char” forcing Burmese women to marry them, converting them (and their children) to Islam by force, and torturing and killing them if they refused.

Using made-up stories, the narrative warned that Burmese people should not engage socially with Muslims, and that inter-marriage was dangerous. The spinning went further. Nationalists distributed Facebook photos of Burmese ladies overseas dating black men, and then images of Burmese girls in sexy clothing partying with white people. They were relaying a message that such Burmese women were disrespecting Burmese culture and therefore posed a danger to race-and-religion. Eventually, the message morphed into the idea that it was wrong for Burmese women to have sexual and marital relations with foreigners. Prior to the 2015 general election, the prime target of this idea became Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

Had the campaign been launched directly against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in the first instance, people would have immediately understood it as the usual propaganda. But when the idea that Burmese women marrying foreigners is wrong was constructed in the context of the Rohingya, who were already painted and often taken as outcasts, more and more people internalized the notion. As the idea traveled through different contexts under the guise of disciplining young women and protecting culture and religion, it became more accepted. In 2015, when the issue was overheating, it was used directly against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. By that time, the overtly sexist and racist content of the messaging was unlike anything that had been seen before. This was a powerful psy-war achievement, until people realized it was propaganda against her.

To recap, whether it was orchestrated or a mere coincidence, the outcome was obvious: a narrative of condemning rape in 2012 became one of anti-Aung San Suu Kyi in 2015.

Nationalists against reconciliation

Just as the racist nationalist movement has been seen in the two examples above to have successfully undermined the forces of democratization, it could work similarly against the forces of national reconciliation in unexpected and unforeseen ways. This may sound speculative, but the matters already discussed show signs of what could happen, and how.

National reconciliation requires equality between the Burman majority and ethnic minorities, in terms of political decision-making, defense, economic rights and cultural rights. Predominant or significant populations of many ethnic groups are Christian. But the nationalist campaigns, speeches and writings work against equality among all groups. The nationalists’ calls for Buddhist Burman supremacy in the political hierarchy reinforces what minority groups see as chauvinism—a root cause of ethnic conflict.

Recently, anti-Christian articles and cartoons have been seen in print publications and posted on social media, including on Ma Ba Tha’s official Facebook page. Signboards have been put up in various towns saying that lu myo char, bar thar char are not allowed to live in the locality, or to buy and sell at the local markets. A signboard in Shwe Naung in Shan State identified Muslims, Christians and Hindus as those who are so barred.

The discourse around lu myo char (different race/ethnicity) reinforces discrimination based on ethnicity.

Even poetry is not immune. A poem by Shin Myo Chit about marriage and the expression of Burmese pride is titled “Avoid lu myo char.” A poem by Maha Bawdi Myein Sayadaw warns readers not to sell land to lu myo char so as to preserve sovereignty. While these poems do not specifically define who lu myo char are, the call for “pure Burmese” blood, and even “pure Buddhist” blood, indicate that they proscribe everyone who is not Buddhist and/or Burmese.

Moving towards the political arena, a senior monk wrote an article titled “Traitors of the Country,” published on the Ma Ba Tha (Central) Online Media and Thargitwe Journal Facebook pages, which said that everyone has the responsibility to protect sovereignty, culture and race-and-religion. He stated that those being influenced and supported by foreign countries were traitors—so were politicians defending bar thar char (non-Buddhists) with outside support.

Many poems, articles and short stories conflate the protection of Buddhism and Burman culture with the perpetuation of sovereignty. This is at odds with calls from ethnic groups for federalism, in which all members are equal partners.

In addition, discourses around “lu myo char,” “bar thar char,” “land,” and “protecting sovereignty” run the risk of becoming powerful propaganda tools for those in power to criminalize ethnic armed groups’ struggle for equality and national reconciliation. For ethnic groups can be seen as lu myo char, bar thar char or both. Their struggle for equality, self-determination and federalism, which is in part a struggle for what they see as their ancestral land, could be distorted as an attempt by lu myo char, bar thar char to control “our forefather’s” land, break up the Union and threaten the nation’s sovereignty.

The point is that, if any unforeseen circumstance were to trigger a mass movement against the forces of national reconciliation in the name of protecting sovereignty and race-and-religion, the movement’s aims would be all too achievable—because the narratives around national traitors and lu myo char, bar thar char threatening sovereignty and race-and-religion are all already in place.

Many people already hold such notions, at least in some form. If ultra-nationalists were to embark on a mass campaign against ethnic groups, neither historical context nor facts would matter much. For the campaigns discussed earlier, which succeeded in discrediting the democratic forces, were all based on lies, deception and hatred—perpetuated in this case not by the traditional state propaganda machine, but by monks who are supposed to never lie, deceive or hate. They could do so by invoking the uncontested power of the Sangha and their special status in society.

The fact that nationalists are deploying ideas around sovereignty is concerning, because protecting sovereignty is a very distinctive military discourse that has been invoked to crush ethnic minority groups. As recently as June 21, Burma’s armed forces chief stated during a meeting with members of the Tatmadaw in Shan State that national defense was about more than just military activity, but also about protecting race-and-religion.

A threat to peace

In short, whether a coincidence or not, the nationalist movement’s key narratives of protecting race-and-religion continue to contribute to blocking recognition of diversity and equality as necessary conditions for national reconciliation.

Looking at the ways in which the forces of democratization became public enemies, receiving the brunt of public outcry as a by-product of the racist nationalist campaign against Rohingya/Muslims, who can guarantee that the same campaign won’t provide a platform to be used against the forces of national reconciliation, at the very least as an unintended consequence?

It is to be hoped that people in the government and the peace movement have a vision and a strategy for such an outcome, before it strikes at the heart of peace and national reconciliation.

(This is a shorter version of a research paper in Burmese titled “Beyond Muslims: Ma Ba Tha’s Impacts on Democratization and National Reconciliation” to be published in the Myanmar Quarterly Journal in September).

Dr. Sai Latt received his Ph.D. in Human Geography from Simon Fraser University in Canada. He is a Research Associate of the York Center for Asian Research at York University in Toronto. His research covers violence, securitization and displacement.

By Mizzima

September 3, 2016

The United States government should keep in place sanctions on Myanmar to deter the Myanmar military from derailing democratic reforms, Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch has learned that the Obama administration plans to announce the lifting of key sanctions during Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s visit to Washington, DC, which begins on September 14, 2016.

“US sanctions are focused on the Burmese generals and their cronies in order to encourage democratic reforms,” said John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, in a press release on September 2. “The sanctions are crucial for pressing the military to end rights abuses and transfer power to a fully civilian government. They shouldn’t be fully lifted until the democratic transition is irreversible.”

Many of the sanctions restricting Myanmar financial institutions, imports, and US investment in Myanmar were already eased or removed entirely between July 2012 and May 2016. Most of the remaining sanctions specifically target the Ministry of Defense, state or non-state armed groups, and individuals and entities on the US Department of Treasury’s “Specially Designated Nationals” (SDN) List.

In August, Myanmar’s lower house of parliament voted to reject a legislative proposal that would challenge US sanctions. U Hla Moe, a senior official in Aung San Suu Kyi’s ruling National League for Democracy party, told the media after the vote that “there’s no reason to discuss it, because the sanctions are imposed for those who are obstructions to the country’s democratic movements, not for the [whole] country. So the parliament doesn’t need to urge to ease them.”

During a joint news conference on May 22, Suu Kyi, State Counsellor and Foreign Secretary of Myanmar, and US Secretary of State John Kerry both appeared to suggest that relaxing sanctions would not occur until Myanmar’s military allowed the country’s fundamentally flawed 2008 constitution to be revamped. The constitution reserves 25 percent of parliamentary seats for the military, empowers the military to appoint the ministers of defense, home affairs, and border affairs, and allows the military to dissolve the government during a national emergency.

Kerry said at the May news conference that, “the key to the lifting of the sanctions is really the progress that is made within Myanmar in continuing to move down the road of democratization… it’s very difficult to complete that journey – in fact, impossible to complete that journey with the current constitution. It needs to be changed.”

Suu Kyi said: “We’re not afraid of sanctions. We’re not afraid of scrutiny… I understand and I accept and I believe that the United States is a friend, and are not keeping the sanctions to hurt us, but to – that it would help us. And I’m ready to accept that; I’m not afraid of sanctions.”

Core sanctions include the gem trade, with which the Myanmar military has long been involved in illicit and abusive exploitation, Human Rights Watch said. Key provisions in the current sanctions regime aim to prevent US companies and individuals from doing business with military officials and military-owned enterprises, prohibit the import of Myanmar jade and gemstones into the US, and restrict businesses and persons from involvement in that sector. Recent legal reforms in Myanmar that address the jade and gemstone sector have not yet been fully implemented. As a result, on August 23, US Customs and Border Protection reportedly updated and renewed its rules prohibiting the importation of gemstones from Myanmar.

The US Department of the Treasury maintains on its “Specially Designated Nationals” (SDN) List an extensive number of Myanmar people and entities with whom US companies and persons are barred from doing business. Several are individuals who the US has determined threaten the peace, security, or stability of Burma’s political reforms, or are responsible for or complicit in human rights abuses in Myanmar.

“Many of the Burmese on the US sanctions list are criminal suspects and human rights abusers,” Sifton said. “The US should assist Burma in promoting genuine economic development, not help those who made ill-gotten gains during military rule.”

Human Rights Watch also urged the Obama administration to keep in place the underlying “state of emergency” that allows many parts of the sanctions regime to stay in place. If current executive orders imposing sanctions are lifted or amended, they should be replaced with a new executive order under which sanctions could be re-imposed.

Congress has long played an important role in imposing and maintaining sanctions on key human rights abusers in Myanmar, particularly those related to the Jade and gem sector. Regardless of administration actions, the US Congress should continue its leadership and maintain relevant sanctions legislation, which will be particularly useful in the event of backsliding on reforms by the Burmese military.

The US and other donors should also press for fiscal transparency in connection with Myanmar’s mineral sector and state or military-owned enterprises, Human Rights Watch said. All donors and international financial institutions such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank should make revenue transparency a prerequisite for budget support to Burma and investments in the extractives industries.

The US and other governments should retain restrictions on military assistance and training, and make increases in bilateral and multilateral assistance conditional on key reforms and military withdrawal from civilian government.

“Sanctions were always intended to press the Burmese military to relinquish power and embrace reforms,” Sifton said. “Now that real progress has been made, it’s crucial to keep up the pressure until those goals have been achieved.”

By Patricia Zengerle, Matt Spetalnick, David Brunnstrom and Antoni Slodkowski

Reuters

September 2, 2016

WASHINGTON/YANGON -- The United States is considering further easing or lifting sanctions against Myanmar around the time of a White House visit this month by the country's new leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, U.S. officials told Reuters.

President Barack Obama is expected to decide on the extent of the sanctions relief after consultations between Suu Kyi and his administration to gauge how far she wants Washington to go in loosening the screws on Myanmar's still-powerful military.

Obama will attend a Group of 20 leaders' summit this weekend in China followed by an East Asia summit in Laos, where Suu Kyi may also be present. She will visit Washington on Sept. 14-15 for meetings with Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, members of the U.S. Congress and business leaders.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and democracy icon, helped persuade the West to impose sanctions during her years as a jailed opposition leader. She is now trying to strike a balance between showing her people the economic rewards of a democratic transition while keeping pressure on the country's generals for further reforms.

Obama's historic opening to Myanmar followed by its peaceful transition to an elected civilian-led government is seen as one of his foreign policy achievements. But with less than five months left in office, his administration remains wary of giving up leverage for removing the vestiges of military rule.

Suu Kyi's Washington visit would be her first since her National League for Democracy (NLD) party swept into power after November 2015 elections. 

Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, met this week with congressional staffers and told them the president was considering reducing sanctions or removing them altogether, several U.S. officials said.

The U.S. officials spoke to Reuters this week on condition of anonymity.

The White House declined comment.

Washington is eager to expand relations with Myanmar to help counteract China's rise in Asia and let U.S. businesses take advantage of the opening of one of the world's last "frontier markets" - fast-growing but less developed emerging economies.

MILITARY-RUN ENTERPRISES

Most of the remaining U.S. measures restrict business with military-run enterprises, including bans on imports of Myanmar's jade and gemstones, and with black-listed individuals.

Obama has already eased some sanctions on Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, several times. This included the removal in May of state-owned banks from the U.S. blacklist and of measures against seven key state-owned timber and mining firms. But many restrictions were renewed for another year.

"We're looking at things related to trade, investment and commerce, and trying to see what can be done to improve the investment environment in Myanmar," a U.S. government source said of the changes being weighed.

These could include adding Myanmar to the Generalized System of Preferences program, which provides duty-free treatment for goods from many poor and developing countries, the sources said.

A key question is how far Suu Kyi wants Washington to go in relaxing pressure on the military, which has a strong hand in politics through a military-drafted constitution as well as an economic powerbase.

"If our bosses are in the room with Aung San Suu Kyi and she says 'I want you to lift all the sanctions,' it is hard to imagine them saying no," a congressional source said, when asked whether members of Congress would go along with lifting U.S. sanctions.

Suu Kyi is barred from the presidency by the constitution drafted by the former junta because her two sons are British citizens. She holds the title of foreign minister, but is Myanmar's de facto government leader.

She and the NLD have been criticized for not doing enough to help Myanmar's oppressed Rohingya Muslim minority.

Some backers of removing sanctions argue that easing Myanmar's international isolation could help improve human rights by boosting the economy.

However, Human Rights Watch called on Friday for the U.S. government to keep sanctions in place to deter the military from derailing democratic reforms.

By Tin Thet Paing

The Irrawaddy

September 2, 2016

RANGOON — Burma’s hardline nationalist group has claimed that it was “not responsible” for a photo condemning the appointment of former United Nations chief Kofi Annan to lead an advisory panel on conflict-torn Arakan State.

Wire news service the Associated Press (AP) reported on the incident two days earlier, pointing out that a photo of Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman had been used in place of Kofi Annan—whose name was misspelled as “Coffee” in a statement reading [sic], “We no need Coffee Annan” and “He go away.”

The post of the “Kofi-Morgan” went viral among Burmese netizens, amassing nearly 5,000 shares and hundreds of thousands of likes.

AP claimed that the viral photo had been published by a “prominent anti-Muslim group of Buddhist nationalists.”

The group in question was the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion-Central—best known by its Burmese acronym Ma Ba Tha—which issued a statement on Thursday declaring that the photo was fabricated by a “fake” Ma Ba Tha page in an attempt to defame the group. Ma Ba Tha added that the news organization The Washington Post, which republished AP’s original story, had “failed to fact-check as per journalism ethic.”

“Such misleading news analysis published on August 30 resulted the whole world feeling contempt for the Ma Ba Tha group,” the statement said. Ma Ba Tha, it added, “has not released any comment or statement regarding the advisory commission which will be chaired by Kofi Annan.”

Ashin Sopaka, one of the leading monks within Ma Ba Tha-Central, said that members of the organization were upset that an international news organization had mistakenly reported on an “unsubstantiated” photo created by a fake account.

“I hope such a mistake won’t happen again,” he told The Irrawaddy.

Ma Ba Tha also cited an old statement by its Mandalay-based group, released on July 16, which stated that the Facebook page belonging to “Ma Ba Tha-Mandalay Tine”—which means “Ma Ba Tha-Mandalay Division” in Burmese—was “fake,” and provided names for Ma Ba Tha’s two active official accounts.

The first activity on the reportedly fake Facebook page occurred on June 5.

AP, on Thursday, published a correction to its original story of and said it had “reported erroneously.”

On the same day, Wirathu, one of the most prominent monks representing Ma Ba Tha, also said on his Facebook page that the photo was created by a fake Facebook page going by the name of the association’s Mandalay group, claiming that international media had failed to confirm the credibility of the photo.

The Irrawaddy, on Wednesday, had found a total of seven versions of the post on the Ma Ba Tha—Mandalay Tine page’s edited history from Aug. 29-31. In three of the seven versions, there were texts written in English saying, “Wtf! This prank was dedicated to our stupid nationalists but it accidentally revealed the fact that Western Media has always failed to dig up the truth deep inside regarding the conflict in Arakan.”

The page has also changed its cover photo on Wednesday, revealing a text stating, “You just got pranked AP. Lol.”

Several political parties, including the Arakan National Party and the Union Solidarity and Development Party, have denounced the appointment of the former UN General-Secretary Kofi Annan as chair of the Arakan State Advisory Commission, a committee which intends to make recommendations for addressing ongoing ethnoreligious tension and abuses in the region.

Ma Ba Tha’s statement on Thursday also decried the commission’s lack of regional specialists—such as historians, researchers and anthropologists specialized in Arakan affairs. The nine-member panel formed by State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is made up of three international representatives, two Arakanese Buddhists, two Muslim delegates, and two members chosen to represent the government.

By Nyein Nyein

The Irrawaddy

September 1, 2016

NAYPYIDAW — United Nations General Secretary Ban Ki-moon met with an interfaith panel and civil society representatives at two different events with two contrasting messages in Naypyidaw on Wednesday.

During the meeting with the interfaith group, well-known Buddhist monk Ashin Nyanisara, also known as Sitagu Sayadaw, attributed a “lack of understanding of the essence of one’s own faith” to “one of the causes of conflict” in Burma.

Only through understanding this “essence,” the monk explained, can mutual understanding and friendship be fostered. Government schools, Ashin Nyanisara added, should develop a religious education syllabus “to help students understand every religion in the country.”

‘Focus on Poverty’

His comments came at a time when Burma has been struggling with interfaith relations, particularly between the Buddhist majority and Muslim minority. Since 2012, the country has been coping with ongoing violence and tension—mostly instigated by Buddhist nationalists—between the two communities. The latest documented incidents of anti-Muslim violence occurred in June, when a mosque was destroyed by a Buddhist mob in Pegu Division and on July 1, when a Muslim prayer hall was burned down in a similar manner in Kachin State.

In August, Burma’s government announced that they would form an advisory commission led by former UN General Secretary Kofi Annan to tackle ongoing abuses in Arakan State affecting the region’s Buddhist Arakanese and Muslim Rohingya.

Political parties like the Arakan National Party and the Union Solidarity and Development party have objected to the presence of international members on the Arakan State commission, describing it as foreign meddling in domestic affairs.

Ashin Nyanisara compared the ethnoreligious violence in western Burma to “fighting between a husband and wife,” also emphasizing that it was an internal affair.

“If a fight between husband and wife breaks out, it doesn’t make sense to call for outside help. That’s a problem they have to solve between themselves,” he said.

Yet, the monk offered a different stance referring to conflict-torn countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, pointing out that only “powerful” outside countries are able to intervene and halt the atrocities occurring there.

“Mr. Ban Ki-moon just folded his arms and watched what was happening, as he can do nothing,” said Ashin Nyanisara.

The self-identifying Rohingya have been disproportionately affected by the violence in Arakan State and are often referred to as “Bengali” migrants—implying that the have come from neighboring Bangladesh—by the Burmese public, government and locals; this is an assertion that the Rohingya deny, insisting that the Arakan region is their ancestral home.

Referring to “Bengali” immigrants, Ashin Nyanisara said that Arakan State had experienced an increase in migration due to poverty in Bangladesh, and asked Ban Ki-moon to consider this when examining conflict in Arakan State.

“My request to the UN general secretary and others today is to focus on poverty when you tackle the problem,” he said.

A Lack of Security for Women

UN general secretary Ban Ki-moon also met 13 civil society representatives on the same day in Naypyidaw’s Kempinski Hotel.

Nang Phyu Phyu Lin, chair of the Alliance for Gender Inclusion in the Peace Process said her organization highlighted for Ban Ki-moon how ongoing violence against women, particularly in conflict zones, remains a threat not only to security in those regions but also nationally. She also reflected on the lack of legal protection for women outside of conflict areas, and the need for more effective interventions to stop violence against women in all contexts.

“We still have a lack of security for women, whether they are in conflict zones or not. Because the policies protecting women from violence are very weak; perpetrators are not taken into custody and are still at large,” she explained.

“We urged the UN general secretary to pressure the government, the army and the ethnic armed groups to abide by and implement the UNSC resolution,” Nang Phyu Phyu Lin said, referring to the UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which recognizes the gendered effects of conflict and provides a framework for furthering the participation of women in peace processes and security efforts.

Lway Cheery, secretary of the Ta’ang Women’s Organization, told The Irrawaddy that she raised issues concerning human rights abuses in northern Shan State, where many ethnic Ta’ang [Palaung] live.

“He seems well-informed about the refugees and IDPs [internally displaced people] and the peace process [in Burma],” Lway Cheery said of Ban Ki-moon. “He said he would raise these concerns with the government when he meets the leaders.”

“He pledged,” she continued, “that the UN is ready to provide more support toward achieving peace in Myanmar.”

Additional reporting by Kyaw Phyo Tha from Rangoon.

By Moe Myint

The Irrawaddy

September 1, 2016

RANGOON — Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan will arrive in Burma on Sunday and visit Arakan State on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, to introduce his role as chair of the new Arakan State Advisory Commission to local Buddhist and Muslim stakeholders, according to Arakan State government secretary U Tin Maung Swe.

Kofi Annan is expected to meet the Arakan National Party (ANP), the largest party in Arakan State, which represents the interests of the Buddhist majority and has taken a hard line against the largely stateless Rohingya Muslim community, which suffered from anti-Muslim violence in 2012 and 2013 and remains largely segregated from Buddhist communities in the state, with restrictions placed on their movement.

However, ANP general-secretary U Tun Aung Kyaw, who is currently attending the Union Peace Conference in Naypyidaw, told The Irrawaddy over the phone that the party had not yet received a formal request for a meeting with the new commission.

Muslim commission member Al Haj Aye Lwin, founder of interfaith group Religions for Peace, said he knew Kofi Annan would be arriving in Burma early next week, but claimed not to know any further details.

The State Counselor’s Office under Daw Aung San Suu Kyi earlier announced that a memorandum of understanding would be signed with the Kofi Annan Foundation within one month, paving the way for the participation of the global statesman in efforts to resolve the communal conflict in Arakan State.

Al Haj Aye Lwin commented to the intention of the new advisory committee to consult closely with local stakeholders: “Without meeting with locals, it won’t work.”

U Zaw Zaw, a resident of Aung Mingalar ward—a restricted Muslim enclave within the state capitalof Sittwe—who identifies as Rohingya, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that local community heads had been verbally informed on Tuesday by authorities about Kofi Annan’s visit. Local Muslim residents are now preparing to meet with him.

He said they would explain to Kofi Annan they are not illegal migrants from Bangladesh, or “Bengalis”—as they are called by Arakanese Buddhists, sections of the government, and much of the Burmese public—and how they are denied citizenship, freedom of movement and unrestricted access to healthcare and education.

However, U Zaw Zaw said that doubts had begun to circulate within the local Muslim community over the ability of Kofi Annan and the commission to solve the problems they face.

“Residents are talking like nothing will change here. They are without hope,’’ he said.

He said that Kofi Annan follows in the footsteps of many global celebrities, foreign ambassadors and human rights groups who have visited them over the past four years—to no effect.

He mentioned that the previous government had also formed a commission on Arakan State, which had led to no improvements, as a further cause for doubt.

“We have been living for four years in the same condition. Nothing has changed, even though many ambassadors have visited,” U Zaw Zaw said. “It is hard to say whether we trust or distrust the commission.”

Since the Arakan State Advisory Commission was announced on Aug. 24, several political parties, including the ANP and the Union Solidarity and Development Party, have called for its cancellation or the removal of the international members, on the grounds that they could not be expected to understand the local context in Arakan State, or that their involvement amounted to interference in Burma’s “internal affairs.”

The ANP have said the commission would harm the rights of the “indigenous” people of Arakan State, referring to the Buddhist Arakanese majority. On Tuesday, ANP Lower House lawmaker U Aung Kyaw San submitted an urgent parliamentary proposal calling for the three foreign members to be replaced with local academics.

The other international members of the commission are Ghassan Salamé, a scholar from Lebanon and former advisor to Kofi Annan, and Laetitia van den Assum, a diplomat from the Netherlands and a former advisor to UNAIDS. The other six members are from Burma, with two Buddhist Arakanese members, two Muslim members (from Rangoon rather than Arakan State) and two government representatives.

Chicago Monitor 

September 1, 2016

By Voice of America

August 31, 2016

Talks aimed at ending nearly seven decades of fighting between Myanmar's government and ethnic rebel groups opened in the capital of Naypyitaw Wednesday.

Delegates from 17 ethnic minorities, decked out in the colorful costumes of their particular group, filled the convention hall, mingling with military officers and diplomats at the start of the five-day conference, a major initiative of Aung San Suu Kyi's first days as leader of Myanmar's new democratically-elected government.

"Only if we are united will our country be at peace," the Nobel Peace laureate said in her opening remarks. "Only if our country is at peace will we be able to stand on an equal footing with other countries in our region and across the world."

"This is a unique opportunity for us to accomplish a great task that will stand as a landmark throughout our history. Let us grasp this magnificent opportunity, with wisdom, courage, and perseverance, and create a future infused with light," she stated.

The summit has been dubbed "21st Century Panglong," a tribute to a 1947 agreement brokered by independence hero General Aung San, Aung San Suu Kyi's late father, that granted ethnic minorities autonomy once Myanmar, also known as Burma, gained independence from Britain. But the deal fell apart the following year when Aung San was assassinated, pitting the separatist groups located on the country's borders with China and Thailand against the military, who ruled Myanmar with an iron fist for over five decades.

On the eve of the peace conference, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Myanmar's new government to confer citizenship on its 1 million-strong Rohingya Muslim minority, who are regarded as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

"Every transition takes a risk but refusing to embark on transition may carry the greatest risk of all. We see tragic evidence of this around the world. I urge you all to continue to face up to your responsibilities, particularly to the youth and children of Myanmar - the future of this wonderful country. You owe it to them to work for a better tomorrow," he said.

Burmese General Min Aung Hlaing, Commander-in-Chief, Myanmar Armed Forces stated, "We need to end this tragic drift in the present during our tenure. In all seriousness, I believe we all can successfully implement our peace process with the strength of unity. In this regard, I would say once more that the Tatmadaw's [Myanmar Armed Forces] stand is firm and is based on 'the spirit of restoring peace without fail.'"

General Nban La, Kachin Independence Army leader added, "I want to say that we want to live peacefully together with happiness and sadness. The federal union that we are talking about is not about separating ourselves from the country. We just want equal rights and to live together and collaborate like brothers."

As many as 120,000 Rohingya have been languishing in squalid displaced persons camps in western Rakhine state since 2012, when fighting broke out between Buddhist nationalists and Muslims.

Kofi Annan, Ban Ki-moon's predecessor as U.N. chief, was named by the Myanmar government to head an advisory panel to address the issues in Rakhine state.

By Simon Lewis and Wa Lone

Reuters

August 31, 2016