Displaced Muslims barred from returning home in Meikhtila following pressure from extremist group 

5th October 2016, London, United Kingdom

Displaced Muslims in the town of Meikhtila, Mandalay Division, Burma, were prevented from returning to their homes this week following objections from the extremist Buddhist-ultra-nationalist group, the Association for Protection of Race and Religion, better known by it's Burmese-language acronym “Ma Ba Tha.”

Local authorities also refused to give protection to Muslims who wanted to return to their original places of residence, Burma Human Rights Network understands.

“This is extremely disappointing to see that these families were denied to return to their own property for being Muslim whereas Buddhists from Bangladesh have been allowed to relocate to Burma with the support of authorities and have been provided with full facilities. It is appalling that the fate of Muslims in Burma has not improved under democratically elected government”, said Kyaw Win of BHRN.

In a continuation of their long-running tactics of incitement and discrimination against the Muslim community of Myanmar, the Ma Ba Tha began its organised opposition to the returns earlier this month when a family from the Wun Zin ward of the town encountered hostility from supporters of the group.

A posting on the social media site Facebook by supporters of the Ma Ba Tha showed groups of people gathering on 1st October to prevent the family from returning home. The group also reportedly penned a letter to local authorities to forestall any official support for their efforts.

Some of these accounts were corroborated in a Burmese-language report by the BBC, which emerged this week.

A local Muslim told BHRN, “They [Ma Ba Tha activists] have put up the petition letter to the authorities signed by the local Buddhists not to allow the Muslims to return to their homes. This is not not only in the Wunzin ward but also in the Yan Myo Aung and Minglar Zung Zeyar wards, the Muslims have been trying [to get] permission to return to their homes since September 2013... but the permission was denied on the pretext that allowing the Muslims to go back their home would create religious tensions again.”

He added, “the township administrator [shirked] responsibility for the security of Muslims. He said if anything happen it will be your responsibility.”

BHRN has heard that while the family reported the initial incident involving protesters to the authorities, little or no Police support was forthcoming and that rumours on social media about Muslims causing unrest prompted outright refusals to grant permission to the family to relocate.

“[This family have been] away from [their] homes for 3 years and 7 months. They have requested to the authorities verbally and in writing to allow re-building their homes. When the local administrators went to meet them on 29 September they asked for permission, again as the situation has returned to normal, the local administrator did not say neither yes or no,” U San Win Shein, a local organizer of the National League for Democracy (NLD) told BHRN. 

Other Muslim families were also prevented from returning to their original homes as a result of Ma Ba Tha activities. Those affected included 70 families from Yan Myo Aung ward, 37 families from Wun Zin ward, 23 families from Kan Daw Min ward, and 30 families from Thiri Minglar ward.

BHRN sources reported that that eight families (23 people) were forced by authorities to move from a sports ground in early September 2016, a site which has been used as a shelter since 2013. BHRN is concerned that the safety of these families could be at risk if the continue to be prevented from returning to their original homes.

Anti-Muslim agitation by Ma Ba Tha is nothing new; having gone through a period of relative quiescence this year, the group began organising with renewed energy following the delivery of an Islamophobic speech in Meikhtilar Township by high-profile member U Wirathu in late August at an event held in commemoration of a governmental declaration, 55 years ago, that Buddhism was the official religion of Myanmar.

Notes for Editors

Anti Muslim violence in Meikhtilar

Around 13,000 people, the vast majority from the Muslim community, were displaced following sectarian violence in late March 2013; three days of rioting and mob attacks were precipitated by an argument between a Buddhist and a Muslim in a gold shop. At least 40 were killed and dozens injured as a result of the ensuing violence; in one particularly gruesome incident, a group of Muslim children were set alight by mobs. Other grave acts of criminality, including the murder of a Buddhist monk by Muslims, took place during the unrest.

Background on the Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN)

Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN) works for human rights, minority rights and religious freedom in Burma. BHRN has played a crucial role advocating for human rights and religious freedom with politicians and world leaders.

Media Enquiries

Members of The Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN) are available for comment and interview. Images also available on request.

Please contact:

Kyaw Win

Executive Director of the Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN)

E: kyawwin78@gmail.com

T: +44(0) 740 345 2378

By Aaron Balshan

The Diplomat

October 3, 2016

The removal of sanctions will not do Myanmar’s fledgling democracy any favours.

Heading into 2016, Myanmar was on pace to truly become the democratic Cinderella story of our time. After half a century of despotic military rule, it seemed as though dramatic reforms were taking place on a daily basis, from the signing of the first national ceasefire agreement in October 2015 to the first relatively free election a month later. While very positive steps have been taken, huge blind spots in the democracy still exist, particularly concerning the military’s influence in decision making.

It was in this context that President Barack Obama decided three weeks ago to lift the U.S. sanctions that had been imposed on the country for decades, ushering in similar calls of encouragement by EU Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini on September 23. At the time of their termination, U.S. sanctions had become impressively effective in targeting those specifically responsible for human rights abuses, thanks to decades of incremental modification and evolution. While there is some economic and political benefit, the ends are unlikely to justify the means and in the long-term may serve as one of the larger policy blunders of the Obama administration. Ultimately, the move will hamper liberalization, encourage human rights abuses, help Chinese investments, and fuel anti-Western sentiment in the country.

To cite one example, the sanctioned junta-aligned generals fully established themselves as the dominant players in the country’s mineral extraction industries, an area in which Western investment remains nonexistent. This is particularly significant for Myanmar’s jade industry, the illicit trade of which was estimated at approximately $31 billion in 2014, or about half of the country’s GDP. The dealings of these morally unscrupulous industry barons were two-fold. Due to a severe lack of regulation and safety standards, the mines themselves have become death traps. For example, mining operations near the town of Hpakant in northern Kachin State have led to the death of hundreds of people in 2016 alone, usually brought on by landslides from substandard mining practices.

Equally alarming is the effect these operations have on the local ongoing military conflicts. The Kachin Independence Army (KIA), an ostensibly fully capable military that seeks more autonomy from the central government in Naypyidaw, has often targeted infrastructure, as they view such operations as encroachment on their land and terrorizing of their peoples. This was the case with the unfinished Myitsone Dam, the unregulated construction of which is expected to cause the flooding of almost 50 towns and displacement of thousands, leading the KIA to end the 17-year-ceasefire with the central government and begin a widespread bombing campaign against the dam and its supply routes. The recent violence has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, and the displacement of over 100,000 civilians. As recently as August 10, the KIA bombed a military convoy on its way to protect mining operations, resulting in nine injuries.

Now imagine these operations unencumbered by the deterrent of sanctions and the negative result it will likely have on local minority communities, prospects for peace, and the empowerment of anti-democratic industry leaders.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the worst of it. The real cataclysmic impact will take place in the country’s western Rakhine State. There, the Rohingya Muslim minority community remains more vulnerable than ever. Rohingya gained international exposure after an alleged attempted genocide against the community in 2012 was carried out by Buddhist national groups. Now the Muslims live under quasi-apartheid conditions, separated from the rest of the ethnic Rakhine people. Following the communal violence of 2012 the situation largely stabilized, although human rights abuses were still reported daily.

Again, the levy preventing another deluge of violence was the threat of U.S. sanctions. It is no coincidence that just a week after the sanctions were lifted, a high-level state official in Rakhine indicated that hundreds of Muslim buildings, including 12 mosques and 35 Islamic religious schools in Maungdaw and Buthidaung would be destroyed. In response, Muslim community leaders suggested that the provocative action could lead to violence. This all comes at a time when the United Nations World Food Program announced massive reductions in food aid for the impoverished people on September 12.

Presumably, one of the reasons for sanction reduction was the “successful” implementation of the Rakhine State Advisory Commission, led by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. The Commission visited Rakhine for a week on in late September and was met with daily protests by thousands of Buddhist nationals. After sanctions were lifted and the Commission left, the government’s lower house attempted to pass a proposal which would remove all foreigners, including Annan, from the Commission. Ultimately, the bill was struck down by the ruling party, but further attempts remain on the horizon. Testing the boundaries of their newly revamped, post-sanction political capital, the state government is likely to increasingly push radical anti-Muslim legislation in the coming months and years, making a boiling point seem inevitable. Once it happens, the West will have no leverage in ending it and will sit on the sidelines as it does in other areas where premature sanction reduction was infamously carried out, like against North Korea in the 1990s.

On the surface, there is a seemingly obvious value to sanction reduction in the ability for Western companies to break into the Chinese-dominated economic system in Myanmar. China wields incredible influence in the country, with Beijing’s direct investment in the country dwarfing all other countries with over $15 billion plowed into 126 projects from 1985 to 2015. This is exponentially greater than Western investment, with the EU clocking in as the closest at less than $6 billion over the same period. An argument can be made that the reduction in sanctions would allow Western businesses to better penetrate the country, allowing for a slow rise in regulation and a boon for Western markets.

However, given the obvious economic advantage in skirting regulation and transparency, these industry leaders have little incentive to work with Western companies. Most of these former generals-cum-tycoons have developed iron-clad ties with Chinese counterparts over decades of business, and much like Chinese investment at home and around the world, they care very little about the state of labor conditions and the effect of unfettered capital injection.

It will actually be to the advantage of these businessmen to perpetuate ethnic conflicts in Kachin and Shan states, as further violence would support a pretext for a continued heavy military presence and effectively ward off prospective Western investors. The military, still resentful of decades of Western intervention on the pretext of moral superiority, is fully capable of engineering such a scenario. The democratic compromises over past years have legally guaranteed that the portfolios of defense, interior, and border security are filled by military leaders, essentially allowing them to dictate the trajectory of ethnic conflict with no government oversight. In other industries, most notably hydroelectric, China’s dominance will provide little room for Western companies to penetrate, with 56 dams like Myitsone already completed or under construction along the Irrawaddy River.

Economics aside, it is totally plausible that the reduction of sanctions will serve to strengthen anti-Western sentiment in the country. Now that sanctions are no longer a factor, Western leaders will have to more heavily rely on diplomacy and rhetoric to mitigate an inevitable Rohingya crisis. However, unlike sanctions, which quietly pressure leaders toward incremental reforms, outspoken measures can flare sensitivities among the hyper-nationalist population. This was evident in May, when the U.S. ambassador’s use of the term “Rohingya” in a written statement sparked a series of protests attended by thousands in front of the Embassy. The term Rohingya continues to be illegal in Myanmar, as hardline Buddhists still demand that members of the suffering community be called “eastern Bengali” in an attempt to validate the narrative that these people, who have been living in the state since its creation, are actually Bangladeshi. The protests held against Kofi Annan’s presence on the Commision and subsequent legislation held a similarly anti-Western tone.

The decision to lift sanctions on Iran was not without flaws, but at least it was done after a significant deal had been inked and mechanisms would prevent potential failures. However, in the case of Myanmar, no such deal was made and no such mechanisms really exist. As recently as May 22, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that Myanmar would need to change its constitution and address human rights issues, a call that democratically elected leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi supported, but by and large didn’t happen. This begs the question: why would these reforms happen now?

The effect of this mistake is likely to be felt for decades as the former junta leaders will gain unprecedented financial influence and legitimacy now that they are free of sanctions. It’s difficult not to get caught up in the optimism of change when watching an infant democracy emerge from dictatorship, but as any parent will tell you, sometimes tough love is the kind that prevents developmental problems in the future.

Aaron Balshan is an intelligence analyst with a dedicated focus on South Asian politics at MAX-Secuirty, a Middle-East based geopolitical risk and research consultancy firm.

By Kyaw Ye Lynn

Anadolu Agency

October 3, 2016

Monk who saved the lives of around 700 Muslims says many still feel unsafe in Meikhtila

YANGON, Myanmar -- More than three years after houses and properties were destroyed by a mob in an anti-Muslim riot in Myanmar’s central town of Meikhtila, many Muslims are still unable to go home.

Nationalist groups oppose their return following the large-scale communal violence of 2013 between Muslims and Buddhists that left dozens dead and more than a thousand displaced.

Talking to Anadolu Agency on Monday, Muslim lawyer Aung Thein -- a spokesman for the Interfaith Friendship Network in Meikhtila -- said at least 70 Muslim families remain homeless.

“Since the authority closed [IDP] camps [they were place in after the rioting] earlier this year, they have been sheltering in monasteries and playgrounds in the town,” Aung Thein said by phone.

He added that the families have been trying to return to their homes for years, but authorities had not accepted their request as local nationalist groups opposed the move.

Meikhtila is a stronghold of the nationalist monk-led Association for the Protection of Race and Religion (better known as Ma Ba Tha).

For years, anti-Muslim rhetoric from the group -- in particular from prominent member Wirathu -- has been seen as deliberately stoking the flames of religious hatred against the country's Muslims, with Wirathu blaming them for communal conflicts, and accusing them of attempting to Islamize the country of 57 million people.

“Now many of them [the Muslim population] are trying to sell their land and properties to move to another places," Aung Thein underlined.

On March 20, 2013, a mob destroyed a gold shop following an argument between a Muslim gold shop owner family and a Buddhist customer over a golden hairpin.

Police tried to disperse the mob, however the situation became uncontrollable after a monk was killed and burnt alive later that day.

The situation quickly descended into three days of bloodshed, arson and looting, which left 43 people dead, most of them Muslims, houses reduced to ashes, and around 12,000 people homeless.

On Monday, the abbot of Meikhtila's Yadanar Oo monastery -- long sympathetic to the plight of the town's Muslim community -- talked to Anadolu Agency about the mistrust he says still remains between the two groups.

“Muslims especially still feel unsafe here,” Withuda said by phone. “Therefore they are moving to other towns, while some are converting to Buddhism."

In 2013, Withuda risked his own life to save around 700 Muslims who were hiding in his monastery during the disturbances.

Rioters gathered outside and told him to send out the Muslims.

“I told the rioters that if you want to kill them you will have to kill me first,” he recalled.

“Of course, I was afraid of the rioters... I had to be brave myself to save lives.”

By Dr. Habib Siddiqui

Asian Tribune

October 3, 2016

Myanmar, formerly Burma, is a resource rich country in south-east Asia, bordering Bangladesh, India, China, Laos and Thailand. The country of nearly 52 million people is going through a mammoth change these days. The old men of the military that ran the country for more than half a century have been displaced by a popular, elected, civilian government of National League for Democracy (NLD). Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of the founding father Aung San, is the de facto leader of the government with the title of the State Counsellor.

The transition to democracy did not come that easy. Its path was stained with blood and sacrifice since 1962 when General Ne Win came to power through a military coup. Fifteen student protesters of the capital’s Rangoon University were killed. The country was ruled by a revolutionary council headed by the general. Almost all aspects of society (business, media, production) were nationalized or brought under government control under the Burmese Way to Socialism. As a result, the Rohingya people of Arakan state and the prosperous Indian Hindu-Muslim-Sikh business community of Rangoon became the worst sufferers in this experiment; many non-Buddhists were forced out of Burma. A new constitution of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma was adopted in 1974. Under the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) Burma became one of the world's most impoverished countries.

There were sporadic protests against the military rule during the Ne Win years (1962-1988) and these were almost always brutally suppressed. In 1988, unrest over economic mismanagement and political oppression by the government led to widespread pro-democracy demonstrations throughout the country known as the 8888 Uprising. 

Security forces killed thousands of demonstrators, and General Saw Maung staged a coup d'état and formed the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). In 1989, SLORC declared martial law after widespread protests and changed the country's official English name from the "Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma" to the "Union of Myanmar". 

In May 1990, the SLORC government held free elections for the first time in almost 30 years and the NLD, the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, won nearly 80% of the seats. However, the military junta refused to cede power and continued to rule the nation as SLORC until 1997, and then as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) until its dissolution in March 2011. It was an attempt to rebrand the old order; the power remained with the junta. Then came the 2007 Saffron Revolution, a non-violence: national movement, led by Buddhist monks, which violently suppressed. An international condemnation of this peaceful revolution led to further isolation of the government.

A fraudulent election was held in 2010 in which the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, declared victory winning nearly 80% seats. The military junta was replaced on 30 March 2011 by a quasi-military government, led by former General Thein Sein, with the goal of putting the country back to the path of democracy. 

Suu Kyi was released from house arrest and her party allowed to participate in the by-elections in 2012 in which it won 43 of the contested 45 seats.

Then came the general election of 8 November 2015 in which the NLD won an absolute majority of the seats in both the houses. And the rest is history! Recently, Suu Kyi visited the USA and gave speech at the UN General Assembly session. She was also awarded the Humanitarian of the Year award from Harvard. 

The question that begs an answer is: how was it possible for the military to rule this multi-ethnic, - racial, and –religious country for so many decades? What ideology boosted its credibility to rule almost unopposed for all those years? 

The answer is provided by Dr. Shwe Lu Maung (Shahnawaz Khan) in his latest book - The prima materia of Myanmar Buddhist Culture: Laukathara of Rakhine Thu Mrat, published in the USA by Shahnawaz Khan (2016). 

The author, a diaspora Burmese from Arakan (Rakhine), has been living in the USA for decades. He is an acclaimed author of six books on his native country that have helped us immensely in our understanding of the complex political landscape of modern Myanmar. This book – a translated work - is an excellent source to understand the very treasure trove from which the ex-generals reportedly drew their inspiration to ruling the country. After all, in 1990, Sr. Gen. Saw Maung, the military ruler of the country at the time (who reportedly believed himself to be the reincarnation of an 11th-century warrior-king), famously said that he would rule the country according to Laukathara. 

As Dr. Maung shows, Laukathara – a popular literary work - provides the cultural fabrics of Myanmarism – an ideology in which religion and race mingle to define how Buddhists in Myanmar should behave and conduct their affairs from a layman to the ruler. Literally, the phrase Laukathara means the essence of the world. Written originally on palm leaves with the Rakhine phonetics, it was taught by a Rakhine monk by the name of Thu Mrat of Theravada Buddhism in the early 14th century. He was the teacher of King Mun Hti (Laung Krut dynasty) who had entrusted him with the education of three princes of the Thet (or Chakma) king Lyin Saw. The latter had lost his kingdom (Thayet or Thet Yet) – located near central/lower Burma – in 1333 CE to the Rakhine King Mun Hti. 

Later Laukathara reached Myanmar from Arakan and became a royal handbook of administrative philosophy – very much like what The Prince of Niccolo Machiavelli (16th century Italian writer) had become in Europe to guide its rulers. It has been a guiding source of law and order, rules and regulations, ethics and philosophy, and traditions and culture in Myanmar society. It essentially constitutes the prima materia of Myanmar’s Buddhist culture, or perhaps, more correctly, the Buddhist political theology - based on the Buddha, the Dhamma (religion) and the Sangha (community). It is a very popular literary work with many Buddhists in the country growing up with it. 

The SLORC chairman Sr. General Saw Maung, a devout Buddhist, promoted Laukathara in Myanmar administration, a trend that was to continue by his successors. Essentially it defined Myanmarism. 

The traditional Myanmarism has been Buddhism and militarism since the days of King Anawrahta (ca. 1044-1077 C.E.). In the hands of military rulers of our time, the new Myanmarism became a toxic cocktail of ultra-nationalism and religious fanaticism (or religio-racial ultra-nationalism, as coined by Dr. Shahnawaz Khan).

If the old one regressed from the teachings of Buddha - being often violent and ugly, the new Myanmarism revealed itself to be brutal, dirtier and uglier. In this, the ends justified the means; lies and deceptions became all too natural and acceptable strategies to rule and govern a Buddhist majority country like Burma. It turned out to be a feudal recipe for disaster, which shunned pluralism, diversity and multi-culture – the very trend-setters for progress in our time. 

Mixing of religion in politics in our time has often seen the devastating consequences of how such otherwise good religious teachings can become weapons in the hands of ‘cherry-picking zealots’ to ethnically cleanse the ‘others’ who are different. The 1982 Citizenship Law thus provided the very justification for the Myanmar regime towards elimination of the minority races like the Rohingya. It was no accident that Myanmar had witnessed, since 2012, a series of genocidal pogroms, mostly directed against the minority Rohingya and other Muslims.

The terrorist monk Wirathu, who heads the fascist organization Ma Ba Tha, became the Buddhist face of terrorism, xenophobia, intolerance and hatred. In the name of protecting Buddhism nearly a quarter million of Muslims were violently displaced from their homes all across Myanmar; many were killed, and others forced out of the country. The eliminationist policy – endorsed from the top and preached and justified by Buddhist monks – became THE national project inside Myanmar, enjoying moral and material support at every level of the Buddhist society. So powerful was the influence of Wirathu and Ma Ba Tha that four controversial race and religion bills were signed into laws by President Thein Sein to further heighten the racial and religious tensions. 

Succinctly put, the teachings of Laukathara became the eliminationist policy – adopted by the military governments. However, as one reads the translated work of Dr. Maung, it was not meant to be such. 

For any westerner interested to understand the very driving force behind the moral imperative (if any) of the rule by the ex-generals of Myanmar, who saw themselves as the reincarnations of King Anawrahta, this translated work of Dr. Maung is a must. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

By Brad Bevitt

ASEAN Today

October 3, 2016

There are an estimated 1.3 million Rohingya living within Myanmar. However, there are also reported to be over 1 million that have fled the persecution to start life in a new country. Yet the journey they face is dangerous and one that rarely has a happy ending. At the same time members of ASEAN are accused of failing to address the issue. 

The Rohingya are an ethno-religious minority group that identify with the Rakhine region of Myanmar. How and when the Rohingya people got to the Rakhine region is contentious and at the heart of why they are so marginalised. Some claim that they are indigenous to Rakhine, others claim that they are Bengali who migrated during the British rule in Burma.

In 1982 the Myanmarese Government enacted a nationality law that essentially denied the Rohingya citizenship. The government does not include them as one of the 135 recognised ethnic groups who are eligible for citizenship and It is commonly held within Myanmar that the Rohingya are illegal ‘Bengalis’. Since the 2012 ethnic tensions and conflict within the country, many Rohingya are now living as internally-displaced people within Myanmar.

As the situation in Myanmar becomes increasingly untenable for the Rohingya, they have looked further afield for a place to call home. Only a short trip across the border, Bangladesh has long been a common destination for Rohingya.

However, it is sadly ironic that within Bangladesh they are far from being treated as ‘Bengalis’, as they are seen in Myanmar, and often live in squalid conditions. The UNHCR has 32,000 registered Rohingya on file, but estimates place the actual population at between 200,000 to 500,000 people. Life in Bangladesh for the Rohingya is harsh and insecure. While some stay on in camps, others use it as a staging point for further migration to Malaysia or Australia.

A fresh life in the ASEAN region?

Over the past few years, between December and March, when the conditions are right, large numbers of Rohingya have sailed from Bangladesh and Myanmar for a new life further south. Many aim for Malaysia or Australia but may end up in Indonesia or Thailand. The journey is one of great peril with food shortages, dehydration and violence on board (UNHCR 2015) and there has been little enthusiasm from any of these countries to accept Rohingya.

Malaysia

Slightly under 54,000 Rohingya are registered with the UNHCR in Malaysia. However, the actual number of Rohingya in Malaysia is thought to be much higher. In a disturbingly similar way to the Rohingya non acceptance in Myanmar, Malaysia has a general suspicion that Rohingya are ‘economic migrants’ rather than ‘refugees’.

While Rohingya are generally not deported from Malaysia, they are not provided full asylum or refugee status. They are restricted from employment in a formal manner and accessing healthcare in the same way as citizens, and their children are unable to attend national schools.

Thailand

A small number of Rohingya have been living in Thailand for many years, however most new arrivals are in transit for Malaysia. They come via the overland route or by sea, both of which can be harrowing ordeals. There have been multiple documented cases of the Thai Navy providing a ‘push back’ service for boats where the smuggling boats, sometimes overcrowded, inoperable and lacking in food and water, are towed back to sea where they are let adrift (Human Rights Watch 2013 ).

If the boats do land in Thailand, the unlucky ones end up in jungle camps where their family members are extorted for money before they can continue to Malaysia. Those that cannot afford to pay face torture, rape, and death or a bleak future of forced slavery in the Thai fishing industry.

Indonesia

In 2015, at the height of the boat people crisis, over 1000 drifting Rohingya were rescued by fishermen on Sumatra, Indonesia. Although they may have received a brotherly welcome from locals, the central government made little effort to provide them with permanent protection. Rohingya were held in camps and denied the right to work or education. Recent reports suggest that most of those that landed in Indonesia in 2015 have continued their journey to Malaysia.

Singapore

Singapore has long had a blanket refusal to accept any refugees or asylum seekers from any country based on the island state’s limited size. So far, Singapore’s response to the problem of Rohingya boat people has been to support other members of ASEAN that are ‘aiding’ them. However, with 1.4 million migrant workers in Singapore, largely in construction or other menial jobs, it seems likely that some Rohingya are in Singapore either ‘legally’ with forged Bangladeshi passports or illegally.

Further afield

While many may set off from Myanmar or Bangladesh with dreams of a new life in Australia, the reality is much less promising. It is a dangerous and long journey that an untold number never finish, and with the Australian Government’s current policy of offshore processing for boat arrivals, it is one that is probably not worth starting.

Beyond the human tragedy that affects the Rohingya individually and collectively, there could be more sinister consequences ahead. Militant groups in the Middle East pray on vulnerable Muslims and have been actively targeting people from South East Asia. The stateless and desperate Rohingya would be a perfect target for radicalisation and militarisation.

The UNHCR has accused members of ASEAN of playing ping pong with the Rohingya, and ASEAN itself has done very little to address the issue. However, without a major shift of policy within Myanmar it is clearly becoming a situation that requires strong and unified regional leadership.

By Daniel Sullivan

Refugees International

October 2, 2016

Refugees International (RI) was just on the ground in Malaysia exploring conditions for several Rohingya communities who are among the tens of thousands who have fled persecution in Myanmar in recent years. Their journeys were often more horrific than the conditions from which they fled and their lives in Malaysia are only better in relative terms. The truth of this reality is starkly illuminated in the story of two sisters, Amina and Khadijah.*

At first glance, 13-year-old Amina appears shy, but when she begins to speak about her journey to Malaysia, her voice projects a confidence well beyond her years. Fears of violence and her desire for an education -- an unattainable luxury for Rohingya in Myanmar -- drove Amina to take what would prove to be a harrowing journey. As the RI team sat down to talk with her, Amina described her treacherous voyage to Malaysia, starting with her transfer six times from boat to boat, until being boarded onto a larger ship crowded with 600 passengers. (It was common for traffickers and “agents” to wait until a sufficient number of Rohingya and other refugees and migrants have been amassed before loading them onto a larger boat for the final journey across the Andaman Sea.) She brought her arms in tight and leaned uncomfortably to the side to show the position she was forced to hold for weeks while confined to cramped conditions below deck. She spoke of how the human traffickers abandoned the ship and its human cargo, leaving them to float for days without water. She told of fishermen finding them, giving them food, water, and fuel, and then sending them off again on their way. She spoke of finally reaching Langkawi, an island off the coast of Malaysia, and of being immediately detained by Malaysian authorities. Amina’s story is just one of thousands experienced by the Rohingya abandoned at sea in the May 2015 boat crisis.

Amina’s older sister Khadija*, age 23, made a similar journey, at least in part, a year earlier. Khadija recalled her own harrowing journey to Malaysia, during which two people on the boat were so driven by hunger that they jumped into the sea to end their suffering. Upon reaching Thailand, the traffickers marched Khadija into the jungle. There she spent days in a camp as human traffickers had her call her family to demand around $1,000 or else they would kill her. To make their demands more urgent and menacing, the traffickers beat many of the Rohingya as they spoke to their relatives and pleaded for additional funds. (A year later, similar camps would be discovered with the remains of over 200 dead bodies). Fortunately for Khadija, her family was able to pay the traffickers. She was released from the camp, but was left to wander into the hands of Malaysian authorities and was thrown into a mass detention center.

Amina and Khadija’s stories come together once again, as both experienced the appalling conditions of detention in Malaysia, albeit a year apart. Khadija spent 25 days in in a Malaysian detention center before the UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, was able to intervene and secure her release. Amina, just 12 years old at the time and alone, would spend more than a year in detention, at times in conditions so crowded that she and her fellow detainees had to take turns lying down to sleep. She received insufficient food and squatting behind a three-foot-high wall proved her only privacy when she needed to bathe or use the bathroom. She was denied any communication with her family or anyone outside, and her sister only found out that she was in Malaysia and in detention through word of mouth.

The international attention to the boat crisis and visits by UNHCR helped lead to an offer for Amina to resettle in the United States, making her one of an extremely small number to have the opportunity. However, Amina bravely told officials that she would only go if her sister could join her.

Finally, just two months ago and well over a year from the start of Amina’s journey, the two sisters were reunited. The joy of that reunification was still fresh as they shared their story with RI. When asked why she would allow her younger sister to undertake such a perilous journey, Khadija tells RI that she never told her family about the horrors of her journey as she didn’t want them to know what she had suffered, unaware that her younger sister would similarly be enticed into the harrowing journey in the hopes of a better life. 

While happy to be reunited, Amina and Khadija now face the harsh realities of life for Rohingya in Malaysia. The government does not recognize them as refugees, it merely tolerates their presence. Access to healthcare and employment are greatly limited and risks of exploitation high. Khadija’s husband has been without a job for close to a month and is often stopped by local police who demand a bribe in order to avoid being thrown into detention. Arrest and return to detention are an ever present risk for Rohingya, especially the thousands that do not possess UNHCR documents. And it is this fear and the unfamiliarity of a foreign land that prevent Amina from leaving their house, and afraid to venture outside. When she is bored, she says she just goes to lie down. And tragically, it is only now that she has arrived in Malaysia that she realizes that as in Myanmar, she will be denied education because she is Rohingya. 

The effects of the persecution in Myanmar that led Amina and Khadija to leave their country continue to haunt them, much like the journeys that brought them to Malaysia. As long as the root causes of that exodus remain unaddressed by the Myanmar government, and as long as the Malaysian government does not do more to protect the vulnerable, the tens of thousands of Rohingya now living there will have no choice but to continue to rely on their own communities to survive. As Amina and Khadija move on from their respective harrowing journeys, they can at least take solace in the realization that any trials ahead will be challenges they do not have to face alone.

* Names changed for protection purposes.

By Radio Free Asia

October 2, 2016

Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday asked member states of a regional economic and security organization for “constructive support” in resolving the crisis in the country’s troubled western Rakhine state.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto national leader, is trying to drum up regional support for an advisory commission on Rakhine which she created in late August to review conflict resolution between majority Buddhists and minority Muslim Rohingya in the restive state. It will also look at humanitarian assistance, development issues, and strengthening local institutions.

Buddhist nationalists and political parties in Rakhine oppose the appointment of three foreigners to the commission, including former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who chairs the body, and have called for its disbandment.

“We are working to build understanding, harmony and trust between communities while standing firm against prejudice, intolerance, and extremism,” Aung San Suu Kyi told the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the body’s Inter-Parliamentary Assembly which is meeting on Sept. 30-Oct. 3 in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw. “In doing so, we ask for the constructive support of our regional neighbors.”

“Progress in every field will not be possible overnight, but we are determined to persevere to bring about positive change in Rakhine state as in other areas of our country affected by conflict,” she said.

Rakhine is home to roughly 1.1 million stateless Muslim Rohingya, considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, who face persecution and are denied basic rights, including those of citizenship and freedom of movement. Their plight has drawn condemnation from the international community.

About 120,000 Rohingya live in squalid refugee camps after being displaced by communal violence with Rakhine Buddhists in 2012 that left more than 200 people dead.

The Buddhists and the state’s dominant Arakan National Party (ANP) believe that the three foreign members of the advisory commission will side with the Rohingya and turn the issue into an international one. The commission’s six other members are Myanmar citizens.

Annan, who was heckled by protesters during the commission’s first visit to Rakhine in early September, later told reporters at a press conference in the commercial capital Yangon that the body’s mandate is to provide recommendations to the government on measures for finding solutions to the state’s complex problems in accordance with international standards, and that it will remain “rigorously impartial.”

The commission must submit a report on its findings to the Myanmar government in 12 months.

A previous investigative committee was formed just after the outbreak of communal violence in 2012, but the suggestions it provided in a subsequent report were not implemented.

By Shahamat Hussain

Youth Ki Awaaz

October 1, 2016

It has been almost three years since the Myanmarese settlement took refuge in Hyderabad. They are struggling hard to get jobs, learn the language and to even get food to be alive. The persecution of Rohingya Muslims by Myanmarese Buddhists are known to the world. After the communal violence increased in Myanmar, many Muslims were killed and made to leave the country. They were denied food, medicine, education and other basic amenities. Many Myanmarese Buddhists do not consider them to be citizens of Myanmar. Though they have settled in Myanmar for ages now, they have been separated from their country. Hence, when the violence increased, they had to flee from their own country to various other countries.

A major chunk of people who lost their houses, family members and livelihoods, shifted to different parts of India and other countries. In Hyderabad, they have taken refuge at Barkas, “We left our country for freedom. We were not allowed to practice our religion, pray at the mosque or even educate our children. I am happy that I can practice my religion here in India without the fear of being killed” says Sultan Mohammed, aged 60. He talks firmly and introduces his son who has a disability and half of his existing family; others got killed in the deadly massacre.

The refugee’s settlement is in the outskirts of the old city. They have five camps in Balapur. Two of the camps are rent-free set by locals, whereas others are paid slums in which people live in terrible conditions. “We pay Rs. 1000 per month for this shed. We don’t have proper electricity and water. The water supply comes only for 15 minutes in a day. We only have two toilets which are shared with the entire camp” says Mohammed Noor who represents camp 2, where 45 families reside.

Most of the people who have language barriers are facing difficulties in finding jobs. The men do odd jobs like scrap collection, construction work and security for their day-to-day livelihood. Tufail Ahmed, who looks quite younger than his age (35), says, “Locals do not give us jobs. I work as a construction labourer for about 15 days in a month. Sometimes they pay me less than other labourers or do not pay me at all. I have to accept all their terms and conditions. If I do not accept, how will I buy food for my children?”

Widows are in large numbers across these camps. Some of them have remarried in their own community to start a new life. They are strictly warned by the police not to marry the locals. They only have limited options in their ghetto or they have to lead a lonely and devastating life. “My husband was chopped in Myanmar in front of my eyes. They also cut my daughter’s stomach. She cannot walk straight now and she has lost her voice after the incident. With a lot of difficulties I have reached here and I am struggling to feed my three children,”says Rani Begum with her broken Hindi, while in her arms, all her children play around. She cleans utensils and washes clothes in nearby houses to earn for her family.

The children in the camp go to neighbouring government schools. Most of the families send their children to school and they are adapting to the language spoken here. Sana Khatoon is 10-year-old who studies in Class 2. She has an innocent smile and a strong determination for what she wants to become after growing up, “I want to become a doctor and help all the diseased ones here.”

Rafiq Mohammed, who has a disability caused by the riots back home, faces the physical inability to go out and work. He and his family depend on his younger brother who works as a construction wage earner. “At times when my brother doesn’t get work, we have to beg other people from the community for rice and dal, which is the reason I have given my 4-year-old son to a local family in Sayedabad area who is taking care of him and sending him to school.”

The Hyderabad-based Confederation of Voluntary Organisations (COVA), an NGO at the forefront of Rohingya rehabilitation in Hyderabad says that many asylum seekers have registered with them so far and many more are likely to come. COVA monitors the refugees in getting them the UNHCR card. They also coordinate with the police to give them records about the refugees. The refugee card comes in slots after the interview has been taken and it has a validity of two years. “We are interviewed at the UNHCR office for the refugee card. They cross-examine and question us to check if we actually belong from there” said Mohammed Rafiq.

By Benedict Rogers

The Irrawaddy

October 1, 2016

If all you see of Burma is Aung San Suu Kyi with British Prime Minister Theresa May on the steps of 10 Downing Street, or sitting with President Obama in the White House, or at the United Nations, you might be inclined to think that Burma’s struggle is over and all is well.

But talk to any of the country’s civil society activists or ethnic or religious minorities and you will quickly realize there is still a very, very long way to go.

It is true that the peaceful transition to a government led by State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy, after they overwhelming won the country’s first credible elections in 25 years, is remarkable. But although this civilian, democrat-led government ends decades of direct rule by the military, it in no way ends the military’s power. Under the 2008 Constitution, designed by the military, they control a quarter of the seats in Parliament and three key ministries in government: home affairs, border affairs and defense.

This makes solving Burma’s two biggest challenges—ending decades of civil war and addressing deep-rooted religious intolerance—extremely difficult. Last month the State Counselor convened a major peace conference with representatives of most of the ethnic nationalities, known as a “21st Century Panglong.” Named after the conference held by her father, independence leader Aung San, in Panglong, Shan State, in 1947, it is another attempt to address the political grievances of the country’s diverse ethnic nationalities and begin a process of political dialogue.

The original Panglong conference established a federal system for the country, but the promises made were abandoned after Aung San was assassinated the following year. That principle, of a federal system giving the ethnic nationalities autonomy and equal rights, remains at the heart of the solution to the country’s conflicts.

Yet while the politicians talked peace, in Kachin and Shan states the Burma Army continued to attack civilians, and in recent weeks new reports of violence in Karen State have emerged, despite there being a ceasefire in place since 2012.

On the issue of religious intolerance, which is at its most extreme in Arakan State, where the Muslim Rohingya suffer a campaign of severe persecution from militant Buddhist nationalists and the military, Aung San Suu Kyi has been criticized for her silence. Yet last month she surprised many by establishing a nine-member advisory commission led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, to investigate the causes of the conflict and seek solutions—something several international activists had been calling for. The response from the Arakanese nationalists and those close to the military was one of fury.

One of the consequences of both the ethnic conflict and religious intolerance has been a humanitarian crisis in parts of the country. Over 120,000 Kachin civilians have been displaced by fighting, and over 130,000 Rohingya are living in dire conditions in more than 40 camps in Arakan State. Over recent years, thousands more have fled the country.

The internally displaced people in Burma are in desperate need of humanitarian aid, but are suffering from two problems: firstly, the government restricts humanitarian agencies’ access to parts of the country, and secondly, even in the areas they are able to reach, international agencies are now cutting provisions.

Last week, reports emerged that Burma Army soldiers prevented trucks containing a month’s supply of rice from the World Food Programme (WFP) from reaching a camp in Kachin state, and in the previous month, the military blocked a vehicle carrying medical supplies for four camps, provided by the United Nations.

At the same time, reports have emerged that the WFP is cutting food aid to displaced Rohingya in Arakan State. This is apparently part of a plan to phase-out relief assistance in parts of the state.

Cuts in aid in some areas and blocks on aid access in others combine into a recipe for an already serious humanitarian situation to spiral into a crisis. In July, Yanghee Lee, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma said, after meeting internally displaced peoples, that she had heard of their “daily struggles to survive.” She expressed concern about the “extensive difficulties in accessing and delivering aid,” even though such assistance “provides a lifeline to communities.” In Arakan State, she noted, access can only be approved “through a cumbersome procedure,” and in Kachin State “humanitarian access is shrinking.” The conditions of the internally displaced peoples’ camps she witnessed “remain poor.”

There is a desperate need to begin to address the root causes, which involves ending the conflict, confronting hate speech and working for reconciliation—and, in the case of the Rohingya, restoring their citizenship rights which were stripped from them in 1982. But no one can pretend that it will be easy, particularly given the military’s continuing power.

Yet there is an even more urgent task, which requires the immediate attention of both Aung San Suu Kyi and the international community: stop the block on aid, end the cuts, and ensure that no one starves to death simply on account of their race or religion. It is doubtless that Aung San Suu Kyi has a complex political tightrope to walk, but she is the only person in Burma with the moral and political authority to make this happen; in her government, she is the only decision-maker. She must now lift the aid restrictions and ensure that those displaced receive the aid they need to survive.

Benedict Rogers is a human rights activist specializing in Asia, working for Christian Solidarity Worldwide. He is also the author of Burma: A Nation At The Crossroads, Than Shwe: Unmasking Burma’s Tyrant, and A Land Without Evil: Ending the Genocide of the Karen People.

By Hiroshi Kotani

Nikkei Asian Review

September 30, 2016

PADANG BESAR, Thailand At a hospital near the border between northern Malaysia and southern Thailand, some 800km south of Bangkok, a young Rohingya man strained every muscle in his body just to walk a few gentle steps with the support of a metal walking frame.

Back in May 2015, Zama Ahmad, was bedridden, almost skeletal and barely able to move. When spoken to, he was able to manage little more than a grunt in response as he stared vacantly at the ceiling.

A year on, Zama is almost unrecognizable. When he walks along a hospital hallway, there is a distinct look of hope in his eyes. He can get to the bathroom by himself and has bulked up to 45kg, having once weighed as little as 20kg. Three years have passed since he was brought to the hospital.

"I feel a little better now, but I am still unable to pick up food and move it to my own mouth and brush my own teeth, because I have trouble moving my fingers correctly," Zama said. The mobile phone by his bed is a constant source of encouragement, helping him stay in touch with his mother and wife, who remain in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine.

Zama's story is a typical one. After deadly clashes between the Rohingya and the Buddhist majority erupted in Rakhine in 2012, more than 100,000 Rohingya homes were burned to the ground. Zama turned to human traffickers in order to flee to Malaysia. "The boat was packed with about 1,000 migrants," he said.

His memories of what happened after reaching Thailand are only a faint blur. He was left for dead beside the road in the border town of Padang Besar, where he was mercifully brought to a hospital just in time.

JUNGLE CAMPS The plight of Rohingya fleeing aboard smuggling vessels drew significant international attention in late April 2015, when the authorities in Padang Besar discovered a suspected human trafficking camp in the jungle near the town. Hundreds of people had seemingly been held captive in the camp and a mass grave of 30 bodies, believed to be Rohingya, was unearthed nearby.

Now deserted, the camp was little more than a few shabby huts on a steep slope with garbage strewn around the grounds. The stench was overwhelming, suggesting that far more people had been held there than could possibly have been sanitary.

The Thai authorities acknowledge the existence of a transnational human trafficking network in the region. Many Rohingya are persuaded or coerced into boarding vessels and transported to the port of Ranong on the Andaman Sea coast of southern Thailand. Refugees are then bundled into trucks and delivered to camps in the jungle, where they are held captive. Only those whose relatives agree to pay a ransom, usually of around 40,000 baht ($1,150) to 100,000 baht per person, are allowed to cross into Malaysia. Those unable to pay are forced to remain and endure the brutal conditions in the camp.

NEW LIFE A year ago Zama shared the ward with another Rohingya man in his mid-20s. Sorot Alam, who went by Ahmeen, was hospitalized after being found injured in a jungle migrant camp. He, too, was frighteningly thin.

Back in Rakhine, where he lived with his family of 12, he was asked by an acquaintance of his father to board a smuggler's boat to seek refuge in Malaysia. He eventually agreed and ended up in a jungle camp packed with nearly 500 other refugees, where he spent three and a half months. "Fifty people around me died. Most of them starved to death," he said, lying in bed with his eyes welling up. "In my dreams, my mother often died."

Sorot is no longer at the hospital, having been given the chance to start a new life in the U.S.

He was granted refugee status under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' mandate once restored to health. He left Thailand five months ago and now lives in Washington D.C. His final words to his companion before leaving were: "Take care. Please continue your walking practice." Zama has since found a renewed enthusiasm for his rehabilitation, according to hospital staff.

In a phone conversation from the U.S., Sorot said he had started working at an automobile parts factory two months ago after taking a three-month English course. He earns $1,300 a month, part of which he transfers via Bangladesh to his family in Rakhine.

ENDLESS WAIT Whether Zama will be as lucky remains uncertain. According to Rachakorn Surabhakdi, a field associate at the UNHCR Regional Office in Thailand, a total of 191 Rohingya were resettled in the U.S. between 2013 and the end of May 2016. As of mid-July, 342 Rohingya refugees remained at immigration detention facilities across the country. Having been through so much to get there, they now face the uncertainty of not knowing if or when their detention will end.

Despite the huge risks, the flood of people attempting the perilous journey appears unlikely to subside. Mohammad Saber, chairman of the Rohingya Thailand Group, believes Rohingya will continue to risk their lives at sea to escape the persecution and the humanitarian situation in Myanmar.

Nikkei staff writer Anchalee Romruen contributed to this story.

By Free Malaysia Today

September 27, 2016

As new Malaysian-born generations of Rohingyas arise, they will no longer be just ‘Rohingyas’ or Myanmarese.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is still grappling with the arrival and existence of more than a 150,000 Rohingyas.

And a lack of protection and policy has left Rohingyas in a state of limbo in Malaysia.

But something has to be done sooner rather than later to tackle this issue, according to Asean Today.

This is because Rohingya children are being born in Malaysia to Malaysian-born Rohingya mothers.

“With every new Malaysian-born generation of Rohingyas, it becomes increasingly clear that they are no longer just ‘Rohingyas’ or Myanmarese,” it points out.

An editorial in Asean Today says these second and third generation Malaysian-born Rohingyas are effectively stateless, as they are not eligible for residency or citizenship in Malaysia or Myanmar.

It draws parallels between their plight and that of Palestinians refugees living in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan.

“Today, many third or fourth generation, second-country born Palestinians do not have permanent residency or citizenship in their country of birth, even if the original refugees were in fact economic migrants.”

Therefore, as more and more Rohingyas are born in Malaysia, and the government continues to delay decisive action, citizenship and identity issues will pose additional problems in the future.

One third of the 150,000 refugees registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Malaysia are Rohingyas.

But advocacy groups say the number of registered Rohingyas is only a small portion of the actual number of Rohingyas living in the country.

“If Malaysia is waiting for the UNHCR to find countries accepting of the Rohingyas, they may be waiting a while,” says Asean Today.

It says since Malaysia already uses millions of foreign workers in its construction, manufacturing and domestic services sectors, it should find a way to utilise Rohingyas without encouraging illegal migration

“On multiple occasions, the Malaysian Government has proposed this exact strategy, but plans have never come to fruition. Part of overcoming these challenges will be establishing a system to assess the status of asylum seekers.”

Asean Today says: “Ultimately, this situation is a chance for Malaysia to prove its maturity as a nation and live up to its reputation as a tolerant country. Malaysia is in a prime position to take leadership of this issue and enhance its global credentials.”

By Lawi Weng & Tun Tun

The Irrawaddy

September 27, 2016

RANGOON — A Lower House lawmaker has asked that the government restrict birth rates within the Muslim community in two Arakan State townships: Maungdaw and Buthidaung—a move that was rejected by the Union health minister and described as “disturbing” by an international rights group.

Aung Taung Shwe of the Arakan National Party (ANP), representing Buthidaung Township, brought up the topic in Parliament on Sept. 22. Citing statistics on population—which The Irrawaddy could not verify—he suggested that Muslim Rohingya were having proportionally more children than the Buddhist Arakanese in these two townships.

“We need to restrict the birthrate in these areas. These are appropriate areas in which to enforce the law,” he said, referring to the highly controversial “Protection of Race and Religion” laws, put forward by ultranationalist Buddhist organization Ma Ba Tha and passed in 2015 under ex-President Thein Sein’s government.

One statute, the Population Control Law, says that state or regional governments can ask that the government “organize” women to space births 36 months apart, a law that critics say could be used against Burma’s Muslim population, who, according to the 2014 census, make up just 4.3 percent of the country.

“The authorities did not carry out their duties based on the law, and the population of the people has increased greatly,” Aung Taung Shwe alleged.

Union Minister for Health and Sport Dr. Myint Htwe called the ANP lawmaker’s suggestion a violation of “medical ethics” to sterilize women against their will. His ministry, he added, could not take action to restrict birth rates without an order from the President and the Union government.

David Scott Mathieson, a senior researcher on Burma in the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch, told The Irrawaddy that Aung Taung Shwe’s idea was “disturbing” and that there was “no evidence” of a rise in birth rates of the Rohingya Muslims. A call to reduce their population, he pointed out, was “tantamount to racial culling.”

Arakan State’s Rohingya community, who are locally labeled as “Bengali,” a term which implies that they are interlopers from Bangladesh, are widely stateless and face restrictions on their freedom of movement, access to medical care and education.

Mathieson added that the Population Control Law should be immediately repealed by the National League for Democracy-led (NLD) government. Furthermore, the NLD should respond by “stand[ing] firm” against racism and “commit to providing healthcare for all people living in these townships, based on real needs, not religion or citizenship.”

This, Mathieson said, would be “the best way to silence the voices of xenophobia.”

For Immediate Release 

27 September 2016 

BURMA: CSW URGES RAKHINE STATE GOVERNMENT TO HALT PLANS TO DEMOLISH ROHINGYA MOSQUES

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) today calls on the Rakhine (Arakhan) State Government, Burma, to halt plans to demolish more than 3,000 buildings associated with the Rohingya population on the pretext that they have been built illegally. This includes 12 mosques and 35 madrasas in the Muslim-majority townships of Maungdaw and Buthidaung.

The demolition order was announced on 18 September by Rakhine State’s Security and Border Affairs Minister, Colonel Htein Lin, and later confirmed by Maungdaw District General Administrator U Ye Htut. The Myanmar Times reports that at a press conference on 24 September, Colonel Htein Lin said that buildings in Maungdaw will be the first in Rakhine State to be examined for their legality and that no demolitions have started yet.

In a joint statement on 23 September, local and international Rohingya Muslim groups stated that the plans have “caused consternation to the entire Rohingya community,” adding that “this demolition project is part of their [Rakhine State Government’s] long-drawn-out annihilation and ethnic cleansing policy of the defenceless Rohingya people.”

The statement calls for a halt to the demolition plans, for the protection of religious sites and for the right to freedom of religion or belief to be upheld. Other calls include for basic freedoms to be restored to the Rohingya Muslim community in Rakhine State, the lifting of aid restrictions and the restoration of internally displaced persons to their homes and properties.

The Rohingya in Burma were stripped of their right to vote in Burma’s 2015 election, excluded from the most recent national census, and continue to be denied their legal right to citizenship. In a statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council in May 2016, CSW urged the government of Burma to repeal the 1982 Citizenship Law and guarantee the right to freedom of religion or belief for all.

Recent years have seen a dramatic escalation of human rights abuses, repression, discrimination and violence against the Rohingya. An estimated 150,000 people have been displaced and are living in camps which have been described by senior United Nations officials as having some of the worst conditions in the world. Over 100,000 Rohingya, more than ten percent of the population, have fled the country in the face of increasing repression, of whom thousands are believed to have drowned fleeing by boat.

CSW’s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said, “We are deeply concerned by the proposal to destroy mosques and madrasas in Rakhine State and urge the government of Burma to desist from any such action. Destroying these buildings would only further stoke tensions in the country and fuel the persecution of an already severely marginalised and dehumanised people group. We call on the government of Burma to uphold and protect freedom of religion or belief for all. We also urge the government to lift the block on humanitarian aid access to parts of Rakhine state, as well as Kachin and northern Shan States, and to ensure that all those displaced by conflict receive the humanitarian aid they urgently need. For that reason, we have launched a new phase of our Real Change for Refugees campaign – Real Change Burma.”

For further information or to arrange interviews please contact Kiri Kankhwende, Senior Press Officer at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on +44 (0)20 8329 0045 / +44 (0) 78 2332 9663, email kiri@csw.org.uk or visit www.csw.org.uk. 

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is a Christian organisation working for religious freedom through advocacy and human rights, in the pursuit of justice.