By Fiona MacGregor

The Myanmar Times

October 27, 2016

By Farukh

France 24 Observers

October 24, 2016

Thousands of civilians from the Muslim Rohingya minority group have been displaced during “security sweeps” carried out by the Burmese army and security forces to find the perpetrators of recent attacks on local police. Rohingya activists accuse the security forces of carrying out extensive abuses. Our Observer tells us how he fled his village under threat of death. 

On October 9, 2016, dozens of armed men attacked three police outposts in Maungdaw township in Rakhine, a volatile state on the western side of Burma that borders Bangladesh. Nine police officers were killed and the attackers managed to seize a number of weapons. The Burmese President’s Office blamed a previously unknown Rohingya group called Aqa Lul Mujahidin. This new group is reported to have links to the Organization for Rohingya Security, an armed group which was active in the 1990’s but has faded from view in the past few years. Other officials, however, have said that the government is still uncertain about the identity of the armed men. 

In the wake of the attacks, security forces locked down the historically volatile state and launched a sweep to find the perpetrators. The security forces have denied both journalists and humanitarian groups access to what they are calling an “operation zone”. 

Rohingya activists, however, accuse the security forces of targeting their community and committing rampant abuses, including burning and looting of villages, rape and summary executions. 

Though lack of access prevents an accurate account, an estimated 18,000 people are thought to have been displaced by the security operation, according to Human Rights Watch. An estimated 15,000 are Rohingya. Several amateur videos posted online showed their flight. 

A long history of persecution in Buddhist-majority Burma has left this Muslim minority community vulnerable. Technically, the Rohingya remain stateless due to a 1982 law denying them Burmese citizenship. Hundreds were killed and thousands left homeless in Rakhine state during ethnic and religious violence between Rohingya and the Rakhine Buddhist majority in 2012. Others fled the country. 

“All of the homes were looted, including mine”

Farukh, age 23, is a Rohingya Muslim from Kyee Kan Pyin village, in northern Maungdaw. On October 23, he says border guard officers uprooted his entire community. 

Burmese authorities accuse us of attacking security forces, but we don’t know anything. On Oct. 23, the police major called two regional MVs [Editor’s note: Farukh is referring to elders and religious leaders in the Rohingya community]. He told them that all the Rohingya had to leave the east hamlet by 6pm; if not, we would be shot [Editor’s note: Other sources reported that the “middle hamlet” was targeted, not the “east”]. 

We left our homes and fled to other villages around Maungdaw [Editor’s note: the largest city in the township]. We had to go by foot. I was with my mother, my three sisters and my three teenage nephews. 

Our entire community of more than 2,000 people was displaced. We later found out that more than 40 homes in our village were burned to the ground by the army, police and locals who are ethnically Rakhine. All of the homes were looted, including mine. 

Now, my family and I are staying in a tent in a neighbouring village. Many of us are camping in [rice] fields and we are finding it very hard. We don’t have food and we are frightened of more threats. We need emergency help, but no one is helping us.

Human Rights Watch called on Burmese authorities to allow aid deliveries to reach Rohingyas like Farukh who have been displaced from the violence. 

The World Food Programme said that up to 50,000 may be trapped without food aid in Maungdaw. 

On Wednesday, the Myanmar Times quoted officials who said that displaced Muslim residents were already returning home. However, this contrasts starkly with the account of Farukh as well as various human rights groups and Rohingya activists. 

Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi has called for proper investigations to be carried out and for no one to be accused for the attacks on police until solid evidence is obtained. UN human rights experts have applauded this statement, but called for a probe into allegations of abuses against Rohingya civilians.

RB News

Dr. Habib Siddiqui

RB Opinion

October 25, 2016

Myanmar’s government said that the October 9 raids were conducted by the Aqamul Mujahidin organization, which it described as being affiliated with an extremist group. On the other hand, a previously unknown group - Faith Movement - has released a press statement on October 15 in which it claimed itself as the sons of Arakan soil who were compelled by the dire situation that they faced to make their own destiny through uprising, self-determination in self-defense. “We stand as an independent body which is free from all elements of terror in any nature,” the press release stated “that seeks fundamental but legitimate rights and justice for all ARAKANESE including our innocent Rohingyas and OTHER civilians dying from the continuous military assaults.” 

An outcome like this was only waiting to happen given that history has repeatedly shown that such prolonged encampment in IDP concentration camps create a sense of ultimate abandonment by the state, pushing even the most moderates to take violent means to redress their plight. The initial attacks, in which three border police outposts were overrun by hundreds of people, most only lightly armed, showed a degree of sophistication not seen before in violence involving the Rohingya, but did not suggest the group was especially well-funded or armed, diplomats said. 

Myanmar’s military (Tatmadaw) has since been deployed in the Rohingya populated northern part of Arakan (Rakhine) state. And what we are witnessing there is simply shocking. War crimes are perpetrated. Under the pretext of finding the Rohingya perpetrators, the Tatmadaw has been doing what it has always done – using its criminal scorched-earth tactics. As a result, since the Oct. 9 attacks, at least 133 unarmed Rohingyas (mostly children and women) have been killed, or have died in custody. Over a hundred Rohingyas have been detained, several villages and more than a thousand homes and several mosques have been burned by the security forces forcing an internal displacement of at least 15,000 people, who are even denied humanitarian aid. Many of the local elders and Imams have also been killed extra-judicially after they were asked to report the local military camp. 

Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, a monitoring group, said the army was using "typical counter-insurgency measures against civilians", including "shooting civilians on sight, burning homes, looting property and arbitrary arrests".

Foreign reporters have not been allowed into the area the military has declared an "operation zone", but Reuters was able to contact some residents and community leaders by telephone. The people, who did not want to be identified, contradicted several of the reports in state media, saying that the death toll in the area was higher than reported and that a number of those killed were unarmed. In one of the disputed accounts, the state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper said 30 Muslims attacked government forces on Oct. 11 near Kyetyoepyin village, and that 10 Rohingyas were killed in the subsequent fighting. After the clash, the insurgents fled, setting fire to homes, the report said. But several Rohingya residents from the area said they believed at least 19 people, including eight women, were killed by security forces that day. They also say it was the soldiers who set a large part of the village on fire.

The United Nations has said the violence is preventing aid agencies from delivering food and medicines to the region. 

Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned in a statement Friday that as troops poured into the region and authorities blocked off the delivery of humanitarian aid to Maungdaw, aid agencies have not been able to conduct a needs assessment. The statement quoted a World Food Program (WFP) partnerships officer as saying they had requested access “from township level to Union level”. WFP told HRW that 50,000 people remain without food aid in Maungdaw. 

Brad Adams, the group’s Asia director, said the recent violence “has led the army to deny access to aid agencies that provide essential health care and food to people at grave risk”. “The Rohingya and others have been especially vulnerable since the ethnic cleansing campaign in 2012, and many rely on humanitarian aid to survive,” he added.

Rohingya advocacy groups have expressed concerns over what they claim is a continued crackdown in the area, with global groups releasing a statement Sunday claiming security forces have been indiscriminately killing Rohingya and torching and plundering their homes and villages, under the pretext of looking for the attackers.

This latest ethnic cleansing drives against the Rohingya are simply sickening in a country that is led by someone like Suu Kyi who was honored with a Nobel Prize for peace. What a joke this award is becoming! Apparently, she has failed to learn lessons from history, esp. why her wise father Aung San had organized the Panglong Conference in the pre-independence days.

Suu Kyi should have known better than most Burmese that such military excesses only weaken the very foundation of an artificial geographic entity like Burma (and today’s Myanmar) that comprises peoples of many nationalities, races, ethnicities and religions. Since the time of Pagan King Anawrahta (11th century, CE), her country has been kept together by strong arms tactics of feudal kings, the British Raj and the military governments that ruled. ‘Divide and rule’ and fear-mongering against a perceived foe became prudent methods to administer this diverse country. But such tactics failed to create nationhood. There was never a sense of belonging except for the dominant group. 

This much-needed task for forging national unity was taken up by visionaries like Aung San (who represented the Interim Burmese government), Sao Shwe Thaik (Shan leader) and others (including U Razak of AFPFL, a Muslim) in the late 1940s. That was the background for the Panglong Conference, which was held in Southern Shan state on February 1947. However, the spirit of Panglong Agreement that was reached between Aung San and other ethnic and community leaders in an attempt to unite everyone - irrespective of race, ethnicity and religion, Buddhists and non-Buddhists - for a common goal of independence was dead following Aung San's assassination (along with U Razak who was Education and National Planning Minister in Aung San's cabinet, and six other cabinet ministers) on July 19, 1947, less than six months before Union of Burma was to emerge as an independent state in the global arena. It should be noted that the Agreement, amongst other provisions, accepted full autonomy in internal administration for the “Frontier Areas" (bordering British India, Thailand, Laos, China) in principle and envisioned the creation of a Kachin State by the Constituent Assembly.

The founding fathers of Burma were very serious to foster unity in their future state. Thus, in 1946 General Aung San assured full rights and privileges to Rohingya/Arakanese Muslims as an indigenous people, saying: “I give (offer) you a blank cheque. We will live together and die together. Demand what you want. I will do my best to fulfill them. If native people are divided, it will be difficult to achieve independence for Burma.”

The First President, Sao Shwe Thaik, who was the last Saopha of Yawnghwe, famously said, “If the Rohingyas are not indigenous, nor am I.” 

After Myanmar gained independence on January 4, 1948, communists and ethnic/national/religious minorities in the country began a series of insurgencies displaying their grave discontent towards the newly formed post-independence government as they believed that the Panglong Agreement was not honored and that they were being unfairly excluded from governing the country. Their overwhelming perception was that the new government was a state for, by and of the majority Bamar and Buddhists only, and not for other minorities. 

Sao Shwe Thaik who had led and organized the Panglong conference became the first president of the Union of Burma. His public speech on 4 January 1949 at a mass rally held outside City Hall to mark the first anniversary of Independence Day captures the troubled mood of the state: “Cooperation and understanding cannot come about so long as the element of violence or threat of violence exists, for violence has no counterpart in freedom, and liberty ends where violence begins.”

There were also widespread practice of discrimination against anyone who was not a Buddhist. For example, it was noted that many Christian Karen and Muslim and Sikh military officials, who were originally appointed by the British, were replaced with Buddhist Bamars by the new parliament. The situation was much worse for Muslims everywhere - from Arakan to Rangoon. As a result of serious discrimination, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs lost their jobs in every government sector – civilian, police and military. Many lost their businesses, too, and were looked down upon as either British-era migrants or their children thereof. Loss for them was craved as a net gain for the majority Buddhist. Steadily, intolerance of the minority became the law of the land. 

The occupation of Burma by Japan during the early years of the World War II, when Rakhine Buddhists had allied themselves with the occupying fascist Japanese forces while the Arakanese Muslims collaborated with the British Raj to defeat Japan, had already poisoned the relationship between these two dominant groups in Arakan. After Burma earned its independence, many Rakhine Buddhists took advantage of the emerging situation to ethnically cleanse Muslims from many parts of Arakan, esp. the southern part of the state. This led to the ghettoization of Muslims in towns and villages bordering today’s Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan). 

It is not difficult to understand why almost every racial/religious entity, including the Mujahedeen (made up of Arakanese/Rohingya Muslims), outside the majority Bamar/Buddhist race/religion rebelled in the early years. Being betrayed by the British Raj, in spite of their valuable services rendered during and after the WWII, it was no brainer that some Arakanese Muslims had felt that they had to protect themselves against marauding Buddhist incursions into their northern Mayu Frontier Territories. Muslim rebellion against the central government ultimately stopped when promises for their wider acceptance were made by government officials. Even then the persecution of the Rohingya and other Muslims continued.

According to the Pakistan Times (August 26, 1959), some 10,000 refugees had by then taken shelter in East Pakistan. In 1959, Burma agreed with East Pakistan governor Zakir Hossain to take back Rohingya refugees who had taken shelter in Chittagong in 1958. When questioned ‘why refugees were pouring into Pakistan from Burma, the governor replied that the government of Burma had nothing to do with it. Actually the Moghs [ie, Buddhist Rakhines] of Arakan were creating the trouble.’ (Pakistan Times, August 27, 1959) Governor Zakir Hossain’s reply once again underscored the deep hostility of the racist Rakhines against the minority Rohingyas. On October 27, 1960, the Daily Guardian, Rangoon, reported that Burmese ‘Supreme Court quashes expulsion orders against Arakanese Muslims,’ which once again shows that the Arakanese [Rohingya] Muslims faced much problems in their reintegration. 

Armed resistance by various ethnic and religious minorities and communists became the new norms and not the exceptions, which continued for more than a decade until the military was able to crush such through its savage scorched-earth tactics. Even then armed struggle is a reality in many parts of Myanmar to this very day.

The two largest insurgent factions in Myanmar were the communists, led by the Communist Party of Burma (CPB), and ethnic Karen insurgents, led by the Karen National Union (KNU). The KNU favored an independent state, forged out of Karen State (Kayin State) and Karenni State (Kayah State), in Outer Myanmar (Lower Burma), administered solely by the Karen people.

Even the Rakhine Buddhist separatists were not behind in such insurgency movements, nor were the Chins. Rakhine insurgent groups, such as the Arakan Army (AA) and Arakan Liberation Army (ALA) continue to have hostilities towards the government, though major violence has been rare since political reforms and peace talks. The AA, founded in 2009, is currently the largest insurgent group in Rakhine State, with an estimated 1,500–2,500 fighters active in the region. Its goal is an independent Rakhine state. 

In the early 1960s, the Burmese government refused to adopt a federal system, to the dismay of insurgent groups such as the CPB, who proposed adopting the system during peace talks. By the early 1980s, politically motivated armed insurgencies (like the communist) had largely disappeared, while ethnic-based insurgencies continued.

The Panglong Agreement of 1947 offered the Shan the option to split from Myanmar a decade after independence if they were unsatisfied with the central government. This was, however, not honored following Aung San's assassination. Instead, what they got are – severe mistreatment, torture, robbery, rape, unlawful arrest, and massacre. As a result, an armed resistance movement, led by Sao Noi and Saw Yanna, was launched in May of 1958 in the Shan State. One of the largest Shan insurgent groups in Myanmar is the Shan State Army - South (SSA-S), which has some 6,000 to 8,000 soldiers, with its bases along the Myanmar-Thailand border.

In October 2012, the ongoing conflicts in Myanmar included the Kachin conflict, between the Christian Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the government; a series of genocidal pogroms directed against the Rohingya Muslims that were participated by Rakhine Buddhists, and aided by the government and non-government groups in Rakhine State, including the Buddhist clergy; and a conflict between the Shan, Lahu, and Karen minority groups, and the government in the eastern half of the country. Armed conflict between ethnic Chinese rebels and the Myanmar Armed Forces have resulted in the Kokang offensive in February 2015. The conflict had forced 40,000 to 50,000 civilians to flee their homes and seek shelter on the Chinese side of the border.

In 2012 alone, fighting between the KIA and the government resulted in around 2,500 casualties (both civilian and military); 211 of whom were government soldiers. The violence resulted in the displacement of nearly 100,000 civilians, and the complete or partial abandonment of 364 villages.

Several insurgent groups have negotiated ceasefires and peace agreements with successive governments, which until political reforms that begun in 2011 and ended in 2015, had largely fallen apart. That reality marshaled in the Second Panglong-type conference held in Naypyidaw this August to end the decades-long insurgencies in many of the ethnic areas. 

As can be seen from the brief review above, civil/genocidal wars have been a constant feature of Myanmar's socio-political landscape since her independence as Union of Burma in 1948. These wars are predominantly struggles for ethnic and sub-national autonomy, with the areas surrounding the ethnically Bamar central districts of the country serving as the primary geographical setting of conflict. 

The Rohingya and other Muslims inside Myanmar had been in the receiving end of annihilation. They have faced dozens of extermination campaigns since 1942. Denied each of the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, truly, the Rohingyas of Myanmar remain the most persecuted people in our planet. And yet, until this latest episode of attacks by some disgruntled Rohingya youths for daily dehumanization that their family members face, they have been the most unarmed, passive and peaceful of all the communities that make up the fractured mosaic of Myanmar. This, in spite of the fact, more than 1 in 2 Rohingyas now live a life of a refugee outside Myanmar. 

In the last few years alone, they have seen only death and destruction of their folks; desperation has set in, and many have fled the country, while some 150,000 remain internally displaced with no shelters except concentration camps within the Arakan state. Their ID cards were confiscated and they were denied the right to vote; their political parties banned; and not a single Muslim candidate was allowed to contest in the election. Suu Kyi has come to power and refuses to identify them as ‘Rohingya’. She even did not invite them into the peace/unity conference in Naypyidaw. In spite of mounting international pressure, the Rohingya continue to be denied the basic rights and means of livelihood; their women continue to be raped by Tatmadaw as weapons of war to bring collective shame upon them and force them out of their ancestral homeland. [As I write, many Rohingya women (ten of which alone are from Anauk Kwin hamlet of U Shin Gya village tract) continue to be gang raped by the Tatmadaw in its latest ethnic cleansing drives.] 

The new pogrom inside the Rohingya populated territories of northern Arakan state once again underlines the power the army retains in Myanmar, which is guilty of committing war crimes against an unarmed civilian population. Such brutality against the Rohingya Muslims also unmasks the Buddhist government’s double-standards when dealing with non-Buddhists. Army generals continue to run the home ministry, which inflicts the worst form of collective punishment against the Muslims (but not against the Buddhist rebels). This is quite evident when the Rakhine Buddhist extremists of the Arakan Army attacked the military, which it has done 15 times since 28 December, 2015, in which several soldiers got killed, interestingly no such scorched-earth and combing operation to flush them out was undertaken by the military. 

Suu Kyi can start the process of reintegration of the Rohingya, by following the footsteps of her wise father. She can immediately withdraw the military from Rohingya towns and villages where they are committing war crimes. She can restore the citizenship rights of the Rohingya on the basis of the First Schedule to the Burma Independence Act 1947. That Act clearly stated that the Rohingya and all other Muslims who were British subjects - who were born in Burma or whose father or paternal grandfather was born in Burma - were considered citizens of the Union of Burma. Under Annex A of the Aung San-Attlee Agreement, 27 January, 1947, Rohingyas were citizens of the Union of Burma: “A Burma National is defined for the purposes of eligibility to vote and to stand as a candidate of the forthcoming elections as a British subject or the subject of an Indian State who was born in Burma and resided there for a total period of not less than eight years in the ten years immediately preceding either 1st January, 1942 or 1st January, 1947.” 

The Nu-Attlee Agreement (1947), signed between Prime Minister U Nu (Burma) and Prime Minister Clement Attlee (Great Britain) on Oct. 17, 1947 on transferring power to Burma was very important as to the determination of the citizenship status of the peoples and races in Burma. Article 3 of the Agreement states: “Any person who at the date of the coming into force of the present Treaty is, by virtue of the Constitution of the Union of Burma, a citizen thereof and who is, or by virtue of a subsequent election is deemed to be, also a British subject, may make a declaration of alienage in the manner prescribed by the law of the Union, and thereupon shall cease to be a citizen of the Union.” 

Human rights group, including the Faith Movement, have called for: restoration of human rights including citizenship rights for their Rohingya people; immediate relocation of the Rohingyas from the IDP camps back to their places of origin (before the genocidal campaigns ensued in 2012), return of their confiscated assets, repeal of the 1982 Citizenship Law so that they can be treated as equals in Myanmar, compensation to IDP detainees towards rebuilding their burnt/destroyed homes and places of worship, a cessation of military offensives against all ethnic groups of Myanmar, and prevention of all kinds of religious persecution including hate speeches by Buddhist extremists. They have also demanded international investigation and intervention to stop Rohingya Genocide, and have sought their protection.

So, if Suu Kyi’s government is serious about bringing peace in Arakan, it should seriously fulfil such legitimate demands for the greater good of all. After all, in all fairness, none of these demands is irrational and within the capacity of the Myanmar government to implement. If she continues to overlook such demands and follows the dictates of her savage Tatmadaw that has been committing war crimes in its conflicts against the ethnic minorities, I am afraid, it won’t be too long that Myanmar would divide into many states, and that many of the top generals and ministers could be charged with committing crimes against humanity in the International Criminal Court. The international community may also find it necessary to demand that the Mayu Frontier Territories (in northern Arakan) be declared a ‘safe’ territory for the persecuted Rohingyas of Myanmar so that they could live there with honor, dignity, safety and security. 

Let Suu Kyi do the math and figure out what is better for her fractured and artificial country. The sooner the better!

By Simon Lewis

Reuters

October 25, 2016

YANGON -- U.N. human rights experts have called on Myanmar to investigate allegations that security forces have killed unarmed civilians, burned villages and made arbitrary arrests in a Muslim-majority region where a crackdown has followed attacks on border police.

Aid agencies say up to 15,000 people, believed to be mostly Rohingya Muslims, have been displaced since armed men launched coordinated attacks on three posts along the northwestern border with Bangladesh on Oct. 9.

The government, which is led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, has characterised the response of security forces as a carefully targeted sweep of northern Rakhine State's Maungdaw Township in search of the perpetrators. 

Officials say security forces have killed 30 "attackers" and detained 53 suspects while searching for 400 suspected Rohingya militants, who seized dozens of weapons from border police.

Rights group and sources from the mostly stateless Rohingya group have told Reuters that civilians are bearing the brunt of the military-led operation. They say the death toll from the violence is higher than reported.

The U.N. envoy on human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, said she had received "repeated allegations of arbitrary arrests as well as extrajudicial killings occurring within the context of the security operations conducted by the authorities in search of the alleged attackers."

“What troubles me most is the lack of access for a proper assessment of the true picture of the situation there at the present moment," Lee said in a statement from Geneva on Monday. 

"The blanket security operations have restricted access for humanitarian actors with concerning consequences for communities' ability to secure food and conduct livelihood activities," Lee added.

The United Nation's special envoys on summary executions, internally displaced persons, and torture also joined Lee's call for "proper and thorough investigations of alleged violations."

Rohingya community leaders and local residents told Reuters on Monday that hundreds of people had been hiding out in rice paddies near their village since soldiers allegedly ordered about 2,000 people to leave their homes on Sunday.

According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), aid agencies still have no access to the 10,000 to 15,000 people thought to have been displaced from their villages by the latest violence in Rakhine State.

An additional 3,000 people from the ethnic Rakhine Buddhist community have fled to monasteries, schools and camps, the agency said in an update Monday.

Food aid is not reaching 50,000 "food-insecure people" and 65,000 school children in Maungdaw Township who normally receive World Food Programme assistance, said UNOCHA.

UN experts urge Myanmar to address serious violations of human rights in northern Rakhine State

GENEVA (24 October 2016) – A group of United Nations human rights experts today urged the Government of Myanmar to address the growing reports of human rights violations in northern Rakhine State following the attacks on 9 October 2016 by armed individuals against three Border Guard Police posts in Maungdaw and Rathedaung townships, and subsequent security operations in search of suspected attackers.

“In the aftermath of the attacks, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi has rightly called for proper investigations to be conducted and for no one to be accused until solid evidence is obtained,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee. “Instead, we receive repeated allegations of arbitrary arrests as well as extrajudicial killings occurring within the context of the security operations conducted by the authorities in search of the alleged attackers.”

“What troubles me most is the lack of access for a proper assessment of the true picture of the situation there at the present moment. The blanket security operations have restricted access for humanitarian actors with concerning consequences for communities’ ability to secure food and conduct livelihood activities,” the expert emphasised.

Regarding allegations of summary executions of civilians, including of children, during the searches and raids conducted as part of the police and military forces’ security operations, the UN Special Rapporteur on summary executions, Agnes Callamard, reminded the Government of its obligations. 

“While the State has the legitimate authority and power to carry out operations to pursue the alleged perpetrators of the 9 October attacks, such crimes should be investigated and prosecuted in a court of law and not dealt with violence,” Ms. Callamard said.

“Reports of homes and mosques being burnt down and persons of a certain profile being rounded up and shot are alarming and unacceptable,” she stated. “The authorities cannot justify simply shooting suspects down on the basis of the seriousness of the crime alone. The authorities have the duty to take concrete measures to prevent extrajudicial killings in the country, not to perpetuate them.”

Ms. Callamard further recalled “the duty to conduct thorough and impartial investigations of all suspected cases of extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions, including those reportedly carried out by state agents.”

The UN Special Rapporteur on internally displaced persons, Chaloka Beyani, also expressed serious concerns about the displacement of large populations from affected areas as a result of the security operations. “The authorities must allow access for humanitarian actors to be able to undertake a needs assessment and continue delivering assistance and aid, as well as ensure that the protection, needs and wellbeing of affected populations are urgently and properly addressed,” Mr. Beyani said.

“All internally displaced persons have the right to an adequate standard of living, including access to food and potable water, basic shelter and housing, and essential medical services and sanitation, without discrimination,” the expert stressed.

The UN experts concluded by urging the Government to undertake proper and thorough investigations of alleged violations as well as implement concerted efforts to fight and prevent acts of incitement to discrimination, hostility and violence against minorities, while still upholding internationally recognised human rights standards.

The experts’ call has also been endorsed by the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez.

The UN Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights, is the general name of the independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms of the Human Rights Council that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

Original here.

Credible Reports of Burmese Soldiers Gang Raping Rohingya Women In Maungdaw

25 October 2016

London, United Kingdom

The Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN) is extremely concerned as reports are emerging of Burmese soldiers raping Rohingya women in Maungdaw as part of a crackdown on the city in response to an attack on the border police earlier in the month. At least ten cases of rape against Rohingya women have been documented by civilians in Maungdaw since the army entered the city. These reports, while difficult to independently verify, contain strong evidence and beg for further investigation. The BHRN was able to interview one woman who claims to have been beaten and gang raped by two Burmese soldiers while she was 3 months pregnant on the 11th of October. The rape and assault resulted in miscarriage, which was reported by a doctor who examined her inside Bangladesh, where she managed to flee when BHRN interviewed her.

“The Burmese government was the 150th country to sign the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, but has failed to even attempt to fulfil this agreement. This issue is not new to Myanmar, and yet it has never been adequately addressed. The Burmese government is deliberately violating international law and committing crimes that it promised the world they would refrain from,” explained Kyaw Win of BHRN.

The woman, whose identity is being withheld, stated that she was in her village in Maungdaw on the 11th of October when 30-40 soldiers entered. The name of her village is also being withheld to avoid making her identifiable. Her husband, along with the other men in the village had fled at this time, reportedly fearing mass arrests and torture of soldier-aged males by the Burmese police and military. She said that two of the soldiers entered her house and became aggressive towards her. She asked them to leave and they beat her with sticks and also punched and kicked her. As the soldiers made clear they intended to rape her she begged them to stop and informed them that she was three months pregnant. She said the soldiers then raped her brutally and left. A few days later a rumor spread that the army would be returning to the village and she fled along with a small group of Rohingya civilians to Bangladesh. She has since been taken in by locals in an undisclosed location and a doctor has examined her, corroborating that she had been raped, beaten, and that these events resulted in miscarriage.

In light of this evidence it appears the Burmese army is in violation of UN Security Council resolution 1820, regarding the protection of women and girls in conflict zones. Reports indicate that the Burmese army is giving impunity to soldiers who are committing sexual assault and raping women. The use of rape in war is considered a Crime Against Humanity and in clear violation of Rome Statute Article 7(1), The Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Article 3, and The Law on the Establishment of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), Article 5. As these reports emerge it is imperative that the international community take them seriously and seek to investigate them as such.

As the crackdown and military presence in Maungdaw continues the BHRN is concerned that reports like this will continue to surface unless the matter is properly addressed by the Burmese Government and Military from the top down.

The BHRN calls upon the Myanmar Government to investigate all claims of sexual assault, torture, and rape by Burmese soldiers and hold all responsible parties accountable. The BHRN also calls on the Burmese Government and military to allow all aid into Maungdaw, as well as access to journalists and NGOs, so that unnecessary suffering can be ended and all future events can be monitored transparently. The use of sexual abuse and rape as a weapon in times of war and conflict has been an unfortunately common occurrence in Myanmar, and without being properly addressed it will only continue – horrifically damaging the lives of innocent women and men who are victims of rape and sexual assault and drawing concerns about the credibility of human rights reform within Myanmar.

Notes for Editors

Background on current situation:

On October 9th three Border Guard Police posts near the Myanmar-Bangladesh border were overrun by a group of militants believed to be ethnic Rohingya, a marginalized Muslim ethnic group in western Myanmar. Nine police officers were killed in the attack. In response the Military moved to Maungdaw, the city where the first attacks took place. The subsequent crackdown on the city has been especially harsh, with accusations that non-militants have been extra-judicially assassinated. At the same time, large sweeping arrests have occurred with some Rohingya men dying in custody under suspicious circumstances. The Burmese army has often been accused of using rape as a weapon in conflict elsewhere in the country where they are engaged in combat with ethnic rebel groups.

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.

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Screenshot from the video sent by the villager of Pan Myaing hamlet

By Editors

Carbonated.tv

October 24, 2016

The complicity of security forces could embolden Buddhist extremists and bolster the anti-Rohingya Muslim campaign, thereby causing state-sanctioned bloodshed.

Around 80,000 Rohingya Muslims in northwestern Myanmar cannot receive humanitarian aid by the U.N.’s World Food Program due to a severe military clampdown.

However, disruption of food aid is just one of the many grave abuses, including extra-judicial killings and rape, being carried out against the embattled ethnic community in the Southeast Asian nation.

The situation for the Rohingya people went from bad to worse after nine Burmese police officers were killed on Oct. 9 in three separate attacks, targeting border guard outposts in the Rakhine (aka Arakan) state, near the Myanmar-Bangladesh border.

The attacks, according to Myanmar’s Ministry of Information, were carried out by Aqa Mul Mujahidin, a militant group purportedly trained by Taliban in Pakistan.

While the Burmese government declared Aqa Mul Mujahidin, a non-local group, the mastermind behind the Oct. 9 events, it also accused members of the local community of aiding them, without providing concrete evidence, whatsoever. (FYI: Rakhine is home to about 1.1 million members of the mostly Muslim Rohingya.)

Even more puzzling is the fact that the government named the Rohingya Solidarity Organization complicit in the attacks. But the said militant group is believed to have been operationally defunct for years, maybe even decades.

Despite the lack of sufficient proof against possible Rohingya involvement, Myanmar’s military launched an operation, indiscriminately targeting the Rohingya community.

As per the latest numbers reported by independent news organizations, the army has killed at least 100 Rohingya civilians, including men, women and children, in just two weeks — again, all based on mere speculation.

Meanwhile, state media figures differ greatly, stating “no more than 33 people” have been killed at the hands of security forces during the crackdown.

The Rohingya people claim the military is using the border attacks as an excuse to further persecute the already-beleaguered, stateless community.

Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, a human rights group based in Asia, said the army is implementing "typical counter-insurgency measures against civilians,” such as "shooting civilians on sight, burning homes, looting property and arbitrary arrests.”

So far, the Rohingya in Myanmar were largely under attack from extremist Buddhists as well as the government’s deafening silence. However, the purported involvement of the country’s security forces signals an even worse time for a community that’s been persecuted for decades.

It’s not like the Myanmar military’s role in repressing the Rohingya people is totally unheard of. In 2014, the Women’s League of Burma alleged Burmese soldiers were raping Rohingya women to “demoralize and destroy the fabric of ethnic [minority] communities.”

Still, the security forces partaking in hostilities against the Rohingya could embolden Buddhist extremists and bolster their hate campaign, thereby causing state-sanctioned bloodshed.

The latest bout of unrest comes only a month after Myanmar’s de facto leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi oversaw a special nine-member panel to address the Rohingya crisis.

It was a small but much-needed step taken by any Burmese administration in years to find a solution to resolve the conflict between the Buddhist majority and the Muslim minority group.

However, considering the violent and extra-judicial force the military is using against the Rohingya people, it is difficult to believe a resolution is possible anytime soon.

By Wa Lone 

Reuters

October 24, 2016

YANGON -- Hundreds of Myanmar's Rohingya villagers are facing a second night hiding in rice fields without shelter, after the army on Sunday forcibly removed them from a village in a crackdown following attacks on border security forces.

Four Rohingya sources contacted by Reuters by telephone, said border guard officers went to Kyee Kan Pyin village on Sunday and ordered about 2,000 villagers to abandon it, giving them just enough time to collect basic household items.

The move marks an escalation in violence which has destabilized Myanmar's most volatile state located in the remote northwest. In Rakhine, relations between the Rohingya and majority Buddhists have hit their lowest point since hundreds of people were killed and thousands displaced in ethnic and religious violence in 2012.

The government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, has said the army and police in Rakhine are fighting a group of at least 400 insurgents, drawn from the Rohingya Muslim minority, with links to Islamist militants overseas.

While officials say the army has been conducting carefully targeted sweeps against the group behind attacks on police border posts on Oct. 9, residents have accused security forces of killing non-combatants and burning homes.

"I was kicked out from my house yesterday afternoon, now I live in a paddy field outside of my village with some 200 people including my family - I became homeless," said a Rohingya man from Kyee Kan Pyin village contacted by Reuters by telephone.

"After the soldiers arrived at our village, they said that if all of us didn't leave, they would shoot us,” he said.

Another witness and two Rohingya community elders based in Maungdaw who are collecting information from across the area have corroborated the account, estimating a total of about 2,000 villagers were removed from homes.

Some were able to find shelter in neighboring villages, but hundreds spent last night hiding in the rice fields. They are still stranded and are facing another without shelter.

Mynt Kyaw, a government spokesman, said the government was unable to contact anyone in the area because it was a militarily-operated "red zone".

"A Muslim man called me this morning as they were being forcibly removed from their homes, but I was not able to confirm that information," said Mynt Kyaw.

The military did not respond to a request for comment.

Videos uploaded on social media by Rohingya rights activists showed men and women speaking Rohingya language carrying their belongings and livestock to other villages or waiting out the crackdown in paddy fields.

The area around Maungdaw Township, near the border with Bangladesh, is under military lockdown and journalists and aid workers have not been allowed to go inside.

RB News 

October 24, 2016

Maungdaw, Arakan – Myanmar’s newly appointed Border Guard Police Chief Police Brigadier General, Thura San Lwin, ordered the Rohingya villagers from middle hamlet of Kyi Gan Pyin village tract in Maungdaw Township to leave their homes on October 23, 2016. A rumour has been spreading around since that night that the villagers were asked to return to their homes. This is untrue.

Over 300 families became homeless after BGP chief ordered the villagers from middle hamlet of Kyi Gan Pyin village tract to leave their houses within 24 hours. 

As this rumor has been spreading since the night that people were forced to leave their houses, an investigation has done by RB News. 

“It is not true that they all were asked to return home. The order was given by BGP. I think the military were not informed. The people couldn’t go far away from the village during this very short time. Some stay nearby the village. Today at 10 am a group of military was patrolling and saw a few families who are only children and women. Military asked them to return homes but they afraid very much and told the military that they don’t have keys. So the military go a house of them and destroyed the key. Then the military went into that house and searched inside. They found Kyat 600,000 and took them and let the families get into the house. When the men came to know their families inside the houses, the men came back to their houses from the places where they were hiding. After about an hour BGP came and arrested all of them from houses and took them to BGP headquarters. They were severely tortured and released later.” a villager told RB News.

According to him, a total of 35 members of the families were arrested, tortured and released. They all are from Nawdinn sub-hamlet which is in the middle hamlet of Kyi Gan Pyin village tract.

“The news what you all are hearing about the return of our villagers is completely untrue.” he added. 

Furthermore, the villager explained how their 14 rice bags were destroyed by the military. 

“Yesterday as we had to leave from the houses with immediate order, we gave the priority for the foods. The families who were forced to return homes have 14 rice bags. The military asked them to take the rice bags with them but as there were no men, the women couldn’t take with them to homes. They told the military that they will take all rice bags when their men once returned but the military didn’t listen to them and take out all the rice from the bags threw into drain. So all of them can’t be cooked any more.” 

On October 23, 2016, there was a meeting at Maungdaw district general administration office where Western Command Commander, BGP Chief Thura San Lwin, other military officials and district and township administrator joined. BGP Chief clearly stated in the meeting that he will cleanse Wa Baik and Middle hamlets of Kyi Gan Pyin village tract.

By Kyaw Ye Lynn

Anadolu Agency

October 23, 2016

Police say 17 men arrested while waiting to receive money from families to pay extra to be smuggled to Malaysia

YANGON, Myanmar -- Myanmar authorities have arrested 17 Rohingya Muslims who were smuggled from troubled western Rakhine State to the country’s commercial capital Yangon, an official said Sunday.

A police officer in Yangon told Anadolu Agency, “we arrested 17 Bengalis from Rakhine in Yangon yesterday” -- referring to the stateless minority group with a term that suggests that they are interlopers from neighboring Bangladesh.

Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar in droves since mid-2012 after communal violence broke out in Rakhine between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya -- described by the United Nations as among the most persecuted minority groups worldwide. 

For years, members of the minority have been using Thailand as a transit point to enter Muslim Malaysia and beyond.

The arrest Saturday night came after a local resident reported to police that “some Muslims” were being sheltered in a house in North Okalapa Township of Yangon.

The police officer, who asked not to be named as he was not authorized to speak to media, said by phone Sunday, “based off their questioning, the Bengalis were being temporarily sheltered there before being smuggling to Malaysia.” 

He added each had paid 1.1 million Kyats (more than $850) to three human traffickers to smuggle them from Rakhine to Yangon over land through Magway town -- located around 520 kilometers (323 miles) northwest of Yangon.

They were arrested in Yangon on Saturday night while waiting to receive money from their families in order to pay the traffickers extra to smuggle them to Malaysia through Thailand over land, according to the officer.

“The human traffickers demand 1.2 million Kyats [more than $930] from each of them if they want to continue going to Malaysia.”

He said police are searching for three human traffickers who have been identified as Win Kyaw, Aye Thein and Maung Kyaw.

The 17 arrested men will be charged under the Residents of Burma Registration Act (1949) and Myanmar’s Penal Code.