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By Mehmet Ozay
November 8, 2016

17 Rohingya from initial group of 102 begin slow process of being transferred from temporary shelters in Aceh to US

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A group of Rohingya who have been living in Indonesia since a May 2015 anti-trafficking crackdown have begun the process of moving to the United States.

The Head of Lhokseumawe immigration office in Aceh province told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday that 17 Rohingya had been transferred from temporary shelters in Lhokseumawe to North Sumatra province for processing.

Alberts Djalius said that once there they will have interviews with U.S. officials in North Sumatra capital Medan and eventually move to the United States.

The 17 are among 102 members of the Muslim ethnic group who will have interviews with U.S. consulate officials in Medan.

A further 174 Rohingya remain in shelters in Aceh.

Langsa Immigration Office in East Aceh has said that the interviews may take six months and the Rohingya will stay in Medan for the period. 

In May 2015, thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants were stranded at sea after Thailand launched an anti-trafficking crackdown after discovering the bodies of dozens of migrants near its border with Malaysia.

After initially turning back boatloads of migrants, Indonesia and Malaysia agreed to take Rohingya in for one year, accommodating those deemed to be refugees on the condition that the international community then resettle them.

Rohingya have for years been fleeing Myanmar by sea to escape alleged persecution from authorities and Buddhist nationalists.

In the process, many have fallen prey to human traffickers.

- Anadolu Agency Correspondent Tutku Senen contributed to this story from Ankara

(Photo: Soe Than Win/AFP)


A Displaced Person

Ro Mayyu Ali
RB Poem
November 8, 2016

Every day is a gift for a free person. 
He assuages his appetite. 
He soothes his asleep. 
He adorns his body.
And he satiates his necessities. 

But a person...
Whose frail roof leaks the rain drops to his forehead in rain
Whose turbid shelter frightens the beat of his heart in wind
Whose muddy floor frosts the skin of his back in cold
And whose life is a role of looking for an aid in daily basis. 
He can't quell his hunger.
He can't diminish his thirst.
So, he sheds the tear to his cheek. 

A displaced person remains to count on his homesickness.
His wish has no rise of Sun. 
His hope has no fragrance of insurance.
His dream has no come of true. 
And the same tomorrow occupies in his fortune. 

A free person thinks of a new day. 
He tours to worldly paradise.
He enjoys in natural beaty. 
He dwells on the bed of rose. 
He touches fresh air in green park. 
And he names the world his own. 

But a displaced person stands on the grave of dreams. 
His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream.
He can't quell his hunger. 
He can't diminish his thirst. 
So, he sheds the tear to his cheek. 

A displaced person remains to count on his homesickness.
His wish has no rise of Sun. 
His hope has no fragrance of insurance.
His dream has no come of true. 
And the same tomorrow occupies in his fortune. 

A glimpse into the calamitous plight of 160,000 Rohingyas have been displaced since almost a half decade in Sittway, Rakhine State. 

Rohingyas going around on the main road of camp area in Sittwe [Aung Naing Soe/Al Jazeera]


By Katie Arnold & Aung Naing Soe
Al Jazeera
November 8, 2016

With a new government plan to arm Rakhine Buddhist civilians, Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar fear the worst.

Rakhine State, Myanmar - As the sun creeps towards its midday peak, Soe Myat Naing's house grows insufferably hot. Despite the stifling air, he dare not leave the safety of his oven walls and sits with unease, waiting for his cue to flee.

"We have to run away from our village when the military comes, they threaten the men so we have to run and leave the women. When we are not in the villages they go into our houses and take our possessions" he says.

Three days ago the Myanmar army raided the village of Nga Sar Kyu in northern Rakhine state where Soe Myat Naing lives with his family. They stole his solar panels, but did not stop at this.

"They arrested 30 women and raped 19, including my younger sister who is 23 years old. She cannot walk," he says. "The situation is getting worse every day."

A brutal operation

The Myanmar military have been conducting a brutal operation in northern Rakhine for the past month and stand accused of a litany of human rights abuses against the local Rohingya population, which include extrajudicial killing , sexual assault and arson.

The government has denied abuses by troops.

The operation was launched in response to a series of coordinated attacks on three border guard posts in Maungdaw township in early October, which left nine police officers dead. The government blamed the attack on a group of 400 Rohingya militants from a previously unknown organisation called Aqa Mul Mujahidin '.

Last week, another policeman was killed in a shooting at a border guard post in Maungdaw township.

Humanitarian organisations estimate that as many as 15,000 Rohingya Muslims have been displaced from their homes in Northern Rakhine state since the counterinsurgency operation began.

However, aid workers have been prohibited from attending to their needs. Foreign and independent journalists have also been blocked from the military zone, while others have been harassed for reporting on the alleged abuses.

Last week, a delegation of foreign diplomats were granted access to several villages in Maungdaw township but were not taken to the scene of the most grave allegations against the security forces.

Nevertheless, UN coordinator Renata Lok-Dessallien called on the Myanmar government to launch an independent investigation into the alleged human rights abuses.

"The worrying thing about these human rights abuses is that the government deny every single allegation. They have put down the rape allegations and that [the military] have been burning houses, even though it has been confirmed," says Chris Lewa, of the advocacy group Arakan Project, who have sources across Maungdaw township.

"The biggest problem right now is that [the military] have expanded their area of operation so even more people are experiencing raids, looting and arrests," she says.

A nationalist agenda

With every day that the military operation continues comes greater pressure from the international community for the persecution of Myanmar's Rohingya population to stop.

This, however, is of little consequence to the regional government which is heavily represented by the Arakan National Party, an ethnic Rakhine political group that pursues a nationalist agenda.

In an interview last week, executive secretary of the Rakhine State government, Tin Maung Swe said: "We must protect our national interests and these Muslims are not part of that. We don't care what you foreigners think. We must protect our land and our people, humanitarian concerns are a secondary priority."

To counter the alleged threat from Rohingya militants, the Myanmar government have begun arming and training a "regional police force" comprised of non-Muslim residents from the troubled townships in northern Rakhine.

Only citizens of Myanmar are eligible for the training, ruling out the 1.1 million Rohingyas living in Rakhine State, whose citizenship was revoked by the military junta in 1982 .

This was a welcome announcement for the Buddhist minority living in northern Rakhine State, where 90 percent of the population are Rohingya Muslims.

"Staying in Maungdaw is like staying in a foreign country because of the other group of people [the Rohingya]. We have been so worried and could not go anywhere freely," says Buddanta Manithara, a monk from the Alo Taw Pyae monastery.

Arming the villagers

Alo Taw Pyae became a rare place of solace following the attacks in Maungdaw township in early October. Within the confines of the peaceful monastery, supported by monks like Buddanta Manithara, 309 Buddhists sought refuge.

But according to Manithara, arming these villagers is the best way to provide security.

"It is a good idea because the original ethnic people from here [Maungdaw township] must protect their land and property ... If I was an ordinary man I would join this training. Everyone who loves this land should join this training." says Manithara. "We will never leave our place, no matter how much they [the Rohingya] attack us".

The government's plan to arm civilians has stoked fears of another bloody conflict in a region of Myanmar already reeling from a wave of inter-religious violence that left 100 dead and 140,000 displaced in 2012.

"Establishing an armed, untrained, unaccountable force drawn from only one community in the midst of serious ethnic tensions and violence is a recipe for disaster," said Sam Zarifi, from the International Commission of Jurists.

These fears are echoed among the Rohingya Muslims in northern Rakhine State who are already feeling the full force of the Myanmar military.

"Most of the security forces here are members of Rakhine ethnic group. Now they are going to give their civilians that training too so there will be even more armed Rakhine and we will be even more oppressed. I am worried that the situation is going to get even worse," says Maung Soe.

Like Myat Naing Soe, he has passed the last few weeks cowering in the shadows of his family home, fearful of the dreaded security forces.

"The township administration came and told us that the border force and military are going to torch our house, they haven't shown up in our area so far, but in other places near us," he says.

The recent trouble in Rakhine state comes just one year after Aung San Suu Kyi - recipient of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize - swept her party to electoral victory in the country's first democratic elections in quarter of a century. Her party holds no authority over the Myanmar military.

Nevertheless, she has offered few words on the human rights situation in Rakhine, focusing instead on a tour of nearby Asian countries, and it is her silence on the brewing sectarian conflict, rather than the military brutality inflicted upon the Rohingya population, that is causing them the greatest amount of distress.

"What hurts the most is that we're suffering under the democratic government rather than military regime. We thought we would have a better life under Aung San Suu Kyi's government." says Maung Soe.

"We have no future now."



The Medsin Barts Global Health Short Course is back, with Module 1: Global Health in the Media!

Come along to the first talk of the series, Global Health on Your Newsfeed: War & Conflict, on 8th November at 6pm in the Clark-Kennedy Lecture Theatre.

The incredible speakers at this event will be:

Dr Maung Zarni
Internationally acclaimed Burmese human rights campaigner and democracy advocate; previous lecturer at Harvard and founder of the Free Burma Coalition - one of the largest and most effective human rights campaigns in the world.

Fawzia Gibson-Fall
Teaching fellow at the King's Centre for Global Health and part of the King’s Conflict & Health Research Group, specialising in the relationship between global health, politics and security in conflict-affected areas.

Dr Jonathan Kennedy
Lecturer in Global Health at QMUL and previous research associate at the University of Cambridge, studying violent political conflict and its effect on public health in countries such as Nigeria, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It's sure to be a brilliant and enlightening evening, looking at war and conflict in the media, so don't miss out!

As always FREE FOOD & DRINK will be provided.

Hope to see you there!

Clark-Kennedy Lecture Theatre, Innovation Centre, Blizard Institute, 4 Newark St, London E1 2AT

Tuesday, November 8 at 6 PM - 8 PM UTC
Tomorrow

Get Bronze, Silver and Gold Certificates for attending 3, 5 or 7 events this year!

The other lectures in this module series will be:
22nd Nov: Global Health On Film
6th Dec: Global Health in Print

[Our events are open to everyone, you don't have to be a medical student to attend!]

Children recycle goods from the ruins of a market which was set on fire at a Rohingya village outside Maugndaw in Rakhine state, Myanmar, October 27, 2016. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun


By Simon Lewis
November 7, 2016

YANGON -- Myanmar is allowing the first food deliveries for more than four weeks to the troubled north of Rakhine state, the UN humanitarian agency announced on Monday, amid an ongoing military lockdown of the area.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement that the World Food Programme had been granted permission to deliver aid to four villages, but repeated a call for full access to the area where tens of thousands remain cut off from assistance. 

"This is the first time humanitarian access has been granted to the affected areas of Maungdaw Township since the violence that erupted on 9 October," the statement said. 

Security forces have fanned out in the Muslim-majority region seeking the perpetrators of attacks in early October in which nine border guard police officers were killed.

The government believes a group of some 400 Rohingya Muslims with links to Islamists overseas planned and executed the attacks. 

At least 33 alleged attackers and five government soldiers have been killed. Another police officer was also killed by motorcycle-riding assailants in the latest incident on Thursday, according to state media. 

The military has designated the area an "operation zone," blocking aid deliveries to the Rohingya population and barring foreign journalists and observers from entering. 

Human rights monitors and members of the mostly stateless Rohingya community say troops have shot civilians on sight, raped Rohingya women and looted and burned homes during the operation. 

The government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, denies any abuses have been committed.

Diplomats and the United Nations have been pushing an independent investigation, as well as for aid access to be resumed in the Maungdaw area.

"The UN continues to advocate strongly for full access to all affected areas to assess and respond to all humanitarian needs and to resume pre-existing humanitarian activities," the OCHA said.



The high-level diplomatic mission from the UN, United States and Britain visited the area last week and told reporters officials had agreed to allow the resumption of pre-existing aid programs in the area and to extend assistance to newly displaced people.

Approximately 150,000 people had been cut off from food, cash and nutrition assistance for the past four weeks, the statement said.

WFP had been granted access to four affected villages, it said, without stating how many people would be reached.

OCHA's head of office in Myanmar, Mark Cutts, said in a post on Twitter it was "welcome news that some food aid in #Maungdaw given go-ahead, but thousands of malnourished children still waiting for life-saving treatment."



Before the current crises erupted, there was a malnutrition rate of 19 percent among children aged under five in Maungdaw, according to statistics cited in a WFP report in May.
Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi. Pic: AP.


By Zan Azlee
November 7, 2016

ONE Southeast Asian issue that gets a lot of news coverage is the issue of Burma’s (Myanmar) Rohingya, a group that is oppressed and who have had their citizenship stripped off since 1982, by the former military junta.

The exodus of this people for decades has now seen tremendously negative implications. Refugees, corruption, human trafficking, the sex trade, murder, rape and torture are all associated with this problem.

One of the on-going criticism in the region is about ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), the regional intergovernmental organisation, having a non-interference policy. Hence, they have not done anything about the Rohingya issue in Burma.

Readers who are unfamiliar with the Rohingya issue are urged to find out more. However, it would definitely be hard pressed to find any individual today who would have no knowledge of the issue at all.

Coincidentally, over the weekend, I attended the launch of a documentary film called ‘Bodies for Sale’ by Mahi Ramakrishnan, a journalist friend of mine who has been covering the Rohingya issue for years. The film, of course, was about the Rohingya exodus.

A question that was posed (by me!) after the screening is whether Aung San Suu Kyi, ever indicated that she was sympathetic with the plight of the Rohingya before her party, the National League of Democracy (MLD), took office.

Much has been said about Suu Kyi in the past year since she is now leading the country, and none of it has been positive. This is probably something the Nobel Peace Prize laureate isn’t used to.

Seen as a symbol of liberation and democracy, she is being accused of the total opposite now that her party, the NLD, has taken over the government in Burma. She is the country’s first democratically elected leader since 1962.

Suu Kyi had gone through tremendous sacrifice and suffering for her country. The whole world should be familiar with her house arrests over a span of 21 years. So she rightfully deserved the Nobel Peace Prize when she got it.

A Rohingya girl who was displaced following 2012 sectarian violence carries a baby at Nga Chaung Refugee Camp in Pauktaw, Rakhine state, Burma. Pic: AP.

But back to the negative criticism that has been, surprisingly respectful and polite, thrown at her in the past few weeks. Suu Kyi has been criticised for being silent and not taking action about the Rohingya issue that has been afflicting Burma all these years.

In fact, she has been reported to have advised the United States ambassador to Burma earlier this year not to refer to the term Rohingya to describe to the persecuted Muslim community.

A Myanmar government spokesman, U Kyaw Zay Ya, said that the government only recognises 135 ethnic groups within it’s borders and Rohingya is not one of them.

“Our position is that using the controversial term does not support the national reconciliation process and solving problems,” he was quoted as saying in the New York Times.

In 2013, I was in Burma shooting a documentary about how the military junta was slowly opening up the country to the world. I had long discussions with Khein Thurein, my fixer and local Burmese journalist, about Aung San Suu Kyi.

Thurein had told me that in Burma itself, she had always been criticised for not thinking of Burma as a whole country with a diverse society. One of the main criticisms was that she always only referred to ‘the Burmese people’ in her speeches and her writings.

According to Thurein, this angered the people because the Burmese are a specific ethnic group and whenever she used this term, it alienated the rest of the society.

Maybe, Aung San Suu Kyi is just a politician and she is playing to the political strategy that she has set out for herself and her party in order to gain and stay in power. She did say in an interview with CNN that she is first and foremost a politician and not a humanitarian worker.

This could just be a case where the whole world has projected a saint-like image of Suu Kyi that probably isn’t exactly accurate. Over the years, the international community has made her out to be the saviour of everything that it might not even be in line with her own plans.

Apparently, the NLD is quite an authoritarian party with it’s leader running it with sole control. But of course, the NLD government is only a year old and it might just be a little premature for us to judge them. And let’s hope that the illusion that is Suu Kyi does not fade.

Or maybe it already has.

By Dr. Azeem Ibrahim
November 7, 2016

Often quoted as “the most oppressed people in the world,” the Rohingya Muslim minority of Myanmar may well be on their way to being the victims of a genocide. And all under the watchful eye of Myanmar’s newly democratically elected leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi.

Yet for all they have endured over the last decades, and especially in the last few years, the scariest part of their lives is not that as many as half of them have been displaced from Myanmar, the country of their birth, and many of the rest are now in internally displaced people’s camps inside the country, in appalling conditions. The scariest part, rather, is what might happen next.

Decades of propaganda by the succession of military juntas that have governed the country since 1962 have been absorbed into the political culture to the point that hostility towards this minority is now a democratic consensus - even as the country has now started gaining democratic freedoms. And ultra-nationalists and Buddhist extremists are fanning the fires of that hostility into open violence at any given opportunity. That is why it is feared that the Rohingya are now teetering on the edge of outright genocide.

They have been ever since the outbursts of communal violence in 2012 and 2013 which have caused the largest amount of damage to their communities and triggered the regional South East Asian Migration Crisis last year. And ever since, we have been dreading what might happen if some random event triggers a new wave of violence from their Buddhist nationalist neighbours in their native state of Rakhine/Arakan, or indeed, from the police and security agencies of the state.

Such a trigger may have just been pulled. Nine police officers were killed and several others injured in attacks on border guard posts near the border with Bangladesh on Sunday, 9 October. And the Rohingya were collectively declared guilty for the attacks, despite there being no evidence that the attackers were, in fact Rohingya. Nevermind which individuals, Rohingya or otherwise, might have been the actual perpetrators. The collective punishment heaped on the Rohingya by state institutions such as the police and army was swift. Twenty-four innocent Rohingya were killed just on Monday, and the numbers seem to be escalating as we speak.

What is worse though, while these extra-judicial killings have been carried out by local state agencies, the federal forces of the government of Aung San Suu Kyi are not intervening to stop them and re-establish the rule of law. And if the Rohingya finally give up hope that anyone else might stand up to defend them, they may well end up taking their defence in their own hands. At which point, this can only escalate into an orgy of violence at least as bad as 2012, and perhaps even the outbreak of all-out inter-communal fighting. Not that the Rohingya have the resources to fight such a fight - such a fight can only have result: outright genocide.

The tragedy is that all this is happening just as things finally started looking more hopeful. Ever since Aung San Suu Kyi came to power late last year, human rights observers, Western leaders, and even the Rohingya themselves looked to the woman they affectionately call “Mother” to end their systematic oppression and help them re-integrate in Burmese society. Indeed, just this summer her government was persuaded by the international community to establish a Commission on the situation of the Rohingya headed by former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan.

Yet this is a woman who still refuses to even acknowledge that the Rohingya exist as a distinct, and indigenous ethnic group: she calls them “Bengalis,” deeming them illegitimate immigrants in the country of their birth. She is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who supposedly had to be pressured by the international community to even establish the Kofi Annan Commission. She is a woman who seems to have no desire to expend political capital to fight the entrenched hostility of so many of her countrymen towards the Rohingya.

And ultimately, she may be a woman who no longer depends on Western approval for her political power. The prestige she has garnered with the West as a democracy campaigner for her country was instrumental for getting her into power. But now that she is there, she can get by with support from China just as well as she could get by with support from the West. China is pouring billions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure investment in the country as they are building trade routes to the Indian Ocean and they have no qualms about how their client states approach human rights issues. Is that why our leaders are standing by and ignoring the fresh upsurge of violence which may well leave us with another Rwanda on our hands?

____________________

Dr Azeem Ibrahim is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Policy and author of “The Rohingyas: Inside Myanmar’s Hidden Genocide” (Hurst Publishers & Oxford University Press).



New Evidence of Crimes Against Humanity Documented By The Burma Human Rights Network


7 November 2016
London, United Kingdom

The Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN) has conducted several interviews with Rohingya who fled Maungdaw following the crackdown by Myanmar forces. Those interviewed said they witnessed the Military shooting live ammunition into fleeing crowds – resulting in believed casualties, arson committed by the military against Rohingya properties, arbitrary arrests and looting by security forces of Rohingya possessions, including food and aid. Human Rights organizations as well as international media have similarly uncovered several accounts of extrajudicial assassinations, gang rape, mass arrests, arbitrary detention and death under suspicious circumstances of Rohingya in custody. The BHRN also condemns recent news of Myanmar police preparing to arm and train local non-Muslims in northern Rakhine state, and remains incredibly concerned by reports of human rights violations by police and military in Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships following an attack by militants on Border Guard Police posts on October 9th. 

“Arbitrary killings, the use of rape as a weapon in war and the destroying of homes are regular practices of the Burmese army. It has been well documented and reported by other ethnic minority rights groups in the country, including among the Kachin, Chin, Shan and Karen. The lives and livelihood of the Rohingya population in Burma are increasingly in danger and at this point the international community should consider pragmatic measures to ensure their safety and security in Burma,” said Kyaw Win, Executive Director of BHRN.

The BHRN has interviewed several Rohingya civilians who fled from Kyet Yoe Pyin (Kiyari Parang) and Ngakhuya villages and managed to take shelter in Bangladesh. They described severe abuses by the Myanmar Military and Police in their respective villages.

In Kyet Yoe Pyin witnesses described a time shortly after the October 9th incident where the Military arrived in the village after claiming to have had their way blocked by trees downed across the road, which they blamed the villagers for placing in their way. They said the incident resulted in sweeping arbitrary arrests. Witnesses said in one instance a crowd ran away from the military, and the military opened fire on them. One man said he saw nine people shot at this time. Another man said he was shot in the incident, and showed a wound on his thigh indicating where he had been hit. Witnesses said at another point the military began firing in the air to scare all the villagers away, and afterwards they saw the military looting houses and then many houses on fire. One man claimed to have to seen the military burning homes with petrol, while most said they had fled and were too far away to see how the fires had started, but said no one else was left to have set the houses on fires but the military.

In Ngakhuya village residents described arbitrary arrests of villagers, particularly elders with standing in the community. All witnesses interviewed by BHRN from Ngakhuya said they witnessed looting of houses by Myanmar soldiers and Police. In some cases they said that this was done coordination with Rakhine civilians, which if true indicates an intentional effort to escalate ethnic and religious tensions between Rakhine and Rohingya in Maungdaw. The villagers said once food and aid had been looted they finally felt they had to flee to Bangladesh to survive.

Late in October, a delegation led by Rakhine chief minister U Nyi Pu and the Number 1 Border Guard Police Colonel, Thu Ra San Lwin visited several villages in northern Rakhine and said that the authorities will arm the local youth so they can defend themselves against ‘terrorists’.The BHRN believes that the arming of civilian vigilante groups to combat real or imagined threats in northern Rakhine State can only lead to an escalation of violence, and create conditions for sectarian riots similar or worse than those witnessed by the region in 2012. In the chaos it is understandable that all citizens wish to feel safe and protected, but this is the responsibility of the police and military, who must do so while obeying international law. To arm one group of citizens during a time of tension with another is an unprecedented step that may easily result in mob attacks, mass killings, and widespread anti-Muslim riots. The BHRN has not read any reports of attacks on Rakhine citizens since the crisis began on October 9th, and efforts to draw ethnic Rakhine into the conflict at a time of military occupation are extremely questionable in judgment and intention.

The BHRN calls on the Myanmar Government to ensure human rights for all citizens in Maungdaw and investigate all reported violations. The Myanmar Government must allow full access to NGO’s and Media to ensure transparency, that further violations do not occur and that civilians trapped in Maungdaw have complete access to all available aid. .The international community has a responsibility to ensure assistance is given to facilitate all humanitarian needs, and must place appropriate pressure on the Myanmar Government and Military to ensure they follow international law. Those found in violation should be considered candidates for targeted sanctions and any potential or ongoing weapons sales to the country should be reconsidered until they are fully compliant.

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, near where the attack happened. The subsequent crackdown on the city has been especially harsh.

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.

International Law:

Rape, murder, torture, forced expulsion and other violations the Myanmar Army has been accused of are considered Crimes Against Humanity and in clear violation of Rome Statute at Article 7(1).

Media Enquiries

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

Please contact:

Kyaw Win
Executive Director of the Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN)

Burning huts in Wa Baik last month


RB News 
November 6, 2016

Maungdaw, Arakan – The Rohingya villagers from Kyet Yoe Pyin village in Northern Maungdaw Township appeal for urgent humanitarian assistance as they are facing a critical food shortage. 

Myanmar military raided Kyet Yoe Pyin village on October 13th and 14th, 2016. At least 800 houses were burnt down and the whole market where 173 shops were set up helping daily livelihood of the villagers. Moreover 57 shops outside of the market were also burnt down by soldiers and border guard police. 

The villagers claimed that they found 19 corpses from the village and 13 villagers are missing. 

According to a villager, at least 2500 villagers from Kyet Yoe Pyin village are homeless now. They could have little foods in the past days but now they are facing shortage and it is a serious problem.

They are banned from going one village to another. On November 5th, 2016 at 9am, three Rohingya youth went to harvest a paddy field located in Bawdu Fara nearby Yay Kyaw bridge but they were forced to leave the location by the military and were unable to harvest. 

“This is the season for harvesting but we cannot. So what we will eat? Our houses were burnt down and our shops were too. We have no more foods now. Please pity on us and we appeal to support us the foods as soon as possible.” a villager told RB News.

Report contributed by Rohingya Eye.



By Kyaw Ye Lynn
November 6, 2016

Accuse int'l community of interfering in internal affairs by calling for probe into alleged killings, rapes of Rohingya

YANGON, Myanmar -- Buddhist nationalists have gathered in Myanmar to condemn the United Nations and the international community at large for calling for a probe into allegations that soldiers killed and raped Rohingya women in western Rakhine State.

The instances are alleged to have occurred during army clearance operations following the Oct. 9. deaths of nine border police officials and the subsequent seizure of dozens of weapons in townships predominantly occupied by the Muslim ethnic group.

In the past week, top diplomats and a UN official who visited the area have called on the government for a credible and independent probe into the original attacks, along with allegations that Myanmar soldiers subsequently killed and raped.

On Sunday, around 50 people -- including monks from Buddhist nationalist group Ma Ba Tha -- gathered in Myanmar’s former capital Yangon to show support for the government's handling of the situation.

The president's office has repeatedly denied all allegations of abuses or wrongdoing, dismissing the allegations against the army as false propaganda.

One of those marching called the attacks on the police officials "an act of invasion by Bengalis," using a term to describe Rohingya that suggests they are not Myanmar nationals but illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.

Former lawmaker Khin Wine Kyi claimed that she was responsible for submitting a proposal to the previous parliament to enact a set of four Race and Religious laws which rights groups say discriminate against the country’s minority Muslim population.

“They are invaders in our territory,” she told Anadolu Agency, and accused the UN and international community of interfering in Myanmar's internal affairs.

Since the Oct. 9. attacks on border police stations, Bangkok-based Human Rights Group Fortify Rights has said it has received eyewitness reports of extrajudicial killings of unarmed Rohingya men in Maungdaw Township by the army.

"Numerous reports subsequently alleged that Myanmar army soldiers and security forces raped women and girls, killed unarmed civilians, and carried out arbitrary arrests and detentions," it said in a statement Saturday, adding that several Rohingya villages were razed.

The Burma Human Rights Network has also said that reports had emerged of soldiers raping Rohingya women, while on Thursday a reporter at Myanmar Times was sacked for an article on the alleged rapes, citing Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project -- an NGO that monitors the plight of the Rohingya.

The deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch has suggested government involvement in the dismissal, calling it "a new low" in an email to Anadolu Agency.

"What are they trying to hide?" Phil Robertson asked.

Renata Lok-Dessallien, the U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar, has said that a probe independent of political pressure is needed.

"The visit is just the first step towards broader access. For a clear picture of the situation in the area, we urge the government to launch credible and independent investigations into the attacks and consequences."

Many of the Rohingya living in Maungdaw and Yathay Taung Townships were relocated there following 2012 violence between the local Buddhist and Muslim communities in Rakhine -- one of the poorest regions in Myanmar.

The violence left around 57 Muslims and 31 Buddhists dead, some 100,000 people displaced in camps and more than 2,500 houses razed -- most of which belonged to Rohingya.

By Dr Habib Siddiqui
November 6, 2016

Last week the Myanmar Police Force announced a plan to recruit and arm ethnic Rakhine and other non-Muslim civilians in restive Maungdaw Township, a predominantly Muslim township in Buddhist-majority Rakhine State. The township has recently witnessed widespread abuse of human rights against the minority Rohingya and other Muslims by the police and military forces. Weeks earlier, military moved into the territory to flush out the attackers – reportedly Rohingyas - who had raided 3 police posts.

Rakhine State Police Chief Colonel Sein Lwin told Reuters that the new “regional police” would include non-Muslim residents who would not otherwise meet educational or physical requirements to join the Myanmar Police Force, adding that recruits would serve in their own villages. More than 100 recruits between the ages of 18 and 35 are to receive a 16-week “accelerated” training program, beginning in the state capital of Sittwe on November 7. The police intend to provide the recruits with weapons and “other equipment” as well as compensation.

It is worth noting here that the creation of such a force violates international law, as articulated by the United Nations Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the U.N. Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials. According to the Principles, “internal political instability or any other public emergency may not be invoked to justify any departure from these basic principles.”

“Arming civilians based on their ethnic and religious identity in this racially-charged context is profoundly irresponsible and could turn deadly,” said Matthew Smith of Fortify Rights. “We fully expect the government to put a stop to this plan and to immediately provide aid groups with free and unfettered access to all in need. The best way to prevent violent extremism is to promote and protect human rights, not equip people to potentially commit abuses.”

Fortify Rights has called on the Government of Myanmar to immediately scrap the plan. 

Nor should we fail to see a sinister link. Truly, Rakhine police chief’s fascist plan is like a page taken out of Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Our readers may recall that Schutzstaffel (SS, literally "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP; Nazi Party) in Nazi Germany. Under Heinrich Himmler (1929–45), SS grew from a small paramilitary formation to one of the most powerful organizations in Nazi Germany. From 1929 until the regime's collapse in 1945, the SS was the foremost agency of surveillance and terror within Germany and German-occupied Europe. [Note: 

Sturmabteilung (or SA, literally Storm Detachment), which functioned as the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), was a precursor to the SS. The SA played a significant role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s. Their primary purposes were providing protection for Nazi rallies and assemblies, disrupting the meetings of opposing parties, fighting against the paramilitary units of the opposing parties, especially the Red Front Fighters League (Rotfrontkämpferbund) of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), and intimidating Slavic and Romani citizens, unionists, and Jews – for instance, during the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses. The SA have been known in contemporary times as "Brown Shirts" (Braunhemden) from the color of their uniform shirts, similar to Benito Mussolini's Black Shirts.]

The Rakhine Buddhists have long been fighting, unsuccessfully, for liberating Arakan (Rakhine) state from the clutches of the Myanmar government. They have their own militias fighting government forces. So, one cannot but question the real intent behind the creation of another SS-type para-military fascist force under the pretext of protecting the Rakhine lives. 

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is equally concerned about the development. According to the ICJ, if a new security authority is contemplated, it must be a professional police force, whose members are recruited and trained in accordance with principles of non-discrimination and respect for human rights. “In a country where the regular police and military are notorious for grave human rights violations,” said Sam Zarifi, ICJ’s Asia Director, “establishing an armed, untrained, unaccountable force drawn from only one community in the midst of serious ethnic tensions and violence is a recipe for disaster.” 

Since 2012, we have already witnessed a series of genocidal pogroms directed against the Rohingya and other Muslims, who are ethnically, racially and religiously different, by the Rakhine and other Buddhist fascists that came from all walks of life, including the government security forces and the Buddhist monks. Some 150,000 Rohingyas continue to live in IDP concentration camps as a result of such ethnic cleansing drives against them. 

Years before the border security force NaSaKa in Arakan terrorized the Rohingya population by following the footsteps of the SA. So, when in 2013 Myanmar President Thein Sein unilaterally disbanded NaSaKa everyone welcomed the move hoping that Myanmar would not revisit its troubled fascist past. Obviously, in Suu Kyi’s Myanmar such lessons from the past have lost their meanings. 

As a result of the latest ethnic cleansing drives by the Tatmadaw (Myanmar military) some 15,000 Rohingya men, women, and children and a number of aid workers remain displaced and isolated in Maungdaw Township. 

It is important to highlight the fact that outside the propaganda fed from the government and a new Rohingya group (Faith Movement) that claimed to strive for the rights of all the minorities in Myanmar, including the Rohingya, we don’t know how serious was the threat posed by this group. What we know for fact is that the apartheid government in Myanmar has long been trying to bring about a ‘final solution’ to the Rohingya problem one way or another. However, unlike the other minorities, insurrecting against the central government, the worst persecuted Rohingyas have long been a very peaceful, unarmed civilian population. Thus, a highly sinister ploy had to be devised by the government. 

Unless the Rohingya group could be presented as a real threat – a ‘thorn’ - with hundreds of militant recruits, with affiliations of – as you guessed it – ‘known terrorist’ outfits like the ISIS (Daesh), such an evil ploy to carry out the ‘final solution’ (i.e., elimination) against their entire community was deemed highly risky or damaging to Myanmar’s international image, esp. with a new civilian government whose de facto leader is a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Thus, from the very beginning without any evidence the small local band of alleged attackers who were armed with knives were presented as a large group of 400 Jihadists who had planned launching attacks on six locations simultaneously. It was all part of a very sinister plan to use the alleged raid by the Rohingya militants as an excuse to finish the unfinished eliminationist task. The war crimes perpetrated by the Tatmadaw since October 9 once again underscore that criminal blueprint. 

It was no accident that the government rhetoric surrounding the situation in Rakhine State was increasingly alarming. On October 31, Rakhine State Member of Parliament Aung Win declared, “All Bengali villages are like military strongholds.” On November 1, state-run media appeared to refer to Rohingya as a “thorn” that “has to be removed as it pierces,” and on November 3, state-run media alleged that international media “intentionally fabricated” allegations of human rights violations “in collusion with terrorist groups.”

Fortify Rights received eyewitness reports of extrajudicial killings of unarmed Rohingya men in Maungdaw Township by Myanmar Army soldiers on October 10. Numerous reports subsequently alleged that Myanmar Army soldiers and security forces raped women and girls, killed unarmed civilians, and carried out arbitrary arrests and detentions. Several Rohingya Muslim villages were razed.

On October 24, five U.N. Special Rapporteurs issued a joint statement urging the Government of Myanmar to “address the growing reports of human rights violations in northern Rakhine State.”

The Office of the President of Myanmar repeatedly denied all allegations of abuses or wrongdoing, dismissing allegations as false propaganda. It has retained an old guard - Zaw Htay – who acts as Goebbels serving the President. As he has always done in the past, e.g., with Thein Sein government, he rejected the allegations of rape, saying, “There’s no logical way of committing rape in the middle of a big village of 800 homes, where insurgents are hiding.”

One wonders if there is no truth to such allegations, why would Myanmar authorities block journalists and human rights monitors from accessing areas of northern Rakhine State! 

What’s really happening inside Suu Kyi’s Myanmar cannot be hidden under Zaw Htay’s filthy rug. The images of ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims are written all over it. Anyone doubting or contesting the Goebbels-type narratives fed by the government is not welcome in this den of hatred and intolerance called Myanmar. As such, on November 3, the Myanmar Times fired journalist Fiona MacGregor for writing a widely read article published by the newspaper on October 27, which included allegations that Myanmar Army soldiers raped dozens of Rohingya women in a single village in Maungdaw Township on October 19. Fiona, by the way, was not alone in stating that in Suu Kyi’s Myanmar today her military was committing heinous crimes against the unarmed Rohingyas. For instance, Reuters also reported on the rape allegations, interviewing eight women who said they were raped by troops. 

"It's extremely concerning and unacceptable that representatives of the democratically elected government would use social media and bullying tactics to suppress stories about important issues like gender-based violence in conflict," said MacGregor.

Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Asia, said the case marked "a new low" for the government. "Rather than trying to shut down reports that it doesn't like, the government should respect press freedom and permit journalists to do their jobs by investigating what is really happening on the ground," said Robertson.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said reporters trying to cover the unrest in Rakhine faced obstruction and harassment. Suu Kyi's government should "assert civilian control over its security forces", Shawn Crispin, CPJ's senior Southeast Asia representative, said in a statement. "The best way to prove or disprove allegations of rights abuses is to allow independent media to probe the accusations."

Authorities have not allowed foreign journalists to visit the area and the international media was not invited to travel with senior diplomats who visited this week, even as the state media obtained full access. 

Still, the Myanmar government could not hide its crimes against the Rohingyas. Renata Lok-Dessallien, the U.N.’s resident and humanitarian coordinator and the United Nations Development Programme’s resident representative in Myanmar, said during a press conference in Rakhine’s capital Sittwe, “We have urged that the government pull together an independent, credible investigation team quickly and send the team into the area to address these allegations.” She and several foreign ambassadors to Myanmar conducted a two-day visit to Maungdaw to survey the situation on the ground and talk to residents and security forces. Many of those Rohingyas interviewed have later been questioned by the authorities and detained for speaking to the foreign delegates. 

“We all know that underneath this incident are many items of concern and it’s now more important than ever for the government to promote lasting solutions to the interlocking challenges that face Rakhine state at this moment,” Lok-Dessallien said. “So, we’ve urged that these root causes and underlying issues be addressed as soon as possible.”

Obviously, Myanmar government is trying to stonewall the press, as it has also tried to avoid launching an independent probe, hoping that its latest pogrom will be forgotten. It should know that as much as the crimes of the SS – that was most responsible for the genocidal killing of millions of Jews in the Holocaust – were neither nor forgiven, as they were tried for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War II (1939–45) the world community will neither forget nor forgive the perpetrators of the genocidal crimes against the Rohingyas of Myanmar.

Hindu devotees take part in Durga Puja festivities in Yangon. Nationality in Myanmar is based on membership of one of 135 ‘national races’, excluding others from full citizenship. Photograph: Ye Aung Thu/AFP/Getty

By Julia Wallace
November 5, 2016

Citizenship legislation in Myanmar excludes some communities and restricts the rights of others, even where families have lived in the country for generations

Aung Kyaw Min Tun has lived in Myanmar for all of his 24 years, his native tongue is Burmese, and his parents and grandparents were born here. But he is not officially a citizen of the country and has no idea if he ever will be.

The problem is that he is a Tamil Hindu, an ethnicity that does not fit neatly into the country’s complex citizenship law, in which nationality is based on membership of one of 135 “national races” that supposedly lived within the country’s boundaries before the British invaded in 1824. The law, created by Myanmar’s military dictatorship in 1982, excludes others from full citizenship, but allows them to apply for two lower tiers with fewer rights.

The law’s heavy emphasis on ethnicity has led rights groups to call it discriminatory. The legislation has also been enforced selectively, with multiple layers of bureaucracy and endemic corruption.

The result can be years of waiting for those who do not fit obviously into the list of national races, including ethnic Chinese, Indians, Nepalese, many Muslims, and people with a foreign parent or grandparent.

“The citizenship process has been a shambles, at least since the military took power in 1962,” said Ronan Lee, a political consultant and PhD candidate at Deakin University in Melbourne who has studied the issue.

Aung Kyaw Min Tun’s family exemplifies the chaos. His father holds a citizenship card that he obtained before the 1982 law, while his brother paid a bribe of about $300 (£245) for one in the early 2000s. His mother and older sister only have residency permits, and he and his younger sister have been unable to obtain any documents even though they are technically eligible to be second-class “associate citizens”.

He said two-thirds of his community in Yangon faced the same problems – mostly those too poor to pay large, informal fees. Without citizenship documents, he said, he cannot travel freely within the country, obtain a passport, or buy property. “If someone tried to kick us out, we’d have to go, because we have no documents. It’s scary,” he said. “I was born here and will die here, so I should have documents to show that.”

Most talk of citizenship is focused on the Rohingyas, a stateless Muslim minority of about 1 million people living in Rakhine state, on the border with Bangladesh.

They fall outside the list of national ethnicities and live under an apartheid-like system that restricts their ability to move around for employment or other reasons, and severely limits their access to healthcare and education. They have suffered from bouts of communal violence, and almost 120,000 remain in squalid camps after being driven from their homes in 2012.

The plight of the Rohingyas seems unlikely to improve without an overhaul of the citizenship law.

The Seagull Foundation, a human rights organisation, recently surveyed 100 religious or ethnic minorities in Mandalay and found that almost all had problems obtaining a national registration card. Many said they were told they had to change their ethnicity or religion to fit into a prescribed category to receive the document.

Respondents also reported paying bribes of up to 500,000 kyat (£315) and said their children were being excluded from programmes issuing national registration cards in schools. Several people, particularly Muslims, said they were forced to accept third-tier “naturalised citizen” status in order to get their documentation.

Myint Kyaing, permanent secretary at Myanmar’s ministry of immigration, said the government was trying to combat such corruption by conducting spot checks in local immigration offices and promptly investigating complaints. He declined to comment on broader problems with the citizenship law.

But for Harry Myo Lin, the head of the Seagull Foundation, fundamental reform is necessary, in addition to more stringent anti-corruption efforts. “Ethnicity and religion should not be on ID cards,” he said. “An immigration system should have citizens and non-citizens.”

Given the unrest in Rakhine and elsewhere, as well as a resurgence in Buddhist nationalism, it is not surprising Muslims have often borne the brunt of this corruption.

Lee said that even Muslims who qualified as citizens under the 1982 law had experienced problems asserting their rights. “Travel restrictions in Rakhine state seem to be enforced based on religion and skin tone rather than whether people have the correct documents,” he said.

Among the victims is Phwey Phwe New, 26, an ethnic Kaman woman who has been stuck in That Kay Pyin camp in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state, since the 2012 violence. Kaman Muslims are on the list of national ethnicities yet suffer similar treatment as the Rohingyas. Before 2012, it had never occurred to her that she might need a citizenship card. She had taken her status for granted and travelled freely.

She set out to obtain documentation, but said it took two years. “When I went to the office, they asked for bribes,” she said. “I spent a lot of money.”

Despite receiving her identity card in 2015, she cannot leave the camp because her husband, also a Kaman, is still waiting for his card.

As for the Rohingyas, efforts to normalise their situation have stalled. This is not only due to animosity from nationalist Buddhists but also because of the Rohingyas’ mistrust of the government.

Muslim Rohingyas in the courtyard of a school sheltering displaced people in the village of Theik Kayk Pyim, on the outskirts of Sittwe, capital of Myanmar’s Rakhine state. Photograph: Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images

Many Burmese consider the Rohingyas interlopers from Bangladesh despite the fact that some families have been in Myanmar for generations.

A pilot citizenship verification programme launched in 2014 under the former military-backed government failed because the Rohingyas were forced to list their ethnicity as Bengali, implying they were immigrants from Bangladesh. This year, the newly elected government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, attempted to avoid the issue by allowing Rohingyas to register without listing any ethnicity or religion. But this option has also proved unpopular. 

Shom Shul Alom, a Rohingya man living in the Maw Thi Nyar displaced persons camp, said ethnicity was so important to the social and political fabric of Myanmar that he would refuse to accept any identity document that did not identify him as a Rohingya. “If you try to distribute identity cards but you do not put race or religion, it wouldn’t work. We will not accept it,” he said.


By Kyaw Ye Lynn
November 5, 2016

74 suspects held on remand face several charges under Counter-Terrorism Laws and Penal Code, which carry the death penalty

YANGON, Myanmar -- A total of 113 people have now been arrested for alleged involvement in last month's attacks in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, some of whom could face the death penalty.

Nine border police officials were killed and dozens of weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition were stolen Oct. 9. when around 400 armed men attacked three police station outposts in Maungdaw and Yathay Taung Townships.

Myanmar troops have since been searching villages predominantly occupied by the country’s Rohingya population for the assailants and stolen weapons.

On Saturday, Min Aung, a spokesperson for Rakhine's regional government, told Anadolu Agency that troops had arrested 113 suspects during the area clearance operations.

“39 of them have been released after being found to have had no role in the attacks,” he said, and 74 suspects have been held on remand.

“They are now under interrogation.”

According to a police official in Yangon, the suspects face several charges under Counter-Terrorism Laws and the country's Penal Code.

“They probably face the death penalty,” said the officer, who asked not to be named as he was not authorised to talk to media.

Although some sections of Myanmar's penal code carry the death penalty, in most recent cases it has been commuted to a life sentence. 

The military's ongoing clearance operations have generated reports of widespread abuse.

In the past week, top diplomats and a United Nations official who visited the area called on the government for a credible and independent probe into the fatal attacks, along with allegations that Myanmar soldiers subsequently killed and raped Rohingya women.

On Friday, U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar Renata Lok-Dessallien told a press briefing in commercial capital Yangon that a probe independent of political pressure was needed.

“We are not there to investigate," she said of a the UN-led 10-member delegation, which has been visiting Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships -- the two areas under military lockdown since the attacks. 

"The visit is just the first step towards broader access. For a clear picture of the situation in the area, we urge the government to launch credible and independent investigations into the attacks and consequences."

Lok-Dessallien added that authorities had assured that aid would resume in the townships in “one or two days”.


    • Rohingya Exodus