UN examines mistreatment of Muslims in Myanmar

Source from The National 23 Feb 2010

http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/asia-pacific/un-examines-mistreatment-of-muslims-in-myanmar

 

BANGKOK // A United Nations envoy has expressed deep concern about the persecution of Myanmar's Muslims by the authorities. "There is no doubt that there is severe discrimination of Muslims," the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, said after visiting the west of the country where Muslims are concentrated.

Tomas Quintana, UN special rapporteur for human

During his five-day mission, Mr Quintana, an Argentine former labour rights lawyer, visited Sittwe, capital of northern Rakhine state, and Buthidaung, one of the state's main towns and site of the most serious allegations of persecution and repression of the Muslims, often known as Rohingya. This is the first time a senior UN envoy has been allowed to visit this region although the UN and international aid organisations do have projects and people in the area.

"There have been many allegations levelled at the authorities, so it was important for me to be able to see the situation firsthand," he said. While he was there he also visited a prison, which was a real revelation, he said during an interview on the weekend. "The prison was full of women, some still nursing their young children," he said. Most had been charged with immigration offences and received sentences of up to five years. But human-rights groups believe they are victims of the government's ban on Muslims marrying.

"Men are often jailed for illegal marriages, but many, especially women, are arrested after travelling illegally [across the border] to Bangladesh to get married," said Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, which monitors the situation of Rohingyas in the region. The UN envoy raised the issue of the alledged ban on marriage with the authorities, both locally and in the Myanmar capital, Naypidaw, and received the same answer. Muslims, like everyone, have the right to marry, but they have to have the correct birth certificates and citizenship papers.

This is the crux of the matter, according to human-rights groups and aid workers who know the area and monitor the situation there. "Myanmar's Muslim minority are subject to systematic persecution: they are effectively denied citizenship, they have their land confiscated, and many are regularly forced to work on government projects," said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International's Myanmar researcher based in Bangkok.
"The regime creates conditions and circumstances that make it clear to the Rohingyas that they are not wanted or welcome in the country," he said. More than 300,000 Rohingyas are in camps or hiding in neighbouring Bangladesh to escape the persecution across the river in Rakhine, according to the UN. More than 700,000 Rohingyas still live in Myanmar. Mr Quintana singled out Rakhine for his visit after persistent stories of persecution that included forced labour, extortion, land confiscation, travel restrictions, banned marriages and unregistered children. On his last visit to Myanmar, in 2009, his request to visit the area was denied.
Because the authorities refuse most Rohingyas permission to marry, many live together after a traditional Muslim ceremony. The children born from these couples are denied registration and citizenship - making them non-persons. Mr Quintana took up the issue of citizenless children in his last report to the UN in November and pressed representatives of the regime on it again during this visit, but with little result.
"The issue of unregistered children is serious as their numbers keep growing," Ms Lewa said. "What is the future of these children? Without being registered, they won't be able to apply for a travel permit, marriage, and so on. They are all potential refugees." Mr Quintana's visit to Rakhine was a significant concession by the regime. "I received a lot of independent information from various sources before I went there, and I find them very credible."

The envoy said he did not have time to verify all the claims in the reports, but from what he saw he believed they were relatively accurate. "And I hope by visiting there I can help highlight the plight of Myanmar's Muslims," he said. Overall, the UN envoy was downbeat about his trip. "Political prisoners, of which there are more than 2,100, will not be released anytime soon," he said. "The government continues to deny that there are any prisoners of conscience in their jails."

Mr Quintana wanted to impress upon the authorities that the release of all political prisoners before this years planned elections was essential if the electoral process was to be convincing. "These are well-educated and capable people who could participate in the election and help make the whole process credible, I told the authorities," he said. Mr Quintana did not hold out much hope of change in Myanmar in the near future.

Myanmarese officials would not discuss the elections in detail even though it was evident that preparations for the polls were already in full swing. All that the men in charge of the elections would say was that the legal framework was being prepared and the electoral law would be finished in time. foreign.desk@thenational.ae

Nowhere to Turn

Source from Irrawaddy news magazine Vol.18 No.1, Jan 2010

A woman in leda refugee camp, one of the offcial camps in Cox’s Bazar. (Photo: ALEX ELLGEE)

Many homeless Rohingya prefer hunger in a hostile land to life in Burma

I’ve lost everything in my life and now I can only pray that I don’t get sent back to Burma,” said Haziqah, a 27-year-old Rohingya resident of the unofficial Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh.

Before joining the camp, Haziqah lived in the Bandarban Hill Tract, about 150 km [93 miles] to the north, where many Rohingya refugees from Burma have settled. She and her husband managed to survive on the meager wages he earned from odd jobs in the area and were starting to hope they could lead a normal existence.

Rohingya men gather round to listen to Haziqah tell her story. (Photo: ALEX ELLGEE)

But then, one morning seven days after giving birth to her first child, soldiers from the Bangladeshi border force, the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), stormed their village. Rounding up all the Rohingyas living there, they marched them toward the Bangladesh-Burma border.

During the march, she said, the soldiers beat her husband severely and pushed her along, ignoring the week-old baby in her arms. When they reached the top of a hill bordering Burma, the soldiers simply gave them a shove to send them back to the country from which they had fled.

In the chaos, she was separated from her husband; she later received reports that he had been captured by the Nasaka, the Burmese border force operating in Arakan State. She and some other women hired a boat to take them back to Bangladesh. By the time she arrived there her baby had died.

People in Kutupalong camp collect water from wells provided by Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger). (Photo: ALEX ELLGEE)

Similar stories of BDR brutality are told by new arrivals at the makeshift Kutupalong camp. Like Haziqah, many of the women have been separated from their husbands and must struggle to find food and look after their children.

Since tensions peaked in August between Bangladesh and Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council over the Burmese regime’s construction of a border fence, arrests and forced repatriation of Rohingya refugees dramatically increased. More than 5,000 Rohingyas were sent back to Burma in October and November.

Since the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid ul Adha in Bangladesh at the end of November, a temporary halt appears to have been called to repatriations, according to nongovernmental organization (NGO) workers employed in the camps.

It’s believed that a visit by a Dutch diplomat and three European humanitarian ambassadors may also have put pressure on the Bangladeshi authorities to stop sending Rohingyas back to Burma.
However, despite fears that the repatriations will start again, families continue to flee to the unofficial camp, even though it receives no food aid, unlike the official camp next door. Three hundred families reportedly arrived at the Kutupalong camp in November.

The Bangladeshi government refuses to accept Rohingyas who arrived in the country after 1991 as refugees and instead labels them illegal migrants, leaving them to fend for themselves. If they find work in the surrounding area, they risk arrest.

Zawpe, a Rohingya leader in Kutupalong camp, said fear of arrest prevented many migrants leaving the camp in search of work.

“Because of the travel restrictions, conditions in the camp are very bad,” he said. “People are too afraid to go outside to find food. The food crisis is alarming.

“The government doesn’t let NGOs give us food, we are not allowed to work for food and the local communities don’t want us to, so we are starving. It’s 1 p.m. and most of the camp hasn’t eaten yet. If the situation continues like this, then people will die.”

Zawpe said migrants also risk being hunted down by Bangladeshis, who then hand them over to the authorities.

Living in a No-man's Land

Source from Irrawaddy news magazine Vol 18, No.1, Jan 2010

The Rohingya of northwestern Burma are fleeing to Bangladesh, where unofficial, makeshift refugee camps are rapidly expanding. The plight of the Rohingya in Burma and Bangladesh has grown worse during the past year.

Burmese authorities enforce a policy that promotes a form of ethnic cleansing, based on repressive regulations aimed at the Rohingya, who must apply for permission to move from one village to another, to repair local mosques, even to get married—rights that are routinely denied. They are excluded from jobs and other opportunities because of discrimination based on their Muslim religion. Thousands continue to flee to Bangladesh to find a better life, only to be isolated in crude, unofficial camps, such as the makeshift Kutupalong camp which has sprung up during the past year near Cox’s Bazar.

Slide Show (View)

Conditions are dire inside the camps. Refugees live with little humanitarian assistance. Rohingya seeking work are discriminated against by Bangladeshis, who often refuse to hire them or otherwise exploit them as a source of low-paid labor. In the unofficial camps, there are no medical services and drinking water is unsafe. Many Rohingya choose to flee the country by boat, risking a perilous sea voyage in a small boat at the mercy of pirates and smugglers.

To make matters worse, Burmese authorities have begun constructing a 200-kilometer [125-mile] fence along the border designed to prevent cross-border access. Meanwhile, the Rohingya say they are trapped in a no-man’s land and neither country offers them a way of life that provides freedom and opportunity. 

US Must Admit More Rohingya Refugees

Irrawaddy 11st Jan 2010
 
Jhora Khatul crouches on the bamboo floor, while curious neighbors, friends and family swarm into the darkened room to hear her story. The room is soon packed and full of smoke from the make-shift kitchen, making it hard to breathe.

As Jhora begins her story, there are nods of recognition; her fellow refugees share the same experiences. Jhora has been living for more than one month with 12 family members in this small hut in Leda camp, Bangladesh.

Jhora is an unregistered Rohingya refugee. She fled to Bangladesh after her family’s farm in Burma was ransacked, their livestock confiscated and her husband tortured. Since then, she says, life in Bangladesh has been “day-to-day…there is no future to plan.”
Her husband works as a day laborer, but she says the little money he earns is never enough to feed the family, which often goes to bed at night fighting hunger pains.
For many Rohingya refugees like Jhora, the decision to flee to Bangladesh was a difficult one. Since 1982, the Rohingya have been deprived of citizenship in Burma, meaning they are not protected by national laws and their basic human rights are severely restricted.


Burma’s Rohingya need permission to marry or travel. They have been prohibited from practicing their Muslim faith, and they are denied access to public education and health facilities.
Because of these dismal conditions the Rohingya are fleeing to countries such as Bangladesh or taking risky, often life-threatening journeys by boat to Malaysia and Thailand seeking refuge from persecution. Once in these countries of asylum, their options are still restricted because of their status as refugees.
One refugee said: “We have nothing here in Bangladesh. Our needs are not met here. We can’t really work or live in Bangladesh, but we also can’t return to Myanmar [Burma].”

As a nation that nominally respects global human rights, Bangladesh has a duty to protect and provide basic services for the Rohingya refugees, and for decades Dakha has been doing so.
Opportunities for integration are restricted, however.

Denied the right to work and facing extreme restrictions on engaging in wage-earning activities, the Rohingya are completely dependent on aid. Such assistance, however, is insufficient to meet their basic needs for security, health care, sanitation and primary education.
Because the situation is likely to persist, there must be a more long-term solution. The Rohingya will continue to be dependent on aid, incurring increasing costs for Bangladesh and international donors unless there is progress towards integration that allows the Rohingya to engage in legal wage-earning employment or income-generating activities.

A durable solution to the displacement of the Rohingya cannot come from Bangladesh alone, however. The US, in particular, should further integrate the Rohingya into its refugee resettlement program.
Far fewer Rohingya are resettled than other Burmese refugees. In 2008, the US resettled 17,000 Burmese refugees, but it wasn’t until 2009 that Rohingya were admitted to the program—and even then only a few families found new homes in the US.

Although resettlement cannot be the only solution for the Rohingya, it is a critical factor in seeking a long-term solution to their displacement through the offer of citizenship. Further resettlement of the Rohingya in the US would demonstrate Washington’s commitment to seek durable solutions for refugees and provide opportunities for Dakha to support integration and programs that promote self-reliance.
The choice between living in a Bangladesh refugee camp or in Burma under a hostile regime is, as one refugee said, like having to decide whether to “jump into the river or the sea”.

The Rohingya have been subject to this dilemma for decades; the choice between languishing inside the confines of a refugee camp, living without documentation or legal protection in a foreign country, or existing under a regime that not only refuses to recognize them as citizens but systematically persecutes them.
It is a difficult decision for the Rohingya to seek refuge by crossing borders, but Bangladesh and the US, as nations that respect human rights, have a duty to protect the persecuted.

K. Crabtree qualified in International Law from New York University, and has conducted field research with the Rohingya refugees in the Kutupalong and Leda refugee camps in Bangladesh. Her research has been published in Forced Migration Review and will soon appear in the Journal of Muslim Mental Health. As a US Peace Corps volunteer she worked in Gazipur and Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

Situation of Roh Children in Malaysia

by Saiful,

Today, the children of Rohingya refugees are struggling with their future to be saved as they are not recognized as refugees by the both Malaysian government to have access to education and UNHCR as mandated refugees to get resettlement like other refugees. They are marginalized and in languishing in horror situation. Their children are deprived of basic right to education, victims of exploitation and going to be a generation of beggars in Malaysia. As per we know, two things can destroy a nation, illiteracy and poverty. Unfortunately, if we see the ethnic Rohingya, an estimated literacy rate of the Rohingya children both in home and exile are less than 0.5%. Literacy rate in Malaysia is “0”%.
It is very pitiful situation for the Rohingya community and true that Rohingya nation has lost their future. So, the education is most important to develop to any nation and to know what is the right and wrong things to get the basic rights in the future.

According to statistics issued by UNHCR Malaysia as of last October 2009, about 67,800 refugees and asylum-seekers were registered with the Refugee Agency. Of this figure, 62,000 are refugees from Burma, comprising 28,100 Chin, 16,100 Rohingya, 3,700 Burmese Muslims, 2,900 Kachin and other ethnic minorities.

Based on the available statistics, 51 per cent of the refugees and asylum-seekers were men while women made up 49 per cent. There were 14,600 children below the age of 18.
UNHCR Malaysia said there were also a large number of persons of concern to the agency who remained unregistered and the figure was said to be around 30,000. Believe there is also being a large number of children who are not yet granted refugee status.

The children of the Rohingya community in Malaysia do not have the privilege to study in government schools as they do not have birth certificates or any other official documents. Under the Malaysian Education Act (1966) only three categories of foreigners are permitted to enroll in government schools i.e the children of foreign embassies, children of foreigners who have legal work permits and those who have been granted permanent resident status.

Rohingyas arrived in Malaysia in early 1980s. More than 70% of Rohingya children are of school age. They could enter public schools, but as refugees, they were expelled out from the government school in early 2006, while very few numbers of Rohingya children got chance to study in public school as adopted children of local Malaysian. But still there is no any record a single Rohingya child from refugee community could manage to be a university student ever. Some managed to go through the categorized as “permanent resident,” which means they must pay higher fees, buy their own books and face a lot of red tape. Most cannot afford the extra costs. Access is also restricted as most of the refugee children do not have birth certificates, a legal prerequisite for admission.

The children of Rohingya in Malaysia are not recognized and are at greater risk of statelessness than their parents. Though they get birth certificates but they do not get any right to attend school. In past two decades, our unfortunate Burmese ethnic Rohingya children who have been born and grown up in Malaysia do not have access to government schools although primary school education is compulsory and available free to all in this country. And hence, the stateless children have not been able to develop their knowledge, skills, personality, talents etc.

Approximately there are more than 5,400 Rohingya refugee children in Malaysia are of school age. According to UNHCR report, they have not received basic education due to financial and bureaucratic obstacles. But I believe the main feature is that Rohingya children cannot enroll in public schools because Malaysian law does not recognize their refugee status.
That resulted most of them are working in odd jobs like construction sites, garbage collectors which should be considered as child labor.

Education is backbone of the Nation; Today’s children are tomorrow’s future. Peculiarly, Rohingya children in Malaysia don’t have access to get education. Rohingyas existence as a nation or ethnic group of Burma is depends on their children. Without education they are blind and unable to fight for their future due to lack of knowledge. We can for see what will happen to the Rohingya refugees and their children living in Malaysia if nothing is done to help them?

However, in 1998, Yayasan Salam came up to help to educate some Rohingya children in Kampung Cheras Baru as an implementing partner of UNHCR and that project was terminated in 2000.

From the year 2001, ABIM stood to fund for that school with a view to giving read and writeable education to some 50 children.

Similarly, the UN refugee agency partnered with a non-governmental organization, the Taiwan Buddhist Tzu-Chi Foundation, opened five new education centers within the Klang Valley in 2008, serving some 300 Rohingya refugee children. The project received funding from the United States government, bringing education to the Rohingya community on an unprecedented scale in Malaysia.

Likewise, from January 2008, UNHCR extended a supportive hand to facilitate primary education to the Rohingya refugee children in Tasik Permai, Tasik Tambahan, Taman Muda, Kampung Pandang and Selayang respectively. As per my study, those schools are also not fully equipped.

But those 5 schools are based within klang valley only. Mostly the Rohingya live in Penang and Johor. But their children are still deprived of basic right to formal education. Thanks to a humanitarian NGO, JUMP Network Group, while helping Rohingya children in penang in 3 schools.
Recently there is another school supported by Muslim Welfare Association of Malaysia (PERKIM), a local NGO chaired by Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, the former prime minister of Malaysia since September 2009. That school is situated in Lamba Jaya, Ampang. There are 3 teachers including a religious teacher and 120 students enroll regular classes. All the expenditures of school and students such as rental, accommodation, text books for children, necessary material are conducted by PERKIM. The sad reality is that two of UNHCR’s five schools closed down as all the students shifted to PERKIM School.

In Johor Baru, there are some schools set up by privet initiative of Rohingya community to educate their own children but due to lack of fund unable to go further and waiting to get any assistance from UNHCR or any GNO to develop school curriculums as minimum standard.
According to strategic country plan by UNHCR, the 2010-2011 UNHCR budgets for the protection of children is USD $209, 825 and for the refugee education in Malaysia is listed USD $1, 555, 717. Rohingya community hope on that issue, UNHCR may set up some more schools for Rohingya children in different places like Klang, Johor and Penang if the decision of government remains unchanged.

In addition, Harvest Centre Sdn Bhd, set up an informal school in Sentul. About half of the centre’s students are Rohingya refugee children. Believed to be Malaysia’s first Montessori school for marginalized children, Harvest Centre was set up in 2004 with seed funding from World Vision and is run on public donations. The school, which has qualified and full-time staffs and a host of volunteers, and entered as an implementing partner with UNHCR but there is not more than 200 Rohingya refugee children studying.

After nearly two decades in Malaysia without education for their children, Malaysia’s 16,100 registered Muslim Rohingya refugees from Arakan state of Burma are especially hungry for formal schooling.

Future Global Network Foundation (FGN) a local NGO has been helping the local coordinators of the Rohingya communities in some settlement areas. FGN only supports 500 ringgits for 12 religious teachers in 9 different education sectors since 2007.

There is another school namely “Darul Uloom Blossom Garden” Kampung Sungai Pinang, Klang, Two teachers are in charge of religious studies; 1 teacher for teaching English, Maths and science. FGN can only support for two religious teachers due to insufficient funds. There is no teacher available for the teaching of Bahasa Malaysia at the moment.

The complaints of Rohingya children have been spread out that most of them are involved in beggar’s path. Why they are begging and what is the main reason behind it? In my study, the key spur is education. So I hope and strongly believe that only education would take the refugee children off the streets and prevent them from becoming a generation of beggars apart from being dragged into being part of the ‘bad hats’.

It is true to be heard that there are two groups of Rohingya children who took to the streets as beggars in Malaysia.

On one side, the children were in the clutches of a triad from some their own ignorant people and local gangs who paid some money to the parents of the children and the children themselves before sending them out to the streets to beg which is believed to be a part of exploitation.
“The other group is that who have no choice but to beg and begging is the easiest form of earning a livelihood on the name selling books”.

A notable example of such inconsistencies relates to the government’s statements regarding Rohingyas in Malaysia In 2004, the Government announced that it would consider regularizing the status of existing stateless Rohingyas in Malaysia, to enable them to legally work and live without fear of arrest from the enforcement agencies… The Rohingya were so glad and hoped their children would be able to attend for public school. However, to date, this policy does not appear to have been implemented.

Issues also arise with regards to the status of the children of Rohingya refugees who are born in Malaysia. Since their parents are undocumented, such children are more often than not, hindered in obtaining birth certificates and other identification documents which would facilitate their access to basic needs including medical care and education.

“To me, the only way to get these people out from the clutches of poverty is through education. We can give them food, for few days or give them money but money is never enough. “We need to empower them, especially the children, teach them how to find out food, not just giving them packets of food, so they can stand on their own two feet and become the master of their own destiny. What if one day we are not here anymore and also the people who are helping them?

“I have been teaching refugee children for 3 years, now in Klang. That school was set up in 2006 by some Rohingyas and still all the expenses are born by the community. The children are great, very responsive and excited to learn but being refugees they are unable to enjoy their full rights to education with full equipments like public schools.

It is satisfying to see the glow on their innocent faces as they respond to my teaching. They also love drawings, playing football and netball.

“They are practically living with no hope, no dreams and no tomorrow, nothing. I am helping them straight from my heart. My goal is, let’s say out of 63 students, if I can get one into university or can get a doctor or engineer; this is already a huge reward for me in my life. May be it will take some time but I am willing to do this forever.

Thus, there is still room for optimism notwithstanding the current plight of refugees in
Malaysia. As long as the authorities accept deficiencies in the current status quo and are willing to engage in dialogue to redress the situation, there is still room for hope. For everyone’s part, we can continue to work to increase awareness of children’s rights, and to encourage the government to adopt comprehensive and long-term refugee children protection policies, beginning with accession to the Child Convention and amendment to relevant immigration laws and other policies affecting refugees in Malaysia. For the time-being, we can also continue to encourage the government to adopt interim measures to alleviate at least some of the problems faced by refugee children, for instance, by encouraging the government to grant registered refugees with the right to seek and obtain employment lawfully, and to have access to basic needs such as shelter, food, healthcare and particularly education.

Malaysia has ratified the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) and is thus obligated to protect all children, including migrant, asylum-seekers and refugee children. In the 2007 Concluding Observations of the Committee of the Rights of the Child, the Committee has expressed concerns over various aspects of migrant, asylum-seekers and refugee children including detention.

The Committee specifically recommends the Malaysian Government to stop detention of children in relation to Immigration proceedings and to develop a legislative framework for the protection of asylum-seekers and refugee children.

We would like to request to the Malaysian Government to fulfill its obligation to protect the rights of children, regardless of the child’s citizenship. In addition, the Government is obligated to provide protection to asylum seekers and refugee children as according to Article 22 of the CRC.

We believe the Government will ensure that the refugee children are secured and not subjected to any violence or negligent treatment during arrest and detention and provide basic assistance through formal education.


“Rohingyas deserve basic Human Rights and need protection of the Law for their security of Life and Liberty to make a decent Human Life, because they are Human Beings and as Citizen of a State where they were born and brought up, No more as stateless people. They want to live as Human Beings and as effective Citizen of Burma neither Politicle Foot-Ball nor Human Pin-Ball”.

Junta Confiscates Land in Arakan State

Irrawaddy news, Nov 18, 2009,

About 50 traditional hand-dug oil wells and 10 acres of land were confiscated on Nov. 14 by the Burmese authorities in Kyuakphyu Township in Arakan State in western Burma, according to local sources.
The sources told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the landowners are afraid they will not receive any compensation from the Burmese authorities. Police in Kyuakphyu Township told them that the order to confiscate property came from Naypyidaw.

Maung Phyu, one of the landowners, said: “They came with guns to confiscate our property. We couldn’t say anything to them. This property is our legacy. We rely on it. We’ve lost it now, and we have no jobs.”
Land confiscation by the government is a common practice in Arakan State, according to the Arakan Rivers Network (ARN) based in Thailand.

An ARN report, “Holding Our Land,” published in February, said that 53,000 acres of land in Arakan State have been confiscated. Most of the property involved oil wells.
One Korean and two Chinese oil companies operate in Arakan State: China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC), the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS).

Local sources said they believed the confiscated land will be given to CNOOC to explore for oil on the site.
The oil companies and local landowners are often in business conflicts because oil companies promise to pay compensation after they take over land, but they don’t pay fair prices, according to the Arakan Oil Watch (AOW)  based in Thailand.

Tun Thar Aung, a Burmese migrant in Mae Sot, told The Irrawaddy his land was confiscated by CNOOC. The company told him to sign a contract and it promised to pay compensation, he said, but no payment was ever made.

Land confiscation has increased in Arakan State since 2007 when authorities evicted many landowners in Kyuakphyu Township, according to AOW.  About 70 villagers fled to Thailand and Malaysia after protests were made against CNOOC.

Arakan rights activists said the oil and gas projects in Arakan State have not benefited landowners or villagers, and the companies violate human rights and cause environment damage.

Meanwhile, CNPC announced on Nov. 3 that it had begun construction on the gas pipeline which will run through Burma into Yunnan Province in China. The Burmese government has agreed to sell gas to China in a contract that will provide up to US $30 billion to the Burmese government.

INGO Office Attacked after Arakanese Nurse Harassed

 Irrawaddy news, 30 Oct 2009

Following an incident with a female staffer, 500 Arakanese surrounded the local office of the French international non-governmental organization Aide Médicale Internationale (AMI) and attacked its office and vehicles in Buthidaung Township in Arakan State in Western Burma on Wednesday, according to local sources.
“A Muslim officer working for AMI harassed a female Arakanese staff nurse, who reported the accident to authorities,” said a source in the township who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“When the police went to arrest him, AMI refused to hand him over. Incensed Arakanese youths who had gathered outside then attacked the office and AMI vehicles,” the source said.
“Youths threw stones at the AMI office,” an eye-witness said. “AMI vehicles were destroyed and electricity to the building was cut off.”

The two-hour attack took place on Wednesday evening, although the quarrel between the two staffers happened earlier in the afternoon and ended when security forces arrived, NGO sources in Buthidaung said.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Friday, a staffer for AMI’s country office in Rangoon said they had discussed a report from their Buthidaung office.

“The situation has returned to normal and was not as bad as first reported,” the AMI staffer said, adding that authorities had ordered NGO staff not to talk to the media about the incident.
AMI provide medicine to local people in the Buthidaung-Maungdaw area, the staffer said. Along with foreign staff, Arakanese and Rohingya Muslims work together at the INGO.

On Friday afternoon, NGOs and UN agencies operating in Burma held a meeting to discuss the incident at the office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Rangoon.
Following the incident, the army in Budthidaung Township had to calm the situation. The Rohingya NGO staffer was detained, local sources reported.

When contacted by The Irrawaddy, an officer at Rangoon Police Headquarters declined to comment, saying he did not know anything about the incident.
The Buthidaung-Maungdaw area is historically sensitive. Bloody riots between Arakanese and Muslim Rohingyas have periodically broken out since British colonial times. Rumors of Muslim men raping Arakanese women have sparked race riots.

In the 1990s, the Burmese military junta launched a military offensive against the Muslim minority in the area, causing hundreds of thousands of refugees to flee into Bangladesh.
The junta and some scholars disagree about the use of the term Rohingya for the Muslim minority in Arakan State, saying that these people were originally “Bengali.”

Rohingya forced to build fence

Aljazeera news, By Nicolas Haque on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border

On Myanmar’s side of the Naf River that marks border with Bangladesh, labourers are hard at work building a fence that will prevent them fleeing persecution.
They will not be paid for their work. Instead the men, who come from the persecuted Rohingya ethnic group, have been coerced into erecting the 230km long fence by the threat of violence against their families.
The Rohingyas are a distinct ethnic group from Myanmar’s Rakhine State. The authorities in Yangon have refused to recognise them as citizens and they have been persecuted for their cultural difference and practice of Islam.

For many, life in Myanmar has become so difficult that they have fled across the border to Bangladesh. Over the past year 12,000 Rohingyas have been caught crossing the border illegally.
Now they are being forced to build a fence to prevent such escapes. 
“The Myanmar army have forced all of the men living in the villages on the border to work on the fence,” a worker involved in the construction says. “Most of them are Rohingyas. If we don’t do as they say they beat us and our families.”

So far they have fenced off 70km of border in what experts believe is an attempt by Yangon to increase control of the lucrative smuggling trade that flourishes in the area.
“Illegal trade between Myanmar and Bangladesh has formerly been in favour of Bangladesh, but this will change now,”explains Professor Imtiaz Ahmed, from Dhaka University. “The country that controls the barriers between borders can also assert greater control over the illegal trade.”


Disputed border

Refugee special

UN: ‘wars displace record numbers’  Lebanon’s Palestinian refugees

Bangladesh and Myanmar have never agreed on their borders, and an ongoing dispute over where their maritime frontiers lie has seen tension rise along the Naf river.
The contested maritime border involves a patch of sea believed to contain valuable oil and gas. Control of these waters could make either country very rich, and experts say that diplomatic relations between the two countries has deteriorated as a result of the dispute.


“The tension was heightened last November when the Myanmar Navy came in to put a rig in what Bangladesh claims, rightly, to be our own territorial water,” says Retired Major General ANM Muniruzzaman, from the Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies.
“Eventually the Bangladeshi diplomatic efforts diffused the situation, and the Myanmar navy rig went back, but the Myanmar government has consistently told Bangladesh that this is their water, and that they will come back. When that happens, perhaps the Myanmar government wants to put a dual pressure on Bangladesh, not only from the sea but also from the land border.”

That process may have already started. Myanmar has deployed 50,000 men to the border with Bangladesh, and in the past month alone, Dhaka has responded by sending an additional 3000 troops to the area in a manoeuvre codenamed “Operation Fortress.”

Officially, the Bangladeshi government denies there is tension along the border. The troops say they are there to monitor and stop the illegal trafficking of goods and people.
But the soldiers know that relations between the two countries are strained.    
“We have a border through which we can observe the other side of the river. Our troops morale is very high, under any circumstances we are ready to protect the integrity and sovereignty of our country,” says Lieutenant Colonel Mozammel, commanding officer of Border Guards Bangladesh in Teknaf.


Unregistered refugees

Many Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh

Meanwhile, the horrific conditions faced by the Rohingyas in Myanmar are prompting thousands to flee to Bangladesh.
Malika is one of those who crossed the Naf river illegally. Her feet are swollen from the three-day walk to escape Yangon’s soldiers.
She says she suffered horrific abuse there and had no choice but to leave.
“I couldn’t stay there, the soldiers raped me over and over again,” she says. ”The Myanmar army do not consider us as humans.”
But once in Bangladesh, the refugees face new problems. Of more than 400,000 Rohingyas believed to have slipped across the border into Bangladesh, just 26,000 have been offically recognised as refugees by the Bangladeshi government and the United Nations.
The authorities refuse to feed and house the rest.

Even the handful of NGOs working here are not allowed to provide food or medical aid or education facilities to unregistered Rohingyas because the government fears that this would spark tensions between poor local villagers and the new arrivals.
Fadlullah Wilmot, the director of Muslim Aid in Bangladesh, explains: “More than 44 per cent of the population in this area are ultra poor, that means that their daily income only provides their basic food needs. The literacy rate is about 10 per cent. The wage rate is low, so of course there are tensions.”


In limbo
In 1992, the Bangladeshi government, under the supervision of UNHCR, organised the forced repatration of 250,000 Rohingyas on the basis that the refugees would be given citizenship by the Myanmar authorities. That promise was never kept.
Professor Ahmad believes the refugees are trapped between a rock and a hard place.
“Myanmar’s position is they do not recognise them as citizens, they are stateless within Myanmar, and they are also stateless when they come to Bangladesh,” he says.

“No-one wants us. This is humiliating.” Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh

“If you build the fence now Myanmar will probably say it is ready to take the 26,000 legal refugees from the camp but not the unregistered because they don’t know who they are.”
Trapped in limbo between two countries that don’t want them, the Rohingyas have become a bargaining chip for both Bangladesh and Myanmar as they try to settle their border dispute.

In Bangladesh’s refugee camps, frustration and anger are rife amongst the beleagured minority.
“We cannot work. Our children can’t go to school. Our wives aren’t allowed to see doctors,” one man says. “We cannot receive any food aid. No one wants us. This is humiliating, we have no arms, but we are ready to fight and to blow ourselves up. People need to know that we exist.”

ASEAN NGO SUMMIT "PEOPLE'S CALL FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE"

Source from thaingo, 19 Oct 2009

In the Name of Allah The Most Beneficient and Most Merciful .
On the specific plight of the Rohingyas as well as the people of Myanmar as whole, the governments of Myanmar and ASEAN are called upon to ensure
On the specific plight of the Muslims of South Thailand and all Thais as a whole, the governments of Thailand and ASEAN are called upon to ensure:
On the specific plight of the Bangsamoro of Mindanao, the governments of the Philippines and ASEAN are called upon to ensure:
On our part as NGOs, we undertake to:
Endorsed by :
Bangkok Declaration
ASEAN NGO SUMMIT "PEOPLE'S CALL FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE"
Islamic Center, Bangkok, Thailand
October 16th 2009

1. Nusantara Initiatives for Justice and Peace
2. Citizens International, Malaysia
3. TERAS, Malaysia
4. Secretariat for the Ulama Assembly of ASIA ( SHURA)
5. Muslim Care Malaysia
6. International Islamic Strategic Studies
7. Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia
8. Ulama Association Of Malaysia
9. Muhammadiyyah International
10. Ikatan Ilmuan Nasional, Malaysia
11. Muslimah Action Council Of Malaysia
12. Burmese Rohingya Association in Thailand (BRAT)
13. United Islamic Rohingya Organization for Development
14. International Students Network
15. Young Muslims Association of Thailand
16. Persatuan Ulama Kedah, Malaysia
17. Pusat Advokasi Hukum dan Hak Asasi Manusia (Paham), Indonesia
18. Centre for Indonesian Reform (CIR)
19. Yayasan Generasi Baru Nusantara
20. World Assembly of Muslim Youth (Thailand Office)
21. Thai Muslim Students' Association, TMSA.
22. Deep South Women's Network for Peace
23. Council of Muslim Organizations of Thailand
24. Students' Federation of Southern Thailand
25. Rohingya Human Rights Association in Thailand
26. Muslim Students' Federation of Thailand
27. Islamic Culture Foundation of Southern Thailand
28. As-Salam Institute, Yala Islamic University
29. Muslim Group for Peace (Thailand)
30. Yala Muslim Community Radio Network
31. Muslim Attorneys Centre, Thailand (MAC)
32. Thai Islamic Medical Association (TIMA)
33. Students Federation of Thailand
34. Students' Network for Protecting People
35. Pencerdasan Ummat, Malaysia (Wadah)
36. Muslim Patani Association
37. Aman News Network, Thailand
38. Muslims Association of Krabi, Thailand
39. Association of Research and Development for Consumer Protection (Thailand)
40. Halal Consumer Protection Association of Thailand (HACPA)
41. Muslimah Sisterhood of Indonesia (SALIMAH)
42. Cross Cultural Foundation
43. Islamic Centre of Thailand
44. Muslim Relations Association of Krabi
45. Peoples' Empowerment (Thailand)take the lead in bringing about a greater understanding among our people and governments, and international organisations about the conflicts and the threat they pose for peace, security and development in the region;
to address the gross violation of human rights, seek remedies for all victims and press for the provision of adequate legal and administrative protection against human rights violations;
deliberate and adopt ways to empower the people through the improvement of their socio-economic conditions;
engage ASEAN and convince the member states to be wary of any military alliance with hegemons and to seriously pursue the goal of making Southeast Asia a zone of peace, freedom and neutrality, free from foreign interference;
to establish a strong network of NGOs in the ASEAN region linked to NGOs in other parts of the world, particularly in the U.S and the European Union, that share the same strategic vision and goals and that will closely cooperate towards the above aims;
to formulate and put in place a plan of action through the set up of a regional secretariat to oversee, coordinate all the above activities and evaluate the progress. the resolution of the Mindanao conflict by addressing the root causes of injustice, colonization, poverty, underdevelopment, displacement and the illegal encroachment of Bangsamoro territory
that the Moro peoples? right to self-determination be undertaken as a distinct and independent/autonomous entity as provided for by many international treaties, such as the UN Covenant on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 1994;
the support of peaceful avenues towards attaining and achieving that right, including through the support for the full implementation of the MNLF-GRP 1996 agreement and the ongoing peace process between the Government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front
that past injustices in the form of land seizures and colonial settlements be redressed through the formulation of a comprehensive, balanced and just agreement - that does justice to the past as well as current situation - on ancestral lands through consultation and consensus with all stakeholders
that the Bangsamoro exercise control over their territories, including on the form and nature of the utilization, preservation and protection of natural resources to benefit the present and future generations;
that the Bangsamoro are supported in the development and establishment of an effective and constructive system of education and training that is accessible to all, young and old, and that preserves and promotes the positive aspects of their cultural heritage, traditions and history of the Bangsamoro people shall be maintained;
the guarantee of freedom of movement and speech that is just and true to the traditions and aspirations of the Bangsamoro;
the rights of all vulnerable groups, such as women, children and the disabled and elderly are, in all aspects, protected, defended and promoted and that the violation of these rights are punished to the full extent of the law;
the establishment of an economic system of economic and financial resources administration and management that is inspired by the Bangsamoro heritage and aspirations the end of the Emergency Decree, Martial Law and any other laws which can lead to the abuse and unfair persecution of the Muslims of South Thailand and that the people of South Thailand enjoy the basic human rights guaranteed by the Constitution of Thailand.
the end to all enforced disappearances, extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrest, torture, extortion and harassment, including sexual harassment
punishment of those responsible for the commission of any of the above crimes
the end of the persecution, injustices and the culture and system of impunity put in place as part of the suppression in South Thailand;
all paramilitary or volunteer civilian 'defense' groups are disarmed in Yala, Narthiwat, Patani, Satun and some districts of Songkla as these have worsened the violence and created distrust between and among the local communities; the full recognition to all Rohingyas and other peoples of Myanmar the right to citizenship as nationals of their country
freedom of worship and the building/rebuilding and maintenance of all mosques, temples, churches and other religious institutions;
equal access to education and vocational training;
the end to all enforced disappearances, extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrest, torture, rape, arbitrary taxation, extortion, forced slave labour and harassment
punishment, in the case of the commission of any of the above
freedom of movement;
freedom of matrimony and lift restrictions against marriages;
the end to illegal evictions, destruction of houses and confiscation of properties;
that all of Myanmar's peoples who are either internally displaced or living abroad as refugees who seek to return to their homelands are accepted and guaranteed their safety and dignity;
the opening of humanitarian space in Myanmar and the support of the humanitarian efforts by United Nations and non-governmental organisations there; and
the free and fair conduct of elections in 2010.

WE, the activists and members of the NGOs of the ASEAN region from member organizations of the Nusantara Initiative for Justice and Peace (NADI), on the occasion of the ASEAN NGO Summit in Bangkok,Thailand on the October, 16th 2009,

Remembering the tragic histories of the peoples of Myanmar, Southernmost Thailand and Mindanao and the lessons they offer to the present generations;

Reaffirming ASEAN as a regional initiative for multilateral co-orperation and mutual development;

Cognisant of the need for the encouragement of a people-to-people initiative for justice and peace within the Southeast Asian region;

Reminding all Heads of State/Government on the commitments declared in the 41st AMM 17 - 24 July 2008 in Singapore, on their obligations to the people in undertaking concrete and practical cooperation to address issues of common interests and with the view to build capacity, develop expertise and enhance coordination in areas that can contribute to the region's collective security objectives;

Reiterating the need to build an ASEAN Community that is socially just, economically sustainable, culturally rooted and vibrant, environmentally sensitive and politically stable;

Confirming that regional progress for peace and justice must be framed within the socio-economic needs and traditional and cultural roots of the people;

Affirming that all conflicts must be addressed through peaceful means on the basis of truth, justice and the rights of the people;

Condemning the high-handed military escalations and operations undertaken by many of our governments under the pretext of combating terrorism, separatism and radicalism, that have, thereby, acerbated the conflict, deepened the injustices and victimised the people by way, particularly, of arbitrary arrests, extortions, abductions, extrajudicial killings, torture, illegal confiscations of property, draconian laws and other violations of universal human rights;

Rejecting all economic, cultural, political and military intrusions and hegemony by powers outside the region through either covert or overt means; and

Noting with concern the ongoing conflicts in Myanmar, South Thailand and Mindanao and the adverse impact their perpetuation and escalation will have on the region as a whole in the absence of good will and sincere efforts towards reaching their just resolution,

HEREBY CALL ON ALL ASEAN GOVERNMENTS TO:honour the trust that the people have placed on them to guarantee the people's legitimate rights to justice and peace, to live in dignity, to the fulfillment of basic needs and to the equitable distribution of national resources;
eschew military options for the resolution of conflict but rather address and tackle all conflicts and disputes within the region peacefully and holistically in the spirit of healthy, harmonious, and cooperative regional co-existence and relations between States and peoples
promote engagement and consultation between States and their peoples and the need to live up to our collective responsibilities for the resolution of conflicts and disputes;
intensify regional and international cooperation for the promotion, sharing and implementation of policies and best practices to ensure fairness and justice and for the safeguarding of the interests, livelihood, and general wellbeing of the people;
resolve immediately the plight of the Rohingyas, the South Thailand conflict and the Bangsamoro struggle through mutual consultation and collective effort between all ASEAN governments based on the justice and legitimate rights of the people
engage with the governments of Myanmar, Thailand and Philippines in asserting the principle that the security and situation witin their juridications respectively impacts upon the security and situation of the region as a whole
work with the UN, the international community and civil society groups in protecting, assisting and according the rights of all peoples displaced from their homes by conflict or persecution to justice and fair treatment as expected by the States' own citizens and on principles of universal humanitarian grounds until such times as these same States can guarantee such displaced persons safe return to their homelands and dignified lives therein. This includes respecting the principle of non-refoulement, recognising them as persons seeking asylum and refraining from detaining them as mere undocumented migrants, and allowing UNHCR access to all asylum-seekers who have been detained in order to determine their status;
ratify the 1951 Convention Related to the Status of Refugees, its 1967 Protocol, the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and the 1990 International Convention for the Protection of the Right of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families;
give more attention to women and children in being integral part of the solution
practice and promote values and practices of good governance that give high priority to the building of a culture of integrity, transparency and accountability and that rejects oppressive and corrupted regimes;
put in place measures to enhance regional cooperation to fostering the free flow of peoples across borders and encourage cultural and commercial exchanges within the ambit of sustainable regional growth and development;
ensure that all non-State parties that are crucial to the achievement of all the above - such as the media, corporations and civil society - play positive roles in enhancing understanding and cooperation, rather than animosity and conflicts;
undertake to consult among the member states of ASEAN and to adopt a common position on matters relating to defence that affect or constitute a potential threat to the collective security of our continent;
form nation-wide truth and reconciliation commission in the countries of Myanmar, Thailand and Philippines to rebuild justice and trust among all communities and institutions by addressing and tackling past human rights violation, reviewing all national security cases;
undertake efforts towards Islamic law, especially in Muslim personal/family matters
emphase dialogue, peace talks and negotiations at all levels; and
undertake a paradigm shift in the social, economic and political and administration of South Thailand towards demilitarization.

Burmese Pro-Democracy Group Demonstrate at Burmese Embassy in Malaysia

Today about 10:30 am (Malaysian local time), about 35 Burmese Rohingyas led by pro-democracy group, National Democratic Party for Human Rights (NDPHR-South Asia Regional Office in Malaysia), submitted a memorandum to Burmese embassy in Kuala Lumpur, under police watch.

The group were allowed to gather at 300 meters  far from the embassy and show their play-cards, but not allowed to follow more than 3 persons according to the requirement of Malaysian Royal Police (Bukit Aman). The memorandum letter was put into the post-box of the embassy after read by member of NDPHR(exile), Mr.Sadek followed by Mr.Habib.

Standing at 300 meters far from the embassy

The Royal Malaysian authority shown their unfair interference upon the matter of Burmese that neglects the ASEAN’s current initiatives and developed strategy calls of democratization in Burma.

The memorandum is as follow;

Ref: NDPHR (SEA-R) 1990/2009/003

Date: Oct 16, 2009

A Memorandum

To

The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)

Union of Burma

We, on behalf of the entire Rohingya Burmese people of Arakan State, strongly condemn the SPDC for its brutal behaviors and inhumane treatment towards innocent people of the country.
It is undeniable that your ruling authorities are pushing the country to the worst proportion, installing inhuman pogrom against ethnic minorities, particularly of the Rohingya in western border who are bona-fide ethnic citizen of Arakan and present Burma who have been rooted there before Burma Era.

We are extremely feeling upset on the exercises of SPDC against Rohingya through out forced labor, forced eviction, forced extortion, forced relocation, forced extermination, torture, extra judicial killings, rapes, model village settlement, arbitrary arrest, restriction on their freedom of movement even from one village to another, restriction on freedom of worship, thought, education, marriage, family and economic development and etc.
However, the regime cannot hide reality and it shall never be gone dim forever. Circumstance is alarming that regime must face the judgment over its inhumanity and injustice in relating to the noble objectives of economic sustainability, political stability, educational development, socio-cultural recognition, humanitarian progress and etc.

In the recent month of August and September 2009, the SPDC continued to perpetrate crimes against humanity and war crimes with total impunity, highlighting the urgent need for UN Security Council-mandated Commission of Inquiry into crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma.

In the two-month period, the followings were documented by general information. They are: over 50 victims of extrajudicial killings by SPDC Army soldiers; at least 42 people subjected to forced labor; an additional 10,000 people forcibly displaced in attacks targeting civilians; at least 109 people subjected to arbitrary arrest and imprisonment; widespread use of torture against 100 civilians in Shan state, three in Northern Arakan State and a foreign citizen in Rangoon; at least seven cases of rape and sexual violence; systematic and widespread persecution of ethnic and religious communities; at least 13 children were recruited as child soldiers, and the use of widespread force labor in border fence constructions at 70 yards from the border demarcation line and deployment of 9 battalions along the borders with India and Bangladesh.

Of the above crimes, we are seriously concern over the unlawful order that was recently released by Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) authority, U Aung Kyaw Oo followed by departments of Immigration, Police, Municipal and Local groups of Kyauktaw Township-Arakan for urgent relocation of the largest ancestral Rohingya village known as Paitay village (Zailla Fara), consisting of over 800 homes, without any compensation, for the result of their refusal to accept Temporary Registration Card or Foreigner Censorship Card (TRC, identity for alien residents). The first refused groups of 30 Rohingya villagers are detained in Police custody of Kyauktaw Township. Frequently, electric supplies for the village and telecommunications of the town are cut-off. The government authority also ordered to submit the lists of breaded cattle, goads, ducks and chicken. In case of failure to comply, serious action will be taken against them including imprisonment and fine on their consumption of own animals.

In a last decade, at least over 100 villages and historical statues in Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U, Minbya, Ponajuann, Akyab, Maungdaw, Buthidaung, were destroyed and/or removed from their origin including Sandikhan Mosque (1433 AD) in Mrauk-U, Badr Maquaam (A.D 7 Century) in Akyab and coins from Arakan State Museum.
Moreover, mass arrest of Rohingyas in Maungdaw on their way back from praying, continuous attacks on innocent Rohingya villagers by new settlers in Northern Arakan, seizer list preparation of house holds, birds, animals and belongings of the Rohingyas in Arakan State is a total tyranny. In last month, about 70 villagers from Kyauknimaw Village of Rambre Township, were detained and fined by Government authority collaboration with local Rakhaings.

At the same time, the SPDC is keeping negligence to the victims of natural disaster and triggering burden to poor civilians by various means of extortions to support military families and to buy sophisticated weapons, while reportedly misusing international aids and monetary funds in recent year.

The SPDC is also ignoring the calls of international community to set free of all political prisoners and to have immediate democratic changes, while initiating to another Sham election in 2010 without the wills of people and that is forcefully exterminating the members of ethnic minorities with a view to increasing refugee outflows in neighboring countries. This act is a clear regional threat. Based on the refugee phenomena, Middle East and neighboring countries’ economic priority decline the protection of hosting refugees.  It effects in where the largest refugees numbers are hosting therefore, Saudi Arabia renders against their plight and about 3,000 refugees who are nab from Mecca and Jeddah areas are way to deportation without any human rights improvement but the rest of over 300,000 Rohingya refugees occur no where to go. For all these, the SPDC is fully responsible and committing crimes against humanity as well.

It is the time to take urgent step to end brutalities of SPDC and promotion of state terrorism.
In these regards, we urge upon the SPDC:

1. To unconditionally free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners including ethnic minority leaders like U Kyaw Min (a) Shamsul Anwarul Hoque, MP of NDPHR and member of CRPP;
2. To unconditionally cease all kinds of brutalities and human rights abuses in Arakan, particularly relocation of villages, model village settlement, forced labors, restriction of movement and etc.
3. To unconditionally respect the rights of Rohingyas as indigenous people of Arakan and present Burma like other ethnic minorities of different states and issue equal identity card like others;
4. To stop all kinds of initiatives towards Sham election in 2010 unless comprehensive dialogue with ethnic minorities and other pro-democratic forces both in home and exile;
5. To urgently allow international agencies in all ethnic minority area, particularly in Rohingya dominated areas of Arakan State with a view to ensure human rights, dignity and economic development;
6. To reconstruct the relief building for victims of cyclone Nargis in Irrawaddy delta and other effected areas of all over the country;
7. To urgently return the possessing of Rohingyas and reload their lands as actual owner, removing all new setters.

Executive Committee
National Democratic Party for Human Rights (NDPHR) exile
South East Asia Regional Office
Endorsed by:

1. Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organization, Malaysia (MERHROM)
2. Rohingya Youth Development Forum (RYDF), Arakan-Burma
3. Arakan Rohingya Refugee Committee (ARRC), Malaysia
4. Arakan Rohingya Ulama Council (ARUC), Malaysia
5. Rohingya Women Team

For more information, please contact:

1. Habibur Rahman        + (60) 12-2595185 
2. Mohammad Sadek     + (60) 16-3094599 
3. Mr. Zafar Ahmed      + (60) 16-6827287 

For Detail Information;
The Paitay village (Zailla Fara) is targeted to be demolished but failed for several times as it is the largest village in Kyauktaw Township and residents of 800 homes. The following listed villages were uprooted in last a decade from Southern Arakan;
Kyaktaw Township                  : Tangadawnn, Khogduk-Falung, kanpaw villages
Akyab (Sittwe) Township   : Takaybyin, Santole, Bodomuhan, Bohorfara villages
Mrauk Oo Township              : Nyaungpinzay, Aungdine, Pongnamraung, Shawegudaung, Mandarapyin
                                                                @ Kwanlon and Sandikhan Mosque-1433
Minbya Township                     : Nala, Sangyi villages
Ponnajuan Township           : Sishudaine village, were demolished and substituted by new settlers and Rohingya villagers were driven into the jungles, and uncountable devastations in Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung Townships.

Burmese Migrants Beaten, Arrested in China

Irrawaddy news, 14 Oct 2009
 
Chinese police have been cracking down recently on illegal Burmese migrant workers with beatings commonplace and about 50 migrants arrested every day, according to sources on the Sino-Burmese border.
The crackdown started around Sept. 25. Several detained migrants have alleged they were badly beaten and were charged 300 yuan (US $44) for their release. Immediately after their release, the Burmese migrants were forcibly repatriated, said the sources.

Ma Grang, a merchant in the Chinese border town of Ruili, said he met with a factory worker named Myo Win and his friend who claimed they were badly beaten by the Chinese police, and have since returned to Burma.  

“They were beaten with batons on their back, legs and chest. I saw the bruises,” said Ma Grang.  “Myo Win was not able to work for a few days.”
He said that Chinese police did not systematically beat up illegal Burmese migrant workers in the past.
“However, this time, they are treating the migrants brutally,” he said.
He added that Burmese migrant workers in Ruili—a border town in southwestern Yunnan Province which lies opposite the Burmese town of Muse—are currently living in fear and dare not go outside their living quarters.

Awng Wa, a source on the Sino-Burmese border, confirmed that the Chinese authorities had increased restrictions on migrating or visiting Burmese people.
In the past, Burmese people could cross the border and stay in Ruili for more than a week at a time. With the current crackdown, Burmese are only allowed to stay on Chinese soil for seven days. Anyone violating the rule is fined 600 yuan ($88), he said.

Sources in Ruili speculated that the police crackdown had been initiated to prevent the flow of illegal Burmese migrant workers into China. Others, however, claimed the Chinese were responding to attacks by Burmese government troops against ethnic Kokang and Han Chinese migrants in Burma in August.
During the Burmese government attacks, about 37,000 ethnic Kokang—who are widely considered to be ethnic Han Chinese—and first-generation Chinese migrants had to flee from Laogai in Burma across the Chinese border. Many Chinese reported that they had lost their businesses as a consequence.

An estimated 90 percent of businesses in Laogai are—or were—owned by Chinese businesspeople. 
Ma Grang said many businessmen in Ruili have suggested that the crackdown against Burmese migrants is a reciprocal gesture because of what happened to Chinese people in Burma recently.

Awng Wa told The Irrawaddy he believed both motives were in play—the Chinese police were cracking down on Burmese in revenge for the Laogai seizure, and to curtail the number of migrants crossing into Yunnan Province, he said.

30 Arakanese Activists Arrested In Kyautaw Township

Source from The Sail, 9 Oct 2009

30 Arakanese activists from Kyautaw Township were arrested by Immigration forces on Oct 07, 2009.

They were identified as Arakanese Rohingya Muslims from Paitay Village, Kyautaw Township, Arakan state.
According to reliable source, they were picked up by immigration forces at around 3pm and detained in police lock-up, Kyautaw Township.

For the causes of Kyautaw Township immigration forced the villager Rohingyas to accept Temporary Registration Card (TRC, identity for Bengali or migrant)， 7 Rohingya villagers who refused firstly were detained in immigration lock-up and another followers about 23 were also picked-up from the village. After that the group followed by chairman of Town Peace and Development Council, president of Township Immigration, president of Township Municipal, police chief, noticed the villager Rohingyas to accept Bengali identity, if not the military troops would launch to obey. Tyrannically, the villagers had been ordered to submit the lists of breaded own cattle, goats, chicken, ducks and others, as well as, selling or consumption of it unless permission will be punished to six months imprisonment.
That results, hundred of Rohingyas flee from village and hundred of Rohingya women and children are hiding in Paitay village Mosque. At the moment, electric supply for the village and tele communication in Kyautaw are cut-off.

An activist from the village clarified that they had not claimed ‘Rohingya’ and their detention is not for it, they have no problem to become Burmese but they are not Bengali. They are ethnic citizen from Arakan and they must be treated equally.

The spokesperson for National Democratic Party for Human Rights (NDPHR- exile) in Malaysia has also highlighted that the result of conflicts between immigration and locals in Kyaut Fru Township in last month, the immigration office was burn down. But, it was turn to only Muslims of Kyat Fru and about 70 local Muslims were arrested by Police with corporation of local Rakhines.

30 Arakanese Activists Arrested In Kyautaw Township

 Source from The Sail, 9 Oct 2009

30 Arakanese activists from Kyautaw Township were arrested by Immigration forces on Oct 07, 2009.

They were identified as Arakanese Rohingya Muslims from Paitay Village, Kyautaw Township, Arakan state.
According to reliable source, they were picked up by immigration forces at around 3pm and detained in police lock-up, Kyautaw Township.

For the causes of Kyautaw Township immigration forced the villager Rohingyas to accept Temporary Registration Card (TRC, identity for Bengali or migrant)， 7 Rohingya villagers who refused firstly were detained in immigration lock-up and another followers about 23 were also picked-up from the village. After that the group followed by chairman of Town Peace and Development Council, president of Township Immigration, president of Township Municipal, police chief, noticed the villager Rohingyas to accept Bengali identity, if not the military troops would launch to obey. Tyrannically, the villagers had been ordered to submit the lists of breaded own cattle, goats, chicken, ducks and others, as well as, selling or consumption of it unless permission will be punished to six months imprisonment.
That results, hundred of Rohingyas flee from village and hundred of Rohingya women and children are hiding in Paitay village Mosque. At the moment, electric supply for the village and tele communication in Kyautaw are cut-off.

An activist from the village clarified that they had not claimed ‘Rohingya’ and their detention is not for it, they have no problem to become Burmese but they are not Bengali. They are ethnic citizen from Arakan and they must be treated equally.

The spokesperson for National Democratic Party for Human Rights (NDPHR- exile) in Malaysia has also highlighted that the result of conflicts between immigration and locals in Kyaut Fru Township in last month, the immigration office was burn down. But, it was turn to only Muslims of Kyat Fru and about 70 local Muslims were arrested by Police with corporation of local Rakhines.

The Rohingya Refugees: Victims Of Exploitation

Source from Asian Tribune, 5 Oct 2009

 

By Kyaw Soe Aung (alias) MSK Jilani*

 

Nowadays, the Rohingya refugees are not free from exploitation in every moment of their step in countries of their first or second asylum before reaching to a meaningful solution.

It is easy to catch the circumstances in most countries of OIC (Organization of Islamic Conference) as they do not have any mechanism to deal with refugee phenomena, while these are like denying their Islamic obligation. In one word, everyone can realize a thing that was eradicated by the Great Human; the Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) is reappearing in modern form of salvation.

 

In deed, Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) was the greatest peace maker throughout various agreement including the world first written and 7 Point Agreement known as “Hudaibiah Agreement” signed by both parties of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and Non believers of Mecca .

 

It is also true that Islam was conquered by character and civilization, not by extremism and egoism. Meanwhile, the actual Islamic believers are modern and thus they never crossed limitation to violate human rights by any means and give dignity towards human beings and every alive.

 

At the moment, Rohingya refugees are being accused of their connection with extremist group which is undeniably away of exploitation in their marginalized situation. As of truth and authenticity, the Rohingyas are modern from their birth in country of Buddhism and grow in multi-cultural and multi-religious societies but sometimes, extremist groups have been trying to take advantage, initiating to a perfect exploitation with Islamic exploitation and thus they are deserved of international assistances to track out from the circle.

In most option, the Rohingya seek assistances from western government, rather than Islamic world as they have lost their confidence over their brethren with a view to liberating themselves from modern salvation but they don’t deny the temporary shelter and sympathy of both states and general publics of the aforesaid Muslim world. Therefore, they have to burn in cool fire of exploitation into ashes.

 

In Malaysia, the Rohingyas were underway to whip with rattan for their illegal stay in the country which was exempted by the helps of their Muslim brethren, after getting touch with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which is not necessarily should count in services of Muslim world as many Rohingya refugees had to serve such prosecution of whipping, detention, deportation with UNHCR documentation.

 

Similarly, no Rohingya got chance to enjoy education facilities for long from their brethren as their government did not allow any NGO to work for the benefit of the unfortunate Rohingya refugees but likely encouraged to engage in odd jobs by means of half payment which has a better example like Harvest Centre Sdn. Bhd, a Christian Church has started a pilot project for the marginalized and refugee children in Sentul, Kuala Lumpur from the year 2004 and mostly achieved it goals to set a clear program to educate such type of children and even to make alive Rohingya child’s name with a popular ‘Fisal Cup” which has been held in every year in Kuala Lumpur.

 

After this program, a new NGO called Taiwan Buddhist Tzu-Chi Foundation gained supports from the Government of the United States of America (USA) as an implementation partner of UNHCR and that has been running 5 different informal schools from the beginning of 2007 in Selangor Darul Ehsan and Wilayah Persekutuan like Tasik Permai, Tasik Tambahan, Taman Terati, Kampung Pandang, Ampang and Selayang, Kuala Lumpur respectively.

 

Once, the NGO developed children into read and writeable, new stranger groups are jumping into the honey pots of Rohingya’s future generation to get advantage and to exploit them to stop their hopes. It has already taken over two schools of Taiwan Buddhist Tzu-Chi Foundation from Taman Teratia, Ampang and Kampung Pandan, Ampang with a view to expelling to the supports of USA and to build up strong Muslim group to use in anti-Malay movement in coming decade.

 

These new stranger NGOs are very busy in mobilizing the Rohingya refugees in Malaysia through their fundamentalist hand like Rohingya Information Center (RIC) to deny resettlement to third country and to boycott working together with non-Muslim Burmese oppositions and others with a full commitment of Islamist which is totally not acceptable to this marginalized Rohingya society; thus they, Rohingya refugees are struggling to liberate themselves from the circle of exploitation and wooing to be resettled in western countries as modern Muslim in order to regain their human rights and justice in multi-cultural and multi-religious societies.

 

Therefore, the Rohingya refugees in Malaysia appeal to the international community, particularly to the Government of United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Sweden, Canada, Norway, New Zealand, Denmark, German, Italy, Finland and all other European countries to urgently rethink the matter of Rohingya refugees in Malaysia with a view to accepting their resettlement which may be helpful to stop world threat exploitation. The almost 80% of the Rohingya refugees in Malaysia were found active for resettlement to the west by the Arakan Rohingya Refugee Committee (ARRC), Malaysia and National Democratic Party for Human Rights (exile) South East Asia Regional office and thus the extension of real and practical sympathy for these victims of exploitation would be highly appreciated.

 

* By Kyaw Soe Aung is the General Secretary of NDPHR (exile) Headquarters based in Milwaukee City , Wisconsin State ( USA ), Advisor for the ARRC, Malaysia and Rohingya rights and youth activist.

- Asian Tribune –

China Tells Burmese Junta to Protect Chinese Residents

Irrawaddy news, Sept 26, 2009

BEIJING — China has urged Burma to take better care of Chinese citizens living in a border region where clashes between an ethnic militia and government troops flared last month, the Foreign Ministry said in a rare display of displeasure with the military junta.

China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday that the recent conflict in Kokang, a region in northeastern Burma bordering China, “harmed the rights and interests of Chinese citizens living there,” and it urged Burma to make sure such incidents don’t happen again.

Several days of clashes sent more than 30,000 refugees fleeing into China and prompted an unusual request from China that Burma calm the situation. Burma’s junta said the fighting killed 26 government soldiers and at least eight rebels, but it was impossible to verify that report.

A Foreign Ministry official lodged a formal complaint with the Burmese Embassy on Monday and called on the government to investigate the incident and punish anyone found to have broken the law, the statement on the ministry’s Web site said.

Burma is largely estranged from the West, but China has maintained close economic and diplomatic ties with the junta that have ensured access to the country’s vast mineral wealth. Large numbers of Chinese have migrated to Burma for business, and major state companies are big investors in Burma’s oil and gas industries.
Burma’s border regions have for decades been the scene of fighting between ethnic armies and the military that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Resettlement—the Black Market

Irrawaddy news, 17 Sept 2009

MAE SOT — Since 2005, when resettlement began, a network of brokers has evolved to assist individuals from Burma who wish to enter the refugee camps and resettle in a third country.
The black market business has helped many to escape Burma— but not always the people who fit the criteria and need resettlement the most.

Residents at the three main camps around Mae Sot, who are waiting for resettlement, blame the influx of “fake applicants” for the long delays they endure. Many claim that the “pseudo-refugees” leave the camps first, deferring the resettlement of real applicants.

Thousands of Burmese refugees follow the American Dream. (Illustration: Harn Lay / The Irrawaddy)

“I see many fake refugees coming into the camp. They pay the brokers and the camp authorities. Then they get resettled first,” said Bo Bo, a resident at Nu Po camp.
He explained how he came to the camp in a large group from Mon State where their land was stolen by Burmese government forces. As farmers, they had been stripped of their entire livelihood. So, with nothing left, they fled to the border.
“We have to wait longer because the brokers help the fake refugees into the camp and they leave first. It’s not fair on us, We remain in the camp with nothing while they continue to run their businesses, often returning to Myawaddy and Rangoon,” he said.

Bo Bo claimed that many fake applicants entered Nu Po camp last year and that 27 had already arrived this month [September]. He explained that two brokers are working in conjunction with the palat (camp coordinator) to get people into the camp and sent quickly to a third country.
It has been alleged that the camp authorities are working in cahoots with the brokers and have become immersed in the corruption and fraud that has sprung up around the resettlement process. Residents claim that brokers pay the palat for their clients’ entrance to the camp, allowing people with no valid refugee claim to enter.
As a result of the black market which unscrupulous Burmese brokers have developed, money has become so important in the camps that new arrivals find it very difficult to settle into their new lives as refugees in Thailand.
“We can’t get into the camp because we have no documents and we were just released from prison,” said Ko Than, a recent arrival in Mae Sot on the Thai-Burmese border.

Having just finished a 20-year sentence for his part in the 1988 protests, and deciding he had no future in Burma, Ko Than came to Thailand to apply for a new life in a third country where he could make up for the time he lost while in prison.

For ex- political prisoners like Ko Than, coming to Thailand with their families and getting safely to the refugee camps is difficult. If they go by taxi they run the risk of being arrested by the Thai police and either sent back to Burma or paying heavy bribes.

In contrast, the bogus refugees, who have traveled to Thailand without a solid refugee claim, have time to prepare for their trip well in advance and save up the necessary amount of cash. Once in the camp, their money will buy them influence and ultimately a better life than the real asylum seekers—and that creates tension and grievances in the camps.
“I do believe that refugees have the right to make money and better their lives, but it’s not fair that opportunists are allowed to buy their way into the camp and take the good homes and rations— more than the democracy activists who have given up everything,” said Kyaw Gyi, a resident of Mae La camp and former political prisoner.

However, not only are “real” refugees losing out as a result of the broker networks, but also the brokers’ customers—the bogus refugees—who often end up stranded in the camps. Many use their life savings to flee the economic woes of Burma, having been promised an easy trip to the West.

Once in Thailand though, it’s often a different story— they’re left in the camp while the brokers flee. With no realistic case for asylum—or any money to get back to Burma—many are left powerless and afraid.

Those who do complain find themselves in trouble and sometimes are evicted from the camp by the camp authorities.  In some cases, the brokers don’t just cause delays in the resettlement of refugees, they steal their chances of it.
Myat Thu, a former All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF) member based in Mae Sot, told The Irrawaddy how friends of his had been accepted to go to the United States but were told at the last minute that they couldn’t go.
“When it came around to leaving, they met with officials who told them people registered with their names had already been resettled in a third country,” he said. “When they tried to prove who they were, the administrators just shrugged and said, ‘That’s the black market.’”
The issue of identity theft has been accepted by resettlement agencies, but people continue to speculate who and what has allowed this problem to occur.

“Substitution is a major problem,” explained a former UNHCR worker who wished to remain anonymous. “No one is sure who is behind it, but it’s very possible that some UNHCR staff members are involved—they have power in the camps and oversee what goes on.
“It’s hard to tackle because everyone is too scared to complain. People in the camps don’t know if they are complaining to the actual people who are involved in the corruption and are worried that everyone will find out,” she said.
“It needs to be stopped though. Every time it occurs they are robbing the real refugees of their chance to resettle,” she added.
The refugee and migrant worker communities in and around Mae Sot have long accused UNHCR staff of being involved in the broker network. There’s no evidence to prove it, but many say they know people who have paid staff to arrange resettlement.

“If you have money the process is a lot easier,” said Ko Myo Thein, a former political prisoner and resident at Umpiem camp. “You can use a broker who will hand money over to staff at the UNHCR, whether you are a real refugee or not. Then your application will be accepted and you will be sent over to America.”
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday, Kitty McKinsey, the UNHCR senior regional public information officer in Bangkok, said the agency takes the allegations very seriously. “We have a zero tolerance policy on fraud and misbehavior of any of our staff,” she said.

Despite the problems, the resettlement process on the Thai-Burmese border continues to be one of the most successful in the world.
As one NGO worker put it: “The work which has been done here is unprecedented. People are being resettled extremely quickly. There are around 40,000 who have already been resettled in third countries where they are enjoying fundamental rights and freedom from confinement in the camps.”

However, there are still activists, former political prisoners and victims of conflict, languishing in the refugee camps feeling that they have lost out to bogus refugees.

Ko Myo Thein expressed this frustration, saying: “The real refugees remain in the camps, while fake refugees rob them of the happy new lives they deserve. The broker network is to blame for this.”

Plight of the Damned: Burma’s Rohingya

Source from Global Asia, By David Scott Mathieson

Burma’s Rohingya Muslim minority may be the most blighted ethnic minority in Asia. The blame for treating them so badly is shared far and wide. But as Burma human rights expert David Scott Mathieson writes, their plight has long been known to the international community. So, why isn’t anything being done to help them? The images of hundreds of men crammed into rickety boats, emaciated, bloodied and expressing equal parts shock and surprise at having reached land were almost from another time. These forlorn travelers, predominantly ethnic Rohingya Muslims from western Burma, landed in southern Thailand and the Indonesian island of Sumatra late last year as the latest influx from an annual sailing season for people escaping poverty, misery and almost medieval human rights violations in Burma and Bangladesh. Thailand’s military was accused of towing several boatloads of Rohingya back out to sea after they landed. In late December 2008, hundreds of bodies washed ashore in the Indian controlled Andaman Islands. Survivors told Indian authorities that they had landed in Thailand, been held for two days on a deserted island, and then towed back out to sea with a few sacks of rice and a little water. Other survivors told officials and doctors that during their long journey they had been tortured by Burmese sailors who stopped their vessel. In all, more than 6,000 men are estimated to have made the journey in dozens of fishing boats from Burma and Bangladesh beginning in November 2008. The Arakan Project, a Bangkok-based non-governmental organization, has been tracking the movements of boat people from Western Burma and Bangladesh for several years. What made this season different was the sharp increase in numbers, double a year earlier, and the media attention that accompanied it. Graphic pictures of Rohingya in detention on Thai tourist beaches appeared first in the South China Morning Post, the BBC and then on CNN, and as international concern grew, almost on cue, more boats began arriving. The international outcry centered on Thailand’s vicious “push-back” policy, which the new administration of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva at first denied, then announced it would investigate. Ultimately, Thai officials blamed media distortion, saying that the Rohingya were economic migrants not refugees and that Thailand could not absorb the problem. In Thailand, proposals to set up temporary holding centers for the Rohingya to ascertain their status as either refugees or migrant workers were dismissed, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was granted only limited access to the hundreds of detainees in Thai custody. Most of the men were fined for illegal entry, and prepared to be sent back to Burma. This is what all of them fear, given their harsh reception there. They are often imprisoned for illegal departure, even though many have no Burmese identity cards. In their absence, their names are removed from Burma’s draconian household registration system that keeps track of people’s movements, and they are often handed stiff fines. Regional leaders announced that they would discuss the issue of the Rohingya boat people on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Thailand in late February. A regional solution was clearly needed. Little was done by the regional grouping, however, except to postpone decisions on stemming the flow until a meeting in April of the Bali Process, a multilateral mechanism for discussing human trafficking and smuggling. ASEAN’s failure to adequately address the issue demonstrated a few key facts about the Rohingya: that it was a relatively minor case of illegal human movement affecting Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh and India; the men do not pose a great threat to national security, as some governments contend; and that the blame for all this misery rests squarely inside Burma. So why the harsh treatment and seeming absence of mercy? All told, the Rohingya number about two million people. Approximately 800,000 remain in Burma and 200,000 in Bangladesh, with 30,000 of them in squalid refugee camps. An estimated half a million live in the Middle East as migrant workers, and 50,000 in Malaysia. Some make it to Japan, while others attempt the even longer sea voyage to reach Australia. They are leaving for good reasons: their living conditions in Burma are atrocious. The Rohingya inhabit the worst position in Burma’s dreadful human rights landscape. The men and young boys risk the dangerous journey across the Andaman Sea to seek employment and to send money back to families barely surviving in their homeland. The distinction between a refugee fleeing persecution and one seeking a better life doesn’t mean much to the Rohingya. And anyway, both are true. The Rohingya have borne the brunt of the Burmese military regime’s brutal state building for decades. They are an ethnic minority descended from a merging of Arakanese Buddhists, Chittagonian Bengalis and Arabic sea traders. Their dialect is distinct, if Bengali in origin, with smatterings of Persian. Centuries of co-existence with Arakanese Buddhists was bifurcated by British colonialism, when the boundaries of India and Burma were demarcated. As a result, the Rohingya became a people caught between states, with the majority situated in newly independent Burma in 1948. Burma’s treatment of its Muslim minority has generally been characterized by neglect punctuated by scapegoating. In the 1960s, the military-socialist regime of Ne Win expelled hundreds of thousands of South Asians from Burma during its “Burmese Way to Socialism” nationalization program, similar to the treatment Idi Amin meted out to Asians in Uganda a few years later. The Rohingya have been subjected to particularly harsh treatment, possibly more than any other ethno-religious minority in Burma. While almost every non-Burman ethnic group has staged an armed rebellion against the central government in the past 60 years, fuelling decades of low intensity conflict in which civilians have suffered the most, successive military governments have harbored a uniquely vicious aversion to the Rohingya. In 1978, the Burmese army mounted a murderous ethnic cleansing campaign they called Operation Dragon King (Naga Min) that drove more than 200,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh. After staying for a year in such squalid conditions that 10,000 of them starved to death because the Bangladeshi authorities withheld food aid, most of the survivors returned to Burma. The socialist government completed a nationwide census in 1983 in which the Rohingya were not counted, rendering them stateless through exclusion. The 1982 Citizenship Act legalized this exclusion, creating two categories of people, full citizens of Burma, including most ethnic groups, and then “associate” citizens, such as the South Asian and Chinese minorities. The Rohingya were disqualified from either group because they could not prove their lineage as “associates” before 1948. Western Arakan’s isolation and underdevelopment meant that few Rohingya were registered at birth, or had documentation. The Rohingya are officially an alien and illegal community, not listed as one of the 135 recognized “ethnic nationalities” in Burma, and thus the majority of them are not entitled to national identity cards. This stateless status has provided the security forces with impunity to perpetrate routine abuses against Muslims in Western Burma. In 1991, the Burmese army repeated its pogrom. More than a quarter million Rohingya were driven out of Arakan into Teknaf and Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh. Hundreds were killed as the army slashed and burned its way through villages to force them out. The refugees were not welcomed in Bangladesh and were herded into rank refugee settlements. A few years later most of them were forced back over the border in a violent, United Nations-sponsored repatriation process. The survivors of this experience, and the remaining Rohingya in Arakan State, have been largely kept alive by foreign development agencies such as UNHCR and the World Food Program (WFP). A stark indicator of living conditions in Western Arakan State is contained in the WFPs recent food security survey in Burma, where more than half of young boys and girls were seriously malnourished, and most households had no independent sources of food. The Burmese military’s routine abuses against the Rohingya exacerbate the chronic poverty. They are denied travel permission between villages, which limits employment opportunities, education and trade. Permission for even limited travel must be obtained from local military units, and is often denied. Some Rohingya communities are herded into “new villages” where the military can monitor them and also seize their land for military-connected business projects. Forced labor and expropriation of property is a daily reality. Religious persecution is widespread, with many mosques destroyed or ordered to be emptied. Extra-judicial killings are common. This treatment reflects not just the instrumental use of violence to force the Rohingya to leave, but an unofficial policy of discrimination whose ultimate aim is the forced removal of a minority group. The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) stayed quiet during the recent drama on the Thai and Indonesian coastlines. Eventually, the junta announced that the Rohingya were not Burmese citizens and had nothing to do with Burma, creating the impression for some that the tragedy involved only Bangladeshis. At the time of the recent ASEAN summit, the regime disingenuously announced that any “Bengali” who could prove that they were born in Burma could return. The exiled pro-democracy movement from Burma was largely silent. Indeed, many exiled opposition activists have also been dismissive of the Rohingya and routinely exclude them from multi-ethnic gatherings. Arakanese Buddhists become apoplectic when the issue of the Rohingya is raised and routinely deny that the Rohingya even exist. It’s hard to understand the origin of this hatred toward the Rohingya, beneath the excuses of national security, legal measures against illegal immigration, or even nationalism. Racism obviously plays a big part. This was demonstrated by the Burmese Consul-General in Hong Kong, Ye Myint Aung, who in February sent a letter to his fellow heads of mission in which he stated: “In reality, Rohingya are neither ‘Myanmar People’ nor Myanmar’s ethnic group. You will see in the photos that their complexion is ‘dark brown.’ The complexion of Myanmar people is fair and soft, good looking as well… (They are as ugly as ogres).” South Asians are derogatorily referred to as kala (foreigner) in Burma by every other ethnic group, but the Rohingya are even beneath this level of distain. There are few security reasons that could possibly justify Burma’s treatment of the Rohingya. A short-lived Mujahid rebellion in the early 1950s in Arakan didn’t attract widespread Rohingya support. Contemporary Rohingya armed resistance is small and militarily insignificant, and the political and armed resistance groups are splintered and constantly bickering. Small numbers of Rohingya men who have traveled to the Middle East for terrorism training have evidently not returned with any jihadist designs. There has never been a Muslim-connected terrorism incident in Burma, and as the Australian security analyst Andrew Selth has pointed out, Muslims in Burma are more likely to be terrorized by the Burmese military than to be terrorists. Since the early 1990s, the militarization of Western Burma has been dramatic, with a rise in the number of army battalions from 3 to 43, the biggest increase in the country. The Burmese army uses the local population to maintain their presence, stealing food, appropriating land and forcing civilians to build camps, excavate roads and carry supplies. The SPDC has been building up its strength to safeguard massive infrastructure projects. In December 2008, the Chinese energy company PetroChina signed a 30-year lease with the Burmese to buy natural gas off the coast of Western Arakan, in the Shwe Gas field; the consortium involves Indian, Thai, South Korean, Chinese and Burmese interests. The gas will be transported across Burma to Yunnan by pipeline, with a second pipeline running beside it that will transport crude oil from the Middle East. Although the majority of Rohingya communities are northwest of these planned pipeline routes, the increased troop presence has adversely impacted their already dismal existence. Thailand’s so-called push-backs, while shocking, should not have come as a surprise. The steadily increasing numbers of Rohingya arriving in Southern Thailand have sparked a tough Thai deterrence policy. In 2007, hundreds of Rohingya caught near Ranong in southern Thailand were detained to the north in the Thai-Burma border town of Mae Sot. Soon after, over 80 of them were sent back to Burma in an area controlled by the pro-SPDC militia, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA). The DKBA is notorious for its involvement in drug trafficking, illegal logging and extortion of migrant workers. Most of the men couldn’t pay to be smuggled home, so they trickled back into Thailand and were eventually trafficked down to Malaysia. Thailand has cast the Rohingya as a threat to national security. Military officials routinely accuse the men of being Muslim mercenaries masquerading as migrant workers, coming to Thailand to volunteer with Southern Thai Muslim separatist militants. It is true that some of the smuggling networks are also involved in arms smuggling from Cox’s Bazaar, but no Rohingya has ever been implicated in violent attacks in Thailand, nor been linked with the shadowy separatist cells fighting in Thailand’s deep South. In 2008, former Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej threatened to intern the Rohingya on a “desert island.” This seemed absurd bluster at the time, but he must have been serious. Thai security forces used remote Ko Sai Deang (Red Sand Island) as a holding center for captured Rohingya before they towed them out to sea in late December. Royal Thai Army officer Colonel Manas Kongpan of the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), who was implicated by a Thai court in a massacre of Thai Muslims five years ago at a mosque, was in charge of the operation. He was unapologetic about his forces’ treatment of the Rohingya, denying any harsh measures and saying Thailand’s policy was in line with international humanitarian practice. “The issue has become a scandal because of a newsman slandering the military and bad-mouthing Thailand,” he told the Bangkok Post. Prime Minister Abhisit has announced an investigation, but there is little likelihood that complicit officers will be punished. Malaysia is the preferred destination of Rohingya men looking for work. There is a thriving Rohingya community within the large migrant worker population from Burma in Kuala Lumpur and Penang, yet all migrant workers live a precarious existence subject to arbitrary arrests, beatings and intimidation. In Indonesia, the nearly 400 Rohingya who arrived appear to have won a temporary reprieve after Indonesia threatened to send them back. Conditions in the remaining Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh have marginally improved in the past two years, but living standards are still primitive and options slim. Not all the men in the boats are destitutes fleeing oppression, some are ethnic Bengali’s from Chittagong blending in to get a job in Malaysia or refugee resettlement opportunities in a third country. And a few of the Rohingya must be relatively prosperous to have paid the fees ‑ $300 for the journey from the Burmese or Bangladesh coast to southern Thailand, and later another $500-700 in trafficking fees. The average annual wage in Burma is less than $300, although most Rohingya would earn well below this. Finally, the Rohingya are not a “forgotten people,” as many headlines described them. They are more a foresworn people. No one wants them, even though the world is well aware of their predicament. In the past 20 years, there has been probably more international attention devoted to the Rohingya than to any other ethnic group in Burma. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, UNHCR, Médecins Sans Frontières and many other groups have been reporting on their plight since the 1991 campaign against them. Their persecution has been a litany of horrors the international community has been well aware of, but helpless or unwilling to rectify. While Burma is the key to stemming the exodus, other Southeast Asian states need to observe international standards over their treatment of migrant workers. ASEAN’s collective failure to address the root causes of the flight of the Rohingya from Burma will ensure its continuation. David Scott Mathieson is Burma Researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch.