Myanmar Weekly News
8th March 2014
Vol.1 No.10
MYANMAR WEEKLY NEWS Vol 1, No.10
8th March 2014
www.myanmar.com
Table of Contents NEWSMAKERS
Doctors Without Borders Can Stay in Myanmar
Rise in Bigotry Fuels Massacre Inside Myanmar
Open-air prison: Rohingya cut off in Myanmar town Suu Kyi needs a proxy to rule Myanmar
Exclusive: Trafficking abuse of Myanmar Rohingya spreads to Malaysia
Malaysia killings put Myanmar Buddhists on edge
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POLITICS Myanmar still buys NKorea weapons WASHINGTON (AP) The U.S. Defense Department says Myanmar is still buying conventional weapons from North Korea. A report to Congress on North Korea's military capabilities released Wednesday says the secretive nation uses a worldwide network to facilitate arms sales. It lists Iran, Syria and Myanmar as a core but dwindling group of recipient countries, but adds that Myanmar has begun distancing itself from North Korea. Myanmar denies violating U.N. sanctions that prohibit such weapons purchases. The U.S. has pressed Myanmar's reformist government to stop buying from North Korea, also previously suspected of supplying Myanmar with missile technology. Washington is concerned that North Korea's arms trade helps bankroll its nuclear and missile programs. In December, the U.S. blacklisted a Myanmar military officer and companies for continued weapons trading with the North. Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11215048
NE ultras aiding each other in Myanmar The militant outfits having bases in Myanmar have started using each others‘ facilities for logistic support and even training following dwindling of their strength and flow of funds. Meanwhile, despite having signed a ceasefire agreement with the Government of India, the NSCN(K) is still allowing the active militant groups to use its bases in the neighbouring country. Highly placed security sources told The Assam Tribune that according to information available with the security agencies, discussions among the militant groups of the region are still on to give a final shape to the proposed platform of all the outfits of the region. Source: http://epao.net/epSubPageExtractor.asp?src=news_section.News_Links.News_Links_2014.NE_ultra s_aiding_each_other_in_Myanmar_20140305
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Oops, Congress asked to fix slip-up in Myanmar aid bill (Reuters) - The Obama administration is asking Congress to fix a 2012 bill that left a World Bank agency out of a list of 12 international financial institutions that could receive U.S. support to promote development in Myanmar. The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) promotes foreign direct investment in emerging markets by protecting private investors from various forms of political risk. "Because of this technical problem, the United States is still required to oppose guarantees provided by MIGA for private investment in Burma," the Obama administration said in its budget request submitted on Tuesday to Congress for fiscal 2015, which begins October 1. With only 130 employees, MIGA is one of the smallest institutions within the World Bank. More than 10,000 people work for the main World Bank unit and over 3,000 people at the International Finance Corporation, its private sector lending arm. According to the U.S. budget request, several MIGA projects are planned for Myanmar that the United States would be forced to oppose because of the error. Congress for years banned the United States from backing any development loans to the Southeast Asian nation, which was ruled by a military junta accused of human rights violations. But after five decades in power, the military government stepped aside and the country launched a series of economic and political reforms, prompting a rapid rapprochement with Washington. (Reporting by Anna Yukhananov; Editing by Richard Chang) Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/05/us-usa-fiscal-worldbankidUSBREA2403F20140305
Myanmar anti-Muslim Violence: Manmohan Singh needs to threaten trade sanctions Mumbai: As Manmohan Singh readies to fly to Myanmar capital Nai Pyi Taw Monday for the six-nation BIMSTEC meet on regional ties, Dr Syed Zafar Mahmood asked him to talk tough with the host country on ant-Muslim violence and demanded from the visiting prime minister to threaten it of economic sacntions. "Unlike his earlier interactions with the leaders of Myanmar, Dr Singh must this time firmly convey in unequivocal terms to the Government and leadership of Myanmar the deep anguish and disapproval of the people and the Government of India in respect of the large scale ongoing anti-Muslim ethnic cleansing in that country", Dr Zafar said.
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Dr. Zafar who is president of Zakat Foundation of India and former OSD at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) was talking to ummid.com on phone ahead of Manmohan Singh's visit to Myanmar. "Unabated, protracted, mass scale and intransigent gross violation of Human Rights has been continuing in Myanmar for quite some time. Hence, India which has earlier been Myanmar's protector state and is now its 4th largest trading partner, must also threaten Myanmar of cutting down bilateral trade", he said. "Not only the Tripartite Highway Project needs to be put on hold, India should also vehemently move resolutions in ASEAN, SAARC and UNO asking them to impose international trade sanctions against Myanmar", he demanded. Manmohan Singh leaves for Myanmar capital Nai Pyi Taw Monday for the six-nation BIMSTEC meet on regional ties, in what could be his last foreign visit as prime minister, and also hold bilateral talks with its leadership. Apart from engaging with his host, Myanmar President U. Thein Sein, Manmohan Singh is also set to parley with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the new Nepalese premier Sushil Koirala. Besides these countries, Thailand and Bhutan are also part of BIMSTEC or the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation. The upcoming, two-day summit will be the third after those in Bangkok in 2004 and here in 2008. The regional forum focuses on 14 key sectors of common development and concern such as agriculture, trade, investment, technology, energy, tourism, transport communication, environment, disaster management, health and counter-terrorism. The leaders are also expected to give a political push to the delivery of a free trade pact among these six nations, which account for 1.3 billion people, or 21 percent of the world population, and a combined gross domestic product of $2.5 trillion. The focus for New Delhi will equally be on the bilateral talks Manmohan Singh holds with the leadership of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nepal, officials said ahead of the visit. Source: http://www.ummid.com/news/2014/March/02.03.2014/zafar-mehmood-tomanmohan-on-myanmar.html
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Doctors Without Borders Can Stay in Myanmar YANGON, Myanmar March 1, 2014 (AP)
A day after Doctors Without Borders announced it was being expelled from Myanmar, the government said Saturday that negotiations with the group were ongoing and that it may be allowed to resume operations everywhere but Rakhine, a state plagued by bloody bouts of sectarian violence. After intense international pressure, presidential spokesman Ye Htut told The Associated Press that Rakhine's government had asked for the humanitarian group's operations to be suspended in the state, but that its work would not be disrupted elsewhere in the country. Doctors Without Borders said in a statement that it welcomed the news, but added that it remained concerned about the tens of thousands of people who remain in camps in Myanmar and are in desperate need in care. All of the aid group's clinics in Myanmar were closed Friday. The group was told earlier in the week that its license was being revoked, in part because it was hiring "Bengalis," the name Myanmar's government uses to refer to the longpersecuted Rohingya ethnic Muslim minority. Source: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/govt-doctors-borders-staymyanmar-22729682
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Rise in Bigotry Fuels Massacre Inside Myanmar By JANE PERLEZMARCH 1, 2014
Robysa Nakhata, 17, tried to comfort her mother, Asmy Nakhata, who has breast cancer, diagnosed by a nongovernmental organization in a camp in Sittwe. Rohingya are generally not allowed to leave camps for medical treatment. DU CHEE YAR TAN, Myanmar — Under the pale moon of Jan. 13, Zaw Patha watched from her bamboo house as Mohmach, 15, her eldest child, was dragged from the kiosk where he slept as guardian of the family business. The men who abducted the boy struck him with the butt of a rifle until he fell to the dirt path, she said in an interview, gesturing with a sweep of her slender arms. Terrified, she fled into the rice fields. She assumes he is dead. Three doors away, Zoya, dressed in a black abaya, showed the latch on her front door that she said armed men had broken as they stormed in and began beating her 14-year-old son, Mohamed. She has not seen him since. The villagers‘ accounts back up a United Nations investigation, which concluded that the attack on Du Chee Yar Tan that night resulted in the deaths of at least 40 men, women and children, one of the worst instances of violence against the country‘s long-persecuted Rohingya Muslims. They were killed, the United Nations says, by local security forces and civilians of the rival Rakhine ethnic group, many of them adherents of an extreme Buddhist ideology who were angered by the kidnapping of a Rakhine policeman by some Rohingya men. Myanmar‘s government, intent on international acceptance and investment, has steadfastly denied the killings occurred in the village, a collection of hamlets spread across luxuriant rice fields close to Bangladesh and a five-hour ferry ride up the languid Kaladan River from the state capital, Sittwe. The country‘s human rights commission called the news ―unverifiable and unconfirmed.‖
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The United Nations findings, however, have become emblematic of the increasing violence against Myanmar‘s Rohingya, an estimated 1.3 million people who are denied citizenship under national law. The world organization‘s report — presented to the government by the United Nations and United States but not made public — documents the initial discovery of the massacre by five Muslim men who sneaked into the area after the attack. They found the severed heads of at least 10 Rohingya bobbing in a water tank. Some of those were children‘s. One of the men said he was so rattled, and concerned his eyes were playing tricks in the darkness, that he put his hands in the tank to confirm through touch what he thought he saw. The killings are a test for Myanmar‘s government, which has done little to rein in radical Buddhists, even as it pursues broad economic and political reforms of policies created by its former military leaders. The government has backed severe restrictions imposed by local authorities on Muslims‘ freedom of movement and deprivation of basic services in Rakhine State, where most Rohingya live. The bloodletting is also a challenge for Western governments that have showered economic aid and good will on Myanmar in the hope of winning the fealty of the resource-rich fledgling democracy. Those countries have mostly kept their concerns about the treatment of the Rohingya quiet in the hope, diplomats said, of persuading the government to change its stance. On Friday, the crackdown on the ethnic minority continued, when the government ordered Doctors Without Borders, the Rohingya‘s main health care provider, to stop providing its services to them. One of the group‘s offenses, according to a government official, was the hiring of too many Rohingya. Since 2012, many Rohingya, a long-reviled group in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, have been herded into miserable camps they are not allowed to leave, even for work. Those still allowed to live in villages like Du Chee Yar Tan are at the mercy of the local authorities, many of whom are inspired by an extremist Buddhist group whose monks have used the nation‘s new freedoms to travel the countryside on motorbikes preaching hatred of Muslims. Continue reading the main story The latest carnage is a major embarrassment for the government, which has just assumed an important position as the annual chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. In a sign of the sensitivity, a visit to the village to assess the conflicting reports about the night of Jan. 13 was cut short when local police officers briefly detained two New York Times reporters and a photographer. In response to a major 2012 spasm of violence in Sittwe that included the firebombing of homes and left an estimated 300 dead, most of them Muslims, President Thein Sein said most Rohingya were in Myanmar illegally, despite their having lived there, in some cases, for generations. His solution: The United Nations should help deport them.
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Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace laureate and opposition leader, is rarely asked at home about discrimination against the Rohingya because it is broadly accepted in Myanmar. She has defended her lack of action to the foreign news media, saying that taking sides could further exacerbate tensions, an explanation that even her Western supporters believe is calculated to avoid offending voters ahead of elections next year. Though there have been attacks on other Muslim groups elsewhere in Myanmar in the past two years, the animosity toward the Rohingya is especially combustible. Many of them were brought to the country from India in British colonial times, and many ethnic Burmese despise them as illegal intruders from what is now Bangladesh. About 140,000 displaced Rohingya whose homes were destroyed in two major attacks in 2012 now live in more than two dozen camps around Sittwe, a dilapidated trading center. Largely dependent on assistance from international humanitarian groups, which are often harassed by the local authorities, the Rohingya remain trapped in the camps that foreign aid workers call the world‘s largest outdoor jails. The presidential spokesman, U Ye Htut, said in a telephone interview that plans last year for ―resettlement and rehabilitation‖ of those in the camps were suspended because the ―Bengalis did not agree and threw stones,‖ using a term common in Myanmar for the Rohingya, indicating the belief that they belong in Bangladesh. Of the 18 townships in Rakhine State, seven have already barred Muslims from using their clinics, foreign aid workers said. And a report released last week by Fortify Rights, a group that specializes in the Rohingya, chronicled a pattern of discrimination by officials that is intensifying as local authorities appear increasingly desperate to drive the group out. A dozen leaked documents dated from 1993 to 2008 showed the government‘s efforts to slow the growth of the Rohingya population, including a requirement for official permission to marry and limits on the number of children couples can have. The presidential spokesman, Mr. Ye Htut, dismissed the findings as ―a one-sided view of the Bengali.‖ As a way out of the bleak camps, nearly 80,000 Rohingya men, women and children last year took perilous sea journeys run by smugglers to Thailand and on to Malaysia or north to Bangladesh. Some drowned in capsized boats, and many were detained in Thailand, said Chris Lewa, the director of the Arakan Project, a human rights group. ―The risk seems worth it to them,‖ she said. Constrained Lives Muhamed Fourhkhat, 54, and his family have it better than most in the camps and the villages around Sittwe. They have managed — in a vastly reduced way — to replicate the lives they had as the scions of a well-to-do Rohingya quarter in Sittwe that flourished with markets, a primary school for Muslim and Buddhist children, a mosque and a monastery. In the town, the family lived on the top stories of two concrete buildings laid with polished teak floors, and worked downstairs at their hardware business. The land had been passed down through his great-grandfather, Mr. Fourhkhat said.
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The properties were burned by a mob, backed by Rakhine security forces, in June 2012, he said, and bulldozed by the government a few months later. So was every other structure in the neighborhood. On a recent day, the neighborhood was an empty stretch of land overgrown with weeds and littered with plastic bags waving in the wind. An eerie silence has settled over what, by many accounts, was once a friendly marketplace that served both Rakhine and Rohingya. Mr. Fourhkhat has never returned, though he could probably bribe a police officer to get there for a short visit. ―Why would I?‖ he asked, pointing out that his beard, touched with henna, gave him away as a Muslim. ―If I went,‖ he said, making a cutting gesture across his neck, ―you would find my dead body there.‖ He has built a new, if less sturdy, home of bamboo in a Muslim village that sits astride the camps inside a security perimeter that is designated by the Rakhine government as a place Rohingya can live. ―I have never lived in bamboo before,‖ he said. Mr. Fourhkhat‘s son, Shwe Maung Thani, 28, is a graduate of Sittwe University in biology, getting his diploma before the state expelled all Rohingya students from the school. He has rarely sneaked out of the camp, but tried twice to get his sick mother to a hospital. She died in January after receiving inadequate medical care, he said. The only Rohingya doctor in Rakhine State — Dr. Tun Aung, trained before a citizenship law in 1982 disqualified Rohingya for medical school — was jailed after the June 2012 violence. He remains in prison, convicted of inciting violence, despite requests from the United States government for his release, an American official said. A Longtime Fear The Rakhine people, a group of about 2.1 million who are fiercely proud of their ancient kingdom, known as Arakan, are fearful of the Rohingya based on ―an acute sense of demographic besiegement,‖ according to a recent article by Kyaw San Wai, a Myanmar citizen who is a senior analyst at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. It is a feeling shared by many Buddhists across Myanmar. Given the lack of a census since 1983, the demographics are imprecise. It is generally accepted by Myanmar and international officials that about 89 percent of the roughly 55 million people in Myanmar are Buddhist and 4 percent are Muslim. The Rohingya are a subset of those Muslims, making the Buddhists‘ fear of being overwhelmed seem irrational though it is nonetheless real, the experts say. ―Among Burmese Buddhists, there is a widespread belief that Buddhism will disappear in the future,‖ Mr. Wai wrote. While there is little chance of Muslims taking over the nation, they are enough of a presence here in Rakhine to make their presence felt politically. In the 2010 general election, the central government allowed the Rohingya to vote despite their lack of citizenship, and the results were too close for comfort, said Khaing Pyi Soe, a senior member of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party. The Rakhine candidate in
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Sittwe won 52 percent of the vote, and the Rohingya candidate 48 percent. Mr. Khaing Pyi Soe and other officials say the Rohingya must not be allowed to vote next year because with many young Rakhine leaving the impoverished region for work elsewhere, the results would be reversed. In the weeks before the attack on Du Chee Yar Tan, monks from the radical Buddhist movement called 969 visited a town nearby. The monks — who are at least tolerated by the national government, if not admired by some officials — have stirred anti-Muslim sentiment throughout parts of Myanmar. There was no formal connection between the appearance of the monks and the killings, experts said, but their hate speech has increasingly infected the sloganeering of Rakhine civilians. Now, they say, even moderate Rakhine feel it would be too dangerous to stand up for reconciliation. The United Nations and the United States have kept up the pressure on Myanmar about the killings in Du Chee Yar Tan, and Myanmar‘s government, which has already conducted two fast inquiries, has ordered another and included a Muslim on the panel, though not a Rohingya Muslim. One factor may complicate its investigation: The United Nations report on the attack said nearby villagers reported that in the hours immediately afterward, they saw Rakhine security forces ferry 20 bodies to surrounding hills, probably to cover up the murders. Immediately after the slaughter, 22 wounded and traumatized villagers sought help at rural clinics run by Doctors Without Borders, the group said. Some were women traumatized by the horrors they witnessed, according to aid workers familiar with the cases; others sought treatment for wounds. At least some villagers have drifted back to check on their belongings. Zaw Patha, whose son was dragged from the kiosk, found that the goods he guarded had been looted and her cows stolen. Red liquid signifying blood was splashed on a school not far from her house, a warning to stay away. ―To an extent, I understand the worry of the Rakhine about Rohingya population growth in an area next to Bangladesh,‖ said the international aid worker. ―But at the same time, you can‘t get rid of 1.3 million people.‖ Wai Moe contributed reporting. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/02/world/asia/rise-in-bigotry-fuels-massacreinside-myanmar.html?_r=0
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Suu Kyi needs a proxy to rule Myanmar Just like Sonia Gandhi in India chose Manmohan Singh for the prime minister‘s post, the Nobel laureate should find someone she completely trusts to head the government in her country
By S.N.M Abdi | Special to Gulf News Published: 20:00 February 28, 2014 Aung San Suu Kyi made me a cup of tea at her lakeside Yangon home before voicing her acute unhappiness with India for leaving her in the lurch. I remember sipping tea from the finest bone china and taking notes as she poured her heart out to a group of Indian journalists in 1995. New Delhi had fully backed Suu Kyi when she first took on Myanmar‘s generals in 1988. India, which shares a 1600-km-long border with Myanmar, openly supported Suu Kyi‘s National League for Democracy (NLD). All India Radio‘s broadcasts in Burmese language fanned the pro-democracy movement. India-backed NLD won a landslide victory in 1990 but instead of handing over the reins to Suu Kyi the military junta put her under house arrest. But India‘s commitment did not falter; it honoured her with the Nehru Award in 1993 soon after she won the Nobel Prize for Peace. Then India did a stunning U-turn. It dumped Suu Kyi and embraced the generals to check China‘s growing influence in Myanmar. New Delhi also wanted the junta to flush out Indian rebel groups from their hideouts in the jungles of Myanmar. The betrayal evidently shattered Suu Kyi‘s faith in India. A lot of water has flown down the Irrawady River since the Nobel laureate cried on the Indian media‘s shoulder. Myanmar has changed drastically in 19 years. Suu Kyi no longer needs India‘s diplomatic, moral or material support. But having closely followed her career, I would like to offer a piece of advice to repay her gracious hospitality! Although India let her down, she must again turn to India for inspiration in her own interest. To be more
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precise, Suu Kyi should take a leaf out of Sonia Gandhi‘s book if she is serious about evicting the junta and taking control of her nation. Myanmar will go to the polls next year. Suu Kyi is undoubtedly Myanmar‘s most popular politician. But between her and the presidency stands Clause 59(F) of the 2008 juntadrafted constitution, which disqualifies anyone whose spouse or children are foreign nationals from holding the highest office. Her late husband, Michael Aris, was a British academic. Her sons, Alexander and Kim, hold British passports. So even if NLD wins the majority of seats in 2015 and newly elected MPs unanimously want Suu Kyi as president, she still won‘t be sworn in as president thanks to 59(F) whose sole purpose is to ensure that she never becomes the country‘s ruler. Suu Kyi, of course, hasn‘t thrown in the towel; her mood seems to be combative. Standing at the crossroads, she keeps reminding her people and the world that she wants to be the president. Naturally, she is fighting for constitutional amendments; recently declaring that ―if we do not change the constitution, we cannot say our country is really a democracy, and if an election is held with an unfair constitution, the result will also be unfair.‖ But given the vice-like grip of Tatmadaw (armed forces) on polity — President Thein Sein is a former general and the army-backed ruling party, Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), and army-nominated MPs together account for 80 per cent of lawmakers at present — it‘s unlikely that 59F will be scrapped before 2015 elections, however hard she tries. In this grim scenario, Suu Kyi would do well to emulate Sonia. Sonia too had a ―foreign‖ issue to contend with. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) attacked Sonia‘s Italian origins despite her acquiring Indian citizenship. Unlike Suu Kyi, Sonia didn‘t face constitutional or legal hurdles; she could have become the Prime Minister if she wanted. But she chose to silence her opponents by not becoming the prime minister. Instead, she appointed an unquestioning loyalist with a clean image but without a following – Manmohan Singh – as PM. Since 2004 Sonia, the undisputed leader of the Congress Party, has ruled India by proxy with the PM reporting to her on a daily basis. By my reckoning, Suu Kyi‘s is definitely more popular in Myanmar than Sonia is in India. In Myanmar, the president is the equivalent of India‘s prime minister. Of course, the president is not directly elected in Myanmar just as the Indian PM is not directly elected by voters. Both are selected by the party which wins a majority in parliament. So Suu Kyi must find her own Manmohan Singh — an NLD MP who she completely trusts; someone who will give his right hand to be her puppet. After NLD defeats USDP in next year‘s polls, Suu Kyi can appoint her handpicked candidate as the president who will ungrudgingly execute her orders right or wrong. Her wish will be the new president‘s command! There can be no better strategy to circumvent 59F and beat the generals at their own game. I don‘t know how the junta will react when Suu Kyi‘s game-plan becomes public knowledge. But it‘s bound to give at least three generals eyeing the presidency sleepless nights: Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of armed forces itching to make his political debut with a bang after his retirement later this year; and two former generals — Thura Shwe Mann, Speaker and USDP Chairman whose vaulting ambition is Myanmar‘s worst-kept secret, and President Thein Sein who wants to have another go at the top job. If their bête noir manages to install a puppet president, the generals should blame Sonia for showing Suu Kyi the way. S.N.M Abdi is a noted Indian journalist and commentator.
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Source: http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/suu-kyi-needs-a-proxy-to-rule-myanmar1.1297028
BUSINESS Luxury cars gaining popularity in Myanmar YANGON - A growing number of Myanmar citizens are buying brand-new luxury cars. Aside from changes in legislation that now allow them to do so, many locals are also becoming more affluent. This is prompting many premium automobile companies to enter Myanmar. As Myanmar opens its doors after decades of isolation, more than 200 new car showrooms have emerged. Actual data on the take-up rate of new vehicles is not available - but it is estimated Yangon has already has more than 200,000 vehicles on its streets. Mr Steve Martin, Asia Pacific regional business manager at Jaguar Land Rover, said: ―In terms of buying power, we believe that given that Myanmar has been closed for so long, and now it has really opened with a bang, we believe that there‘s a lot of pent-up demand among people who really want to buy luxury items, and clearly cars are significant investments along those lines.‖ Jaguar Land Rover is just one of many international automobile players entering the Myanmar market - its confidence fuelled by the country‘s fast growing economic development. Despite high levels of poverty currently, Myanmar is forecast by the Asian Development Bank to record growth of up to 7.8 per cent per year, and triple its per capita income by 2030. With that comes a potential sky-rocketing of citizens‘ purchasing power, and the auto sector is poised to take advantage. MR Chin Kee Min, general manager at Cycle & Carriage Automobile Myanmar, said: ―Currently I think we‘re projecting about 200-300 Mercedes Benz a year for the current year. But I see that it would easily double or even triple in the next three to five years. The rate of growth is accelerating at an unbelievable pace.‖ With a population of about three million in Yangon alone, industry players believe the automobile pie will be big enough for all to share.
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Mr Chin said: ―The direct impact of foreign investments, the market opening up, a lot of people are getting richer by the day. People have increased confidence in the market. I think they feel more comfortable putting their money in the country and of course pampering themselves a little along the way.‖ Those in their early 30s and have been successful in running their own businesses are said to be the main segment of society that is driving demand for luxury vehicles. Many of them have lived overseas and want to enjoy the same comfort and luxuries that they have experienced when living abroad. Channel NewsAsia
Turkey approves financial aid to Myanmar Muslims Friday, February 28, 2014 NEW YORK - Turkey and UNICEF agreed Friday to send US$1.82 million in humanitarian aid to support displaced Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, Anadolu Agency reported. The money is planned to be used to provide clean water and to improve hygiene conditions for Rohingya Muslims who have been forced live within Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps. The sum was collected through a humanitarian aid campaign for Rohingya Muslims organized by Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency. Senior UNICEF official Dominique Hyde said the organization is grateful to Turkey for delivering aid to the displaced Rohingya population in Myanmar and also congratulated Turkey for its open door policy for Syrian refugees. The Rohingya of Myanmar are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world according to the UN. They have suffered pogroms at the hands of Rakhine Buddhist extremists and now as many as 100,000 are left to languish in camps that have turned into ghettos. Their citizenship was removed in 1982, making them stateless. Approximately 1.3 million Rohingya Muslims live in Myanmar. Source: http://www.turkishpress.com/news/393173/
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TOURISM Myanmar Sites Identified as Top World Heritage Priorities Thursday, 6 March 2014, 11:17 am Press Release: UNESCO World Heritage Nomination
NAY PYI TAW, 5 March 2014 – Two natural heritage sites in Myanmar have been recommended as priority candidates for future nomination to UNESCO‘s World Heritage List: Nat Ma Taung National Park in Chin State and the Indawgyi Lake Wildlife Sanctuary in Kachin State. The recommendations emerged from the National Consultation Meeting organized by the Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry and UNESCO on 27-28 February 2014 in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar. Dr Nyi Nyi Kyaw, Director-General of the Forestry Department, said: ―Myanmar still does not have any natural World Heritage sites, yet there are several sites with high potential. The designation of World Heritage would provide opportunities for practicing the effective protection and management of these irreplaceable sites.‖ Participants from government ministries, national and international NGOs and universities recommended the two sites from among the seven that were recently proposed for
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Myanmar‘s World Heritage Tentative List. The Tentative List is the inventory of sites that Myanmar considers has potential for future World Heritage listing. A signatory to the World Heritage Convention since 1994, Myanmar does not yet have any sites inscribed on the List. Dr Tim Curtis, Chief of UNESCO Bangkok‘s Culture Unit, said: ―World Heritage provides a framework for the highest level of international commitment to the protection of sites which are considered of Outstanding Universal Value. Myanmar is now taking an important step forward in protecting its natural heritage in accordance with World Heritage standards.‖ The consultation meeting was conducted under the UNESCO project ―Safeguarding Natural Heritage in Myanmar within the World Heritage Framework‖, which is being supported by the Government of Norway through the Nordic World Heritage Foundation. Rising from the surrounding Chin Hills, Nat Ma Taung National Park is renowned for its extreme elevation gradient and great beauty. Serving as a refuge during the last glacial period, the site is an alpine ―sky island‖ with a diversity of Himalayan flora and is home to over 800 plant species, including a rich variety of orchids, and several endemic bird species. Indawgyi Lake is one of the largest lakes in South-East Asia. It provides habitat for 10 globally threatened bird species and is of outstanding value for conservation of migrating waterbirds. The lake also contains important endemic fish and turtle species, such as the Burmese Peacock Turtle. The other five sites which have been proposed as having potential for future natural World Heritage inscription are: the Northern Forest Mountain Complex (containing the snowcapped Mt Hkakaborazi, which rises to 5,880m); the Myeik Archipelago (800 islands surrounded by extensive coral reefs in the Andaman Sea); the Hukaung Valley Wildlife Sanctuary (an important habitat for globally threatened wildlife, notably tigers and Asian elephants);the Tanintharyi Forest Corridor (the largest remaining lowland evergreen forest in mainland South-East Asia) and the Ayeyawaddy River Corridor (home to the threatened freshwater Irrawaddy Dolphin).
Source: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1403/S00089/myanmar-sites-identified-as-topworld-heritage-priorities.htm
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ETHNIC GROUPS Open-air prison: Rohingya cut off in Myanmar town By Jonah Fisher
Jonah Fisher reports on the Muslims living behind barbed wire Getting into Aung Mingalar as a journalist is relatively simple. We visited a couple of government offices, had a letter written for us and then after having our documents forensically examined, were allowed in. For the Buddhists who dominate the Rakhine capital, Sittwe, it is even easier. Their buses, rickshaws and motorbikes just get waved through by the police. Many even use the main road as a short cut just to reach another part of town. For the residents of Aung Mingalar, however, things are very different. The 4,000 Muslim Rohingya who live inside are effectively prisoners - restricted first by the police checkpoints and then by the Rakhine Buddhist community that surrounds them on all sides and constantly looks on. "The police will not allow us out, because if they do, they know we will be beaten by the Rakhine [Buddhists]," a young Rohingya man said.
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Rohingya residents of Aung Mingalar have no regular access to doctors or healthcare Three years ago the Muslim and Buddhist communities in Sittwe lived fairly amicably side by side. Then in 2012 there were several outbreaks of sectarian violence and most of Sittwe's Muslims fled into camps to the north-west of the town. Both communities were affected, but the vast majority of those killed and displaced were Rohingya. Stateless and unwanted by either Myanmar (also known as Burma) or Bangladesh, it is thought that about 800,000 of them live in Rakhine state, their movements and rights heavily restricted. When violence swept through Sittwe, the people of Aung Mingalar were among the few Muslims who decided to stay in their homes. Their neighbourhood quickly turned into a Rohingya ghetto, wrapped in barbed wire and over-run by security. Cut off from the outside world, it is now a miserable open-air prison. Despite its central location, there are no regular aid deliveries here and just getting money to buy food is a struggle for many. Prior to the violence, Maung Ni was a successful tailor working mainly for Buddhist customers. Now he sits in a shack with a leaky roof, sewing on a machine that a friend has kindly lent him. "I've sold everything I can," he said. "My bicycle, my rickshaw - I just don't know what to do next." Healthcare 'backbone' Twice a week, the people of Aung Mingalar club together to make a shopping trip. On Wednesdays and Sundays, six Rohingya pay 20,000 kyat ($20, ÂŁ12) each in return for a security escort from the police. There is a big market just round the corner, but such is the local animosity that they must leave Sittwe and go to the camps for displaced Rohingya to buy more supplies. There is also a hospital, Sittwe General, just a few blocks away. But for now the residents of Aung Mingalar have no access to doctors or healthcare.
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Tailor Maung Ni successfully worked as a tailor before the sectarian violence The medical aid agency Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) used to visit regularly and, if necessary, would arrange an escort to one of the 10 beds in the hospital designated for Rohingya patients. That has now stopped after a well-organised campaign by Buddhist groups led to the government suspending MSF across Rakhine state. It has left a big hole in the international aid effort. "MSF has been the backbone of the entire international health response in Rakhine. They have been providing healthcare to over half a million people," said Mark Cutts, head of the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs Myanmar office. Few of the aid agencies operating in Rakhine will speak openly about their work. MSF's "crimes" in the eyes of their critics are two-fold. Firstly, by stressing that they assist people on the basis of needs rather than over simple even-handedness, many Buddhists believe the charity has favoured the Muslims over them. Secondly, in what may have been the final straw, MSF released information corroborating reports that Rohingya communities had been under attack. In January the government vehemently denied that there had been violence near the border town of Maungdaw, only for MSF to contradict them by saying their clinic had treated 22 people fleeing the area. "If MSF were just doing their job - they wouldn't have to leave," said Than Thun, one of the organisers of the anti-MSF demonstrations. "But MSF kept getting the wrong information about these Bengalis, or Rohingya, and giving it to the international community. They have inflamed the conflict here."
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The Burmese government says they will be sending medics to Rakhine state
During the day we spent in Aung Mingalar, we saw a sick baby girl, her ailing mother and several elderly people badly in need of medicine. For now there is no one to see them or offer treatment. The Burmese government say they will send medics from outside Rakhine state to fill the gap left by MSF's suspension. But after years as one the world's most poorly-funded healthcare systems, it is not equipped to move quickly, and the doctors may still not be accepted in Muslim communities. Thoughts are now turning as to whether the suspension might in fact be temporary and once emotions have cooled, MSF could be quietly allowed back. It is far from certain that the Buddhists will allow it to happen. Segregation has brought a degree of stability, but the deep scars from recent violence remain raw and show little sign of healing. Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26452892
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Exclusive: Trafficking abuse of Myanmar Rohingya spreads to Malaysia By Stuart Grudgings
BUKIT MERTAJAM, Malaysia (Reuters) - Human traffickers have kept hundreds of Rohingya Muslims captive in houses in northern Malaysia, beating them, depriving them of food, and demanding a ransom from their families, according to detailed accounts by the victims. The accounts given to Reuters suggest that trafficking gangs are shifting their operations into Malaysia as Thai authorities crack down on jungle camps near the border that have become a prison for the Muslim asylum seekers fleeing persecution in Myanmar. Police in the northern Malaysian states of Penang and Kedah have conducted several raids on the houses in recent months, including an operation in February that discovered four Rohingya men bound together with metal chains in an apartment. But Reuters' interviews reveal a trafficking network on a far bigger scale than authorities have acknowledged so far, with brokers herding groups of hundreds of Rohingya at night over the border and holding them captive in the Southeast Asian country. The abuse in Malaysia is the latest oppression against the Rohingya. They are mostly stateless Muslims from western Myanmar, where clashes with majority Buddhists since the middle of 2012 have killed hundreds and forced about 140,000 into squalid camps. Many of the tens of thousands of Rohingya fleeing Myanmar by boat have fallen into the hands of human traffickers at sea who then hold them hostage in remote Thai camps near the border with Malaysia until relatives pay thousands of dollars to release them, according to a Reuters investigation published on Dec 5. Some were beaten and killed, others held in cages where they suffered malnutrition. The Reuters investigation found Thai authorities were sometimes working with the traffickers in an effort to push the Rohingyas out of Thailand because immigration detention camps were getting overwhelmed with asylum-seekers. In January, Thai police said they rescued hundreds of Rohingya Muslims from a remote camp in southern Thailand, a raid they said was prompted by the Reuters investigation, and
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had launched a manhunt for the "kingpins" who routinely smuggle humans through southern Thailand to Malaysia with impunity. The intensified trafficking of Rohingyas into Muslim-majority Malaysia threatens to undermine its anti-human-trafficking record, which is at imminent risk of being downgraded by the United States to a par with North Korea. It also highlights the porous state of Malaysia's 500 km (310 mile)-long northern border, with thousands of Rohingya entering unhindered at a time when the government has taken a tough public stance against illegal immigration. For the desperate Rohingya, Malaysia is the promised land, where at least 30,000 already live. The country does not give them full refugee rights, but has allowed them to stay and register with the United Nations. Thousands have picked up work at the bottom rungs of the informal economy. "NOW WE DON'T HAVE LAND" Mohamed Einous, a 19-year-old Rohingya from Buthidaung township, felt relief sweep over him as he scrambled over a border wall in a group of 270 refugees in mid-February, about a month after he left Myanmar. The crossing took place at night using two ladders supplied by his captors. "I believed I could make money here," Einous told Reuters. His hope of freedom was short-lived. Handed to a new gang of brokers on the Malaysia side of the border, the Rohingya were packed into vans and driven to a house with blacked-out windows the traffickers said was in the border town of Padang Besar. Once there, the brokers beat Einous with long wooden sticks and threatened to kill him if he did not secure a payment of $2,000 from his parents in Myanmar. Distraught at Einous' cries over the telephone, his parents sold their family home for $1,600 and borrowed the rest from relatives, Einous said. "There are no words to express how sorry I feel," Einous told Reuters on February 21, just hours after the brokers dumped him near a market in the town of Bukit Mertajam in Penang, ending his eight-day nightmare in the house. "Now we don't have land. My parents have nowhere to live." Einous said the brokers in Thailand had told him he could pay a much smaller amount ("whatever I wanted") to be released once in Malaysia. He said the refugees only received rice once a day in the house and were packed so tightly into two rooms that they couldn't lie down. Abdul Hamid, a 23-year-old motorbike mechanic from Sittwe, in Myanmar's Rakhine state, recalled similar conditions at the compound where he was imprisoned for a week with more than 200 others in Penang.
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About 16 guards kept watch over them in two shifts. The traffickers' boss, a man in his 30s known as "Razak" who wore a suit and steel-rimmed spectacles, regularly kicked, beat and threatened the cowering prisoners, Hamid said. "They said we don't have money to give you food. You need to get money if you want to be free," Hamid told Reuters in Kuala Lumpur following his release in mid-February. Malaysia, a labour-short country with an estimated two million undocumented workers that offers higher wages than its neighbours, has long struggled with a reputation as a haven for human trafficking. Like Thailand, Malaysia is at risk of being downgraded in the U.S. State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons report from the Tier Two watchlist to the lowest rank of Tier Three. The scale of the problem appears to have surged in recent months. "It is definitely increasing," said Chris Lewa, coordinator of Rohingya advocacy group Arakan Project, who regularly interviews those who make the journey. "In more and more stories I have heard recently they (Rohingya) have been detained in Malaysia." Several of the 10 witnesses cited the brokers as telling them they had bribed Malaysian immigration officials to turn a blind eye when they crossed the border. Reuters found no direct evidence of corruption by Malaysian officials. Five immigration officials were arrested in 2009 for working with a smuggling syndicate to traffic Rohingya into the country. "We didn't see any officials on the Malaysia side," said Korimullah, a 17-year-old from Maungdaw township, who spent more than three months in Thai camps and was then held by traffickers in a house in the northern Malaysian city of Alor Star. "The brokers said they had already given money to them." Officials from Malaysia's immigration department, the prime minister's office, and police in Penang and Kedah states did not respond to requests for comment. BORDER CHAOS The surge of Rohingya trafficking activity in Malaysia followed a series of raids to harass human smugglers and drive them from illegal camps dotted across remote areas of southern Thailand. In two raids in January, Thai police rescued and detained more than 600 Rohingya and Bangladeshis. Abdul Hamid and several other witnesses described chaotic scenes on the Thai side of the border in recent weeks as their captors moved them from camp to camp and hurried them over the border before they had time to secure payments from their relatives. "The guards said the police would come and drop a bomb on the camp and that we had to move into Malaysia," Hamid said. Increasingly overcrowded and deadly conditions in the makeshift jungle camps in Thailand could be another reason for the shift of operations into Malaysia.
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"We couldn't get enough food or water. People were dying with terrible pains in their body," said Eisoup, a 20-year-old from Sittwe, who estimates that 45 people died in 15 days at his camp in January. Many of those involved in Rohingya trafficking are Rohingya themselves, according to Reuters' interviews and the Arakan Project's Lewa. Mohamed Aslom's arms bear cuts and burn marks from where he says cigarettes were stubbed out on him by Rohingya brokers during seven days he spent in captivity in a locked, dark room in Penang with about 20 other victims. The 21-year-old former shopkeeper said he was then sold to another group of brokers who drove him and three others across Malaysia to the east coast town of Kuantan, where the torture continued for four days in a three-storey house. Finally, he saw a chance to escape. When one of his captors went to the toilet, he said he rushed the remaining one and bolted into the street. "It feels worse when those from Rakhine (state) hurt us - they are our own people," said Aslom, speaking in Kuala Lumpur days after his brother picked him up from Kuantan. (Reporting By Stuart Grudgings: Editing by Bill Tarrant) Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/06/us-malaysia-rohingyaidUSBREA2504U20140306
Give Peace A Chance March 2, 2014 •
Author: Karen News A new research centre, called the Pyi Duang Su Institute for Peace and Dialogue (PI), opened in Chiang Mai this week with the aim of providing ―technical assistance‖ to stakeholders in the peace process, said PI‘s director in an interview with Karen News. Kheun Sai Jaiyen, PI‘s director and an editor at the Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N), said that PI would offer a ―bridge over troubled waters.‖
Kheun Sai Jaiyen added that PI was the ethnic groups answer to the Burma government backed Myanmar Peace Centre (MPC), while stressing that PI would work together with the MPC.
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―We would like to be a bridge between hardliners and moderates, conservatives and liberals… We will work together, but ethnic groups must have our own [peace institute]… PI will be serving all of the ethnic organisations and the people of Burma.‖ The initial purpose of PI had been to research the 19 topics that formed part of the ceasefire agreements signed by the ethnic armed organizations and Burma‘s government, including land rights, constitutional reform and human rights. Kheun Sai said that PI had already provided technical assistance to the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) – a coalition of 11 ethnic armed organizations including the Karen National Union – in a November peace talks meeting between the group and Burma‘s government. ―The ethnic groups including the UNFC need technical assistance from outside, so that is what PI is attempting to provide. We did so in November, where a deadlock in negotiations had been reached. So we proposed a single document method for the negotiations, rather than each party having their own document. It had five columns, the National Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) position (representing 16 ethnic groups), the government position, common positions of both parties, disagreements and possible solutions,‖ he said. ―We discovered that the government and ethnic groups agreed on 50% of the issues, which was a positive step. Before they would only look at differences not at what they agreed to,‖ he added. Kheun Sai claimed that PI would provide some newfound balance to the peace process. ―The purpose of PI is to encourage peace and dialogue. At the moment we have only dialogue but no peace. The government side act like they want peace but do not want dialogue.‖ Karen News can confirm that the Europe Burma Office (EBO) will fund PI for at least three years – the amount of money being provided, however, was not disclosed. Khuen Sai maintained that his role, as both PI‘s director and an editor of S.H.A.N, did not present a conflict of interest. ―I only write for them [S.H.A.N] if they don‘t like what I write they don‘t have to publish it.‖ Khuen Sai stressed S.H.A.N‘s independence was not compromised by his position with PI. ―The Shan Herald Agency for News is still independent from the EBO and the PI is also a completely independent organization. We are still independent. Everything you must say or write must not only be true but also serve the peace process. I go by advice from the Buddha who said: I only say what is true, beneficial and pleasing and also what is true, beneficial and displeasing.‖ According to an article on S.H.A.N‘s website, PI had 17 ―independents, and members of CSOs and armed organizations.‖
researchers,
including
Source: http://karennews.org/2014/03/give-peace-a-chance.html/
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Fears Rakhine extremists could drive more aid agencies out of Myanmar state By Tim Hume, CNN March 4, 2014 -- Updated 0923 GMT (1723 HKT) (CNN) -- The expulsion of an international medical NGO providing a vital lifeline to displaced Muslims in Myanmar's Rakhine state has raised fears other aid agencies could be next. Advocates for the Rohingya Muslim minority -- tens of thousands of whom have been displaced by sectarian violence and are forced to live in sealed camps -- fear the move is part of a push by extremist Rakhine nationalists to cut off a lifeline to the persecuted ethnic group and help drive them from the state in western Myanmar. "It is absolutely shocking, especially that the government seems to bow to the demands of protesters in the face of international human rights concerns," said Chris Lewa, founder of the Arakan Project, an NGO which advocates on the Rohingya issue. "I'm really, really concerned, if the government is bowing to these extremists' requests, where it's going to go." Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) was banned from operating in the volatile state last week, following protests by ethnic Rakhine nationalists against the organization and other international NGOs. The most worrying thing is where is it going to stop Chris Lewa, founder of the Arakan Project Myanmar's government said the organization had been banned for consistently showing bias towards the state's Muslim minority and breaching the terms of its agreement to operate in Rakhine, where it provided services to tens of thousands of patients. Human Rights Watch slammed the move, with senior researcher David Mathieson describing the expulsion as "simply deplorable." Lewa said MSF was the major NGO provider of healthcare in the state and its expulsion would "have devastating consequences on the Rohingya population," as well as impacting members of the Rakhine ethnic group which relied on its services. "There is no other international NGO providing this kind of assistance," she said. She feared other aid agencies could be next to be targeted. "The extremists have been protesting not only against MSF -- it has been against all international NGOs, the UN, even the ICRC," she said. She feared that cutting off international aid to the Rohingya -- many of whom were prevented from working by travel restrictions that leave them stranded in vast camps -was part of a push by Rakhine extremists to hound them from the state.
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"The most worrying thing is where is it going to stop." The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority in Rakhine state, thought to number between 800,000 and one million. Myanmar does not recognize them as citizens or one of the country's 135 recognized ethnic groups. Much of this is rooted in their heritage in East Bengal, now called Bangladesh. Though many Rohingya have only known life in Myanmar, they are widely viewed as intruders from across the border. According to Human Rights Watch, laws discriminate against the Rohingya, infringing on their freedom of movement, education, and employment. They are denied land and property rights and ownership, and land on which they live can be taken away at any given time. Public sentiment against aid workers rose in the impoverished state in the second half of last year, according to the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Last week, aid agency Mercy Malaysia withdrew staff from Rakhine due to the heightened tensions, in a move it said was temporary. MSF has not commented on latest developments, other than to say it was "deeply shocked" and that its services were provided according to medical need only. But in an editorial submitted to regional newspapers last year, the organization's Myanmar operational manager Lauren Cooney addressed the accusations of bias that had been directed at the organization in the wake of two incidents of violence on November 2 that resulted in four deaths. MSF medical teams had transferred three injured Muslims to hospital after being notified by leaders of a displaced persons' camp, she wrote. The organization subsequently learned that injured Rakhine Buddhists had been ferried to hospital in a boat organized by their community. MSF staff would have assisted the injured Buddhists had they been notified, she wrote. Lewa said MSF's recent public comment on an alleged massacre at Du Chee Yar Tan village near the township of Maungdaw in January had exacerbated ill-feeling toward the group. The U.N. says at least 40 Rohingya men, women and children were killed by security forces and ethnic Rakhine assailants, but the government strongly denies the account. MSF drew criticism after it publicly stated it had treated 22 people in the area for weapon wounds after the alleged killing spree, with Myanmar's presidential spokesman Ye Htut previously telling CNN the comments had been the "final straw" for the Rakhine state government when it came to the NGO. "The state government and local people think the MSF is intentionally creating tension in the community by spreading baseless information like this," he said, adding that he believed the government would be able to replace MSF's services itself. Htut did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
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Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/04/world/asia/myanmar-rohingya-msf-fears/
Myanmar govt denies alleged Rohingya massacre DU CHEE YAR TAN (Myanmar) — Under the pale moon of Jan 13, Ms Zaw Patha watched from her bamboo house as Mohmach, 15, her eldest child, was dragged from the kiosk where he slept as guardian of the family business. The men who abducted the boy struck him with the butt of a rifle until he fell to the dirt path, she said. Terrified, she fled into the rice fields. She assumes he is dead. Three doors away, Ms Zoya showed the latch on her front door that she said armed men had broken as they stormed in and began beating her 14-year-old son, Mohamed. She has not seen him since. The villagers‘ accounts back up a United Nations investigation, which concluded that the attack on Du Chee Yar Tan that night resulted in the deaths of at least 40 men, women and children, one of the worst instances of violence against the country‘s long-persecuted Rohingya Muslims. They were killed, the UN says, by local security forces and civilians of the rival Rakhine ethnic group, many of them adherents of an extreme Buddhist ideology who were angered by the kidnapping of a Rakhine policeman by some Rohingya men. The report — presented to the government by the UN and United States but not made public — documents the initial discovery of the massacre by five Muslim men who sneaked into the area after the attack. They found the severed heads of at least 10 Rohingya bobbing in a water tank. Some of those had belonged to children. The government, intent on international acceptance and investment, has steadfastly denied the killings occurred in the village, a collection of hamlets close to Bangladesh. The country‘s human rights commission called the news ―unverifiable and unconfirmed‖. The killings are a test for the government, which has done little to rein in radical Buddhists. It has backed severe restrictions imposed by the local authorities on Muslims‘ freedom of movement and deprivation of basic services in Rakhine state, where most Rohingya live. Myanmar‘s estimated 1.3 million Rohingya are denied citizenship under national law. The bloodletting is also a challenge for Western governments that have showered economic aid and goodwill on Myanmar in the hope of winning the fealty of the resource-rich fledgling democracy. Those countries have mostly kept their concerns about the treatment of the Rohingya quiet in the hope, diplomats said, of persuading the government to change its stance.
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The latest carnage is a major embarrassment for Myanmar‘s government, which has just assumed an important position as annual chair of the Association of South-east Asian Nations. Source: http://www.todayonline.com/world/asia/myanmar-govt-denies-alleged-rohingyamassacre?singlepage=true
Malaysia killings put Myanmar Buddhists on edge By Julia Zappei (AFP) Sun, Mar 2nd, 2014
KUALA LUMPUR: San Win came to Malaysia seeking political refuge, but now lives in fear of what he and fellow Myanmar Buddhist exiles believe is a pattern of killings targeting them. Malaysia Killings Put Myanmar Buddhists On Edge Exiled Myanmar pro-democracy activist Aung Gyi‘s body was found in a car boot on February 4, the victim of a stabbing, police and activists have said. San Win and other Buddhists said the killing was one of many and indicates a spillover of deadly Myanmar communal violence into Malaysia, which has a large community of Myanmar migrants and refugees.
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―We are very scared. It‘s not safe here for us,‖ said San Win, head of a group that provides free funerals to needy Myanmar nationals. Decades of animosity between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar‘s western Rakhine state exploded in bloodshed starting in 2012. Scores were killed and 140,000 displaced, mostly from the ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority and the situation remains tense. Fears of a spillover into Muslim-majority Malaysia emerged in the middle of 2013 when at least four Myanmar Buddhist migrant workers were killed in Malaysia‘s capital Kuala Lumpur in suspected revenge attacks by Muslims. Myanmar Buddhists allege at least one killing has occurred per month since then, typically stabbings, and complain Malaysia‘s Muslim-dominated police force has solved none of them. Police have announced no arrests in Aung Gyi‘s killing. ‗Who will be next?‘ A day after Aung Gyi was found, two visiting Myanmar Buddhist politicians were targeted in an assassination attempt on a busy shopping street in Kuala Lumpur, police have said. Aung Gyi had earlier met the politicians. Malaysia‘s police force, which is routinely accused by critics of incompetence and pro-Muslim bias, say it is investigating. Khairi Ahrasa, a police official probing the shooting, said it was believed to be linked to Aung Gyi‘s killing but declined further comment. Although they have no evidence, Buddhist community leaders suspect vengeful Rohingya. ―It can happen anywhere, anytime. Who will be next?‖ said Myat Ko Ko, another prodemocracy activist who fled to Malaysia in 2011. ―Previously, Rohingyas and Buddhists didn‘t quarrel with each other here.‖ San Win said many Buddhists believed the failure by Malaysian authorities to solve any killings suggests at least tacit official support for the violence. He doesn‘t go out at night and rarely goes out alone. ―They can‘t protect us. They never protect us. There are so many cases, so many deaths that are never resolved,‖ he said. Rohingya ‗scapegoats‘ Police have not confirmed the Buddhist claim of regular attacks. They insist all crimes are thoroughly investigated. Aung Gyi‘s death was a ―very isolated, normal murder case. There is no reason to be afraid‖, police official Khairuldin Saad said. But he added that police had few leads.
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Rohingya leaders reject suggestions their community was involved. Rohingya were ―scapegoats‖ for the violence in Malaysia, said Abdul Hamid Musa Ali, president of the Rohingya Society in Malaysia. ―For me it‘s another kind of plot (by Rakhine Buddhists) to justify another round of killing in Arakan,‖ he said, using another term for Rakhine. Hundreds of thousands of Myanmar migrants are estimated to be working in Malaysia, many illegally, drawn by its relatively developed economy and menial jobs shunned by more affluent Malaysians. There are also 132,000 Myanmar asylum-seekers and refugees, the UN refugee agency says. More than 34,000 are Rohingya. Many Buddhist political exiles, like Aung Gyi, came during the harsh rule of the military junta that governed Myanmar, formerly Burma, for decades but in 2010 embarked on democratic reforms. The Buddhist-dominated government views its roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh, denying them citizenship. The UN calls the Rohingya one of the world‘s most persecuted minorities. Spillover effect Rohingya have trickled into Malaysia and Bangladesh for decades but refugee activists say the Rakhine upheaval has quickened the flow. Abdul Hamid said an estimated 30,000 Rohingya arrived in Malaysia last year. The troubles have touched Indonesia too. Eight Myanmar Buddhists were killed in a detention centre in Muslim-majority Indonesia by Rohingya in April 2013. In January, an Indonesian court jailed a suspected Islamic extremist over a plot to attack the Myanmar embassy to avenge killings of Rohingya in Rakhine. Surin Pitsuwan, former head of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), warned in 2012 Rohingya could become ―radicalised,‖ destabilising the region. Malaysian federal police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said recently authorities were ―closely monitoring‖ the situation. ―We do not want any issues there (Myanmar) to escalate here,‖ Malaysian media quoted him saying. Source: http://www.malaysiaedition.net/malaysia-killings-put-myanmar-buddhists-edge/
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CARTOON OF THE WEEK
Compiled by
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