arakan april 2011

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VOLUME. 3, I SSUE. 4 APRIL 2011

www.roh ingya.org E-mail : arakaneditor @ yahoo.com

: info @ rohingya.org

Artistic view of the killing of innocent Rohingyas in 1994 by

Major-Gen. Win Myint Commander of the Western

Regional Command on the order of Senior Gen. Than Shwe.

“ In Burma, Ethnic

R o h i n g y a M u s l i m scontinue to be denied full

citizenship and equal

opportunitie for education,

employment and travel. ”

HILLARY CLINTON, RATHENAU

PRIZE CEREMONY IN BERLIN

ON APRIL 15, 2011



News and Analysis of the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation, Arakan ( Burma ) www.rohingya.org

2 ARAKAN VOLUME. 3 ISSUE. 4 APRIL 2011

IN THIS ISSUSE

READ ARAKAN ONLINE

KNOW MORE ABOUT

ROHINGYA PEOPLE

www.rohingya.orgEmail : arakaneditor @ yahoo.com

: info @ rohingya .org

EDITORIAL AND COVER STORY - THAN SHWE HAD KILLED 400 ROHINGYAS 2 ROHINGYA HOSTS MEETING OF BURMESE

ETHNI C GROUPS IN UK 3

POEM ON ROHINGYA’S LIFE OF TODAY — THE DREAM THAT NEVER FULFILLED 3 FROM THE PAGES OF HISTORY - THE MAYU FRONTIER DISTRIC 4 JOINT PRESS RELEASE OF ROHINGYA ORGANIZATIONS 5 WITHOUT A HOMELAND, WITHOUT A HOPE 6 ROHINGYA ENDURE DESPERATE SITUATION IN BANGLADESH 9 ROHINGYAS FACE ‘ SILENT CRISIS’ IN BANGLADESH – RIGHTS GROUP ( RI ) 10 ROHINGYA DONATE FOR TSUNAMI VICTIMS IN JAPAN

11 WATER CRISIS IN LEDA REFUGEE CAMP AGAIN 11 RNDP OBJECTS TO APPOINTMENT OF USDP'S MUSLIM MP IN ARAKAN'S LEGISLATURE 12

ARAKAN REBELS ABDUCT CHRISTIAN PREACHER FOR RANSOM IN PATETWA 12 143 FAMILIES FROM BURMA PROPER SETTLED IN NORTH ARAKAN 13 HIGH LEVEL DIPLOMATS VISIT ROHINGYA REFUGEE CAMPS IN BANGLADESH 13 BURMA DETAINS 146 BOAT PEOPLE : BURMESE OFFICIAL 13

NATIONAL SECURITY PERSONNEL HARASSING ONLY ROHINGYA IN MAUNGDAW 14 AUTHORITIES TRANSFER LARGE ARMS SHIPMENT TO NASAKA HEADQUARTERS 14 ROHINGYA FACE DIFFICULTIES WITH NEW MAUNGDAW SETTLEMENT PROGRAM 15 NASAKA OFFICERS HARASS STUDENTS IN MAUNGDAW 15 THAN SHWE, THE TREMBLING DICTATOR 16

EDITORIAL AND COVER STORY

Almost all of the 400 Rohingyas killed in1994 with the order of Gen. Than Shwe werecivilians. Only a rebel commander surrendered withabout 20 followers might be involved in this groupof 400 unfortunate Rohingyas.

Other rebels captured were killed on the spot.As a matter of fact Than Shwe`s army killed morethan 3,000 people in this tragedy. But only about 60were rebels. Alas!!! the rest were all Rohingya

civilians. Recently, Aung Lynn Htut, a formerBurmese intelligence officer now living in the US,writes that when it was reported to Than Shwe aboutthe arrest of 400 Rohingyas who were arrested inconnection with the Rohingya rebellion, Than Shweordered to kill saying that ”Eliminate them! Don’teven leave an infant alive! They are just Kala( degrading term for people of Indian descent ), nothumans! Sentence them to the maximumimprisonment !”

"In April 1993, (it was 1994-editor) ThanShwe, who is also the commander in chief of the

Burmese army, ordered Gen. Win Myint, the thencommander of the Western Regional Command (andlater the regime's Secretary 3 and adjutant general)to kill over 400 ethnic Rohingyas in Arakan State'sButhidaung and Maungdaw Townships in retaliationfor attacks by Rohingya rebels who detonated 18mines in one day in an assault on the Burmese army.The army rounded up more than 400 people, includ-ing civilians, and as soon as they received theirorders from the GHQ office, they killed them all."

From May 1994, North Arakan had becomea new killing field. At SLORC death camps ofMaungdaw and Buthidaung Townships, Rohingyaswere tortured, shot or slaughtered, more chilling isthat the people were to dig their own grave beforebeing killed or buried alive. Alleging as insurgentssympathizers, Rohingyas were taken late at nightfrom their homes and were tortured to death orburied alive. Under the pretext of looking for

insurgents random killing in the Cont. P. 3

“ THAN SHWE HAD KILLED 400 ROHINGYAS”





From P. 2 EDITORIAL villages was a regular routine action of the SLORC brute forces. About60,000 troops had been deployed in North Arakan who used hundred’s and thousands ofRohingyas as human shields. Thousands of porters were carried to unknown places in the junglesmost of whom never come back.

Under false and imaginary charges thousands of Rohingyas had been gunned down andslaughtered. They were forced, at gun point, to kill each other by slaughtering or striking with

spades on the heads. There are instances that the brother had to kill his own brother, and both thefather and son were killed together before the very eyes of the family members.

In the first week of May, 1996, a group of wood cutters while cutting a big tree at ChowdhuryValley in the west of Tamyung Khali village spotted a pile of skeletons believed to be a mass graveof Rohingyas and inform the local Chairman. They estimated that no less than four hundred humanremains were in the mass grave. On information army personnel removed the skulls and bones to

unknown places. It might be the mass grave of the 400 Roh ingyas killed by Than Shwe. ##

POEM ON

ROHINGYA’S LIFE OF TODAYThe Dream that Never Fulfilled Our land has abandoned us;Our neighbors have disowned us,Our brothers have rejected us;Our soul has betrayed us,And our mind has declined us.We’re dying, but there’s no deathin sight.

We’re crying, there’s no tearin the eyes. There’s no lightat the end of the tunnel.

There’s no fish in the pond,There’s no bird in the forest,There’s no fruit in the trees,There’s no grains in thebarn. There’s no bread onthe plate.

Mountains have evicted us;Rivers have excluded us,Stars have eluded us; Moon hasdeflected us, The sun has engulfed us.

We’ve been dreaming, trying, strugglingever since, Oh God, show us the way,give us the means and will,To save ourselves, and to be alive again.

Ibn Kyapuri, Arakan

ROHINGYA HOSTS MEETING OF BURMESE ETHNIC GROUPS IN UK By Our Reporter, 26 April 2011

LONDON: In April, the regularmeeting of Burmese ethnic groupsliving in the UK was hosted by theBurmese Rohingya OrganisationUK (BROUK) on April 23, accordingto Mr. Tun Khin, the president ofBROUK.

“The Kachin, Chin, Karen, andRohingya ethnic groups attendedthe regular meeting, and it washeld at No 10 Station Road, Walm-thamstow, London.”

“All the ethnic groupsupdated the others on the currentsituations of their area inside

Burma and the positions outsideBurma.”In the meeting, a program

was held to discuss future activi-ties and events in order to deliver aunified message to internationalcommunities and the rulers ofBurma that all ethnic groups standtogether in their commitment for agenuine federal union of Burma,Tun Khin said. “The ethnic

situations arestill in the

same positionsin their areasafter the shamelection whichwas held on 7November2010. There areneitherimprovementsnor changes,and in someareas the situa-tions are evengetting worse.”“Human rights violations and dis-criminations against ethnic minori-ties are occurring continuously.”“All participants harmoniously de-cided to work together harder andto play critical roles in fighting theircommon enemy, dictatorship, by allmeans, and also highlighted that itis very important for the ethnic peo-ple of Burma to work in unison asDaw Aung San Suu Kyi

recommended after her release,” saidthe organizing secretary of BROUK.

“The meeting was started at 16:00and successfully finished by 19:00,along with some vital meeting resolu-tions.”

“Finally, all ethnic brothers andsisters enjoyed a traditional Rohingyadinner served by members of theRohingya ethnic community in theUK.” ## Source: Kaladan News





From the Pages of History

The Mayu Frontier District By AFK Jilani

The Mayu valley sits on thetraditional Rohingya homeland ofNorth Arakan between the Kaladanriver and the Naf. Some people say itis called Mayu because once upon atime it was a place of free heaven forthe peacocks where various kinds ofthe peafowls inhabited with freelydancing and singing. In Rohingyalanguage peacock is called Mayur (inPali it is called Mayura).Some saysMalay people crossed through thisplace in the early days of the historyand the place is called Mayu.But boththe sayings may be from the

folk-tales.The Mayu Range rests between

the Naf and Kaladan rivers. The high-est peak of the range is (2174)fts.Since it is connected with the Hi-malayan Mountains, various kinds ofwild animals are found in this range.The commonest wild animals foundin these mountains are elephants.The highly revered white elephantsby the Buddhists are often found inthese mountains near MaungdawTownship. Tigers, gauyals (gaurs),the wild goats, wild cattle, Malaydeers and various kinds of deersand birds are common fauna in thismajestic Mayu. Mayu is a land ofmountains, thick tropical forests,rivers and creeks. Its 70 percent ofthe land is covered with forest. Teak,Pyinkado, Kamaung, Kayin, canesand bamboos are found in the forestof Mayu. Mayu river is famous for itsbeautiful natural Saindaung water-fallat the height of 220ft.There is a verybeautiful beach lies betweenAlaysangyaw (Hashorata) andAhngumaw.

In 600 AD Maha Wira Min

founded his kingdom at Purma (nowa village in northern Maungdaw) atthe east bank of the Naf river(Pamela, 1976, PP44_45). In the'Kyaukza' serial No.963/20-23-804-Burmese Era, 1442C.E. there isindication of Muslim king`s reign ofArakan in 14th century who werefriends of Burmese kings and usedto visit them. The kings of Arakanhad Muslim titles.

If they were not Muslim kingsmentioned in the inscription, theMuslim kings might be RohingyaMuslim kings, from the Mayu Rivervalley, the eastern side of the NafRiver. Rohingyas claim theirexistence there of over thousandyears. If not thousand years, theirexistence might be from the time of1202 C.E. when the Muslimsconquered Bengal that is 800 years.(Dr. Than Tun)

In 1942 the Muslim Rohingyasliberated all area up to Razabil[Zaydebyin] in the Rathedaung Town-

ship. The whole Mayu frontier areacomprising Maungdaw, Buthi daungand most part of the RathedaungTownship were brought under theadministration of the Muslim PeaceCommittees set up by the RohingyaMuslims of the north Arakan. Mr.Omrah Meah became the president ofthe Peace Committees. In 1945 whiletaking power from the President ofthe Muslim Peace Committee, Mr.Omrah Meah, by Col. Phillip, Col.Edgerly and other British militaryOfficers, the British promised theywould make North Arakan a “MuslimNational Area". The same promisewas also given to Atura Raja (AbdulMajid) of TaungBazar by the Britishofficers in Writing.

On First May 1961, the electeddemocratic popular government ofPrime Minister U Nu created theMayu Frontier Administration Areacovering Maungdaw, Buthidaung andthe western part of Rathidaung town-ships. Though it was a militaryadministration, as it did not involvesubordination to the Rakhine authori-ties the arrangement earned the

support of the Rohingyas. A specialpolice force known as' Mayu Ray"was raised with recruits from localRohingyas and the law and ordersituation was improved. Economic,educational, health and culturalimprovements were done by theFrontier Administration.

It was the only administration,which favoured Rohingyas duringthe post-independent Burma.

Rohingya language was aired by thegovernment’s official BurmaBroadcasting Services twice a weektill 24 October 1966. Every yearRohingya representatives, includingwrestlers were invited to 12,February Union Day celebration.

Rohingya feast and cultural showswere part of the Union Daycelebration. During the FrontierAdministration the Rohingya peoplewere as happy as that of 1942 to1945 Peace Committee period. In1962 the government drafted a billfor Arakan statehood excludingMayu area in the territory projectedArakan state as the inhabitant ofMayu area are Rohingyas. GeneralNe Win staged a coup on 2 March1962.The revolutionary governmentof Ne Win cancelled the plan togrant statehood to Arakan. But the

Mayu Frontier Administrationremained till it was put under theadministration of the Ministry ofHome Affairs in first February 1964.

On that day all the governmentservants of Mayu District wereassembled at Mayu House (4th mile)Maungdaw by the order of FrontierD.C. Major Tin Oo. Lt. Col. ThanNyunt, head of the FrontierAdministration of Burma handedover the Mayu area to Lt. Col. SeinLwin (afterwards Gen. Sein Lwin,President for 17 days ), the thenSecretary of Home Ministry in frontof all the attending governmentservants. In a sympatheticmood Col. Than Nyunt told theaudience not to be sorry for thechange of the administration.However, in a haughty manner Col.Sein Lwin warned the audience tobe faithful to the new administrationwith a voice of thunderbolt noddingexcessively his head and movinghis hands in support of what he wassaying.

In 1974, the RevolutionaryGovernment of Burma, renamed as

the Socialist Republic of Burmapopularly known as BSPP govern-ment convened the first Pyithu HlutTaw (Parliament) which ratified theconstitution drawn by BSPP. Thenew constitution granted 'state' toArakan manned by Buddhists onlywithout the participation of Muslimsof Arakan though half of the popula-tion of Arakan is Muslims, Cont. P. 5





We, the undersigned Rohingya organisations, strongly condemn the Narinjara News Agency for itsdisinformation of describing the innocent Rohingya people as suspected Talibans.

According to a pre-plan to extort money from the Rohingyas, the Nasaka collaborators informed theNasaka of the area that some insurgents had entered in North Maungdaw and held a meeting with people inKamaung Seik village (Fokira Bazar) whereupon, taking advantage of opportunities and circumstances, theNasaka started arresting and torturing the innocent villagers arbitrarily. So far, about 50 innocent Rohingyavillagers were arrested under false and concocted allegation of having link with insurgents which Narinjarafabricated as Talibans in its news on 20 March, 2011. It has exaggerated news giving cry wolf mentioning thename of one imaginary Taliban Maulvi Harun as imparting combat and bomb making training to the villagers inthe jungles. It further concocted that a seal and documents, which identified them as members of the Taliban,were seized. According to Irrawaddy news of March 22, 2011, the Narinjara editor Khaing Mrat Kyaw said,“Nasaka told us about Maulvi Harun, who entered the country from Bangladesh and had given training.” Ithints his involvement in the plan of the Nasaka against the innocent Rohingya villagers.

To make the matter worse, Narinjara embroidered this false news by putting on it an unrelated pictureof masked Afghan Taliban fighters holding RPG with intent to confuse them with Rohingyas and thereby tomislead the minds of the people. The head of the Thailand based Arakan Project Chris Lewa told DBV that“there was no evidence to link the group to mujahideen groups”. This is a blatant lie, without any evidence,

and is a politically motivated report aims at discrediting and tarnishing the image of one of the world’s mostpersecuted, underrepresented and voiceless peoples – the Rohingya -- for being Muslims. We demandNarinjara to put up any evidences to substantiate its misleading report that it stage-managed by takingadvantage out of the Rohingya people’s tragedy created by Nasaka and vested interest groups that resulted inthe serious human rights violations by the regime.

Despite Narinjara’s callous effort, on 21 March 2011, the director of Nasaka Lt. Col. Aung Gyi, said in apublic gathering of 300 people at the Maungnama Madrassa (religious school) in Maungdaw Township, whichwas attended by village authorities, elders, and religious leaders, that the rumour of “Taliban link” was a fakereport and was a creation out of the enmity between the local members of the Union Solidarity DevelopmentParty (USDP) and the Rohingya political party of National Democratic Party for Development (NDPD) both ofwhich had contested in 7 November 2010 national elections. He continued that all innocent people who werearrested on suspicion will be released soon on the recommendations of the village authorities, elders andreligious leaders after the completion of enquiry.

Despite protests from Rohingya civil societies time after time, the Narinjara News is still activelyengaged in making false news against the Rohingya people thus contributing persecution of Rohingyas by theregime’s brute forces like Nasaka, army, police and other repressive functionaries.

We are dismayed that the Burmese Section of the BBC World and other media made similar reportsbased on the concocted news of Narinjara. Despite concern raised with BBC about the bias report ofNarinjara’s editor Khaing Mrat Kyaw, who is also a BBC correspondent in Bangladesh, BBC continues to relaysensitive news that he incorrectly reported about the Rohingya people without proper investigation.

Meanwhile, we invite the attention of the media groups, human rights and democratic organisations,including Burma News International (BNI), to the fact that the activities of the Narinjara is objectionable,particularly in matters relating to the promotion of human rights, democracy and ethnic harmony in Arakan.

National Democratic Party for Human Rights (in exile) (NDPHR (in exile)Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)Arakanese Rohingya Community in Thailand (ARCT)Burmese Rohingya Association in Japan (BRAJ)Burmese Rohingya Community in Australia (BRCA)

Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK)Rohingya Community in Norway (RCN)

For more information, please contact:AFK Jilani +880-1674811079, Hla Aung + 33-629258793, Zaw Min Htut + 8180 30835327

From P. 4 FROM THE PAGES OF HISTORYwith Burmans in the top posts and Rakhine in lower strata. Pro- Burman Rakhine who tightened the screw

against the Rohingyas further dominated the Arakan State Council. In the new formation the regime once againexcluded the Rohingyas from the administrative affairs and ministerial body of Arakan State. ##

JOINT PRESS RELEASE OF ROHINGYA ORGANIZATIONS 24 TH.MARCH 2011

Concern on Narinjara’s Concocted News Linking Rohingya with Taliban





COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh : -

Mahamuda Khatur remembers thefateful day three years ago. At dawn

her husband had left theirKutupalong refugee camp in south-ern Bangladesh for the forest tofetch firewood he would sell toother refugees or local people. Henever returned.

Mahamuda was told that hehad drowned in a river, a claim shehas never independently verified.That left her as a 27-year-old widowwith two children. Now, sufferingfrom tuberculosis for eight months,Mahamuda is too weak to work andcannot feed herself or her children.

The pallor of her face and thethinness of her arms show theunmistakable signs of severemalnutrition. Now, she has to relyon other refugees' generosity tosurvive. "But there is not much thatthe people here can do for us," shesays. "Everybody is in the samesituation."

Mahamuda is an ethnicRohingya, a Sunni Muslim commu-nity that has fled persecution in itsnative Myanmar for neighboringBangladesh and other countries.Throughout this region, on a narrow

strip of beach, sparse forest orsandy land squeezed between theBay of Bengal and the Myanmarborder, Rohingya exiles can be seencarrying heavy bags of salt, bundlesof firewood, stacks of bricks,baskets of fish, blocks of ice.

Above all, they carry theweight of being one of the largeststateless populations on the planet.Out of an estimated 1.5 to 2 millionpopulation, only the 48,800Rohingya registered as refugeeswith the United Nations HighCommissioner for Refugees

(UNHCR) in Bangladesh and Malay-sia have legal status. The onemillion or so Rohingya living inMyanmar's western Arakan Stateare not recognized as citizens andthe 500,000 to one million otherswho have chosen exile in othercountries are mostly consideredillegal migrants.

The Rohingya were not always a

known as Burma. Although theyhave been a constant victim of achauvinist Buddhist regime

animated by anti-Muslim and anti-Indian sentiment dating back to theBritish colonial occupation, theRohingya had citizen status inMyanmar until 1982. That year, thendictator Ne Win promulgated acitizenship law that stripped them oftheir nationality. It was the epilogueof one of the darkest chapters in thecountry's recent history, the NagaMin Operation ("Operation DragonKing") launched in 1978 in the westArakan State.

In the name of a crackdown on"illegal migrants",

the army killed,raped andarrested scores ofpeople, mostlyRohingya.Villages wereburned andlooted. Mosquesand otherreligious siteswere particularlytargeted. Thatoperation forcedsome 200,000Rohingya to fleeto neighboringBangladesh. Most of them were re-patriated by the end of 1979. In1991-1992, fleeing the junta's wide-spread use of forced labor, sum-mary executions, torture and rape,another wave of 250,000 Rohingyaleft the country. Currently the re-gime continues repressivepractices, although on a lesserscale.

During a discrete visit in alarge Rohingya village in ArakanState last year, in the relative safety

of an old mosque, an elder detailedthe numerous restrictions imposedby Myanmar authorities on the localpopulation. "Even though we havebeen living here for many genera-tions, we need a special authoriza-tion for almost everything: to moveout of our area, send our children tothe university, marry them, run abusiness. And, as everyone else in

tthe state, we are constantly submit-ted to forced labor, arbitrary arrest,land confiscation and other abusesby the authorities."

Rohingya also complain ofbeing targeted by the Rakhine, thepredominant Buddhist group inMyanmar's Arakan State. It's a

bitterirony considering that theRakhine themselves are subject tohe junta's systematic oppressionagainst ethnic minorities. Violentincidents such as attacks onmosques by Buddhist radicals andretaliation by Rohingya are regularlyreported. To justify their stance,both communities have traded end-less arguments often founded onbiased or reconstructed historicalfacts.

Xenophobia, fueled byextremists from both sides but also

by the ruling junta, which hasmasterfully used divide and ruletactics to maintain its control, hassubmerged any hope of a dispas-sionate debate. Still, argumentsforwarded by the Rakhine commu-nity, such as the "fear that theRohingya occupy our land becauseof their high birth rate and rapidlyincreasing population", as aRakhine journalist exiled in Bangla-desh put it, have some basis andwill eventually need to be properly

addressed.The dramatic situation of

Rohingya exiles in Bangladesh, acountry more accessible than Myan-mar to outside observers, hasbecome the show case for the mi-nority's stateless plight. Some29,000 Rohingya live as refugees inKutupalong and Cont. P. 7

Without a Homeland, Without a HopeBy Tony Cliff , April, 9, 2011





From P. 6 a booming beach resort

in Bangladesh. These camps areunder the UNHCR's supervision andbenefit from the presence of a fewinternational non-governmentalorganizations (NGOs). With properlybuilt houses, schools, playgrounds

and a sewage system, they look likeany other adequately administeredrefugee camps in the world.

But the largest facility,Kutupalong, has a twin brother witha much less amiable face."Kutupalong makeshift", as it'scommonly known, is literally stuckto "Kutupalong registered".Thousands of adobe huts coveredwith plastic sheets, branches anddried leaves cluster together over asuccession of bare hills, shelteringa population of 20,000, according tothe latest count by a NGO active inthe area.

Here, there is not a singletrace of shade. Nor are therelatrines or a proper sewage system.Only a few pumps installed by theFrench NGO Solidarites Interna-tional provide for basic water needs.In the summer season, the heatinside the huts is sweltering. Duringthe monsoon season, water oftendissolves the huts' walls andtransforms steep alleys into muddytorrents. In any season, day andnight, disease-carrying insects are

ubiquitous.We don't have enough mosquitonets," laments Karim, the commu-nity leader of one of the six blocksdividing the camp. "Many diseasesare endemic here, malaria, diarrheaand tuberculosis. And now we haveto face an epidemic of chicken poxand measles."

Almost like an indecent exhibit,mothers show the faces of theirinfants and children marked withchicken pox pustules. Moreworrisome is the 30% rate of acutemalnutrition reported in the camp

by the European CommissionHumanitarian Aid Office (ECHO).Only the NGO Medecins SansFrontieres (MSF) Holland, in a clinicset out of the camp along the mainroad, and the French Action Contrela Faim (ACF), has the right toprovide medical treatment to the"Kutupalong makeshift" population.

A few kilometers to the south,

Leda, the other non-official camp with apopulation of 13,700,offers a relativelyless desperate face.Rattan-built housesare properly aligned

along paved alleys,here and there em-blazoned with flow-ers and greenery. Yetrestrictionsimposed by Bangla-desh authorities inthe makeshift campsare drastic. Food dis-tribution and education are sharplycurtailed. Still, if these rules werestrictly enforced then"Kutupalong makeshift" and Ledawould have turned into full-blowndeath camps.

Despite the appalling condi-tions, refugees manage to bypassthese interdictions and organize theirsurvival. In Kutupalong, for instance,as a substitute to a proper schoolingestablishment, community leaderswith the help of outside sympathizershave set up a network of 30 classesinside huts with locally trainedteachers.

The restriction on wanderingoutside the makeshift camps is per-haps the least observed of therestraints. "Many refugees leavethem for a few days or a week towork in brick or dried fish factories,salt pans, as rickshaw drivers," saysKarim, the Kutupalong communityleader. "They usually work for 100taka a day [about US$1.4], which isnot enough to feed a family so oftenboth parents have to work. Thispopulation of illegal workers is par-ticularly vulnerable to abuse and isconstantly at the local authorities'and people's mercy. Rapes, beatings,thefts and other abuses against Ro-hingya have been well-documentedover the years. There are an esti-

mated 250,000 to 350,000 other Ro-hingya who live outside of the campsand are scattered all over the countrywho are equally at risk without legalstatus.

There is an ethnic irony totheir situation. The Rohingya havesimilar origins with the predominantBengali from southeast Bangladeshand share the same language spoken

in Chittagong, the country's largestseaport, and its surrounding areas.They mix easily within a dense andalready impoverished local popula-tion but are likewise seen as takingjobs and encroaching on scarce

land."A deep tension between the

two communities has developedover time, particularly the last twoor three years," comments ChrisLewa, coordinator of The ArakanProject, a human-rights group moni-toring the Rohingya's situation. InUkhia, a small town near Kutupa-long, local people have created"anti-Rohingya committees". "Theyorganize meetings, publish docu-ments denouncing how the Rohin-gya take over their work and ask fortheir deportation," says a journalistfrom Kaladan, a Rohingya newsagency based in Chittagong.

Abuses by the local authori-ties had become so egregious thatin February 2010 MSF stirred up ahornet's nest by strongly denounc-ing "a violent crackdown againststateless Rohingya in Bangladeshforcing thousands of people to fleein fear" to refugee camps. The cam-paign had an at least temporarypositive impact on the Rohingya,seen in fewer cases of arrest andharassment from the police.

However, MSF's outburst,which some critics said "only devel-oped an unconstructive approachtowards the Bangladesh govern-ment" later triggered a strong reac-tion from the authorities. Work per-mits for NGOs active in the campswere suspended, putting them inthe uneasy position of having towork on a day-to-day basis under

Cont. P. 8





From P. 7 the constant threatof expulsion. "It appears to be agovernment strategy to silence theNGOs," said Lewa.

The presence in both Myanmarand Bangladesh of a largepopulation of young destitute

Rohingya men regularly raises theconcern of their potential exploita-tion by Islamic extremist groups.Although a few cases of recruitmentby Islamic terrorist movements inBangladesh were reported in the1990s, there is no evidence todayshowing any link with this kind oforganization, say aid workers.

In Myanmar, the omnipresenceof the junta's vast surveillanceapparatus acts to dissuade anyrecruitment efforts by outsiders."These accusations result morefrom a fantasy," says a MSF staffer

in Yangon who used to work in theArakan State. "The Rohingya aresurely orthodox Islamic,conservative people but it does notmean that they are terrorists." InBangladesh, meanwhile, a massivecrackdown launched by theauthorities in 2005 has practicallydecimated local Islamic terroristoutfits.

Instead, thousands of Rohingyaexiles are opting to leave Bangla-desh for other supposedly moreaccommodating countries. Manyattempt the dangerous and costlytrip by boat across the Indian Oceanto more prosperous destinations inSoutheast Asia. About 25,000Rohingya now live in Malaysia,including 19,800 who are under theUNHCR's care. Over the past twoyears, another 420 or so havereached Indonesia.

In Thailand,authorities havebeen embroiledin controversyabout their treat-ment ofRohingya boat-

people. In 2009,the Thai armywas accused ofpushing back tosea about 1,000Rohingya boat-people without aworking engineand with littlefood or water. According to human-rights organizations, more than halfof them drowned. Thai Prime MinisterAbhisit Vejjajiva last month reaf-firmed to a meeting of foreign jour-nalists his government's policy to

deport Rohingya, who he considers"economic migrants" rather thanpolitical refugees.

Among themselves, Rohingyaoften denounce the lack of solidarityfrom other Muslim communities."There is no religious consideration,no Muslim brotherhood," laments aleader of the exile group ArakanRohingya National Organization(ARNO). A large community ofRohingya has settled in SaudiArabia, a predominantly SunniMuslim country.

The Saudi Embassy in Yangonclaims that there are 120,000 there,though many of them arrived in thecountry with Bangladeshi passports.Another estimated 300,000 Rohingyahave lived for years in Pakistan,mostly in the Karachi area wherethey are reportedly well integratedinto the local community.

Repatriation ofRohingya fromBangladesh toMyanmar, mean-while, has beenon hold for

several years be-cause the politicalsituation thereoffers few guaran-tees for a safereturn. Accordingto Kitty McKinsey,UNHCR's spokes-person in Asia,"Between 1992and the end of

2005, when the last repatriation tookplace, 236,599 Rohing refugeeswent back to Myanmar from Bangla-desh."

She adds: "There are indica-tions that as many as half of the

200,000 to 400,000 undocumentedRohingya that the Bangladeshgovernment says are in the countrynow may have been registered asrefugees in 1991, gone home toMyanmar, and come back to Bangla-desh again." That, McKinsey says,means many have thus lost theirprevious refugee status.

Resettlement in thirdcountries remains an exceptionaloutcome despite a programinitiated in the refugee camps in2006. According to a spokesman ofthe International Office for Migration(IOM), the program's implementingagency, "926 Rohingya have beenresettled mostly in United Kingdom,Canada and Australia. Another 500people are expected to be resettledthis year but we have to wait for theconclusions of a program reviewcurrently done by the Bangladeshgovernment."

Any mass repatriation ofRohingya will remain wishfulthinking as long as a comprehen-sive political settlement thatspurposefully addresses the fate of

Myanmar's numerous ethnicminorities remains elusive. Thenewly appointed cabinet in Naypyi-daw has so far demonstrated nosign of interest in reaching such anaccommodation. Myanmar'sRohingya will thus be condemnedto survive many more years in astateless existence.##

Source: Asia Times Online





By LALIT K JHA , Saturday, April 23, 2011

WASHINGTON— Noting that Rohingyarefugees face a desperate situation in Bangladesh, aWashington-based non-profit organization has urgedAustralia, Canada, the US and Britain to work withthe Bangladeshi government to strengthenprotection and humanitarian assistance and reducesexual and gender-based violence.

“The situation is desperate for Rohingyarefugees in Bangladesh,” said Lynn Yoshikawa, ofRefugees International. In its report, “Bangladesh:The Silent Crisis,” Refugees International saidhundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees whofled repression in Burma have no protection fromabuse, starvation and detention in Bangladeshbecause of a lack of documentation.

The plight of the Rohingyas was recently notedby US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a speechin Berlin early this month. “In Burma, ethnicRohingya Muslims continue to be denied full citizen-ship and equal opportunities for education, employ-ment and travel,” Clinton said at the Rathenau Prizeceremony in Berlin on April 15.

“They live in squalor and are forced to suffera litany of abuses because the government doesn’trecognize them as refugees,” said Yoshikawa, whorecently returned from visiting Rohingya camps inthe region.

The report called on the international commu-nity to urge the Bangladeshi government to registerundocumented refugees and improve protection for

all vulnerable Rohingyas, adding that donor govern-ments must also work to restart and increase reset-tlement of refugees to third countries and increaseassistance for communities hosting refugees.

“Donor governments should rapidly mobilizeUS $2 million to meet the World Food Program’sfunding gap to ensure the provision of full foodrations in the official refugee camps this year,”it said.

According to the report, approximately 800,000Rohingyas live in three townships in northernArakan State in Burma. Rohingya children are threetimes more likely to die before their fifth birthdaythan other children in Burma, and malnutrition ratesfrequently exceed emergency levels, the report said.

The World Food Program reported that food security in the region had worsened over the past two years, withtwo-thirds of the population going hungry.

Giving a graphic description of the plight of the Rohingyas, Refugees International said Rohingyas there areoften arrested while collecting firewood in the nearby national forest or while working. If they are unable to pay abribe or obtain a guarantee from a Bangladesh national for their immediate release, refugees are often chargedwith illegal entry and sent to jail. Refugees International said that detained Rohingyas routinely have to pay a bribeof between $110 and $400 for their release, forcing many families into heavy debt.##

Courtesy: Irrawaddy Online

Rohingyas: A forgotten issue ?When a problem becomes chronic, the need to solve

it also seems to lose urgency. The issue of Rohingyarefugees from Myanmar, like that of the stranded Pakistanis,is not only old but one that seems to have been relegated to

limbo. The Rohingyas are victims of the ethnic cleansingpolicy of their government and since the late seventies theyhave been pouring into the Bangladesh in waves to escapethe periodic anti-Muslim persecution, thinking perhaps thatthey would be safe in this side of the river Naf among theirfellow Muslims. As a further misfortune for both Rohingyasand Bangladeshis, what was their shelter in an emergency isbecoming their permanent habitat. Although the contempo-rary world is violently denouncing racism, and zerotolerance to racism is often heard as a slogan in interna-tional forums, on the question of Myanmar the world’sleadership has adopted a strangely acquiescent attitude. Ofcourse, some kind of international sanctions were imposedagainst Myanmar but not for persecuting the Rohingyas. Farfrom twisting the arm of Myanmar the world’s leaders are

pressing Bangladesh to adopt a more accommodativepolicy towards the Rohingyas – another sign of twistedvalue judgement in an unjust world order.

Although in the past a number refugees wererepatriated with the help of UNHCR, that process is nowstalled and according to media reports, early return of therest is unlikely. The Myanmar government shows noenthusiasm in this regard and the visit of foreign ministerDipu Moni to Myanmar last January did not yield any resultin this area of bilateral relations. What is further disturbingis that infiltration is still reportedly continuing. Theregistered refugees number 24,331 but there are many timesmore unregistered ones – 400,000 or more. Because of thisinflux poverty in Cox’s Bazar district is escalating at the rateof three percent per year, according to a study report of

UNICEF. It was also known that many Rohingyas areinvolved in drug trafficking and other crimes. We are notsuggesting that Rohingyas are by nature more criminallydisposed or less criminally disposed than any other peoplein the world (we are not racist like the Myanmar junta) butthe unsettled condition of these hapless refugeesdestabilising society and vitiating the environment. Thiskind of environment even breeds terrorism. A positive wayto fight terrorism is to prevent the creation of environmentthat promotes terrorism. Bangladesh government would beexpected to take up the Rohingya cause more vigorouslywith the Myanmar government as well as the UNHCR andother world agencies. ##Source: Editorial, The Daily Sun, Dhaka 18/4/2011

Rohingya Endure Desperate

Situation in Bangladesh





ROHINGYAS FACE ‘SILENT CRISIS’ IN BANGLADESH – RIGHTS GROUP ( RI ) AlterNet, April 20, 2011

Bangkok/Delhi – Tens of thousands

of stateless Rohingya refugees inBangladesh face abuse, starvation

and detention in a "silent crisis"that could lead to a humanitarianemergency if the authorities do notdo more to protect them, a report byRefugees International (RI) said.

The Rohingyas are a Muslimminority from Rakhine State in thewest of the predominantly BuddhistMyanmar. Rights groups say theyface some of the worst discrimina-tion in the world and accuse theMyanmar government of denyingthem citizenship, free movement,education and employment.

But those who have fled to

Bangladesh also face discrimination- they receive limited aid and aresubject to arrest, extortion anddetention, the report Bangladesh:The Silent Crisis, released on Tues-day by U.S.-based rights group RI,said.

"The situation is desperate forRohingya refugees in Bangladesh,"Lynn Yoshikawa, a co-author of thereport who recently returned fromvisiting the refugee camps, said."They live in squalor and are forcedto suffer a litany of abuses becausethe government doesn't recognise

them as refugees."Bangladesh's Rohingya repatriate

commissioner, Firoz Salahuddin,dismissed RI's claims. He told Alert-Net the report was "disappointing"and the Rohingyas were in factbeing treated well. The Bangladeshgovernment classes the majority ofRohingyas as illegal migrants andsays they should return to Myan-mar. Last year the authorities forci-bly evicted thousands from a make-shift camp, prompting an outcryfrom aid and rights groups.

Since then, Bangladesh hasincreased restrictions on aid agen-cies working with the refugees, theRI report said. Despite worryinglevels of malnutrition at the largestmakeshift camp housing about20,000 people, "the government hasdenied permits for aid agencies toassist unregistered refugees andhost communities," RI said."Shelters are falling apart and are

unlikely to resist the upcomingmonsoons." RI is calling on donorgovernments, particularly Australia,Canada, the United States and Britain,to help the Rohingyas by providing

humanitarian aid, a new country tolive in and funding. The rights groupalso wants donors to encourageBangladesh to set up a system toregister vulnerable and undocu-mented refugees to protect them.

"The plight of the Rohingyas hasbeen neglected for decades by theinternational community and Burma(Myanmar's former name) advocacygroups, despite the scale and severityof abuses they face both as statelessBurmese minorities and refugees,"Yoshikawa told AlertNet. UNREGISTERED AND UNPROTECTED

According to Bangladeshi offi-cials, there are almost 25,000 Rohin-gyas who have refugee status andwho receive food rations and otheraid from the United Nations. They arehoused in two camps in the country'ssoutheastern Cox's Bazaar region.Officials say there are also between200,000 and 300,000 Rohingyas whothey term as "undocumented" - withno refugee status and no legal rights -who are living outside the camps,dependent on local Bangladeshis forwork and sustenance.

Of this group, the lucky ones arein local villages while others end up inunofficial settlements where mud hutscovered in plastic sheets and treebranches provide poor protectionfrom monsoon rains that cause mud-slides and expose them to waterbornediseases. Unregistered Rohingyashave for decades lacked "basic pro-tection from violence, exploitation andarrest" in Bangladesh, Yoshikawasaid. "(They) have exhausted theircoping mechanisms and are forcedinto begging, prostitution and traffick-ing to survive." Women and girls are

particularly vulnerable, and reports ofsexual violence against unregisteredrefugees have increased in the lastyear. he U.N. Refugee Agency UNHCRdoes not have access to these Rohin-gyas and few aid agencies – if any –are officially allowed to provideassistance. "NO ONE HAS DIED"

Bangladesh's Salahuddin dismissedRI's claims of abuses and poor living

conditions, saying there had beenno reports of this. "Those that areliving outside the camps are surviv-ing well because of the hospitalityof our people in the area. No one

has died or starved due to a short-age of food in that area," he toldAlertNet by phone from Cox'sBazaar. Salahuddin also deniedclaims made in the report that au-thorities in Dhaka were repeatedlydelaying finalising a policy on theRohingyas and intentionally pre-venting relief groups from aidingthem. "The government is actuallyvery serious about dealing with theundocumented persons and we aremaking a policy on the better treat-ment of these people," he said."This is a transitional time - we aretrying to formulate our policy whichI am hopeful will be done soon. And,after all that, these issues will besettled and their lives will be bet-ter," he said.

HUMANITARIAN CRISIS INEVITABLE

Yoshikawa, however, said a humani-tarian crisis is "inevitable," if theBangladeshi government does notaddress the issues facing therefugees and said there are con-cerns even for the officiallyrecognised Rohingyas. The U.N.'sWorld Food Programme (WFP),

which provides food assistance tothe official camps, is facing a $2million shortfall in funding. It onlyhas support to cover food needsuntil the end of June. Christa Rader,WFP's country director for Bangla-desh, told AlertNet the situation is"critical because the people living inthe camps depend 100 percent onthe food we provide".

And, despite the food aid,malnutrition levels in the camps arearound 15 percent and the rate ofchronic undernutrition is about 60percent - which is considered se-

vere. This has prompted WFP tostart feeding programmes for hun-dreds of children under two years ofage. "What is more critical is thesituation in the makeshift camps,"Rader said. The malnutrition rate inthese camps is twice as high,according to RI. The numbers are aconcern even in Bangladesh which hasone of the highest malnutrition rates inSouth Asia. ##





Tuesday, 12 April 2011Rohingya who are living in Japan

donated relief goods for the tsunamivictims in Japan on April 4, 2011

according to an organizer from aRohingya group. The program wasorganized by the Burmese RohingyaAssociation in Japan (BRAJ).

“We are very happy to have achance to donate for the tsunamivictims on behalf of all Rohingya.”“We donated several items of goodsworth $4000. They are immediately use-able items for the victims according tothe instructions of centre officials,such as blankets, warm clothes,jackets, warming plaster, baby milk,towels, adult and child diapers, instantfoods, etc.”

“On April 4 at about 10 a.m, we hand-overall the goods at the Tatebayashi City Office,where the local government have opened adonation and relief goods receivingcentre .”

“The Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh havebeen receiving aid from Japan since 1993.Now, it is our turn to help Japanese peoplewhen they are in a desperate situation afterthe recent powerful earthquake and tsunami.We, Rohingya around the world are prayingfor the victims,” Zaw Min Htut, the presidentof BRAJ, told the city officials who received

the relief goods with thanks to the Rohingya people. ##Source: Kaladan News

Rohingya Donate for Tsunami Victims in Japan

WATER CRISIS IN LEDA REFUGEE CAMP AGAIN

By Our Reporter, 12April 2011

Teknaf, Bangladesh: The refugees of Leda unofficial

camps have been facing an acute water crisis againsince the first week of April said a refugee leader fromthe camp who prefers not to be named. Solidarity, anNGO from the United Kingdom, has not been supplyingwater to the camp since April. The reason is unknown.When refugees asked about the water crisis, the con-

cerned authorities did not reply to their questions, saida refugee leader. There are two NGOs, Muslim Aid (UK)and Solidarity (UK), that have been working in the Ledacamp. Muslim Aid works for management and medicaltreatment in the camp, while Solidarity is working toimprove unhygienic issues, such as latrines, drainagesystems, and supplying water to the camp.

There are over 12,000 refugees who have been livingin Leda camp without any support or rations from anyquarter. At present, the refugees are not able to cook

their food; theyare even unableto take baths orto wash theirclothes. In addi-tion, they havevery little drink-ing water. Thelocal peopleneighboring the

camp disturbthe refugeewomen and girls when they go to streams to fetch water,said a mother of three children from Leda camp.

“Most of the children are facing various skindiseases because of the water crisis and the overallunhygienic situation.” “The weather is very hot, if wedon’t get enough water or pure water from SolidarityNGO, our children will be affected by more diseases,”said another community member. ##

Source: Kaladan News





Tuesday, 08 March 2011 Sittwe: The Rakhine Nationalities

Development Party, or RNDP, hasobjected to the appointment of a

Muslim lawmaker as secretary ofthe legislative committee of the Ara-kan State Parliament on the chargethat the lawmaker is not a citizen ofBurma.

U Khine Pray Soe, secretary ofthe RNDP, told Narinjara that hisparty has objected to theappointment of U Zarhivir, aka UAung Myo Min, from the UnionSolidarity and Development Party.He was elected in the firstconstituency in Maungdaw Town-ship in accordance with the 2008constitution.

"The legislative role is veryimportant and it is not appropriateat all to appoint one who bearsdebatable citizen status as the sec-retary of the legislative committeeof the state parliament. We have toobject to the appointment of UZarhivir because it is not in accor-dance with the 2008 constitution,"said U Khine Pray Soe.

The 2008 constitution, draftedby the current regime, has a clausestating a member of parliamentmust be a citizen who was born to

parents who were citizens of Burma.The legislative committee of the

Arakan State Parliament was formedat the parliamentary session on 1March and consists of five appointedmembers, of whom three are electedlawmakers and two are outsidescholars.

U Aung Naing, another MP fromthe USDP elected in the secondconstituency in Thandwe Townshipwas appointed as president of the

committee while Zarhivir was

appointed as secretary. U PhoeMin, an MP from the RNDP inRathidaung Township's secondconstituency is a member of the

committee along with outsidescholars U Kyaw Tha, retired assis-tant director of the high court, andU Maung Tha Hla, a retired law offi-cer of the state. U Khine Pray Soe,however, said that their submis-sion of the objection was rejectedwithout any discussion in the par-liament.

"We submitted our objection tothe parliament on 2 March, and itwas rejected on 3 March. We weremerely told that the appointmentcame after step-by-step examina-tions by the higher authorities and

the Arakan State Parliament doesnot have the authority to withdrawthe appointment," he said.

U Zarhivir has been unavail-able for comments despiteattempts to reach him. Accordingto a source close to Zarhivir, he isone of the few Muslims who hold anational ID card and his identitynumber is Ak-195265, although hisother relatives hold only the whiteID cards that bear the remark, "bythis card, the holder must notclaim citizenship of anycountry."##Source: Narinjara News

RNDP Objects to Appointment of USDP's Muslim MP in Arakan's Legislature

Mr. Jahangir (a) U Aung Myo Min, MP

from USDP of Maungdaw Township

Arakan Rebels Abduct Christian Preacher for Ransom in Paletwa Thursday, 24 March 2011, Khonumthung News.

A Christian preacher U AungLaw was abducted in the secondweek of February from the westernBurma border by the Indo-Myanmar-Bangladesh basedArakan (Rakhai) armed groupdemanding a ransom of Kyat 40lakhs.

U Aung Law is a member ofthe Anglican Church and was serv-ing Duchuangwa village in Paletwatownship, Chin state.

“Captain Mint Soe and hissix rebels belonging to the armedgroup took away U Aung Law anddemanded a ransom of Kyat 40lakhs from the villagers,” said alocal.

Liberation Party (ALP) is active in thearea and the party extorts moneyfrom the villagers. The group is fight-ing for freedom of Arakan state.

“The Burmese Army and theALP are on either side, so people livein fear. It is unfortunate that thechurch leader was kidnapped,” said

a school teacher Although Khonum-t h u n g N e w s t r i e d t o g e tinformation about this, details werenot available till date.

The people in western Chinstate and northern Arakan (Rakhine)face detention, rape and killing byunknown armed groups. Besides,people are suffering the effects offamine due to bamboo flowering. ##

Arakan (Rakhine ) Rebels in PaletwaTownship Area, Photo: ALP Website





143 Families from Burma Proper Settled in North ArakanBy Our reporter, 06 April 2011Maungdaw: 143 families brought in

from Burma proper were settled lastweek in model villages that are

being established in MaungdawTownship in Northern Arakan Stateby the Burmese military regime. Thefamilies were brought fromRangoon Division and they are the19th round of settlers since thevillages were set up in NorthernArakan State.

All the families are brought fromRangoon Division. Among them, 61families are of retired prisondepartment officials, 14 are ofpolice, and the rest are of thegeneral population from fourdistricts in Rangoon. They include

422 people in total and this was the19th settlement since the modelvillages were established in North-ern Arakan State.

The families were brought fromRangoon to (Akyab) Sittwe by seaon 28 March and arrived in Maung-daw on 1 April. They were temporar-ily accommodated in Maungdaw'sKa Nyin Tan Ward and later sent todifferent model villages inMaungdaw.

40 of them were sent toTaungbro and the rest were sent toNyaung Chaung and Kharee Myaingmodel villages in Maungdaw, addedthe official.The Burmese regimestarted to establish the model vil-lages in the border townships of

Rathidaung, Buthidaung, and

Maungdaw in Arakan State since1999.According to the official record, 50model villages had already been set

up in those townships and 1,952families, with 6,655 people, weresettled in the villages.The settlers arebeing brought mainly from Burmaproper and they are mostly ethnicBurmese. They are provided by theregime with free houses, free arableland, and equipment to earnlivelihoods.According to local residents, there isdissatisfaction with the settlersbecause most of them are criminals,homeless, or transient people fromBurma proper and they often engagein anti-social activities in Northern

Arakan. ## Source: Kaladan News

By Our correspondent, 08 April 2011A 19-member delegation

comprised of diplomats from west-ern countries has recently visitedthe Rohingya refugee camps insoutheastern Cox's Bazar District inBangladesh.

The delegations from 12countries are including U.S. Am-bassador James F. Moriarty,

UNHCR Country Representative Mr.Craig Sandar, EU AmbassadorUliam Hanna, French AmbassadorSarli Kosart, German AmbassadorHolgar Mycle, Dutch Ambassador JeeHeuical, Dutch Deputy Head of Mis-sion Dorish Burbarak, NorwegianAmbassador Reque Brit Lound,

Swedish Ambassadors Aneli LindalKeni and Kerin Ohaman, AustralianHigh Commissioner Dr. Jastin Lee,UK High Commissioner Head of Po-litical and Global Issues ZequelinDeli, Canadian High CommissionerRobert Magdangul, Swiss EmbassyDeputy Head Gaberial Gary Gud,American Embassy Political OfficerKuliar Graham, and Spanish Em-

bassy Deputy Head Adorwadu.UNHCR Bangladesh-based

delegate Caridi Rui, WFP Bangla-desh-based head Crestardar, UNHCRProtection Officer Orzenzen, RRRCOfficer Firuz Salauddin, and otherlocal officers met the delegation atthe camp.

The team visited the Kutupalong and Nayapara official refugeecamps in Cox's Bazar on 6 April,2011, and assessed the living condi-tions, health, and education of therefugees.There are 28,000 Rohingyarefugees sheltering in two officiallyregistered refugee camps and about70,000 refugees are living in twomakeshift unregistered camps.

A UNHCR representative saidthat if the refugees will getcitizenship rights or the politicalsituation is favorable for them, theywill be sent to Burma. It is good ifBurma receives the refugees. If so,we will also help the repatriationprocess. ## Source: Kaladan News

HIGH LEVEL DIPLOMATS VISIT ROHINGYA REFUGEE CAMPS IN BANGLADESH

BURMA DETAINS 146 BOAT PEOPLE : BURMESE OFFICIAL Monday, 11 April 2011 Yangon – Myanmar has

detained 146 boat people fromBangladesh after they were dumpedon a beach by traffickers who toldthem they were in Thailand, an offi-cial said Monday.

“They are in the Irrawaddy regionunder investigation,” said the Myan-mar government official, who askednot to be named.He said more than80 of the detainees were Rohingyas,

a Muslim group living primarily inMyanmar’s western Rakhine statewho are described by the UnitedNations as one of the world’s mostpersecuted minorities. The group,found on a beach in late March, saidthey had paid to be taken fromBangladesh by boat to Bangkok andwere told they had arrived in the Thaicapital, he said.

“They will be charged under theimmigration act. For the Rohingyathey will be sent back to Maungdaw

in Rakhine State. The others will besent back to Bangladesh,” the offi-

cial said.As many as 300,000 Rohin-gya have fled Myanmar toneighbouring Bangladesh, wherethey live in “primitive and squalidconditions” in both official andmakeshift refugee camps, accordingto US-based Human RightsWatch.The rights group said in aFebruary report that authorities inMyanmar have Cont. P. 14





By Our Reporter, 09 April 2011Maungdaw, Arakan State: The

National Security Personnel( Sarapa) have been harassing only

members of the Rohingyacommunity to extort money inMaungdaw since the last week ofMarch, said a businessman fromMaungdaw.

“One member of the NationalSecurity Agency, Win Hla Htun, isgoing around Maungdaw whereArakanese Rohingya are sittingtheir shops and business centers tocheck the position of ArakaneseRohingya businessmen.“He started harassing ArakaneseRohingya businessman on April 5 inthe Maungdaw municipal area. TheNational Security personnel hadalready been harassing the peopleof rural area while they were in the

town for business or other purposesWin Hla Htun summoned Rohingyabusinessman Akaram, and went tohis shop to pick up with his

motorbike on April 5. After he pickedup Akaram, who has shop on MasterMunaf shopping line, he wasaccused by the agency that he isdea l ing in Yaba (metham-phetamines) drug business. So, theagency asked for 500,000 Kyats. Ifvictims fail to pay the demandedmoney, the National Securitypersonnel will torture the detaineesphysically and mentally in theircamp, said an aide from the agency.Later Akaram was released afterpaying the demanded money to theagency.

Similarly, on 8 April, Farook Sha,another Arakanese Rohingya busi-nessman, was picked up by Win Hla

Htun and taken to an office wherehe was also accused by the agencyin the same manner as Akaram. Itis still not known when Farook Sha

will be released from detention.“This is a method for the Burmeseauthorities to extort money fromthe Arakanese Rohingya commu-nity with false allegations andphysical and mental harassment inorder to coerce people to fulfilltheir demands,” said a school-teacher from Maungdaw.“The harassment was started againafter the national elections onNovember 7, and all the authoritiesare going to harass the Rohingyacommunity. We don’t know if thenew government will handle the

situation of northern Arakan withpeace.”

Source: Kaladan News

From P. 13 “systematically

persecuted” the Rohingya for morethan three decades.

In the past human rights activ-ists have condemned the Thai navyfor sending Rohingya asylum-seekers back to sea.The UN Refu-gee Agency in Bangkok said it hadconfirmed that more than 140 peo-

ple had been put ashore in the Ir-rawaddy Delta and was trying findout more information about them.

“Sometimes, the smugglerstake people out in boats and sailthem around and tell the peoplethey have reached Thailand or Indo-nesia and these poor people findout they are in Myanmar,” saidspokeswoman Kitty McKinsey. ##

National Security Personnel Harassing only Rohingya in Maungdaw

By Our Reporter, 28 February 2011Maungdaw, Arakan State: TheBurmese authorities transferred ahuge arms shipment to the BurmaBorder Security Force (Nasaka)Headquarters of Maungdaw fromButhidaung on February 25, accord-ing to an officer from theButhidaung port. On February 25, aship from Rangoon carried arms toButhidaung without entering Akyab,the officer said.

“The Nasaka personnel werewatching the ship after it reached theButhidaung port. The Nasaka hadcomplete control of the port untilthey unloaded all of the arms andloaded them into trucks. Nobody elsewas allowed to enter the port.”

The Nasaka used eight trucks to

transport the arms from Buthidaungto the Nasaka Headquarters of Kyi-kanprin in Maungdaw, said a trans-porter from Buthidaung.

“We had to park the trucks insidethe port compound, and then wewere ordered to leave the trucks,”said a driver who was involved in theaction. “The Nasaka reloaded thearms into the trucks themselves dur-ing the night so nobody could seewhat was going on.”

“We drove the trucks at night.When we reached the Nasaka Head-quarters, the Nasaka personnel or-dered us to leave the trucks insidethe Nasaka Headquarters.” “The Na-saka personnel didn’t use local la-borers or port laborers to load orunload the arms.”

Similarly, the Nasaka personneltransferred the arms during the nightfrom its headquarters to the north ofMaungdaw where a detainee wasseen last month loading wooden

boxes which are usually used tohold arms, said a local from Maung-daw who was detained at the head-quarters at the time.“The Nasakawere shifting the arms to wheretheir outposts are stationed on theborder with Bangladesh in the northof Maungdaw. Northern Maungdaw

is in a mountainous area and theborder line is lands,” said a localfrom northern Maungdaw. ##Source: Kaladan News

TRADITIONAL ROHINGYA BOLIKALA

( WESTLING COMPETITION )

Authorities transfer large arms shipment to Nasaka headquarters





Rohingya Face Difficulties with New Maungdaw Settlement Program

By Our Reporter, 02 March 2011 Maungdaw, Arakan State: The Ro-hingya community in Maungdaw isfacing difficulties from the Burmeseauthorities’ new resettlementprogram in Maungdaw.Kyaw Aye, aRakhine community member whohails from block no. 3 of Maungdaw,is a resettlement program agent. Heoversees the building of new homesand the repair of old homes in modelvillages (locally called ‘NatalaVillages’). The agent is now forcingthe Rohingya community to buildhouses for newcomers toMaungdaw. The agent gave orders tothe village authorities concerningwhere model villages had to be built.A new model village in Shweza Vil-

lage for 200 families who will comethis month is being set up.The agent is using the name of

the Maungdaw Township Authoritiesto get the building materials from the

Maungdaw market without payingany money. The agent takes a lot ofmaterials from the Rohingya commu-nity’s building materials shops. How-ever, he never takes any materials

from shops with Rakhine owners.The Rohingya community has to payfor, or give freely, land, labor, food,and materials for the new model vil-lages. Even so, the new model villag-ers harass the Rohingya villagers inmany ways. “The SPDC’s policy ofestablishing “model villages” innorthern Arakan State to be popu-lated with Burmans from BurmaProper and Rakhine from Bangla-desh and inside Arakan State hasresulted in the confiscation of landsfrom the Rohingya community. Thebuilding of model villages reportedlyintensified after the formation of theBurma Border Security Force, orNasaka, in 1992.

At present, over 100 model

villages have been built in north-ern Arakan State. These modelvillages were built with the forcedlabor of Rohingya people. Besides,the villagers have to provide

money, rations, generators, cattle,and materials for house buildingsfor the newcomers. Moreover, theNasaka has seized grazingpastures belonging to theRohingya community to distributeto model villagers. These atrociousmeasures have forced theRohingya to become landlessInternally Displaced Persons(IDPs), and in some cases to facestarvation forcing them out tocross the border into nearby Bang-ladesh for life and shelter. TheBurmese authorities have plans toturn northern Arakan State into aBuddhist-majority area. They arecausing a serious demographicimbalance by bringing in newsettlers. ## Source: Kaladan News

From P. 16 THAN SHWE .....

The regime's killing of monksduring the September 2007 protestsis just one incident that the interna-tional community is aware of. Theregime is afraid that it may one dayface an international tribunalbecause of its misdeeds.

If the Commission of Inquiryproposed by Tomás Ojea Quintana,the special rapporteur on the humanrights situation in Burma, wereallowed to work inside the country,more stories would surely comeout. That's why Snr-General ThanShwe quietly included theself-amnesty law in the 2008Constitution to secure his future.

However, I want to warn ThanShwe that as the leader of the army,he will be held accountable forviolations that the army has perpe-trated. Looking at other authoritar-

ian regimes around the world, wecan compare Than Shwe to theutterly despicable Muammar Al-Gaddafi of Libya. The Burmesearmy should not take orders fromsuch a person, but rather follow theexample of the Egyptian army,which refused to fire on unarmedcivilians. It is time for Burmesearmy personnel to side with the

Our Reporter, 16 March 2011Maungdaw, Arakan State: Officers of

Burma’s border security force, or Na-saka, harassed Rohingya studentswho were on their way to sit for their

matriculation examination.Anno (nothis real name) is a student of class Xat Maungdaw High School. He alwaystravels to school from his village andback by trishaw or motorbike, the stu-dent said.

“He always crosses the ShwezaBridge while he goes to school, butyesterday he was stopped at thebridge for a toll while he was riding amotorbike.” The bridge security andAnno quarreled about the toll whileAnno was going to school for hisexamination which started on March

7, 2011 according to an elder fromShweza village. “Anno’s bookswere spread on the road and hisschool bag was torn apart by theNasaka. Finally, locals rushed tothe spot, which made the officersdepart.” Anno complained aboutthe incident to his school’s au-thorities, who then reported theincident to U Aung Kyaw Oo, thehead of Township Authority andNasaka Headquarters. However, noaction was taken against thebridge security officials, said aschoolteacher from Maungdaw.

“It is very important forstudents to get to the examinationcenter on time, otherwise they willbe expelled.” “The Nasaka person-nel of the bridge security post

always demand tolls from thestudents who ride motorbikes. Thetoll is not imposed by theauthorities, but the bridge securityofficers forcefully take money fromdrivers.”

“The toll is only imposed forthe Arakanese Rohingya commu-nity on the bridge, not for the Ara-kanese Rakhine community.” ##Source: Kaladan News

Nasaka Officers Harass Students in Maungdaw

people and strive together to bringThan Shwe and his family to justice.Under no circumstances should theybe pardoned under an amnesty. ##Aung Linn Htut is a former intelligence officer who served as a senior diplomat at the Burmese Embassy in Washington, DC. He took political asylum in the United States in 2005.

Sources: Irrawaddy





Than Shwe, the Trembling DictatorBy AUNG LINN HTUT ,

Saturday, March 5, 2011Why did Snr. Gen Than Shwe

insert a self-amnesty clause intoBurma's 2008 Constitution thatwas never discussed by theregime-sponsored NationalConvention, the body that draftedthe charter? Why did he compelretired director-general ThaungNyunt, his legal adviser, to writethis section alone in his officewithout consulting others?

According to my sources inNaypyidaw, Thaung Nyunt, adevout religious person, feltashamed of his involvement inThan Shwe's dirty work.

Chapter 14, Section 445 of theConstitution, entitled “TransitoryProvisions,” states: “All policyguidelines, laws, rules, regulations,notifications, and declarations ofthe State Law and OrderRestoration Council and the StatePeace and Development Council oractions, rights and responsibilitiesof the State Law and Order Resto-ration Council and the State Peaceand Development Council shalldevolve on the Republic of theUnion of Myanmar. No proceeding

shall be instituted against the saidCouncils or any member thereof orany member of the Government, inrespect of any act done in the exe-cution of their respective duties.”

I can recall one occasionwhen I was serving at the BurmeseEmbassy in Washington, D.C. Anew staff member who had beentransferred to the embassy in 2001told me that he hadbrought urgent orders to carryout an inquiry into an importantmatter. The orders were to find outif the US government had any in-

tention of bringing the Burmesegenerals before an internationalcriminal tribunal. We were to reportour findings as soon as possible.

I smiled to myself at the thoughtof Than Shwe, who was always somerciless towards others, express-ing such cowardly concern abouthis own fate. “ Eliminate them !Don't even leave an infant alive!

They are just Kala [a degradingterm for people of Indian descent],not humans! Sentence them to themaximum imprisonment!” That wasthe Than Shwe I knew.

Slobodan Miloševic of Yugosla-via, Charles Taylor of Liberia, Pol Potof Cambodia and Omar al-Bashir ofSudan were all facing justice indifferent internationally sponsoredtribunals at that time. So I couldeasily understand the cause of ThanShwe's concern.

I reported back to them perfunc-torily, informing them that the USgovernment was busy with its ownbusiness—this was soon after theattacks on the Pentagon and the

World Trade Center on Sept. 11,2001— and had no time think aboutBurma. Than Shwe was delighted bythe Sept. 11 attacks. He didn't evensend a state condolence letter to theUS government like most otherheads of state until the Burma Deskof the US State Department asked usabout it.

The reason he stuck the self-amnesty clause into the Constitutionis simple: He doesn't have thecourage to take responsibility forwhat he has done to his own people.Here are some examples of actions

for which he is directly or indirectlyaccountable.

In April 1993, Than Shwe, who isalso the commander in chief of theBurmese army, ordered Gen WinMyint, the commander of the WesternRegional Command (and later theregime's Secretary 3 and adjutantgeneral) to kill over 400 ethnicRohingyas in Arakan State'sButhidaung, Maungdaw Township inretaliation for attacks by Rohingyarebels who detonated 18 mines inone day in an assault on the Bur-mese army. The army rounded up

more than 400 people, including civil-ians, and as soon as they receivedtheir orders from the GHQ office,they killed them all.

In 1996, when the NationalLeague for Democracy (NLD) decidedto walk out of the National Conven-tion, Than Shwe was furious andordered the intelligence apparatus tointimidate members of the party and

necessary. In the same year, ThanShwe ordered his commanders inShan State, Karrenni State, Pegu ,Karen State, Mon State and

Tenasserim Division to relocatevillages and kill entire families,including infants, of anyone whodefied the orders.

I have personally witnessed theChristie Island massacre, in whichThan Shwe ordered Gen Kyi Min (theformer navy commander), Gen MyintSwe (the former air forcecommander), Gen Thura Myint Aung(the former adjutant general) and ColZaw Min (the minister ofelectricity {1) to kill 81 civilians whowere found on the island.

Than Shwe also ordered Gen Soe

Win (the former prime minister) andAung Thaung (minister Industry {1)to assassinate NLD leader Aung SanSuu Kyi. I can safely say that thereare many former intelligence officers,former army officers and police offi-cers who can verify this account.There are also many other eventsand incidents that I am not aware of.

Cont. P. 15

Murderer Snr. Gen. Than Shwe

Murderer Maj-Gen. Win Myint

arakan april 2011

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