Rakhine Statement by Malala Yousafszai Met With Ire

par | Sep 6, 2017 | Rohingyas

A tweet by Pakistani female education activist and Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafszai in support of Myanmar’s self-identifying Rohingya Muslim population has attracted criticism from some in Myanmar.
The 20-year-old winner of the Nobel Peace Prize called on Myanmar’s State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to condemn the treatment of Rakhine’s Muslim minority in a tweet labeled “My statement on the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar.”
“Over the last several years, I have repeatedly condemned this tragic and shameful treatment. I am still waiting for my fellow Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to do the same,” Malala Yousafszai said in a statement
She called for the end of violence, for self-identified Rohingya to be given citizenship, and for other countries, such as Bangladesh, to give food, shelter and education to refugees.
After militants from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) launched a series of attacks on 30 police outposts on Aug. 25—killing 13 members of the security forces.
Subsequent violence has left 28 civilians dead, displaced 27,000 Arakanese, Arakanese sub-ethnicities, and Hindus internally, and sent 146,000 mainly Muslim refugees fleeing to Bangladesh, according to the most recent UN figures available at the time of reporting.
The statement—which had garnered nearly 25,000 retweets and 19,000 replies by Wednesday evening—was widely commented on by international media and netizens; among the latter were also critical responses.

… / …

Many claimed to previously support Malala Yousafszai for her courage in confronting the Taliban on female education issues, for which she was shot in the face, but accused her of ignoring the plight of ethnic Arakanese and Hindu affected by the violence and failing to denounce ARSA for their violent attacks on security forces and civilians.
Legal expert U Khin Maung Myint told The Irrawaddy the young activist had riled the population by failing to condemn militant attacks.
“[The situation] is not about racial and religious discrimination, it became about terrorists’ attacks on civilians including Arakanese, Hindus, Muslims and other. It is important and she missed it,” he told The Irrawaddy.
“I strongly condemn Malala’s one-sided comments, [she does not] understand the real situation of Myanmar,” Shwe Cin Ei, a Facebook user, posted.
A Twitter account by the name of Thant Zin Oo retweeted the statement, commenting: “I really appreciate what you have done especially fighting against some unpractical social norms for girls’ education. Therefore, I think you have huge a responsibility for your actions and your words. Regarding the crisis in Myanmar, of course our hearts are also broken whenever we see pictures, videos and news about people dying regardless of who they are. However, I am wondering if you have even seen some pictures or videos of local people being killed very brutally by extremist terrorists.”

By San Yamin Aung 6 September 2017 – YANGON

Rohingya Flee as More Than 2,600 Houses Burned in Rakhine

par | Sep 2, 2017 | Rohingyas

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh — More than 2,600 houses have been burned down in Rohingya-majority areas of Myanmar’s northwest in the last week, the government said on Saturday, in one of the deadliest bouts of violence involving the Muslim minority in decades.
About 58,600 Rohingya have fled into neighboring Bangladesh from Myanmar, according to UN refugee agency UNHCR, as aid workers there struggle to cope.
Myanmar officials blamed the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) for the burning of the homes.
The group claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks on security posts last week that prompted clashes and a large army counter-offensive.
But Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh say a campaign of arson and killings by the Myanmar Army is aimed at trying to force them out.
The treatment of Myanmar’s roughly 1.1 million Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by Western critics of not speaking out for the Muslim minority that has long complained of persecution.
The clashes and army crackdown have killed nearly 400 people and more than 11,700 “ethnic residents” have been evacuated from the area, the government said, referring to the non-Muslim residents.
It marks a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered since October, when a smaller Rohingya attack on security posts prompted a military response dogged by allegations of rights abuses.
“A total of 2,625 houses from Kotankauk, Myinlut and Kyikanpyin villages and two wards in Maungtaw were burned down by the ARSA extremist terrorists,” the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar said. The group has been declared a terrorist organization by the government.
But Human Rights Watch, which analyzed satellite imagery and accounts from Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh, said the Myanmar security forces deliberately set the fires.
“New satellite imagery shows the total destruction of a Muslim village, and prompts serious concerns that the level of devastation in northern Rakhine State may be far worse than originally thought,” said the group’s deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson.

… / …

Full Capacity

Near the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh, new arrivals in Bangladesh carrying their belongings in sacks set up crude tents or tried to squeeze into available shelters or homes of locals.
“The existing camps are near full capacity and numbers are swelling fast. In the coming days there needs to be more space,” said UNHCR regional spokeswoman Vivian Tan, adding more refugees were expected.
The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and regarded as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots that date back centuries.
Bangladesh is also growing increasingly hostile to Rohingya, more than 400,000 of whom live in the poor South Asian country after fleeing Myanmar since the early 1990s.
Jalal Ahmed, 60, who arrived in Bangladesh on Friday with a group of about 3,000 after walking from Kyikanpyin for almost a week, said he believed the Rohingya were being pushed out of Myanmar.
“The military came with 200 people to the village and started fires…All the houses in my village are already destroyed. If we go back there and the army sees us, they will shoot,” he said.
Reuters could not independently verify these accounts as access for independent journalists to northern Rakhine has been restricted since security forces locked down the area in October.
Speaking to soldiers, government staff and Rakhine Buddhists affected by the conflict on Friday, army chief Min Aung Hlaing said there is no “oppression or intimidation” against the Muslim minority and “everything is within the framework of the law.”
“The Bengali problem was a long-standing one which has become an unfinished job,” he said, using a term used by many in Myanmar to refer to the Rohingya that suggests they come from Bangladesh.
Many aid programs running in northern Rakhine prior to the outbreak of violence, including life-saving food assistance by the World Food Programme (WFP), have been suspended since the fighting broke out.
“Food security indicators and child malnutrition rates in Maungdaw were already above emergency thresholds before the violence broke out, and it is likely that they will now deteriorate even further,” said Pierre Peron, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Myanmar.
More than 80,000 children may need treatment for malnutrition in northern Rakhine and many of them reported “extreme” food insecurity, WFP said in July.
In Bangladesh, Tan of UNHCR said more shelters and medical care were needed. “There’s a lot of pregnant women and lactating mothers and really young children, some of them born during the flight. They all need medical attention,” she said.
Among new arrivals, 22-year-old Tahara Begum gave birth to her second child in a forest on the way to Bangladesh.
“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” she said.

By Reuters 2 September 2017

3 000 Rohingya ont fui la Birmanie pour le Bangladesh

3 000 Rohingya ont fui la Birmanie pour le Bangladesh

par | Sep 1, 2017 | Rohingyas

Cette communauté paria tente d’échapper à une flambée de violence qui secoue le pays depuis vendredi.

Au moins 3 000 membres de la minorité musulmane rohingya sont passés au Bangladesh ces trois derniers jours pour fuir une nouvelle vague de violences en Birmanie, ont annoncé, lundi 28 août, les Nations unies. « Nombre de ces nouveaux arrivants sont des femmes et des enfants », a précisé Joseph Tripura, porte-parole du Haut-Commissariat aux réfugiés (HCR). 

Le Bangladesh estime à plusieurs milliers le nombre de personnes de cette communauté paria qui se trouvent à proximité de sa frontière avec la Birmanie, où les Rohingya sont persécutés de longue date : plus de 400 000 réfugiés se trouvent déjà dans le pays.

L’exode d’un grand nombre de musulmans et de civils bouddhistes vivant dans l’Etat d’Arakan, dans le nord de la République de l’union du Myanmar, a été provoqué par des attaques lancées, vendredi, par des insurgés rohingya, armés de matraques, de poignards ou de bombes artisanales, contre une trentaine de postes de police et une base de l’armée.

Lire aussi :   En Birmanie, la guérilla des Rohingya passe à l’offensive

Une centaine de morts

Une centaine de personnes ont péri dans ces affrontements. Le secrétaire général de l’ONU, Antonio Guterres, s’est dit « profondément préoccupé » par des informations faisant état de la mort de civils lors d’opérations sécuritaires dans l’Etat Rakhine, dans l’Ouest birman, selon M. Tripura. Il ajoute que les autorités birmanes doivent « assurer la sécurité de ceux qui en ont besoin et leur fournir de l’aide ».

Le sort réservé au quelque 1,1 million de Rohingya dans un pays à prédominance bouddhiste est devenu l’un des plus gros défis lancés à Aung San Suu Kyi, qui exerce de facto les fonctions de chef du gouvernement depuis près d’un an et demi. Les membres de cette communauté musulmane établis dans l’Etat d’Arakan ne peuvent obtenir la nationalité birmane et leurs déplacements sont soumis à de sévères restrictions.

Lire aussi :   En Birmanie, une haine contre les Rohingya qui remonte à l’époque coloniale

Nombre de bouddhistes les considèrent comme des immigrants illégaux venus du Bangladesh. Ils n’ont pas accès au marché du travail, aux écoles, aux hôpitaux, et la montée du nationalisme ces dernières années a attisé l’hostilité à leur encontre.

Le Haut-Commissariat de l’ONU aux droits de l’homme a d’ailleurs déclaré mardi que les décennies de violation « systématique » des droits des musulmans rohingya étaient à l’origine de la flambée de violences en Birmanie, et que les autorités auraient pu les empêcher.

Lire aussi :   La Birmanie rongée par l’intolérance religieuse

Le pape se rendra en Birmanie

Le Vatican avait par ailleurs annoncé, lundi, une visite du pape François en Birmanie et au Bangladesh à la fin de novembre, un déplacement au cours duquel le souverain pontife devrait évoquer le sort des Rohingya, dont il prend régulièrement la défense.

Il s’agit là d’une visite inédite du pape François sur ces terres bouddhistes. Le pape se rendra en Birmanie du 27 au 30 novembre puis au Bangladesh voisin du 30 novembre au 2 décembre, selon un communiqué du Saint-Siège. Il devrait rencontrer lors de sa visite Aung San Suu Kyi, très critiquée à l’étranger pour sa gestion de ce dossier.

Le Monde.fr avec AFP et Reuters | 29.08.2017 à 02h25 • Mis à jour le 29.08.2017 à 17h08

Myanmar Rakhine: Thousands flee to Bangladesh

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Thousands of Rohingya, mainly women and children, have fled to Bangladesh since Friday.
More than 18,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state have entered Bangladesh in less than a week, aid workers say.
The crisis erupted after Rohingya insurgents attacked 30 police stations last Friday, triggering a military response.
Aid workers giving emergency shelter and food say about a dozen of the new arrivals have recent bullet wounds.
Thousands more are waiting at the border, local sources say.
Many are thought to be trapped in an unoccupied zone between the countries.
At least 100 people, mostly insurgents, have been reported killed in the latest violence in Rakhine. Independent confirmation from the state is almost impossible as few journalists are given access.

What’s the situation at the border?

The International Organisation for Migration said on Wednesday that about 18,500 Rohingya – mostly women and children – had crossed into Bangladesh since last Friday’s attacks.
Media captionRohingya Muslim women have been weeping on the Bangladesh border.
Peppi Siddiq, a spokesperson for the IOM, told the BBC: « There are still thousands of people in no-man’s land and we have no access to that area.
« Some new arrivals have clothes with them, some even have kitchen utensils, but most leave everything behind. They need immediate shelter and food assistance. »
More than 100,000 Rohingya refugees have now entered Bangladesh since last October, accusing the Myanmar authorities of ethnic persecution.

The authorities in Bangladesh have been turning many Rohingyas from Myanmar back – both countries say the Rohingya are not their citizens.
« The situation is very terrifying, houses are burning, all the people ran away from their homes, parents and children were divided, some were lost, some are dead, » Abdullah, a young Rohingya man who had made it to Bangladesh, told Reuters.

How bad is the crisis?
Jill McGivering, BBC News

Aid workers say this latest tidal wave of refugees is so intense that their only focus at the moment is the immediate task of saving lives. They haven’t yet had time to interview the new arrivals and hear their stories.
Some women have given birth in the camps. Some manage to carry possessions – clothes or even cooking utensils – but most arrive with nothing.
Crossing the border is hazardous. In places, it runs alongside a road where Bangladeshi border guards routinely patrol, enforcing the government’s official policy of refusing entry. But many refugees make it across elsewhere, often through dense jungle.
Myanmar accuses Bangladesh of harbouring Rohingya militants whom it views as Bengalis. Bangladesh denies this – and seems keen to show its determination to address terrorism in all forms.
This week, it apparently suggested joint border patrols but there’s no sign of that offer being accepted.
In the meantime, the violence in Rakhine state and the flood of refugees continue – leading aid workers to call this one of the world’s forgotten crises.
Who are the militants?
A group called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa) says it carried out Friday’s attacks. The group first emerged in October 2016, when it carried out similar assaults on police posts, killing nine police officers.
It says its primary aim is to protect the Rohingya Muslim minority from state repression in Myanmar.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Villages have been burned in Rakhine, reports say, amid violence following Friday’s attacks.
The government says Arsa is a terrorist group whose leaders have been trained abroad. Its leader is Ata Ullah, a Rohingya born in Pakistan who was raised in Saudi Arabia, according to the International Crisis Group.
But a spokesman for the group told Asia Times that it had no links to jihadi groups and that its members were young Rohingya men angered by events since communal violence in 2012.
What is life like for Rohingya?
Rakhine, the poorest region in Myanmar (also called Burma), is home to more than a million Rohingya.
They face severe restrictions inside mainly Buddhist Myanmar, where tensions with the majority population have been rumbling for years.
This is the most significant outbreak of violence in Rakhine since October 2016, when nine policemen died in similar attacks on border posts. The government said they were carried out by a previously unknown Rohingya militant group.
The attacks triggered a military crackdown that led to widespread allegations of killings, rape and torture of Rohingya, and an exodus of Rohingya into Bangladesh.

The UN is currently investigating alleged human rights abuses by the security forces, who deny wrongdoing.

  • 30/08/2017 –  From the section Asia

Des femmes rohingya refoulées à la frontière entre la Birmanie et le Bangladesh, à Cox’s Bazar, le 28 août.

Villages have been burned in Rakhine, reports say, amid violence following Friday's attacks

Maungdaw - Rakhine - Burma

A police officer stands guard near a house that was burned down in Maungdaw, northern Rakhine State,

Kofi Annan at the final Rakhine Advisory Commission report launch in Yangon just hours before the attacks in Rakhine began.

Hindu families take refuge at a government school in Maungdaw after fleeing their homes amid ARSA’s attacks.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army appeals for international assistance in the ongoing situation in Rakhine State in a video posted online.

3 000 Rohingya ont fui la Birmanie pour le Bangladesh

The Empty Rhetoric of Unity

par | Août 18, 2017 | Ethnic conflict

 

Ethnic Issues

Two events indicating the prospect of peace and conflict were simultaneously taking place on Aug. 11, 2017.
One was a meeting between the Delegation for Political Negotiation (DPN), the negotiating body of the ethnic alliance the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), and the government Peace Commission.
“The level of trust is now at zero,” said DPN leader Khu Oo Reh, reflecting the spirit of the meeting.
The other was indiscriminate shelling by Light Infantry Battalions 381 and 384, under the command of Military Operation Command 3, in an episode of conflict with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Kasung village, Mogaung Township, Kachin State.
More than 1,000 people were displaced and several were reportedly killed due to the shelling. This follows the displacement of more than 1,000 people in June from Tanai in western Kachin State, after the Myanmar Army dropped leaflets in the area announcing clearance operations.
A Tatmadaw representative said in Parliament on August 14 that it is the military’s duty to enforce the “rule of law” in areas where the KIA is active and to bring local people into the fold of security provided by the military.
Active military hostility initiated by the Myanmar Army in Kasung must not be treated as “just another fight.” Sources in Kachin State suspect this move to be an initial step taken by the army to formalize an agreement made with China: to allow for the reported construction of a highway bypassing Kachin’s major cities, and merging into the route of the Ledo Road, which connected Kunming, in China’s Yunnan Province, to the Indian border town of Ledo during World War II.
The KIA’s Battalion 11, situated 3 miles north of Kasung, serves as a significant obstacle to the potential construction of such a motorway, which would pass through the village. The shelling could be interpreted as an attempt to clear the area in an early effort toward carrying out the plan to create such infrastructure.
The bombing of Kasung occurred around one month after Myanmar Army Commander-in-Chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing’s weeklong visit to India, where he had several top-level meetings with talks on both bilateral and military-to-military cooperation with his western neighbor.
Myanmar’s military has learned to thrive in its strategic position between Asia’s two giants, both seeking regional dominance. It was the British demarcation of borders that defined Myanmar’s boundaries as a state, and the lines set out by a colonial power have also contributed to the fate of generations of non-Bamar ethnic groups: squeezed between India, China, and the Tatmadaw troops are communities who have been stripped of their security and basic right to a life with dignity, particularly for those living along these borders.

… / …

Synonymous With the Military

For many communities in the ethnic states, the first Bamar people they encountered were Tatmadaw troops entering their villages, bringing with them human rights violations, looting and the destruction of property.
A 100-year-old displaced woman from Kasung said during an interview, “I crawled, I ran, I was carried on my son’s back across two rice fields, running away from ‘Myen’ [referring to Bamar people].”
Yet a translation of that interview then reads, “As the government troops were coming.” For many, the terms “Myen”—the term for “Bamar” in the Kachin Jinghpaw dialect—has become synonymous with Myanmar Army troops.
Similarly, in Karen language, “Pa Yaw” refers to both Bamar people and the Myanmar Army. A member of the Karen community recalls: “Back in the village where I grew up, people would say ‘Pa Yaw’ were coming when the Myanmar Army was entering the village.”
In Shan, the word “Marn” for the “Bamar” ethnicity is also used to describe Myanmar Army troops.
For people living in areas that receive little to no support or services from the central government, the only Bamar they have known are Myanmar Army troops. It has been their ethnic communities and respective ethnic armed organizations that have supplied basic infrastructure, health and education—not Naypyitaw or Yangon.
“The government is blocking the UN and other INGOs [international non-governmental organizations] from going to Kachin Independence Organization areas and quite clearly trying to destroy what has been built up. They are clearly determined to wipe out the infrastructure that has been built over the years,” said a longtime journalist and a regular visitor to Kachin State.

No National Identity

Since the founding of the Union of Burma in 1948, sufficient attention and effort have not been invested in creating a unified ideology to bring together the diverse range of ethnic communities within the country’s borders. No unified central ideology of nationhood was offered to the ethnic nationalities so that they might adopt the notion of a national identity.
As soon as the position of Commander-in-Chief was transferred from Smith Dun in February 1949 to Gen Ne Win, Burman officers filled the high commands, while non-Bamars were given new but lower ranks, described in “Burma in Revolt” by Bertil Lintner.
Fewer than 10 years after gaining independence, the political and economic prospects in Kachin State were falling drastically, and by 1951, “the Kachin State honeymoon was now over,” wrote Mandy Sadan in “Being and Becoming Kachin.” By the 1960s, less than 15 years after independence, more than a dozen ethnic nationalities had already armed themselves and saw such a struggle as the only way to call for political dialogue.
Despite the army’s central rhetoric to the national causes being non-disintegration of national solidarity and of the Union, the brutality committed by its troops has forced unprecedented numbers of civilians to flee, and it has inflicted prior and ongoing human rights violations upon vulnerable communities, most recently in the village of Kasung. Yet the Tatmadaw continues to advance as a major economic and political player and as a strategic partner of both China and India, often at the cost of the safety and security of Myanmar’s people.
Consecutive governments of a new independent Myanmar have failed to tackle the issue of creating a unified national identity since the colonial legacy. To avoid the fate of becoming another failed state, to which Myanmar is already on its way, the people need to look to each other to co-create a national identity. It must be envisioned not simply around the leadership of another individual, but based on shared values and mutual respect, and without coercion from any group to forfeit their unique identity.

Stella Naw Contributor

         By Stella Naw 18 August 2017 – Soe Zayar Tun / Reuter

Bangladesh ramps up border patrols to deter fresh Rohingya inflow

par | Août 17, 2017 | Rohingyas

Bangladesh has stepped up patrols on its border with Myanmar, following reports that about 1,000 Rohingya Muslims crossed into the country in the past two weeks, amid fresh tension in its neighbor’s northwestern Rakhine state.

Security forces in Buddhist-majority Myanmar launched a massive crackdown in the state after Rohingya insurgents killed nine police in October, but the flow of refugees into Bangladesh had slowed until hundreds more soldiers were deployed recently.

« Security forces are patrolling the villages daily, » said Rahim, a teacher from Dar Gyi Zar village in Myanmar who fled to Bangladesh last year, but remains in touch with family members.

« My mother is 73 and is panicking there, but she won’t be able to flee, » said Rahim, who uses one name, like many Rohingya.

« No one will be allowed to illegally cross into our country, » Manuzurul Hasan Khan, a senior Bangladesh border guard official, told Reuters, adding that the two countries were jointly patrolling frontier areas.

There had been no major influx recently, he said, adding that the border was peaceful, with more joint patrols scheduled for this week.

However, Rahim and a Rohingya leader in Bangladesh put the total of new refugees at more than 1,000.

There had been a constant « slow movement of people across the border, » a senior U.N. official in Bangladesh said.

About 1,000 households had crossed each month in April, May and June, estimated the official, who declined to be identified in the absence of authorization to talk to the media.

The figure rose to 1,300 households in July, the official said, adding that the border area was « definitely seeing more new arrivals » in August.

About 500 of the newly arrived Rohingya live near an unofficial refugee camp in Leda, near the Naf river separating Bangladesh from Myanmar, said Zayed, a Rohingya leader.
The rest have moved elsewhere in the border district of Cox’s Bazar.
Before the latest inflow, about 75,000 Rohinhya had fled to Bangladesh since October, joining tens of thousands already there and straining resources.
Some families were packing up to leave, fearing another violent crackdown, a Rohingya resident of Maungdaw in Myanmar told Reuters.
« People here are feeling depressed and getting so scared, hearing that more troops are coming to do area clearance again, » the resident said on Saturday, seeking anonymity for fear of repercussions.
« We have no one to protect us here. »
The resident and a human rights monitor with sources in northern Rakhine said security forces had run intensive searches and arrested some Rohingya men.
Kyaw Swar Tun, an administrator in the Rakhine state capital of Sittwe, said security had been stepped up in the state’s north, but denied that Muslims were fleeing across the border.
« I don’t hear anything of Bengali people leaving or entering the country during these days, » he said, using a derogatory term for the Rohingya to imply they are interlopers from Bangladesh.
The treatment of the roughly one million Rohingya in Myanmar has emerged as the country’s most contentious human rights issue as it transitions from decades of harsh military rule.
Myanmar denies citizenship to the Rohingya and classifies them as illegal immigrants, though they claim roots there dating back centuries.
Myanmar security forces continue to harass Rohingya in Rakhine, said Noor Bashar, 26, who fled to Cox’s Bazar last week.
« Many more are still waiting to enter Bangladesh but it’s difficult, due to the increased patrolling, » she told Reuters.

Reuters Staff – COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh/YANGON (Reuters)