Myanmar, Bangladesh :Rohingya Repatriation Plan

par | Jan 16, 2018 | Rohingyas

Hamid Hussain, a 71-year-old Rohingya Muslim farmer, first fled Myanmar for Bangladesh in 1992. He went home the next year under a repatriation deal between the two neighbors, only to repeat the journey last September when violence flared once more.
Officials from Myanmar and Bangladesh meet on Monday to discuss how to implement another deal, signed on Nov. 23, on the return of more than 650,000 Rohingya who have escaped an army crackdown since late August.
Hussain is one of many who say they fear this settlement may be no more permanent than the last.
“Bangladesh authorities had assured us that Myanmar would give us back our rights, that we would be able to live peacefully,” said Hussain, who now lives in a makeshift refugee camp in southeast Bangladesh.
“We went back but nothing changed. I will go back again only if our rights and safety are guaranteed — forever.”
Buddhist-majority Myanmar has for years denied Rohingya citizenship, freedom of movement and access to many basic services such as healthcare and education. They are considered illegal immigrants from mainly Muslim Bangladesh.
The authorities have said returnees could apply for citizenship if they can show their forebears have lived in Myanmar. But the latest deal — like the one in 1992 — does not guarantee citizenship and it is unclear how many would qualify.
Monday’s meeting in Myanmar’s capital Naypyitaw will be the first for a joint working group set up to hammer out the details of the November repatriation agreement. The group is made up of civil servants from both countries.
Two senior Bangladesh officials who are involved in the talks acknowledged that much was left to be resolved and it was unclear when the first refugees could actually return. One of the key issues to be worked out was how the process for jointly verifying the identities of returnees would work, they said.
“Any return is chaotic and complex,” said Shahidul Haque, Bangladesh’s top foreign ministry official who will lead Dhaka’s 14-member team in the talks. “The challenge is to create an environment conducive for their return.”
Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay said returnees would be able to apply for citizenship “after they pass the verification process.”
Zaw Htay added that Myanmar had proposed that a group of 500 Hindus who fled to Bangladesh and have already agreed to be repatriated, alongside 500 Muslims, could form the first batch of returnees.
“The first repatriation is important — we can learn from the experiences, good or bad,” he said.

Myanmar Sets Up Camps

Bangladesh officials said they would begin the process this month by sharing with Myanmar authorities a list of 100,000 Rohingya, picked at random from among registered refugees.
Haque said Myanmar officials would vet the names against their records of residents before the August exodus, and those approved would then be asked if they wanted to go back.
Refugees without documents would be asked to identify streets, villages and other landmarks near their former homes as proof of their right to return, said Haque.
A Myanmar agency set up to oversee repatriation said in a statement on Thursday that two temporary “repatriation and assessment camps” and one other site to accommodate returnees had been set up. Myint Kyaing, permanent secretary at Myanmar’s Ministry of Labor, Immigration and Population, told Reuters earlier this month Myanmar would be ready to begin processing at least 150 people a day through each of the two camps by Jan. 23.
As well as checking their credentials as residents of Myanmar, he said, authorities would check returnees against lists of suspected “terrorists.”
Myint Kyaing declined to comment on how long the repatriation would take but conceded the process after the 1992 agreement had taken more than 10 years.
United Nations agencies working in the camps clustered around Cox’s Bazar, in southeastern Bangladesh, have voiced skepticism about the resettlement plans.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration said their offers to help with the process have not been taken up by the two countries.
“Further measures are needed to ensure safe, voluntary and sustainable repatriation of refugees to their places of origin and to address the underlying root causes of the crisis,” said Caroline Gluck, a spokeswoman for the UNHCR in Cox’s Bazar.
The UNHCR says refugees it has surveyed want guarantees that international agencies will be involved in overseeing the process and more information about the security situation in their home areas.

Who Will Go? Who Will Pay?

While many Rohingya say they want to go back to Myanmar, most of the more than a dozen who spoke to Reuters said they were scared to do so now.
“I am not going back. No one’s going back,” said Hafizulla, a 37-year-old Rohingya man. “We are scared to go back without any UN intervention. They can accuse us later, they can arrest us. They may accuse us of helping the militants.”
The military offensive the refugees fled, which was prompted by Rohingya insurgent attacks on police and army posts, has been described by the United States and UN as ethnic cleansing. Myanmar rejects that, saying troops did not target civilians.
“You can have all the agreements in the world, and set up all the reception centers and everything, but it won’t make a difference unless the conditions in Myanmar are such that people feel confident that they can go back and live in peace, and have equal rights,” said a Western diplomat in Dhaka.
The second Bangladesh official, Refugee Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner Mohammed Abul Kalam, said the “Rohingyas’ reluctance to go back” was an issue that needed to be addressed.
He said the repatriation process would cost “millions of dollars” but funding details had not yet been agreed and were not expected to be discussed at Monday’s meeting.
Japan, one of Myanmar’s biggest aid donors, said on Friday it was giving an emergency grant of around $3 million to help with the return of the Rohingya.

By Reuters 15 January 2018

A nation cursed by the legacy of colonialism

par | Jan 5, 2018 | Myanmar

In November 1885 Burma’s last monarch, King Thibaw, and his queen were transported by a British flotilla from Mandalay into exile in India, where the King spent the rest of his lives. Burma soon became a colony of the British.
Thibaw was no doubt a feeble and despotic king, and was often described as such in the British press. But the new foreign rulers were not welcomed with open arms; instead they faced uprisings and deep resentment. Seeing the empty Lion Throne in the palace deeply insulted the Burmese people.
Colonialism began with the looting of the grand Golden Palace in Mandalay, the extrajudicial killings of rebels and “dacoits”, chaos, confusion and a breakdown in law and order. Not to mention the story of the British officers and soldiers who carried away the royal treasures as chronicled in “The King in Exile” by Sudha Shah. The country later witnessed Britain’s systematic exploitation of its resources including teak, oil and agricultural products, as the colonial economy linked Myanmar to global markets.

By The Irrawaddy 4 January 2018

Read more …

4 janvier 1948 : La Birmanie accède à l’indépendance

La Birmanie, aux marges orientales des Indes britanniques, devient indépendante quelques mois après celles-ci, le 4 janvier 1948. Par la même occasion, elle quitte le Commonwealth britannique.
Le pays de prédilection du bouddhisme.
Entre l’Inde et le Bangladesh d’un côté, la Chine, le Laos et la Thaïlande de l’autre, la Birmanie (aujourd’hui Myanmar) est enserrée dans un écrin de montagnes bien arrosées et traversées de puissantes artères fluviales (Irrawaddy…).
Elle compte près de 60 millions d’habitants (2015) sur 676 000 km2, parmi lesquels une centaine d’ethnies minoritaires qui vivent dans les territoires périphériques (Karin State, Chan State, Karen State…), sans compter quelques communautés musulmanes dans le Sud.
Longtemps morcelée en petits royaumes rivaux et soumise aux influences étrangères, la Birmanie a accueilli avec chaleur le bouddhisme, religion d’État depuis 1961.
La tutelle britannique.
Les Britanniques, après avoir soumis au XVIIIe siècle les Indes voisines, ne tardent pas à poser leur regard sur la Birmanie et s’en emparent au terme des trois guerres anglo-birmanes (1826, 1852 et 1886).
Au début du XXe siècle naît un mouvement nationaliste birman. Il s’organise autour d’une élite de jeunes gens, dont certains ont étudié à Londres. La crise économique des années 1930 entraîne en outre une importante révolte paysanne qui est violemment réprimée par les Britanniques.
En 1937, la Birmanie est séparée des Indes et devient une colonie à part entière, avec un niveau relativement élevé d’autonomie interne. Parallèlement, le mouvement nationaliste clandestin s’amplifie, sous la houlette de Thakin Aung San.
Une indépendance douloureuse.
Après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, les Britanniques admettent le principe de l’indépendance de la Birmanie.
Les premières années s’avèrent particulièrement difficiles : les exportations de riz tombent au plus bas ; des minorités, notamment les Karens chrétiens du centre-ouest, tentent de faire sécession… Dans la crainte de rébellions ethniques et d’une fédéralisation du pays, le général Ne Win procède à un coup d’État le 2 mars 1962. La Birmanie devient une dictature militaire.
Le pays prend le nom officiel d’Union de Myanmar, plus consensuel que celui de Birmanie, qui fait référence à une seule ethnie. Les militaires renforcent leur domination.
L’élection du général Thein Sein (66 ans) à la présidence de la République le 4 février 2011 amorce une timide démocratisation avec l’élargissement d’Aung San Suu Kyi, la fille de l’ancien leader, devenue Prix Nobel de la Paix.
Son parti, la Ligue nationale pour la démocratie (LND), remporte haut la main les élections législatives, le 9 novembre 2015. Un tournant qui n’est pas sans rappeler la transition de l’Espagne franquiste vers la démocratie.

Un peu d’histoire ici : Herodote

Rohingya Crisis

par | Jan 3, 2018 | Rohingyas

The International Crisis Groups (ICG) has picked the Rohingya crisis for its ignominious list of the top 10 conflicts around the world to watch in the coming year, warning of persistent risks for both Myanmar and Bangladesh.
More than 650,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled Buddhist majority Myanmar for Bangladesh to escape what the Belgium-based think tank calls the military’s “brutal and indiscriminate” response to a late August attack on security force posts in Rakhine State by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).
Rights groups and journalists have collected a litany of reports of mass rape, arbitrary killings and arson from the refugees, prompting the UN to call the military’s behavior “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” Myanmar’s military absolved itself of any wrongdoing following an internal investigation.
In picking the crisis for its list, published Tuesday, the ICG warns that it has entered “a dangerous new phase, threatening Myanmar’s hard-won democratic transition, its stability, and that of Bangladesh and the region as a whole.”
It says the government has heavily restricted humanitarian aid to northern Rakhine and continues to hold onto a “hardline stance” toward the Rohingya, albeit with broad popular support stoked by racist rhetoric from Buddhist nationalists and state and social media. The West’s moves to revive sanctions sent the right signal, it adds, but were unlikely to do much good.
Last month, Social Welfare Minister U Win Myat Aye told the Irrawaddy that Bangladesh and Myanmar had agreed to start bringing refugees back home by the end of January.
But the ICG says most refugees were unlikely to return “unless Myanmar restores security for all communities, grants the Rohingya freedom of movement as well as access to services and other rights, and allows humanitarian and refugee agencies unfettered access.”
In private, it says, Bangladesh admits the plan is doomed but has done little to prepare for the refugees’ stay, raising the risks of conflict between the newcomers and outnumbered locals facing rising prices and falling wages.
As for Myanmar, the ICG warns that a regrouped ARSA or other transnational groups could use the refugee camps as fertile recruiting grounds and launch cross-border attacks that would likely ratchet up already tense Muslim-Buddhist relations in Rakhine and even spark outbreaks of violence elsewhere should the attacks reach beyond the state.
“Acknowledging the crisis, implementing recommendations of the Kofi Annan-led Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, and disavowing divisive narratives would put the Myanmar government — and its people — on a better path,” it concludes.
As reluctant bedfellows in the Rohingya crisis, Myanmar and Bangladesh share the ICG’s list of conflicts to watch in 2018 with Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Sahel, Syria, North Korea, Ukraine, Venezuela, Yemen and the US-Saudi-Iran rivalry.

By The Irrawaddy 3 January 2018.

Liens vers MSF

Dossier MSF Rohingya : Chapitre 1
Dossier MSF Rohingya : Chapitre 2

 

 

Rohingyas Myanmar Bangladesh

par | Jan 2, 2018 | Rohingyas

La crise des Rohingyas au Myanmar.

 

Lire ICI

 

https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-east-asia/myanmar/292-myanmars-rohingya-crisis-enters-dangerous-new-phase

 

Executive Summary

Three months after militant attacks triggered a brutal army operation targeting Rohingya Muslim communities in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State, more than 624,000 have fled to Bangladesh, one of the fastest refugee exoduses in modern times. In addition to unimaginable human suffering, the crisis has transformed Myanmar’s domestic politics and international relations and will have a huge impact on the regional security landscape.
Myanmar is rapidly losing what remains of the enormous international good-will that its political transition had generated. State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in particular has been widely criticised for failing to use her moral authority and domestic legitimacy to shift anti-Rohingya sentiment in Myanmar and the government’s current course. Meanwhile, the exodus continues and will likely soon reach its tragic end point: the almost complete depopulation of Rohingya from northern Rakhine State.
As the world struggles to define a response, and as the crisis enters a new, fraught and highly uncertain phase, several important elements need to be borne in mind. First, there needs to be continued insistence on the right of refugees to return in a voluntary, safe and dignified manner. At the same time, the grim reality is that the vast majority of the Rohingya in Bangladesh will not be going home any time soon. This presents the enormous humanitarian challenge of sustaining lives and dignity in the largest refugee camp in the world. It also presents grave political and security risks that need to be addressed, including potential cross-border attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) militant group and possible transnational terrorism.
Second, it is important to recognise that Myanmar’s political direction has been set and will be extremely difficult to change. The strength of the national consensus is hard to overstate: the government, military and almost the entire population of the country are united on this issue as on no other in its modern history. This will make it extraordinarily difficult to move official policy. Any imposition of sanctions thus requires careful deliberation: they can help send a welcome signal that might deter others around the world contemplating similar actions, but they are unlikely to produce positive change in Myanmar and, depending on what precisely is done, could make the situation worse.
This report examines the lead-up to the ARSA attacks on 25 August 2017, revealing new and significant details about the group’s preparations, and the attacks themselves. This is based on research in Myanmar and Bangladesh since October 2016, including interviews with members of ARSA, analysis of WhatsApp messages sent by the group and its supporters, publicly-posted videos and interviews with villagers in Rakhine State and recently-arrived refugees in Bangladesh. Much of the research has been done by experienced personnel fluent in the Rohingya language.  The report also assesses the impact the crisis will have on Myanmar. Finally, it discusses some possible international policy responses.

France culture

par | Oct 31, 2017 | Divers

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Comprendre la crise des Rohingya en Birmanie

Comprendre la crise des Rohingya en Birmanie

par | Sep 14, 2017 | Rohingyas

En près de deux semaines, ils sont quelque 379 000 Rohingya à avoir fui la Birmanie pour trouver refuge au Bangladesh, échappant ainsi aux violences qui frappent l’Etat d’Arakan (appelé Rakhine par le gouvernement). Quelle est l’origine de cette crise qui dure depuis des dizaines d’années ?

LE MONDE | 13.09.2017 à 19h42 • Mis à jour le 14.09.2017 à 09h59 | Par   Romain Geoffroy   Romain Geoffroy

L’ONU estime que près de 379 000 personnes ont fui le pays depuis fin août. Le Conseil de sécurité a réclamé à la Birmanie d’agir pour faire cesser une « violence excessive » contre les Rohingya.
D’où viennent les Rohingya ?
Un peu plus d’un million de Rohingya vivent actuellement dans l’Etat d’Arakan, dans le nord-ouest de la Birmanie. Ces musulmans sunnites vivent dans un pays où plus de 90 % des 52 millions d’habitants sont bouddhistes.

Lire aussi  :   Tensions et violences dans le nord Myanmar

Certains historiens considèrent que les Rohingya descendent de commerçants et de soldats arabes, mongols, turcs ou bengalis convertis à l’islam au XVe siècle. Voir le Monde Diplomatique
Dans le pays, l’origine même du nom de « Rohingya » est controversée. Les historiens birmans soutiennent que personne n’en avait entendu parler avant les années 1950. Ceux-ci renforcent la position du gouvernement, qui estime que les Rohingya sont arrivés au moment de la colonisation britannique, à la fin du XIXe siècle, et qu’ils sont donc des émigrés illégaux du Bangladesh voisin.

Apatrides depuis 1982, victimes de nombreuses restrictions
Une loi de 1982 instaurée par la dictature militaire a rendu les Rohingya apatrides. Ils n’ont pas été reconnus comme faisant partie des cent trente-cinq ethnies répertoriées en Birmanie. Aujourd’hui encore, le gouvernement birman ne reconnaît que les « races nationales », celles présentes dans le pays avant l’arrivée des colons britanniques, en 1823.

« il existe des tensions de longue date » entre les Rohingya et « la communauté bouddhiste du Rakhine », et « la ségrégation communautaire [y est] institutionnalisée ». Le document met en avant de nombreuses restrictions auxquelles les minorités musulmanes doivent se plier : Rapport commission Européenne  – – mis à jour en mai

« Ils ne peuvent pas voyager sans autorisation, ni travailler en dehors de leurs villages, ni même se marier sans l’autorisation préalable des autorités, et n’ont pas accès en suffisance à la nourriture, aux soins de santé et à l’éducation. »

Le document européen ajoute qu’« en conséquence de la limite du nombre d’enfants autorisés pour les couples rohingya, des milliers d’enfants se retrouvent sans certificat de naissance car ils n’ont pas été déclarés ».

La privation de droits ne s’arrête pas là. Les Rohingya ont été officiellement interdits de vote lors des dernières élections générales de novembre 2015 et « n’ont eu droit à aucune représentation politique ».

Pourquoi cette crise revient-elle au cœur de l’actualité ?
Une nouvelle flambée de violences dans l’Etat d’Arakan, souvent en proie à des troubles, a commencé après l’attaque d’une vingtaine de postes-frontières, le 25 août, par des rebelles de l’Armée du salut des Rohingya de l’Arakan (ARSA), faisant douze morts dans les rangs des policiers. Ce groupe rebelle a émergé récemment, face à l’absence d’avancées sur le dossier de la minorité musulmane. Ces attaques ont déclenché une répression de l’armée et fait plus de quatre cents morts, pour la plupart des Rohingya, selon l’armée. L’ONU évoque plus de mille morts.

« Cette fois, les Rohingya birmans sont la cible d’une campagne de déportation systématique, dont l’objectif semble être qu’elle soit totale et définitive. Une fin de leur monde », rapporte Rémy Ourdan, envoyé spécial du Monde à la frontière banglado-birmane. « Ceux qui restent derrière les fuyards sont exécutés, et les villages sont systématiquement brûlés », dit-il encore.

Lire notre reportage      :        « Partez ou vous allez tous mourir  » : sur les routes de la déportation des Rohingya birmans

Le haut-commissaire de l’ONU aux droits humains, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, a déclaré que « la situation sembl[ait] être un exemple classique de nettoyage ethnique » :

« Nous avons reçu de multiples rapports et des images satellitaires montrant des forces de sécurité et des milices locales brûlant des villages rohingya, et des informations cohérentes faisant état d’exécutions extrajudiciaires, y compris de tirs sur des civils en fuite. »

Les rebelles rohingya ont déclaré, dimanche 10 septembre, un cessez-le-feu unilatéral d’un mois, mais le gouvernement birman a répondu qu’il ne négociait pas avec des « terroristes ».

Quels sont les précédents épisodes de violence ?
En 2012, des violences intercommunautaires avaient déjà éclaté dans l’Etat d’Arakan, faisant plus de deux cents morts, principalement parmi les musulmans. Des milliers d’entre eux durent alors quitter leur domicile. Plus de cent quarante mille personnes avaient fui cette année-là et cent vingt mille sont toujours déplacées quatre ans après les faits, vivant dans des camps de misère.

Dans un rapport de 2013,  ONG H R W   accusait déjà les autorités birmanes, des membres de groupes arakanais et des moines bouddhistes d’avoir commis des crimes contre l’humanité en menant « des attaques coordonnées contre des quartiers et des villages musulmans en octobre 2012, afin de terroriser la population et de la déplacer de force ». L’organisation estime que les autorités birmanes avaient participé à la destruction de mosquées, lancé des vagues d’arrestations accompagnées de violences et bloqué l’accès des organismes d’aide humanitaire aux personnes déplacées.

Entre 2014 et 2015, « quelque quatre-vingt-quatorze mille personnes (pour beaucoup, des Rohingya) ont fui dans l’irrégularité, à bord d’embarcations précaires, finissant souvent entre les mains de trafiquants et de l’esclavage moderne », rappelle aussi la Commission européenne.

En octobre 2016, une série d’attaques contre des postes-frontières à proximité du Bangladesh fit neuf morts parmi les policiers. Ces attentats, revendiqués par l’ARSA, avaient déclenché une vaste opération de l’armée. Les activités humanitaires avaient alors été suspendues et plus de soixante-quatorze mille Rohingya avaient fui leur village vers le Bangladesh, accusant les forces de sécurité de multiples exactions. C’est le même scénario qui se répète depuis la fin du mois d’août, de façon décuplée.

Où fuient les Rohingya ?
Les Rohingya se sont enfuis en masse à plusieurs reprises au Bangladesh, en Malaisie ou en Indonésie, pour échapper à la répression de la junte birmane alors au pouvoir — notamment en 1978 et en 1991-1992. Plusieurs centaines de milliers de Rohingya vivent encore aujourd’hui dans les camps de réfugiés au Bangladesh, dans une misère absolue. Dans ce pays, ils restent considérés comme des immigrés illégaux.

Aujourd’hui, les Rohingya fuient encore massivement le pays par la mer pour rejoindre la Malaisie, formant le plus grand exode de la région depuis la fin de la guerre du Vietnam.

En mai, la Commission européenne estimait que trois cent mille à cinq cent mille Rohingya vivaient dans des camps de fortune au Bangladesh, en plus des trente-trois mille établis dans deux camps officiels gérés par l’ONU, à Nayapara et à Kutupalong. Depuis le 25 août, l’ONU estime que ce sont trois cent soixante-dix-neuf mille personnes supplémentaires qui ont fui la Birmanie pour le Bangladesh.   Link text

Voir notre infographie :  Exode des Rohingya .

Que fait la communauté internationale ?
A la demande du Royaume-Uni et de la Suède, le Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU s’est réuni mercredi 13 septembre pour évoquer ce dossier, malgré la résistance de la Chine, principal partenaire économique de la Birmanie. A l’issue de cette réunion a huis clos, le Conseil de sécurité a réclamé « des pas immédiats » de la part du gouvernement birman pour faire cesser « une violence excessive ».

Mardi, Pékin a réitéré son « soutien » à la Birmanie et aux « efforts » des autorités birmanes pour « préserver la stabilité » dans l’ouest du pays.

Des dirigeants de pays à majorité musulmane, dont le Bangladesh, l’Indonésie, la Turquie et le Pakistan, ont exhorté Naypyidaw [capitale du pays depuis 2005] à mettre fin aux violences dans l’Etat d’Arakan. En visite dans les camps de réfugiés, la première ministre bangladaise, Sheikh Hasina, a affirmé que c’était à la Birmanie de « résoudre » cette crise.

Que répond le gouvernement birman ?
Face à une crise sans précédent, le silence de Mme Aung San Suu Kyi, conseillère spéciale de l’Etat et porte-parole de la présidence, passe mal auprès de la communauté internationale. Pressée de réagir, la Prix Nobel de la paix a préféré annuler un déplacement pour l’Assemblée générale de l’ONU prévu à la fin de septembre. Celle-ci a cependant annoncé qu’elle s’adresserait à la nation birmane dans une allocution télévisée le 19 septembre pour « parler de réconciliation nationale et de paix ».

L’an dernier, à la tribune des Nations unies, Mme Aung San Suu Kyi, qui dirige de facto le gouvernement birman depuis avril 2015, avait pourtant promis de soutenir les droits des Rohingya.

Sa tâche est notamment compliquée par la montée de bouddhistes extrémistes ces dernières années et par la grande autonomie de l’armée birmane, qui reste toute puissante dans cette zone de conflit.

L’enfer de la traversée des Rohingyas à la frontière entre la Birmanie et le Bangladesh

Il y a des Birmans là dans la rivière qui nous demandent de l’argent. Ils nous demandent 5000 takas (50 euros). Seulement après ils nous laissent passer. Et les militaires nous ont tout pris après la traversée : nos bijoux et tout ce qu’on avait de précieux. L’un de mes fils a été tué dans mon village. Beaucoup d’enfants qui fuyaient sont restés coincés dans la boue. Ils ont été découpés en morceaux.Près de 600 000 personnes ont officiellement franchi la frontière entre la Birmanie et le Bangladesh depuis la fin du mois d’août dernier.

A réécouter  « Nettoyage ethnique » en Birmanie : pourquoi la minorité musulmane Rohingya est-elle persécutée ? Link text 

Mais avant d’atteindre les camps de réfugiés, encore faut-il survivre à la traversée entre les deux pays.

Pour le Choix de la rédaction, Julie Pietri et Marcos Darras se sont rendus à Bahar Para, l’un des points de passage pour ces réfugiés.

Nous avons mis huit jours pour arriver ici. Les militaires nous massacrent. Ils brûlent les villages, volent les récoltes. Pendant la journée, on se cachait d’eux dans la forêt, dans les arbres, sans rien pour nous abriter.

 
• Crédits : Julie Pietri – Radio France

Il y a des Birmans, là, dans la rivière, qui nous demandent de l’argent. Ils nous demandent 5 000 takas (50 euros). Seulement après ils nous laissent passer. Et les militaires nous ont tout pris après la traversée : nos bijoux et tout ce qu’on avait de précieux. L’un de mes fils a été tué dans mon village. Beaucoup d’enfants qui fuyaient sont restés coincés dans la boue. Ils ont été découpés en morceaux. »

 
• Crédits : Radio France

Je ne sais pas où l’on va… Je meurs de faim et de soif. Mon père a été tué. Mon frère a été tué : on essaie de sauver nos vies. Je ne sais pas pourquoi ils nous font ça. L’armée et les bouddhistes nous persécutent depuis longtemps. Là, ils nous disaient : Ce sont nos terres, pas les vôtres. Vous êtes Bengalis, vous devez aller au Bangladesh.

 
• Crédits : Julie Pietri – Radio France

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