UN envoy Nambiar discusses Rakhine State aid with Thein Sein

United Nations special envoy to Burma Vijay Nambiar met with Burmese President Thein Sein on Thursday to discuss Rakhine State and a range of other topics, said the President's Office.

President Thein Sein received a delegation led by UNSG’s Special Adviser on Burma Vijay Nambiar at the Credentials Hall of the Presidential Palace on Friday, September 13, 2012. Photo: President's office

The talks focused on Burma-UN cooperation in providing assistance to riot victims in Rakhine State, including arrangements for advance aid teams representing Turkey, Indonesia, the United States and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to assess the Rakhine situation.

Other topics included security and the rule of law being enforced in the state to prevent similar recurrences and arrangements for the rehabilitation of the victims.

Nambiar, a special adviser to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UN Under-Secretary-General, is currently on his fourth visit to Burma.

The two sides also discussed socio-economic development projects including fulfilling the UN Millennium Goals.

President Thein Sein's upcoming attendance at the 67th UN General Assembly in New York, expected at the end of September, was also discussed.

Nambiar, an Indian diplomat who was appointed UN special envoy to Burma in 2010, has been Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff since January 2007.

Source

Turkey prepared to help refugees in Arakan State

Tents set up for internally displaced people on the side of the road in Thet Kel Pyin camp, Rakhine state, Burma. Photo: OCHA

Sittwe (Mizzima) – A seven-person delegation led by Turkish Ambassador to Burma Murat Yavuz Ates visited Sittwe [Sittway] and met with the Arakan [Rakhine] State government last week, while providing immediate aid to displaced 

persons in government camps.

The ambassador met with Arakan State Chief Minister Hla Maung Tin and also visited Mingan village, Kyaukphyu Township, and provided medicine and bags of rice to Arakanese refugees. The delegation also provided 2,228 bags of rice to refugees in Thakkaypyin village in Sittwe Township.

Recent weeks have seen a wave of international officials visiting Rakhine State to access the situation and to determine the areas needs.

A delegation from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), led by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, visited the Bawduba Rohingya refugee camp in Sittwe, a Muslim Quarter [Aung Mingala] and the Arakanese refugee camp in Sutaungpyace Temple on Sept. 10.

On Sept. 8, a 11-person delegation led by the US Department of State Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Joe Yun, the US ambassador to Burma Derek Mitchell and UNHCR representative Hans ten Feld visited refugee camps in Maungdaw.

Officials said six houses and 122 temporary tents have been constructed for refugees in Mawyawaddy village in Maungdaw Township; 122 dwellings totaling 463 people were put up at a relief camp in the Alalthankyaw village; and 38 houses and 79 temporary tents had been built for refugees in Shweyinaye village, state-run newspapers reported on Tuesday.

Seventy-six households totaling 266 people have been constructed in the “4-mile” camp and Parahita camp in Maungdaw, said reports.

Source

What is Shocking” in Ethnic Cleansing against Muslims in Burma

Monday, 13 August 2012

by Dr. Nazila Isgandarova, Contributor

Prime Minister Erdoğan's wife Emine Erdogan and daughter Sumeyye Edogan visited Myanmar with a great hope to break the Ramadan fast with the Arakan Muslims in the camps in Sittwe. The main question before the Turkish delegates to Myanmar is to get accurate information about the situation and to figure out what Turkey can do in terms of providing humanitarian aid to people afflicted by the events. 

Few days ago, Mrs. Emine Erdogan expressed her horror on what she had heard and called it “unbelievable” and “shocking.” What is “unbelievable” is manyfold:

First, the world, including the Turkish people, strongly believed that the religion Buddhism is a peaceful religion and its followers are peaceful people with integrity and serenity. Second, the world continues to be silent about the human tragedy in the region. 

What’s going in the region is just an ethnic cleansing, which has been common throughout the 20th century in Burma against Muslims. The majority of the Buddhist population of the country see themselves as a powerful nation and recognized the right to themselves to attack and chase off the Muslim residents, who were seen as “subordinates” and “aliens” in the country. 

The ethnic cleansing against Muslims in Burma became worse due to the actions elites and political actors. They were able to ignite the emotions of Burmese Buddhists against Muslims so well that the peaceful followers of Buddhism did not abstain from torturing, raping, and burning Muslims to death. 

Mrs. Emine Erdogan was right when she described the events horrible and shocking. She actually wanted to ask why individuals chose to sink to such savagery against their own lifelong neighbours? 

The answer to the question is hidden in the reasons of ethnic cleansing against Muslims in Burma. 

Ethnic cleansing is an action to force people, even all traces of them from a concrete territory. Many ethnic cleansing acts involve genocide. Genocide is an intentional killing of an ethnic, religious or national group. However, what is horrible, as Mrs. Erdogan expressed, is that ethnic cleansing is done in such a way that it instills terror in Muslims, so they flee and fear to return. 

So, the Buddhist nationalists in Arakan chose a horrible way to instill such a fear in Muslims. They were forced out in most brutal fashion and hunger, disease, and the pains of displacement take many lives. However, the most horrible part of any ethnic cleansing against Muslim women in Arakan was the sexual violence. 

The horrible stories about the Arakan women indicate that the Burmese Buddhists consciously decided to rape Muslim women collectively because women constitute the biological core of Muslims in Burma. They also carry a heavy task of passing on the Muslim cultural and spiritual values to their children. 

Mrs. Erdogan was right when she described the violence as “unbelievable” and “shocking,” because rape became one of the tools of ethnic cleansing against Muslims in Arakan, a way to terrorize them and make sure they did not come back to Burma again. 

Rape is a form of punishment and insult the pride of all people regardless of their religion and ethnicity. Unfortunately, it became an emblem of the ethnic cleansing against Muslims in Burma and a shameful part of the history of Burmese people.

Journal of Turkish Weekly

(OIC & NATO member and The ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) ) Turkish FM meets with Myanmar's top officials for Rohingya Muslims

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu (R) shakes hands with the Myanmar President Thein Sein on Aug. 9, 2012. (Photo: AA)

Sourece :9 August 2012 / TODAY'S ZAMAN, ANKARA

 

A Turkish delegation led by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, and which includes Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's spouse and daughter, arrived in Myanmar early on Thursday in a bid to both “boost bilateral relations” and “bring international attention to the plight of suffering Rohingya Muslims.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, accompanied by a Turkish delegation, paid a visit to Myanmar in a bid to both “boost bilateral relations” and “bring international attention to the plight of suffering Rohingya Muslims.”

The delegation includes Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's spouse and daughter, Davutoğlu's spouse, several deputies, bureaucrats, representatives of charities and journalists. 

Davutoğlu was received by Myanmar's President Thein Sein, who expressed his pleasure about the fact that Turkey opened an embassy in his country, on Thursday. Sein stated that Myanmar would also open an embassy in Turkey as soon as possible, adding relations between the two countries would be developed by this move. Turkey opened an embassy in Myanmar in March 2012.

On the same day, Davutoğlu also met with his counterpart in Myanmar, Wunna Maung Lwin in Myanmar's capital Naypyidaw. Davutoğlu said that Turkey and Myanmar were the two big states of Asia, adding that his visit had been the first high-level one from Turkey to Myanmar. Davutoğlu's meetings with both Sein and Lwin were closed to the press corps. Davutoğlu is also scheduled to meet with Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Davutoğlu stated that they arrived in Myanmar to establish bilateral relations and reach Arakan, the location of the recently escalating violence against Rohingya Muslims by extremist Buddhists. “We would like to carry on with both of our aims,” said Davutoğlu.
He said that the Myanmar government's decision to grant their visit reflects Turkey's influence in the international field. “Myanmar did not do the same for any other countries. Our ambassador worked hard,” said Davutoğlu.
Davutoğlu stated that the government in Myanmar was only allowing United Nations (UN) and their members of staff to get into the Arakan region.
Sein declared a state of emergency in Arakan province following clashes between Buddhists and Muslims and deployed troops to restore stability.
 
Replying to questions of journalists on his flight to Myanmar, Davutoğlu stated that this was the first high-level visit between Turkey and Myanmar. He added that they could see Myanmar's government opening up to the world step by step. 

Davutoğlu also restated that he had given two instructions to the ambassador who was appointed to Myanmar, adding first one was to find the graveyards of the 1,500 Turkish soldiers who were taken to Myanmar from Çanakkale and Egypt during WWI and were killed there. “I am following very closely the graveyard issue. We are greatly indebted to those soldiers,” said Davutoğlu, adding he has written a letter to Lwin regarding the martyrs' cemeteries. 

Davutoğlu added that the second instruction was to make contact with the Muslims in Arakan. He added that the problems in Arakan have gone on for decades and said that the aid they brought will be primarily taken to Muslims in Arakan then taken to Buddhist camps too. “At the moment our first aim is to set up good relationships with the government in Myanmar, then distribute humanitarian aid."
Davutoğlu stated that what the Western world can do about the Rohingya Muslims is limited and said that they will ask Indonesia to cooperate with Turkey regarding the Rohingya Muslims under the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). 
The Turkish foreign minister underlined that Turkey is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), adding that Turkey's aid to Arakan will increase its visibility in ASEAN and around the globe. Meanwhile, the Turkish Prime Ministry's Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD) has stated that so far they have collected TL 2.1 million in their aid campaign for Muslims in Myanmar, who are facing violence and discrimination. AFAD thanked the Turkish citizens who have supported the Muslims suffering from civil war, ethnical massacre and poverty in the Arakan region of Myanmar.