#US urges #Myanmar, #Bangladesh on group's rights

WASHINGTON — The United States called Tuesday for Myanmar and Bangladesh to protect the rights of the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group that has faced wide discrimination, but acknowledged a tough task ahead.

Violence that broke out in Myanmar's Rakhine state in June has left almost 90 people dead from the Rohingya and majority Buddhist community, and neighboring Bangladesh has barred new refugees from entering.

A team of four US officials traveled to the two countries last month to meet officials and civil society representatives as they assessed the conditions of the Rohingya, whom Myanmar does not consider to be citizens.

Kelly Clements, deputy assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, said that she and her colleagues spoke to authorities in Myanmar about "a path to citizenship for those Rohingya with claims."

"Peace is possible in Rakhine state only through economic development, poverty alleviation and ensuring basic rights for residents," she told an event held by the Open Society Foundations and Refugees International.

The 800,000 Rohingya in Myanmar, also known as Burma, speak a dialect similar to one in Bangladesh and are seen by many Burmese as illegal immigrants.

Home to some 300,000 Rohingya, Bangladesh has barred foreign charities from assistance for fear that they would encourage a new influx of refugees.

Clements said that the United States has been a "steadfast" supporter of aid to Bangladesh and hoped that the country would assist Rohingya on its soil, most of whom are undocumented.

"We have urged the government of Bangladesh to register this population and improve their living conditions, as well as those of the Bangladeshi community that hosts them," she said.

But Clements, who has worked on the Rohingya issue for two decades, said she saw growing needs among the community with rising malnutrition rates and more parents pulling children from school to earn money.

"Sadly, solutions to this protracted displacement appear increasingly elusive," she said.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for the Rohingya mission as the United States seeks to encourage dramatic recent reforms in Myanmar, whose President Thein Sein has freed prisoners, eased censorship and reached out to ethnic rebels.

Opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent most of the past two decades under house arrest, has been elected to parliament and paid a landmark visit to Washington last month.

#SuuKyi, #Clinton Discuss Refugees

The Burmese opposition leader begins her US visit with a meeting with the top American diplomat.

RFA

Aung San Suu Kyi (l) speaks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (r) at the State Department in Washington, Sept. 18, 2012.

Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi opened her visit to the United States with talks Tuesday with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the welfare of Burmese refugees in America.

The 67-year-old Nobel laureate, who arrived on Monday for a nearly three-week visit, met with Clinton at her office in the State Department.

The top U.S. diplomat briefly spoke to Aung San Suu Kyi on the resettlement of Burmese refugees in the United States and the visitor's trip next week to Fort Wayne in Indiana state, home to a large number of Burmese.

There is "so much excitement and enthusiasm about the fact that you can actually come," Clinton told Aung San Suu Kyi, according to journalists and photographers who were allowed a couple of minutes to witness their meeting before they went into closed talks.

Aung San Suu Kyi said she had heard about Fort Wayne while tracking Burmese news when she was under house arrest for nearly two decades during the rule of the previous military junta.

Since 2006, about 55,000 Burmese refugees, most whom were living in Thailand, have been resettled in the United States. Many of them had fled nearly five decades of harsh military rule and fighting between government military troops and armed ethnic groups. 

Aung San Suu Kyi will take part later Tuesday in a Washington forum organized by the Asia Society on the ongoing transition in Burma and the challenges facing the country. Clinton will make introductory remarks at the event.

Landmark trip

Clinton made a landmark trip to Burma nine months ago in the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state in more than 50 years to begin reconciliation with the nominally civilian government of President Thein Sein who took over in March last year.

The two countries then named ambassadors to each other's capitals, formalizing diplomatic relations for the first time since Washington withdrew its ambassador in 1990.

The United States also eased investment and financial restrictions to reciprocate nascent reforms in Burma but said it will maintain an import ban amid continuing human rights and ethnic conflict concerns.

The Obama administration is believed to be considering easing a ban on imports from Burma into the U.S., one of the main remaining sanctions imposed on the country. The U.S. Congress last month renewed the ban for another year.
Aung San Suu Kyi may also meet President Barack Obama during her trip, which is her first to the U.S. in 40 years.

The White House has yet to announce whether she will meet Obama but sources say he could hold talks with her despite his hectic re-election campaign.

Just before Aung san Suu Kyi landed at the Dulles airport in Washington Monday, Thein Sein ordered the release of another 514 prisoners, including dozens of political detainees, in an apparent bid to pave the way for the U.S. to further ease sanctions ahead of his trip to attend the U.N. meeting.

Aung San Suu Kyi is also scheduled to attend a high-level meeting organized by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, a day before Thein Sein addresses the General Assembly, reports have said.

Reported by RFA's Burmese service. Written in English by Chris Billing and Parameswaran Ponnudurai.

Copyright © 1998-2011 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved.

Latest Burmese amnesty not good enough: #HRW

Activists and rights groups are responding cautiously to Burma's latest release of political prisoners, saying hundreds more are still being held despite the government's promise to release them, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement on Thursday.

Burmese President Thein Sein's amnesty came a week before he travels to the US to attend the United Nations General Assembly session. Human Rights Watch called for governments to use the UN visit to press him to release all remaining political prisoners and allow international monitors unhindered access to Burma's jails.

The Burmese government this week released 514 prisoners, and activists estimate that around 90 were prisoners of conscience.

It was the fourth amnesty declared in the past year by the Burmese government, which has also eased press restrictions, allowed greater political participation, and signed cease-fire deals with some rebel groups.

But Human Rights Watch said the amnesty falls short of the president's commitment to release all political prisoners.

The New York-based group called for independent monitors to be allowed into Burmese prisons to determine how many political prisoners remain behind bars.

Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on said Tuesday that her party, the National League for Democracy, estimates there are still 200 political prisoners behind bars. The Nobel laureate, currently on a tour of the United States, said Burma cannot have real democracy until all prisoners of conscience are released.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that Burma still has “a lot of work to do,” citing the political prisoners that remain in detention, as well as ongoing communal unrest in Rakhine State and other ethnic areas.

Source 

Diplomatic solution: Zaw Min Htut (second from left) and other Rohingya people in Japan stage a protest in front of the Myanmar Embassy in July. AYAKO MIE

Rohingya ask Japan to help stop Myanmar violence

By AYAKO MIE

Staff writer

Rohingya people in Japan, a Muslim ethnic minority in their home country of Myanmar, are asking the government to help ease escalating tensions there between Buddhists and Muslims that experts warn could develop into an international conflict.

Deadly riots first broke out in the western state of Rakhine near the border with Bangladesh in July after an Arakanese Buddhist girl was raped and murdered in May, allegedly by three Rohingya youths. The incident set off an onslaught of revenge attacks against Rohingya.

Even though the Myanmar government announced emergency rule in Rakhine, human rights observers said security forces did little to stop the violence and in some cases took part. At least 78 people were killed and more than 5,300 houses destroyed, according to government figures.

Rohingya in Japan who fled Myanmar to seek political asylum here are pinning their hopes on the Japanese government to pressure the Myanmar government to treat their compatriots better, as Japan has had an amiable history with the government during its years of repressive military rule.

"If there is a government the Myanmar government would listen to, it's the Japanese government," said Zaw Min Htut, president of the Burmese Rohingya Association of Japan.

In 1998, he fled political persecution in Myanmar and came to Japan, where he was first detained as an illegal immigrant. He is one of only a few Rohingya to be granted refugee status in Japan. Of 200 Rohingya who belong to the association, 15 have been granted official asylum.

The government of Myanmar President Thein Sein is now bringing sweeping changes to the once isolated nation since it pledged to transition into a democratic system. It has made reconciliation efforts among Myanmar's more than 100 ethnic minority groups, but not the Rohingya, who were excluded by the government from holding citizenship when the country enacted a citizenship law in 1982.

The United Nations estimates that about 800,000 Rohingya live in Rakhine state and describes them as one of the most persecuted and stateless minorities in the world.

The Rohingya issue is such an emotional one in Myanmar that even opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains silent, even though the ethnic Muslim group has been a staunch supporter of the democratic leader. Some pundits say the hatred against the Rohingya has been ingrained even among the most vocal human rights activists in Myanmar.

In an interview with The Japan Times, Zaw Min Htut said Japan wields more diplomatic clout as it was never a harsh critic of the military junta, while the United States and the European Union imposed economic sanctions against the military dictatorship. When Thein Sein visited Japan in April on the first state visit by a Myanmar leader in 28 years, Japan forgave $3.7 billion in debt to support the country's nascent democratization.

Officials at the Foreign Ministry said they recognize the clashes in Rakhine state, and that the government is paying close attention to developments, but they are on the fence about taking direct action aside from providing humanitarian assistance through the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Mizuho Fukushima, president of the Social Democratic Party and a lawyer who has worked on human rights issues, believes Japan could at least express concern to prompt the government of Thein Sein to take a more humanitarian approach to this issue.

The Upper House lawmaker has been supportive of Zaw Min Htut's human rights activities since the time he was detained by immigration authorities in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture.

"With the Myanmar government shifting toward a democratic system, more Japanese companies are eyeing business opportunities there," said Fukushima, who met with officials from the Foreign Ministry and Zaw Min Htut to discuss the Rohingya issue in early August.

"It might impact Japanese businesses if the clash escalates even further," said Fukushima, who said she will push the government to support an independent United Nations investigation into the matter.

Following international pressure, Thein Sein launched a commission to investigate the August sectarian killings. But experts warn that the clashes could get worse and have the potential to develop into an international conflict involving Muslim Bangladesh. They say mediation by a third party, such as Japan, is needed.

"It would be a great opportunity to exercise Japan's diplomatic skills," said Kei Nemoto, a professor at Sophia University in Tokyo and an expert on Myanmar, likening the situation to when Japan mediated peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and the rebel Tamil Tigers in 2003. "But first Thein Sein has to agree to such a third-party mediation framework, which might be difficult."

Source 

US Denies ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ in Burma

Source : By LALIT K JHA / THE IRRAWADDY

The United States remains “deeply concerned” over increasing sectarian tensions in western Burma and reiterated calls for restraint by all parties, but refused to back allegations of “ethnic cleansing” made by the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC).

“We have obviously expressed our concern over the tension there,” a senior State Department official said on Wednesday regarding the situation in Arakan State before denying that the Burmese security forces were trying to decimate the Rohingya population. It is understood that US officials accompanied UN human rights envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana on his visit to the affected area last week.

The US remarks came hours after the OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu expressed disappointment at the inaction of the international community to stop the “massacres, violations, injustice and ethnic cleansing” perpetrated by the Burmese government against Rohingya Muslims.

He suggested that the UN Islamic Group in Geneva should send an urgent request to the body’s Human Rights Council to dispatch a fact-finding mission to delve into the alleged atrocities.

In addition, Ihsanoglu proposed setting up an Islamic investigation committee on the events and that a report should be submitted to the next foreign ministerial conference. An Islamic ministerial contact group should also be established to find a radical solution by contacting all relevant parties, including the Burmese government, as well as international and regional organizations, he added.

Earlier in the day, a US State Department spokesman said it was monitoring developments in the strife-prone areas of Burma. “We continue to monitor … sectarian tensions in Burma, in Rakhine [Arakan] State in particular,” State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters.

“And as we said before, we continue to urge all parties to exercise restraint, to refrain from further violence, and to uphold principles of nondiscrimination, tolerance and religious freedom. We obviously have some concerns about making sure that [the displaced] get humanitarian aid.”

Meanwhile, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) announced on Wednesday that it will hold a new session on the plight of Rohingya Muslims at its four-day national convention in Washington set to begin on Aug. 31.

The ISNA said it is increasingly concerned about the desperate condition of the minority Rohingya community which has long experienced great hardship and oppression in their home country of Burma.

“Rohingya Muslims require government permission to marry, are forbidden from having more than two children per family, and are subjected to modern-day slavery through forced labor,” it said. “A recent wave of violence and brutal force from the Burmese military and law enforcement officials necessitates a closer look at this tragic situation.”

The Council on Foreign Relations, a prestigious Washington-based think-tank, released a background paper on Wednesday that said many people are now hopeful that recent reforms have heralded a new era of democracy and fresh possibilities for the beleaguered Southeast Asian nation.

Experts said that increased foreign investment and the lifting of international sanctions will allow Burma to progress even further, but a combination of increasing sectarian violence and disproportionate economic growth could still handicap the country.