Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis in Bangladesh

Kaladan News

April 12, 2010

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Article

• Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis in Bangladesh

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Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis in Bangladesh

By Dr. Habib Siddiqui and Dr. Nora Rowley

When a widely circulated newspaper like the New York Times picks up the matter of ill-treatment of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, it is no small matter. It is a matter of grievous concern and shame to tens of thousands of Bangladeshi-Americans who live in and around the Big Apple state. In its February 20 publication the headline read, “Burmese Refugees Persecuted in Bangladesh.” It said, “Stateless refugees from Myanmar are suffering beatings and deportation in Bangladesh, according to aid workers and rights groups who say thousands are crowding into a squalid camp where they face starvation and disease.” It described the situation as a humanitarian crisis.

The NY Times report should come as no surprise to many of us who have been following the inhuman condition of the Rohingyas around the world for a number of years. In its Special Report, dated February 18, “Bangladesh: Violent Crackdown Fuels Humanitarian Crisis for Unrecognized Rohingya Refugees,” the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) criticized the Bangladesh government for violent crackdown against the stateless Rohingyas in Bangladesh. It was a chastising report in which the MSF called for an immediate end to the violence, along with urgent measures by the Government of Bangladesh and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to increase protection to Rohingya refugees seeking asylum in the country.

Last month the Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) issued an emergency report, “Stateless and Starving: Persecuted Rohingya Flee Burma and Starve in Bangladesh”. This report reveals a PHR emergency assessment of 18.3% acute malnutrition in children. This level of child malnutrition is “considered “critical” by the World Health Organization (WHO), which recommends in such crises that adequate food aid be delivered to the entire population to avoid high numbers of preventable deaths.” The extreme food insecurity causing this critical level of malnutrition is the direct consequence of Bangladesh government authorities’ restricting movement and, therefore, income generation of the Rohingya, and actively obstructing the amount of international humanitarian aid to this population.

Last week, the American Muslim Taskforce (AMT), an umbrella organization that includes the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), amongst other Muslim organizations in the USA, hosted a press conference in the National Press Club, Washington D.C. to discuss human rights abuses in Bangladesh. In his inaugural statement, Mr. Wright Mahdi Bray of the AMT brought up the squalid living conditions of the Rohingya refugees inside Bangladesh. In the last few years we have raised the Rohingya issue a few times with Bangladesh government, but have failed to improve the deplorable condition.

Denied citizenship rights and subjected to repeated abuse and forced slave labor in their ancestral homes in the Arakan/Rakhine state of Burma by a xenophobic Buddhist government, where they cannot travel, marry or practice their religion freely, and betrayed and battered by their Magh Rakhine co-residents, many Rohingya Muslims have hardly any option left for them to survive with dignity other than seeking refuge outside. The neighboring Bangladesh to the north-west with her huge Muslim population and historical ties with Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar, dating back centuries earlier during the Arakanese rule of those districts (1538-1666), provides a natural setting for seeking shelter. Thus, when the Burmese genocidal campaigns – Naga Min ( King Dragon) Operation (1978-79) and Pyi Thaya Operation (1991-92) – forced eviction of some 300,000 and 268,000 Rohingya refugees, respectively, to seek shelter outside it was Bangladesh where they ended up.

With the assistance of the UNHCR, Bangladesh repatriated most of those refugees back to Arakan. Still, however, tens of thousands of Rohingyas never returned, especially from the second batch of major exodus in 1991-92. The on-going Nasaka operation and targeted violence by the Rakhine Maghs inside the Rakhine state have also forced many Rohingyas to leave their ancestral land and return again to Bangladesh. Many of those refugees have often used Bangladesh as a transit point to seek better shelters elsewhere. Many of the Rohingyas have ended up in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, and also in Pakistan.

As noted recently by Syed Neaz Ahmad in a New Age article, the late King Faisal’s kind gesture to offer the fleeing Rohingyas a permanent abode in Saudi Arabia is no longer respected by the new rulers who have restricted their employment and movement within the Kingdom. According to him some three thousand Rohingya families are in Makkah and Jeddah prisons awaiting their deportation. It is good to hear that the Pakistan government has agreed to take these unwanted refugees. (Islamabad can also do a noble job, albeit a delayed one for the past four decades, in taking some 300,000 stranded Pakistanis – living a miserable life in camps in Bangladesh.)

There are some 13,600 Rohingyas registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Malaysia, an estimated 3,000 in Thailand, and unknown numbers in India. Small number of Rohingya refugees also lives in Japan, Australia and the USA. The total number of Rohingya refugees living inside Bangladesh today is not known. The UNHCR stopped documenting the Rohingyas after 1991 as they shifted their focus to Africa and Eastern Europe. From my contacts within the Rohingya leadership, the estimate is around 400,000. Of these refugees, only 28,000 are recognized as prima facie refugees by the Government of Bangladesh and live in official camps under the supervision of the UNHCR. The official camp has everything: primary schools, a computer learning centre funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, health care centers, adult literacy centers, supplementary food centers for children and pregnant women.

Except a handful of wealthy Rohingyas who have been able to settle comfortably within the big cities, the rest of the refugees struggle to survive unrecognized and largely unassisted and unprotected, living in dire humanitarian condition with food insecurity, poor water and appalling sanitation. They live mostly in and around Cox’s Bazar and the Hilly districts of Chittagong. Some of the unfortunate refugees have also ended up living in slums of big cities like Dhaka and Chittagong. As reported by the MSF and the Amnesty International, these Rohingya refugees are treated as unwanted folks and have faced repeated beatings and harassment, including forcible repatriation to Myanmar. Many refugees, who had been repatriated to their country in the past, had entered Bangladesh again as they did not find any development and change in the attitude of the Myanmar authorities.

Some Rohingya refugees live at a makeshift camp in Kutupalong, south of Cox’s Bazar. Last June and July the local authorities destroyed 259 homes in that makeshift camp to clear space around the perimeter of the official UNHCR camp at Kutupalong. There was a crackdown in October in Bandarban District, east of Cox’s Bazar, forcing many Rohigyas to take shelter in the makeshift camp in Kutupalong. In January 2010, another crackdown followed the refugees living in Cox’s Bazar District. To add to the brutality of the authorities, the Rohingyas also suffer at the hands of the local population, whose anti-Rohingya sentiment is fuelled by local leaders and the media.

This was not the first time that this kind of problem emerged for the fleeing Rohingyas. In 2002 during the police action “Operation Clean Heart” many Rohingyas were violently forced from their homes, which led to the establishment of the original Tal makeshift camp on a swamp-like patch of ground. This camp relocated, and in the spring of 2006 MSF started a medical program at the new site, where at the time around 5,700 unregistered Rohingya lived in awful, unsanitary conditions on a small strip of flood land in Teknaf in the Cox’s Bazar District. After two years of providing humanitarian assistance, and following strong advocacy by MSF, which ultimately gained the support of UNHCR and the international community, the Government of Bangladesh allocated new land in Leda Bazar for around 10,000 people in mid-2008. Less than one year later, nearly 13,000 people were living in Leda Bazar Camp, their fundamental living conditions having changed little. According to the MSF, these people continue to struggle to survive without recognition and opportunities to provide for themselves inside an increasingly hostile environment.

With a total population of over 28,400, the unregistered Rohingya at Kutupalong makeshift camp now outnumber the total registered refugee population supported by the UNHCR in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh government has repeatedly stopped registration of those unfortunate refugees living outside the official camps. Without official recognition these people are forced to live in overcrowded squalor, unprotected and largely unassisted. Prevented from supporting themselves, they also do not qualify for the UNHCR-supported food relief. And sadly, the UNHCR, which is mandated to protect refugees worldwide, makes little or no visible protest at the injustice of this situation.

According to the MSF, the UNHCR is guilty of not taking the return of the Rohingyas as a priority issue. The Office of the UNHCR must take greater steps to protect the unregistered Rohingya seeking asylum in Bangladesh. The UNHCR must not allow the terms of its agreement with the government to undermine its role as international protector of the Rohingyas who have lost the protection of their own state - Myanmar, and have no state to turn to. Any failure to protect the Rohingyas inside and outside Myanmar is simply not acceptable.

We are told that as a poor country, Bangladesh faces a dilemma about the Rohingya refugees. If she shows too much flexibility a huge influx may occur, while being harsh creates concern among international community. Nevertheless, Bangladesh government’s forced repatriation of the refugees against their wishes is simply inhuman and violates international humanitarian laws. It must be immediately stopped, failing which its international image may suffer terribly. It must also stop all harassment against the Rohingyas. Temporary residency permits should be provided to the refugees so that they can earn their livelihood like any other Bangladeshi. There is nothing worse than a forced poverty which leads to crime and other serious problems. Should the refugees choose to leave Bangladesh for a third country the government should not hinder that process either. It must also make all diplomatic efforts to find shelters for these stranded refugees in sparsely populated and prosperous countries of Europe and North America, and the Gulf states.

The Rohingya refugees remain trapped in a desperate situation with no future in Bangladesh. These unfortunate people are caught between a crocodile and a snake: neither the xenophobic SPDC regime wants them back in Myanmar, nor does the Bangladesh government want them to stay because they are largely perceived as a burden on already scant resources. Outside China, none of the neighboring countries of Burma has ratified the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, its 1967 Protocol, the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. This must change by ratifying those conventions.

As the Thai boat crisis of 2009 made clear, regional comprehensive solutions are needed to the situation of the stateless Rohingya. The international community must support the Government of Bangladesh and UNHCR to adopt measures to guarantee the unregistered Rohingya’s lasting dignity and well-being in Bangladesh.

[About the authors: Dr. Siddiqui is a human rights activist who has written and co-edited three books on the Rohingyas of Burma. Dr. Rowley is a medical doctor who as part of MSF worked with the Rohingya people inside Arakan. She is currently affiliated with the US Campaign for Burma.]

KPN News Team
First News Agency dedicated for Rohingya Media

Worse than death?

Middleton journalist haunted by Rohingya refugee camp experience

Source : novanewsnow.com

Topics :UN , United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) , Burma , Arakan , Bangladesh

By Paul Pickrem

The future is imaginary. We don’t know what will and will not come to our lives.

But, several months ago in Mae Sot, on the border of Thailand and Burma (Myanmar), during a conversation with a British woman who had recently returned from Burma, a dream was conceived in me that would lead me on a journey to a people and a place, both of which are known by hardly anyone.

But, I know them now. And, I can’t forget them.

I can’t mention the woman’s name, because she works illegally inside Burma and on its borders, as what some call a “fixer.” She helps Burmese inside the country and refugees in countless ways by connecting them with people and resources they need.

Before this, I saw media coverage, in February 2009, of allegations the Thai navy was caught arresting and abusing boat people from western Burma, who were trying to find new lives in other South East Asian countries. The Thais were accused of towing hundreds of them back out to sea in unsafe vessels, with little or no food and water and abandoning them, resulting in countless deaths.

These people were Rohingya, the Muslim minority in Burma’s Arakan State. They were fleeing from brutal ethnic and religious persecution and what they believe is the Burmese government’s systematic program of genocide against them.

I had heard of appalling conditions in Rohingya refugee camps in Burma and neighboring Bangladesh.

Now, my friend, the fixer, told me she had met with Rohingya journalists, in Bangladesh, who are working hard, with little training or resources, to tell the world about the desperate plight of their people.

That day, I decided I wanted to find a way, where there was no way, to go to Bangladesh and help these Rohingya journalists in any small way I could.

I had spent several months volunteering as an English teacher of migrant children and refugees in Mae Sot, so, I didn’t have the money to pay for a trip to Bangladesh. But, a few months later the means to pay for that journey presented itself.

I cannot divulge the details, but, my work with exiled Burmese journalists in South East Asia made it possible.

In late 2009, I was taken for a one-day visit to Kutupalong refugee camp in south eastern Bangladesh, near the Burma border.

STILL HAUNTED

Now, five months later, I am still haunted by what I saw and experienced.

Nearly forty-five thousand illegal refugees live like animals in an “unofficial” camp butted up against an “official” camp, under the supervision of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The difference is that “official” refugees have been granted refugee status, recognized by the Bangladesh government. They are in the country legally and have the advantage of support from the UN.

Refugees arriving after 1995 are not allowed to be granted official refugee status, according to the Bangladesh authorities.

That means they live in the country illegally, with no assistance from the UN in the form of food rations, health care, water, sanitation, or schools.

There are now more “unofficial” refugees than “official” and the squalid conditions they live in are an embarrassment to humanity.

There are now more than 40,000 Rohingya in the unofficial camp compared to more than 28,000 in the official one.

I have seen the desperate situations many refugees are forced to endure in three countries bordering Burma and have gotten to know many of them very well.

Being a refugee anywhere in this world is a grievous trauma. Being classed as “unofficial” or “illegal” is much worse.

FIVE-HOUR TREK

The photos I took , during a five-hour trek through the camp show the huts built out of mud, plastic, tree branches and scraps of garbage, including chunks of wood, metal, and discarded rice bags scavenged from ditches and garbage heaps.

The roofs are covered with thin plastic bought in rolls from nearby markets. It made me think of the plastic garbage bags we use at home to pick up leaves in the fall.

I tried to imagine those large families huddled under this thin plastic shield during the wind and pounding rain of the monsoons.

The next time I open a box of plastic garbage bags to pick up leaves I will be haunted by the faces of the thousands of refugees who live under it, year after year.

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• View the gallery

In one of the photos, the woman in yellow is Amina. She has five children. But, she is fortunate enough to have refugee status, which means she has shelter constructed from better materials, a food ration (which includes cooking oil, rice and charcoal for cooking), water, sanitation, and access to some medical care. The official camp has a school with Rohingya teachers trained by NGOs.

The woman beside her, in purple, is Hafiza. She has 10 children. Seven are married and she lives with three young daughters in the unofficial camp, who she supports by working as a domestic servant and sometimes by begging, since her husband died. Because she does not have refugee status, the family does not have a food ration, adequate medical care, or sanitation and they have to share access to a small number of wells spread around the camp. They live in a hut like you see in the photographs.

She recently said she hopes someday to return to Burma, but, with the same rights as all her neighbors.

SEEK WORK

Because the unofficial refugees have to survive without the support of the UN, hundreds of them leave the camp daily to seek work as laborers, domestics, cutting firewood or working in market stalls and tea rooms.

Kaladon Press, a Rohingya news agency, has reported children as young as seven leave the camp every morning to work full-time to help support their family, rather than go to school.

The bearded man in the photos is Nurul Salam. He and five family members arrived at Kutupalong in June 2009. He has tried to support them from the proceeds of a small shop.

“It’s difficult to live in this camp because I feel like an animal,” he said in a recent interview.

“All I want to do is provide some security for my family, like everyone everywhere.”

There have also been unconfirmed reports of deaths from starvation in the unofficial camp. But, Rohingya elders I spoke with said their priority is education.

They literally begged me to help them build schools in the camp and ask for assistance from the international community, so Rohingya children and young adults can get an education.

They believe this is crucial because it is illegal for Rohingya to be educated above 10th grade inside Arakan state. So, it is almost impossible for them to support themselves through well-paying jobs wherever they are forced to live, inside or outside of Burma.

This forces them to work menial jobs for very low pay. They are easily exploited because of this and their lack of legal status. They are very vulnerable to abuse and violent persecution.

SCHOOLS INADEQUATE

As you can see in the photos, schools in the unofficial camp are woefully inadequate. They consisted of some light gauge plastic stretched over a thin bamboo grid resting on bamboo poles and a dirt floor.

In the Annapolis Valley, most people I know would not keep their animals in such a place.

Money has been raised to build two schools, at a cost of around $400 USD each. But, they cannot have a solid roof, because the Bangla authorities say it would then constitute a permanent structure.

The Burmese military government and many of the Arakanese majority in Arakan State argue the Rohingya are not Burmese, but, were brought to Arakan by the British during the colonial period, which ended in 1948.

And, this is at the core of what haunts me the most about this situation.

The Rohingya are so easy to hate and to demonize. They are a different color. They are a Muslim minority, while the majority in Arakan is Buddhist. It is easy to brand all Rohingya as terrorists because some hold radical Islamic views. But, the largely moderate voice of Islam in the Rohingya community is not often mentioned. Their language and culture are very different. They are fiercely independent, proud and difficult to assimilate.

But, a young Rohingya man showed me a power point presentation, created by a UN consultant on the genocide in Rwanda. Wherever that presentation used the name Tutsis or the dominant Hutus, he substituted the word Rohingya or the majority Arakanese (also called Rakhine). He also changed the photos.

LIKE RWANDA

The similarities between the situations of the victimized Tutsis in Rwanda (thousands were reportedly slaughtered) and minority Rohingyas, in Arakan state, were eerily similar.

"They are painted as intruders and the enemy wherever they run. " - Paul Pickrem

Since my visit to Kutupalong, the security has deteriorated. There are reports of violent attacks on the camp, at night, by local Banglas, who strongly resent the presence of the refugees.

In communities near the Rohingya camps local residents are organizing to pressure their government to push the Rohingyas back across the border into Burma.

Human rights activists are concerned, because it is reported that most of the Rohingya driven back into Burma in a forced repatriation between 2003 and 2005 are dead, in jail, or back in Bangladesh.

Rohingya refugees are regularly arrested and money extorted from them. They are often robbed when returning to the camp from their jobs.

CAUGHT IN A VICE

So, Rohingyas are caught in a vice between a deadly snake and a hungry crocodile.

Critics are adamant they deserve their fate because they are not Burmese, they are not citizens of any country, they are different, they are radical Muslims we should fear and their presence is harmful because they won’t fit in. They are taking jobs, resources and land from poor locals.

They are painted as intruders and the enemy wherever they run.

But, I have thought often, since my time in Kutupalong, about the words of Friedrich Niemoller, a German Christian leader and anti-Nazi dissident in Germany during WW 2, which I read many years ago.

He related his experience when the authorities began to exterminate those so easy to demonize and hate in Germany and other countries controlled by the Nazis.

He said: “In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.”

WON’T STOP

I seriously doubt the Burmese military will stop their brutal and systematic campaign of extermination, once they have had their way with the Rohingya. The record of the regime since 1962 speaks otherwise.

I love and respect all peoples of Burma, of every ethnic and political stripe and I worry that other Burmese, who say and do nothing now, in the case of the Rohingya (some are accused of participating in the brutality), may someday find themselves in a camp like Kutupalong, clinging to life.

The fact is, the Rohingya, wherever one stands on the political and historical questions, are being exterminated by the common enemy of every freedom-loving citizen of Burma, from every people group - that being the brutal military regime that is squeezing the life out of the country.

Since Kotupalong, I have also thought of the ancient words of wisdom, ironically, attributed to Buddhist teaching: “Whenever you catch yourself making me and them distinctions, spend a moment being the other person. Find yourself in him or her. It may change your perspective.”

There are countless interpretations of the history and politics related to the Rohingya “problem.” I respect all the people and the various arguments on both sides of the issues. It’s very confusing to try and sift through it all.

However, when I have considered rhetoric urging that the Rohingya (and all the despised and marginal peoples everywhere) somehow deserve the tsunami of brutality crushing them, I go back to Kutupalong, in my memory, and find myself and the people I love in the Rohingya faces that haunt me.

It does change my perspective.

More information about my experiences on the Burma border is available at pspickrem@hotmail.com or on my Facebook profile.

(Paul Pickrem is an award-winning freelance writer from Middleton and a former writer for The Annapolis County Spectator.)

Bangladesh seeks UNHCR help to repatriate Rohingya refugees

Bangladesh seeks UNHCR help to repatriate Rohingya refugees

Kaladan News

March 8, 2010

Dhaka, Bangladesh: Foreign Minister of Bangladesh Dipu Moni has requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for support to resume the repatriation process of “all Burmese refugees in the soonest possible time", according to an official release of the ministry.

On March 7, the Foreign Minister urged the UNHCR to work more intensely inside Burma and to create conditions to repatriate Arakanese Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh. The minister was speaking to the new Bangladesh UNHCR representative Steven Craig Sanders, after he presented his credentials to the minister at her office.

Dipu Moni's appeal comes in the wake of international media reports on the plight of Arakanese Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh. Some have alleged human rights violations by Bangladesh authorities and urged the government to allow their integration with the local people.

"She (Dipu Moni) emphasized on resuming the repatriation process at the soonest possible time," said a foreign ministry press statement on the meeting.

The minister also urged the UNHCR to work for improving the conditions in Burma’s northern Rakhain state of the Muslim minority Rohingyas, who face persecution and hard conditions in their homeland, to discourage entry into Bangladesh.

She said that the UNHCR could work to establish schools, hospitals and other institutions necessary for their socioeconomic development.

"She reiterated Bangladesh's position on the issue of Myanmar refugees that full repatriation of the refugees, now living in two camps in Nayapara and Kutupalong, remained the only viable solution to this protracted problem," said the foreign ministry statement.

"She ruled out any other option in this regard," it added.

Dipu Moni said Burmese authorities had already agreed to take back all refugees confirmed to be their nationals.

Bangladesh has been hosting thousands of Arakanese Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazaar district bordering Burma for years.

An estimated 300,000 Arakanese Rogingya refugees took shelter in 1991-92 as the Burmese military launched a massive crackdown on the Muslim minority.

Bangladesh and Burma, with the cooperation of the UNHCR, repatriated most of the refugees in successive years.

But over 28,000 refugees have refused to return to their homeland either fearing persecution or starvation there. The residual refugees are now housed in Nayapara and Kutupalong camp.

In December 2009, U Maung Myint, the Burmese Deputy Foreign Minister agreed to take back 9000 Arakanese Rohingya refugees of the 28,000 refugees, who are living in the official camps Nayapara and Kutupalong during his trip.

The Bangladesh government has since alleged that most of the previously-repatriated Arakanese Rohingya refugees have come back to Bangladesh.

Some western countries have been lobbying the Bangladesh government to recognize the illegal Burmese nationals as refugees or to integrate them with the locals.

Dhaka has rejected the western proposal saying such decisions will open a floodgate of fresh refugees into Bangladesh.

The Foreign Minister on Sunday said the recent international media reports referring to alleged rights abuses of undocumented Burmese nationals living in Bangladesh were "baseless and malicious".

"Such unhelpful reports must be stopped in the interest of all," the foreign ministry statement quoted her as saying. ##

KPN News Team

Rohingya, Detained One Year, Go on Strike

By LAWI WENG

Source: The Irrawaddy

Forty-seven detained Rohingya in the Immigration Detention Center (IDC) in Bangkok went on strike last week, demanding the Thai authorities send them to Mae Sot on the Thai-Burmese border, according to their lawyer.

Nassir Achwarin, their lawyer and a member of Thai Action Committee for Democracy—Burma, told the The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that the strike will continue through Friday.

“Some people don't eat food, and some have threaten to hang themselves this Friday if the IDC doesn't comply with their demands,” he said.

However, Chris Lewa, the coordinator of the Arakan Project, said a source told her on Thursday that the Rohingya have since stopped their strike without the authorities' meeting their demands.

Lewa, said, “I am particular concerned these people may be at risk of indefinite detention. So, a solution should be found for them.”

Their lawyer said, “A person who smuggled them was given a one-year sentence and is now released. They are angry because they have to stay longer than the smuggler.”

The Rohingya are part of a group of 79 Rohingya who were detained more than one year ago after they were arrested in Ranong Province in southern Thailand, where they entered the country illegally by boats from the sea.

Their lawyer said, “I met them last on Feb. 15. They told me they need to know how long the process will take to send them to another place or a third country.”

He said it would probably be necessary to bring in the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to find a solution that would be fair to the Rohingya.

UNHCR regional spokeswoman Kitty McKinsey, told The Irrawaddy, “In general, we are ready to help the Thai government solve the situation and find a solution for them if the Thai government asks for help. We think it is important to identify exactly who these people are so a solution can be found for them.”

Of the 79 Rohingya arrested in Ranong last year, two died while in detention due to what the Rohingya said were poor living conditions.

According to the Arakan Project, it was established that 30 Rohingya were Bangladeshi, and they were returned to Bangladesh.

Some human rights groups in Thailand submitted a letter to the Thai government requesting that the Rohingya not be repatriated for fear that they would be persecuted.

Hundreds of Muslim Rohingya, regular victims of discrimination and human rights abuse in Bangladesh and Arakan State in Burma, have sought to leave those countries by taking to sea in open boats, in hope of reaching Malaysia or Thailand. Unknown numbers have vanished during the voyage.

International rights groups last year accused the Thai navy of turning back boats of illegal migrants that tried to land in Thailand. The Thai government denied the charge.

Arakan Rohingya National Organisations (ARNO) welcomes the resolution of the European Parliament dated 11 February 2010 which, inter alia,

ARAKAN ROHINGYA NATIONAL ORGANISATION

ARAKAN, BURMA

12 February 2010

Arakan Rohingya National Organisations (ARNO) welcomes the resolution of the European Parliament dated 11 February 2010 which, inter alia,

• Welcomes the fact that the Government of Bangladesh is allowing a fact-finding mission by its south Asia delegation to examine the situation of the Rohingya population in Cox’s Bazar and Banderban Districts next week, and calls on Bangladesh Government to recognize that the unregistered Rohingyas are stateless asylum seekers who have fled persecution, and to provide them with adequate protection, access to livelihood and other basic services;

• Strongly condemns the ethnic cleansing campaign directed by the Burmese military junta against minorities, including those seeking refuge in neighbouring countries; condemns systematic violations of human rights, fundamental freedoms and basic democratic rights of the people of Burma, including politically motivated arrests and arbitrary charges, repression and intimidation of Buddhist monks, restrictions on freedom of assembly, association, movement and expression;

• Calls for immediate and unconditional release of Daw Aung Suu Kyi; under the present condition with the ban on Daw Aung Suu Kyi standing as a candidate the elections in Burma cannot be considered free and democratic; calls on the Burmese military junta to open immediately a genuine tripartite dialogue;

• Urges the SPDC to take without delay the steps needed to ensure a free and fair, transparent and all inclusive electoral process, consistent to international standards and agreeing to the presence of international observers;
• Calls strongly on the Burmese military junta to put an immediate end to the continuing recruitment and use of child soldiers, and to protect the children from armed conflict;

• Expresses grave concerns at the continuing discrimination, human rights violations, violence, child and forced labour, displacement and forms of repression suffered by numerous ethnic and religious minorities, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, rape and other forms of sexual violence, torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment;

• Calls on the Royal Thai Government to continue providing shelter and protection to Karen refugees fleeing abuses in Burma and to work with Office of the UNHCR, the Thai-Burma Consortium and the international community to find an alternative solution that ensures the safety of the 3000 Karen refugees;

• Urges the governments of China, India and Russia to use their economic and political leverage with the authorities of Burma in order to bring about substantial improvement in the country and to stop supplying the Burmese regime with weaponry and other strategic resources.

Nurul Islam:

STATEMENT OF THE ARAKAN ROHINGYA NATIONAL ORGANISATION ON THE 63RD UNION DAY OF BURMA

ARAKAN ROHINGYA NATIONAL ORGANISATION

Arakan, Burma

12th February 2010

STATEMENT OF THE ARAKAN ROHINGYA NATIONAL ORGANISATION ON THE 63RD UNION DAY OF BURMA

12^th February marks the 63^rd Union Day, a very important day for the people of Burma. On 12^th February 1947 the Union Treaty was signed at Panlong, Shan State, between father of the nation Gen. Aung San and leaders of the nationalities to take the independence together from the British and to form Burma a Federal Union on the agreed upon principle of ‘unity in diversity’.

Thus the Panglong spirit of ‘unity in diversity’ is the basis for the unity of the ethnically diverse peoples of Burma. It is equally important for the development of federal democracy and perpetuation of peaceful democratic Burma. It was recognition that we respect, tolerate and uphold the differences of culture, language and life style that exist among the different peoples of Burma. Never the less, we were and are united for building a strong Union, the Union of Burma that ensures national self-determination equality, justice and sustainable development. This Union is to be free from any sort of discrimination on grounds of culture, religion and ethnicity. It is not to accommodate domination of one people by another and the emergence of ‘prime nation’ or ‘sub-nation’; but every people is equal in the Union. It is to be noted that diversity is not a weakness, but strength.

Since Burmese independence the union spirit was not fully respected. Particularly, under military rule from 1962, the Panlong spirit has been hijacked; the union treaty and the union structure have been destroyed. Inter-conflicts and intra-conflicts have been systematically created, so that peoples are not united for continuation of military rule. Resentment developed among the diverse national groups that gave rise to civil war continuing till today.

For many years Burma was without a constitution. The SPDC has given a strange constitution in 2008, which is distortion of democracy, and it does not match with any known constitutional system of the world. It looks like as if sovereignty belongs to the military, not to the people. To them people are not trustworthy, while they claim they are the saviours of the country. It is to legitimise their illegitimate military rule. They are now going still unscheduled election this year. But the election based on this undemocratic constitution cannot give us federal democracy, human rights and culture. So we strongly oppose and condemn it.

Last not least, at this trying situation, let us revive the union spirit of Panlong and resist the conspiracy of the military dictators in full unity, with unity of mind, unity of purpose and unity of dedication.

Nurul Islam

AFK Jilani

Arakanese Rohingya patriotic singer dies

Kaladan News

November 24, 2009

Arakanese Rohingya patriotic singer dies

By Tin Soe

Jeddah, KSA: Arakanese Rohingya patriotic singer, Shabir Ahmed (Shobu) died on November 19, 2009 at about 9:20 am at the King Abdul Aziz University Hospital in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), according to Ronnie, who works for human rights of Rohingya in Jeddah. He was 59.

Shobu died due to failure of both kidneys. He was going through dialysis for the last one year.

He was admitted to the hospital nearly two weeks ago, he said.

The Arakanese Rohingya patriotic singer, Shabir Ahmed (Shobu) son of Azhar Meah, hailed from Myoma Khayandan (Shidar Phara) village, Maungdaw.

Shobu left his home town Maungdaw in 1980 for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for his performing arts given the oppression of the Arakanese Rohingya community by the Burmese military junta.

Shobu was the main singer of the Arakanese Rohingya theatre in Maungdaw and Buthidaung where they (he and some patriotic youth groups) explained about the Arakanese Rohingya and their situation through their artistic performance, said an elder from Maungdaw.

He was a patriot and imparted love and patriotism to thousands of Arakanese Rohingya through his wonderful songs. Tears would roll down people’s cheeks, when they heard his songs like “Arakanor Meri Herejohar…..”, said his best friend, Mohamed Alam who loved his songs and worked for his stage shows in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Shobu was a friendly person and worked for his community whenever he had time and composed songs of his community situation in Arakan, said Alam.

“His songs were an inspiration and a shelter to run away from the many untold suffering that the Arakanese Rohingya have to go through,” he added