Rohingya Update: As you can see, Myanmar is really taking the world’s message to heart . . .

The Burma Times seems to be the media outlet closest to the Rohingya crisis that is sticking its neck way, way out in reporting on what’s new in genocide-happy Myanmar.

Three reports appeared this week on its site, including reports of “barriers” imposed on Rohingya trying to leave the flood-affected area of Pungná cwéng, where already 9 people are missing, as well as prohibitions against entering the village with any type of aid.  (Rohingyas prevented from moving out of flood inundated village in Pungná cwéng)

 

 

Another article, No aid for Rohingyas, reports that “in Kyauktaw, Rohingyas were turned out of shelters while in Akyab they have been warned not to move out of their neighbourhoods even when they are submerged in flood water.”

“The Rohingya village in Pungná cwéng lies in the midst of hostile Rakhine territory and there has been a continuous blockade leading to chronic food shortages. 

“There was no food stored by the villages and in the midst of the floods, the Rohingyas are suffering from a lack of food and lack of drinking water.

"Much of the poultry and the livestock have also been washed away by the floods.

“In the last few days, the villagers are spending their times in knee deep water as they continue to be refused permission to reach the flood inundated village. At present, there is up to three feet of water.”

The articles note that “this is a crucial election year” and that possibly the government will provide at least some marginal, face-saving assistance to the Rohingya.

But I’m not holding my breath.  With a 90+ per cent Buddhist majority, who needs any other votes?  Let ‘em drown.

The True Asians: time to allow the Rohingya to receive “stateless passports”

I read an English summary of a really interesting article last week, by Rossen Yankov, a Bulgarian journalist, who was advocating for the issuance of a European passport for the Roma ethnic group, many of whom live in Bulgaria but being nomadic are really stateless and should be given stateless citizenship/passports. “They are not Bulgarian; they are European,” states Yankov.  The entire article, which was in Bulgarian, was difficult to translate, but lest we think that Yankov is nothing but a warm and fuzzy humanitarian, the objective behind his argument Is much like that of the majority in Myanmar: Rohingya may live here, and may have lived here for generations, but this isn’t really their nationality, so why should we have to bear the sole burden of caring for them?  Of course, Myanmar doesn’t spend any time thinking up solutions like Mr Yankov; they just torment and kill their ethnic minority, forcing them to either get out or die.  Which got me thinking: there are two types of nomads in the word: nomads by tradition, like the Roma, the Tuareg, the Berber . . . and then there are nomads by necessity, like the Rohingya.  

 

Shouldn’t the Rohingya be considered nomadic now?  Expelled from their country of origin—and make no mistake, Myanmar is where these particular individuals originated—they are forced to wander the world in search of employment, sustenance, peace.  And if they are considered nomads, wouldn’t the Roma/EU argument apply—that they should be given stateless citizenship/passports?

Some governments make concessions  for nomads—access to pasture, participation in government, voting rights that are fluid across states depending on where the Nomad is in the yearly travel cycle.  Some nomads stay within country borders, some do not.  

So what happens if a country through torture, genocide and exile, creates a nomadic tribe, and the world through its inaction is complicit in this creation-- should that group not be given the same opportunities that the traditional group receives?

Of the Roma, the largest minority in Europe, Yankov says, “They are the eternal strangers here, there, and everywhere else. . . . They are the true Europeans.”

The Rohingya, also, are eternal strangers everywhere.  Are they now not the true Asians?

Matt Dillon: Our Hero, and currently the Rohingya’s best friend

Today’s media outlets are buzzing with news that Matt Dillon visited Myanmar’s Rakhine state and sent a blistering commentary—to the world, thanks to his celebrity status-- on the state of the Rohingya both in the camps and fleeing as refugees.

"No one should have to live like this, people are really suffering," said Dillon, one of the first celebrities to get a look at what life is like for Rohingya in the western state of Rakhine. "They are being strangled slowly, they have no hope for the future and nowhere to go."

"A lot of people are suffering," he said. "I'm really glad I had a chance to come, to see for myself what's happening here." http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/matt-dillon-puts-rare-celebrity-spotlight-rohingya-31436291

Although there is a short video that accompanies his visit, it’s apparent he did not do this as a publicity stunt for himself, but carefully used his status to, as the AP reported “put a rare celebrity spotlight” directly on where it should be: the brutal treatment of the Rohingya by Myanmar.

"I know [genocide]'s a very touchy word to use," said Dillon. "But there's a very ominous feeling here."

See the short clip here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx5V3O-i0qM&list=PLr1-FC1l_JLEKbawV7vKt1qt-BD5HQcm_

Although this was maybe Mr. Dillon’s first public advocacy of the Rohingya specifically, it is not his first foray into human rights advocacy; in early May he was Master of Ceremonies, along with Queen Nur of Jordan, at the Refugees International fundraiser, where he was implored by a Rohingya in attendance to help other Rohingya fleeing Myanmar or languishing in their camps.

RI's star-studded gala dinner raises $750,000 to alleviate worldwide refugee crisis
Diplomatic Pouch / May 7, 2015

http://www.luxner.com/cgi-bin/view_article.cgi?articleID=2392

At the event, the Richard C. Holbrooke Leadership Award went to Rohingya activist Tun Khin, who was born in Burma but now lives in London. “Myanmar passed a law in 2002 excluding Rohingyas as a legitimate minority population and made Tun Khin and almost a million of his fellow Rohingyas an illegitimate community unable to claim Myanmar citizenship. . . . The brutal treatment of the Rohingyas is a terrible stain on Myanmar, a country we hear so much good news about. Many of us were deluded into thinking that all was well in Myanmar. Well, it’s a long way from becoming a humane and just society. Tun Khin’s presence tonight is a reminder to all of us that we can’t call a victory in Myanmar and leave the scene. We have to stay engaged until there are no more people living in these concentration camps.”

So Matt Dillon, Our Hero, decided to do something about it.

While he’s in Southeast Asia we hope he finds time to come to Aceh where, although conditions are still grim, the Rohingya are treated humanely and with dignity.

Junaidi and I wrote to his manager and his agent, asking them to thank him for us.  He is a blessing.

If a small Acehnese livelihoods agency could start a fan club, we would.

Who needs Angelina Jolie?

A miserable game of ‘maritime ping pong’

At last the plight of the Rohingya from Myanmar/Burma has gotten world media attention for longer than a day.  I’m sure it’s thanks to in part to some good investigative reporting, and some tireless advocacy by our colleague Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project (http://www.insightonconflict.org/conflicts/myanmar/), who’s been tracking these refugees almost since the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. But what has probably gotten people talking about the inhumane abominations that the Rohingya have faced and are still facing is that, like the tsunami, the magnitude of the issue has now shown itself and is staggering.  Year after year, thousands upon thousands of people, whose home country has been Myanmar for generations, have been denied rights, citizenship, basic human needs, housing, employment, physical safety, medical care and dignity.  They have been persecuted, raped, tortured for fun, and killed by the Buddhist majority, often led by monks.  

 this boat full of Rohingya refugees was abandoned by traffickers and left adrift; Rohingya are jumping off the boat to get supplies dropped into the water

When 200 Rohingya landed in the north of Aceh Timur 2009 it was a chore for JMD to find anyone other than the Acehnese people, themselves living at the poverty level, to help set up temporary shelters and provide basic medical care.  Now, the world is watching as Indonesia (Aceh again) takes in 300 more and news of 6,000 left to die at sea has people “debating” on line and in the press the “correct” way of dealing with refugees.

An otherwise good article from NPR (“Why No One Wants the Rohingyas,” March 15, by Scott Neuman) goes into detail about what UNHCR is saying about migrants in general, about trafficking issues in Thailand and elsewhere, about how the US State Department thinks this is a “regional issue.” http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/05/15/407048785/why-no-one-wants-the-rohingyas.  Etc. etc. etc. Its still an academic luncheon for many people.  And none of the many comments on this report mention Myanmar.  Not one.

[“You can’t have these people float around until they die. ASEAN, take in Rohingya Muslims!” http://bit.ly/1QP8YJW  ]

Only the most recent article from AFP (French media outlet) has quoted someone, finally, talking about Myanmar—the Rohingya’s country of origin, in a way that tries to hold it accountable.

“‘These are not people who are making choices. They are being forced out of their country,’ said Amy Smith of Fortify Rights (www.fortifyrights.org). They are denied citizenship and scrape by in appalling conditions.”

“The regional blame-game has escalated with both Thailand and Malaysia calling on Myanmar to stem the flow of Rohingya, 1.3 million of whom live in the western state of Rakhine. Myanmar maintains they are illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.” [even though the majority have lived in Myanmar for over 3 generations!  And while I’m at it, who would ever call this a “blame game?”  There is no game to play—these people are from Myanmar—period.]

“Myanmar ‘should deal with the Rohingya community internally instead of forcing it on its (Southeast Asian) neighbours,’ Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was quoted by local media on Sunday as saying, in an unusually strong rebuke to a fellow member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

But Myanmar has so far stuck to its line, denying that the Rohingya exist as a minority group on its soil and maintaining they belong to Bangladesh. It has also threatened to snub planned regional talks on the crisis called for May 29 in Bangkok.” http://news.yahoo.com/misery-sea-rohingya-boat-bounced-between-nations-135151224.html

Indonesia has, as far as I can tell, stepped up more than any other country to assist the Rohingya.  But the enormity of the issue, and Myanmar’s as-yet unchallenged refusal to concede that what they are doing is tantamount to genocide, is for the moment keeping this particular world horror in the public eye.

Which is the only good that has come out of this.

And where, might I ask, is Angelina Jolie THIS time???

More mass graves of Rohingya found in Thailand . . . and still Myanmar refuses to acknowledge their citizenship, or humanity

Human Rights Watch’s May 1^st story about the discovery of 30 Rohingya buried in  mass graves in Thailand is the latest in the hundreds of instances each year highlighting the continual persecution of this group from Myanmar/Burma that the country refuses to acknowledge or assist. (http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/05/01/thailand-mass-graves-rohingya-found-trafficking-camp) 

“Each year, tens of thousands of Rohingya flee the dire human rights situation in Burma only to be further abused and exploited at the hands of traffickers in Thailand,” HRW’s Asia Director Brad Adams said. “The discovery of these mass graves should shock the Thai government into shutting down the trafficking networks that enrich officials but prey on extremely vulnerable people. Instead of sticking Rohingya in border camps or immigration lockups, the government should provide safety and protection.”

The 30 who were found had starved to death or died of disease “while held by traffickers who were awaiting payment of ransoms before smuggling them into Malaysia.  Traffickers controlling this camp apparently departed into the mountainous jungle, taking surviving Rohingya with them.”

Look at that photo.  That stick wrapped in plastic is a person.

Rescue workers transport one of the bodies found at an abandoned camp in Thailand's southern Songkhla province on May 1, 2015. © 2015 Reuters 

Human trafficking is something that Thailand seems to excel at, but what concerns me here is Myanmar, the country from which these people come and whose highest-ranking officials, including the Buddhist clergy, have waged an open genocidal war against their own citizens who they will now not even grant basic human rights.  “They’re Bangladeshi,” says Myanmar of these Myanmar-born Muslims who have never even set foot in Bangladesh, nor have their parents.  That’s like the US saying that everyone whose ancestors came from somewhere else will be denied social services, voting rights, employment, health care or housing. Plus, Catholic priests and Protestant ministers get to lead vicious attacks on groups of these non-citizens, beating the crap out of them, killing them, rounding them up and throwing them into camps and leaving them to die.  No wonder the Rohingya take their chances with Thai traffickers, who sound downright cuddly in comparison.

When you do a Google search of “Rohingya Killed in Myanmar 2014,” this is what you come up with, all in a row:

·      Rohingya Muslims feared killed in new Burma Rakhine State

·      Burma violence: UN calls for Rohingya deaths inquiry - BBC

·      28+Myanmar Rohingya Muslims Killed by Buddhists

·      Two-child limit on Myanmar Rohingya draws criticism   

·      U.N.: Dozens of Muslims massacred by Buddhists in Burma

·      4,000 Muslim Rohingyas killed, 8,000 missing in Myanmar

·      Rohingya Muslims considered by UN to be one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.   

·      How The World Is Ignoring Myanmar's Potential Genocide

·      Burma: End 'Ethnic Cleansing' of Rohingya Muslims

And that’s just the first page.

When I wonder why the world isn’t paying attention, I remind myself that it’s scarier to think that the world is paying attention . . . and it just does not care.

Who out there besides me is pretty sure the Thai fishing boat slaves are once again Rohingya?

Okay, so by now everyone has heard of the Myanmar slaves found on Benjina island, Indonesia, off Papua, who had been forced to work on Thai fishing boats and kept in prison on the island, some for over 10 years.  (the most complete account is in the Jakarta Post: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/25/ap-investigation-are-slaves-catching-fish-you-buy.html)

The AP story comes after a year of reporting.

Do we remember why it took a year of reporting?

Because in June 2014 the world press repeated the SAME story, only this time the island was Ambon.

And in 2013 ethnic Rohingya were already being reported as being sold into slavery on Thai fishing boats.

Do these look familiar?

Special Report: Thai authorities implicated in Rohingya Muslim smuggling network (Reuters, July 2013)

 

Thai Slave Traders Supply Costco Shrimp (The Guardian, June 2014)

 

Slave labour in fishery could cost Thailand dearly (Bangkok Post, June 2014)

Are slaves catching the fish you eat? Thailand could face US sanctions for human trafficking (AP, June 2014)

 

Special Report: Traffickers use abductions, prison ships to feed Asian slave trade (Reuters, October, 2014)

And today, follow-up articles are “reminding” us that there are tens if not hundreds of islands across Indonesia on which upwards of 4,000 slaves are still held captive by Thai fishing corporations. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/28/4000-foreign-fishermen-stranded-on-remote-indonesian-islands

To quote Kamonpan Awaiwanont, the surprised Thai Fisheries Department representative to whom this was reported a few days ago, "This is still happening now? [pause] We are trying to solve it. This is ongoing."

This is absolutely unreal.

And although these latest articles are not saying who exactly constitutes this newest Myanmar slave population, I will guess that the slavers are extracting the same desperate people from the same impoverished, neglected, marginalized, communities: those where the Rohingya live.

 Meanwhile, back in Myanmar the legislature is toasting another successful exodus of residents who have been decreed “non-citizens.” 

 

And I used to be such a fan of the Buddhist way of life.

So now we have another island on which slaves are being held, and Jakarta claims to know nothing about it?  The articles claim that Benjina is a tiny island of 3,500 inhabitants.  The only Benjina I know of is the airport, on one of the larger of 90+ Aru Islands off the coast of Papua, right in the line of travel to Freeport, the world’s largest copper mine.  A small island, tucked in the lee of two larger islands not 20 miles to the west of the airport, is also called Benjina. The Aru islands are all in the shipping lanes, and the airport is heavily used by Freeport and other corporations.  No one saw anything odd when flying in, like little huts with bars and skinny men in shackles? The newest AP story reports slaves yelling for help constantly—those waters off the coast of Papua must have been filled with cries for assistance . . . and in what is probably the most heavily trafficked marine area in the region, no one from Freeport, no one from the government, no one from groups that supposedly should have been on the lookout for this activity for over two years was aware of this????

 

I got nothing.

At last the Rohingya are back in the news . . .and as usual it’s not good

UN Myanmar envoy worried over displaced Muslims

The Washington Post, July 26  AP

YANGON, Myanmar — The new U.N. human rights envoy for Myanmar expressed serious concern about the conditions in camps for more than 100,000 mostly minority Muslims displaced by violence led by Buddhist extremists, and warned that the country’s human rights situation may be deteriorating.

Yanghee Lee spoke Saturday at the end of a 10-day fact-finding mission to Myanmar, her first in the capacity of U.N. rapporteur. She said Myanmar should be applauded for having come a long way since installing an elected government in 2011 after almost five decades of repressive military rule.

[You know, I am getting a little tired of hearing this --every time someone wants to point to the inhumane and despicable treatment of Rohingya they feel they have to throw the Myanmar government a bone.  “It’s a lot better than it was” has not helped the non-Buddhist minority one bit, ever. “Hey, they have free and fair elections now . . . and of course they’re deliberately starving over 100,000 people but you can’t have everything, right?  Baby steps, right?"] 

“Yet, there are worrying signs of possible backtracking, which if unchecked could undermine Myanmar’s efforts to become a responsible member of the international community that respects and protects human rights,” she said, after talks with political and social leaders and trips to troubled areas of the country.  [does she mean that Myanmar should be making these efforts, or that she believe it is currently making these efforts?  And how has any treatment of the Rohingya confirmed this?]

In recent months, the government has failed to make much progress in ending religious conflicts and ethnic tensions, and journalists have been coming under legal assault after an initial period of goodwill that saw the lifting of censorship.

Facing growing international criticism, Myanmar announced this week it was allowing international aid organizations to return to a western region they were expelled from earlier this year after Buddhist mobs disrupted their work helping displaced Rohingya Muslims. [big of them]

Lee visited western Rakhine state, where since 2012, violence between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims has left at least 280 people dead and 140,000 homeless, mostly Muslims confined in squalid camps. Myanmar is overwhelmingly Buddhist, and most Rohingya are denied citizenship.

“The situation is deplorable,” she said, reading to reporters from a 10-page statement. She said she believed camp residents did not have adequate access to basic services and had heard “disturbing reports” of people dying in the camps due to the lack of emergency medical care and failure to adequately treat preventable illnesses and pregnancy-related conditions.

“By virtue of their legal status (or lack of), the Muslim community has faced and continues to face systematic discrimination, which include restrictions in the freedom of movement, restrictions in access to land, food, water, education and health care, and restrictions on marriages and birth registration,” Lee said. She added she was concerned that “the government’s plan for long-term peaceful coexistence may likely result in a permanent segregation” of the Buddhist and Muslim communities.

[So: I’m confused.  What part of the Myanmar administration is it, exactly, that deserves all this international praise?]

What was originally a localized conflict in Rakhine state has turned into a sometimes violent campaign led by Buddhist extremists against Muslims in other parts of the country, and Lee warned that “the recurring outbreak of intercommunal violence reveals deep divisions and a growing polarization between Muslim and Buddhist communities.” [Growing????  You think it could get any bigger??]

She called for a law banning hate speech, saying she was concerned by its spread “and incitement to violence, discrimination and hostility in the media and on the Internet, which have fuelled and triggered further violence.” She also called for the withdrawal of a legislative package on the so-called protection of race and religion that would limit the civil rights of the Muslim community.

Lee said she would present her findings later this year to the U.N. General Assembly.

Aun San Suu Ki, we hardly knew ye . . . 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/un-myanmar-envoy-worried-over-displaced-muslims/2014/07/26/199da886-152e-11e4-ac56-773e54a65906_story.html