Burmese and Rohingya NEWS around the world

[shahhossain]

FM lost track of 183 Rohingya boatpeople in Aceh

Sat, 10/10/2009 1:25 PM | World

INDONESIA: Some 183 Rohingya boatpeople in Aceh left their (s helter) last month for an unknown destination after staying there since early this year, the Foreign Ministry said, Friday.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said they were supposed to be repatriated to Bangladesh once their identity verification was cleared by their original country.
"We have no idea where they went. They left their (s helter) while we were still working on efforts to send them back to Bangladesh."
There are a total of 388 Rohingya people in Aceh, (s heltered) in two different (loca tion)s, Sabang and Idi Rayeuk. Rohingya people escaped their home countries of Myanmar and Bangladesh because of alleged persecution by the governments. -JP​

 

[shahhossain]

Refugees are humans too

Refugees are humans too

​

Photo: Bayazid
Akter / Driknews
Nurul Islam, On e-mail

After reading the newspapers I am saddened to know that 100 unregistered Rohingya refugees' houses have been demolished by the authorities. Is this not against humanity because they are staying now under the open sky in rainy season which is a pathetic scene because they are human beings too. As far as I know about 12,000 unregistered Rohingya refugees illegally intruded into Bangladesh a few years ago. Actually they are political refugees because they were deprived of their fundamental rights in Myanmar and had severe restrictions imposed upon them. They have been compelled to leave their native Arakan in search of livelihood and justice or a political solution. They do not have any means of daily earning. They are passing their days in polythene sheds without adequate food and other essentials. As far as I know, they are expecting a permanent solution to their issues and then they will be back to their homeland under UN guarantee.
I feel that we, the Bangladesh people and the government, should sympathise with them and request UNHCR to register them as refugees. In Thailand there are more than two million registered and unregistered Myanmar refugees. But the Thai government is not pushing them back because the Thai government knows that they are victims.
So, finally I would like to appeal to the authorities concerned to deal sympathetically with the refugees in Bangladesh. After all, during our Liberation War we too were refugees!​

 

[shahhossain]

Forty four Burmese nationals held in Bangladesh

Forty four Burmese nationals held in Bangladesh

10/15/2009

Dhaka: Forty four Burmese nationals were rounded up by Bangladesh police in raids over two days from a few places in Bandarban hill district, said an official report.

On the first day of the raids on October 13, police arrested 23 Rohingya Muslims from Burma, the report said.

Among them, 18 people, including two children and four women were arrested from Penbazaar area in Alikadam township of Bangladesh, opposite Buthidaung Township in Burma

Five more Burmese citizens were arrested from Balagata in Bandarban on the same day.

On October 14, a Bangladeshi police team in another raid in Raicha and Kaistali areas arrested 21 more Rohingyas, including two women.

They entered Bangladesh territory to live illegally in these localities, police sources added.

The police handed them over to BDR personnel for pushing them back through the Naikhangchhari border close to the Burmese town of Taungbro.

A report from Bangladesh authorities said over 1200 Muslims from Burma were pushed back from Bangladesh during the past six months
​

 

[shahhossain]

Germany donates $430,000 for Rohingya relief in Bangladesh

by Siddique Islam Saturday, 17 October 2009 22:05
Dhaka (Mizzima) - Germany has pledged US$ 431,655 to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) mainly for Rohingya refugee relief work in Bangladesh.

The aid is meant to improve the situation of Rohingya refugees of Burma, officially known as Myanmar, in the Coxs Bazaar camps as well as improving the infrastructure of schools outside the camps to benefit Bangladeshi children in the coastal district, according to an announcement in the capital, Dhaka.

At the same time, Gunter Nooke, Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid at the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, visited Bangladesh along with human rights ambassadors from Denmark and the Netherlands.

On October 13, the delegation visited Kutupalong refugee camp near Coxs Bazaar and met government officials, UN agencies, non-governmental organization (NGOs) and the refugees.

The government in Dhaka is tackling the major challenges with regard to respect for and protection of human rights. We want to encourage the government in this endeavour, Commissioner Nooke said in a statement before embarking on the trip.

Saber Azam, UNHCR representative in Bangladesh, said, We are extremely grateful for this contribution. It is critical that we not only support refugees in the camps but also the Bangladeshi community, who have been hosting refugees for almost two decades and who are also in need of assistance.​

 

[shahhossain]

Bangladesh Expels Rohingyas

Bangladeshi authorities have increasingly cracked down on Rohingya refugees living illegally in refugee camps in Coxs Bazaar District in Bangladesh and pushed them back across the Burmese border, according to border sources.
Chris Lewa, coordinator of the Arakan Project, said, At least 1,200 people have been deported to Burma since January, according to our research, and 190 people were deported in two weeks alone this month.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy, Tin Soe, editor for the Bangladesh-based Kaladan Press Network, said: I am not sure what the authorities are doing now. They have been arresting and deporting people almost every day this month.
About 400,000 unregistered Rohingya refugees are living in two camps near Coxs Bazaar, according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
Lewa believes Bangladesh authorities will push back all Rohingya refugees who are not registered with the UNHCR before Burma finishes erecting the wire fence on its border.
In August, five people were charged with crossing the border illegally under the Immigration Act and were sentenced to five years in prison at Buthidaung Township in Arakan State after they were arrested by Nasaka, the Burmese border security force, Lewa said.
Quoting a source in Bandarbans district police on Friday, The Dhaka-based newspaper The Daily Star said the border police and authorities have been pushing the Rohingyas back across the border following directives from high-ups in the government.
Bangladeshi border authorities are sending the Rohingyas back to Burma instead of filing cases against them to avoid the problems in jails created by their continued infiltration into Bangladesh.
The report said 550 accused and convicts, most of them Rohingyas, are staying in the Bandarban district jail, which has a capacity of 114.
Push-ins and push-backs are going on across the border with Myanmar amid tensions following mobilization of a large number of Burmese junta troops along the border for erecting a barbed wire fence, the report said.
More Rohingyas from Arakan State are fleeing the country to escape human rights abuses including forced labor by the Burmeses junta troops, according to Lewa. New arrivals come to stay at Rohingya refugees camps in Coxs Bazaar.
The Bangladeshi government has asked Burma to improve living conditions for Rohingyas to stop the flow of refugees. The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority who face severe discrimination in Burma.
Bangladeshs Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said Rohingya refugees are a heavy burden economically, socially, environmentally on Bangladesh. The Bangladesh government wants to finalize the repatriation of refugees as soon as possible.
In June, the Burmese regime agreed to allow the Bangladeshi government to repatriate Rohingya refugees. However, Dhaka fears the Rohingyas will return if there is no improvement in the human rights situation in Burma.
The Burmese regime maintains the Rohingya are not Burmese citizens. The new fence is intended to stop human trafficking along the border, the authorities say, but it is uncertain when it will be completed.


​

 

[shahhossain]

Rohingya forced to build fence

Rohingya forced to build fence
from ALJAZEERA ENGLISH NEWS
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/10/2009102764429637851.html
By Nicolas Haque on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border


On Myanmar's side of the Naf River that marks border with Bangladesh, labourers are hard at work building a fence that will prevent them fleeing persecution.

They will not be paid for their work. Instead the men, who come from the persecuted Rohingya ethnic group, have been coerced into erecting the 230km long fence by the threat of violence against their families. The Rohingyas are a distinct ethnic group from Myanmar's Rakhine State. The authorities in Yangon have refused to recognise them as citizens and they have been persecuted for their cultural difference and practice of Islam.
For many, life in Myanmar has become so difficult that they have fled across the border to Bangladesh. Over the past year 12,000 Rohingyas have been caught crossing the border illegally.
Now they are being forced to build a fence to prevent such escapes.
"The Myanmar army have forced all of the men living in the villages on the border to work on the fence," a worker involved in the construction says. "Most of them are Rohingyas. If we don't do as they say they beat us and our families."
So far they have fenced off 70km of border in what experts believe is an attempt by Yangon to increase control of the lucrative smuggling trade that flourishes in the area.
"Illegal trade between Myanmar and Bangladesh has formerly been in favour of Bangladesh, but this will change now,"explains Professor Imtiaz Ahmed, from Dhaka University. "The country that controls the barriers between borders can also assert greater control over the illegal trade."

Disputed border

Bangladesh and Myanmar have never agreed on their borders, and an ongoing dispute over where their maritime frontiers lie has seen tension rise along the Naf river.
The contested maritime border involves a patch of sea believed to contain valuable oil and gas. Control of these waters could make either country very rich, and experts say that diplomatic relations between the two countries has deteriorated as a result of the dispute.
"The tension was heightened last November when the Myanmar Navy came in to put a rig in what Bangladesh claims, rightly, to be our own territorial water," says Retired Major General ANM Muniruzzaman, from the Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies.

"Eventually the Bangladeshi diplomatic efforts diffused the situation, and the Myanmar navy rig went back, but the Myanmar government has consistently told Bangladesh that this is their water, and that they will come back. When that happens, perhaps the Myanmar government wants to put a dual pressure on Bangladesh, not only from the sea but also from the land border."
That process may have already started. Myanmar has deployed 50,000 men to the border with Bangladesh, and in the past month alone, Dhaka has responded by sending an additional 3000 troops to the area in a manoeuvre codenamed "Operation Fortress."
Officially, the Bangladeshi government denies there is tension along the border. The troops say they are there to monitor and stop the illegal trafficking of goods and people.
But the soldiers know that relations between the two countries are strained.
"We have a border through which we can observe the other side of the river. Our troops morale is very high, under any circumstances we are ready to protect the integrity and sovereignty of our country," says Lieutenant Colonel Mozammel, commanding officer of Border Guards Bangladesh in Teknaf.

Unregistered refugees

Meanwhile, the horrific conditions faced by the Rohingyas in Myanmar are prompting thousands to flee to Bangladesh. Malika is one of those who crossed the Naf river illegally. Her feet are swollen from the three-day walk to escape Yangon's soldiers.

She says she suffered horrific abuse there and had no choice but to leave.
"I couldn't stay there, the soldiers raped me over and over again," she says. "The Myanmar army do not consider us as humans."
But once in Bangladesh, the refugees face new problems. Of more than 400,000 Rohingyas believed to have slipped across the border into Bangladesh, just 26,000 have been officially recognized as refugees by the Bangladeshi government and the United Nations.
The authorities refuse to feed and house the rest.

Even the handful of NGOs working here are not allowed to provide food or medical aid or education facilities to unregistered Rohingyas because the government fears that this would spark tensions between poor local villagers and the new arrivals.

Fadlullah Wilmot, the director of Muslim Aid in Bangladesh, explains: "More than 44 per cent of the population in this area are ultra poor, that means that their daily income only provides their basic food needs. The literacy rate is about 10 per cent. The wage rate is low, so of course there are tensions."
In limbo
In 1992, the Bangladeshi government, under the supervision of UNHCR, organised the forced repatriation of 250,000 Rohingyas on the basis that the refugees would be given citizenship by the Myanmar authorities. That promise was never kept.

Professor Ahmad believes the refugees are trapped between a rock and a hard place.
"Myanmar's position is they do not recognise them as citizens, they are stateless within Myanmar, and they are also stateless when they come to Bangladesh," he says.

"If you build the fence now Myanmar will probably say it is ready to take the 26,000 legal refugees from the camp but not the unregistered because they dont know who they are." Trapped in limbo between two countries that don't want them, the Rohingyas have become a bargaining chip for both Bangladesh and Myanmar as they try to settle their border dispute.
In Bangladesh's refugee camps, frustration and anger are rife amongst the beleagured minority.
"We cannot work. Our children can't go to school. Our wives aren't allowed to see doctors," one man says. "We cannot receive any food aid. No one wants us. This is humiliating, we have no arms, but we are ready to fight and to blow ourselves up. People need to know that we exist."
​

 

[shahhossain]

Japan: Protect Burmese Rohingya Seeking Asylum

29 Oct 2009 04:03:00 GMT
Source: Human Rights Watch
Reuters and ********************Net are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
(Tokyo) - Japan's new administration should protect Burmese Rohingya asylum seekers in Japan and press Burma to end abuses against the minority group, eight Japanese and international organizations said today. The groups sent a joint letter to the newly inaugurated justice minister, Keiko Chiba, and foreign minister, Katsuya Okada.
"Tokyo's silence sends a message to Burma's generals that their horrendous persecution of the Rohingya can continue," said Kanae Doi, Tokyo director at Human Rights Watch. "Japan's new government should urgently review its policies to protect the Rohingya both in Japan and in Burma."
The organizations urged Chiba to rescind deportation orders that would return asylum seekers to Burma and to grant Special Residential Permits to Rohingya in Japan. Over the past decade, more than 110 Rohingya have made their way to Japan, mainly by air, and petitioned the Japanese government for asylum. While there have been no reports of forcible repatriation of Rohingya asylum seekers to Burma, many Rohingya in Japan have been denied refugee status, detained, and issued deportation orders.
The organizations called upon Okada to press the Burmese military government to end human rights violations against the Rohingya and grant them full citizenship rights. Abuses against the Rohingya include extrajudicial killings, forced labor, religious persecution, and restrictions on movement, all exacerbated by a draconian citizenship law that leaves the Rohingya stateless. Japan has long been reluctant to exert pressure on Burma's senior leadership on human rights issues.
The letter was signed by Amnesty International Japan, Arakan Rohingya Organization-Japan (JARO), the Lawyers' Group for Burmese Refugee Applicants, the Burmese Rohingya Association in Japan, the Christian Coalition for Refugee and Migrant Workers (CCRMW), the People's Forum on Burma, BurmaInfo, and Human Rights Watch.
Human Rights Watch also issued the Japanese translation of the 12-page photo essay and report, "Perilous Plight: Burma's Rohingya Take to the Seas," today. The report examines the causes of the exodus of Rohingya from Burma and Bangladesh, and their treatment once in flight to Southeast Asian countries. The report documents the persecution and human rights violations against the Rohingya inside Burma, especially in Arakan state, persisting for over 20 years, with insufficient international attention.
The eight organizations will hold a public event today in Tokyo around the report and the treatment of Rohingya asylum seekers in Japan.
"The Rohingyas have faced persecution in Burma and mistreatment in the countries where they seek refuge," Doi said. "The Japanese government should ensure their protection in Japan."

 

[مجــــودي]

God bless My Dear Brother

 

[shahhossain]

Thank you so much

MAJOODI

If you got any news, please share it here​

 

[azzoziarakani]

Allah bless your goood job

 

[shahhossain]

Thank you so much brother

Azzozi

 

[old pain]

Damn on the government of Burma

 

[snim]

Crossing mud to save live

MYMetro:
March 12, 2013

By Maria Uffa Zulkafeli




JERLUN: 184 Myanmar citizens from Rohingya ethnicity forced to sustain their live for nearly four hours crossing mud area after everybody jumped from the wooden boat approximately one kilometre from the beach of Kuala Jerlun, here, this morning.




Head of Public Peace and Traficc, District Kubang Pasu, Assistant Supritendant Zakaria Shahadan said, Police received information at around 8am and when they reached the area, they saw a group of foreigner crossing the muddy area to save their lives.




All foreigners without permission (PATI) was brought to safety and being detained for further investigation.




According to the initial investigation, it was found that they were the Muslim Rohingya entering Malaysian shore using a boat illegally.




We all believe all PATI involved entered this country to save their lives from the ethnic conflicts in their country.

When we detained them, they were just departing the wooden boat, yet to cross the muddy area around one kilometre during the low tide, at that moment. All Pati including children who crossed the mud were assisted by the RELA, Immigration Department and kampung folk on the seashore. He replied.




The case is now under the State Immigration Department for further action.




As per now, all PATI consist of 69 men, 47 women and 68 children which yet to be identified their ages.

 

[snim]

Arakan Report Angers Rohingya Leaders

RANGOON Rohingya leaders have reacted angrily to the findings of the official investigation into a wave of brutal violence that hit Arakan State in 2012, slamming the report findings as selective and slanted.
Speaking after members of a commission formed last year to investigate the violence presented a summary of their report today in Rangoon, Myo Thant, a Rohingya representative of the Democracy and Human Rights Party, told The Irrawaddy that the report did not present a completely accurate picture of the Arakan situation.
This report has some good suggestions, but in ways it is biased and incomplete, he said.
Commission members, including former political prisoners Ko Ko Gyi and Maung Thura, better known as Zarganar, launched the summary of the commissions findings today at the Myanmar Peace Center.
The commission recommended that the Burmese government increase security in the troubled western region and said that resettlement of more than 100,000 displaced people should be held off until reconciliation measures are implemented.
It will take time for reconciliation to work, as the conflict is still fresh, said commission member Aung Naing Oo of the Myanmar Peace Center, a government-backed think-tank, who added that it was more important in the short term to address humanitarian needs in the region.
The report summary said that it is extremely urgent to provide the Bengali IDPs with access to safe and secure temporary ****ters prior to the monsoon season.
The commission proposed that the Burmese government set up a truth-finding committee to look into the deeper causes of the 2012 violence, which began as rioting between Arakanese Buddhists and local Muslims, but, say human rights groups, later took on the hallmarks of a pogrom against Muslims, focusing on the Rohingya, a stateless minority of around 800,000 people.
We welcome those suggestions, said Myo Thant, speaking after the report launch.
However, the 28-page report summary released today did not use the term Rohingya, in keeping with the Burmese governments view that the Rohingya are immigrants from Bangladesh, which shares a border with Burmas Arakan State.
How can they say we are all immigrants? asked Myo Thant. Arakan is like hell, why would any Bangladeshi want to migrate to there. It makes no sense.
Commission member Yin Yin Nwe, an economic advisor to Burmas President Thein Sein, said that the report stuck with the terminology outlined by the government. We use the term Bengali as this is the official term as part of the citizenship laws, she said.
As expected, the commission did not recommend any amendment to Burmas widely criticized 1982 citizenship law, which denies the Rohingya Burmese citizenship.
Phil Robertson, the deputy director of Human Rights Watchs Asia division, said that the commission missed a critical point when it failed to include reform of the 1982 Citizenship Act to strip out discriminatory provisions and ensure that the law complies with international human rights standards.
The report summarypublished in advance of the full 200-page report, which is scheduled for release next weeksaid the Burmese government should address the citizenship claims of the Bengalis in a transparent and accountable manner.
Asked by The Irrawaddy how these citizenship disputes could be resolved under the terms of the 1982 law, commission member Ko Ko Gyi said that the problem is not with the law as it stands, it is with the implementation. If we practiced the law exactly, then we would not have seen the violence in Rakhine (Arakan) State last year.
Mohamed Salim, spokesperson for the National Development and Peace Party, said that this refusal to acknowledge the Rohingya by name smacked of discrimination. He also took issue with suggestions that family planning education be provided to the Bengali population, which the commission said could offset Arakanese fears of Rohingya population growth.
We are Rohingya, not Bengali, and that is the main point that is wrong with this report, he said. I am angry because of that.

By SIMON ROUGHNEEN / THE IRRAWADDY