Reporting Political and Human Rights Issues Facing Rohingya in Burma (Myanmar)

A Monthly Publication of the Burmese Rohingya Association of North America Editor: Dr. Wakar Uddin

Volume 4 Number 2 February 29, 2012

BURMESE NASAKA FORCE VS. THE DEMOCRATIC REFORM Deployment of NASAKA Force by Burmese Government in Rohingya Areas - A Gross Violation of the Constitution

Burmese Government Must Give Access to International Community to Investigate Atrocities, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking by NASAKA

Maungdaw, Arakan State, Burma. The newly emerging Burmese Way to Democracy is quite reminiscent of the long-gone Burmese Way to Socialism that was boastfully declared by the former military dictator General Ne Win in early 1960s. The term Burmese way was the key in his maneuvering to downplay the global concept of socialism, apparently fearing that it could potentially provide at least some of the ethnic minorities privileges that will contradict its own philosophy of Burmanization. Again today, the Democracy in Burma is evidently tainted with the traditional Burmese flavors of nationalism, purity, and disregards for the other ethnicity or races. On the contrary, the democratic reform in Burma has dramatically accelerated human right violations in Rohingya areas by its unyielding and unrelenting apparatus the NASAKA Force, the paramilitary secret police, which continues to conduct operations out in the open, including human trafficking to high seas. The atrocities by NASAKA in Rohingya villages have dramatically peaked twice in recent months; the first peak, after the militarys election, and most recently, after the governments display of olive branch for some ethnic minorities (excluding Rohingya) said a prominent Rohingya elderly in Maungdaw. These recent atrocities by the NASAKA forces often puzzle many in the western countries. Why is this happening? It is a question repeatedly raised by the U.S. government officials, analysts, various NGOs, and the press, during the recent meetings with Dr. Wakar Uddin, Chairman of the Burmese Rohingya Association of North America and the Director General of the Arakan Rohingya Union. This is nothing more than a

Rohingya forced labor used by Burmese forces to erect posts during the recent installation of fences at Burma Bangladesh border. (Photo source: Our correspondent) carrot on one side and a stick on another side, and in between there is the distraction and diversion factor Dr. Uddin replied. The Burmese regime desperately tries to convince the West for lifting or relaxing the sanctions by handing out small olive branches to some ethnic minorities, while holding a stick for Rohingya behind its back he explains. I am afraid the Director of NASAKA must have convinced the Prime Minister that they could use these olive branches for Shan, Karen, and others, as distractions from all the human right violations in Rohingya areas in Arakan he added. The NASAKA Force has no mandate even under the militarys new constitution and within the government itself. The continuous deployment of this force in the Rohingya areas of northern Arakan state is squarely in violation of the constitution. Why Create NASAKA Force only for Rohingya Region? In 1992, former Juntas Military Intelligence (MI) Chief Gen. Khin Nyunt created NASAKA as his pocket tool under his direct command to avert possible application of any existing or future law that could potentially give some protections to the Rohingya ethnic minority in Burma. The creation of NASAKA was so personal for MI Chief that there was no proclamation made by his chiefs, Gen. Saw Maung of State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) and Gen. Than Shwe of State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). When

the MI chief was arrested and dismissed from his job in 2004, the force was kept under the Ministry of Defense and retained to this date. The NASAKA has created its own special administration protocols in the Rohingya areas of Arakan in parallel with the constitutionally formed local administration at township and district levels. Nowhere in Burma, except in the Rohingya areas, there is deployment of a force vested with special power to have control over the local population, superseding the constitution of the land. The NASAKA force is deployed without any legal process provided by law of the land. NASAKA personnel are reportedly some of the most ruthless individuals recruited from various units of Burmese army and police academies in the country. Before deployment of the units, the recruits undergo intense training in special camps that are designed to intoxicate them with extreme ideology of nationalism, hate, and xenophobia against Kalar (Kalar: Derogatory Burmese term for people perceived to be of South Asian descent, particularly the Indians). Source: Our Correspondent

ROHINGYA CHILDREN OF BURMA Myanmar (Burma) Blacklists Babies as Oppression of the Rohingya Continues
The Arakan Project Submits Extensive Report on Rohingya Children in Burma to the UN Committee on the Rights of Child

While education is an unachievable dream for Rohingya children, they remain a major target of Burmese NASAKA Force in its ethnic cleansing and population Geneva, Switzerland. The Arakan Project, Headed by reduction strategy in Arakan, Burma. (Photo source: The Chris Lewa, and sponsored by National Endowment for Arakan Project) Democracy, USA, recently submitted a 44-page In a submission to the CRC, The Arakan Project document on Rohingya to the Committee on the Rights. details how the Myanmar government punishes The following are some of the highlights of the report: Rohingya children born out of unauthorized marriages Myanmar blacklists Rohingya babies as part of its or above the imposed limit of two children, by putting continuing oppression of this stateless minority, The them on blacklists. It is estimated that more than Arakan Project said today as the UN Committee on the 40,000 Rohingya children are unregistered. Since they Rights of the Child (CRC) meets to review the situation do not exist administratively, they cannot obtain travel of childrens rights in Myanmar, a State party to the permits, attend school and, in the future, will be unable Convention on the Rights of the Child. to marry. Over the past two months, the authorities Despite signs of political reforms in the past five started a process of regularization of black listed months, the Myanmar government has reaffirmed children but many parents fear that coming forward specific deeply discriminatory policies against this may get them prosecuted for unauthorized marriage. minority group on national security grounds, using Registered Rohingya children hardly fare any better justifications of illegal migration management and as they remain stateless. All Rohingya children suffer control on population growth. These policies are unmitigated discrimination with regard to education, implemented through severe restrictions on movement, health care and access to food. Illiteracy stands at 80%. requirement for official marriage permission and a two- They are exposed to preventable diseases due to child policy. Marriage authorizations are only granted chronic malnutrition and lack of access to health care. in exchange of high bribes and after long delays, and Child labor is prevalent and crucial to family survival. unauthorized marriages can be penalized with up to 10 Rohingya children are also subject to forced labor, years imprisonment. which, together with poverty, keeps them out of school.

Twelve-year-old Rafique (not his real name) said: In Burma, we dont have freedom. We cannot go to visit relatives outside the village without a travel pass. We are prisoners in our own village. Eleven-year-old Karim Ali (not his real name) stated: I could not go to school when there were emergency labour duties such as urgent road repairs. On these occasions, I had to work as many as 3 days a week. Rohingya children bear the full brunt of the states policies of exclusion, restrictions and arbitrary treatment, said Chris Lewa, Director of The Arakan Project. These systematic policies gravely impair their physical and mental development as children and will affect the long-term future of their community. Myanmar has made no reference to the Rohingya in its State party reports to the CRC. Further, it has implemented none of the recommendations the CRC put to them in 2004. Confirmation of these policies of exclusion by the new government during recent parliamentary sessions has demoralised the Rohingya community, resulting in increased refugee outflows since September 2011. The Myanmar government should build on its reform credentials and mark a break from past regimes by taking immediate steps to end all discriminatory policies and practices against the Rohingya., she added. The Arakan Project submission to the CRC can be accessed at: http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs12/AP-CRCMyanmar- 12-01.pdf Source: Chris Lewa, The Arakan project

TEST OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Freedom of Expression by Citizens During the Democratic Reform

Significance of a Fundamental Change or a Small Token to Silence the Critics?

Rangoon, Burma. When one reads the appeal by the Myanmar Islamic Religious Affairs Council to the Prime Minister of Burma, asking for the rights of Muslims, the reader might a take a sudden pause and wonder Is it real?. An entire generation in Burma has already missed such a great taste of democracy called freedom of expression. Although there is some gradual and calculated changes in Burma, still it is too early to tell whether the long over-due freedom of expression could be sustained in the long run. At the of 16th Islamic Religious Affairs Council Conference, the Council drafted a 6-page letter of appeal to the Burmese Prime Minister, signed by the Chairman, Al-Hajj Nyunt Maung Shein. The letter of appeal is reportedly sent to the office of the Prime Minister. The letter of appeal contained six different specific appeals related to: 1. Places of worship,

educational buildings, and waqf lands (donated cemetery properties confiscated by the government); 2. Nationality certificates for Muslims; 3. Rights of Muslim population (meaning Rohingya) in Arakan State; 4. Travel to Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj (pilgrimage); 5. Religious harmony among the people of all faith in Burma; and 6. Seeking approval by the Prime Ministers Office for submission of Islamic religious matters by the Council to the Prime Minister. The appeal number 3, related to Rohingya of Arakan State, covered substantial human right issues facing ethnic Muslim population in Arakan. The appeal states: The ethnic Muslim population in Arakan State continued to experience various forms of human right violations. They are not allowed to travel even between villages or towns, and requiring permits to get married. These and many other restrictions placed on only the Muslims (in Arakan) are not only causing difficulties with serious delays (when granted to a handful) in obtaining travel approval and marriage permits, but causing many other difficulties in their social, educational, economical, and religious matters. Because of the governments fear of possible immigrant problem at the border, the ethnic Muslim population is facing serious unnecessary difficulties; therefore, appealing the Prime Minister to find ways to resolve the issues. The Rohingya community generally welcomes such a bold step taken by the Islamic Council of Myanmar in such a difficult nation/society of racial and religious intolerance. Amidst all the positive steps articulated by the Council, one negative statement it has alluded to was the possible immigration issue at the border. The Rohingya community categorically denies any infiltration of foreign nationals (Bengalis) from neighboring Bangladesh or India to Arakan. Such a claim was invented by the former Burmese military dictatorship, which was co-engineered by their ethnic Rakhine brethren as a pretext to conduct ethnic cleansing operations (i.e. Operation Nagamin or King Dragon) in Arakan. Additionally, the heart of the ethnic Muslim issue in Arakan State that is missing in this appeal, is the foundation of their very ethnic identity the historic term Rohingya. One can easily note that Muslim is not ethnicity or race by any definition; it refers to people of the Islamic faith as in Christian for Christianity or Bhuddist for Bhuddism. The analogy may be quite simple: When a Christian person from an ethnic region is referred to as Kachin, Chin, or Karen, what would be a Muslim, from the Rohang region of Arakan, should be referred to? Rohingya community is optimistic that the Burmese society and the government in the new democratic Burma will soon come to sense and grasp the reality of Rohang region in Arakan State in Burma. Source: Our Correspondent The Rohingya Human Rights Alert The Burmese Rohingya Association of North America