Prisoner in Own Homeland

Who are Burma's minority groups?

2011-11-16T09:21:00.000-08:00

Who are Burma's minority groups?

More than 40% of people living in Burma belong to one of the military-ruled nation's different minority groups. The government recognises eight distinct ethnic groups, with dozens of sub-groups, but refuses to acknowledge others.

As the country holds its first elections in 20 years, the BBC profiles some of the main minority groups. Click on each image to find out more.

Source: BBC Asia-Pacific.

The Play Ground Sriti Charon (Memorizing)

2011-08-19T01:14:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday We are on way to KFC (Chittagong) it was Ryan birthday. Just one block away Ryan (5 years Hillol's younger son) changed his mind and requested his father to take them Well Food (Sugar Bun, Malaysian Chain). Hillol and I toke opinion of all kids (Swapnil, Ryan elder brother 9 years), (Purna, 10 years 1st Cousin of Ryan), (Kavane, 6years 1st cousin), (Rio, 5 years 1st cousin) 5 vote went for Well Food. At first I thought Kids follow each other. Road to prediction, what they see they follow. But I was wrong they are agreed because the play place of Well Food is bigger then KFC. When we crossing KFC kids screaming goodbye KFC Grandpa ( Colonel Harland Sanders) . Thinking these kids has athleticism inside like others.They are trapped in our concrete world. Swapnil Loves to play karate (Yellow belt holder) swimming too. He has roller blade but no roller blade park.In my teenage I do roller blade when no vehicle on the road (HRATAL). Kavane father was 1st division cricket player of Chittagong league. We spend most of our time playing Soccer, Cricket and others game. In our generation we cheer our school team in tournament. (Inter school soccer, cricket, basketball tournament). There was two major cricket league 1st division and 2nd division.Now no tournament no sponsor. We use to play vacant plot and playing ground. Now all went to Real Estate people.One day no athlete will come from this country. We will found play station gamer. Big cyber gamer. We play computer or online game. But we love physical game too.Actually what we giving our kids a computer, a play station and a concrete play place.

ARAKAN: A Silent Killing Field (Part-I) By ZAW MIN HTUT

2011-08-11T11:29:00.000-07:00

ARAKAN: A Silent Killing Field (Part-I)

By ZAW MIN HTUT

Amnesty International report, which emphasises on the cover “The Climate of fear continues, members of ethnic minorities and political prisoners still targeted," reported that Mohamed Eliyas, a Muslim in his early 60s from Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, was reportedly beaten by Military Intelligence Services (MIS) personnel on 19 June 1992 and died on 23 June.The Local Secretary of the NLD, he was arrested with Fazzle Ahmed (a Member of Parliament with the NDPH ticket in 1990 General Election) on 13 June for alleged involvement in a bomb explosion near Maungdaw town. He was reportedly held in incommunicado detention and severely beaten and on 19 June he was taken to hospital, where he later died. After Amnesty International urged SLORC to investigate this case, they claimed that he died of acute gastro intestinal disease while undergoing medical treatment. However, sources related to his family have stated that Mohamed Eliyas was in good health at the time of his arrest. Ammesty International remains concerned about the circumstances of his death, particularly in light of the gross violation of human rights committed by the SLORC against Muslims in the Arakan State.

In the fateful morning of June 23, 1993, 5 Rohingyas were lined up on the bank of Mingalagyi creek outside the village of Dargadale (Kyauk-Layga) and shot at one by one by Na- Sa-Ka forces (frontier Security Forces), the functionaries of the present SLORC military government at the border areas, belonging to Franfru (Pinpru) Na-Sa-Ka camp, 6 miles north of Maungdaw township in Arakan State of Burma.

The Victims were:-

Fayas Ahmed (32), Son of Abdul Gaffar

Mohammed (32), Son of Abul Hussein

Abdul Rahim (22), Son of Gulam Sharif

Nagu (26), Son of Abdul Kader

Kala Matiya (20) Son of Sayed Karim belonged to Frangfru village and the above four belonged to Dargadale village.

At the death of the silent night of 27th June 1993 at about 3:00 am. Na-Sa-Ka forces of the same camp killed the remaining five persons who were earlier detained along with those killed on 23 June 1993.

They were:-

Zahir Ahmed (26) S/o Abdul Hakim, Dargadil, Mdw.

Abdul Hashim (27) S/o Mohamed Hussein, Frangfru, Mdw.

Shokat (25) S/o Nesu Maje, Frangfru, Mdw.

Nur Ali (35) S/o Mohamed Ismail, Dargadale, Mdw.

Nuru (30) S/o Nagu, Dargadale, Mdw.

The crops were taken to the nearby Mingalagyi Bazar and told the frightened people that anyone found doing anything against the military government should meet the same penalty. The victims along with 10 others including 3 women had been arrested earlier 91' fabricated allegations. Neither any court proceedings or hearing against the victims were clone nor they were given the rights of defence and appeal. They were subjected to severe torture before being killed. The 3 women were subjected to rape.

SLORC / SPDC is one of the cruellest and most abusive regimes in the world, which had killed thousands of people across the nation while detaining many, more in torturing cells since 1988. The Rohingyas in Arakan have been the victims of profound perpetual intolerable group persecution and driven out of their homeland, are worst affected group in Burma.Rohingyas are now a people in danger.

This Killing is a crime against humanity and is a clear violation of Article 9-3 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the resolution approved by the 40th Session of the UN General Assembly. This is also against the recommendations set in the principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary or summary Execution. In Burma today, the officials are not accountable to their acts against the Rohingyas. The Na-Sa- Ka is empowered to do whatever they like to erase the Rohingyas from the soil of Arakan.

Despite the facts that Burma had ratified the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the crime of Genocide in 1956 acceded to the Convention on the rights of the child in 1991 'and to the four Geneva Conventions of 12th August 1949, which set minimum humane standards of conduct in all situation of the armed conflict. The junta has no respect for international norms.

In July 1991, about 500 Rohingya businessmen were arrested under the so-called, "Phi-tha-ya Operation." Their all belongings were confiscated. They were tortured with all the methods of torture including helicopter and motorbike ridings. Some of them including a newly married Rohingya youth of Seikipara, Akyab Township were dead.

They were sentenced to 4 to 5 years imprisonment with hard labour without proper trial and rights of defence and appeal. They were taken to the frontline of the military operation of engage in pottering or to use them as human shield and cleansing mines or road construction projects.

In early February 1992, the Lun Htin forces at Purma, north of Maungdaw while crossing the Naf River to Bangladesh had killed 20 refugees. To curtail it the SLORC officials arrested six refugees alleging that they had attempted to loot arms from the Lun Htin. Actually, the Lun Htin had looted the refugee's belongings. Eight persons from Godora village of Maungdaw north were sentenced to death though they were innocent, for a case of the murder to their old dispute with some Chakmas, some Rakhine in revenge committed.

From May 1994, North Arakan had become a new Killing Field. At SLORC death camps of Maungdaw and Buthidaung Town- ships, Rohingyas were tortured, shot or Slaughtered, more chilling is that the people were to dig their own grave before being killed or buried alive. Alleging as RSO sympathisers or alleging supporters, Rohingyas were taken late at night from their homes and were tortured to deaths or buried alive.

Under the pretext of looking for insurgents, random killing in the villages is a regular routine action of the SLORC / SPDC brute forces. About 60.000 troops have been deployed in North Arakan who used hundreds and thousands of Rohingyas as human shields. Thousands of porters were carried to unknown places in the jungles most of whom have never come back.

Under false and imaginary charges thousands of Rohingyas had been gunned down and slaughtered. They were forced at gun-point, to kill each other by slaughtering or by striking with spades on the heads. There are instances that the brother had to kill his own brother and both the father and son were killed together before the very eyes of the family members. At least 300 Rohingyas were buried in the mass graves in the town- ships of Maungdaw and Buthidaung.

A few of them are given below:-

Kaloo (a) U Win Myint, the Vice-President of Maungdaw Township NLD (National League of Democracy)
U Ba Tun (a) Noor Mohamed, a Geologist S/o Ali Hussein, a retired Police Officer, Fayazi Para Maungdaw.
Rashid S/o Khalil, Seikderpara, Maungdaw.
Norul Haque S/o - Seikderpara, Maungdaw.
Noor Hussein S/o Abdul Amin, Seikderpara, Maungdaw.
Mohamed Rafique /S/o Mlv Mohd. Amin, Seikderpara, Maungdaw.
Shukkur S/o Kasim, Karipara, Maungdaw, a Head Clerk of Maungdaw TLORC.
Mohamed Eliyas S/o HajeAhmedul Rahman, Fayazipara, Maungdaw.
Mohamed Ullah S/o Kaseern Ali, Fayazipara, Maungdaw.
Fazal Ahmed S/o -- Fayazipara, Maungdaw.
Yasin S/o Fayas Ahmed, Fayazipara, Maungdaw.
Hafez Hakim S/o Shafu Mistri, Zantula, Maunzdaw.
Habibur Rahman S/o Molovi S iddique, G:dusara, Maungdaw.
Nayeem (a) Shew Htoon, S/o U ChlitMaung (NLD President of Buthidaung Township).
Amir Hakim S/o Ahmed Meah, Taungbazar, Buthidaung.
Jamal Hussein S/o Nazir Hussein, Shewza, Maungdaw.
Moulana Deen Mohammed, Sabrang, Buthidaung.
Mohammed Ayub and his son, Sabrang, Buthidaung.
Mohammed Anwar S/o Abu Bakker, Sabrang, Buthidaung.
Moulana Mohammed Ali S/o Hajee Ashrof Ali Inden's Madarasa's Principal.
Hafez Mohamed Rafique S/o Mohammed Islam, Nganchaung Village, Maungdaw.
Moulana Habibur Rahman, Mayrulla para, Maumgdaw.
Mohammed Jamil S/o Abdul Razaak, Nganchaung village, Maungdaw.
Mohammed Yahaya S/o Master Shafi Ullah, Nganchaung village, Maungdaw.
Hafez Mohamed Ulla S/o Master Mustafiz, Nganchaung village, Maungdaw.
Saleh Ahmed S/o Bukunia, Fawkhali, Maungdaw.
Sha Alom S/o Sharit Ullah, Myothugyi, Maungdaw.
Kaseem S/o Sultan, Myothugyi, Maungdaw.
Sayed Alom S/o Sur Mohammed, Myothugyi, Maungdaw.
Bashir Ahmed S/o Khalil, Myothugyi, Maungdaw.
Noor Mohamed S/o Mohamed Hussein, Myothugyi, Maungdaw.
Abdullah S/o Abdul Salam, Myothugyi. Maungdaw.

Source : Human Rights Abuses and Discrimination on Rohingyas 2003

The Akyab Massacre in 2001 By ZAW MIN HTUT

2011-08-11T11:26:00.000-07:00

The Akyab Massacre in 2001

By ZAW MIN HTUT

Source : Human Rights Abuses and Discrimination on Rohingyas 2003

In 1967 bulk of the rice produced in Arakan was carried away to Rangoon by Ne Win's military regime causing rice shortage in Arakan and many people died of starvation. continuous hunger provoked anger among the people of Akyab and a riot erupted which deploying army at the scene who gunned down many on the spot cursed down. Persons seriously injured but still alive were said to have been dumped in mass graves in unknown places of Akyab. The irony dictator Ne Win showed his brutality to the Arakanese people as a first time.

On November 17, 1994 there was communal violence in Akyab, in Which Rakhine students attacked the houses and shops of Muslims. the Attacks continued for three days and mosques were also attacked. The authorities responded only belatedly when mob surrounded the office of the Vice-consul of Bangladesh and threw stones. As the local authorities did not respond to the compliment, the vice-counsel had to inform the Ambassador of Bangladesh in Rangoon, who complained the matter to the SLORC. The SLORC promptly sent back the Arakan State Commander who was attending the meeting of SLORC in Rangoon to stop the riot against Muslims and Bangladesh's office. At least two Muslims were killed, one of them a pregnant woman and several others were wounded.

Whenever Burmese Military government faced political hard-ship, it tries to create communal riots. At present SPDC is con-fronting various internal and external difficulties, so it has been deliberately organizing a rampage against the Muslim community of Arakan. For months there has been sporadic lootings, extortion and killings throughout the Arakan State, especially in the Muslim Majority area of North Arakan. This Campaign is being Systematically organised and carried out by the government through their adopted agents who used to do all unscrupulous things against the Muslim. It is only to divert the political attention of the public.

One of the fresh genocidal rampages was started from the beginning of February 2001 in Akyab, The Capital of Arakan State at the very presence of military personal and police forces.

It Started on 4th February 2001 at 8.00P.M. local time in Aung Mingalar Quarter in Akyab. A group of thugs in disguise of Buddhist monks attacked and looted a young girl vendor. When her husband resisted the attack, the thugs grew larger. Many monks and hooligans came out from nearby monastery and Buddhist settlement with knives, sticks ,spears and other deadly weapons plus petrol to set the house on fire. They became more violent, started looting and setting houses on fire.

An estimate of 150 to 180 Muslims killed, more then 500 injured, 200 missing, including woman and children and thousand left homeless in a planned way of secret killings. Soon after starting provoked quarrel and then they have statrted set fire Mawlike Junction mosque and house each belonging to U Ali Hussain, U Aung Thar Tun, U Kyaw Sein. U Mynar, U Hal Myint, U Mohamed Sultan, U Rafique and Daw Marium. The Maung Kaba tea stall and Siraj Medicine Shop Etc. all along the Main Road, Akyab. All virtually Muslim properties were set ablaze by unruly Buddhist mob. The riotous mob aducated 10-18 Muslim teenage girls and 14-16 muslim youts from Gon Boarding where they stayed as visitors from Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Kyauktaw Town-ship etc. There is not a single trace of them till now. At an other stage, just before the incident takes place, all telephone communication facilities of local Muslims has been cut off but entire Buddhist ones have been functioning.

When the Muslim victims of the riot contacted the Army and police to seek help, the police station as well as Army camp, both did not answer. Still the panic-stricken Rohingyas are yet to be rescued by the law enforcing agencies of Burmese regime. Although the SPDC authorities imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the city from 6th February 2001, the Buddhist Rakhines could walk without hindrances but the Muslim Rohingyas could not move in and out. The dead bodies were thrown away by the army and not given to Muslims for burial. From February 4-6 the anti-Muslim riot swept through the Muslims areas of Mawlike Ward, Molvipara ward, Nazir Ward, Rohingya Para ward, Sakki Bazzar ward and Kaoshy Para, Amla Para Ward were as many as 600 houses including 4 Muslim owned Boarding were burnt down. On 8th February one Mosque and 20 houses were burned down in Kyaukphyu Township in Arakan State. On 9th February 8 Muslim houses in Rathedaung Township and 11 Muslim houses in Pauktaw Township were burned down. Yet the Rakhine had been in- flicted on Rohingya houses residences and Mosque in Kyaukphyu, Kyauktaw, Minbya, and Rathedaung towns. The Jamay Mosque of Kyauktaw was partially destroyed. Partial destruction of Mosque in Kyaukphy, Minbya and Pauktaw were also reported. Most of the houses, stores, go-downs and housing shops were burnt down by mobs. There were goods worth of million Kyats. It is estimated the lost of material thousand million in Kyats.

Human Rights Watch reported in its July 2002 report; violence against Rohingya Muslims in Arakan is a way of life. In Arakan the Burmese army carries out the violence against Muslim systematically. The report continues, police and soldiers reportedly stood by and did nothing to stop the violence initially. It was several hours before they intervened. According to a local resident it was only when the police realized that the Muslims were fighting back and killing Buddhists that police acted, shooting their weapons into the air. When this did not disperse the crowds, another sixty police reinforcements arrived in a truck and began to shoot directly at the Muslims according to other local residents. 'There were several dead bodies in he streets.' said one eyewitness.

The Burmese junta has been pursuing a policy of divide and rule in Arakan and is afraid of Rohingya and Rakhine unity. Creating such religious and ethnic riots help them rule Arakan. The riot in Akyab will lead the Muslims to feel that Akyab is unsafe to stay and Muslim presence there will drastically fall and their economy will be ruined. Muslim students in Akyab College were also attacked and their fate was also unknown. The government clamed down the entire affair by force without finding out the actual culprits and punishing them to avert recurrence of such riots. Instead they were warning the entire Rohingya population not to take any reprisal and if it happened, government would take punitive action. Maungdaw was under curfew backed by yet again by the brutal police force that was determined to crush any Muslim uprising with iron hand. Buddhist quarters in Maungdaw and adjoining areas were well guarded against any possible Muslims attack. Muslims from Maungdaw and Buthidaung are totally barred to travel to Akyab since tile anti - Muslim riot of Akyab.

Some of the major armed operations against the Rohingya people

2011-07-28T23:45:00.000-07:00

Some of the major armed operations against the Rohingya people, orchestrated by the Burmese government since 1948 are mentioned below:

Military Operation (5th Burma Regiment) - November 1948

Burma Territorial Force (BTF) - Operation 1949-50

Military Operation (2nd Emergency Chin regiment) - March 1951-52

... Mayu Operation - October 1952-53

Mone-thone Operation - October 1954

Combined Immigration and Army Operation - January 1955

Union Military Police (UMP) Operation - 1955-58

Captain Htin Kyaw Operation – 1959

Shwe Kyi Operation - October 1966

Kyi Gan Operation - October-December 1966

Ngazinka Operation - 1967-69

Myat Mon Operation - February 1969-71

Major Aung Than Operation – 1973

Sabe Operation February - 1974-78

Naga-Min (King Dragon) Operation - February 1978-79 (resulting in exodus of some 300,000 Rohingyas to Bangladesh)

Shwe Hintha Operation - August 1978-80

Galone Operation – 1979

Pyi Thaya Operation – July 1991-92 (resulting in exodus of some 268,000 Rohingyas to Bangladesh)

Na-Sa-Ka Operation – since 1992

Major Development in the Rohingya Refugee Problem---Source : Wipperman and Haque, op.cit., 2007

2011-07-28T23:43:00.000-07:00

Major Development in the Rohingya Refugee Problem

1942 1,00,000 Rohingya Muslims were massacred during World War II. A large number of their settlements were uprooted.

(22,000 Rohingya Muslims repatriated By British India Administration in Rangpur [EastBengal India] Now Bangladesh.)

1948 Arakan Becomes a province of independent Burma. Since then Rohingyas have been driven out of Burma and now living in exile as refugees.

1974 Muslims in Northern Rakhine state (Arakan) are given foreign instead of National Registration card.

1978 'Dragon King' operation in Burma cause second refugee influx (2,00,000 persons).

1982 The Burma citizenship law of 1982, which violets several fundamental principles of customary international law standards, has reduced them to a position of defacto statelessness.

1992 Third refugee influx, 2,50,000 persons hosted in 21 camps in Bangladesh.

1993 By November, 50,000 refugee had been forcibly returned.

1994 UNHCR stops individual voluntary repatriation in August 1994, as thousands return to Burma each week. After this date reports forced repatriation increase.

2007 some refugees were resettled in Canada as part of a pilot resettlement programme.

Source : Wipperman and Haque, op.cit., 2007

Stephen Hawking: 'There is no heaven; it's a fairy story' ------Disagree

2011-06-25T02:30:00.001-07:00

Stephen Hawking: 'There is no heaven; it's a fairy story'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/may/15/stephen-hawking-interview-there-is-no-heaven?commentpage=last#end-of-comments

Disagree....My view, The whole universe is variable, Heaven and Hell are constant (No time {which is parallel world})...The whole universe is born from one dot (his theory)..GOD can make Heaven and Hell which is bigger then our universe from without dot...My view, If you think GOD having a computer just created a database gave human an encrypted Number or Digit (we human) and the whole element of universe is commanding some entity table...He can make some fantasy software like Heaven and Hell (like virtual reality software)..Will put all human-being life after death.. Faisal @Bangladesh

"I am always in fear safety of my daughter"---Zafar Alam

2011-06-25T02:28:00.000-07:00

Zafar Alam,40.

"I am always in fear safety of my daughter"

---Zafar Alam

"It was 1996. I was living with my wife in Arakan.Economic miseries,poverty, lack of jobs were the daily friends of the families. In addition, the harassment by NaSaKa was a bonus pain! Women were mostly vulnerable. Rape was an everyday incident. Besides this,farmers had to handover 90% of their crops to NaSaKa. Forced labour for construction works without any payment was another way of torture.And if anyone denied to work, he or she had to face unbelievable tortures. We had to pay gallons of patrol fuel to the NaSaKa on daily basis.Now you tell me, how could we stay there? But we did not make any plan to come to Bangladesh. One day, NaSaKa grabbed 11-12 families including me and my family and told us to leave Arakan at night. We had nothing to do, nothing to say.In October 1996 we came Bangladesh crossing Naff River at mid-night.

In mid 2006, 5 NaSaka people came to my house and demand 2 gallons of fuels and 3000 Kyat. It was absolutely impossible for me to provide these things. I told them with tears to forgive me and leave us.But do you know what they did? They told me that --- we'll leave, if you rape your own daughter (Fatima) right now in-front of us. otherwise we will set rough cane inside your little daughter's secret place. At that moment, I was crying loud and telling them I cant do this and I wont be able to tolerate that. But that bloody persons had no heart.may be they are the worst brutal creature in the world. They took away my little daughter and a rough cane was just about to push. Suddenly my wife took a bamboo stick and hit one of the NaSaKa. In action, they pushed their arms and fired. I then decided to do whatever they want from me but I planned acting. I tried to act as I planned. Oh lord, loud screaming...unforgettable for me.After a while , one of the NaSaKa came to me and took my daughter to him.He then raped my daughter along with two partners.My Fatima died.My Fatima died in front of me. I could not do anything. Just nothing. I lost my Fatima.I might be happy they killme also. but they didn't. They left the place that-you have only two options left. Either bear this sorrow or kill your little daughter and commit suicide.I then came to Bangladesh.I think you can now imagine why I am always in fear safety of my daughter.

* Interview by Md. Amirul Islam, 17 June 2008.

#Source : The Plight of the Stateless Rohingyas

#sports #cricket Advise for Bangladesh team

2011-05-16T11:57:00.000-07:00

#sports #cricket Advise for Bangladesh team

Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 12:50am

#sports #cricket Advise for Bangladesh team.. In Shahriar Nafees exclude one top order batsman.He one of the best batsman who can play a long innings like ctg slow wicket.. Four Century against weaker Zimbabwe and Bermuda.. Eight half century against Zimbabwe, Ireland and Kenya.. If you want big team score give chance to him,when team in batting devastate..Good home ground record too..

Fantasy

2011-05-16T11:55:00.000-07:00

Fantasy
Tuesday, December 7, 2010 at 8:01pm

Part 1

Yiman and Ipshita roaming on jet-surfboard (Like surf board which will move above the surface of the world on back side small jet engine)[concept of carton].Listening Music old 1950s symphony.United Senate banned lyrics base music. Civilization immortality citizens write odd word in song lyrics, and also all songs are noise pollution and harmful for kid. Senate decided to banned.They saw P13 Robot (which copotron [logic] is near human) escorting Big Bang energy station (Where elector-magnetic force, weak nuclear force, strong nuclear force and G force together).Unlimited Joule produce from the station. people divert can open stargate, Hyper-Dive (si fi word [one dimension to another dimension]), Run biological solution and also can create E(energy) [All fantasy].They have to go to check their DNA combination is going right way inside longibility LAB. DNA engineers invented new formation [human cell's damage when they became old people] they recover human tissue with in few seconds. P13 robot can do any kinda surgery in open air, having all equipment of first aid medicare. So death rate toll is less then 0.00001 percent.citizen are look like 30 to 40 years but most their age more then million years.Citizen are bored and not creative..

Part 2

Then new revolution came, They want end of the civilization.Against senate.Citizen destroyed all archive and physics and bio systems..Most of the smart citizen suicide themselves. Yiman and Ipshita fishing with Rod. last 3 days they dont have anything to eat.living in open Air and Starving..Now they enjoying their life..

Why Bangladesh should withdraw membership from (SAARC), should join with-the (ASEAN)!!!!!!

2010-11-08T12:01:00.000-08:00

By Faisal Alam

Why Bangladesh should withdraw membership from South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) should join with-the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, (commonly abbreviated ASEAN) .No trade benefit and Regional cooperation..Where Indian GDP is $1.16 Trillion where Bangladesh GDP is $79.55 Billion.India treat Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan as Province or State of India.There is no economical growth with maintaining partner with terrorist effected Pakistan and Afghanistan. Bangladesh paying price also war on internal Terror (GMB) keeping India as lobby. Lots of intelligence expenses and also innocent human life.Democratic government should think state benefit.Where Bangladesh will ship building investment from Singapore and electronic technological investment from Malaysia.G20 member Indonesia member will help on all side.Tourism policy with Thailand. Natural resource from, if Burma will stable and democratic. Within few years Burma will have to change by her regional community foreign policy.Bangladesh can enter trade with Laos, Cambodia and also same GDP Vietnam.Can enter Bangladesh product open market economy in this region. lots of natural resource.Tourism sector can develop one entry visa in this region. BBC Lonely planet Reporter Bangladesh will be one of the top 7 tourism country in whole world.The world dont know what is coming. Cox's Bazar Airport Can be Air Hub Of this region.People from different region enter to China we can use Air hub and tourism Hub Cox's Bazar like Dubai.Big Aviation will come here we can grow our local Aviation too. 2 or 3 night free stay in this country.Bangladeshi skill worker will work more in Singapore and Malaysia.This region will be free economy and free visa like European Union. Im dreaming one currency ASEAN Dollar. Which will be equivalent to Australian dollar. Australia New Zea-land already sign free trade with ASEAN. ASEAN plus 3 (Japan, South Korea and China) will sign free trade agreement. The Whole GDP of this region will go up to EU.ASEAN will take member of G11( USA, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, Japan,Canada, China,EU and ASEAN) . people thinking BRIC,USA,UK will come. Brazil, Russia, India and China.

what i can see i just wrote.My sixth sense never gave me wrong. I always hope the best for good people and mankind...

UNHCR Affiliates Accused of Refugee Corruption

2010-10-02T09:01:00.000-07:00

KUALA LUMPUR—Several Burmese organizations in Malaysia, which are affiliated with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), are selling resettlement registrations for profit to refugees, according to victims of the scheme and witnesses in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.

The groups in question include the Chin Refugee Committee (CRC), the National League for Democracy (Liberated Area) Malaysia (NLDLA), the Burma Refugee Organization (BRO) and the Arakan Refugees Relief Committee (ARRC). But sources say other affiliated groups, including several ethnic representatives, are also involved.

Burmese refugees protest in front of the UNHCR offices in Kuala Lumpur in 2009. (Photo: AFP)

Earlier this year, the UNHCR began delegating the authority for issuing resettlement registration documents to Burmese groups based in Malaysia. Refugees who are recommended for resettlement by the agencies are then interviewed by the UNHCR. The exception is the CRC, which was first authorized to register its people for resettlement in 2001.

The UNHCR began issuing registration documents for Burmese refugees on Aug. 17 in a process that ended on Sept. 19. According to the sources, some 6,000 refugees from Burma were recommended for resettlement during that period.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy, Ko Maung, a member of both the BRO and NLDLA, said, “I became a member of two organizations doing business with the Burmese refugees. I have paid a so-called 'membership fee' of 60 Malaysian Ringgit (US $20) per month to each group for one year now. But when the UNHCR began registering refugees, I was overlooked for others who had paid more money.

“I’ve no document to live in Malaysia,” he added. “I am frustrated that the UNHCR passed responsibility [for the registration process] to other organizations and that it is not involved directly with the refugees.”

Possession of UNHCR registration documents are highly prized among Burmese refugees in Malaysia because it offers them some protection if they are arrested by the Malaysian authorities. Registered refugees also qualify for half-price medical services at several local hospitals.

Fees to register with brokers such the CRC, the BRO and the NLDLA have gone up since the process began from 310 Ringgit ($100) to 700 Ringgit ($225), say sources. In each case, the Burmese groups then promise to put the paying refugees on a priority list with the UN, the sources said.

“I heard that the BRO was charging 500 Ringgit ($160) to register a refugee while the NLDLA was charging 700 Ringgit,” said Sunny, a Burmese migrant worker who came to Malaysia with a work permit. “I cannot decide whether I should register or not.”

Burmese refugees who are registered for resettlement by the UNHCR frequently wait for up to one year or longer for resettlement toa third country.

“In general, many Burmese migrants think that the Malaysian-based NLDLA is organizing a boycott for the upcoming election, but what they are really doing is cheating money out of people who want refugee registration.” said Kyaw Htoo Aung, a social worker who works with illegal Burmese migrants. “I cannot stand it. I have interviewed victims of the scheme and posted their testimonies on my blog.”

Both the NLDLA and the ARRC refuted the accusations when contacted by The Irrawaddy. The BRO said it has no spokesperson who can comment on the matter.

Ethnic Burman and Arakanese people were not recognized as “refugees” by the UN until this year. About 50 Arakanese protested on June 6 outside the UNHCR office in Malaysia, saying the UN was discriminating between different Burmese ethnic groups and religious affiliations.

Yan Naing Tun, the editor of Thuriya, a bi-monthly journal based in Kuala Lumpur, said, “The UNHCR give first priority to Chins and Rohingyas. They discriminate against other ethnicities. It has become very difficult for real refugees to get registered.

“As far as I can remember, the UNHCR employed a Chin translator when it started the operation,” he added. “However, they did not employ translators for other ethnicities, including Burmese.”

The UNHCR did not respond to the accusations when contacted by The Irrawaddy.

The CRC said that in 2001 several Chin leaders urged the UNHCR to grant refugee registration to their people and that the process began that same year.

It said that between June 2009 and March 2010 some 10,000 to 15,000 Chin refugees were registered with the UNHCR.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Friday, Kennedy Lal Ram Lian, the coordinator of CRC, said, “There are so many registered [Chin] refugees that we cannot monitor them all. We had to form a subcommittee.”

He added that the CRC did not collect money for registration from the refugees, only a fee for transportation, phone calls and expenses—about 30 Ringgit ($10) per person.

However, according to several of those who consider themselves victims of the scheme, a person who wants to get refugee status through the CRC must pay at least 3,500 Ringgit ($1,133) to cover the entire process. They told The Irrawaddy that others pay the minimum fee, which is 1,200 Ringgit ($390), just to register with the CRC.

“The CRC told me it was worth paying the full [3,500 Ringgit] fee because it would guarantee me a place on the resettlement list,” said Ko Aung, who spoke on condition of a pseudonym.

The Malaysian government has cooperated with the UNHCR on humanitarian grounds since 1975 even though Malaysia has not signed the “UN Convention Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees.” Burmese refugees have since been sent to third countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, France, New Zealand, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway.

According to the Malaysia UNHCR website at the end of August, there are some 90,300 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with their office; of which about 83,000, or 90 percent, are from Burma. Of that number, about 38,500 are Chins, 19,700 are Rohingyas, 7,400 are Burmese Muslims, 3,900 are Mon, and 3,500 are Kachins or from other smaller ethnic minorities.

I told my friends, i like policy of Bangladesh on Myanmar is great.Now found different they are in same group with china,India and Russia

2010-07-25T05:28:00.000-07:00

I told my friends, i like policy of Bangladesh on Myanmar is great.Now found different, they are in same group with china,India and Russia (Trading with Myanmar Junta)

Source : The Irrawaddy

Than Shwe Visit Condemned in Letter to Indian PM

By ZARNI MANN

Civil society groups based in India sent a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday to protest an upcoming state visit to the country by the head of Burma's ruling junta, Snr-Gen Than Shwe.

The letter, submitted by the Burma Center Delhi (BCD) and signed by 38 civil society organizations and 71 individuals, says that “Than Shwe does not represent the people of Burma but only the military regime. India should not work freely with the military regime.”

Protesters shout slogans against Burma's ruling military regime in front of the Burmese embassy in New Delhi on March 19, 2010. (Photo: AP)

Dr. Alana Golmei, the coordinator of BCD, said, “India is the world's largest democracy and also stands against violations of human rights. [This visit] is not acceptable because Than Shwe is one of the worst dictators in the world.”

The letter also urged the Indian prime minister to push the Burmese regime to release detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners, begin a dialogue with ethnic leaders, review the 2008 Constitution, and ensure a free and fair election.

“We need to take this opportunity to urge the government of India to show stronger support for the Burmese people. We believe that the situation will be worse after the military government's election,” said Golmei.

The US, which has growing ties with India, also called on New Delhi to put pressure on the Burmese regime during Than Shwe's five-day visit, which will begin on Sunday.

“We would encourage India and other countries to send a clear message to Burma that it needs to change its course,” US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said on Friday.

The Indian government's decision to welcome Than Shwe also came under fire from the International Federation for Human Rights, which represents 164 organizations around the world. On Wednesday, the federation sent a letter to the Indian prime minister protesting the visit.

Meanwhile, sources in Bodh Gaya, an important Buddhist religious site that Than Shwe is expected to visit during his stay in India, say that the walls and trees around the Mahabodhi Temple and along the way to Burmese Monastery have been covered with protest messages and photographs of monk-led demonstrations that the regime brutally crushed in September 2007.

“We don't know who posted these notes, but some Burmese security personnel and Buddhist nuns are now removing them,” said a monk in Bodh Gaya. “It also seems that we will not be allowed to enter the temple compound when he arrives.”

Some monks at the Burmese Monastery have reportedly decided to refuse to accept offerings from the junta leader, as a form of protest against his role in ordering the deadly crackdown on the 2007 uprising.

Than Shwe's visit to India will start on July 25 to 29 and is expected to include meetings with President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and other senior officials.

He will be accompanied by a high-level delegation, including three ministers—Minister for National Planning & Economic Development Soe Tha, Minister for Science and Technology U Thaung and Commerce Minister Tin Naing Thein—and other senior officials.

According to India's Financial Express newspaper, the Burmese ministers will address captains of Indian industry at a roundtable meeting on July 27 to seek enhanced investments.

US Wants India to Urge Burma to Change

2010-07-25T03:05:00.001-07:00

Source :The Irrawaddy

US Wants India to Urge Burma to Change

By LALIT K JHA

WASHINGTON — As Snr-Gen Than Shwe prepares for a five-day visit to India beginning on Sunday, the Obama administration is calling on New Delhi to tell the Burmese junta leader that it is time for Burma to change.

Speaking to reporters at his daily news briefing on Friday, US State Department spokesperson Philip Crowley said, however, that the administration is not worried about the relationship between Burma and India.

“Are we afraid that there's proliferation between India and Burma? Not at all. That is not something that concerns us,” Crowley said in response to a question.

“[India] has a relationship with Burma, and we would ... encourage India and other countries to send a clear message to Burma that it needs to change its course,” Crowley said, adding that other countries in the region and around the world share the same interest in regional stability.

“Others who have relationships with Burma share a responsibility to communicate directly and forcefully to Burma about its responsibilities, whether they are protecting the region against the risk of proliferation or telling Burma directly that it should more constructively engage its opposition and other ethnic groups within Burma,” Crowley said.

Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell also told reporters that the US is seeking New Delhi’s help to achieve its goal of democracy and protection of human rights in Burma.

“We have raised Burma in our conversations with Indian interlocutors. We've made very clear to Indian friends that we think India's very important role in the international community gives it a voice,” he said in response to a question.

“We've asked them to encourage interlocutors inside the country to embrace reform, to free political prisoners and to engage more responsibly with the international community,” said Campbell, who met with Indian officials in New Delhi earlier this year to discuss India's “Look East” policy, which includes Burma.

“Our conversations suggest that Indian friends have taken steps over a period of years and are beginning to play perhaps a more active role in this regard,” he said.

“They've also been very clear that they have strategic interests. We respect those, but we also want to work closely with not just India, but other countries in Southeast Asia, on encouraging this group of military leaders in Naypyidaw to take more responsible choices,” he said.

Campbell said that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would meet Indian External Affairs Minister S M Krishna in Vietnam next week on the sidelines of the annual Asean Regional Forum meeting, which includes the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) plus other key nations from around the region, including Japan, South Korea, China, Australia and New Zealand.

“During those sessions, we anticipate a very broad and diverse discussion about North Korea; about regional security issues in Southeast Asia; [and] about the importance of architecture, in terms of the American role in the evolving architecture of Asia,” he said.

“While in Vietnam, Secretary Clinton will hold a number of bilateral meetings. Those are being scheduled as we speak. There will be a bilateral meeting with Japan, with China, with India, and several others, including some key states in Southeast Asia as well,” Campbell said.

There is no Win in WAR..We loss every-time.. Criticizing US policy dosnt mean we dont like US policy

2010-07-25T02:37:00.000-07:00

13 July 2010 Last updated at 23:04 GMT

The former US Presidential candidate, Senator John McCain has spoken to BBC Newsnight about the coalition strategy in Afghanistan after the deaths of three British soldiers.

A renegade Afghan soldier opened fire on the men, killing three and injuring four.

Speaking to Kirsty Wark, Senator McCain, the Republican head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, stressed the need for the coalition to remain in Afghanistan without "telling the enemy" a date for the coalition withdrawal.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10625003

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There is no Win in WAR..We loss every-time..Who is your enemy???Taliban and Al-Quayda...Yes they are not yours also targeting me...You cannot erase them....If you go to demolish them There will be more born...Taliban was created by west for former soviet war between Afghan and soviet..The policy of west, can demolish this kinda group.. we can create new social awareness in Muslim society there is no moral value of this kinda group..West please change your foreign policy and withdraw your force...they will lose support from their own people...we will win....

Goodbye facebook

2010-07-25T02:24:00.000-07:00

Last week I closed my facebook account..I think Its a perfect decision for me...

Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis in Bangladesh

2010-04-20T10:50:00.001-07:00

Kaladan News

April 12, 2010

=====================================

Article

Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis in Bangladesh

====================================

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?

2010-03-09T04:22:00.000-08:00

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.

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

2010-03-08T21:05:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-05T22:21:00.000-08:00

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,

2010-02-16T20:18:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-13T10:02:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-24T09:38:00.000-08:00

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

Forced labor in Maungdaw as army practices target shooting

2009-11-21T18:56:00.000-08:00

Kaladan News

November 21, 2009

Forced labor in Maungdaw as army practices target shooting

Maungdaw, Arakan State: The Nasaka headquarters in Kawarbill in Maungdaw Township has been using forced labor from nearby villagers since November 1, even as troops practice target shooting in its headquarters, said a school teacher on condition of anonymity.

Since November 10, Burma’s border security force (Nasaka) has been into target shooting near the headquarters at the foot of a mountain. They are into target shooting in 10 places.

While the target shooting is on, Nasaka headquarters has been using forced labor. Daily, about 100 villagers have to work in Nasaka headquarters preparing tents, renovate roads, make and repair chairs, clean the headquarters and do other works, said a local elder requesting not to be named.

After 10 days the number of laborers was reduced to between 20 and 35. Forced labor is still on in the headquarters. The workers have to carry food from their homes.

Besides, villagers nearby are barred from going to the forest to cut bamboo and wood as about 100 Nasaka personnel patrol the forest for the target shooting.

This time, many Nasaka personnel have been participating in the target shooting. After 1992, “We have never seen so much target shooting in the camp,” said a local youth.

A village elder said, “Target shooting is done for the army’s own purpose but, villagers have to provide forced labor. So the forced labor is not related to target shooting.”

Another businessman from the locality said, “In the presence of Nasaka Director Lt. Col Aung Gyi, villagers are forced to work in the camp.”

There is international pressure on the ruling military junta to do away with forced labor, but the junta is not bothered, said a trader in Maungdaw town.

Deja VU Cafe.

2009-11-20T14:03:00.000-08:00

14th November i was at Deja VU Cafe.The day after black Friday...I ordered Turkish coffee..before 25 year i ate same flavor pickle in my life. Which was made by Burma...Awesome coffee....Turkish coffee...first time in my life..

16th November Emily mailed me..Mark and Emily was on that cafe 3 years back before...

Thanks Mark and Emily to show me that cafe in BD...After meeting with both of you i learn how to survived....That cafe is one block far from my head office... But every time I didn't get any company to enter......At last i went alone...

Rohingyas Forced to Work on Border Fence

2009-10-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

Rohingyas Forced to Work on Border Fence

By LAWI WENG

Burmese junta troops force 200 Rohingyas to build a wire fence on the Bangladesh-Burmese border in Burma’s northern Arakan State each day.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, Tun Tun, a resident on the Bangladeshi side of the Bangladesh-Burmese border said troops from the Burmese junta’s Light Infantry Battalions No. 233, 234, and 236 ordered headmen to martial 200 people daily to build a wire fence along the border.

“The headmen are told to, ‘Volunteer labor to develop your country’,” Tun Tun said.

The junta troops use forced labor rotated from four villages near the border in Maungdaw Township, he said.

Chris Lewa, coordinator of the Arakan Project, said that the junta’s troops have used forced labor since they started building the fence in March. She said they sometimes pay 500 kyat (US 50 cents) a day to each worker.

“Villagers can buy exemption from forced labor duties,” Lewa said, “but most Rohingyas have very little money and cannot avoid it.”

Two refugees who fled to Bangladesh recently told Tun Tun they were forced to work three days a week.

“They told me every man in the village had to work on the fence if he wanted to continue living in the village,” Tun Tun said.

The Burmese resumed building the wire fence in Maungdaw Township on the border with Bangladesh in October.

Burmese authorities started the 200-kilometer wire fence earlier this year, saying it was to stop human trafficking along the border with Bangladesh.

Bangladesh and Burma share a 320-kilometer border, partly demarcated by the Naf River, a regular route for smuggling and illegal crossings by Muslim refugees.

Many Rohingya refugees from Burma cross the border to look for work in Bangladesh, but many end up in UN refugee camps in Cox’s Bazaar District in Bangladesh.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) estimate that 400,000 unregistered Rohingya refugees live in two camps near Cox’s Bazaar.

The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority who face severe discrimination in Burma. Many have fled the country to escape human rights abuses, including forced labor for Burmese junta forces.

Bangladesh authorities have cracked down on Rohingyas living illegally in Bangladesh recently. More than 1,000 people have been arrested and pushed back across the border into Burma in recent months, Lewa said.

Who is Shakib Al Hasan?

2009-10-09T22:37:00.000-07:00

Source : The Wisden Cricketer

Who is Shakib Al Hasan? Ask most cricket followers around the world who the best player in the last 12 months has been and you are likely to hear the names of Graeme Smith, Mitchell Johnson, Gautam Gambhir or Andrew Strauss. Shakib’s is far less likely to get a mention. Yet he has taken 45 wickets at 23 with his left-arm spin, including five five-fors. Add to that 498 runs at 35.57 and he already has the kind of allrounder figures that Andrew Flintoff could only have dreamed of – not bad for a 22-year-old.

Yet it almost was not to be. “I never had any interest in cricket until I found out I was good at it and that you can travel the world playing this game,” says Shakib. “At the age of 15 to 16 I got selected in three representative age-group teams. I was touring countries and thought this wasn’t too bad considering I hadn’t held a proper cricket ball until I was 14.”

Rabeed Imam is a journalist and Bangladesh cricket’s media manager

1 Shakib Al Hasan (B) 8 7.94
2 Gautam Gambhir (I) 8 7.63
3 Graeme Smith (SA) 7 7.21
4 Sachin Tendulkar (I) 9 7.00
= Jacques Kallis (SA) 8 7.00
6 Ben Hilfenhaus (A) 8 6.94
7 Andrew Flintoff (E) 8 6.88
= Dale Steyn (SA) 8 6.88
9 Fidel Edwards (WI) 8* 6.81
10 Andrew Strauss (E) 13* 6.77

Barack Obama

2009-10-09T22:18:00.001-07:00

Congratulation B Obama for Nobel prize.... I was surprised of his brave step of dismantle of nuclear weapon.. You are the one for Nobel peace prize...Things are changing..People surrounds me in Bangladesh changing..Everybody wants change...

But as Rohingya i can see no hope of us...We are trying to change situation...Hoping a miracle will come..will change everything the way we want..

Paul Pickrem My new friend

2009-09-09T19:59:00.000-07:00

Lots of talking with paul...someone white north American but different in idea and thinking...In my culture the man who will retire but paul working hard and traveling corner of part of the world which is invisible to western world.... Thanks paul.

Kids Wanna Rock

2009-08-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

Kids Wanna Rock

Kids like rock. They dont know where they will give Benji jumping or sky diving. I never gave those jumping.when you dive like that think about your safety...Saftey first then dive...Some kids dont know when they will head bang.We are awere about this new kids in block.------------------Im Still in learning process.

Matrix movie

2009-06-29T02:48:00.000-07:00

Every human is angel for others. sometime you can get 7 million angel surround you. i believe this. coz life is full of permutation and combination. full matrix world.. influence by matrix movie ( sometime you have to trust stranger)

Foreign Secretary Md Touhid Hossain, he made it clear that Dhaka must not accept any foreign national as its citizen.

2009-06-28T02:39:00.000-07:00

TO......Foreign Secretary Md Touhid Hossain, he made it clear that Dhaka must not accept any foreign national as its citizen.

Rohingya who came before Pakistan divide and Bangladesh liberation.We will appeal those Muslim came from India and living east Pakistan and west Pakistan they are not citizen of west Pakistan or Bangladesh.Britain repatriated large number of Rohingya at (Rangpur) Bangladesh when Muslim and Buddhist mass killing Arakan State and whole Burma 1945. The Rangpur people don't know they are Rohingya before.

War criminals' trial won't be a victor's justice: FM

The Daily Star - Details News

Staff Correspondent

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni yesterday said she has been attending international conferences and meeting with foreign leaders to garner support for the government's move to try the war criminals of 1971.

She said Pakistan appears to be unwilling to see the trial of war criminals fearing embarrassment and is eager to hold talks with Bangladesh on the issue.

She also said the influx of Rohingya refugees is not a new phenomenon; the Rakhine people have been intruding into Bangladesh since long.

Dipu was speaking at a press briefing at the foreign ministry prior to leaving Dhaka for Singapore to attend a conference.

She said she met with Pakistan's State Minister for Foreign Affairs Nawabzada Malik Ahmad Khan on May 24 during the OIC foreign ministers' meeting in Damascus and that at the OIC summit she urged Islamabad to try Pakistani war criminals to meet international obligation.

"Since trial of the war criminals has now become a big issue, it is natural that there would be campaigns in favour of or against it," said Dipu Moni, adding, "We must inform the international community about what we want to do, why we want to do it and how we want to do it."

In the second week of April, the foreign minister started a series of visits to a number of countries in Asia, Europe and Africa.

Dipu said recently she had talks with OIC Secretary General Dr Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma, UK Secretary of State David Miliband, foreign ministers of Norway, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain, Oman, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Lebanon, Cuba, Zambia and Myanmar on many issues including trial of war criminals and manpower exports.

"They told me that the trial should be held," she said. "We want to heal the old wounds. We have to stop the culture of impunity. We want to end the chapter," she said, adding that three million people were killed and 4,00,000 women were raped during the Liberation War in 1971."

Referring to her talks with Nawabzada Malik Ahmad Khan, she said it appeared that Pakistan wants to shelve the issue, fearing it may further sour its relations with Bangladesh.

"I told the Pakistani foreign minister that it will not be a victor's justice while we are holding the trial of the war criminals of our country," Dipu said.

"When I asked him to hold the trial of their war criminals as there is an international obligation, he told me to have further talks on it and I told him that we have no problem with holding talks," she added.

Turning to Rohingya issue, Dipu Moni said the Rakhine people are entering Bangladesh territory through Cox's Bazar and Bandarban districts and a large number of the intruders are staying outside the UNHCR camps.

"The influx of refugees will not stop unless there is qualitative change in the Rakhine state [motherland of Rohingyas] of Myanmar," she said.

Referring to the Bali conference on human trafficking, Dipu said the Myanmar delegation told the conference that Rohingyas are not their citizens, they are Bangladeshis. "But I presented the historical facts and necessary evidence on Rohingyas and their origin in Myanmar at the conference to convince the international community," she said.

But during her May 16-17 visit to Myanmar, leaders of Myanmar acknowledged them as Myanmarese and agreed to take them back.

"There has been progress in this regard," Dipu said, adding that the Myanmar government has sought a list from Dhaka on the number of Rohingyas living here.

"We will give Yangon the list in consultation with the UN High Commission for Refugees and International Organisation for Migration," she told reporters. Although the problem has been there for 30 years, she is hopeful about resolving it through fruitful discussion, she added.

Some 28,000 Rohingya refugees, Muslims from Northern Rakhine state of Myanmar, live in camps in Cox's Bazar.

Dipu said she also had talks on maritime boundary delimitation, facilitation of the banking services, trade and commerce, a Bangladesh-Myanmar road link to China and border fencing. She said an expert would soon visit Myanmar to assess gas import.

About construction of the controversial Tipaimukh Dam by India, she said a parliamentary team and experts would visit the site to assess whether Bangladesh will be ecologically affected by the proposed dam.

Referring to her meetings with India's former external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee and external affairs secretary Shiv Shanker Menon, Dipu said India has assured that they would reconsider the project if it "adversely" affects Bangladesh.

Foreign Secretary Md Touhid Hossain, who was present at yesterday's press briefing, said there would be no change in Rohingya crisis unless the environment Rohingyas live in is improved.

He made it clear that Dhaka must not accept any foreign national as its citizen.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hasan Mahmud and other senior foreign ministry officials were also present at the briefing.

change of my life

2009-06-28T01:01:00.000-07:00

Last night my heart was wiped out, like if you pull a tree with root from 6 feet underground. someone pulled my heart was really pulled and replaced. just has to plant again.

Survival of Rohingyas in Arakan at stake

2009-06-20T00:58:00.000-07:00

Kaladan News

June 19, 2009

Survival of Rohingyas in Arakan at stake

Maungdaw, Arakan State: The survival of Rohingyas in Arakan State is at stake as Burma’s border security force (Nasaka), police; Sarapa (Military Intelligence) and army have stepped up persecution against the community, said a Rohingya leader from Maungdaw town on condition of anonymity.

The authorities extort money from Rohingya villagers by arbitrary arrests and torture, confiscate farmlands from Rohingya farmers and thus push them into joblessness. Besides, Rohingya villagers are not allowed to move freely to earn their livelihood.

Rohingyas live in a big jail like a caged bird. Arakan has 17 townships, but Rohingyas are not allowed to go from one town to another. Sometimes, Rohingyas are allowed to go to another town but have to get many recommendations (documents) from the authorities. For getting these documents, Rohingyas have to spend money and time.

For instance, Major Kyi Hlaing, the commander of Nasaka area No, 6 along with Sarapa officer Myint Swe, the second officer of the camp has been extorting money from Rohingya villagers on false and concocted cases.

The two officers are notorious. Major Kyi Hlaing had collected a lot of money from Rohingya villagers while he was the Commander of Maungdaw south and Nasaka area No. 9 of Buthidaung Township, said a schoolteacher from Maungdaw Town.

Though the Nasaka area No.6 is very close to Nasaka Headquarters, Major Kyi Hlaing, has been committing many crimes against the community without caring a hoot for the headquarters.

Major Kyi Hlaing robbed kyat 1.6 million from a Rohingya villager Hussain Ahmed (50), son of Salamat, from Naribil (Kyaukpyinseik) village of Maungdaw township on June 16. He has an account in the Kambawza Bank, which is owned by the military government. The money was sent to him by his relative to the bank from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). But, Major Kyi Hlaing robbed the money from him by saying that the money was not legal, said a close relative of the victim.

Moreover, on June 1, Kyat 400,000 was taken away from Hussain Ahmed (25), son of Abul Kasim, from Sorfodin Bill ( Hlapoe khuang) village and kyat 600,000 from Sultan (32), from Amtoli Para (village) by Major Kyi Hlaing on allegations that they have Bangladeshi mobile sets. The two victims belong to Maungdaw Township, said a cousin of Hussain Ahmed.

Besides, on May 20, a woman Zule Kha wife of Dawla Meah from Sarfoddin (Hlapoe khuang) village in Maungdaw Township committed suicide after quarrelling with her mother-in-law. So, Major Kyi Hlaing arrested her husband and extorted kyat 600,000, on May 20. Later, on June 14, kyat 1,300,000, was also extorted from him. One week later, the father-in-law of Zule Kha was also arrested and extorted kyat 700,000, said a close relative of Dawla Meah.

On June 15, a Rohingya villager La Gu (45), son of Md. Hashim, was arrested by the Nasaka of area No. 8 while he was on his way from west Donsay Para to east Donsay Para on a personal matter. He belongs to west Donsay Para in Maungdaw Township. The Nasaka officer of the camp alleged that he had a Bangladeshi mobile set and was involved in smuggling to Bangladesh. However, he was released after he paid kyat 150,000, said a friend of La Gu who declined to be named.

“This way, Nasaka extorts money from Rohingya villagers illegally. How will they survive in their motherland,” asked a village elder.

KPN News Team
First News Agency dedicated for Rohingya Media.

Why Iraq was 2nd attacked by USA?

2009-06-12T20:48:00.000-07:00

Why Iraq was 2nd attacked by USA?

When two Muslim brother fight each other. You take the part against, who attacked first.

In Spain Muslim fall fighting each other. Then Bangladesh. then Afghanistan Molla omar and Ahmad Shah Massoud.

Then Iraq first attacked in Kuwait. We all Muslim and whole world took part of Kuwait. Allah (GOD) Know the justice. In the Holly Quran said When two Muslim brother fight each other. You take the part against, who attacked first.

I think I attacked also first anyone.

Greed, Greed, Greed

2009-05-13T12:29:00.000-07:00

I want a small piece of love.

(About me in Facebook info) I'm so different person right now, Don't be afraid friends

2009-04-11T09:19:00.000-07:00

(About me in Facebook info) I'm so different person right now, Don't be afraid friends.

We will raise you into a form of which you have not the slightest knowledge. Surah Al-Waqiah (Ch. 56: V.62)

Your first creation and your second creation will be identical. Surah Luqman (Ch. 31: V.29)

(3)"What! When we die and become dust, (shall we live again?) That is a (sort of) return far (from our understanding)." (4) We already know how much of them the earth takes away: With Us is a record guarding (the full account). Surah Qaf

This is a fantasy world, life after death is the real world, that world is so hard and so rude.. No love, no mercy, no Kindness, no forgiveness a lot i cant write..

We are In Cafe... every morning ALLAH (GOD). is giving us lot of mercy... at morning wake up and going for exchange... Now we have e- money.. one day we dont have to go out even market or outside world every thing will be in our pc or laptop... then after with cell or mobile.Then after Something New....We will exchange..

Love to make friends. Love music, interest on history book, lost world, Si fi, culture and heritage, Human genetic coding, war and peace, at the end war against myself

SOS from my bro

2009-04-11T02:29:00.000-07:00

One of ma younger brother send and SOS,

GAAN HOBE, BAAJNA HOBE,STAGE KAPBEE, KENTU KONOOO SOBDO HOBE NA, KONO MANUS TAKBENA..^^.

Wake up civilized world... "Save Arakan" If you don't want to see another "Darfur" or "Bangladesh71"

2009-04-10T22:59:00.000-07:00

Wake up civilized world... "Save Arakan" If you don't want to see another "Darfur" or "Bangladesh71"

Kaladan News

April 9, 2009

Rohingya people in panic in northern Arakan

Maungdaw, Arakan State: Rohingya people in northern Arakan have been passing days and nights in panic because of SPDC authorities have been seizing lethal weapons from Rohingya villages while the Rakhine and Natala villagers have been equipped with lethal weapons and even with guns since 15 days ago, said a local politician requesting not to be named.

The concerned authorities have been seizing lethal weapons such as--- knives (Dah), choppers, swords, daggers, hoes, adzes, spades from Rohingya villages, meanwhile, the authorities have equipped--- swords, catapults, hmya sue (Chin kali) and even guns--- to the Natala (model) villagers and Rakhines. Besides, Rohingya villagers are not allowed to go to another village to do works, so the local poor people have been facing many difficulties to support their family members, he more added.

Moreover, military commandos are being deployed in northern Buthidaung and Maungdaw Townships. On April 8, at about 6:00 pm, about 40 trucks and buses loading with military were going to Maungdaw north from Maungdaw town. After unloading the military to the targeted places, the trucks and buses returned to their destination quickly, according to a school teacher from the locality.

After the failure of a flag meeting between Bangladesh and Burma on April 8, regarding the border fencing, the tension is prevailed at the border areas. As a result, Burmese military commandos with red flag tying their necks were deployed at the northern side of Maungdaw, the teacher more said.

At present, about 120 to 200 soldiers are placed nearby every Rohingya villages. They are living at Natala villages or Rakhine villages at night, said another local villager.

On April 7, at night, the Rakhine villagers tried to attempt to attack the Sonbonia and Nan Tha Daung villages of Maungdaw Township. But, this information had already been known to the Rohingya villagers so that the villagers were on red alert for resistance if they were attacked at night. As a result, the Rakhine villagers nearby Rohingya villages were not able to attack the Rohingya villages. The Rakhine villages were strengthened by Rakhine youths inviting from other Rakhine villages. The youths were carried by boats at night from other villages and unloading them to their destinations, said a village elder of Nan Tha Daung village on condition of anonymity.

After the attempt was failure, two hours later, the army of engineering battalion who are duty for fencing at Burma-Bangladesh border entering the Nan Tha Daung village seizing all the said lethal weapons from the said villagers. There were clashes between villagers and army and some of the villagers were wounded, said a trader from the village on condition of anonymity.

Besides, on April 8, a boat with loading lethal weapons such as--- swords, knife and other weapons was berthed at Rakhine Khayan Khali village of Maungdaw Township and unloaded all the weapons at the village. At night, some boats came to Maungdaw town and other areas from Sittwe (Akyab), the capital of Arakan State and went to their destinations and returned back after, said a local trader from the village.

In addition, Rohingya people were ordered by the authorities not to perform next Juma Prayer or (Friday prayer) in mosques. Regarding this, Rohingya people are yet to be taken decision whether they will go to mosques or not defying the order, said sources.

On April 7, Lt. General Khin Zaw visited Taungbro left (Daibonia), a sub-town of Maungdaw Township, accompanied by Western Command Commander, Director of Nasaka, the commander of MOC-15 of Buthidaung Township, Tactical Operation Commander of (TOC) of Buthidaung Township. They arrived at Taungbro left with 15 cars, at about 9:30 am and returned 11:30 am. After General visit, the events were happened, said a businessman from Maungdaw town.

In Phone Nyo Hlake Natala and Rakhine villagers of Buthidaung Township were equipped with said lethal weapons by authority saying that “This is your region, and you have to defense it from outsider,” said local schoolteacher.

On March 22, at night, 8 houses were put on fire by police throwing bottle with petrol after putting on fire at the Rait Chaung village under the Sann Yin Way Village tract of Buthidaung Township and the Nasaka (Border security force) have seized aforesaid lethal weapons from this village and also police stopped the villagers who went to the village to put off the fire. The police also extorted 5.3 million kyat from the fire victims, said a village elder from the village.

In these such situations, the Rohingya people of northern Arakan State have been passing their days and nights in panic. Since the beginning of this month, some of the local Rakhine leaders of Sittwe, Mrauk U, Pauktaw, Rathedaung, Myin Bya, and Maybon etc have been discussed about the Rohingya matter how will they drive or finish the Rohingya community from northern Arakan, said a local politician from Buthidaung town.

These problems are created by State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) authorities as like as 1942 riots between Rohingya and Rakhine communities to divert the attention of the world community or for their secret agenda after arising “Rohingya boat-people crisis” in Southeast Asia. Whenever, the SPDC authorities falls into a political problem, to divert the public opinion by creating riots between Buddhist and Muslim community, this is the characteristic of SPDC, said a businessman from Buthidaung Township.

By the discrimination of Burma’s authorities, Rohingya community is not able to bear such persecution, hence, the Rohingya people have been taken preparation to cross Burma-Bangladesh border. Therefore, Rohingya exodus to be occurred soon, said a Rohingya observer from Bangladesh.

KPN News Team
First News Agency dedicated for Rohingya Media

Im in love, Gal I need your love only

2009-04-10T21:32:00.000-07:00

LL Cool J - I Need Love

When I'm alone in my room sometimes I stare at the wall
and in the back of my mind I hear my conscience call
Telling me I need a girl who's as sweet as a dove
for the first time in my life, I see I need love
There I was giggling about the games
that I had played with many hearts, and I'm not saying no names
Then the thought occured, tear drops made my eyes burn
as I said to myself look what you've done to her
I can feel it inside, I can't explain how it feels
all I know is that I'll never dish another raw deal
Playing make believe pretending that I'm true
holding in my laugh as I say that I love you
Saying amor kissing you on the ear
whispering I love you and I'll always be here
Although I often reminsce I can't believe that I found
a desire for true love floating around
Inside my soul because my soul is cold
one half of me deserves to be this way till I'm old
But the other half needs affection and joy
and the warmth that is created by a girl and a boy
I need love
I need love

Romance sheer delight how sweet
I gotta find me a girl to make my life complete
You can scratch my back, we'll get cozy and huddle
I'll lay down my jacket so you can walk over a puddle
I'll give you a rose, pull out your chair before we eat
kiss you on the cheek and say ooh girl you're so sweet
It's deja vu whenever I'm with you
I could go on forever telling you what I do
But where you at you're neither here or there
I swear I can't find you anywhere
Damn sure you ain't in my closet, or under my rug
this love search is really making me bug
And if you know who you are why don't you make yourself seen
take the chance with my love and you'll find out what I mean
Fantasy's can run but they can't hide
and when I find you I'm gon' pour all my love inside
I need love
I need love

I wanna kiss you hold you never scold you just love you
suck on you neck, caress you and rub you
Grind moan and never be alone
if you're not standing next to me you're on the phone
Can't you hear it in my voice, I need love bad
I've got money but love's something I've never had
I need your ruby red lips sweet face and all
I love you more than a man who's 10 feet tall
I'd watch the sunrise in your eyes
we're so in love when we hug we become paralyzed
Our bodies explode in ecstasy unreal
you're as soft as a pillow and I'm as hard as steel
It's like a dream land, I can't lie I never been there
maybe this is an experience that me and you can share
Clean and unsoiled yet sweaty and wet
I swear to you this is something that I'll never forget
I need love
I need love

See what I mean I've changed I'm no longer
a play boy on the run I need something that's stronger
Friendship, trust honor respect admiration
this whole experience has been such a revelation
It's taught me love and how to be a real man
to always be considerate and do all I can
Protect you you're my lady and you mean so much
my body tingles all over from the slightest touch
Of your hand and understand I'll be frozen in time
till we meet face to face and you tell me you're mine
If I find you girl I swear I'll be a good man
I'm not gonna leave it in destiny's hands
I can't sit and wait for my princess to arrive
I gotta struggle and fight to keep my dream alive
I'll search the whole world for that special girl
when I finally find you watch our love unfurl
I need love
I need love

Girl, listen to me
When I be sittin in my room all alone, staring at the wall
fantasies, they go through my mind
And I've come to realize that I need true love
and if you wanna give it to me girl make yourself seen
I'll be waiting
I love you

For Grown Up Kids

2009-04-10T04:00:00.000-07:00

Pic of my friend bartender under construction (on scanning process)

If you wanna learn something, bring your mothers
sit back and observe, invite some friends
we can mix it all up, like juice and gin

(Vodka, Tequila, Ram, Scotch, ........)
(Marijuana, Brown Sugar and LSD)
We can show you, We will not give you guys.

We don't suck ice cream, My friends eat ice creams with the spoon. I drink coffee only..

My hot Coffee, Hot or Not.

Mark and Emily eating Ice cream with the Spoon.

Dj Felli Fel (The boss P.DIDDY) Feat. Akon, Ludacris & Lil Jon

2009-04-09T08:15:00.000-07:00

Mark and Emily: I really missing you both.

Song: Get Buck In Here

its tricky i'm picky baby, but i just spotted you
doin your thing, g-string, shoe string point of view, hey
lemme up out of you, you got me in a zone
bet a million in a half past, i can make you explode
you dont wanna brave the cold, you wanna day of combs
i can take you on outer-limits away from home
when ya bills pilin' up, ...... fo' sho
in the middle of the club doin' a rodeo show
the hoes seem skeemy, wet dreamy, emphasism obsessed gleemy
(incredible sex) you need me
ease me, please me baby, i maybe am little crazy but in a way that.....

:CHORUS:

dont make me get buck in here!!
shorty drop em to the ground like she ain't got manners
too much booty for one man to handle
when all i need is a one night scandal

and ima get buck in here!!
damn lil' momma you know you fit my standards
you the type to make me grip that handle
lick shots in the air, bustin' that grandamwhile you make it clap clap clap clap clap
shake that thang, shake that thang
while you make it clap clap clap clap clap
just shake that thang, shake that thangLUDA:

she can make it clap like a standin' ovation
spin like my record at the radio station
feel the sensation, i put it right there
they be like LUDA, i be like yeaaaaaaa,
you like it like that dontchya baby
the flows insane, and the stroke is crazy
i stroke so good, like tiger woods
and i ROWR like a tiger would
my lively-hood, is not hollywood
im still southside atlanta, thats a lively hood
a circus, big top, like ringling brothers
if you wanna learn something, bring your mothers
sit back and observe, invite some friends
we can mix it all up, like juice and gin
felli on the celly with a couple of twins
cuz tonight, damn right, we gonna do it again~CHORUS~P.DIDDY:

listen, women lace em g for a jet
twisted, crooked, cell phone numbers, probably
flip em change em, prissy and boogy the hood
game of taste em, prissy's im runnin' em good
leather or silk, im melt them all
love em, leave em, give em hell for sure
tell them words they minds and souls deserve
or give them things they might prefer
sandrio pan, mandarin sweet massage oil
pimp, gamein', grants, and benz' i ....
used to style em, now just virgin island
comosutra freaky ...~CHORUS~

2009-04-09T07:52:00.000-07:00

(Just Fun) Kiss me thru the microphone ---A Soldier boy

2009-04-09T07:31:00.000-07:00

My mobile memory stick song...

Kiss Me Thru The Phone Song Lyrics
by Soulja Boy

(Soulja Boy Tell Em)

Baby you know that I miss you
I wanna get with you tonight but I cannot babygirl
And that's the issue
Girl you know I miss you
I just wanna kiss you
But I can't right now so baby kiss me thru the phone
(kiss me thru the phone)
I'll see you later on..
Kiss me thru the phone
(kiss me thru the phone)
See you when I get home

Baby, I know that you like me
You my future wifey
SouljaBoyTellEm yeah you could be my bonnie
I could be your clyde
You could be my wife
Text me, call me, I need you in my life yeah
All that, everyday I need ya
And everytime I see ya my feelings get deeper
I miss ya, I miss ya
I really wanna kiss you but I can't

Double eight O triple nine
(+880)*******999

Baby you know that I miss you
I wanna get with you tonight but I cannot babygirl
And that's the issue
Girl you know I miss you
I just wanna kiss you
But I can't right now so baby kiss me thru the phone
(kiss me thru the phone)
See you later on..
Kiss me thru the phone
(kiss me thru the phone)
See you when I get home

Baby, I been thinking lately
So much about you
Everything about you, I like it, I love it
Kissing you in public
Thinking nothing of it
Roses by the dozen
Talking on the phone
Baby you so sexy your voice is so lovely
I love your complexion
I miss ya, I miss ya, I miss ya
I really wanna kiss you but I can't

Double eight O triple nine
(+880)*******999

Baby you know that I miss you
I wanna get with you tonight but I cannot babygirl
And that's the issue
Girl you know I miss you
I just wanna kiss you
But I can't right now so baby kiss me thru the phone
(kiss me thru the phone)
See you later on..
Kiss me thru the phone
(kiss me thru the phone)
See you when I get home

She call my phone like
(da da dadadada da da dadadada da da..)
We on the phone like
(da da dadadada da da dadadada da da..)
We taking pics like
(da da dadadada da da dadadada da da..)
She dial my number like
(da da dadadada da da dadadada da da..)

Double eight O triple nine
(+880)*******999

Baby you know that I miss you
I wanna get with you tonight but I cannot babygirl
And that's the issue
Girl you know I miss you
I just wanna kiss you
But I can't right now so baby kiss me thru the phone
(kiss me thru the phone)
See you later on..
Kiss me thru the phone
(kiss me thru the phone)
See you when I get home

My Shuttle

2009-04-08T12:57:00.000-07:00

Chris,

There is no next life mean, no next life in this world... For me this world is material and abstract like a rotten cow, There is no value of a rotten cow for you and I...When I eat in this world I feel like I'm eating flesh of your body (MY Brother)... I'm waiting for my space shuttle to come to take me in Judgment day to Nirvana life... There is a thin driveway beside lots of black hole...And also trying to make my shuttle autopilot from this earth or world....(There is no chance to change shuttle position on Judgment day)

My Buddhist Philosophy

2009-04-08T01:51:00.000-07:00

I believe Nirvana and Pre- Nirvana life... My Buddhist philosophy, I believe Amitābha Buddha will give new conception, Buddhism past life and next life concept is Evolved by GOD.... Nirvana and Pre-Nirvana life came to this world...There is no next life in this world.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris for your clear conception

I blv. Good Karma and dedication, devotion also blv. on GOD will give paradise in this world and life after death is beyond my imagination.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In my view Nirvana means Life after death...Life of fantasy, infinity and the knowledge of limitation in your brain will go.

Pre-Nirvana

Here what we doing in this earth we are collecting knowledge from nature, sky and ocean. The last end is ocean not sky.

What we get from this civilization in 7000 years

Fighting with Hunger, Aids, Global warming, Homeless and at the end world without peace.

Amitabha Buddha pictured in the Ushiku Daibutsu in Japan

Picture Source : Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Change I want

2009-04-06T12:12:00.000-07:00

Obama thanks, Taking step on dismantle Nuclear Weapon...The brave step , great change...... I blv. I will change this world without nuclear reactor...

Request to Einstein, and love for Einstein.

2009-04-02T18:38:00.000-07:00

Request to Einstein, and love for Einstein.

Albert Einstein

I don't like math.....I like guitar crying of Jimmy Hendrix and Santana,,, Symphony of Beethoven and Mozart....... If i found Einstein right now, i will tell him to take his violin in his hand,, make some awesome track of violin for us.... E=mc² is useless for me..Albert Einstein

Stephen Hawking

Daft Punk's "Around the World"

Picture source : Internet

Kaladan News ////// March 16, 2009

2009-03-16T03:34:00.000-07:00

Kaladan News

March 16, 2009

Torture kills one injures another

Maungdaw, Arakan State: Military Intelligence or Sarapa arrested and tortured two brothers on false charges of selling amphetamine (WY) tablets or Yaba tablets from their medicine store in Maungdaw on March 5. After being released one died and another is in a critical condition, according to a shopkeeper in Maungdaw.

The two brothers are; Ziabul Haque (22) and Abu Taher (40), son of Abu Bakar from Zedi Pyin of Shweza Village Track of Maungdaw township.

Sarapa of Maungdaw, called the two brothers when they were going home from the market, and charged them with selling drugs from their medicine store, according to an aide of the Sarapa.

However, the arrestees denied their involvement in drugs business. So, they were kept at the Detention Center of Sarapa, with inadequate supply of food and the Sarapa did not allow their relatives to see them or to supply food. They were kept in camp till March Zaibul and Taher were taken to the Sarapa office and kept in the camp till March 11 where they were tortured day and night.

The Sarapa searched their shop and home, but could not find any illegal medicine or amphetamine or Yaba tablets.

After interrogation, when Sarapa did not find proof that the two brothers were drug smugglers they asked for 3.5 million Kyats for their release, said a close relative.

On March 11, the family members gave the money demanded to the concerned Sarapa, The two brothers were released, but they were unable to walk following torture.

They were sent to Maungdaw General Hospital for treatment, but, the doctor in-charge told family members that the two were in a critical condition and needed a better hospital to save them, according to relative.

So, the family members tried to send them to Chittagong for treatment, but, the doctor did not issue any medical report to proceed for their journey to Chittagong and the border trade agency didn’t issue passports without the report.

On March 14, they left Maungdaw, following an understanding with the Nasaka outpost, but Zaibul died after arriving in Teknaf, Bangladesh in the evening. At night, they crossed the Naf River again and went to Maungdaw from Bangladesh said a relative who came with them.

The body was buried in Maungdaw Town, after Namaz-e-Zanaza at about 11:00 am at maungdaw Idgha midan (field). About 4,000 villagers participated in his Namaz-e-Zanaza.

A close relative of the victim said, “Taher loss his younger brother, money and also he (Taher) is paralyzed in critical condition.”

In northrnArakan only the Rohingya community is charged with fabricated cases when the authorities want to extort money from someone. Zaibul and his brother were victims of this system. Some become paralyzed, fall ill or die, said a school teacher.

One of the village elders on seeing the body said, “There were many marks on his body. He was severely tortured, while he was in the Sarapa’s custody. They were released when they were almost dying.”

People of the Rohingya community, are often killed by the Nasaka (Burma’s border security force), the Sarapa and the Police indiscriminately.

Rohingya youths are often arrested and allegedly tortured and killed. Regarding the matter, no action was taken against the concerned authority, said another village elder requesting not to be named##

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kaladan News

March 16, 2009

Fisherman dies at Nasaka Headquarters

Maungdaw, Arakan State: A fisherman died at the Nasaka Headquarters of Kyigan Pyin in Maungdaw Township, after he was injured in firing by the Nasaka on March 6, and was brought to the Nasaka headquarters for medical treatment, according to a family member.

The victim has been identified as Idris (35), son of Amir Hussain, and hailed from Shwe Zaar village tract of Maungdaw Township, Arakan State.

On February 26, at about 5;00 am, Burma’s border security force, Nasaka, shot dead two Rohingya fishermen and injured two others, while they were waiting on the river bank of Khair Para riverside, to load logs into row boats. The logs belonged to the Nasaka, said one of the fishermen, who managed to escape.

On that day, Nasaka of area No. 6 called some fishermen from nearby villages of Doliya Para, Bakar Gona, Kayan Khali and Shwe Zarr to load some logs into row boats to sell it in Bangladesh.

Therefore, some fishermen from the said villages had gone to the river bank, for loading the logs into boats.

On seeing the fishermen, two Rakhine villagers from a nearby village, who were going there to catch crabs from the river, immediately went to the Nasaka Headquarters and told them that there were some robbers on the river bank from Bangladesh. Hearing this, a group of Nasaka personnel, from the Headquarters, left for the spot. But, before reaching the spot, from a distance, the Nasaka fired on the fishermen indiscriminately hoping that they were robbers, while the fishermen were talking to each other, a schoolteacher said.

Two of the fishermen, Shoffi Ullah (18), son of Sayed Hussain and Nurul Islam (34), and son of Monu, died on the spot. Both of them belonged to Shwe Zarr village of Maungdaw Township, and two other brothers were injured, while the rest managed to escape. The two wounded fishermen, namely Idris and his younger brother were brought to Nasaka Headquarters, for medical treatment.

However, the incident happened without the knowledge of the Nasaka personnel of Nasaka area No.6. After being informed about the matter, the Nasaka personnel of area No. 6 did not speak on behalf of the fishermen.

No one dared to inform the higher authorities regarding the matter, for fear of harassment by the Nasaka.

The two bodies were sent to Maungdaw police station for necessary action. Later, the bodies were sent to their relatives and buried in their local graveyards.

On March 3, Idris, the wounded fisherman, also died at the Nasaka Headquarters and the body was handed over to his relatives for burial. Before his death, his relatives were not allowed to see him. Idris’s younger brother is still at the Nasaka headquarters. If the Nasaka was sincere, the wounded people would be sent to Maungdaw General Hospital, where capable doctors and equipments were present, a close relative of the victim said.

The Nasaka killed the innocent Rohingya fishermen, without any hesitation and fear. What the reasons behind the action were is still unknown, a local villager said. ##

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kaladan News

March 16, 2009

Forced labor heightens in Northern Arakan for border fencing project

Maungdaw, Arakan State: Compulsory labor is on the rise in Northern Arakan for the boundary fencing project with Bangladesh, since March 6, a businessman from Maungdaw South said on condition of anonymity.

The concerned authorities have been building up stocks of cement bags, iron rods, iron chains and other necessary materials for the fencing, by carrying them by boat from Sittwe(Akyab) to Maungdaw Township. Besides, some workers (Rakhine and Rohingya), including engineers and masons were also brought to Maungdaw from Sittwe (Akyab), the capital of Arakan State.

On March 5, the authority brought two bull-dozers to Maungdaw Town; one of them sank in the river near Nolbonia village, while crossing a river bridge. To pull out the bulldozer from the river, the authority forced nearby villagers to build a dam across the river to block the tide, so that the bulldozer could be prevented from turning rusty. Besides, all water pumps of the villages had been carried to the spot to pump out the water from the river. So, many villagers were forced to work on the river side, said another villager.

Some army personnel were also deployed in Maungdaw Township and they entered the villages and took away goats, fowls and vegetables from the villagers, without paying any money.

The villagers were asked to provide 15,000 bricks per village tract, from Maungdaw Township for fencing, a schoolteacher from the locality said.

Regarding the fencing, on March 14, an army officer from Military Operation Commands (MOC)-15 of Buthidaung Township visited Maungdaw Township and observed the fencing situation.

The authority has asked for laborers from villages through the VPDC members, to work for the project, to unload the cement bags and iron chains needed for the fencing, from the boats.

The concerned authority has ordered to provide laborers from nearby villages, to work daily for the project, where the authority would pay wages as per their work.

The project is being run by the Burmese border security force, or Nasaka and the local Arakanese people including Rohingya and Rakhine. They are going to build pillars with iron rods, cement and concrete.

The authority is going to fence from Anguemaw of Rathedaung Township to Amtahla of Maungdaw Township, through the bank of the Naff River on the Burmese side.

According to a village elder, forced labor will increase in future for fencing near the Burma-Bangladesh border. He also asked why the Burmese government was trying to fence the Burma-Bangladesh border, which required a lot of money, while it was facing a financial crisis. ##

KPN News Team
First News Agency dedicated for Rohingya Media

UN to Increase Focus on Burma's Muslim Migrants

2009-03-13T21:21:00.000-07:00

UN to Increase Focus on Burma's Muslim Migrants

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Friday, March 13, 2009

RANGOON — The UN refugee agency said it will increase its focus on areas of Burma from which Muslim migrants have recently fled.

The announcement on Thursday came after High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres’ visit to the country, which began Saturday.

The group's plight gained widespread attention earlier this year following reports from the Indian Navy that hundreds were believed to have drowned after being sent out to sea in rickety boats by the Thai military.

Other Rohingyas were detained after landing in Thailand, and more came ashore in Indonesia, fanning regional concern they could become an economic burden.

Both Thailand and Indonesia refused to accept those who landed as refugees, and Burma's military government has agreed to accept them back only if they can prove their nationality. Rights groups have also urged against returning them to Burma, which they say persecutes minorities. The Rohingyas' status in Burma is particularly precarious because they do not hold full citizenship.

The UN said in a statement that Guterres traveled to Sittwe, capital of northwestern Arakan (Rakhine) State near the Bangladesh border, where most Rohingya are settled. It said he also visited Myeik, a southeastern port town on the Andaman Sea from which many refugees are believed to have departed.

"On the basis of his observations and the discussions held, the High Commissioner came to the conclusion that UNHCR's current level of activities in northern Rakhine State does not correspond to the actual needs and a decision was taken to upgrade the program with immediate effect," said the agency's statement, issued after Guterres' departure Thursday night.

It said the agency had agreed with the government "on the importance of a continued presence of UNHCR in northern Rakhine State and the South East."

Minister orders reduction in the percentage of Rohingya population

2009-03-08T03:07:00.000-07:00

Kaladan News

March 8, 2009

Minister orders reduction in the percentage of Rohingya population

Maungdaw, Arakan State: The Deputy Home Minister Brig-General Phone Swe has ordered Nasaka Commanders to reduce the population of Rohingya community by 75 percent to 25 percent on the Burma-Bangladesh border areas when the minister visited Taugbro Sub-town of Maungdaw Township on February 22, said a close Nasaka aide on condition of anonymity.

When the minister visited Taungbro sub-town in Maungdaw Township of Arakan State he asked the Nasaka Commanders about the extent of the population of Buddhist and Muslims Rohingya in Nasaka areas in Maungdaw Township.

Regarding this, the Nasaka Commanders said that the existing population of the Rohingya community is 75 percent while 25 percent of the population accounts for the Buddhist community. On learning that, the deputy home minister was very angry and had asked the Nasaka commanders what they have been doing all this time. He asked the Nasaka commanders that the population ratio must be 25 per vent Muslim Rohingya and 75 percent Buddhist within a short period.

After being encouraged by the higher authorities, the Nasaka commanders of Maungdaw Township have begun to step up harassment against the Rohingya community.

At present, in Nasaka area No. 3, about 40-Rohingya have been detained in the camp by registering false and fabricated cases against them. They were alleged to have roofed the houses, fenced the compound with bamboos, renovated walls (made of mud) of the houses, possessing mobile phones and have relatives in foreign countries, etc. The commander of the Nasaka area No.3 is Major Than Thay, of the Rakhine community is famous for his notorious activities. The commander was transferred to that Nasaka area on January 6, said a student requesting not to be named.

However, some of the arrestees were released after paying kyat 300,000 to 500,000 to the Nasaka officer and those who were unable to pay the demanded money are still in custody at the Nasaka camp. The arrestees are from Nasaka area No. 3. There are some Rohingyas detained in other Nasaka areas.

According to a village elder from the locality, Nasaka extorted kyat 50 million only from Nasaka area No.3 in three months. This matter had been told to the concerned higher authorities, but it has taken no action against the culprits.

The Nasaka registers false allegations and makes arbitrary arrests against the Rohingya community for money. They (Nasaka) know that if the Nasaka or police or concerned authorities harass the Rohingya community. They want the Rohingya to flee their motherland.

Some of the Rohingya people who have good relations with the Nasaka and police had asked them about the persecution against the Rohingyas, the authorities said, “If the Rohingyas are persecuted in such a way, they will flee the country. We want this, said a trader from the locality.

A businessman said, “This way if the concerned authorities continue their harassment against the Rohingya community, the existence of Rohingya community in Arakan will be at stake.” ##

KPN News Team
First News Agency dedicated for Rohingya Media

My Quotations

2009-03-06T23:20:00.000-08:00

"How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl,
Year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found?
The same old fears.
Wish you were here."

------PinK FloyD

“The bird perished in the flames:
but from the red egg in the nest
there fluttered aloft a new one
the one solitary phoenix bird”

------Hans Christian Anderson

“Please use your liberty to promote ours.”

------Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

Rohingya migrants; Wake up America

2009-03-04T09:28:00.000-08:00

Street Rose 1(Street Beggar) In Chittagong city
Imran Hassan, Age 4 years
Mother’s name - Anu Foir
Buthidong......Born in Tal, live in Tal, Near refugee camp,Teknaf, Bangladesh.

Street Rose 2 (Street Beggar) In Chittagong city
Md. Ilias, Age 4 years
Mother’s name Anjuman Ara
Father’s name Abu Samad
Naitad Dil,Maungdaw, Arakan, Myanmar.

Picture : Faisal Alam

Old Rohingya woman, suffering on her leg last one year. Without family to care for her and an unrecognized status that makes her ineligible for humanitarian aid. ( Faisal Alam )

Rohingya migrants

The article "Traumatized Rohingya flee squalid life in Bangladesh" (Feb. 15) leaves out some important background necessary for understanding the plight of the Rohingya.

In the early 1990s, over 250,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar to Bangladesh as result of intensified persecution by the Myanmar authorities. Over the course of the years, most of these refugees have been repatriated back to Myanmar, voluntarily and with the agreement of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR). Those who refused to be repatriated, about 20,000, are in the UNHCR supervised camp, which the article calls the "official" refugee camp, where conditions are basic, but liveable.

Because such a large percentage of the original Rohingya refugees went back home, the Bangladeshi and Thai governments feel justified in denying refugee status to subsequent arrivals from Myanmar, calling them economic migrants. These are the people living in squalid, sub-human conditions in Bangladesh and being treated in an undisputedly brutal manner in Thailand.

While these governments' justification for denying refugee status is ultimately questionable, this unfortunately is not the first case like this. Nevertheless, even in the unlikely situation that the Rohingya are shown to be economic migrants, their treatment by the Bangladeshi and Thai governments violates standards set by international human rights accords.

While the article is correct in describing the Rohingya's desperate situation, it does exaggerate the negative response of the international community. Small numbers of Rohingya have been resettled through UNHCR in Canada, New Zealand and Britain, with the expectation that more will follow.

Bruce Leimsidor, Venice Professor of Immigration Law Ca' Foscari University Former consultant to UNHCR on resettlement

Wake up America

In my French language class in Geneva, there are students from Ukraine, Russia, Holland, Germany, Slovakia, Poland, Brazil, Albania, Cambodia, Lithuania, and a couple of other countries. I am the only American. When we did an exercise in which we suggested stereotypes about each other's countries, we had difficulty with all the countries except the U.S. My classmates stereotypes about Americans were not kind.

It was equally disturbing to get home and read David Brooks's column, "I Dream of Amsterdam" (Views, Feb. 18). It's discouraging to imagine that Brooks really believes that an appropriate definition of today's America is "a culture slowly refining itself" because nearly as many Americans would prefer to live in a community that has a Starbucks as one that has a McDonald's.

Brooks concludes by suggesting that Americans "still have a clear vision of the good life" despite the evidence he provides that the "good life" entails a car-dependent, overly indulgent, materialistic society.

It's time to reverse the ugly American stereotype and replace it with something a little more positive.

Patrick Mattimore, Gex, France

Source:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/20/opinion/edlet.php

Traumatized Rohingya flee squalid life in Bangladesh

2009-03-04T09:16:00.000-08:00

Older Rohingya, like this woman, are in a desperate situation. She has been sick for weeks, without family to care for her and an unrecognized status that makes her ineligible for humanitarian aid.

(Greg Constantine )

Traumatized Rohingya flee squalid life in Bangladesh

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh: It's there in their faces, in the dark night of their eyes and in the sag and slump of their shoulders. It's unmistakable, the despair of the Rohingya, the fear for departed husbands and fathers, the daily abrasions of poverty, sadness and the world's indifference.

More than a quarter-million Rohingya - an ethnic Muslim minority from western Myanmar - have come here to southern Bangladesh to escape the hunger, humiliation and official brutalities in their homeland. Many have landed in a place called the Kutupalong Makeshift Camp.

It is an obscenity, this camp, a festering hell of lost hope and inhuman squalor. No water, power, schools or medicine. Occasional stoop-labor jobs carrying bricks or making salt. Huts made of leaves and branches. There is no music.

"The worst conditions you could imagine anywhere on earth," says a well-traveled international aid worker. "Total despair," says another.

These are the luxuries in the camp: a packet of cookies, a crayon, a new battery for an old radio, a small breeze on a sweltering night.

Difficult enough are their journeys from Myanmar to the camp. Even more dangerous are the attempts by thousands of Rohingya men and boys to emigrate each year, starting with perilous sea voyages to Thailand. After that comes an overland trek to Malaysia, a country that has become a kind of Muslim El Dorado for the Rohingya. There might be friends or family connections there, and perhaps jobs that allow for money to be sent to families back in the camps.

These trips often begin in leaky boats that are underpowered and overloaded. Hundreds of Rohingya die at sea each year, and hundreds more are rescued, adrift at sea, by navies in the region. And thousands are detained each year by the Thai authorities. Human rights groups were outraged recently when it became known that the Thai military had roughly detained several dozen Rohingya men on a remote island, then packed them into a boat with few provisions and towed them back out to sea.

"Pushbacks" is what aid workers are calling this tactic.

How to measure or comprehend the terror - or perhaps it's the love - that propels a man to leave his family, quite possibly forever, and climb penniless into a boat to find uncertain work a thousand miles away in a place where he knows he'll be both unwelcome and liable to arrest? For that matter, what hellish existence could send a family fleeing to a refugee camp where conditions resemble, charitably, the 12th century?

The Rohingya number about 750,000 in Myanmar. But the military junta does not recognize them as one of the 135 "national races" in the mostly Buddhist nation. And so, in the face of forced labor, arbitrary arrest, stolen land and even starvation, they flee to the makeshift camp. (An adjoining settlement of 20,000 residents has water, electricity and other basic services. Run by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, it is known as the official Kutupalong camp. Some Rohingya have lived there for more than a decade.)

Every day more Rohingya arrive at the Bangladeshi camps, stateless, sun-blasted refugees carrying their meager bundles. The newcomers, largely from Rakhine State in Myanmar, are often so traumatized that they're unable to tell aid workers what they have fled.

Another one million Rohingya are scattered about the world - there has been a major diaspora from South Asia in recent decades - and they have flung themselves from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan to Thailand to Indonesia. The men lay asphalt and pour cement in Riyadh. They haul fishing nets in the Andaman Sea. They pull rickshaws in Jakarta. The children, with their small hands, peel shrimp and weave carpets in Karachi.

But no country claims the Rohingya. No country welcomes them. For many, Islam is the only sanctuary left. "They still have faith," says an aid worker, "that Allah will protect them."

This article was reported by a reporter for the International Herald Tribune in Cox's Bazar and by Mark McDonald in Hong Kong. It was written by McDonald.

Source :

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/15/asia/rohingya.php

Two women arrested on false charges by Buthidaung police

2009-03-04T07:55:00.000-08:00

Kaladan News

March 4, 2009

Two women arrested on false charges by Buthidaung police

Buthidaung, Arakan State: Two women were arrested from a village home by the police of Buthidaung Town on February 15, on false allegations of extortion of money, a close relative of one of the victims said.

The women have been identified as wife of Abdul Malek (45), son of Abdul Rajak, who hail from Wara Kyun (Wari Aung) village of Buthidaung Township, and Lal Moti (35), wife of Fakir Ahmed, who hail from the same village.

On that night, a group of policemen led by police officer U Tin Oo, went to Wara Kyun (Wari Aung) village by a motor boat and arrested the two women in the absence of their husbands. Sensing the presence of the police, Abdul Malek fled from the house. After that they were brought to Buthidaung police station and detained in police custody.

Abdul Malek was accused of borrowing Kyat 100,000 from police officer U Tin Oo. So, the police went to his house to arrest him to get the money. But, he did not borrow any money from the police officer. It was a fabricated case against him. In the absence of Abdul Malek, his wife was arrested, some local villagers said.

Lal Moti was arrested in the absence of her husband Fokir Ahmed. He has no case against him, but he was not present while the police raided his house, a relative of Lal Moti said.

On February 16, however, the two arrestees were released after 24 hours detention in police custody. Abdul Malek’s wife had to pay Kyat 300,000 and Lal Moti had to pay Kyat 60,000 for their release. The Rohingya community is afraid of women staying in government custody for too long for fear of assault by the authority.

Earlier, the police or Nasaka did not arrest women, but since the last two years, the concerned authorities arrest women in the absence of their husbands, said a local trader requesting not to be named. ##

KPN News Team
First News Agency dedicated for Rohingya Media

Press Release: Burmese military regime lied at the ASEAN Summit‏

2009-03-02T06:32:00.000-08:00

ARAKAN ROHINGYA NATIONAL ORGANISATION

ARAKAN, BURMA
Press Release

(1st March 2009)

Burmese military regime lied at the ASEAN Summit

We condemn the SPDC and its Foreign Minister Nyan Win for calling the Rohingya boatpeople ‘Bengalis’ at the ASEAN Summit in Thailand. This is a crafty tactic to hoodwink the ASEAN leaders and the international community to continue denying the ethic rights of the Rohingya.

ASEAN should be firm in its commitment to practice and promote human rights within the region. ASEAN leaders should take every care not to encourage SPDC’s wily trick directly or indirectly lest it will simply accelerate Rohingya extermination and grave human rights violations across the country.

In rebutting the reckless remark of SPDC’s Foreign Minister, we emphatically state that all the boatpeople from Arakan are Rohingyas by all standards. The Rohingya are proud to have resemblance with Bengalis. Since early settlers of Arakan were Indo-Aryan or a people similar to that of Bengal, Rohingya do not disclaim their genealogical link with Bengali. However, Rohingya people have grown with distinct ethnic characteristics in Arakan, from peoples of different ethnical background, over the past several centuries of socio-cultural interactions with geo-political situations, trade and economic relations.

The Rohingya people have long history and their settlement in Arakan has predated the arrivals and settlements of many other peoples and races now inhabiting Arakan and Burma. Francis Buchanan had given a description of Rohingya language spoken in Arakan and said he met Rohingya in 1795 at Ava, the capital of the Burmese kingdom.

Can SPDC show a pure blooded racial group in the whole of Burma? The answer is undoubtedly “No”. That is why the first President of the Union of Burma Sao Shwe Theik categorically stated, “Muslims of Arakan certainly belong to one of the indigenous races of Burma. In fact, there is no pure indigenous race in Burma, if they do not belong to indigenous races of Burma, we also cannot be taken as indigenous races of Burma”.

Based on Arakan reality, the Rohingya were recognised as one of the many ethnic nationalities of the Union of Burma by the then parliamentary government (1948-62).Therefore, their boatpeople cannot be branded Bengalis or non-Rohingyas or non-nationals. The SPDC is an illegitimate military regime and its statement is illegal itself. But the Rohingya remains as Rohingya until dooms day.

At this critical juncture, we urge upon the ASEAN to exercise its good offices for an efficacious solution of the long standing Rohingya problem while allowing the Rohingya leaders to discuss with the ASEAN leaders.

For more information,

please contact:

Nurul Islam,

AFK Jilani,

http://www.rohingya.org/

Nasaka kills 2 Rohingya villagers, wounds 3 others in Maungdaw

2009-03-02T06:24:00.000-08:00

Kaladan News

March 2, 2009

Nasaka kills 2 Rohingya villagers, wounds 3 others in Maungdaw

Maungdaw, Arakan State: Burma’s border security force (Nasaka) shot dead two Rohingya villagers and injured three others, while they were going to the Khair Para riverside, to load logs into row boats on February 26, at about 5:00 pm. The logs allegedly belonged to the Nasaka, a relative of the victims said, on condition of anonymity.

Earlier, the Nasaka of area No.6 collected some logs of teak and had already been selling it to some teak smugglers at huge profits. This was known to the higher authority, so to avoid trouble, Nasaka called some villagers from Doliya Para, Bakar Gona (Holar Baga), Kayan Khali and Shwe Zarr to load some logs into row boats to sell it in Bangladesh.

As a result, some of the villagers, mostly fishermen from these villages were going to the river bank to load the logs into boats. However, the Nasaka were already in ambush position and fired on the villagers indiscriminately, while the villagers were approaching the place saying that they were robbers, who had come to steal the logs.

Two of the villagers died on the spot, and three others were injured and the rest, however, managed to escape. The three injured villagers have been taken for medical treatment to Maungdaw General Hospital.

The Nasaka shot the villagers at Khair Para Ghat (riverside) of Khair Para village of Maungdaw Township. The Nasaka personnel belonged to notorious Nasaka Commander Major Kyi Hlaing’s Nasaka area No.6.

If the Nasaka could show the higher authorities that they had seized a number of logs, along with some robbers, they would surely get promotion. But, the Rohingya community has been suffering from indiscriminate persecution continuously, a schoolteacher from the locality said.

None of the villagers dared to inform the higher authorities of the matter for fear of reprisal by the Nasaka.

The bodies were sent to Maungdaw police station for necessary action. Later, the bodies were sent to their relatives and buried in the local graveyard. ##

KPN News Team
First News Agency dedicated for Rohingya Media

Report for Commission on International Religious Freedom

2009-03-01T03:51:00.000-08:00

Report for Commission on International Religious Freedom

Testimony by Chris Lewa

Coordinator,

The Arakan Project

To the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom December 3, 2007

Mr. Chair, Honorable Commissioners, ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to thank you for inviting me before this commission. Having worked with ethnic people from Burma and, more specifically with the Rohingya minority for the last 7 years, I am honored to offer a testimony today.

Arakan State of Burma is by far the most tense and explosive region of the country. The refugee outflows to Bangladesh in 1978 and again in 1991/92, each of about 250,000 Rohingya, did not result from counter-insurgency strategies as it is the case along the Thai-Burma border, but is the direct outcome of policies of discrimination, oppression and exclusion against the Rohingya population.

The Rohingya Muslims are a minority group estimated at about 800,000 in the northern part of Arakan State adjacent to Bangladesh. They are ethnically and religiously related to the Chittagonians of southern Bangladesh. They have been rendered stateless, officially on the basis of their ethnicity. The 1982 Citizenship Law deprived them of legal status because they do not feature among the 135 national races, which had settled in Burma prior to 1823, the start of the British colonisation of Arakan. There is no doubt that their religious identity plays a preponderant factor in the discrimination they are subject to. In 1998, in response to UNHCR, the then Secretary-1 wrote, "these people are not originally from Myanmar" [...] "they are racially, ethnically, culturally different from the other national races in our country. Their language as well as religion is also different”.

Communal tensions are prevalent between Muslim and Buddhist communities in Arakan and such violence has been exacerbated by the divide-and-rule tactics of the military regime, denying all rights to the Muslim population while posing as protectors of the Buddhist community.

However, during the recent protests in Sittwe. Muslims did join the monks’ processions.

As non-citizens, the Rohingya do not have freedom of movement. They need permission to go from one village to another and they are prohibited from traveling beyond the 3 townships of North Arakan. These restrictions seriously limit their access to employment, markets as well as health care and education facilities. Chronic malnutrition peaks at 60% and illiteracy rate at 80%. They are also barred from the civil service. They need to obtain permission to marry and their lands are confiscated to establish model villages for resettling of poor Buddhist families from other parts of Burma. The Rohingya are compelled to live in a state of poverty and deliberate underdevelopment, facing oppression and discrimination and without any legal status. Therefore they have only their Muslim faith to turn to for spiritual support and violations of their religious freedoms have been particularly resented.

More specifically, their rights to practice their religion have been abused in the following ways:

1. Forcible closure of mosques and madrasahs

In July and August 2006, the Burmese authorities ordered the closure of a large number of mosques and madrasahs throughout North Arakan. The reasons stated were either that these mosques had been built or renovated without official permission or that the mosque committee could not provide evidence of the origin of their funds. In North Buthidaung, 8 mosques were issued notice to close down in mid-2006 and, at the end of 2006, another 17 mosques, madrasahs and maktabs were ordered to be destroyed. The first 8 mosques were demolished by local Muslim villagers on the order of the NaSaKa (border security forces) and when the villagers refused to do so for fear of God, the NaSaKa destroyed them themselves. One of these 8 mosques was later reconstructed with original building materials after the mosque committee had launched a petition campaign and paid a large bribe to the authorities. The 17 other religious establishments were finally saved from destruction, expect for a big mosque in Goat Pi. To date, two of them, one in Krin Tha Mar and one in Ba Da Gar still remained closed. The NaSaKa locked them and arrested two members of the mosque committee in each village.

In Rathedaung Township and South Maungdaw, the authorities also locked several mosques and madrasahs, at least three in February and March 2007 (in Du Chee Yar Tan, Thinn Baw Kway and Gaw Dhu Thar Ya). Although these were small mosques used for Namaj (the 5 daily prayers) and their closure did not affect the Friday congregation for Jumma prayer, children had to stop their Koranic education.

Some mosques and madrassahs previously ordered for closure or destruction have now been re-opened but only after large bribes were paid to the authorities.

2. Prohibition to erect new mosques and to repair existing ones

The Rohingya are not allowed to build new mosques or madrasahs nor to extend or repair existing religious buildings. As a result, many mosques are left in a state of dilapidation.

In Buthidaung, no mosque received permission for repair work this year, not even to replace a damaged beam. In Maungdaw, some mosques received verbal permission for maintenance against the payment of a high bribe but, as soon as the officer who gave this verbal permission was transferred, rehabilitation had to be stopped.

Since February 2007, the NaSaKa as well as Immigration and the Religious Affairs Department have started a survey of all mosques and madrasahs in villages of North Arakan. The mosque committee had to pay 50,000 Kyat each (US$50) to cover the costs of the survey. The surveyors listed the size of each building, construction materials used, the number of ablution pools, etc. and took photographs of the religious buildings. Then they hung a board at each mosque with all these details so that any subsequent verification could immediately identify any modification and renovation to the building.

During the survey exercise, the NaSaKa extorted large sums of money. [For example, the mosque committee of Du Chee Yar Tan had to pay 5 million Kyat (US$5,000) in March for repairing a wall, the committee of one of the madrassahs in Maung Hna Ma also paid 5 million Kyat for replacing several wooden posts eaten by vermin.]

3. Detention for repairing religious buildings without permission

According to our latest findings, in Buthidaung North, at least 10 people, including 2 religious clerics, and in Maungdaw South 4 people are currently jailed for renovating a mosque or a madrasah without official permission. They have been charged under the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act, Section 5 (j), for “affecting the morality or conduct of the public or a group of people in a way that would undermine the security of the Union or the restoration of law and order” and sentenced for 1 to 2 years. [Most political prisoners in Burma are charged under the same law which has also been used against Rohingya people who have overstayed their travel permit.]

4. Disturbance during religious celebrations

Although demonstrations and protests did not spread to North Arakan, the Burmese authorities recently implemented new restrictive measures against any religious congregation, including Muslims who now face difficulties to assemble for the Jumma prayer on Fridays. During Qurbani Eid celebrations, Rohingya must obtain permission to slaughter sacrificial cows and to delete the animal from their cattle list, which they have to pay for either in cash or in meat. Moreover, Muslims are compelled to hand over the skin of the sacrificial cow to the NaSaKa when religious traditions principles dictate it should only be donated to orphans and the very poor.

5. Forced labour

As opposed to the rest of Burma, in Northern Arakan State, non-Muslims are usually exempt from this duty. Muslims are forced to build pagodas and Buddhist monasteries, in particular for the construction of 'model villages'.

6. Marriage permission

Rohingya couples need to obtain a permission to marry and, if they marry unofficially (a religious wedding is not considered as an official marriage), they are at risk of being arrested and jailed. These measures are only imposed on Rohingya Muslims and only in North Arakan. Muslim men, with the exception of religious leaders, must shave their beard to be allowed to marry and couples need to sign a declaration they won't have more than 2 children. These are two new regulations imposed since October 2005.

Recommendations

The resentment spread by these policies combined with sheer poverty are conducive to radicalisation. They have also lead to the continuous movements of Rohingya out of Burma to Bangladesh as well as through Bangladesh by boat to Thailand and Malaysia, thus becoming a regional problem. Therefore, U.S. policy makers should consider the unique situation of the Rohingya in formulating U.S. policy to promote human rights.
International humanitarian agencies are providing essential assistance and emergency relief in North Arakan. Direct aid delivery is necessary to alleviate the impact of such policies but agencies such as the World Food Program do not have enough funding to feed up to 50% of the extremely vulnerable families. The U.S. government should provide more financial support for humanitarian action inside Burma, particularly for the UNHCR and the WFP.
The U.S. has generously resettled a large number of Burmese refugees from Thailand and Malaysia. Unfortunately, the Rohingya have been excluded from the U.S. resettlement programs so far. Resettling Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh and Malaysia should be considered as a durable humanitarian solution promoted by the U.S.

http://www.uscirf.gov/events/ hearings/ 2007/december/ 120307_saffron6_ lewa.html

60 years of genocide against the Muslims in Burma

2009-03-01T03:13:00.000-08:00

by Ali Ahmad
Muslimedia - March 16-31, 1997

Although human rights activists groups have spoken out against the injustices by Burma's military regime , SLORC (State Law and Order Restoration Council), little awareness of the brutalities against Burmese Muslims have concerned the Muslim world. Since the pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988, and likewise the western interest for a new democratic state in Asia, Burma has finally captured the attention of the media. Even then, however, the media's bias only reports the democratic progress by Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, and falls way short of covering the killings, rapes, and torturing of Burma's peaceful inhabitants. To a lesser extent, if not non-existent, the atrocities against Burmese Muslims are rarely mentioned.

Until shortly after Britain colonized Burma in 1886, Muslims and Buddhists had lived peacefully. Britain's creation of hostility for the Muslims led Buddhists to the anti-Muslim riots in 1938 which resulted in the massacre of nearly 30,000 Muslims and the burning of 113 mosques. Further north in the state of Arakan (Rakhine), Muslims were forced out of Burma to Bengal after the slaughter of 100,000 Muslims. After independence in 1948 and under U Nu's Ministry, built up hostility towards Muslims created operations like Naga Min and BTF (Burma Territorial Force) resulting in deaths totaling over 80,000 Muslims.

In 1961, U Nu declared Buddhism as the state religion forcing Buddhist teaching and culture on many of the Muslims. By a military coup, General Ne Win seized hold of Burma in 1962 and declared her as a socialist country, thus lifting the declaration of Buddhism as the state religion. In 1982, Ne Win redefined citizenship so that the Rohingya, Muslims who had inhabited northern Burma as early as 788, were considered illegal aliens. This made northern Arakan grounds for ruthless killing sprees and as a result many of the Rohingya were forced to flee to Bangladesh. In 1988, the anti-government and pro-democracy movements forced Ne Win to step down, and after a few leadership changes, the power went back into the hands of the military under General Saw Maung. In 1990, Burma had its first free multi-party election in 30 years which resulted in the democracy movement leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, to victor. Refusing to relinquish their power, the military regime, SLORC, placed Suu Kyi under house arrest.

The current military regime has tried to portray itself as the unifying factor of Burma by giving themselves the title SLORC (State Law and Order Restoration Council). However, what was once the richest nation in southeast Asia, since 1988 Burma has been declared by the UN as one of the world's least developed countries. Likewise, while SLORC claims of its "restoration" of Burma, SLORC spends 40 percent of the national budget on the military aimed to combat its own people. Its claim to "law and order" forces nearly a million people to slave labour, 40,000 women and girls to prostitution, 300,000 people to flee to neighboring countries, and 1.5 million to be displaced from their homes within Burma.

SLORC has shown no tolerance of Muslims either. In 1992, SLORC went on an a rampage to force, or kill, the Rohingya Muslims out of Burma. Youth were herded into warehouses where reports of 700 Muslim youth suffocated. During prayer, SLORC troops shot down a mosque martyring 200 Muslims. The amount of Muslim women and girls raped during 1992 were higher than any other minority group in Burma. Mosques were destroyed, looted, and burned. Over 225,000 Rohingyas that year fled to Bangladesh.

The US has had hypocritical action against SLORC. The same day the US State Department condemned SLORC's killing and torture of political activists and ethnic minorities, UNOCAL paid a $7 million bonus in a contract with SLORC to expand their operations in Burma. American business support of SLORC, such as UNOCAL's, could have easily been hindered had the US imposed stricter sanctions on SLORC. However, it would seem obvious that the US's interest lies elsewhere, especially after Senator Feinstein, who after consulting with Secretary of State Madeline Albright and Defense Secretary Cohen, concluded that economic sanctions should only be imposed in cases such as apartheid in South Africa because "the only ones that are hurt are the people who need help." Yet, she warned SLORC's generals that harming Suu Kyi would result in these actions.

Many of the minority ethnic groups in Burma have signed cease-fire agreements with SLORC. The Rohingya Solidarity Alliance, the strongest unified Muslim military front in Burma, has continued their struggle and has been fighting for the independence of Arakan from SLORC's oppressive hand without signing such treaties. The Muslim struggles in Burma have produced martyrs that have fed the hearts of other Muslims with courage.

ROHINGYAS’ CONCERN

2009-02-28T20:01:00.000-08:00

ARAKAN ROHINGYA NATIONAL ORGANISATION

ARAKAN, BURMA

Press Relaese

(28^th February 2009)

ROHINGYAS’ CONCERN

We express our serious concern that Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed on February 27, 2009 in Hua Htin, Thailand to send hundreds of Rohingya boatpeople back to Burma. We have not expected such a verdict from the 10-member regional bloc.

We would remind the ASEAN leaders that Burma under the ruling military SPDC is just like a hell particularly for the Rohingya people. The military regime is cunning, cruel and brute, and it has not the least sense of human rights. It will be totally injudicious to send the boatpeople back to Burma against their will.

Human rights are universal. The violations of human rights cannot be pleaded a domestic affairs of a country. The ASEAN’s policy of non-intervention should not take precedence over the human rights. Contrary to the sprit of ASEAN Charter to respect human rights and international law, the agreement may encourage tyrannical SPDC to continue persecution against the Rohingya and other Burmese peoples.

As the saying goes ‘a burn child dreads the fire’, the persecuted boatpeople are unwilling to return to Burma. The countries of refuge should provide them with shelters and basic necessities for life until a congenial atmosphere is created for their safe return to Arakan. It may again be emphasised that the root cause of the Rohingya problem, including the boatpeople issue, needs to be properly addressed towards finding a ‘permanent solution’.

We urge upon ASEAN to put pressure on Burma to recognize the ethnic rights of the Rohingya on par with other ethnic nationalities of the countries.

Living Condition of unregistered refugee camp (TAL) Kutupalong

2009-02-28T19:10:00.000-08:00

An open letter to UN

2009-02-22T21:55:00.000-08:00

I’m begging and requesting to the UN to open the border-points in order to allow for evacuation of Rohingya civilians from the extreme conditions or impossible situation zone to a safe location, until they can be returned to their families with the cessation of 60 years genocide operation of (Government of Burma) SPDC.

I’m deeply concern life of the million Rohingya civilians who are trapped in all over the world (Specially Inside Arakan and Bangladesh). Inside Arakan they are killed hundred thousand numbers past and present, which are deeply humanitarian fall of civilization.

I deplore (Government of Burma) SPDC.

SPDC has rejected and rendered them stateless in their own homeland. They are victims of systematic, persistent and widespread human rights violations, including denial of citizenship rights, severe restrictions on freedom of movement, education, marriage and religion, forced labour, rape, land confiscation, arbitrary arrests, torture, extra-judicial killings and extortion on daily basis. Today the Rohingya have become increasingly landless, jobless, homeless, shelter less, handicapped and the most illiterate section of Burma’s population.

So as democratic and civilized world please give the right to live civilians. They became victim of SPDC.

In closing, I wish to underscore my profound alarm at the increasingly desperate circumstances facing Rohingya civilians in Arakan and other part of world.

I’m begging you would see these concerns your urgent attention.

Please don’t make human civilization in shame. UN will give what answer your present people and future people.

Make your love for mankind.

Peace, Peace Peace

Amin

Faisal Alam

*** This letter is only my opinion, Im liable for every comments and views.

Locals attack unofficial refugee camp, injure six

2009-02-21T19:56:00.000-08:00

Kaladan News

February 21, 2009

Locals attack unofficial refugee camp, injure six

Teknaf, Bangladesh: Locals attacked Burmese refugees belonging to the unofficial Leda camp on February 20, at about 5.00 pm in the evening and seriously injured six refugees, including women and boys, Noor Mohammed, a shed leader of the camp said.

According to Hafez Ayub, another shed leader, a local youth went to the shed on the pretext of drinking water, and he tried to tease a young girl named Rashida Begum (20). But, the refugees and her relatives stopped him from disturbing the girl. After which, he entered into an altercation with the other refugees.

On hearing about the incident, a group of local youths totaling about 40, led by Nurul Huda, went to the spot with weapons and iron rods in order to attack the refugees.

After arriving at the camp, the locals called all the refugees, who had an altercation with the local youth, took them to a nearby market and beat them up severely. However, the refugees did not retaliate.

The injured have been identified as Kamal (57), Block-D, shed #285, Iman Hussain (18), Block-D, shed # 285, Nazir Hussain (27), Block-B, shed # 72, Shahzan Begum (50), Block-D, shed # 285, Rashida Begum (20), Block- D, shed # 77, and Zaker Hussain (12), Block-D, shed # 285 of Leda camp.

Of the injured, Kamal, Nazir Hussain, Shahzan and Rashida are in a serious condition. Nazir Hussain, however, is critical, a relative from the camp said.

According to sources, the local youths came to the unofficial camp and insulted the women and girls. There is no government security and the camp is also situated in an isolated area. The refugees are disturbed frequently by the local people, while the refugees leave the camp to go to work or for marketing and other purposes.

The refugees went to local elders and informed them about the matter in detail, and the local elders said that they would look into it.

Crop Circle predicts the coming of the Christ child (my prediction)

2009-02-20T09:42:00.000-08:00

There is someone (GOD) behind you constantly watching, That is fear of the dark. End of the world is not the dark and not easy to come, the angel is waiting for three warning.

The first warning is global warming, 2nd massive killing and 3rd is the distance between rich and famous people to poor people like Africa and Asia.

There will not large comet or destruction will come. Human will destroy their planet and will make it for unhealthy living.

The coming of Jesus (peace be upon him)long way to come i think more then 7 light year. Still lots of thing to know genetic coding , the end of Atlantic water we still cant cross the depth of water, The space our sky limit, big bang and unlimited dimension with time barrier.

In all holly books said The earth will give all of its resources from its deep inside and the distance will be shorter. How shorter u can see in 100 years.

AT LAST STILL MORE TOO COME, I ALWAYS PRAY NOT TO COME GOG AND MAGOG IN THIS WORLD.LOVE TO ALL and LOVE FOR MANKIND.

We are using bio tech for food. Please don't use food as Biodizel.

And we can use solar power, hydro dam and windmill for power, so don't worry. We can produce less CO2.

Please give me the solution. Why we have to use uranium and nuclear technologies.

3rd paragraph said the way European discovers America, still lots of thing to discover by human.

LOVE TO ALL and LOVE FOR MANKIND. PEACE PEACE PEACE, AMIN...

FAISAL ALAM

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crop Circle predicts the coming of the Christ child

by Richard

Acatl

This is a brief introduction to a profound message I wish to share with you. I am sharing a channelling that correlates a crop circle laid down on two days a week apart in England in July 2008 with the birth of the Christ child on December 28, 2012. This event will trigger Ascension for planet Earth and for those of humanity who have prepared. And so will begin the greatest Golden Age the planet has known. A complete copy of it is available at http://www.metatronminutes.net/Crop_circle_predicts.htm and as a downloadable pdf from the Articles page at http://www.metatronminutes.com/

For many of you, this will come as a surprise. For others, it is a term with which you are familiar; however what it means may be a little unclear. For others, you may have a clear view of what you believe it means, however most of us have been subject to a lot of disinformation about it and, frankly, the specifics have not been available to fully understand - until now.

Atl

There have been many messages from many places about Ascension. What is different about this one is that it is directly associated with a crop circle pattern that was laid down on July 22, 2008 at Avebury Manor in England. http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/aveburymanor2/aveburymanor2008b.html

Coatl

Those who have analysed this pattern have realised it is telling us something about December 2012, the time of the ending of the Mayan Calendar, including the arrival of a comet that, according to the crop circle site, our astronomers are as yet unaware of.

Cozcacuahtli

For some of you, the idea that crop circles are not manmade and carry messages for humanity will come as a surprise. If so, I suggest you browse http://www.cropcircleconnector.com and see for yourself the extraordinary patterns that are being laid down. You will quickly realise these patterns are not, for the most part, manmade and if you want to examine these phenomena in more detail, I highly recommend Star Dreams.

Tecptl

How come these extraordinary messages receive no mainstream publicity? I'll leave you to reflect on that question as a thread by which you may begin to pull your perceived reality apart.

If you are unfamiliar with the ending of the long cycle Mayan Calendar in December 2012, I suggest you do a little research on the Internet via Google to fill in the blanks, so to speak.

The arrival of comets has a deep sub-conscious pull for mankind as they have been seen and understood over the millennia as messengers alerting us to great change. And so it is with this one.

To read the channelling, go to the links provided above.

You may listen to the channelling at: http://www.metatronminutes.net/Recordings/Crop_circle_predicts_the_coming_Christ_child.mp3

I encourage you to do so, as you will experience the energy and the unfolding of this wondrous message.

As I said at the beginning, this is a profound channelling. It tells of an event which will transform consciousness on this planet as we have known it. It tells of the coming forth on Earth of an aspect of that great soul that sent forth the one we know as Jeshua or Jesus, the first soul created after the seraphim and cherubim, the one known throughout the cosmos as "The Radiant One" because of his great light. His birth will trigger the Ascension process on planet Earth.

Please be clear, this not something to fear. Know that you chose to be present on the planet at this time to participate in this event, even if you may currently have no conscious awareness of it.

There is only so much I can share with you on Facebook. As I said, a complete copy of it is available at http://www.metatronminutes.net/Crop_circle_predicts.htm and as a downloadable pdf from http://www.metatronminutes.com/articles.html

You owe it to yourself to check it out.

Blessings, Joy, Love and Peace.

Richard

Open letter to the Heads of the States of the ASEAN‏

2009-02-20T09:23:00.000-08:00

H.E. Abhisit Vejjajva, Prime Minister of Thialand

H.E. Abdullah bin Haji Ahmamd Badwi, Prime Minister of Malaysia

H.E. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of the Republic of Indonesia

H.M Sultan Hassan al Bolkiah, King of the Kingdom of Brunei

H.E. Lee Hsieng Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore

H.E. Gloria Mcapagal-Arroyo, President of the Philippines

H.E. Hun Sen, Prime Minsiter of Cambodia

H.E. Nguyen Tan Dung, Prime Minister of Vietnam

H.E. Bouphavanh Bouasone, Prime Minister of Laos

H.E. Senior General Than Shwe, Head of the SPDC, Burma (Myanmar)

Your Excellencies and Majesty,

We welcome the ensuing ASEAN Summit to be held on 20th February 2009 in Huahin with a hope that it will address the long standing ‘Rohingya problem’, including the boatpeople crisis. We consider, Burma (Myanmar) being an ASEAN country, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) is primarily responsible for the terrible plight of Rohingya and their recent boatpeople crisis. The persecution of Rohingya and other human rights violations by SPDC in Burma are clear violations of ASEAN Charter to respect human rights and international law.

The Rohingya are a predominantly Muslim community, with a long history, inhabiting Arakan province of Burma. They are not tolerated in the country because of their religion and ethnicity. SPDC has rejected and rendered them stateless in their own homeland. They are victims of systematic, persistent and widespread human rights violations, including denial of citizenship rights, severe restrictions on freedom of movement, education, marriage and religion, forced labour, rape, land confiscation, arbitrary arrests, torture, extra-judicial killings and extortion on daily basis. Today the Rohingya have become increasingly landless, jobless, homeless, shelter less, handicapped and the most illiterate section of Burma’s population.

These extreme conditions or impossible situation have forced the Rohingyas to leave their hearths and homes for various destinations of the world even risking their lives through turbulent seas and oceans by boats basically in search of safe shelter and protection. The recent boatpeople tragedy involving the lives of hundreds of distressed Rohingya boatpeople-- after Thai military had towed them out to the open sea in engineless boats with little food and water-- is one of such evidences.

Since 1948, due to continued persecution, about 1.5 million Rohingya population is in Diaspora, and mostly of them are living in Bangladesh, Pakistan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Malaysia. Those who are still at home are living in sub-human condition, facing ‘ethnic cleansing’ and ‘crimes against humanity’. The SPDC is now making all-out effort to exterminate the remaining Rohingyas to rid Arakan of the Muslim population.

The Rohingya problem is a problem of religious and political persecution that affects the countries in the region and beyond. It is essentially a regional and international issue the root cause of which needs to be properly addressed. In this connection, we call your attention to the fact that the Rohingya are now in a state of jeopardy, and the future of their children is disaster-prone without education and other necessities for their natural human growth. Meanwhile, we believe Burma’s political and democratic process must be genuinely all-inclusive, and the ethnic rights of the Rohingya people have to be ensured, on par with other national groups of the country, in future democratic Burma.

We, therefore, request the ASEAN leaders:

1. Address the root cause of the Rohingya refugee problem and boatpeople crisis; and to find out a ‘permanent solution’ of the long standing Rohingya problem.

2. Pressurize the SPDC to find an acceptable solution to the ongoing human rights violations occurring within the country, including 1982 citizenship law that renders Rohingya stateless; to restore citizenship and ethnic rights of the Rohingya; to lift all restrictions on their freedom of religion, movement, education and marriage.

3. Urge upon the Government of Thailand to pay compensation to the bereaved families of those Rohingya boatpeople who lost their lives.

Please accept the assurance of our highest esteem.

Yours faithfully,

Nurul Islam

President

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO)

Arakan, Burma.

Villagers in northern Arakan face human rights violation

2009-02-18T09:31:00.000-08:00

Kaladan News

February 18, 2009

Villagers in northern Arakan face human rights violation

Buthidaung, Arakan State: Villagers in northern Arakan have been undergoing tremendous human rights violations under the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) authorities. In short, they are in a very risky position in Arakan State, a politician from Arakan, who declined to be named, said.

For instance, villagers of Khan Daung village have to do security duty for Nasaka (Burma's border security force) at night and they are unable to work during day time as they have not slept at night. So, they are deprived of the means to support their family members. Besides, they are tortured and money is extorted from them by false allegations by the Nasaka and police, while they patrol the village at night.

Moreover, the villagers of Buthidaung Township have to provide logs twice a month, per family for baking bricks and also have to provide one kg of chicken in 15 days, per family. Villagers have to provide laborers for tilling land and growing paddy for the concerned authorities, especially for the army and Nasaka. The villagers even have to lend their bulls for tilling the land, according to a local village elder.

There is another strange thing that happens in the village. Every day about 20 to 30 villagers of Maung Nama village tract of Maungdaw Township go to Village Peace and Development Council Chairman Zubair's house to guard him as his elder brother was killed by the villagers for his notorious deeds. So, the younger brother, Zubair, fears that the villagers might kill him too. The order to guard him has been given by Nasaka Headquarters, as he has good relations with the Director of Nasaka Headquarters.

Police from Buthidaung Town have been to villages with motor boats at night and surrounded a house that has money. The police then arrested the owner under false charges. After that police demanded Kyat 200,000 to 500,000 for his release. If the victim did not provide the money, he was brought to the police station. He was not released until the police got the money. If the police did not find male, they brought female to their police station and harassed her in custody. There was no legal formality involved.

If the villagers inform the concerned authorities, about such atrocities, they pay no heed. So the villagers are compelled to bribe the authorities for their release. Due to this kind of harassment, the police may become richer but the Rohingya villagers are becoming poorer day by day, a local trader said, requesting not to be named.

In addition, the army, Nasaka and police and other law enforcing personnel often enter the Rohingya villages on the pretext of an enquiry. While searching the houses of the Rohingyas, they either assault the Rohingya womenfolk or take away those who look beautiful. The Rohingyas are often compelled to provide rice, goats, fowls, etc., free of cost for the Nasaka, army and the police outposts. In what is called modern-day slave labor, they are forced to provide free labor for the construction of different roads and accommodation facilities for the government forces.

Myanmar's Muslims seek refugee in Bangladesh - 26 Dec 08

2009-02-14T02:35:00.000-08:00

Source : Al Jazeera TV

Why Myanmar's Muslims (Rohingya) seek refugee all over the world

Silent pain of Unregistered Refugee Mohammad Kamal Hussein

2009-02-13T22:31:00.000-08:00

By Faisal Alam

Silent pain of Unregistered Refugee Mohammad Kamal Hussein

As a supporter of humanitarian causes took out the time from my work-related trip to go down to nearby Kutupalong to try and give a voice for these unheard victims of poverty and the deserted.

Kalim Ullah: This person's name is Muhammad Kamal. He had gone to the woods to cut bamboo and fell from a hill top. Now his knee is swollen and has had an intermittent fever since then but it's been better because he is being taken care of and raised some amount of money through begging and donations.

: What did you say his name was...Kamal, right?
Kalim Ullah: Yes, Kamal Hussein...this is his wife.
: He cuts wood for a living...
Kalim Ullah: He cuts bamboo trees for living..

Translated by : Alia Alam

He is still in fever last 10-12 days. His body is really hot high fever that's why giving bath by his wife.

Misery of unregistered Rohingya refugee Kids in Kutupalong

2009-02-13T21:26:00.000-08:00

By Faisal Alam

Misery of unregistered Rohingya refugee Kids in Kutupalong.

As a supporter of humanitarian causes took out the time from my work-related trip to go down to nearby Kutupalong to try and give a voice for these unheard victims of poverty and the deserted.

Mother talking in Rohingya about the conditions that they are living in.

Woman: The children did not suffer from any illness in the past but recently they've been afflicted with a disease which we don't know about.

: You only have rice and that is it?
Woman: Yes, only rice...

: ..and you don't get to eat anything else?

Woman: ..yes, we don't get to eat anything else other than rice ...-other things perhaps through begging...

: ...so, other than rice, you don't get food like pulses and vegetables?
Woman: ..no..no...we don't get anything else...

: ...hmm..it is perhaps of vitamin deficiencies (that the children are becoming disease-prone)..

Woman:..I feel it is something like TB..I feel like dying..we don't have (basic necessities like) food and water...

Translated By : Alia Alam
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In this situation no NGO, Humanitarian organization, big people beside them. The condition of these refugee kids are bellow human level, need basic rights to live. They told me 7 people of one family whole died coz of starvation.

ROHINGYA AND MUSLIMS IN ARAKAN STATE: SLOW-BURNING GENOCIDE

2009-02-08T04:42:00.000-08:00

BN2006/1028: 8 August 2006
Amended: 15 August 2006
ALTSEAN-BURMA
Alternative Asean Network on Burma
campaigns, advocacy and capacity-building for human rights

ROHINGYA AND MUSLIMS IN ARAKAN STATE:
SLOW-BURNING GENOCIDE

• The experiences of more than 1 million Rohingya and Muslims from Burma are often overlooked in global media coverage, whether in Burma or in exile in Bangladesh, Malaysia and elsewhere.
• Rohingya are denied citizenship at home and protection in countries of asylum: many have been forced to leave and denied resettlement, others forcibly deported to situations of danger.
• Rohingya in exile present a humanitarian and political headache for neighbors – as many as 250,000 in Bangladesh and 25,000 in Malaysia.
• Those remaining in Burma face human rights abuses on a scale that is disparate when compared with those experienced by the rest of the population.
• In 1992 the UN General Assembly recognized the disproportionate suffering the community had experienced under the military regime in Resolution 47/144.
• Since 1992, the “torture and arbitrary execution, continued detention of a large number of persons for political reasons, the existence of important restrictions on the exercise of fundamental freedoms and the imposition of oppressive measures” that so concerned the UN have continued, forcing new movements of people, and waves of refugees that place a burden on the limited resources of Bangladesh and other neighbors.
• The campaign of displacement, denial of culture and identity, restrictions on the right to marry and form a family, killings, rape, torture and denial of food are a slow-burning genocide - “deliberately inflict[ing] on the group [Rohingya and Arakan Muslims] conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”.

Denial of citizenship

"In actual fact, although there are (135) national races living in Myanmar today, the so-called Rohingya people is not one of them. Historically, there has never been a ‘Rohingya’ race in Myanmar. The very name Rohingya is a creation of a group of insurgents in the Rakhine State. Since the First Anglo-Myanmar War in 1824, people of Muslim Faith from the adjacent country illegally entered Myanmar Ngain-Ngan, particularly Rakhine State. Being illegal immigrants they do not hold immigration papers like other nationals of the country."

- Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Union of Myanmar

The origins of the Rohingya’s place in Burma is in dispute – some say that Rohingya have always lived in Northern Arakan State and converted to Islam in the 12th century; others say that Rohingya began migrating to Burma during the British Colonial era. The reality is probably a mix of the two – Muslim traders who settled on the coast over the centuries who, along with larger influx of Muslims from the Chittagong area of Bangladesh in later centuries, developing a unique language, cultural practices and a sense of common identity. Under the junta’s 1982 citizenship law, more than one million Rohingya have been denied citizenship by the SPDC in Burma, with the authorities classifying them as “Bengali Muslims”, effectively leaving them stateless. Some argue that the law, replacing the 1948 Act, was written with the specific intention of removing any Rohingya claim on citizenship that the previous law allowed.

Many Rohingya and Arakan Muslims have fled the oppression of the regime, in particular seeking refuge in Bangladesh and Malaysia. However, Rohingya and Arakan Muslim refugees from Burma have been denied refugee status in both countries (neither are signatories to the Refugee Convention). They have been classified as “illegal” economic migrants, and denial of their rights has continued.

Throughout the 1990s the Bangladesh authorities repatriated 236,000 of the 250,000 that fled to Bangladesh between November 1991 to June 1992 back to Burma throughout the 1990s, and by 2002 there were only 20,000 remaining in camps. The UNHCR scheduled a program for absolute withdrawal from management of Rohingya and Arakan Muslim asylum seekers in Bangladesh - subsequent repatriations have been accompanied by accusations of coercion and violence aimed at Bangladesh authorities and the UNHCR, and occurred whilst Rohingya and Arakan Muslims continue to flee persecution in Burma back to Bangladesh.

However, many of those repatriated to Burma have returned to Bangladesh. New arrivals and returnees now number 200,000 living outside of camps, not permitted to access camps or to receive the protection of the UNHCR. Rohingya and Arakan Muslims, including children, are jailed in Bangladesh for violations of migration and employment law, and often remain in jail beyond the length of their sentences – some as long as 12 years – waiting the authorities negotiation of prisoner exchanges with the SPDC.

Rohingya and Arakan Muslims in Malaysia also experience difficult circumstances and living conditions. While a repatriation program does not exist, many genuine refugees, including some with UNHCR papers, have been deported (usually to Thailand) for migration law violations. The UNHCR office was closed to new registration in 2005, with the UNHCR promising to process the backlog of registration and deliver outcomes to those that have been waiting in limbo for the longest time. Over 12,000 Rohingya have now been issued temporary protection since then, which finally gives protection from arrest and deportation.

Many Rohingya and Arakan Muslims in Malaysia complain that Chin in similar circumstances have been offered resettlement, and that the Resident Permits (which give access to employment, education and limited healthcare) promised in October 2004 have only been received by Acehnese from Indonesia. In the meantime, for those with no papers at all, raids by immigration authorities have led to injuries and even death. Communities still live in fear; reports of harassment, extortion and detention by authorities continue. Many arrive with huge debts to people smugglers and relatives that they are unable to pay.

The border between Thailand and Malaysia is extremely porous, with many Rohingya and Arakan Muslims traveling between the two countries at huge costs and risks; on the basis of rumors of changes in policy and new opportunities for resettlement. Recent reports conclude that this movement of people is facilitated and controlled by a Thai-Malay network of immigration, police and people smugglers who extort and beat the asylum seekers. Those that are able to pay are smuggled back to Malaysia. Those that cannot often are trapped in horrific conditions in Thai brothels, rubber plantations, factories and fishing boats.

77 Rohingya were stranded on an island in Indonesia in April 2006. The group had been attempting to reach Malaysia by boat. Indonesian authorities had originally intended to send the group back into international waters, but became nervous of a diplomatic backlash from Malaysia.

Restricted movement

“The sweeping restrictions on the movement of Rohingyas are disproportionate and discriminatory; they are imposed on all Rohingyas because they are Rohingyas, and not on members of other ethnic nationalities in Rakhine State. They are broad and indiscriminate in their application”

- Amnesty International

Not holding citizenship restricts the freedom of movement, even more so in Burma where identity cards function as an “internal passport” for travel from one village to another, to work, to conduct business and trade, and more. At first, Rohingya who were repatriated from Bangladesh were issued with “Returnee Identity Cards”, which have been replaced with white “Temporary Registration Cards”. Neither entitles holders to the entitlements of other citizens.

Restriction on freedom of movement has effectively confined people to their villages. They are required to apply, state their reasons, and pay for a travel pass to visit as far as neighboring villages. To travel further requires more money and more lengthy application processes.

Rohingya are required to keep the essential “family list”. If a family member is not present during random population check by local SPDC authorities, they can be deleted from the list or fined.

Extortion and arbitrary taxation

While extortion and arbitrary taxation is rife in Burma, the experience for Rohingya and Muslims is particularly difficult.

Taxes and bribes such as paddy taxes, sales and trade licenses, fees for the observance of cultural and religious festivals and ceremonies, fees for the participation in sporting activities, extortion for corporate and military infrastructure, are particularly prevalent and more diligently extracted in Arakan State, in particular in border area’s controlled by the NaSaKa border authorities. Those not able or willing to pay bribes face arrest and imprisonment. Arbitrary arrest is often employed to extract bribes from Rohingya and Muslims.

Additional extortions unique to the experience of Rohingya and Muslims relate to fees for travel and forming a family.

Access to employment

Requirements to pay and apply for travel permits seriously limits ability to trade or seek employment outside a person’s village. Not holding citizenship excludes Rohingya from public service positions. Arbitrary extortion, taxes, and seizures of land and property stifle entrepreneurship and overwhelm small businesses. Forced labor takes people away from their regular employment, destroying business, and ruining crops when harvests are impacted.

Forced labor

When the ILO reported in March 2003 that forced labor in large infrastructure projects had decreased in Burma, they noted that it continued with no change in Northern Arakan State. Most work involves the maintenance, security, building and supply of military camps and infrastructure projects linked to state-enterprise projects and their international partners. Because it is possible to pay a bribe to authorities for exemption, those most affected are those most at need of earning a regular income.

Confiscation of land and property

Land is confiscated by NaSaKa and much of formerly arable land has reverted to jungle. There are also settlement programs moving non-Rohingya onto lands confiscated from Rohingya into “model villages” for retired SPDC officers and their families (built with the forced labor of Rohingya). Forced laborers and their communities are often required to supply projects with materials. The growing presence of NaSaKa since its formation in 1992 has increased the level of confiscations – whether for military camps or for unique projects such as the leasing back to the original owners. In 2002 they began to implement land use policies – by expelling families living “residentially” on areas previously allocated as agricultural.

Food Security

Burma’s historical importance as a producer of rice is well known. While this importance has faded, the country still manages to produce a net surplus of rice. Despite this, those living in Northern Arakan state are hungry, with 60% experiencing malnutrition because the regime confiscates, forcibly sells or prevents from being traded, rice and other essential commodities.

Villagers are obliged to provide food to supply to military troops with food supplies. Additionally, forced labor takes villagers away from taking care of their crops, and harvest periods are compromised.

Withholding humanitarian aid

Controls on the delivery of humanitarian aid allow the regime to dictate to agencies where their assistance is provided. The World Food Program has complained of restrictions to delivery of food aid had left Rohingya communities starving and prevented more than 90% of food and rice aid from being delivered through of permit requirements, checkpoints, local taxes and other restrictions.

Limitations on access to education

The official literacy rate in Burma is given by the SPDC at nearly 90%. While this is unlikely to be accurate, the fact that literacy rates in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh has been measured at 12% indicates that Rohingya experience particular barriers to accessing basic education.

Most Rohingya children do not speak the Burmese language in which public education is taught. Most village tracts have one primary school (initial 4 years), but in remote areas monsoonal rains prevent children from attending even this basic level. Rohingya, not holding citizenship, cannot be employed as teachers. There are considerable gaps in the number and quality of teachers available. Additionally, extreme poverty means that many children need to work to support their families.

Further schooling is more difficult to access outside of bigger towns. Rohingya are simply excluded from studying at university. Sittwe has the only university in the state, and a travel ban has been enforced on all Rohingya since February 2001. Distance education at university level is theoretically possible but students face many challenges in obtaining permission to pass their exams.

Persecution of political and community leaders

Leaders in exile are deeply divided on the solutions to the current situation. Rohingya and other non-Rakhine organizations are excluded from membership of the umbrella organization the Arakan National Council.

The actions and policy of the SPDC in Arakan State have successfully divided two oppressed communities against each other. Tensions between ethnic Rakhine and Rohingya run high. Religious riots occur sporadically between Buddhist and Muslim, Rohingya and Rakhine groups, with reports often blaming authorities for stirring up community unrest.

One of the issues dividing communities in Burma is the Rohingya claim to status as a distinct ethnic group – ethnic in Burma implying a claim to indigenous status, as opposed to having distinct cultural, racial or language characteristics. Other Muslims in Burma, probably around 6 million in number, also experience discrimination and persecution, especially those living in Arakan State. Some Rohingya avoid identifying themselves as such, aware of the political and personal ramifications of the label.

Rohingya were permitted to vote and stand as candidates in the 1990 elections. The Rohingya supported party, the National Democratic Party for Human Rights (NDPHR), won four seats. The Rohingya candidate in Sittwe was arrested and put in jail during the elections. The party was deregistered in March 1992.

Dr Kyaw Min, MP Buthidaung Constituency Arakan State, NDPHR

60 year old Dr Kyaw Min was arrested at his home by special agents on the night of 17 March 2005 and detained at Insein jail. He was sentenced on 19 July to 47 years in prison under Political Act – 5J.

His wife, two adult daughters and youngest son were arrested on 5 May and handed sentences of 17 years and fined 50,000 kyat each and detained separately. The oldest son and other relatives went into hiding following warrants being issued. Kyaw Min’s sister in law was arrested in November of 2005 and sentenced to six months in prison for ‘overstepping the boundary”.

Lawyers and friends were not permitted to visit in the initial period of interrogations. By October 2005, Kyaw Min and his wife were reported to have become seriously ill from a poor diet not complying with their religious obligations, and tensions from worrying about their children.

Authorities have issued orders banning the sale of his properties and appeals against the courts findings have so far been unsuccessful. According to family sources, the long sentences were imposed following Kyaw Min’s refusal to quit the Committee Representing People’s Parliament (CRPP).

Torture

Successive military campaigns since the 1970s have included widespread reports of killings of civilians, rape and torture. Arbitrary arrest is used to extract bribes, particularly through arresting and accusing Rohingya in border areas.

Religious and cultural freedoms

Muslims, including Rohingya, living in Northern Arakan State are forced to pay “fees” to conduct Eid-ul-Adha and Eid-ul-Fitr. Traditions such as praying in open prayer grounds are restricted. Friday sermons are restricted. Times of pilgrimage coincide with further tightening of restrictions and the extraction of maximum bribes.

SPDC military campaigns have included the destruction of mosques and madrassa.

The right to marry and have a family

All households require a family list and any changes – births, deaths, marriages, address, even cattle acquisition and sales – must be reported and a fee paid. A birth or death can vary in its cost for between 1,000 to 8,000 kyat, must be declared within a week, and also vary in the local authority’s arbitrary requirements - sometimes substituting a scarce item such as fuel to be paid in the place of the usual fee, or for the report of a birth to be delivered in person by the recovering mother.

Rohingya living in Northern Arakan State are required to ask for permission to marry. Women are required to be at least 18 and the men 24. Since 2003, the demanding of large amounts in bribes – between 50,000 and 300,000 kyat - for permission to marry has become universal. Marriages can be delayed for up to three years, and require several visits to NaSaKa camps. There is a huge backlog of couples waiting permission, and sometimes young couples travel to Bangladesh to try to get married at great risk of not being able to return to Burma.

The regulations were further tightened in December 2005 requiring: 3 guardian signatories; the bridegroom and guardians to be cleanly shaven; a certificate of clean health; a recommendation letter from a religious organization and from the village chairman; the couple to commit to having no more than three children, one wife, and not to get divorced; the submission of the family list; and a declaration of the dowry. The fee was fixed at 3000 kyat but reports continue of the fee varying from place to place.

1OHCHR (09 Dec 1948) Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Article 3b
2Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Union of Myanmar (26 Feb 92) Press Release as cited in Amnesty International (19 May 04) The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied
3Amnesty International (19 May 04) The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied
4Advisory Board on Human Security (Feb 05) Denial of Citizenship: a Challenge to Human Security
5Amnesty International (19 May 04) The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied
6Mizzima (19 Jul 06) British MP urges Bangladesh to improve Rohingya conditions
7Kaladan (06 Jan 04) A New Method set up for forced repatriation of Refugee in Bangladesh Camp; AFP (18 Sept 03) Bangladesh forcing out Myanmar refugees; MSF & AFP (18 Sept 03) Bangladesh denies forcing out Myanmar refugees; Kaladan (25 May 06) More Rohingya families cross into Bangladesh
8Lewa, Chris. The Refugee Situation on the Western Borders of Burma. Forum Asia at the Canadian Friends of Burma Public Conference, 9 Oct 03
9Kaladan (31 Jan 04) Forgotten People: Burmese Rohingyas’ Uncertain Destiny In Bangladesh Prison
10Chris Lewa (09 Aug 06) Report to the CCSDPT Open Session
11US Committee for Refugees (2006) World Refugee Survey Country Report - Malaysia
12Kaowao (20 Jul 06) Mafia network of Thai and Malay target illegal workers
13AFP (05 May 06) Indonesia to deport stranded Myanmar Muslims
14AFP (27 Apr 06) Myanmar migrants stranded in Indonesia refuse to return home
15Amnesty International (19 May 04) The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied
16Amnesty International (19 May 04) The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied
17Advisory Board on Human Security (Feb 05) Denial of Citizenship: a Challenge to Human Security
18Amnesty International (19 May 04) The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied
19Amnesty International (19 May 04) The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied
20Applied based on land surface quotas rather than yields – this is the most debilitating of the taxes. It was removed in April 2003 but those affected claim that it was replaced by local authorities increasing old and fabrication new taxes
21Lewa, Chris. The Refugee Situation on the Western Borders of Burma. Forum Asia at the Canadian Friends of Burma Public Conference, 9 Oct 03; Kaladan (04 Jun 06) Sarapa on extortion spree from Arakan village
22Kaladan (11 Sept 03) Policemen together with Immigration Arrested 120 Men and Extortion; Kaladan News (11 Aug 03) Five Muslims Arrested in Myawaddi Town
23Advisory Board on Human Security (Feb 05) Denial of Citizenship: a Challenge to Human Security
24Amnesty International (19 May 04) The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied
25Amnesty International (19 May 04) The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied
26Kaladan News (31 Dec 05) Eighty new Buddhist Families Brought into Northern Arakan;
Kaladan Press (15 Jul 03) Burma-Bangladesh border alert
27Amnesty International (19 May 04) The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied
28Amnesty International (19 May 04) The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied
29Irrawaddy (05 Aug 05) UN warns of humanitarian crisis in Burma
30DVB (17 Aug 05) Burmese farmers arrested and their farms seized
31Kaladan (25 May 06) Villagers forced to supply chickens to Navy
32Reuters (05 Aug 05) Myanmar to lift food aid tax, barriers remain-WFP
33UNDP (2005) Human Development Report
34Refugees International (20 Jul 06) The Rohingya: Discrimination in Burma and Denial of Rights in Bangladesh
35FBR (Jun 06) Report of Arakan FBR Relief Team Mission Trip to Arakan IDP Area
36Forum Asia (Nov 03) Submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child
37Forum Asia (Nov 03) Submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child
38 305 Kaladan (16 Mar 04) Rohingyas’ concern over “ANC”
39Irrawaddy (Jun 06) The Rohingya Riddle
40Narinjara News (25 Jan 05) Religious riot in Arakan State
41Amnesty International (19 May 04) The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied
42 Reuters (18 Mar 05) Myanmar junta arrests two politicians; DVB (18 Mar 05) Another Burmese MP detained while U Kyaw San staging hunger strike
43Political Act 5J: “to affect the morality or conduct of the public or a group of people in a way that would undermine the security of the Union or the restoration of law and order” – Burma Lawyers’ Council Unofficial Translation SPDC (9th March 1950) Burma Act 17: Section 5 of the Emergency Provisions Act; and DVB (29 Jul 05) Burmese Arakan MP and family given lengthy prison terms; DVB (02 Aug 05) Burma Arakan MP Kyaw Min and family fined on top sentences
44 DVB (18 Oct 05) Burmese prisoners Buthidaung MP and wife not well
45 DVB (18 Oct 05) Burmese prisoners Buthidaung MP and wife not well
46 DVB (24 Nov 05) Burmese MP Kyaw Min’s sister in law sent to prison
47 DVB (15 Oct 05) Noone is seeing detained CRPP member Kyaw Min
48 DVB (18 Oct 05) Burmese prisoners Buthidaung MP and wife not well
49 DVB (18 Oct 05) Burmese prisoners Buthidaung MP and wife not well
50 DVB (02 Aug 05) Burma Arakan MP Kyaw Min and family fined on top of sentences
51 Amnesty International (19 May 04) The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied
52 Kaladan (13 May 06) NaSaKa jails nine Rohingyas
53 Kaladan (25 Jan 05) Muslims complain of military extortion during religious festival in Arakan
54 Amnesty International (19 May 04) The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied
55 Amnesty International (19 May 04) The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied
56 Kaladan (17 Nov 05) Rohingya's to shave if they want to marry
57 Amnesty International (19 May 04) The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied
58 Kaladan News (05 Mar 06) New regulation for marriage permits in Arakan State

ARNO welcomes the Indonesian call to address the Rohingya problem

2009-02-08T04:38:00.000-08:00

ARAKAN ROHINGYA NATIONAL ORGANISATION

ARAKAN, BURMA

Press Release

8th February 2009

ARNO welcomes the Indonesian call to address the Rohingya problem

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) welcomes the Indonesian Foreign Minister Mr. Hassan Wirajuda's call on the ASEAN countries to work together to address the problem of the boatpeople.

We express our gratitude to the brotherly people and Government of Indonesia for rescuing hundreds of Rohingya and other boatpeople and providing them with temporary refuge, medical treatment and humanitarian assistance.

It is a realistic approach that Mr. Hassan Wirajuda urged the military ruled Burma, to address the factors that made the Rohingya people flee their country in boats to seek asylum in other countries while making aware,"the measures should include putting an end to human rights abuses against minorities, while the boat people must not be physically harmed when on transit in another country or chased out to sea."

It is encouraging that, being a regional as well as an international problem, Indonesia will take all diplomatic measures to resolve the Rohingya refugee problem by increasing cooperation with international organisations like United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) while pointing out, "all the ASEAN countries were bound by the ASEAN Charter which became effective on December 15 last year ( 2008), and the principles of the charter included upholding international law with respect to human rights, social justice and multilateral trade, besides emphasizing regional cooperation."

It may be mentioned that Rohingya problem is a long standing problem of religious, ethnic and political persecution by the Burmese regime with intent to rid Arakan of the Muslim population. Nearly half of Rohingya population of about 1.5 million are in Diaspora. Those who are at home are in sub-human condition facing crimes against humanity.

We hope the forthcoming ASEAN meeting in Bangkok will address the root causes of the long standing 'Rohingya problem' including the issues of the boatpeople, to find out for a 'permanent solution'.

For more information contact:

Nurul Islam

AFK Jilani

Email: info@rohingya.org,

www.rohingya.org

The silent moan of a Rohingya father (Father of a missing boatpeople)

2009-02-06T21:10:00.000-08:00

By Faisal Alam

The silent moan of a Rohingya father (Father of a missing boatpeople)

Nurul Alam, once early morning of November he walked away in the horizon from unregistered refugee camp (Kutupalong). For his asylum in Malaysia, Coz here in Bangladesh unregistered refugee camp; He caught between Snake (Burma) and Crocodile (Bangladesh). He dreaming he will get his right to live in Malaysia and can afford his parents. He took 7,000 Taka (100$) with him. And on board journey to Malaysia. Every morning when Nurul Alam's parents wake up, wait for any news about him will come to them.The sun raised and set more then 90 times his parents didn’t get any news about him. He is missing in the sea or in jail of Thailand or where they don’t know. Parents are thinking, He is in the belly of sea shark or human shark.

Why Nurul Alam became boatpeople

ARNO Welcomes the European Parliament Resolution on the Situation of Burmese Refugees in Thailand

2009-02-06T08:17:00.000-08:00

ARAKAN ROHINGYA NATIONAL ORGANISATION

ARAKAN, BURMA

Press Release

6th February 2009

ARNO Welcomes the European Parliament Resolution on the Situation of Burmese Refugees in Thailand

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation welcomes the European Parliament resolution of 5th February 2009 on the situation of Burmese refugees in Thailand. We also fully support the Media Release from Mr. Glenys Kinnock MEP, who led the European Parliament call for Thailand not to send Rohingya refugees back to Burma to face repression and torture.

In a Parliamentary resolution voted on 5th February, EU MPs also urged Thailand to ensure the refugees were treated according to humanitarian standards. They call on the Thai government to investigate a thorough and impartial enquiry into allegations of mistreatment of the Rohingya by the Thai military and to give the UN High Commissioner for Refugees immediate access to determine their needs. In addition the MPs condemned the Burmese regime for their continuous persecution of the ethnic group. They demanded the junta to restore the Burmese citizenship of the Rohingya, lift the restrictions on their right to education, right to get married, freedom of movement and to cease human rights violations across the country.

Mr. Glenys Kinnock said "the Rohingya have long suffered abuse at the hands of Burma's brutal military dictatorship. In desperation they have been driven to the sea only to be met with yet more cruelty and suffering. The conduct of the Thai military in this case is deeply concerning and the Thai government must investigate urgently to ensure no more vulnerable refugees are put at risk. This situation serves to underline the urgent need for recognition, protection and asylum for the refugees."

We are grateful to European Parliament and its MEPs for this timely resolution which is a source of inspiration for the persecuted Rohingya people.

The full text of the resolutions is:

The European Parliament,

- having regard to its previous resolutions on Burma and Thailand,

- having regard to Rule 115(5) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas hundreds of Rohingya (Burmese Muslim) refugees are feared dead after being pushed back into the sea by Thai authorities, according to human rights organisations based in Thailand,

B. whereas up to 200 people are missing and more than 300 others are believed to have died after they were set adrift by Thai soldiers,

C. whereas Thai military authorities have denied these accusations and Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has promised a full investigation,

D. whereas Rohingya face harsh treatment and discrimination by Burmese authorities as they are prohibited from travelling outside their native Arakan state,

E. whereas in the past few months, thousands of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Burma have allegedly been rounded up by Thai soldiers and transferred to an island off the coast of southern Thailand, near Ranong,

F. whereas on 19 January 2009, a 41-year-old Australian writer of Greek-Cypriot origin, Harry Nikolaides, was sentenced to three years' imprisonment in Thailand for "insulting the country's royal family" in a novel,

G. whereas Nikolaides told reporters that he had endured "unspeakable suffering" during his pretrial detention, as was evident when he appeared in court,

1. Calls on the Thai Government to take all measures necessary to ensure that the lives of Rohingya are not at risk and that they are treated in accordance with accepted international humanitarian standards;

2. Demands that the Government of Thailand not push the Rohingya refugees and asylum seekers, including the boat- people, back to Burma, where their lives will be in danger, and that it conduct an impartial inquiry and take appropriate action against those responsible for the loss of lives and tragedy of the boat-people;

3. Calls on the Government of Thailand to allow UNHCR access to the Rohingya boat-people in Thai custody to determine their status;

4. Stresses that the issue of the boat-people, which affects Thailand and other countries, is essentially a regional issue having an international perspective which needs to be addressed;

5. Calls on the Thai authorities to repair this flagrant human rights violation and to free immediately the writer Harry Nikolaides and allow him to return home;

6. Condemns the Burmese SPDC's continuous violations of human rights; demands that Burmese citizenship be restored to the Rohingya and that all restrictions on their right to education and freedom of movement be lifted immediately; demands a halt to religious persecution and the cessation of all human rights violations across the country;

7. Calls on the SPDC to start a genuinely all-inclusive democratic and political process, in accordance with the will of the people of Burma, and to free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, U Tin Oo, U Kyaw Min, U Khun Tun Oo and all political prisoners;

8. Calls for the immediate release of U Gambria, a known figure in the Burmese opposition who played a key-role in the large "monks' processions" of September 2007, which was violently repressed by the junta;

9. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Governments and Parliament of Thailand and Burma/Myanmar, the UNHRC and to Mr Harry Nikolaides.

Nurul Islam,

AFK Jilani,

Email: info@rohingya.org, www.rohingya.org

ARNO welcomes Motion on Rohingya Refugees in British Parliament

2009-02-05T05:55:00.000-08:00

ARAKAN ROHINGYA NATIONAL ORGANISATION

ARAKAN, BURMA

Press Release

5th February 2009

ARNO welcomes Motion on Rohingya Refugees in British Parliament

Arakan Rohingya National Organisation welcomes the Early Day Motion on Rohingya Refugees in British Parliament The Motion (EDM670) dated 3/2/09 states:

"That the House is appalled that Thailand's navy has left around 1,000 Rohingya refugees adrift in the ocean in boats without engine or food or water; is deeply concerned that hundreds may have died as a result; notes that the Rohingya people face severe persecution in Burma, including denial of citizenship, a ban on marriage without government permission, severe restrictions of movement, religious persecution, extortion, land confiscation and restrictions on access to education; and calls on Thailand to grant UNHCR access to Rohingya refugees in Thailand, to end forced repatriation and to allow Rohingya and other refugees in Thailand to claim asylum and be given sanctuary."

We are grateful to the Members of the British Parliament for this timely motion, which is counted upon as a great encouragement for the oppressed and persecuted Rohingya people of Arakan, Burma.

Nurul Islam

AFK Jilani

Email: info@rohingya.org, www.rohingya.org

Report of

AlJazeeraTV

Video link of Al JazeeraTV

The Rohingya people have the ‘right to exist’ in Arakan, illegitimate SPDC has no authority to decide their fate‏

2009-02-02T07:21:00.000-08:00

ARAKAN ROHINGYA NATIONAL ORGANISATION

ARAKAN, BURMA

Press Release

1^st February 2009

The Rohingya people have the 'right to exist' in Arakan, illegitimate SPDC has no authority to decide their fate

It is terrible that State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) again starts making false and concocted propaganda against the Rohingya people's 'right to exist' in Arakan, a clear sign of 'ethnic cleansing'. The regime is pretending not to hear the Rohingya's outcry and international reactions to stop systematic persecution of this ethnic Muslim community.

As appeared in the "New Light of Myanmar" dated 30 January, 2009 the SPDC has admitted to have launched series of operations over the decades against the Rohingyas under the prestext "to scrutinize the Bengali immigrants illegally immigrated into Rakhine region of Myanmar".

Under the pretext of scrutinizing so-called illegal immigrants, the regime has already killed, drowned and driven hundreds and thousands of Rohingya over the decades, which are well documented rousing international condemnations calling for actions. An estimated 1.5 million of Rohingya population are in Diaspora particularly in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Thailand and Malaysia. Let there be an independent international investigation team to determine the status of Rohingyas inside and outside the country. Human rights are universal and the SPDC cannot continue to deny us the 'right to exist' in our historical homeland. This is crime against humanity, an international crime with international jurisdiction.

To accuse the Rohingya Arakanese as Bangladeshi illegal immigrants is a clear indication of SPDC's hostility towards Bangladesh and is a provocative act against her. Being a country overburdened by the Rohingya influxes for nearly 60 years, and to nip it on the bud, Bangladesh should urgently protest and take up the issue in the world forums.

The SPDC's accusations are rebutted as follows:

Arakan found itself at the crossroads of two worlds: South Asia and Southeast Asia, between Muslim-Hindu Asia and Buddhist Asia, and amidst the Indo-Aryan and Mongoloid races. During its days as an independent kingdom until 1784, Arakan encompassed at times the Chittagong region in the southern part of today's Bangladesh.

History testifies that till 10th century the rulers and the ruled in Arakan were Indians similar to that of Bengal. Rohingya is the only race in Arakan who are similar to Bengalis. The independent kingdom of Arakan was ruled by Buddhists and Muslims in share and share a like.

Bengal ruled and influenced Arakan for centuries while Chittagong was under uninterrupted rule of the Arakanese for more than two hundred years. So, the presence and existence of Rohingya in Arakan, who look like Chittagonians cannot be taken unusual. Similarly it is not strange that there is existence of Rakhine, Marma, Chakma, in Chittagong region of Bangladesh.

Rohingya are a people whose settlement in Arakan dates back to 7th century A.D. They have developed from different stocks of people living en bloc in a common geographical location in Arakan well before the Burman's invasion in 1784. The area between Kaladan river and Naf river emerged as the "Traditional Homeland of Rohingya" before the British occupation of Arakan in 1824. During colonial period, the British Military Administration recognized the separate identity of Rohingya and declared the northern part of Arakan as the "Muslim National Area" vide publication Notice No. 11-OA-CC/42 dated 31 December 1942.

SPDC also states, "Around 1948, the illegal immigrants demanded that Myanmar designate Buthidaung and Maungtaw [Maungdaw] as their province". Of course, the Rohingya, like many other ethnic groups of Burma, demanded a state, under Burmese federation, in their 'Traditional Homeland' in between the Kaladan river and Naf river measuring about 4000 square miles, where Rohingya still predominate. They rose in arms when their peaceful legitimate demand was met with persecution and injustice. This was nothing wrong in a country where civil war is continuing till today.

In the statement the SPDC threatens that it will continue launching operation against so-called illegal immigrants. It is a clear signal that the regime will exterminate the remaining Rohingya population by forcibly dispossessing them of their land and their expulsion in the most in human manner.

We, therefore, appeal to the international community, United Nations, OIC, neighbouring countries, regional organisations, NGOs, human rights and humanitarian organisations to pressurise the SPDC to stop its systematic persecution of the Rohingyas and to respect their 'right to exist' in Arakan.

For more information contact:

Nurul Islam,

AFK Jilani,

Email: info@rohingya.org

More Rohingya land in Thailand, allege Burma abuse

2009-01-28T02:33:00.000-08:00

More Rohingya land in Thailand, allege Burma abuse

By Vithoon Amorn

Source : www.reuters.com

BANGKOK (Reuters) - More Rohingya migrants from Myanmar have arrived in Thailand and are being held by police rather than the army, which has towed hundreds of others far out to sea before abandoning them, police said Tuesday.

Police Colonel Veerasilp Kwanseng, head of Paknam district station in Ranong in southwest Thailand, said the navy had handed over 78 Rohingya, an oppressed Muslim minority from the former Burma's northwest.

It is not clear whether this is a change of policy or a publicity stunt widely shown on Thai television to defuse international outrage at persistent allegations of the army abandoning nearly 1,000 Rohingya at sea.

"Most of them were suffering from quite serious exhaustion and required medical assistance. We have local medics looking after them," he told Reuters. "Many had wounds on their bodies, but I don't know exactly what caused them."

Another officer said the migrants, a dozen of whom were under 18, had reported the wounds as whiplashes inflicted by officials in military-ruled Myanmar.

The group's handling by police is a break with the army's secretive processing of other Rohingya on a remote Andaman Sea island before towing them out to sea and abandoning them in rickety, engine-less boats.

A Rohingya rights group says 550 of nearly 1,000 towed out to sea by the army since early December are feared to have drowned.

NBT television showed pictures of the emaciated and exhausted men in the latest group being treated by medics and holding registration papers.

Veerasilp said the men, who were found floating near Thailand's Surin Islands after an unknown period at sea, would be prosecuted for illegal immigration.

The offence carries a fine of up to 2,000 baht, but is seldom enforced in the case of destitute migrants.

"ACCEPTABLE SOLUTION"

More than 230,000 Rohingya are living a precarious, stateless existence in Bangladesh, having fled decades of persecution at the hands of Myanmar's Buddhist generals, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

(UNHCR).

Tens of thousands more have left, often in rickety wooden boats, in search of a better life elsewhere. Many have ended up in Malaysia, where more than 14,000 are formally registered as refugees and thousands more work as casual laborers.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who has made much of putting human rights at the center of government but who relies on support from the army, said he wanted four-way talks between Thailand, Bangladesh, India and the UNHCR to address the problem.

"We must work out a solution acceptable to all parties but it must be stressed that we will not allow sustained illegal migration that may put our security at risk," he said, adding that the Foreign Ministry had been asked to approach the UNHCR.

His words do not seem to be getting through.

The UNHCR in Bangkok wrote a formal letter a week ago asking for access to a batch of 126 Rohingya in military custody, but is yet to hear a response to its request.

The army has told the government the group in question is no longer in the country.

A spokesman said Foreign Minister Kasit Piromyas was trying to arrange a meeting with UNHCR in Bangkok but was having problems due to his busy schedule.

However, Kasit has a meeting slated for February 2 with UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres in Geneva after this week's Davos World Economic Forum.

(Additional reporting and writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Bill Tarrant)