Rohingya The Rohingya are an ethnic, religious and linguistic minority in Burma/Myanmar inhabiting mostly North Arakan bordering

Bangladesh. Living over 7.5 million people inside and outside

. Due to widespread persecution, prejudice and ethnic cleansing inside Myanmar, nearly a half of the population (over 1.5 million) have been compelled to live in exile, particularly in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., Malaysia, and Thailand.

Stateless or rejection of citizen The Burmese military regime has declared the Rohingya non-nationals or non-citizens. The Burma Citizenship Law of 1982, which violates several fundamental principles of the customary international law, has reduced them to the status of Stateless. The Rohingya are recognized neither as citizens nor as foreigners. The Burmese

government also objects to them being described as stateless persons but appears to have created a special category: Myanmar residents, which is not a legal status. However, on more than one occasion, government officials have described them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. In 1998, in a letter to UNHCR, Burmas then Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt wrote:

These people are not originally from Myanmar but have illegally migrated to Myanmar because of population pressures in their own country. And a February 2009 article in the government-owned New Light of Myanmar newspaper stated that In Myanmar there is no national race by the name of Rohinja. Deprivation of citizenship has served as a key strategy to justify arbitrary treatment and discriminatory policies against the Rohingya. Severe restrictions on Rohingyas movements are increasingly applied. Rohingyas are banned from employment in the civil service, including in the education and health sectors. In 1994, the authorities stopped issuing Rohingya children with birth certificates. By the late 1990s, official marriage authorizations were made mandatory. Infringement of these stringent rules can result in long prison sentences. Other coercive measures such as forced

labour, arbitrary taxation and confiscation of land, also practiced elsewhere in Burma, are imposed on the Rohingya population in a disproportionate manner. Restrictions of movement The Rohingyas are virtually confined to their village tracts. They need to apply for a travel pass even to visit a neighboring village and they have to pay for the pass. Travel is strictly restricted to North Arakan. Even Sittwe, the state capital, has been declared off-limits for them. Their lack of mobility has devastating consequences, limiting their access to markets, employment opportunities, health facilities and higher education. Those who overstay the time allowed by their travel pass are prevented from returning to their village as their names are deleted from their family list. They are then obliterated administratively and compelled to leave Burma. Some Rohingyas have been prosecuted under national security legislation for travelling without permission. Rohingyas are also forbidden to travel to Bangladesh, although in practice obtaining a travel pass to a border village and then crossing clandestinely into Bangladesh has proved easier than reaching Sittwe. But, similarly, those caught doing so could face a jail sentence there for illegal entry. Many people, including patients seeking medical treatment in Bangladesh, were unable to return home when, during their absence, their names were cancelled on their family list. Once outside Burma, Rohingyas are systematically denied the right to return to their country. Marriage authorisations In the late 1990s, a local order was issued in North Arakan, applying exclusively to the Muslim population, requiring couples planning to marry to obtain official permission from the local authorities usually the NaSaKa, Burmas Border Security Force. Marriage authorizations are granted on the payment of fees and bribes and can take up to several years to obtain. This is beyond the means of the poorest. This local order also prohibits any cohabitation or sexual contact outside wedlock. It is not backed by any domestic legislation but breaching it can lead to prosecution, punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment. In 2005, as the NaSaKa was reshuffled following the ousting of General Khin Nyunt, marriage authorizations were completely suspended for several months. When they restarted issuing them in late 2005, additional conditions were attached including the stipulation that couples

have to sign an undertaking not to have more than two children. The amount of bribes and time involved in securing a marriage permit keeps increasing year after year. The consequences have been dramatic, particularly on women. Rohingya women who become pregnant without official marriage authorization often resort to backstreet abortions, an illegal practice in Burma, which has resulted in many maternal deaths. Others register their newborn child with another legally married couple, sometimes their own parents. Some deliver the baby secretly in Bangladesh and abandon their baby there. Many children are reportedly unregistered. Many young couples, unable to obtain permission to marry, flee to Bangladesh in order to live together. Education and health care As non-citizens, the Rohingya are excluded from government employment in health and education and those public services are appallingly neglected in North Arakan. Schools and clinics are mostly attended by Rakhine or Burmese staff who are unable to communicate in the local language and who often treat Rohingyas with contempt. International humanitarian agencies are not allowed to train Muslim health workers, not even auxiliary midwives. Some Rohingya teach in government schools, paid with rice-paddy under a food-for-work programme as they cannot hold an official, remunerated teachers post. Restrictions of movement have a serious impact on access to health and education. Even in emergencies, Rohingyas must apply for travel permission to reach the poorly equipped local hospital. Access to better medical facilities in Sittwe hospital is denied. Referral of critically ill patients is practically impossible. Consequently, patients who can afford it have sought medical treatment in Bangladesh but are sometimes unable to return to their village. Likewise, there are few secondary schools in North Arakan and pupils need travel permission to study outside their village. The only university is in Sittwe. After 2001, most students could no longer attend classes and had to rely on distance learning, only being allowed to travel to Sittwe to sit examinations. Since 2005, however, even that has been prohibited. Not surprisingly, illiteracy among the Rohingyas is high, estimated at 80%. For the Rohingya, the compounded effect of these various forms of persecution has driven many into dire poverty and their degrading conditions have caused mental distress, pushing them to flee across the border to Bangladesh.

In exile In Bangladesh, the 28,000 Rohingyas still remaining in two camps are recognized as refugees and benefit from limited protection and assistance by UNHCR but it is estimated that up to 200,000 more live outside the camps. Bangladesh considers them as irregular migrants and they have no access to official protection. The combination of their lack of status in Bangladesh and their statelessness in Burma puts them at risk of indefinite detention. Several hundred Rohingyas are currently languishing in Bangladeshi jails arrested for illegal entry. Most are still awaiting trial, sometimes for years. Dozens have completed their sentences but remain in jail called released prisoners as they cannot be officially released and deported, since Burma refuses to re-admit them.3 Tens of thousands of Rohingyas have sought out opportunities overseas, in the Middle East and increasingly in Malaysia, using Bangladesh as a transit country. Stateless and undocumented, they have no other option than relying on unsafe illegal migration channels, falling prey to unscrupulous smugglers and traffickers, or undertaking risky journeys on boats.4 In Malaysia or Thailand, the Rohingyas have no access to protection. They are regularly caught in immigration crackdowns and end up in the revolving door of informal deportations. Since Burma would not take them back, Thailand has occasionally deported Rohingya boat people unofficially into border areas of Burma controlled by insurgent groups. Malaysia usually deports them over the border into Thailand in the hands of brokers. Against the payment of a fee, they are smuggled back into Thailand or Malaysia and those unable to pay are sold into slavery on fishing boats or plantations. In December 2008, Thailand started implementing a new policy of pushing back Rohingya boat people to the high seas. In at least three separate incidents, 1,200 boat people were handed over to the Thai military on a deserted island off the Thai coast and ill-treated before being towed out to sea on boats without an engine and with little food andwater. After drifting for up to two

weeks, three boats were finally rescued in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India and two boats in Aceh province of Indonesia. More than 300 boat people are reportedly missing, believed to have drowned. The issuing of a TRC to Rohingyas has been praised as a first step towards citizenship. On 10 May 2008,the Rohingya were allowed to vote in the constitutional referendum but ironically the new Constitution, which was approved, does not contain any provisions granting them citizenship rights. There is no political will for the Rohingya to be accepted as Burmese citizens in the foreseeable future. Recommendations
On 2 April 2007, six UN Special Rapporteurs put out a joint statement addressing the Rohingya situation and called upon the Burmese government to: repeal or amend the 1982Citizenship Law to ensure compliance of its legislation with the countrys international human rights obligations, including Article 7 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child and Article 9 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women;take urgent measures to eliminate discriminatory practices against the Muslim minority in North Rakhine[Arakan] State, and to ensure that no further discrimination is carried out against persons belonging to this community. In addition, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Thailand should put in place effective mechanisms to allow Rohingyas access to protection as refugees.

Burmese military has a systemic program by the ruling Myanmar regime to alter the demography of Rohingya homeland of North Arakan. This includes extermination of the Rohingya population, confiscation and demolition of Rohingya properties, and construction of Pagodas, monasteries and Government buildings on the sites of demolished mosques and Muslim shrines, and confiscated Rohingya properties. Hundreds of thousands of stateless Rohingyas have fled brutal oppression in Burma.

Impoverished Bangladesh already witnessed two mass exoduses of 250,000 Rohingya refugees in 1978 and again in 1991/92, which were followed by forced repatriation. Today, 28,000 remain in two precarious refugee camps assisted by the UNHCR and a few NGOs. But the exodus has never stopped and new arrivals do not have access to the existing refugee camps and there is no mechanism for them to seek protection. The unregistered Rohingya An estimated 200,000 unregistered Rohingya refugees have settled among the local population, in slums and villages mostly throughout Coxs Bazar District but also in smaller numbers in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, eking out a hand-to-mouth existence without any humanitarian assistance, vulnerable to exploitation and arrest. While keeping them invisible and portraying them as economic migrants, Bangladesh has generally tolerated their presence, but anti-Rohingya sentiments have steadily grown among the local population, manipulated by the local political elite and the media. Current news of unregistered refugee camp

Three days of heavy rain has destroyed many residential huts in the unregistered Rohingya refugee camp of Kutupalong ,quoted Kaladan press news (5th July-2011). The unregistered Rohingya refugees are now facing difficulties to live in their shacks as the roofs of the shacks have been damaged by wind and heavy rain. When the rain falls inside the shacks, the refugees cant stay inside. The refugees are also facing food shortages as the rain doesnt allow the refugees to work outside the camp to collect firewood, pull rickshaws, etc. Some huts were completely destroyed by the heavy rain and wind, so the refugees cant sleep in their huts. The refugees are not able to rebuild their shacks because of severe lack of finances. There is no way for them. They will face starvation if they use their only money to rebuild their shacks, said a refugee committee member. In the rainy season, most refugees are suffering from fever, cough, and pneumonia. Rohingya in Bangladesh are currently victim to unprecedented levels of violence and attempts at forced repatriation. Recent weeks have seen people arrive in their thousands at Kutupalong makeshift camp, as they flee what appears to be a violent crackdown on Rohingya presence in the country.
In the name of setting up model villages Rohingya properties are being handed out to outsiders while the original Rohingya owners are forcibly displaced. There is also a concerted effort to rename Muslim towns and places with Buddhist names so that Muslim or Islamic heritage of these places is lost forever to future generations. De-Muslimization: Of particular concern is the fact that as of 2004, Rohingya villagers are forced to practice Buddhism and take part in various Buddhist festivities. As has been confirmed lately by the US State Department Report on Religious Freedom Report, November 8, 2005, there is a Burmese Government campaign to convert or Burmanize ethnic minority regions through coercion or otherwise. The campaign has coincided with increased military presence in the region. The SPDC troops have intensified their attacks on the Rohingya and Islam. In particular, they target the Rohingya Ulema (religious leaders), women and youngsters. Last year, in Maungdaw Township, after a Rohingya girl was reaped by Buddhists, when Rohingya religious leaders condemned the matter, they were arrested. Subsequently, one of the religious teachers was tortured to death in detention. Most of the Rohingya-community leaders are now serving long prison times on false charges, related to citizenship. Others are forced to opt for a life of uncertainty as refugees outside. Mosques and Muslim holy shrines have been demolished all over Arakan. All these crimes are done so as to efface Islamic heritage and Muslim identity of the Arakan. To expedite this criminal objective, often times Buddhist-Muslim riots are engineered that invariably result in heavy losses to Muslim lives and properties. Anti-Muslim propagandas are routinely fed in the government controlled media. As of February 2003, books and taped speeches, insulting Islam and Muslims, have become quite common and are being openly sold and distributed. Even Muslim cemeteries are not immune from desecration and abuses of the government. Buddhist dead bodies are now routinely buried at Muslim cemeteries, while the Rohingya are forced to pay the funeral fees. Lack of Religious Freedom

The SPDC restricts most Islamic religious services and has frequently abused the right to religious freedom. Muslim students attending state-run elementary schools are required to recite Buddhist prayer daily. Authorities often refuse requests for gatherings to celebrate traditional Muslim holidays and restrict the number of Muslims that can gather in one place. In 2002, local authorities scheduled demolition of nearly 40 mosques and religious community centers in Arakan. Thirteen mosques were destroyed before the authorities desisted at the request of the UNHCR. The Government subsequently gave permission to repair existing mosques in some area. However, to ensure that destroyed mosques were not rebuilt, they were replaced with government-owned buildings, monasteries, and Buddhist temples. Rohingyas are not allowed to construct new places of worship. They experience tremendous difficulties in obtaining permission to repair existing mosques. They cannot import religious literature into the country. Muslim religious leaders are routinely arrested or harassed. All these are done meticulously so that within a few years the Rohingya will lose touch with their Islamic heritage. Depopulation: The SPDC authorities have been making efforts to dilute Rohingya population by practicing what may more appropriately be called genocidal campaigns to ethnically cleanse the Rohingyas from their ancestral lands. Frequently, they launch drive operation, create communal riots, and make forced relocation to sweep off the Muslim population. They force Buddhist-Burmans to relocate into Muslim territories. Certain townships, such as Thandwe, Gwa, and Taung-gut, have been declared Muslim-free-zones by government decree in 1983. There are still originalresident Muslims living in Thandwe, but new Muslims are not allowed to buy property or reside in the township. Muslims are no longer permitted to reside in Taung-gut and Gwa. In January of 2005, Government authorities led Buddhist monks to attack Rohingyas in Kyauk Pyu just before the Muslim Eid holidays. Two Muslims were killed and Muslim homes and properties were destroyed. In May 2004, local Buddhist villagers in Kyun Su Township attacked and destroyed properties of 14 Muslim families. Despite a complaint from Muslim leaders, the Government did not take any action to stop the violence. Many immoral and deplorable measures (like denying rights to or delaying marriage) are also routinely applied by the Government agencies against the Rohingya population to reduce and control their birth rates. But more appalling is the fact that rape of Rohingya women by Buddhists (civilians and military alike), committed in public or in detention camps or training centers, is encouraged and included as an official military strategy to depopulate Rohingyas from their ancestral homes. Because of the devastating effect rape has on the Rohingya community, rape is becoming an effective weapon to terrorize the Rohingya community and convince them to flee or leave Burma. It is the most horrendous and degrading way of Ethnic Cleansing. Unfortunately, without any international agency to monitor and take effective measures to stop this crime against humanity, this method of ethnic cleansing is succeeding. Confiscation of land: Large tracts of Rohingya farmlands, including Waqf (Endowed) properties, have been confiscated. The Rohingya villagers are frequently uprooted and relocated from their ancestral land. Hundreds and thousands of confiscated lands belonging to the Rohingya have been distributed among the Buddhist settlers who are invited from both inside and outside the Arakan, including nearby Bangladesh. Some of the confiscated lands are used for military establishments. These atrocious measures have forced the Rohingya to become increasingly landless, internally displaced and to eventually starve - forcing them out to cross the border into nearby Bangladesh for life and shelter. Militarization:

The North Arakan has turned into a militarized zone with increased violations of human rights. Forced labor still exists despite increasing pressure from ILO. The armed forces routinely confiscate property, cash and crop from the Rohingya. The Rohingya people are exploited as forced laborers into building military establishment, roads, bridges, embankments, pagodas, schools dispensaries and ponds without earning any wage. They are not only forced to Contribute their farmlands, agricultural tools, cattle, house-building materials and funds to the new settlers but also forced to pay for Buddhist festivals held every so often. The forced labor situation has become so excruciating that the Rohingya have been rendered jobless and shelter-less. Restriction of Movement: There is restriction on movement of the Rohingya inside Myanmar. They cannot go outside the Arakan, nor are they allowed freedom of movement within Arakan from one place to another without permission from the local authority. This humiliating restriction has further been tightened by the regime. No Rohingya is permitted to travel to Rangoon or Myanmar (Burma) proper even on serious medical ground. This inhuman measure has forcibly divided many Rohingya families. It has seriously affected them in all their national activitiessocial, cultural, religious and educational. Deprivation of Rights to Education: Since promulgation of the new Burma Citizenship Law in 1982, the Rohingya students are denied their basic rights to education. The Government reserves secondary education for citizens only. The Rohingya do not have access to state-run schools beyond primary education. They cannot pursue higher studies while professional courses are also barred to them. It is important to point out that all professional institutes are situated outside Arakan. Thus, the Rohingya students are unable to study there because of such travel prohibition. Rohingya students, who passed the selection tests and got formal admission into various institutions of learning, located in Rangoon and Burma proper, are unable to pursue their studies as they are disallowed to travel. The Rohingya are restricted from even religious learning. Many local Imams (religious leaders) have been arrested for conducting group classes or prayers. In recent years, the Rohingya students are prohibited from even going to Akyab (Sittwe), the capital of Arakan, to attend Sittwe University for their studies. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya students face uncertainty with their future studies. These draconian measures, barring the Rohingyas from attending university and professional institutes, are marginalizing them as the most illiterate section within the Myanmar population. They cannot find jobs in civil service, military and most professional areas requiring higher education, and are, therefore, forced to embrace a very bleak future. Restriction on Marriage of Rohingya: Since 1988, the Government has permitted only 3 marriages per year per village in the primary Rohingya townships of Buthidaung and Maungdaw in northern Arakan State. Later the Government extended this edict to other townships of the Arakan. In todays Myanmar, imposition of restriction on marriage between Rohingya couples has further intensified resulting in human rights violations. For example, not a single marriage contract was allowed in May 2005. Without huge sums of bribe money, unbearable for most Rohingyas to pay, even an ordinary permission to get married is impossible to obtain. Yet, after such payments, thousands of applications for the permission to get married remain pending in Maungdaw and Buthidaung Townships. But, today, the condition of marriage is terrifying. The SPDC Government requires that every Rohingya be registered before they marry. The women applicants are then required to attend a government-sponsored training program in

camps and centers that can last for 3 or more days, away from their family members. It is in these camps and centers, that Rohingya women are raped by people affiliated with the camps and centers. These camps have, in essence, become the slave camps with the only difference that women are then returned to their families. This practice is done in order to humiliate and terrorize these women and their family, and force them to leave Burma and migrate to Bangladesh. Arbitrary Taxation: Traditionally, Rohingyas are a farming community that depends on agricultural produce and breeding of cattle and fowls as domestic livestock. They are taxed heavily on food grains, including their main staple food rice, and various agricultural produce. Recently the authorities have imposed a new taxation that included taxes levied on everything that a Rohingya may possess from shrimp, vegetable, tree, animal or bird (for cow, buffalos, goats, and fowl) to roof and house. Even for a minor repair of their homes, they are forced to pay tax. They are required to report birth and death of a livestock to the authority while paying a fee. The Rohingya have to pay taxes on everything, from cutting bamboos or woods in the jungle to fishing in the rivers and breeding of animas at homesteads. Other forms of Human Rights Abuses: Widespread violations of human rights against the ethnic Rohingya continue unabated even in places not out of the sight of the UNHCR. In fact, there is no security of life, property, honor and dignity of the Rohingya. Extra-judicial killing and summery executions, humiliating movement restriction, rape of women, arrest and torture, forced labor, forced relocation, confiscation of moveable and immoveable properties, religious sacrileges, etc., are regular occurrences in Arakan. As a result, severe poverty, unemployment, lack of education and official discrimination are negatively affecting every Rohingya, especially its youths and workforces. The future of the community remains bleak and exodus into Bangladesh has become a recurrent theme. Forced Eviction and Refugee Exodus: Forced eviction of the Rohingya villagers is launched occasionally throughout the year. Many centuries-old Rohingya settlements have already been uprooted throughout the North Arakan. The exodus of the Rohingya into Bangladesh constitutes human rights violations. They are merely branded as economic migrants without realizing their unbearable plights. The new arrivals often face arrests and/or pushback from the Bangladesh security forces. Due to poor condition within the refugee camps, sometimes tense situation has surfaced between camp authorities and the refugees, resulting in the detention, arrest and punishment of many refugees. Refugees in Bangladesh: In Bangladesh today there are approximately 20,000 documented Rohingya refugees, out of a quarter million that had arrived in 1991-2, escaping military persecution in Burma. They live in two camps of Kutupalong and Nayapara. Most of the original refugees were forcibly repatriated into the lawless country of Burma, where they continue to face all sorts of human rights abuse in the hands of Myanmar authority. The remaining refugees have refused to return because they fear human rights abuses, including religious persecution. Unfortunately, the condition within those two refugee camps is not great and lack adequate facilities for a healthy living. Children are deprived of their basic education and healthcare. Besides, hundreds of thousands of undocumented Rohingya are living outside these two camps in sub-human condition with all their uncertainty. Many refugees are camped at a roadside facility at Teknaf, a border town in south-

east end of Bangladesh under unpleasant conditions. Unfortunately, there is no help from any quarter for these refugees. These refugees are also blocked from nominal opportunities of re-settlement in a third country or settlement within Bangladesh. The NGOs, international human rights and humanitarian bodies are not allowed to visit the areas of undocumented refugees. Situation in other countries: There is no international agency to look after the interest of the stateless Rohingya. Because of their lack of legal identity, they are not allowed to work or hold work permit by any name. An estimated 15-20,000 Rohingyas work as illegal workers in Thailand. Their children are deprived of basic human rights. In other parts of the world the situation is not much better because of lack of their citizenship. Final Words:

There is a very systemic, organized, concerted and criminal design by the SPDC authorities, which can appropriately be termed as ethnic cleansing, genocide and socio-cultural degradation of the Rohingya people in Arakan state of Myanmar. If the process of marginalization and gross violations of human rights against the Rohingya people are allowed to continue there wont be a single Rohingya left in Arakan within the next fifty years. They will be an extinct community, much like the fate of the native population of Tasmania. Since 1999, the USA has designated Burma as a Country of Particular Concern under the International Religious Freedom Act for particularly severe violations of religious freedom. It is high time that the world body take appropriate measures so that the basic human rights of the Rohingya people are protected and guaranteed under the UN supervision. Date: December 20, 2005 Stateless Rohingya in Bangladesh are currently victim to unprecedented levels of violence and attempts at forced repatriation. Recent weeks have seen people arrive in their thousands at Kutupalong makeshift camp, as they flee what appears to be a violent crackdown on Rohingya presence in the country. At its clinic in Kutupalong, Coxs Bazaar, medical organisation Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF) has treated victims of beatings and harassment by the authorities and members of the community; people who have been driven from their shelters throughout the district and in some cases forced back into the river which forms the border to neighbouring Myanmar. Since October, the camp has grown by 6,000 people, with 2,000 of these arriving in January alone. Without official recognition, they are prevented from supporting themselves, and are not permitted to receive official relief. As the numbers swell, nearly 29,000 people find themselves camped on a patch of ground with no infrastructure to support them, posing a serious threat to health. Action is needed now to stop this humanitarian crisis. MSF has delivered healthcare to the Rohingya and their host communities in Bangladesh since 1992. The Rohingya in Bangladesh For decades, thousands of Rohingya, an ethnic and religious minority from Myanmar, have sought refuge in Bangladesh. Today, despite the well-known situation in their country of origin, just 28,000 of these are recognised as prima facie refugees by the Government of Bangladesh, and live in official camps under the supervision of UNHCR. In sharp contrast, an estimated 220,000 others struggle to survive unrecognised and largely unassisted. Despite fleeing the very same circumstances as their counterparts in the official refugee camps, these people are forced to live as illegal migrants, vulnerable to ill health, exploitation and abuse. The agreement between the Government and UNHCR

restricts the latters activities to the 28,000 registered refugees. And UNHCR, mandated to protect refugees worldwide, makes little visible protest at the injustice of this situation. The majority of Rohingya in Bangladesh reside in Coxs Bazaar, an overcrowded and resource-poor area bordering Myanmar. While thousands of self-settled Rohingya have lived in the local community for years, they are largely perceived as a burden on already scant resources and a threat to the local job market through the provision of cheap labour. Their unpopularity, fuelled by the local media, makes them an easy punch ball for unscrupulous local politicians wishing to score political points. The Kutupalong makeshift camp In 2009, MSF was alerted to a large number of unregistered refugees gathering in desperate circumstances on the periphery of the UNHCR supported refugee camp at Kutupalong. When MSF made its first exploratory assessment in early March, it found over 20,000 people, 90% of whom were severelyfood insecure. Malnutrition and mortality rates were past emergency thresholds, and people had little access to safe drinking water, sanitation or medical care. In response, MSF immediately initiated an emergency humanitarian action, treating severely malnourished children, offering basic healthcare and improving water sources and waste facilities. Within one month, MSF had enrolled over 1,000 malnourished children in its therapeutic feeding programme, and treated around 4,000 under five year old children in its out-patients department. Since then, the project has developed into a fuller basic healthcare programme, including outpatient and inpatient care and community outreach services, in accordance with the prevalent medical needs of people in the newly established makeshift camp and surrounding area.

Violent crackdown on unregistered Rohingya In June/July 2009, local authorities demolished shelters and forcibly removed their inhabitants in an attempt to clear a space around the perimeter of the official UNHCR camp at Kutupalong. MSF witnessed firsthand violence against the unregistered Rohingya, and provided medical care for some of the consequences. At the time MSF treated 27 people who presented at the clinic with violence-related injuries, the youngest being a five day old child who had been thrown to the ground. Then, last October, MSF again began to receive unregistered Rohingya patients suffering from violence related injuries in the Kutupalong clinic. This time patients told stories of being driven from their homes in Bandarban district, many of which were physically destroyed by the authorities. Some of them spoke of having been forced into the river Naf and told to swim back to Myanmar. In January of this year, patients started to arrive from Coxs Bazar district with similar stories. To add to the brutality of the authorities, the Rohingya also suffer at the hands of the local population, whose antiRohingya sentiment is fuelled by local leadersand the media. Throughout this period, MSF has treated patients for beatings, for machete wounds, and for rape. This is continuing today. I thought I ran away to find shelter, but before even staying one week thieves came and robbed me of the money I had, cut us with machetes and wanted us to die. Where do I run to now?, asked a patient being treated for open wounds at the MSF clinic. Humanitarian crisis at the makeshift camp Today, scared and with nowhere else to go, Rohingya are arriving in their thousands at Kutupalong makeshift camp. Of those arriving at the camp, some are women travelling alone with children, whose husbands went out to work and did not return. With no way of feeding their family they risked arrest to travel to Kutupalong seeking protection in numbers. I used to think I had a home but after two months of constant threats from people I have lived with for 15 years since leaving Myanmar I had to move. I felt sad and came to the makeshift camp. I lost my belongings but my life and family comes first, explained one patient who had recently arrived at the makeshift camp.

Since October the camp has grown by over 25% (almost 6,000 people), 2,000 arriving in January alone. With a total population of over 28,400, the unregistered Rohingya at Kutupalong makeshift camp now outnumber the total registered refugee population supported by UNHCR in Bangladesh. 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 UNHCRsupported food relief. As the numbers swell and resources become increasingly scarce, the cramped and unsanitary living conditions pose a significant risk to peoples health. Forced back to Myanmar On 24 October, MSF staff treated four refugees from the makeshift camp for trauma injuries. According to the patients, they had been stopped by police at night and asked to show their papers. On finding they had none, they reported being forced into a police van, beaten and finally pushed into the Naf River, which forms the border to neighbouring Myanmar, and told to go back to their country. After hiding in the water for some time, they managed to return to the MSF clinic for help. In this case, the people had been able to make their way back to Kutupalong to seek medical care for the injuries they had incurred. However, reports of people being pushed back across the border to meet an unknown fate are many. Attempts at forced repatriation by the Bangladesh border security forces (BDR) are well documented by the local media, and are repeated in the stories of unregistered Rohingya throughout the Coxs Bazaar district. Such actions clearly go against the principle of nonrefoulement as laid down by international law. History repeats itself This is not the first time that MSF has witnessed large numbers of unregistered Rohingya gathering in desperate circumstances, vulnerable to ill health, exploitation and abuse. In 2002, when MSF was working in one of the official camps, the police operation Operation Clean Heart saw unregistered Rohingya violently forced from their homes, and led to the establishment of the original Tal makeshift camp on a swamp-like patch of ground. This camp relocated, and in Spring 2006 MSF started a medical programme at the new site, where at the time around 5,700 unregistered Rohingya (a number which continued to rise) lived in atrocious unsanitary conditions on a small strip of flood-land in Teknaf, Coxs 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 to move to in mid-2008. Less than one year later and nearly 13,000 people live in Leda Bazar Camp, their fundamental condition having changed little. Today people continue to struggle to survive without recognition and opportunities to provide for themselves, within an increasingly hostile environment. Ultimately, the plight of the unregistered Rohingya in Kutupalong and elsewhere in Bangladesh is part of a larger, chronic problem on which none of the relevant actors have chosen to act. Stemming from Myanmar, the issue has developed into a regional challenge on which the health and dignity of countless vulnerable people depends. In 2002, MSF organised a photo exhibition to mark 10 years of an unacceptable situation for these people: caught between a crocodile and a snake. Incredibly, although another eight years have passed, nothing has fundamentally changed for the Rohingya. They remain trapped in a desperate situation with no future, vulnerable to neglect, abuse and manipulation, and to the kind of intense violent crackdowns they are suffering right now. Urgent action by those responsible As the persecution of the Rohingya continues, and a humanitarian crisis intensifies, it is imperative that the Government of Bangladesh act immediately to stop the violence and provide this highly vulnerable people with the protection to which they are entitled. In addition, the Government of Bangladesh must stop the practise of forcing the unregistered Rohingya back to Myanmar in contravention of international law. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees needs to take greater steps to protect the unregistered Rohingya seeking asylum in Bangladesh. UNHCR must not allow the terms of its agreement with the government to undermine its role as international protector of those who have lost the protection of their state, or who have no state to turn to. To date, the absence of a clear UN policy to tackle the crisis has left large numbers of highly vulnerable people at risk; this, in-spite of

continued efforts by MSF to alert UNHCR to the humanitarian needs and unacceptable abuses taking place Regional powers have a key role in addressing the more fundamental problem. As the Thai boat crisis of 2009 made clear, regional solutions are needed to the situation of the stateless Rohingya. And the international community must support the Government of Bangladesh and UNHCR to adopt measures to guarantee the unregistered Rohingyas lasting dignity and wellbeing while they remain in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a densely populated country, in which the Bandarban and Cox's Bazar Districts are amongst the poorest. Strong competition over work, living space and resources is inevitable at a local level. To find ways to overcome these issues and ensure the provision of adequate protection and assistance necessitates strong financial and political support from donor and regional countries

The letter with the five points was submitted by the 53 Muslim leaders to the prime minister during a meeting that was held at the Maungdaw Township administration office on Monday. "The meeting was conducted especially for the Muslim leaders by the Arakan State prime minister during his visit to Maungdaw. About 100 Muslim leaders were able to attend the meeting where the 53 leaders submitted the letter to the prime minister," the official said. The five demands by the Muslim leaders are: Recognize Muslims as an ethnic nationality; Issue national ID cards; Allow free travel for Muslims; Remove restrictions on marriage; Allow renovation of mosques. "Prime Minister U Hla Maung Tin responded to the letter in the meeting but did not agree to fulfill all the demands. But, he instructed the director of the immigration department to issue traveling documents to the Muslim community. He also said issuing national identity cards would be impossible right now, as he needs permission from the central government," the official added. The demands came out at the meeting because candidates from the government-backed USDP promised to provide many opportunities such as recognition as citizens and national identity cards for the Muslim community if their party won. Muslims in northern Arakan State have been facing many restrictions imposed by local government authorities, such as not being allowed to travel or marry without permission, and bans on the renovation of mosques.

Rohingya face difficulties with new Maungdaw resettlement program

Wednesday, 02 March 2011 12:41

By Tin Soe Maungdaw, Arakan State: The Rohingya community in Maungdaw is facing difficulties from the Burmese authorities new resettlement program in Maungdaw, said an elder from Maungdaw. Kyaw Aye, a Rakhine community member who hails from block no. 3 of Maungdaw, is a resettlement program agent. He oversees the building of new homes and the repair of old homes in model villages (locally called Natala Villages). The agent is now forcing the Rohingya community to build houses for newcomers to Maungdaw, the elder said. The agent gave orders to the village authorities concerning where model villages had to be built. A new model village in Shweza Village for 200 families who will come this month is being set up, said a village authority from Maungdaw. The model villagers come with the hope of getting free food and assets like land, tractors, rickshaws, and three-wheels taxies, but later the model villagers secretly leave the model villages after selling their properties. Now, the agent is calling laborers to build new houses and repair the old ones which have been left by model villagers. The Rohingya laborers do not receive any wages for this work, even though the agent receives funds for the program from concerned departments, said an NGO worker from Maungdaw. The agent is using the name of the Maungdaw Township Authorities to get the building materials from the Maungdaw market without paying any money. The agent takes a lot of materials from the Rohingya communitys building materials shops. However, he never takes any materials from shops with Rakhine owners. The Rohingya community has to pay for, or give freely, land, labor, food, and materials for the new model villages. Even so, the new model villagers harass the Rohingya villagers in many ways. The SPDCs policy of establishing model villages in northern Arakan State to be populated with Burmans from Burma Proper and Rakhine from Bangladesh and inside Arakan State has resulted in the confiscation of lands from the Rohingya community. The building of model villages reportedly intensified after the formation of the Burma Border Security Force, or Nasaka, in 1992. At present, over 100 model villages have been built in northern Arakan State. These model villages were built with the forced labor of Rohingya people. Besides, the villagers have to provide money, rations, generators, cattle, and materials for house buildings for the newcomers. Moreover, the Nasaka has seized grazing pastures belonging to the Rohingya community to distribute to model villagers, said a

politician from Maungdaw. These atrocious measures have forced the Rohingya to become landless Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), and in some cases to face starvation forcing them out to cross the border into nearby Bangladesh for life and shelter. The Burmese authorities have plans to turn northern Arakan State into a Buddhist-majority area. They are causing a serious demographic imbalance by bringing in new settlers.

NDPD files case against USDP in Buthidaung

Tuesday, 04 January 2011 12:29 Maungdaw, Arakan State: The National Democratic Party for Development (NDPD) filed a case on December 30 at the Naypyidaw Union Election Commission office against the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) for rigging votes during the November 7 national election, according to an officer from Buthidaung. Abu Taher, a Buthidaung NDPD candidate for the upper house (Pyithu Hluttaw) filed a case against Shwe Maung, an elected upper house member of the USDP, for pilfering votes in the 2010 election. Abu Taher believes he received 20,000 more votes than Shwe Maung, yet Shwe Maung was declared the winner, the officer said. The Union Election Commission office received the allegation case against Shwe Maung and issued a letter with reference number 2/RAKAPAKHA 1/KAMARA(6) on December 31. The case will be heard on January 17 at Constitutional Tribunal # 9 at 9:00 a.m., according to an officer from Election Commission office. According to the complaints file, NDPD candidate Abu Taher claims that USDP elected Pyithu Hluttaw member Shwe Maung rigged votes through Village Peace and Development Council members, polling booth supervisors, and local USDP members while the locals were coerced to vote for the USDP. Abu Taher claims that the NDPD has the full data from 164 out of 222 total voting stations. The NDPD candidate says that he received 49,000 votes with 12,000 spoilt votes, whereas USDP member Shwe Maung received 40,000 votes with 549 spoilt votes, yet Shwe Maung announced that he received 46,000 votes, according to complaints file. The counting was conducted in front of all party candidates, and all concerned officers signed off on the results. In advance votes the USDP member Shwe Maung got only 1593 votes, but announced receiving

5577 votes, the complaints file mentioned. The State Election Commission office announced on December 12 that the USDP member Shwe Maung won the seat in the upper house (Pyithu Hluttaw) for Buthidaung, but this was done without the agreement of the NDPD candidates. We dont know what will happen after the case is heard in Naypyidaw, said an NDPD organizer from Buthidaung.

NDPD files case against USDP in Buthidaung

Tuesday, 04 January 2011 12:29 Maungdaw, Arakan State: The National Democratic Party for Development (NDPD) filed a case on December 30 at the Naypyidaw Union Election Commission office against the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) for rigging votes during the November 7 national election, according to an officer from Buthidaung. Abu Taher, a Buthidaung NDPD candidate for the upper house (Pyithu Hluttaw) filed a case against Shwe Maung, an elected upper house member of the USDP, for pilfering votes in the 2010 election. Abu Taher believes he received 20,000 more votes than Shwe Maung, yet Shwe Maung was declared the winner, the officer said. The Union Election Commission office received the allegation case against Shwe Maung and issued a letter with reference number 2/RAKAPAKHA 1/KAMARA(6) on December 31. The case will be heard on January 17 at Constitutional Tribunal # 9 at 9:00 a.m., according to an officer from Election Commission office. According to the complaints file, NDPD candidate Abu Taher claims that USDP elected Pyithu Hluttaw member Shwe Maung rigged votes through Village Peace and Development Council members, polling booth supervisors, and local USDP members while the locals were coerced to vote for the USDP. Abu Taher claims that the NDPD has the full data from 164 out of 222 total voting stations. The NDPD candidate says that he received 49,000 votes with 12,000 spoilt votes, whereas USDP member Shwe Maung received 40,000 votes with 549 spoilt votes, yet Shwe Maung announced that he received 46,000 votes, according to complaints file. The counting was conducted in front of all party candidates, and all concerned officers signed off on the results. In advance votes the USDP member Shwe Maung got only 1593 votes, but announced receiving 5577 votes, the complaints file mentioned.

The State Election Commission office announced on December 12 that the USDP member Shwe Maung won the seat in the upper house (Pyithu Hluttaw) for Buthidaung, but this was done without the agreement of the NDPD candidates. We dont know what will happen after the case is heard in Naypyidaw, said an NDPD organizer from Buthidaung. ----------------=============================================================

Authorities resume charging Rohingyas for family documents

Friday, 03 December 2010 11:48 Maungdaw, Arakan State: Authorities in Maungdaw have resumed collecting household family lists among Rohingya communities and charging fees for the documentation, said a local elder from Maungdaw. Authorities from the immigration department, village authorities and members of the border security force, Nasaka are going from house to house collecting lists of names, the elder said. They started collecting the information shortly after the November 7 election. The elder added that in Maungdaw Township, there are six blocks under municipal control and only in Block 4, where most of the residents are not Rohingyas, that officials are not collecting lists and charging money. A resident from Block 4 said the areas head, Htun Nyo, is collecting lists and charging 5,000 kyats per family only from Rohingya residents. The headman is a migrant from Barisal in Bangladesh who has been here since the time of the Burma Socialist Program Party (BSPP) and has a reputation for harassing the Rohingya community in his block and extorting money, the resident said. Block 4 was mostly paddy fields belong to Maungdaw big mosque, and the authorities settled a lot of people here from the Rakhine community back when I was in high school in Maungdaw town, said a former student from Rangoon University. Now it has big concrete houses and big trees. Blocks 1 and 3 each have mixed communities, but there is no money being collected from the Rohingya community, said a village authority member.

But we dont know what is happening in the rural areas where most of the Rohingya community lives or whether authorities are charging money from them for household family lists, the village authority said, adding that it was likely the regular harassment that happens when authorities need to raise money.

Forced labor for army battalion in Buthidaung

Monday, 17 January 2011 14:21 Buthidaung, Arakan State: The Burmese Army, along with Burmas border security force (Nasaka), is regularly forcing villagers from Buthidaung Township to work in their camps, said a local businessman who requests not to be named. Army Battalion No. 551, which is based in Khoyasari Village of Buthidaung Township, and Nasaka Camp No. 21 of Nasaka area No. 9, are extracting forced labor from the villagers of Phone Nyu Lake Village and Tharat Pyin Village of Buthidaung Township. Every day, about 20 villagers from each village have to go to the army and Nasaka camps to perform different forms of labor, such as digging soil, reaping harvests, tending paddy, and constructing roads in the camp and other places that are connected to other camps or battalions. In Tharat Pyuin village tract, the Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC) Chairman U Khin Maung Tun, accompanied by Monu Meah, a collaborator of the VPDC chairman, often causes problems for the villagers. The two regularly gather more villagers for forced labor than the concerned authorities have ordered, said a local teacher. For instance, the VPDC chairman recently recruited 30 villagers instead of 20 villagers per village, and the extra villagers were released only after paying money. The VPDC chairman has also in the past ordered Monu Meah to secretly put teak in the wood cutters houses in neighboring villages, later extracting money from them, because it is illegal to cut teak from the forest without permission from the concerned authorities, according to a student who declined to be named. Rohingya villagers become slave laborers in their own country under the SPDC authorities. Even the collaborators of the Nasaka or the army, accompanied by the local VPDC chairman, extorts money from villagers. Where is the law? a local elder asked. In the past, the SPDC authority announced that forced labor was not used in Burma.

People had believed that there would be a decrease in discrimination against the Rohingya people after the national elections of November 7. However, the reality now is quite opposite of their hopes, a man from the locality said.

Despite election promises, religious persecution continuing in northern Arakan State

Tuesday, 18 January 2011 13:45 Maungdaw, Arakan State: The ruling military junta is once again perpetrating religious persecution against the largely-Muslim Rohingya community in northern Arakan State, according to a religious leader from Maungdaw. The junta had restricted the building or repair of religious buildings in northern Arakan State after the Burma border security force (Nasaka) was established in the area, the leader explained. Before the national election in November, high officials from Naypyidaw gave verbal promises that the Rohingya community would be able to build religious buildings when they visited religious functions in Maungdaw. The authorities had given permission for repairs to the Maungdaw Juma mosque, and the concerned persons from the Juma mosque had already repaired some parts of the mosque when suddenly repair work was stopped by authorities last month. The permission was issued by Nasaka director Lt. Col. Aung Gyi on request of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) candidate, U Aung Zaw Win, during the time of the election campaign. Recently, Captain Thein Htun, under the supervision of Major Than Naing, the commanding officer of Nasaka area number 5, arrested seven villagers because they were allegedly involved with the building of a mosque. However, the hut the villagers were constructing was made of bamboo and thatch and was to be used as a community hall. The villagers were praying at the hut as their village had recently been relocated after a July flood, said an elder from Maungdaw. The building is not a mosque. It is just a community center for villagers to meet and discuss their problems within the village. Captain Thein Htun, the head of Outpost Camp no. 24 of Nasaka Area 5, arrested Mir Ahmed, Nurkiyas, Nawbi Husson, and Gura Meah, along with three others, for allegedly building a mosque on January 7.

The seven people are still being kept at the camp until now. The relocated village was Shwehlanee, explained the elder. Similarly, Major Than Naing, the commander of Nasaka Area 5, arrested six villagers of Koukchaung village under Longdon village tract for allegedly working on repairs to a mosque on January 7, according to a school teacher from Kyrinchang. The Nasaka arrested Moulana Rashid, Moulana Habib Rahman, Sulayman, Feran Ali, Bodi Alam, and Shihd Husson. Moulana Rashid and Moulana Habib Rahman were only teaching Arabic lessons inside the mosque. On January 15, Thein Nyint, the village head, along with other village residents, went to the Nasaka commanders office with documents and photos made by Nasaka personnel from five years ago, said a village authority member. The photos show that the mosque was the same as before, but the Nasaka insisted that an extension had been added to the mosque.