Ben Rhodes, US deputy national security adviser, has held talks on bilateral relations with State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in Nay Pyi Taw.
Rhodes presented US President Barack Obama’s official invitation letter to Suu Kyi, also the foreign minister, inviting her to visit the USA. The meeting focused on bilateral cooperation, the peace process, tensions in Rakhine State and regional development, according to Aye Aye Soe, deputy director-general from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He asked about the US’s decision to extend sanctions against Myanmar and Suu Kyi said they would not have a great impact. The US representative said Washington would remove its sanctions when the country was on the right track, Aye Aye Soe added. (Courtesy of elevenmyanmar.com)
July 21, 2016
Violence threatens new Myanmar
The recent destruction of a Muslim prayer hall in central Myanmar, and the burning of a mosque in the north, mark a rekindling of tensions that have been smouldering since the first large-scale attacks against Muslims in the country in 2012.
Those attacks, initially sparked by the rape and murder of a young Buddhist woman in June and followed by more coordinated attacks targeting Muslims in October, ended with 200 dead and 140,000 displaced, mostly Muslims. The timing of these most recent attacks, just as the new Aung San Suu Kyi-led government reached its first 100 days in power, is an inauspicious reminder of the dangers of not addressing those hate-driven dynamics. (Courtesy of policyforum.net)
Those attacks, initially sparked by the rape and murder of a young Buddhist woman in June and followed by more coordinated attacks targeting Muslims in October, ended with 200 dead and 140,000 displaced, mostly Muslims. The timing of these most recent attacks, just as the new Aung San Suu Kyi-led government reached its first 100 days in power, is an inauspicious reminder of the dangers of not addressing those hate-driven dynamics. (Courtesy of policyforum.net)
The name game and the blame game in Rakhine
RAKHINE State has been the tragic counterpoint to all the progress made in Myanmar over the past five years. The numbers are well known: more than 200 dead in communal violence; 140,000 initially displaced, of whom only 20,000 have been able to leave IDP camps; approximately 1 million stateless. Both Buddhist and Muslim communities remain desperately poor, with Rakhine State by some measures the most impoverished in the country. They are also deeply divided, with few immediate prospects for reconciliation.
But amid all the complexity – governance, nationalism, poverty, religion, migration, international relations and, more recently, ethnic insurgency – too much attention has been given to the issue of ethnic identity. The Rohingya/Bengali argument has sucked the air out of more worthy and important discussions on the future of the state. In many ways it reflects the equally unhelpful Burma vs Myanmar debate of years gone by.
For media organisations that value impartiality but also respect a person’s right to self-identify – a form of freedom of expression, something that we inherently hold dear – the issue of nomenclature is also a quandary. Because of the meaning invested in both terms, adopting one as a default will be perceived as choosing a side, of placing one community’s views above those of the other. (Courtesy of frontiermyanmar.net)
But amid all the complexity – governance, nationalism, poverty, religion, migration, international relations and, more recently, ethnic insurgency – too much attention has been given to the issue of ethnic identity. The Rohingya/Bengali argument has sucked the air out of more worthy and important discussions on the future of the state. In many ways it reflects the equally unhelpful Burma vs Myanmar debate of years gone by.
For media organisations that value impartiality but also respect a person’s right to self-identify – a form of freedom of expression, something that we inherently hold dear – the issue of nomenclature is also a quandary. Because of the meaning invested in both terms, adopting one as a default will be perceived as choosing a side, of placing one community’s views above those of the other. (Courtesy of frontiermyanmar.net)
High hopes for deserted trading town on Myanmar-China border
Fighting between the Tatmadaw and the Myanmar National Democractic Alliance Army (MNDAA) broke out in early 2015, driving away the masons and the sugar-cane workers who had come from all over Myanmar to work for mainly Chinese business owners.
But now, though the government’s efforts to end armed conflict through the 21st-Century Panglong Conference have barely begun, prosperity, if not yet a stable peace, seems to have returned to the town, in northeastern Shan State’s troubled Kokang region.
For the long term, the border post is a vital node in China’s plan for a four-nation China-Myanmar-Bangladesh-India trade route. (Courtesy of mmtimes.com)
But now, though the government’s efforts to end armed conflict through the 21st-Century Panglong Conference have barely begun, prosperity, if not yet a stable peace, seems to have returned to the town, in northeastern Shan State’s troubled Kokang region.
For the long term, the border post is a vital node in China’s plan for a four-nation China-Myanmar-Bangladesh-India trade route. (Courtesy of mmtimes.com)
How can Rakhine move forward?
In 2012, U Khin Htwe Maung was building a house in downtown Sittwe, paid for with the pension he received for decades of military service.
When sectarian violence erupted in Rakhine State in June that year, he was in Yangon visiting family. He returned to his hometown three weeks later to find his under-construction home burned to the ground.
“I felt like not only my home had been torn down, but my life,” Khin Htwe Maung told Frontier in an interview at the Sat Roe Kya displacement camp, on the outskirts of Sittwe, where he has been living since 2012.
Sat Roe Kya is one of the few internally displaced persons camps for ethnic Rakhine who lost their homes in the violence four years ago. The UN says there are 3,482 people living in the camp, which also has a small Hindu population. (Courtesy of frontiermyanmar.net)
When sectarian violence erupted in Rakhine State in June that year, he was in Yangon visiting family. He returned to his hometown three weeks later to find his under-construction home burned to the ground.
“I felt like not only my home had been torn down, but my life,” Khin Htwe Maung told Frontier in an interview at the Sat Roe Kya displacement camp, on the outskirts of Sittwe, where he has been living since 2012.
Sat Roe Kya is one of the few internally displaced persons camps for ethnic Rakhine who lost their homes in the violence four years ago. The UN says there are 3,482 people living in the camp, which also has a small Hindu population. (Courtesy of frontiermyanmar.net)
Nearly 70 Myanmar workers repatriated from ‘hell’ of detention in Malaysia
So far, 214 Myanmar citizens from camps around Malaysia have received paid trips home, according to U San Win, chair of the Kepong Free Funeral Services, including 62 in the first group, 84 in the second and 68 in the third. A further 120 paid for their own airfare.
The repatriations began on July 13, and U San Win added that the returns will continue so long as donations are maintained.
“Now, we have funding for over 250 people to return. We already handed over the funds to the embassy so officials could arrange the trip,” said U San Win. He added that the embassy had determined which of the detained citizens to repatriate. (Courtesy of mmtimes.com)
The repatriations began on July 13, and U San Win added that the returns will continue so long as donations are maintained.
“Now, we have funding for over 250 people to return. We already handed over the funds to the embassy so officials could arrange the trip,” said U San Win. He added that the embassy had determined which of the detained citizens to repatriate. (Courtesy of mmtimes.com)
MYANMAR CLERGY DENOUNCE MA BA THA AS ‘DIVISIVE’ MINORITY
Several revered Buddhist monks from across Myanmar have spoken out against the nationalist Ma Ba Tha movement, describing it as a minority group, and its actions as divisive and politicised.
The monks joined a growing chorus of criticism of the movement, which was recently disowned by the State Sangha, hit with legal complaints and warned by the National League for Democracy (NLD) government.
U Ariya Bhivamsa, an abbot at Myawaddi Mingyi Monastery in Mandalay, said some monks had initially viewed Ma Ba Tha as a protector of Buddhism, but most had come to realise that it was radical and close to the military-linked Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). (Courtesy of khaosodenglish.com)
The monks joined a growing chorus of criticism of the movement, which was recently disowned by the State Sangha, hit with legal complaints and warned by the National League for Democracy (NLD) government.
U Ariya Bhivamsa, an abbot at Myawaddi Mingyi Monastery in Mandalay, said some monks had initially viewed Ma Ba Tha as a protector of Buddhism, but most had come to realise that it was radical and close to the military-linked Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). (Courtesy of khaosodenglish.com)
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