Myanmar government urged to protect Rohingya minority

NLD government Must Protect Rohingya People

We, the undersigned Rohingya organisations express our serious concern that
Myanmar/Burma: Securing health care for the most vulnerable populations in Rakhine State Myanmar/Burma: Securing health care for the most vulnerable populations in Rakhine State

We are worrying that the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) government seems to have inclined to yield to the demand of the extremists calling for “Rohingya ethnocide”. Following a protest in late May in Yangon by about 300 ultra-nationalists, including Buddhist monks, publicly denouncing the United States of America for using the word Rohingya, the Myanmar Foreign Ministry, headed by State Counselor-com-Foreign Minister Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, had surprisingly advised foreign embassies in Myanmar avoid using “Rohingya”, although the Rohingya people have the right to self-identify. (Courtesy of oneworld.org)

Future tense for Myanmar’s Rohingya

Recent reports indicate that Myanmar’s Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi had advised the American Ambassador to Myanmar not to use the term ‘Rohingya’ for the largely Muslim people of the country’s western-most state of Rakhine, which borders Bangladesh.

In denying the existence of a million Rohingya as a separate ethnic group within Myanmar, Suu Kyi, the ‘heroine of the Myanmar democracy movement’ has chosen to follow the policies of the former military government. Explaining the decision, U Kyaw Zay Ya, a foreign ministry official said: “We won’t use the term Rohingya because Rohingya are not recognised as among the 135 official ethnic groups.”

The New York Times, one of the world’s most respected liberal newspapers, called her advice, “wrong and disappointing”, adding, “the Rohingya are every bit [Myanmarese] as she is”. (Courtesy of gulfnews.com)

Does Nobel Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi Want To Push Her Country’s Muslims Into the Sea?

It was late November—two weeks after the elections—and Nura Din needed to escape the They Key Pyin Internally Displaced Persons Camp. The monsoon season was over—there had been no heavy rain for weeks—and the Bay of Bengal was becoming calm again. The smuggling networks were already rumored to be kicking back into gear: Soon small fishing boats would take members of the escaping Rohingya—a Muslim community in Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma—out along the Kalaman River, where they’d connect with bigger boats in the bay. Anywhere was better than here. “Wherever the boat lands,” he said, was good enough.

His parents agreed that he had to get out. Nura Din is only 13 years old, but he has four younger siblings and the international aid agencies, which are under strain dealing with refugee crises around the globe, are cutting back their food allotments to Rohingya refugees. He had heard about Myanmar’s recent national election, from which the Rohingya had been excluded, but he didn’t know anything about it. “I don’t want to live here anymore,” he said. Recently the Burmese government authorities have entered camps and punished Rohingya who speak with journalists. He was hungry in class, he said. He was hungry now, chatting with a journalist. (Courtesy of tabletmag.com)

QRCS delegation visits Rakhine State in Myanmar

A team assigned by Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) to Myanmar to take stock of the humanitarian situation on ground like healthcare, shelter, water and sanitation, and food, has returned to Doha.

It also assessed the needs and work of QRCS’s mobile clinics programme launched in 2013 in response to clashes in Rakhine State.

The clinics, each equipped with a doctor, an assistant, three nurses and local volunteers, continue to offer primary healthcare, health education, and hygiene promotion for target communities. (Courtesy of thepeninsulaqatar.com)

How long will Myanmar accept its ‘democratic dictatorship’ rule?

A new political landscape has started to take shape in Myanmar. A civilian administration sworn in on March 30 is learning the mechanics of governing a country that has been inured to more than half a century of authoritarian rule.

Multiple centres of power are influencing government policies geared towards democratisation and economic renewal.

In the landmark November 2015 election, the National League for Democracy (NLD), long the symbol of the country’s democracy movement, was given a resounding mandate.  (Courtesy of todayonline.com)

U.S. eases sanctions on Myanmar in bid to promote reforms

The United States eased some sanctions on Myanmar on Tuesday to support ongoing political reforms, but maintained most of its economic restrictions in an effort to punish those Washington sees as hampering the country's newly elected government.

U.S. officials said they were easing sanctions to encourage the "historic" progress in Myanmar, including the formation of the country's first democratically elected government in more than 50 years.

The moves included removing Myanmar state-owned banks from a U.S. blacklist and the lifting of sanctions against seven key state-owned timber and mining companies. (Courtesy of firstpost.com)

Army Officers to Testify in Double Rape-Murder of Kachin Teachers

Four senior army officers will testify at a township police station in Lashio, northern Shan State, on the rape and murder of two Kachin volunteer teachers allegedly perpetrated by Burma Army soldiers early last year, according to Kachin sources.

Zau Raw, a leader from the Kachin Baptist Convention in Muse, a city on the Burma-China border, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the testimony of the four officers would be given Wednesday at 10 am at a police station.

“We will go listen [to the Burma Army officers’ testimony],” said Zau Raw, adding that Maj. Aung Phyo Myint, leader of the battalion under scrutiny at the time, would be one of the four army officers to testify this week. (Courtesy of irrawaddy.com)