Strong evidence of Genocide in Myanmar

There is “strong evidence” of genocide in Myanmar against its Rohingya minority That’s according to a report by Yale University Law School, obtained exclusively by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit. It blames the government for the crime against around one million Muslim Rohingya who live in the west of the country.

Al Jazeera English

Myanmar Muslim migrants abandoned at sea have been 'drinking their own urine' to survive

Myanmar migrants left abandoned at sea after being refused entry to Thailand have been forced to drink their own urine to survive, it has been reported. At least ten people have died on the fishing boat which has been stranded in the Andaman Sea for the last week with up to 350 Rohingya Muslims on board, the BBC has reported.

An estimated 6,000 Myanmar refugees have been left abandoned as other countries in Southeast Asia turn boats carrying hundreds of people away. The region finds itself in a spiralling humanitarian crisis as members of Myanmar's 1.3 million Rohingya Muslims attempt to flee persecution in the Buddhist-majority country.

More at The Independent

Rohingyas Face Terrifying Persecution, And You May Have Never Heard About It

In the past two years, more than 100,000 Muslims in Myanmar have left their homes in fear of rancorous mobs and angry assailants. Some have been forced into isolated makeshift camps, while others have made the dangerous trek across the border to Thailand, Malaysia and Bangladesh in search of safety and a source of income. Hundreds have been killed and many more detained.

These Muslims are Rohingyas, members of an ethnic group that the United Nations considers one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. There are about 1.3 million Rohingyas in Myanmar, most of whom live in the country’s Rakhine State, also known under its colonial name Arakan. The group is named after the language it speaks.

Since the spring of 2012, Buddhist extremists have renewed a push to drive the Muslim group out of Myanmar, using ruthless tactics and brutal violence. Tomás Ojea Quintana, a former United Nations' special rapporteur on human rights for Myanmar, said recently that the systematic violence against the Royhingya may "amount to crimes against humanity."

Myanmar’s rulers have gained international praise in recent years for democratizing the country and releasing hundreds of political prisoners after five decades of authoritarian rule. While the elected government of President Thein Sein has denounced the violence against the Rohingya and promised to take action against those seeking conflict, he has also said they are not citizens of Myanmar and should be placed in U.N. refugee camps or move to countries that are willing to accept them.

Much more at The World Post

Punks vs. Monks: Rockers aside, few willing to criticize Buddhist-led violence in Myanmar

Punk rockers draw double-takes as they dart through traffic, but it’s not just the pink hair, leather jackets or skull tattoos that make these 20-somethings rebels: It’s their willingness to speak out against Buddhist monks instigating violence against Muslims while others in Myanmar are silent.

“If they were real monks, I’d be quiet, but they aren’t,” says Kyaw Kyaw, lead singer of Rebel Riot, as his drummer knocks out the beat for a new song slamming religious hypocrisy and an anti-Muslim movement known as “969.” ‘’They are nationalists, fascists. No one wants to hear it, but it’s true.”

Radical monks are at the forefront of a bloody campaign against Muslims, and few in this predominantly Buddhist nation of 60 million people are willing to speak against them. For many, being Buddhist is an important part of being Burmese, and monks, the most venerable members of society, are beyond reproach. Others are simply in denial, or buy into claims the Muslim “outsiders” pose a threat to their culture and traditions.

The Washington Post

Monks Gone Bad

Five years ago, when Myanmar was still under military rule, some Western and Chinese friends asked me how there could be such oppression in a country where Buddhism, which preaches nonviolence, is the predominant religion.

I was in self-imposed exile at the time, studying journalism at the University of Hong Kong, and I would answer that the country’s military leaders were immoral, Buddhists in name only. I would also point out that Myanmar’s pre-colonial monarchical rulers — they, too, nominally Buddhist — also had committed great crimes. In other words, nothing was wrong with the religion itself; the problem was with the politicians who were flouting it.

I can’t give such answers any more — not since the recent deadly attacks by Buddhists against Muslims in Meikhtila, a city in central Myanmar with no history of sectarian violence. Reports that monks instigated some of those burnings, beatings and killings suggest a much deeper problem than unprincipled state officials.

The general public in Myanmar, which is largely Buddhist (about 90 percent) and ethnic Bamar (over 65 percent), would like to believe that the Buddhist monks who allegedly participated in these brutal incidents aren’t real monks. That’s easier than contemplating the painful reality that the venerated Buddhist order, the Sangha, has become largely corrupt.

There was a time when most of the young men and women who joined the order were driven by a spiritual quest. But during the half-century of the junta’s rule, it was the wars along the border areas and crushing poverty that brought novices to monasteries. Many were orphans with no other options; others were children entrusted to the monks by destitute parents trying to secure shelter and some schooling for them. In the profile of its recruits, the Sangha wasn’t so different from the Burmese Army — and sometimes the abbots were as brutal as officers.

By Swe Win on the International Herald Tribune

The Burmese monks who preach intolerance against Muslim Rohingyas

Reforms in Burma have revealed a sectarian divide between Buddhists and ethnic Muslims whose villages are being destroyed in brutal clashes with echoes of similar clashes in the Balkans, parts of Africa and Northern Ireland.

The Muslim Rohingya minority are being targeted by Burmese Buddhists and driven from their villages in their thousands. Their plight was highlighted during his recent visit by the US President Barack Obama, but hopes that Burma's most prominent civil rights campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi may support their cause have so far proved fruitless.

BBC News

#Operation Rohingya

Anonymous - Rohingya people on Wikipedia

Burma confirms phosphorus used in crackdown on mine protesters

An official report has confirmed that police in Burma used smoke bombs that contained phosphorus during a crackdown on anti-mine protesters last year that left 108 people with burns. The report also recommended the controversial Chinese-backed project continue.

The report by an investigation commission appointed by President Thein Sein and chaired by the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was released on Monday, more than three months after the incident at the Letpadaung copper mine in north-western Burma. It was the biggest use of force against protesters in Burma since Thein Sein's reformist government took office in March 2011.

Protesters say the joint-venture between China's Wanbao mining company and a Burma military conglomerate causes environmental, social and health problems. They want it halted and are demanding punishment for those who hurt peaceful protesters. The findings are likely to disappoint opponents of the project and could reignite demonstrations.

Authorities had said they used water cannon, teargas and smoke grenades to break up the 11-day occupation of the mine last November, but protesters said burns were caused by incendiary devices. They described "fire balls" being shot at them during the night-time raid on their encampment. A separate, independent report released last month by a lawyers' network and an international human rights group said police dispersed the protesters by using white phosphorous, an incendiary agent generally used in war to create smoke screens.

The Guardian

Burma's president calls elections a success

Burma's president said Tuesday that elections won by democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and her party were successful, issuing the first government endorsement of the historic polls.

When asked by The Associated Press if he thought the weekend by-elections were free and fair, President Thein Sein said: "It was conducted in a very successful manner." Thein Sein's remark was the first comment by a top government official since Sunday's polls. He spoke on the sidelines of a summit in Cambodia of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, which gave him a vote of confidence Tuesday.

CBS News

Burma Reforms Yet to Reach Kachin State

The Burmese government has committed serious abuses and blocked humanitarian aid to tens of thousands of displaced civilians since June 2011, in fighting in Burma’s northern Kachin State, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Some 75,000 ethnic Kachin displaced persons and refugees are in desperate need of food, medicine, and shelter, Human Rights Watch said.

The 83-page report, “‘Untold Miseries’: Wartime Abuses and Forced Displacement in Burma’s Kachin State,” describes how the Burmese army has attacked Kachin villages, razed homes, pillaged properties, and forced the displacement of tens of thousands of people. Soldiers have threatened and tortured civilians during interrogations and raped women. The army has also used antipersonnel mines and conscripted forced laborers, including children as young as 14, on the front lines.
“The Burmese army is committing unchecked abuses in Kachin State while the government blocks humanitarian aid to those most in need,” said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Both the army and Kachin rebels need to act to prevent a bad situation for civilians from getting even worse.”

Human Rights Watch

Hillary Clinton to visit Burma to check on 'flickers of progress'

Hillary Clinton will become the first US secretary of state in 50 years to visit Burma, it has been announced, as Washington ramped up its efforts to kindle "flickers of progress" in the isolated south-east Asian nation.

The visit next month, announced by Barack Obama, appeared to be a reward for Burma's reforms, which were marked hours earlier by the return to politics of the democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

The double boost was widely applauded as a sign that Burma may be moving in from the political cold, but it contains risks: a political transformation is far from guaranteed in a government system that is still largely under the influence of the military, and the move may add to China's suspicion that the US is attempting an encirclement policy.

See The Guardian for full article

ASEAN agrees to let Myanmar lead bloc

Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, have approved Myanmar's request to chair the Southeast Asian regional bloc in 2014, giving the country some long-sought international recognition.

The 10-member bloc made the decision two years before schedule, as they began their 19th summit on Thursday in the Indonesian resort island of Bali, with maritime territorial disputes, free trade and other regional issues topping the agenda. (Al Jazeera English)

Burma's political prisoners

Burma has said it is set to release prisoners, apparently including political detainees. More than 2,000 political prisoners – including monks, students, journalists, lawyers, MPs and over 300 members of Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy – are incarcerated in horrendous conditions. Former prisoners are photographed with the name of a current political prisoner written on their palm. The photographs are taken from Abhaya - Burma's Fearlessness, by James Mackay.

Khin Cho Myint was involved in the democracy uprisings of 1988 as a first year student and participated in the 1991 10D movement, but went into hiding to avoid arrest. She was arrested in September 1998 for her role in the student demonstrations, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, serving six in Insein and Moulmein prisons before being released in 2004. She is currently living in the Nupo refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border, awaiting resettlement. Myo Min Htike, a student leader, was sentenced to 52 years in prison for distributing leaflets and organising demonstrations during the student uprising of 1998.

More pictures on The Guardian

Dozens killed in Burma amid clashes over Chinese dams

A bloody outbreak of fighting that has ended a 17-year ceasefire between Burmese government forces and a tribal militia was partly caused by the expansion of Chinese hydropower along the Irrawaddy river, conservationists claim.

Dozens of people in northern Burma have reportedly been killed in the clashes between government troops and the Kachin Independence Army. Thousands more are trying to flee across the border after fierce fighting erupted this month around the construction sites of two Chinese-financed dams in the region.

Amid growing fears that the conflict could escalate, the Burma Rivers Network said China's massive hydropower investments had widened the gulf between the government – which wants to benefit from cross-border electricity sales – and Kachin independence groups, which fear the dams will bring environmental, cultural and social disruption.

More on The Guardian

Chronology of the Kachin Conflict

Concern over Myanmar's Irrawaddy dam

Chinese companies are funding a multi-billion dollar project to dam the Irrawaddy river in Myanmar. The river, the longest one left undammed in southeast Asia, is important to the Kachin people, and millions of people up and down its length would be affected by the changes, experts say. When it is dammed, it will leave an area the size of New York City submerged.

There are now concerns over who is to benefit from the river's riches. Our special Al Jazeera correspondent in Myanmar, who we cannot name for security reasons, filed this report.

Kachins together with Shan, Naga and Burman achieved Independence from British Colony but the taste of that meaning has never been experienced by Kachin People due to bigotry and oppression thereby Kachin Arm Struggle Started in 1961 to restore political self-determination. The Kachin State

Myanmar quake victims await relief

At least 70 people have been killed, and many more injured since an earthquake hit Myanmar on Thursday.

The township of Tarlay in eastern Shan state is where Myanmar, Thailand and Laos meet to form the golden triangle, about 50 kilometres from the epicentre of the quake.It now lies in ruins. Officials fear the overall number of casualties could be much higher.

Al Jazeera's Aela Callan reports from the border town of Mae Sai.