HRW
Burma: Postpone Flawed Census to Avert Violence
Stop Further Attacks on Aid Workers in Arakan State
March 28, 2014
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Burma: Investigate New Killings of Rohingya
January 23, 2014
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Burma: Scrap Proposed Discriminatory Marriage Law
March 24, 2014
Press release
The mob attacks in Arakan State illustrate the risks of proceeding with the census in such a volatile atmosphere. The government should suspend the census until it can ensure adequate security and a fair process for everyone involved.
Brad Adams, Asia director
(New York) – Burma’s national government should postpone the planned nationwide census to prevent growing communal violence and attacks on the aid community, Human Rights Watch said today. At greatest risk are vulnerable Muslim communities and aid workers from international organizations.
On March 26, 2014, mobs in Arakan State began attacking international aid organizations, damaging or destroying 14 properties, including offices, residences, and food storage facilities. The organizations quickly evacuated 32 international and 39 Burmese staff from the Arakan provincial capital, Sittwe, on March 28.
“The mob attacks in Arakan State illustrate the risks of proceeding with the census in such a volatile atmosphere,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “The government should suspend the census until it can ensure adequate security and a fair process for everyone involved.”
Burma’s long-awaited census is slated to begin nationwide on March 29, with census surveyors working from March 30 until April 10 to collect basic demographic data on the country’s estimated population of 60 million. Several non-state armed groups have announced they will not permit census-takers access to their territory, including the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), which controls significant swathes of territory along the Burma-China border and is hosting over 40,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the recent conflict. Other ethnic groups, such as the Wa, Pa-O, and Mon, have also expressed concerns over the impact of the census on their areas. Many ethnic minorities have rejected the census as potentially weakening their local political representation or claims to ethnicity if the process undercounts their group.
The census questionnaire includes 41 questions ranging from the number of persons in the household to specifics about age, gender, education level, birth rates, and members of households living overseas. Major controversy has surrounded two categories of questions related to ethnicity and religion: since the initial days of the census planning, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and several key international donors have accepted the Burmese government’s deeply flawed and highly contested classification of its population into “135 national races,” even though listing just the eight main ethnic groups would have given flexibility to a process being conducted in the multi-ethnic country. These ethnic classifications risk exacerbating already vexing identity issues as part of the fragile nationwide ceasefire process, and within very diverse communities in ethnic areas such as Shan State.
Ethnic community groups have also expressed concerns that both the government’s Ministry of Immigration and Population and the UN Population Fund have failed to adequately consult with a broad range of ethnic groups and have conducted the census preparation in a nontransparent, largely unaccountable manner that has discounted critical voices seeking improvements in the process. UNFPA didn’t hold its first consultation with ethnic groups without the presence of government officials until March 17.
“The census is a technical project that has taken on major political overtones and risks inflaming an already tense environment, with particular potential to spark violence against Rohingya Muslims and the foreign aid workers trying to help people in desperate need,” Adams said. “The government and the UN should listen to the concerns of ethnic minorities and go back to the drawing board to make sure they get this process right.”
The national government should act proactively to prevent any renewed violence against the Rohingya Muslim population in Burma’s western Arakan State and against the broader Muslim population throughout Burma, who have been targets of mob attacks since 2012. Many of Burma’s estimated 800,000 Rohingya are stateless because the 1982 citizenship law effectively denies them access to citizenship.
In Sittwe in Arakan State, demonstrations against the census and the government’s agreement to permit the classification “Rohingya” to be put in the ethnic classification box on the census form have been ongoing for several weeks. Community leaders have called on ethnic Arakanese Buddhists to boycott the census, and this call has been spread further by a tour of anti-Muslim extremist Buddhist monks led by U Wirathu, the Mandalay-based leader of the nationalist 969 movement. Demonstrations against Rohingya Muslims being counted in the census have also been held in the commercial capital Rangoon.
Pressures on aid agencies grow
In February, the national government announced the suspension of the international humanitarian aid organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) (Doctors Without Borders), the primary health provider to the Rohingya population since 1992, for alleged breaches of their operating agreement. Human Rights Watch believes the government acted in response to local Arakanese Buddhist pressure to end MSF’s operations providing assistance to Rohingya.
MSF and other humanitarian organizations had been under pressure from Arakanese nationalist groups since the violence in Arakan State in 2012. However, there was an intensifying of criticism following an incident in Du Chee Yar Tan village in Arakan State’s Maungdaw township in January when state security forces killed an unknown number of Rohingya villagers. Despite vociferous denials by Burma’s presidential spokesman, Ye Htut, that the incident took place, MSF publicly stated that their clinic nearby had treated Rohingya with wounds sustained in a violent incident, lending credibility to international media reports. The late March attacks in Sittwe come just days after MSF President Joanne Liu held what she termed an “encouraging dialogue” with national authorities for MSF to resume activities in Arakan State.
“Burma’s government should suspend the census, reformulate its design so that it does no harm, and try again later in a way that won’t fuel communal violence,” Adams said. “Donors have long been privately worried that the census could backfire. They should now be at the forefront of calling for the process to be suspended and then substantially redesigned to assist Burma’s development, not imperil it.”
Background
Burma’s first nationwide census since 1983 is scheduled to be conducted in conjunction with the Ministry of Immigration and Population and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) between March 29 and April 10, 2014. The process will be conducted by approximately 140,000 enumerators and 20,000 supervisors, mostly schoolteachers, throughout Burma in a process that UNFPA has claimed will achieve a “100 percent headcount.”
However, UNFPA and other census supporters have not addressed concerns that after decades of military rule, many people, especially in areas controlled by ethnic minority groups, are highly distrustful of state employees. The Population and Housing Census Act of 2013 makes it illegal to refuse participation in the census or in any way obstruct the process.
The census will ask 41 questions covering basic information about members of each household, and most controversially, questions on ethnicity and religion. Other elements of the census to be collected other than basic headcounts and demographics include: literacy rates, employment levels, disabilities, housing units and conditions, access to clean water, electricity and social amenities, fertility and mortality rates, and internal and international migration. Some critics of the process assert that obtaining data on many of these sensitive subjects should be postponed because of their potential for misuse. More controversial questions could be surveyed at a later date or using different methodology.
Administrators in some parts of the country – such as rebel-controlled areas of Kachin State and special administrative zones controlled by the United Wa State Party – have announced they will not permit census-takers into their zones of control.
The results of the census are scheduled to be released in three stages, with preliminary results being issued in August 2014, the main results being reported in the first quarter of 2015, and subsequent analytical reports being issued in November 2015, which is the planned date for the next nationwide parliamentary elections.
The census is estimated to cost US$74 million, an increase from the original estimate of US$58 million. The Burmese government has committed approximately US$15 million, UNFPA US$5 million, and a consortium of other main donors including the United Kingdom, Australia, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland making up the rest.
Human Rights Watch recommends that the Burmese government:
Take all necessary steps to prevent further attacks on aid agencies in Arakan State;
Ensure that local Arakan and national authorities are held accountable for abuses;
Ensure that security forces protect all communities impartially and ensure that abusive units and personnel are rotated out of the area and replaced with units and commanders who have a proven record of upholding the law and not taking sides in communal violence;
Take concrete steps to end the culture of impunity prevalent in the security forces, particularly the Myanmar Police Force and including members of the Defense Services, for abuses against Rohingya and other Muslims and other minority groups. Discipline or prosecute as appropriate commanders and security personnel who commit or condone such abuses; and
Should, if the census goes ahead, release results only if all appropriate action is taken to prevent ethnic or other violence sparked by the results.
Human Rights Watch recommends that donors and others in the international community:
-Call for the suspension of the census until it can be carried out safely and fairly;
-Reduce the number of census questions to avoid sensitive issues of ethnicity and religion that could generate violence and discrimination;
-Call upon the government to only release results of the census if all appropriate action is taken to prevent ethnic or other violence sparked by the results;
-Demand that the authorities take all necessary steps to ensure that humanitarian organizations can operate safely in Arakan State;
-Press the Burmese authorities to immediately rescind local restrictions in Arakan State that limit the rights of Rohingya and other -Muslims to movement, work, religion, number of children, and access to health and education; and
Support the formation of a UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights office in Burma with a full protection, promotion, and technical assistance mandate, and sub-offices in states around the country, including in Arakan State.
credit:HRW
Saturday 29 March 2014
Monday 24 March 2014
Images from a state of nowhere
MYANMAR TIMES
By Fiona Macgregor | Monday, 24 March 2014
By Fiona Macgregor | Monday, 24 March 2014
1
The walls of the space where Greg Constantine’s photo documen-tary “Exiled to Nowhere” is on display are peeling and streaked with grime.
“Exiled to Nowhere” is on display in Bangkok until March 23. Photos: Greg Constantine“Exiled to Nowhere” is on display in Bangkok until March 23. Photos: Greg Constantine
Constantine said the abandoned Bangkok bank had lain empty for about 15 years until he decided to mount the show. Although it appears dilapidated, most of the people featured in the American photographer’s work would probably be glad of such solid shelter.
His subjects are a stateless people. Denied citizenship by the Myanmar government, they have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh in the hope of avoiding persecution or remained living in a state of apartheid within Myanmar.
They call themselves Rohingya while the government insists they should be called Bengalis – denying them a name as well as basic human rights.
Over eight years, Constantine recorded their lives. Initially, he photographed those living as refugees in Bangladesh. When communal violence broke out in northern Rakhine State in 2012, leaving over 140,000 people homeless, he photographed life in the IDP camps and ghetto where they remain trapped.
[images from a state of nowhere]
Please read here ---http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/lifestyle/9960-images-from-a-state-of-nowhere.html
By Fiona Macgregor | Monday, 24 March 2014
By Fiona Macgregor | Monday, 24 March 2014
1
The walls of the space where Greg Constantine’s photo documen-tary “Exiled to Nowhere” is on display are peeling and streaked with grime.
“Exiled to Nowhere” is on display in Bangkok until March 23. Photos: Greg Constantine“Exiled to Nowhere” is on display in Bangkok until March 23. Photos: Greg Constantine
Constantine said the abandoned Bangkok bank had lain empty for about 15 years until he decided to mount the show. Although it appears dilapidated, most of the people featured in the American photographer’s work would probably be glad of such solid shelter.
His subjects are a stateless people. Denied citizenship by the Myanmar government, they have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh in the hope of avoiding persecution or remained living in a state of apartheid within Myanmar.
They call themselves Rohingya while the government insists they should be called Bengalis – denying them a name as well as basic human rights.
Over eight years, Constantine recorded their lives. Initially, he photographed those living as refugees in Bangladesh. When communal violence broke out in northern Rakhine State in 2012, leaving over 140,000 people homeless, he photographed life in the IDP camps and ghetto where they remain trapped.
[images from a state of nowhere]
Please read here ---http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/lifestyle/9960-images-from-a-state-of-nowhere.html
RIGHTS OF SELF-DETERMINATION MUST BE RESPECTED !THE REFERENDUM OF VOTE SHOULD BE CONDUCTED AT THE PERSECUTED ROHINGYA AREA!/Terrorists or Terrified: Unproven Claims About Mystery Families Alarm Rights Group
RIGHTS OF SELF-DETERMINATION MUST BE RESPECTED !THE REFERENDUM OF VOTE SHOULD BE CONDUCTED AT THE PERSECUTED ROHINGYA AREA!
Maung Kyaw Nu
I absolutely agree comments of Phil Robertson,HRW, regarding Uighurs and Rohingya asylum seekers in Thailand .These two persecuted communities are blindly labeled by their own government as terrorists or extremists as well as hosting country. In fact they are victims, simply looking for a save and protected place to be alive. The UN and world civil society should work hard to get back their Right of Self-determination in their home country through arranging referendum of vote .Both Burma and China must return their political rights and let them live their centuries old land with dignity and freedom. These two people have no alternative but flee their ancient land finally fall at the trap of organized human trafficking gangs in Thailand. The trafficking net works can be stopped if international combined forces including Interpol involve.At present attention of traffickers are to catch big fish like Uighurs who can pay one hundred thousand per head.In the mean time, a large Rohingya boat people are often at the hand of traffickers and some die and many get sick. The net work of trafficking urgently need to be stopped and the Uighurs and Rohingyas should get access of UNHCR and temporary shelter out of detentions.
Posted by Maung Kyaw Nu,Burmese Rohingya Association in Thailand ,BRAT. on March 24, 2014 14:47
Some of the alleged 'terrorists' in southern Thailand this month
Some of the alleged 'terrorists' in southern Thailand this month
Photo by phuketwan.com
Terrorists or Terrified: Unproven Claims About Mystery Families Alarm Rights Group
By Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian
Monday, March 24, 2014
Latest Claims by an unnamed police source that mysterious men, women and children who recently were detected in Thailand are ''terrorists'' have alarmed Human Rights Watch. More »
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/terrorists-terrified-unproven-claims-mystery-families-alarm-rights-group-19952/
PLAY OF THE DAY
EMAIL from a reader: ''Congratulations on your coverage of the missing aircraft and all associated issues. It's plain that Phuketwan is Phuket's truly international news outlet, supported by a couple of solid community newspapers.''
PHUKETWAN'S READER FORUM: Have Your Say
Re: The Z Factor: Lost Flight's Captain and the Mystery Cockpit Caller
Ciaran wrote on Monday March 24, 2014 at 09:41
I think quoting from the "Mail on Sunday" and mentioning the "SUN" is just irresponsible journalism - tabliod newspap...
View complete comment
Re: Terrorists or Terrified: Unproven Claims About Mystery Families Alarm Rights Group
Maung Kyaw Nu,Burmese Rohingya Association in Thailand ,BRAT. wrote on Monday March 24, 2014 at 14:47
I absolutely agree comments of Phil Robertson,HRW, regarding Uighurs and Rohingya asylum seekers in Thailand .These t...
View complete comment
Re: Expat Phuket Dive Operators Fight Alleged Rip-Offs by Rogue Phuket Police
Logic wrote on Monday March 24, 2014 at 09:51
Sadly it is not just Phuket. I am living now predominately in Korat (taking a risk building a house - but also coveri...
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Saturday 22 March 2014
Burmese journalist critically examines Myanmar’s reforms, receives award at Stanford
Aung Zaw (far right), the 2013 Shorenstein Journalism Award recipient, is pictured at the lunch panel with Nayan Chanda of Yale University and Don Emmerson and Dan Sneider of Shorenstein APARC at the lunch panel "Burma's Democracy - How Real?" on March 6.
Photo credit: Rod Searcey
March 11, 2014 - News
Burmese journalist critically examines Myanmar’s reforms, receives award at Stanford
Myanmar's opening to the outside world and the country's tentative steps from military rule to democracy has captivated many observers of the region. But Aung Zaw, an exiled Burmese journalist pushing for democratic change, warns that the image of rapid reform does not necessarily match reality these days.
“What we see now is serious backsliding,” Zaw told a packed house at the Bechtel Conference Center on March 6. “The changes have become more superficial; the changes are not real.”
Zaw, the founding editor of The Irrawaddy newsmagazine, delivered these remarks at Stanford upon receiving the Shorenstein Journalism Award. This annual award is conferred upon a journalist who promotes mutual understanding between the U.S. and Asia, and also honors Asian journalists who have been at the forefront of the effort to create an independent media in the Asia-Pacific.
Zaw joined scholars Donald Emmerson and Daniel Sneider from the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Yale University’s Nayan Chanda at a lunchtime panel discussion of the question – “Burma's Democracy: How Real?”
Zaw, who was forced into exile after the abortive democratic revolt of 1988, described Myanmar’s dynamic history as “up and down.” During the long period of military rule in the country, “Burma was a pariah,” he observed. The military government repressed all opposition, enriching itself while Burma slide into deep poverty, while the country was largely cut off from the outside world except for a trickle of tourists. But the regime made a clear decision to open the doors to the outside and, in response to international and domestic pressure, take tentative steps toward political change, including releasing political prisoners and allowing the media to operate more freely.
The panelists agreed that the uprisings within Burma, such as the Buddhist monk led revolt in 2007, and the leadership of Burmese human rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi pushed the regime toward change. In addition, Chanda and Emmerson pointed to the geopolitics of Burma, the desire of the regime to free itself from isolation and dependence only on China and North Korea as backers.
Zaw credited these changes with bringing some semblance of “communal balance” to the society. Emmerson argued, however, that the West has colored their view of Burma with a romantic notion of democratization that tends to overlook the still tentative, and somewhat transient, nature of the changes to date.
“The regime has carefully manipulated… international [public] opinion in trying to open the doors to the international community,” Zaw said. Especially in the past year, there have been efforts by the government to curb public protest and censorship has become pervasive once again. A commentary piece written by Zaw provides an analysis of the contemporary media environment in Myanmar.
The panel members pointed in particular to the rise of tensions between the Buddhist Burmese majority and ethnic and religious minorities in the country. In particular, they expressed concern over the discrimination against and violence suffered by minority Muslims, the ethnic Rohingya who live along the border with Bangladesh, often taking place with the complicity of government officials, or at least with their indifference. They suggested the government played upon anti-Muslim feelings to boost its popularity among the majority Buddhist populace.
With elections looming in 2015, the government may now feel it has been “moving too fast” toward reform and begun to ratchet back, warned Zaw. Conservative factions in Myanmar’s leadership who fear losing power may be gaining influence.
Nayan Chanda, the former editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review and a previous recipient of the Shorenstein Award, pointed to Myanmar’s long tradition of despotism. “Burmese rulers have had a way of governing the country that is still present among the generals we see in Burma today,” he said.
Emmerson focused his remarks on the significance of the changes in Burma to American foreign policy in the region. The Burmese shift away from Chinese domination and its opening to the West has been seen as a key part of the so-called U.S. “pivot” to Asia and its attempts to balance Chinese influence in East Asia. These changes allowed Myanmar to assume its role as chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), an annual rotation in leadership. But it is far from clear if the Burmese leadership is prepared to go toward a deeper democratic transformation. The upcoming presidential elections in 2015 remain an uncertainty. Aung San Suu Kyi is still constitutionally barred from running for president but she has been allowed to resume a powerful role in the system itself, no longer simply a “Joan of Arc” symbol of purity sitting on the outside.
In all this, the role of a free press in Burma is even more vital than ever. After his arrest in 1988 for his role in the uprising against General Ne Win’s regime, Zaw had to flee to neighboring Thailand where he has spent 25 years in exile. Zaw created The Irrawaddy, an émigré-based publication that is widely acclaimed for its on-the-ground analysis of Myanmar. In 2012, the publication reopened offices in Burma.
The Irrawaddy’s diverse contributors offer an independent platform to unravel the complex developments within the country. The Shorenstein Award given to Zaw recognizes his history of leadership as a journalist in Burma.
“It is very exciting for us this year to give this award to Aung Zaw,” said Sneider, a member of the jury that selects the awardees. “He has been intimately involved in the process of not only creating independent media for Burma but also in the process of independent change itself, starting with his own activism in the 1980s.”
Zaw received the award at a dinner ceremony later on March 6 attended by students, faculty and prominent members of the Stanford community. “I feel very humbled,” Zaw told the Voice of America in an interview. “It is an acknowledgement to our work, our commitment and our independent journalism as we try to make things different [in Myanmar].”
The video and transcript of the event, and the original press release on Zaw being named the 2013 Award recipient are posted below.
An article was published by The Irrawaddy on Zaw’s acceptance of the award. Interviews conducted with Voice of America's Kyaw Zan Thaw in Burmese and Kaye Lin in English aired internationally on March 13 and are posted below. An interview was also conducted with LinkAsia and is scheduled to air in the upcoming week and will be subsequently posted online.
Photo credit: Rod Searcey
March 11, 2014 - News
Burmese journalist critically examines Myanmar’s reforms, receives award at Stanford
Myanmar's opening to the outside world and the country's tentative steps from military rule to democracy has captivated many observers of the region. But Aung Zaw, an exiled Burmese journalist pushing for democratic change, warns that the image of rapid reform does not necessarily match reality these days.
“What we see now is serious backsliding,” Zaw told a packed house at the Bechtel Conference Center on March 6. “The changes have become more superficial; the changes are not real.”
Zaw, the founding editor of The Irrawaddy newsmagazine, delivered these remarks at Stanford upon receiving the Shorenstein Journalism Award. This annual award is conferred upon a journalist who promotes mutual understanding between the U.S. and Asia, and also honors Asian journalists who have been at the forefront of the effort to create an independent media in the Asia-Pacific.
Zaw joined scholars Donald Emmerson and Daniel Sneider from the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Yale University’s Nayan Chanda at a lunchtime panel discussion of the question – “Burma's Democracy: How Real?”
Zaw, who was forced into exile after the abortive democratic revolt of 1988, described Myanmar’s dynamic history as “up and down.” During the long period of military rule in the country, “Burma was a pariah,” he observed. The military government repressed all opposition, enriching itself while Burma slide into deep poverty, while the country was largely cut off from the outside world except for a trickle of tourists. But the regime made a clear decision to open the doors to the outside and, in response to international and domestic pressure, take tentative steps toward political change, including releasing political prisoners and allowing the media to operate more freely.
The panelists agreed that the uprisings within Burma, such as the Buddhist monk led revolt in 2007, and the leadership of Burmese human rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi pushed the regime toward change. In addition, Chanda and Emmerson pointed to the geopolitics of Burma, the desire of the regime to free itself from isolation and dependence only on China and North Korea as backers.
Zaw credited these changes with bringing some semblance of “communal balance” to the society. Emmerson argued, however, that the West has colored their view of Burma with a romantic notion of democratization that tends to overlook the still tentative, and somewhat transient, nature of the changes to date.
“The regime has carefully manipulated… international [public] opinion in trying to open the doors to the international community,” Zaw said. Especially in the past year, there have been efforts by the government to curb public protest and censorship has become pervasive once again. A commentary piece written by Zaw provides an analysis of the contemporary media environment in Myanmar.
The panel members pointed in particular to the rise of tensions between the Buddhist Burmese majority and ethnic and religious minorities in the country. In particular, they expressed concern over the discrimination against and violence suffered by minority Muslims, the ethnic Rohingya who live along the border with Bangladesh, often taking place with the complicity of government officials, or at least with their indifference. They suggested the government played upon anti-Muslim feelings to boost its popularity among the majority Buddhist populace.
With elections looming in 2015, the government may now feel it has been “moving too fast” toward reform and begun to ratchet back, warned Zaw. Conservative factions in Myanmar’s leadership who fear losing power may be gaining influence.
Nayan Chanda, the former editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review and a previous recipient of the Shorenstein Award, pointed to Myanmar’s long tradition of despotism. “Burmese rulers have had a way of governing the country that is still present among the generals we see in Burma today,” he said.
Emmerson focused his remarks on the significance of the changes in Burma to American foreign policy in the region. The Burmese shift away from Chinese domination and its opening to the West has been seen as a key part of the so-called U.S. “pivot” to Asia and its attempts to balance Chinese influence in East Asia. These changes allowed Myanmar to assume its role as chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), an annual rotation in leadership. But it is far from clear if the Burmese leadership is prepared to go toward a deeper democratic transformation. The upcoming presidential elections in 2015 remain an uncertainty. Aung San Suu Kyi is still constitutionally barred from running for president but she has been allowed to resume a powerful role in the system itself, no longer simply a “Joan of Arc” symbol of purity sitting on the outside.
In all this, the role of a free press in Burma is even more vital than ever. After his arrest in 1988 for his role in the uprising against General Ne Win’s regime, Zaw had to flee to neighboring Thailand where he has spent 25 years in exile. Zaw created The Irrawaddy, an émigré-based publication that is widely acclaimed for its on-the-ground analysis of Myanmar. In 2012, the publication reopened offices in Burma.
The Irrawaddy’s diverse contributors offer an independent platform to unravel the complex developments within the country. The Shorenstein Award given to Zaw recognizes his history of leadership as a journalist in Burma.
“It is very exciting for us this year to give this award to Aung Zaw,” said Sneider, a member of the jury that selects the awardees. “He has been intimately involved in the process of not only creating independent media for Burma but also in the process of independent change itself, starting with his own activism in the 1980s.”
Zaw received the award at a dinner ceremony later on March 6 attended by students, faculty and prominent members of the Stanford community. “I feel very humbled,” Zaw told the Voice of America in an interview. “It is an acknowledgement to our work, our commitment and our independent journalism as we try to make things different [in Myanmar].”
The video and transcript of the event, and the original press release on Zaw being named the 2013 Award recipient are posted below.
An article was published by The Irrawaddy on Zaw’s acceptance of the award. Interviews conducted with Voice of America's Kyaw Zan Thaw in Burmese and Kaye Lin in English aired internationally on March 13 and are posted below. An interview was also conducted with LinkAsia and is scheduled to air in the upcoming week and will be subsequently posted online.
An Evening with John Ralston Saul A talk on freedom of expression, Myanmar, the role of PEN International in Asia, China and free speech and more
jrs_colour_portrait.jpg
7pm, Monday 24 May, 2014
Members: Free; Non-members: 350 THB
John Ralston Saul is an extraordinary writer, public intellectual and literary activist. A long-time champion of freedom of expression. He is the International President of PEN International, the worldwide literature and free expression organization with 144 PEN Centres in over 100 countries. His works have been translated into 23 languages in 30 countries, are widely taught in universities and central to the debate over contemporary society in many countries. They include the philosophical trilogy: Voltaire's Bastards and the Dictatorship of Reason in the West, The Doubter's Companion, The Unconscious Civilization, and its conclusion, On Equilibrium. In The Collapse of Globalism (2005) he predicted today's economic crisis. In the autumn of 2012, he published his first novel in 15 years, Dark Diversions: A Traveller's Tale, a picaresque novel about the life of modern nouveaux riches.
His awards include South Korea's Manhae Grand Prize for Literature, the Pablo Neruda Medal, Canada's Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction, the inaugural Gutenberg Galaxy Award for Literature, Italy's Premio Letterario Internazionale. He is a Companion of the Order of Canada and a Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France. He is the recipient of 17 honorary degrees. In the autumn of 2013, Saul was appointed Distinguished Visiting Professor at Ryerson University's Faculty of Arts in Toronto.
He arrives in Bangkok after spending several days in Burma/Myanmar where Dr Saul met Aung San Suu Kyi and visited the new PEN Myanmar Centre where he discussed ways to further support freedom of expression and literature in the country.
In a wide-ranging talk before the FCCT audience, Dr Saul plans to talk about freedom of expression, the current situation in Myanmar, the role of PEN International in Asia, China and free speech, the return of violence against journalists and the role of social media in political change.
Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand
Penthouse, Maneeya Center Building
518/5 Ploenchit Road (connected to the BTS Skytrain Chitlom station)
Patumwan, Bangkok 10330
Friday 21 March 2014
Phuket Police Now Pursuing Criminal Defamation Case Against Reuters,Two More Reporters/SAVE THE JOURNALISTS AND PROTECT THE ROHINGYA FROM GENOCIDE! Maung Kyaw Nu
SAVE THE JOURNALISTS AND PROTECT THE ROHINGYA FROM GENOCIDE!
Maung Kyaw Nu
The defamation cases against two journalists of
Phuketwan and another two from Reuters are disturbed . Despite calling
to withdraw the case by the International Federation of Journalists,
which represents 600,000 journalists around the world, Thai Journalists
Association ,the United Nations' Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders, the
New-York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, and other rights groups
including Burmese Rohingya Association in Thailand (BRAT),the case is
still proceeding. In fact the news agency nothing did wrong but focused
the persecuted Rohingya boat people issue before the world. Through
their time to time highlighting ,many innocent lives of Rohingya have
been saved. This is our request to particularly civil society of
Thailand and around the world in general to stand by innocent
journalists and ask their relief from case. This's the duty of us to
save the humanity and protect the Rohingya from genocide!
Posted by Maung Kyaw Nu,Burmese Rohingya Association in Thailand ,President,BRAT. on March 20, 2014 23:34
Posted by Maung Kyaw Nu,Burmese Rohingya Association in Thailand ,President,BRAT. on March 20, 2014 23:34
Photo by Phuketwan.com
Phuket Police Now Pursuing Criminal Defamation Case Against Reuters,Two More Reporters
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Latest International agitation over the Royal
Thai Navy's legal pursuit of Phuketwan journalists is likely to grow
with accusations now being made against Reuters news agency reporters. More http://phuketwan.com/tourism/
Wednesday 19 March 2014
UN Human Rights Council: Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Burma
Our Report:
-
Crimes Against Humanity and Ethnic Cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Burma’s Arakan StateApril 22, 2013
Human Rights Watch welcomes Tomas Ojea
Quintana’s last report after six years as Special Rapporteur, and we
agree with all his main findings. Despite significant improvements in
freedom of expression and release of political prisoners, many serious
human rights concerns remain in the country. The government’s legal
reform process should ensure that all new laws are in line with
international human rights standards, and that existing laws that do not
meet such standards, including a number of provisions of the penal
code, be repealed or amended. The Special Rapporteur makes special
mention of the failure of the authorities to take steps against those
threatening the Muslim community. He also noted the ongoing arrest and
prosecution of people for peaceful assembly and demonstrations related
to land disputes; the government-formed prisoner review committee should
continue its work in 2014 looking into new arrests and sentencing of
people for peaceful protest. The judiciary lacks independence and has
made little progress in reforming.
There has been little progress to date on incorporating human rights provisions into the nationwide ceasefire process. Among key issues to be addressed are a lack of women’s participation in the process, ongoing impunity by the Burmese military, and ad-hoc and inconsistent access for humanitarian assistance to reach over 100,000 internally displaced persons in Kachin State and 400,000 in eastern Burma.
In Rakhine State, we share the Special Rapporteur’s concerns over restrictions on humanitarian access and the long-term effects of segregation, denial of basic services and effective denial of citizenship for the ethnic Rohingya Muslim population.
Human Rights Watch supports the Special Rapporteur’s recommendation that the Human Rights Council works with the government to establish a credible investigation into the Du Chee Yar Tan incident in Rakhine State in January, and the need for the government to hold all those responsible for abuses to account. We do not believe that the three government-led investigations were credible, or that the almost total denial of access to the media and independent human rights groups is conducive to establishing the truth.
Human Rights Watch found that widespread and systematic abuses perpetrated against the Rohingya in Rakhine State in October 2012 amount to crimes against humanity, and note that the Special Rapporteur has reached the same conclusion.
Human Rights Watch finally urges the Burmese government to permit the establishment of an OHCHR office in Yangon with full reporting mandate as well as technical assistance.
There has been little progress to date on incorporating human rights provisions into the nationwide ceasefire process. Among key issues to be addressed are a lack of women’s participation in the process, ongoing impunity by the Burmese military, and ad-hoc and inconsistent access for humanitarian assistance to reach over 100,000 internally displaced persons in Kachin State and 400,000 in eastern Burma.
In Rakhine State, we share the Special Rapporteur’s concerns over restrictions on humanitarian access and the long-term effects of segregation, denial of basic services and effective denial of citizenship for the ethnic Rohingya Muslim population.
Human Rights Watch supports the Special Rapporteur’s recommendation that the Human Rights Council works with the government to establish a credible investigation into the Du Chee Yar Tan incident in Rakhine State in January, and the need for the government to hold all those responsible for abuses to account. We do not believe that the three government-led investigations were credible, or that the almost total denial of access to the media and independent human rights groups is conducive to establishing the truth.
Human Rights Watch found that widespread and systematic abuses perpetrated against the Rohingya in Rakhine State in October 2012 amount to crimes against humanity, and note that the Special Rapporteur has reached the same conclusion.
Human Rights Watch finally urges the Burmese government to permit the establishment of an OHCHR office in Yangon with full reporting mandate as well as technical assistance.
Tuesday 11 March 2014
HISTORICAL PHOTO EXHIBITION IN BANGKOK 13-22 MARCH .EXILE TO NOWHERE :BURMA'S ROHINGYA
INVITATION!
You are cordially invited to the historical Rohingya Photo Exhibition in Bangkok (13-22 March 2014). The Canada Embassy sponsored it .The photographer is international prize winner Greg Constantine. Admission free!
Maung Kyaw Nu,
Email:brat.headoffice@gmail.com
Mobile no;085 369 0442
Exhibition - Exiled to Nowhere - by Greg Constantine, opening this coming Thursday, 13 March in #Bangkok - should be an excellent show on a very difficult subject, the plight of the #Rohingya - open to the public
You are cordially invited to the historical Rohingya Photo Exhibition in Bangkok (13-22 March 2014). The Canada Embassy sponsored it .The photographer is international prize winner Greg Constantine. Admission free!
Maung Kyaw Nu,
Email:brat.headoffice@gmail.com
Mobile no;085 369 0442
Exhibition - Exiled to Nowhere - by Greg Constantine, opening this coming Thursday, 13 March in #Bangkok - should be an excellent show on a very difficult subject, the plight of the #Rohingya - open to the public
Greg Constantine and Mung Kyaw Nu
Saturday 8 March 2014
Pentagon Called in on Phuket Media Freedom v Military Defamation
Silencing the Media over Rohingya Abuses An evening panel with the 2 Phuketwan Journalists facing jail.(Wednesday 5 March 2014 ,7 pm ) FCCT,Bangkok.
Rophingas are one of the most persecuted ,forgotten and their tragedy of life inside their own country and out side are hardly voiced out .The generous and noble journalist of Phuketwan have been voicing out especially Rohingya boat people issue with their own budged and full times engagement since 2008. This is a great humanity and working for voiceless people.Due to them ,many Rohingya's lives were saved. As an oppressed Rohingya I am welcoming other civil society and news persons to come forwards to save the humanity rather than dishonoring and attacking those who are at NOBLE job. Alan and Chutima are always in our thought and pray.I have witnessed at FCCT that all attendees were proud of their noble services for the Rohingya boat people. Truth and Justice will prevail. We salute the two honorable journalists.
Posted by Maung Kyaw Nu,Burmese Rohingya Association in Thailand ,BRAT. on March 8, 2014 19:46
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/
By Lindsay Murdoch, Fairfax SE Asia Correspondent
Rophingas are one of the most persecuted ,forgotten and their tragedy of life inside their own country and out side are hardly voiced out .The generous and noble journalist of Phuketwan have been voicing out especially Rohingya boat people issue with their own budged and full times engagement since 2008. This is a great humanity and working for voiceless people.Due to them ,many Rohingya's lives were saved. As an oppressed Rohingya I am welcoming other civil society and news persons to come forwards to save the humanity rather than dishonoring and attacking those who are at NOBLE job. Alan and Chutima are always in our thought and pray.I have witnessed at FCCT that all attendees were proud of their noble services for the Rohingya boat people. Truth and Justice will prevail. We salute the two honorable journalists.
Posted by Maung Kyaw Nu,Burmese Rohingya Association in Thailand ,BRAT. on March 8, 2014 19:46
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/
Phuketwan journalists with Jonathan Head at the FCCT last night
Pentagon Called in on Phuket Media Freedom v Military Defamation
By Lindsay Murdoch, Fairfax SE Asia Correspondent
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Latest Appeal to the Pentagon comes as case against Phuket journalists ignites passion for media freedom, Rohingya boatpeople. More »
Tuesday 4 March 2014
Rise in Bigotry Fuels Massacre Inside Myanmar
Bigotry Against Muslims Fuels Massacre in Myanmar
Credit Adam Dean for The New York Times
Rise in Bigotry Fuels Massacre Inside Myanmar
Under the pale moon of Jan. 13, Zaw Patha
watched from her bamboo house as Mohmach, 15, her eldest child, was
dragged from the kiosk where he slept as guardian of the family busine
DU
CHEE YAR TAN, Myanmar —
The
men who abducted the boy struck him with the butt of a rifle until he
fell to the dirt path, she said in an interview, gesturing with a sweep
of her slender arms. Terrified, she fled into the rice fields. She
assumes he is dead.
Three doors away, Zoya, dressed in a black abaya, showed the latch on her front door
that she said armed men had broken as they stormed in and began beating
her 14-year-old son, Mohamed. She has not seen him since.
The villagers’ accounts back up a United Nations investigation, which concluded that the attack on Du Chee Yar Tan that night resulted in the deaths of at least 40 men, women and children,
one of the worst instances of violence against the country’s
long-persecuted Rohingya Muslims. They were killed, the United Nations
says, by local security forces and civilians of the rival Rakhine ethnic
group, many of them adherents of an extreme Buddhist ideology who were
angered by the kidnapping of a Rakhine policeman by some Rohingya men.
200 mileS
BHUTAN
INDIA
CHINA
BANGLADESH
MYANMAR
Du Chee Yar Tan
LAOS
Irrawaddy
River
Sittwe
RAKHINE
Yangon
Bay of
Bengal
THAILAND
Myanmar’s
government, intent on international acceptance and investment, has
steadfastly denied the killings occurred in the village, a collection of
hamlets spread across luxuriant rice fields close to Bangladesh and a
five-hour ferry ride up the languid Kaladan River from the state
capital, Sittwe. The country’s human rights commission called the news “unverifiable and unconfirmed.”
The
United Nations findings, however, have become emblematic of the
increasing violence against Myanmar’s Rohingya, an estimated 1.3 million
people who are denied citizenship under national law.
The world organization’s report — presented to the government by the United Nations and United States
but not made public — documents the initial discovery of the massacre
by five Muslim men who sneaked into the area after the attack. They
found the severed heads of at least 10 Rohingya bobbing in a water tank.
Some of those were children’s.
One
of the men said he was so rattled, and concerned his eyes were playing
tricks in the darkness, that he put his hands in the tank to confirm
through touch what he thought he saw.
The
killings are a test for Myanmar’s government, which has done little to
rein in radical Buddhists, even as it pursues broad economic and
political reforms of policies created by its former military leaders.
The government has backed severe restrictions imposed by local
authorities on Muslims’ freedom of movement and deprivation of basic
services in Rakhine State, where most Rohingya live.
The
bloodletting is also a challenge for Western governments that have
showered economic aid and good will on Myanmar in the hope of winning
the fealty of the resource-rich fledgling democracy. Those countries
have mostly kept their concerns about the treatment of the Rohingya
quiet in the hope, diplomats said, of persuading the government to
change its stance.
On Friday, the crackdown on the ethnic minority continued, when the government ordered Doctors Without Borders,
the Rohingya’s main health care provider, to stop providing its
services to them. One of the group’s offenses, according to a government
official, was the hiring of too many Rohingya.
Since
2012, many Rohingya, a long-reviled group in Buddhist-majority Myanmar,
have been herded into miserable camps they are not allowed to leave,
even for work. Those still allowed to live in villages like Du Chee Yar
Tan are at the mercy of the local authorities, many of whom are inspired
by an extremist Buddhist group whose monks have used the nation’s new
freedoms to travel the countryside on motorbikes preaching hatred of
Muslims.
The
latest carnage is a major embarrassment for the government, which has
just assumed an important position as the annual chair of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
In
a sign of the sensitivity, a visit to the village to assess the
conflicting reports about the night of Jan. 13 was cut short when local
police officers briefly detained two New York Times reporters and a
photographer.
In
response to a major 2012 spasm of violence in Sittwe that included the
firebombing of homes and left an estimated 300 dead, most of them
Muslims, President Thein Sein
said most Rohingya were in Myanmar illegally, despite their having
lived there, in some cases, for generations. His solution: The United
Nations should help deport them.
Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace laureate and opposition leader, is
rarely asked at home about discrimination against the Rohingya because
it is broadly accepted in Myanmar.
She
has defended her lack of action to the foreign news media, saying that
taking sides could further exacerbate tensions, an explanation that even
her Western supporters believe is calculated to avoid offending voters
ahead of elections next year.
Though
there have been attacks on other Muslim groups elsewhere in Myanmar in
the past two years, the animosity toward the Rohingya is especially
combustible. Many of them were brought to the country from India in
British colonial times, and many ethnic Burmese despise them as illegal
intruders from what is now Bangladesh.
About
140,000 displaced Rohingya whose homes were destroyed in two major
attacks in 2012 now live in more than two dozen camps around Sittwe, a
dilapidated trading center. Largely dependent on assistance from
international humanitarian groups, which are often harassed by the local
authorities, the Rohingya remain trapped in the camps that foreign aid
workers call the world’s largest outdoor jails.
The
presidential spokesman, U Ye Htut, said in a telephone interview that
plans last year for “resettlement and rehabilitation” of those in the
camps were suspended because the “Bengalis did not agree and threw
stones,” using a term common in Myanmar for the Rohingya, indicating the
belief that they belong in Bangladesh.
Of
the 18 townships in Rakhine State, seven have already barred Muslims
from using their clinics, foreign aid workers said. And a report
released last week by Fortify Rights,
a group that specializes in the Rohingya, chronicled a pattern of
discrimination by officials that is intensifying as local authorities
appear increasingly desperate to drive the group out. A dozen leaked
documents dated from 1993 to 2008 showed the government’s efforts to
slow the growth of the Rohingya population, including a requirement for
official permission to marry and limits on the number of children
couples can have. The presidential spokesman, Mr. Ye Htut, dismissed the
findings as “a one-sided view of the Bengali.”
As
a way out of the bleak camps, nearly 80,000 Rohingya men, women and
children last year took perilous sea journeys run by smugglers to
Thailand and on to Malaysia or north to Bangladesh. Some drowned in
capsized boats, and many were detained in Thailand, said Chris Lewa, the
director of the Arakan Project, a human rights group.
“The risk seems worth it to them,” she said.
Constrained Lives
Muhamed
Fourhkhat, 54, and his family have it better than most in the camps and
the villages around Sittwe. They have managed — in a vastly reduced way
— to replicate the lives they had as the scions of a well-to-do
Rohingya quarter in Sittwe that flourished with markets, a primary
school for Muslim and Buddhist children, a mosque and a monastery.
In
the town, the family lived on the top stories of two concrete buildings
laid with polished teak floors, and worked downstairs at their hardware
business. The land had been passed down through his great-grandfather,
Mr. Fourhkhat said.
The properties were burned by a mob, backed by Rakhine security forces, in June 2012, he said, and bulldozed by the government a few months later. So was every other structure in the neighborhood.
On
a recent day, the neighborhood was an empty stretch of land overgrown
with weeds and littered with plastic bags waving in the wind. An eerie
silence has settled over what, by many accounts, was once a friendly
marketplace that served both Rakhine and Rohingya.
Mr.
Fourhkhat has never returned, though he could probably bribe a police
officer to get there for a short visit. “Why would I?” he asked,
pointing out that his beard, touched with henna, gave him away as a
Muslim. “If I went,” he said, making a cutting gesture across his neck,
“you would find my dead body there.”
He
has built a new, if less sturdy, home of bamboo in a Muslim village
that sits astride the camps inside a security perimeter that is
designated by the Rakhine government as a place Rohingya can live. “I
have never lived in bamboo before,” he said.
Mr.
Fourhkhat’s son, Shwe Maung Thani, 28, is a graduate of Sittwe
University in biology, getting his diploma before the state expelled all
Rohingya students from the school. He has rarely sneaked out of the
camp, but tried twice to get his sick mother to a hospital.
She died in January after receiving inadequate medical care, he said.
The only Rohingya doctor in Rakhine State — Dr. Tun Aung,
trained before a citizenship law in 1982 disqualified Rohingya for
medical school — was jailed after the June 2012 violence. He remains in
prison, convicted of inciting violence, despite requests from the United
States government for his release, an American official said.
A Longtime Fear
The
Rakhine people, a group of about 2.1 million who are fiercely proud of
their ancient kingdom, known as Arakan, are fearful of the Rohingya
based on “an acute sense of demographic besiegement,” according to a recent article
by Kyaw San Wai, a Myanmar citizen who is a senior analyst at the S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. It is a feeling
shared by many Buddhists across Myanmar.
Given
the lack of a census since 1983, the demographics are imprecise. It is
generally accepted by Myanmar and international officials that about 89
percent of the roughly 55 million people in Myanmar are Buddhist and 4
percent are Muslim. The Rohingya are a subset of those Muslims, making
the Buddhists’ fear of being overwhelmed seem irrational though it is
nonetheless real, the experts say.
“Among Burmese Buddhists, there is a widespread belief that Buddhism will disappear in the future,” Mr. Wai wrote.
While
there is little chance of Muslims taking over the nation, they are
enough of a presence here in Rakhine to make their presence felt
politically.
In
the 2010 general election, the central government allowed the Rohingya
to vote despite their lack of citizenship, and the results were too
close for comfort, said Khaing Pyi Soe, a senior member of the Rakhine
Nationalities Development Party. The Rakhine candidate in Sittwe won 52
percent of the vote, and the Rohingya candidate 48 percent. Mr. Khaing
Pyi Soe and other officials say the Rohingya must not be allowed to vote
next year because with many young Rakhine leaving the impoverished
region for work elsewhere, the results would be reversed.
In the weeks before the attack on Du Chee Yar Tan, monks from the radical Buddhist movement called 969
visited a town nearby. The monks — who are at least tolerated by the
national government, if not admired by some officials — have stirred
anti-Muslim sentiment throughout parts of Myanmar.
There
was no formal connection between the appearance of the monks and the
killings, experts said, but their hate speech has increasingly infected
the sloganeering of Rakhine civilians. Now, they say, even moderate
Rakhine feel it would be too dangerous to stand up for reconciliation.
The
United Nations and the United States have kept up the pressure on
Myanmar about the killings in Du Chee Yar Tan, and Myanmar’s government,
which has already conducted two fast inquiries, has ordered another and
included a Muslim on the panel, though not a Rohingya Muslim.
One
factor may complicate its investigation: The United Nations report on
the attack said nearby villagers reported that in the hours immediately
afterward, they saw Rakhine security forces ferry 20 bodies to
surrounding hills, probably to cover up the murders. Immediately after
the slaughter, 22 wounded and traumatized villagers sought help at rural
clinics run by Doctors Without Borders, the group said.
Some
were women traumatized by the horrors they witnessed, according to aid
workers familiar with the cases; others sought treatment for wounds.
At
least some villagers have drifted back to check on their belongings.
Zaw Patha, whose son was dragged from the kiosk, found that the goods he
guarded had been looted and her cows stolen.
Red liquid signifying blood was splashed on a school not far from her house, a warning to stay away.
“To
an extent, I understand the worry of the Rakhine about Rohingya
population growth in an area next to Bangladesh,” said the international
aid worker. “But at the same time, you can’t get rid of 1.3 million
people.”
Monday 3 March 2014
Silencing the Media over Rohingya Abuses An evening panel with the 2 Phuketwan journalists facing Jail.
Silencing the Media over Rohingya Abuses
An evening panel with the 2 Phuketwan journalists facing Jail.
An evening panel with the 2 Phuketwan journalists facing Jail.
19:00, Wednesday 5th March, 2014
Non-members 350 Baht, Members Free
Alan and Chutima are both being prosecuted under the Computer Crimes Act by the Royal Thai Navy, for an article they ran on their online newspaper Phuketwan last year, documenting the sale of Rohingyas intercepted in Thai waters into bonded labour. The investigative article was actually researched and written by Reuters and published in other Thai papers.
Alan and Chutima have played a central role over the past 6 years in exposing the exploitation and abuse of Rohingyas detained along Thailand¹s Andaman coast, in the finest tradition of investigative reporting
If convicted they could face up to seven years in prison.
These are two inspiring and courageous journalists, running their own newspaper, without the backing of a big media organisation. They are really worth listening to while they still have the freedom to speak.
Foreign Correspondents' Club of
Thailand
Penthouse, Maneeya Center Building
518/5 Ploenchit Road (connected to the BTS Skytrain Chitlom station)
Patumwan, Bangkok 10330
Saturday 1 March 2014
U.S. concerned by reports Myanmar suspends MSF in Rakhine State
(Reuters) -
The United States on Friday urged Myanmar to allow
humanitarian agencies "unfettered access" in Rakhine state, following
reports the government had ordered medical aid group Medecins Sans
Frontieres (MSF) to stop working there.
The Nobel Prize-winning charity has been giving health care to both ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, a mostly stateless minority who live in apartheid-like conditions and who otherwise have little access to healthcare.
"Free, regular and open access is essential to ensure the benefits of humanitarian activities are delivered appropriately to all people of Rakhine State," a U.S. embassy official told Reuters.
Government spokesman Ye Htut told media that MSF had been ordered to cease operations. He accused the organization of falsely claiming it treated victims of violence around the time of an alleged massacre in mid-January, which the government denies took place.
The United Nations and human rights groups say at least 40 Rohingya were killed by security forces and ethnic Rakhine Buddhist civilians in a restricted area of the conflict-ridden western state.
MSF said on January 24 it had treated 22 people in the area of the alleged massacre for injuries including a gunshot wound, stab wounds and beatings.
A diplomatic source who declined to be identified told Reuters that MSF was in negotiations with officials in the capital, Naypyitaw, after suspending operations late on Thursday.
An MSF spokesman declined to comment. Ye Htut and other government officials were unavailable for comment.
"INTERNAL AFFAIR"
Myanmar's government has repeatedly rejected reports by MSF, the United Nations and human rights groups that Rohingya villagers in Maungdaw township were attacked and their homes looted.
On January 29, the government called diplomats to a briefing where officials said they had found no evidence of a massacre, but promised further investigation.
A request by U.S. Ambassador Derek Mitchell to include an international representative on the investigating team was denied by Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin, who said it was "an internal affair".
Incidents in Maungdaw township and other parts of Rakhine state are difficult to verify independently as they are off limits to journalists and the government controls access by international aid groups, despite a wave of democratic reforms since military rule ended in 2011.
If confirmed, the massacre would take to at least 277 the number of people killed in religious conflict across Myanmar since June 2012. More than 140,000 people have been displaced.
Most of the victims were Muslims and the most deadly incidents happened in Rakhine State, where about a million Rohingya live.
MSF has worked in the state for almost 20 years treating hundreds of thousands of people from all ethnic groups through programs including maternal health and treatment for HIV and tuberculosis, according to its website.
"Insecurity, delayed authorization and repeated threats and intimidation by a small and vocal group of the Rakhine community have hindered MSF's work," the group said on its website.
The Nobel Prize-winning charity has been giving health care to both ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, a mostly stateless minority who live in apartheid-like conditions and who otherwise have little access to healthcare.
"Free, regular and open access is essential to ensure the benefits of humanitarian activities are delivered appropriately to all people of Rakhine State," a U.S. embassy official told Reuters.
Government spokesman Ye Htut told media that MSF had been ordered to cease operations. He accused the organization of falsely claiming it treated victims of violence around the time of an alleged massacre in mid-January, which the government denies took place.
The United Nations and human rights groups say at least 40 Rohingya were killed by security forces and ethnic Rakhine Buddhist civilians in a restricted area of the conflict-ridden western state.
MSF said on January 24 it had treated 22 people in the area of the alleged massacre for injuries including a gunshot wound, stab wounds and beatings.
A diplomatic source who declined to be identified told Reuters that MSF was in negotiations with officials in the capital, Naypyitaw, after suspending operations late on Thursday.
An MSF spokesman declined to comment. Ye Htut and other government officials were unavailable for comment.
"INTERNAL AFFAIR"
Myanmar's government has repeatedly rejected reports by MSF, the United Nations and human rights groups that Rohingya villagers in Maungdaw township were attacked and their homes looted.
On January 29, the government called diplomats to a briefing where officials said they had found no evidence of a massacre, but promised further investigation.
A request by U.S. Ambassador Derek Mitchell to include an international representative on the investigating team was denied by Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin, who said it was "an internal affair".
Incidents in Maungdaw township and other parts of Rakhine state are difficult to verify independently as they are off limits to journalists and the government controls access by international aid groups, despite a wave of democratic reforms since military rule ended in 2011.
If confirmed, the massacre would take to at least 277 the number of people killed in religious conflict across Myanmar since June 2012. More than 140,000 people have been displaced.
Most of the victims were Muslims and the most deadly incidents happened in Rakhine State, where about a million Rohingya live.
MSF has worked in the state for almost 20 years treating hundreds of thousands of people from all ethnic groups through programs including maternal health and treatment for HIV and tuberculosis, according to its website.
"Insecurity, delayed authorization and repeated threats and intimidation by a small and vocal group of the Rakhine community have hindered MSF's work," the group said on its website.
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