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NEW YORK – An international human rights watchdog body Thursday accused the Myanmar’s government of systematically restricting humanitarian aid and imposing discriminatory policies on Rohingya Muslims in Arakan State.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch asked the government to permit unfettered access to humanitarian agencies to provide assistance to Muslim populations, end segregated areas, and put forward a plan for those displaced to return to their homes.
“Burmese (Myanmar) government restrictions on aid to Rohingya Muslims are creating a humanitarian crisis that will become a disaster when the rainy season arrives,” Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch said in a statement. “Instead of addressing the problem, Burma’s (Myanmar’s) leaders seem intent on keeping the Rohingya segregated in camps rather than planning for them to return to their homes.”

Ahead of the monsoon season set to start in Myanmar in May, a senior United Nations humanitarian official today called for urgent help for more than 125,000 people displaced by inter-communal fighting in Rakhine state, a region he had just visited.

Speaking to journalists in New York, the Director of Operations for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), John Ging, said tens of thousands of displaced people who are living on what are effectively paddy fields will be completely submerged once the rains hit in less than two months.

“A solution needs to be found to relocate those people and also to see the return and the freedom of movement for all the internally displaced persons (IDPs) so they can begin to recover their lives and their livelihoods,” Mr. Ging stated.

By Patrick Winn

YANGON and MANDALAY, Myanmar — To untrained eyes, the symbol that has suddenly appeared on shop windows across Myanmar appears benign: a patchwork of pastel hues overlaid with the numerals 969.

But to Muslims living in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar, the emblem can carry a chilling message: stay out of my store and don’t send any sneaky Buddhists in here to shop on your behalf.

In the aftermath of central Myanmar’s recent anti-Muslim riots — a killing and arson spree that left blackened corpses in the streets — authorities have vowed to track down and punish instigators.

The United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide today voiced deep concern at reports of increased violence between Muslim and Buddhist communities in Myanmar, and called on leaders to promote respect for diversity and peaceful coexistence.

Last week President Thein Sein reportedly declared a state of emergency and imposed martial law in four central townships after several days of unrest between Buddhists and Muslims, including in Meiktila where at least 30 people were killed.

“The recent episode of violence in Meiktila in central Myanmar raises concerns that sectarian violence is spreading to other parts of the country,” stated Special Adviser Adama Dieng. “In the context of last year’s violence between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state, there is a considerable risk of further violence if measures are not put in place to prevent this escalation.”

by Andrew Selth
Andrew Selth is a Research Fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute.

Given the spate of articles in the news media which connect the anti-Muslim riots in Burma last week with the sectarian violence in Rakhine (Arakan) State last year, it may be helpful to sketch out the multi-faceted nature of Burma’s Muslim communities and some of the underlying issues.

Burma is often left off lists of Southeast Asian countries with sizeable Muslim populations. Yet, at least 4% of Burmese are Muslims, or by most counts well over 2 million people. A large number of Muslims in Burma are not recognised as citizens, however, and thus do not figure in the official statistics. Some unlikely claims range as high as 20%, or more than 11 million people. A few websites include up to 1.5 million Muslims currently living overseas.

Mark Snowiss
When 16 Burmese newspapers are granted operating licenses on April 1, they will become the first independent dailies allowed to publish in nearly 50 years.

While journalists have described the move as a major step toward media freedom in Burma, they have also voiced outrage at the country’s draft media law, released earlier this month, which critics say could roll back government promises to loosen its grip on a long tightly controlled industry.

That bill bans reporting on several topics, including the Burmese military’s battles with ethnic rebels and any coverage critical of the 2008 military-drafted constitution. It also permits six-month jail terms for failing to register news publications with the government.

Tim Marshall – Foreign Affairs Editor (Sky News HD)
Amid the cries for freedom, justice, democracy, few activists lauded by visiting journalists bother with minority rights.
This week’s outbreak of sectarian racist violence in Burma is a reminder that the cliched view of the Burmese as a freedom loving, peaceful people living under the yoke of a fascist dictatorship is not entirely accurate.
 Yes, the democracy movement led by Aung San Suu Kyi has been mostly peaceful. Yes, we did see thousands of smiling, calm, saffron-robed Buddhist monks taking to the streets, and no, most ordinary Burmese do not set about their neighbours with knifes, and their neighbours’ homes with petrol bombs.

But some do. Some of them even wear saffron robes while they do it.

The most recent attempt at cleansing an ethnic group began in Meiktila, 340 miles north of Rangoon. They then spread south as close as 125 miles from the country’s biggest city, where Muslim-owned shops are beginning to close in case of violence.

By Steven Hsieh
Human Rights Watch says Burma’s discriminatory policies against Rohingya Muslims could lead to a permanent, segregated state.
The Burmese government is potentially paving the way for long-term segregation through discriminatory policies against a Muslim minority, Human Rights Watch reports. The New York-based NGO says state officials created a humanitarian crisis by blocking aid from getting to Rohingya and Kaman Muslims displaced in squalid refuges camps.
In June 2012, sectarian violence in the coastal Arakan State forced more than 125,000 Burmese Muslims to take refuge in sordid displacement camps. Since then, the Burmese government has restricted international aid organizations from providing food and medical assistance to the hungry, sick and dying. Additionally, security forces guard the displaced from leaving the camps, further exacerbating the crisis. HRW fears the wet season could turn the already dire situation into a disaster, pointing to heavy rain risks that could “overflow already inadequate and overused latrines, spreading otherwise preventable waterborne diseases throughout the displaced population.”