Thursday, April 12, 2018

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Zuckerberg Urged to Take Genuine Steps to Stop Use of FB to Spread Hate in Myanmar

Posted: 12 Apr 2018 08:13 AM PDT

YANGON—Myanmar digital rights advocates and civil society representatives on Thursday urged Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg to hire a "sufficient" quantity of Myanmar-language content reviewers who have a good understanding of the situation in the country, and to implement effective systems to curb hate speech and messages inciting violence.

The US-based social media giant has been accused of contributing to the spread of fake news and hate speech in the country via accounts opened by users who seek to inflame communal conflict.

Last week, a group of six Myanmar civil society organizations published an open letter to Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive officer, in which they criticized the "inadequate response" of the company in reviewing reports of hate speech on the social media platform.

The six groups are Phandeeyar, Myanmar ICT for Development (MIDO), Equality Myanmar, Burma Monitor, Center of Social Integrity, and Myanmar Human Rights Educator Network.

The open letter followed Zuckerberg's interview with US-based digital media outlet Vox, in which he said the company's systems had stopped a harmful message from being sent between users in Myanmar via Facebook's Messenger application. He said his company is paying a lot of attention to the detection of such messages. In response, the CSOs expressed surprise that he had raised that particular case as an example of the effectiveness of his systems, saying it exemplified "the very opposite of effective moderation."

The case mentioned in the letter involved two different messages sent separately to Buddhist and Muslim communities in Myanmar in September last year, with the aim of inciting violence. The groups raised the case with Facebook but the messages circulated on social media for days.

At a press conference at the downtown Yangon office of Phandeeyar, the six CSOs and human rights activists issued a six-point demand to Facebook, calling on it to emphasize detection, ban individuals who spread hate speech on the platform, invest more in technology to monitor such speech, and to be more transparent in implementing systematic mechanisms, among other things.

Aung Myo Min, executive director of the Myanmar-based human rights advocacy group Equality Myanmar, said the intention of the open letter was not to control the use of Facebook in Myanmar or individual freedom of expression, but to prevent abuse of the platform to sow hatred among communities.

"Facebook has become an essential part of our daily social life," Aung Myo Min said.

"When there are increasing abuses of the platform, it's more dangerous and harmful for a country like Myanmar," adding that fake news and hate speech can easily do harm and cause violence in a country that is so religiously and ethnically diverse.

"It puts a real burden on the government too," he said.

Overreliance on Third Parties

Htaike Htaike, director at MIDO, said the open letter created an opportunity to highlight the challenging situation in Myanmar when it comes to using Facebook.

"The case we stressed in the open letter was not the only incident involving Facebook that incited religious conflict. There were several similar cases in the past," she said.

"If Facebook only relies on reports and information from groups like us, it will be impossible for the company to implement effective and sustainable mechanisms to tackle hate speech in the long run," she said.

In a personal apology letter to the Myanmar CSO groups on April 6, Zuckerberg said his company was building artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help Facebook identify abusive, hateful or false content even before it is flagged by community members.

The groups responded with another letter the following day stressing that the proposed improvements would not be sufficient to ensure Myanmar users receive the "same standards of care" as those in the U.S. or Europe.

"When things go wrong in Myanmar, the consequences can be really serious — potentially disastrous. You have yourself publicly acknowledged the risk of the platform being abused [to do] real harm," the letter read.

Human Resources or AI?

According to initial reports by The Guardian and The New York Times published in mid-March, political marketing firm Cambridge Analytica gained access to the personal data of 50 million Facebook users harvested through a third-party app. The number of Facebook accounts affected by the massive data scandal was later revised to as many as 87 million.

During Zuckerberg's appearance at the U.S. Senate hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday over the scandal, he was asked by Vermont Senator Patrick J. Leahy about his company's alleged role in spreading hate speech against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. The senator also raised the issue of death threats against Myanmar journalist Aung Naing Soe that were spread on Facebook in November 2016.

"What's happening in Myanmar is a terrible tragedy, and we need to do more," Zuckerberg answered. When asked by Senator Heahy if he would dedicate resources to make sure hate speech is taken down within 24 hours, he replied he was "working on this."

He said Facebook was hiring "dozens" more Myanmar-language content reviewers to look for hate speech, as well as working with civil society organizations to identify "specific hate figures" who should be banned from the social media site, and working with product teams to make specific changes for the country's users.

However, Chan Myae Khine, a local tech enthusiast and owner of a digital marketing enterprise, said Facebook — as one of the biggest tech companies on Earth — needs proper AI tools rather than human resources, and to sit down with linguists, Burmese-language professors and local tech experts to create algorithms that could detect and block hate speech.

"[Hiring more Myanmar language-speaking people] is certainly not the solution as humans can always be biased and it is not practical to monitor [over] 18 million users with a hundred people," she said.

For Thant Sin, Phandeeyar's Tech for Peace manager, trying to implement AI in an automated detection system would face many difficulties in Myanmar as the country is still struggling to come up with a standard font, while Facebook content in Myanmar can be displayed in many different ethnic languages.

"Hate speech and fake news are not only being spread in the Bamar language but also in other ethnic languages," he said, adding that newly developed AI solutions deployed with sufficient human resources would be beneficial and effective.

Low Digital Literacy and Fake News 

Another challenge facing Myanmar is the general public's low level of digital literacy, he said.

"Many people still treat Facebook as if it were the Internet," he said.

According to a survey of 3,000 people last year, 38% of the surveyed people get most, if not all, of their news from Facebook. Many trust fabricated and fictitious news on the platform without verifying the source. Given such a situation, many minority groups get targeted online.

Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar's Rakhine state and crossed into Bangladesh since insurgent attacks sparked a security crackdown last August.

United Nations officials investigating the crisis said last month that Facebook had been a source of anti-Rohingya propaganda. Marzuki Darusman, chairman of the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, said social media sites had played a "determining role" in Myanmar in spreading misinformation and hate speech that led to the violence.

Even though the platform has had negative impacts and caused harmful consequences in the country, it has also played an important role in Myanmar's democratic transition by supporting the electoral process and encouraging public engagement in politics, as well as empowering people to express their opinions and be heard as the country opened up to the world after years of isolation, Thant Sin said.

When asked by The Irrawaddy if Facebook is generally causing more harm than good in Myanmar, Chan Myae Khine disagreed, saying that underlying hatreds are a fundamental problem of the conflicts in the country.

"Any kind of conflict in Myanmar, including religious and racial ones, are because of the hatred rooted in the society. If there was no Facebook, they would still be using any platform they could access to spread hatred," she said.

"Having said that, Facebook has the power to spread things quickly and without verification."

The post Zuckerberg Urged to Take Genuine Steps to Stop Use of FB to Spread Hate in Myanmar appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

SSPP, Peace Commission to Hold Two-Party Talks

Posted: 12 Apr 2018 05:33 AM PDT

CHIANG MAI, Thailand – The Shan State Progressive Party and the government's Peace Commission will meet at the party's Wan Hai headquarters in northern Shan State's Kehsi Township within the next three weeks, according to the commission.

According to sources close to the SSPP, the government approached the party through Sai Aik Pao, the chairman of the Shan Nationalities Development Party and the former Shan State minister for mining and forestry, late last month, proposing bilateral talks.

The two sides are currently negotiating a date for the meeting. As the Peace Commission is scheduled to meet the Karenni National Progressive Party on April 23-25, it is believed the government delegation could meet the Shan armed group after that.

The SSPP is a member of the seven-member Federal Political Negotiation and Consultative Committee (FPNCC), a northeast-based armed alliance which has a policy of insisting on holding collective talks with the government. Despite the policy, however, two of its members — the Kachin Independence Army and the United Wa State Army — have met the government delegation separately on previous occasions at the behest of Chinese officials.

Peace Commission secretary U Khin Zaw Oo, a former lieutenant-general, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that the meeting is planned for either late April or early May at Wan Hai.

He confirmed that they "had communicated about holding talks, as mentioned in the SSPP's statement issued on Wednesday evening," but declined to reveal what would be discussed.

On Wednesday, a fake statement was circulated online purporting to be from the SSPP and announcing that it had made plans to meet unilaterally with the PC because the KIA and UWSA had done so.

A few hours later, the SSPP issued an official statement reading: "There was a fake statement which attempted to divide the FPNCC alliance and sabotage the Peace Commission and the SSPP's optimistic approach toward national reconciliation, the peace process, regional stability and development."

Sai Nyunt Lwin, the secretary of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, shared the SSPP's view, telling The Irrawaddy on Thursday, "It [the fake statement] is an attempt to weaken trust and cause quarrels among the FPNCC members, and to cause misunderstanding between the Shan armed group members."

Chit Min Tun contributed to this report.

The post SSPP, Peace Commission to Hold Two-Party Talks appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Concerns Raised Over Public Display of Sacred Buddhist Relic

Posted: 12 Apr 2018 05:21 AM PDT

YANGON – An unprecedented public display and procession of a sacred relic of the Buddha by the Yangon Regional Government has prompted fears that the more-than-2,500-year-old strand of hair could be damaged.

Previously enshrined in the relic chamber of Yangon's Botahtaung Pagoda, the casket was taken out from the chamber on April 1 under the supervision of Yangon Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein, some senior Buddhist monks and pagoda trustees.

U Sein Maw, the director of Yangon Region's Ministry of Religious Affairs, told The Irrawaddy last week that the relic was temporarily taken out to allow repairs to be done in the chamber.

"The interior of the chamber needs renovation. Water leaks from its ceiling," he said.

According to the history of the pagoda, the religious structure was originally built by ethnic Mon some 2,500 years ago. Legend has it that two trader brothers, Tapussa and Bhalika, encountered the recently enlightened Guattama Buddha and made offerings.

The sacred hair relic of the Buddha enshrined at Botahtaung Pagoda is now open to the public to observe at a prayer hall in the pagoda compound. (Photo: Aung Kyaw Htet / The Irrawaddy)

In return, the Buddha gave the brothers eight strands of his hair, which they presented to the then King of Yangon (Okkalapa). The king ordered the pagoda be built to enshrine some of the hairs while other strands were enshrined at the Shwedagon Pagoda. Due to the relics, both pagodas have become centers for pilgrimages by Buddhist devotees.

The sacred hair relic is now on open view to the public at a nearby prayer hall. At the time of The Irrawaddy's visit to the pagoda trustee board's office last week, some women were donating their jewelry and gold bracelets to the trustees.

While the display is a rare chance for Buddhists to see the sacred relic, conservationists are concerned that something bad might happen to this piece of "national heritage" during the display and procession. The relic is scheduled to be brought to another prayer hall at the Shwedagon Pagoda on Apr. 19, and will be kept there for public display until Apr. 24.

"Should a piece of national heritage like the sacred hair relic be out for a long time due to its fragility? What if it is accidentally damaged during the display and procession?" asked Daw Moe Moe Lwin, the director of the Yangon Heritage Trust.

The ceremony to take out the relic casket from the chamber on Apr 1. (Photo: Zaykabar Company / Facebook)

"I wonder if precautions have been taken," she said.

She made a comparison with Sri Lanka's Temple of the Sacred Tooth in Kandy where that country's most important Buddhist relic— a tooth of the Buddha—is enshrined in a heavily guarded room and only open to devotees and tourists during periods of offering or prayer.

"Even when you are in the room, you don't actually see the tooth. It's kept in a gold casket which contains a series of six caskets of diminishing size," she explained.

To address the concerns, U Sein Maw said they had a well thought-out plan to protect the relic.

"We have been discussing the best way to carefully put the relic casket in the car and transport it from Botahtaung to Shwedagon Pagoda," said the religious official.

He added that the renovation of the relic chamber was part of a thorough restoration plan for the pagoda that includes recasting all the gold on the pagoda structure and replacing it on the pagoda's old umbrella, vane and diamond bud.

U Sein Maw revealed that they have estimated between 50 to 60 kilograms of gold would be needed to coat the umbrella crown, diamond bud and vane.

On April 1, the chief minister and his wife, Yangon Mayor U Maung Maung Soe, some senior monks, some businessmen from the Zaykabar conglomerate and the Shwe Than Lwin group joined a ceremony to remove the relic and circulate the pagoda three times while holding it.

During World War II, the pagoda was completely destroyed by the British Royal Air Force when they bombed jetties along the Hlaing River.  The relic casket was found among the rubble as workers cleared the remains of the structure. The pagoda was reconstructed in the early independence era of Myanmar.

The post Concerns Raised Over Public Display of Sacred Buddhist Relic appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Wa Restaurant Brings Food From the Mountains to the Big City

Posted: 12 Apr 2018 04:19 AM PDT

There are a lot of different ethnic restaurants in Yangon, making it easy to find Shan, Mon, Rakhine and Chin foods. I recently made a rarer discovery, a restaurant selling Wa food. Called Root Kitchen, it has been introducing Yangon residents to the food from upper Myanmar for two years from its location on Bo Myat Tun Road.

Root Kitchen serves traditional Wa food from the northern part of Shan State. Most of the ingredients as well as the tealeaves and traditional Wa liquor come directly from the Wa region, a two-day journey from Yangon.

Root Kitchen is the mission of three ethnic Wa including two sisters, Ipkaw Pang and Phyone Poung Yon.

"I was working in Singapore and when I arrived back in Yangon I didn't see anything that was representative of Wa culture. So, I thought I should do something for our ethnic group and find a way to educate other people about us. And, I decided to use food," said Ipkaw Pang of her modern little restaurant.

A traditional Wa dish called Pumpkin Moik, which is served at Root Kitchen in a wet style./Htet Wai/The Irrawaddy

She notes that there is another Wa restaurant in Yangon but adds the "food we serve is more authentic."

Root Kitchen opened its doors in the lower part of Bo Myat Tun Road in 2016. The restaurant's signboard is a bit small, so you need to look for it carefully.

When I visited, it was already after lunchtime at around 3pm but there were still a few tables of guests. A big timber and driftwood table stood just inside the entrance. Cushion covers feature Wa traditional textile designs. The walls are decorated with Wa musical instruments, traditional fabric weavings in bamboo frames and a bull's head.

"As you see, we decorated the shop with bits of Wa culture but not too much. We just added a twist to the modern decorations to keep it comfortable," Phyone Poung Yon said.

With the subdued lighting and soft music playing in the background, the restaurant has a warm vibe.

Smoked beef salad/Htet Wai/The Irrawaddy

A little book is placed on every table that includes an introduction about the Wa people, their traditional dishes and the ingredients used as well as details on where they come from. It also lists the food available at the restaurant.

A traditional Wa dish is Moik, which comes in three kinds: dry, wet and soupy. Root Kitchen offers only the wet style.

"We think people will easily accept the wet type because it's not too dry and not too wet. So, it will be OK for people tasting it for the first time," Ipkaw Pang said.

Moik is like a soup or stew cooked with a strain of brown rice that comes from the sisters' hometown in Wa, and which, they said, is essential for cooking Moik properly.

The Wa dishes offered on the menu are mainly boiled, grilled, or come in the form of a salad and many are spicy. Most of the dishes also claim to provide health benefits.

"Usually, Wa people live in mountainous areas. So, when they go into the jungle to hunt, they also pick herbs. Then, they put everything together in the meal and cook it with brown rice," Phyone Poung Yon explained.

I opted for their popular 'Pumpkin Moik' (3000 kyats), and could taste the freshness of the pumpkin and pumpkin leaves. It was not very wet, nor very dry, while the brown rice was soft and overall it was very tasty.

Grilled lamb chop /Htet Wai/The Irrawaddy

I tried another hot item, 'Spicy Chicken and Glass Noodles', which came in a large portion that was too much for two people. It was a spicy soup and a bit oily but the taste leaves you craving more.

The item my companion and I liked the most was 'Smoked Beef Salad' (8000 kyat), which we fully recommend trying. First, they put the beef out in the sun to dry, and then smoke it. Then, they stretch the smoked beef into small strips. Finally, they make mix it in a salad with chili.

Among the grilled items, I tried 'Lamb Chop' (11,000 kyat), which included three pieces on three bones. The meat was so soft and had a strong aroma of charcoal because of the way it was grilled. That makes the meal special, and I recommend that one too.

Lettuce wrap fish fillet /Htet Wai/The Irrawaddy

There is a great variety to choose from on the menu and staff is helpful and friendly. If you want to know about of a particular item's ingredients, just ask and they are happy to explain.

Root Kitchen offers Wa food that is quite different from the usual Myanmar fare you can get in Yangon. Most of the dishes are spicy but the particularly hot ones are marked with a small chili icon on the menu. You can also tell the waiter whether you want it to be more spicy or less.

Phyone Poung Yon, left, and Ipkaw Pang, the two sisters who help run the Root Kitchen/Htet Wai/The Irrawaddy

The cocktail menu offers "Root Specials" mixed with Wa liquor such as Root-O-Tea, Wa Tang Clan, Wajito and so on. They also have fresh juices and several varieties of coffee. (The drink prices range from 2000-7,000 kyat).

The chef at Root Kitchen is not Wa, but he has been trained by the owners and can cook Wa foods very well, Ipkaw Pang said.

A bartender making a drink at Root Kitchen's bar /Htet Wai/The Irrawaddy

"There'll be a new chef joining us in the coming month. So, there'll be a new menu that will come with him," she added.

So, if you are a foodaholic and want to try some new ethnic foods, Root Kitchen is a worthy place to chill. I recommended it for all visitors.

The post Wa Restaurant Brings Food From the Mountains to the Big City appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

President Orders Anti-Corruption Panel Not to Be Influenced by Powerful Figures

Posted: 12 Apr 2018 02:59 AM PDT

NAYPYITAW—President U Win Myint has instructed members of the Anti-Corruption Commission not to be influenced by powerful figures in undertaking their duties, and to report to him if they encounter cases of powerful people protecting those accused of corruption.

The president issued the instruction during a meeting with the commission members at his residence in Naypyitaw on Wednesday.

The commission is the first governmental body to meet the president since his inauguration. President U Win Myint addressed the topic of fighting corruption in his inaugural address to Parliament.

The president said corruption negatively impacted foreign investment, national development and the image of the country, and urged the commission to work without fear or favor.

"He said this because there are people who would protect the accused. [These people] might come to the commission and try to talk us into reducing the punishment for the accused. In such cases, the president instructed us not to pardon [the accused]," commission member Daw Lei Lei Thwin told reporters in Naypyitaw.

The commission members were encouraged by the president's words and vowed to fight corruption head on, she said.

The commission expects to open more offices in accordance with the instructions of the president, according to its spokesperson, U Han Nyunt.

President U Win Myint also met Union Chief Justice U Htun Htun Oo and the other Supreme Court judges. He called for judicial impartiality and swift trials, and urged the judges to show logical consistency and moral courage in applying the law.

Only when the country is corruption-free and is governed by the rule of law will it attract more foreign investment, he said.

Political analyst Dr Yan Myo Thein said the president's meetings with the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Supreme Court judges represented a major step forward in fighting corruption and promoting the rule of law.

"There is a need to educate people and mobilize their support in fighting corruption. With widespread public participation, anti-corruption efforts will work better," he said.

"Rather than taking action against low-level civil servants, it is important that the Anti-Corruption Commission monitors the situation and investigates senior government officials like ministers, deputy ministers, permanent secretaries, directors-general, and leaders of the ruling party who are accused of corruption," he said.

From January to March, the Anti-Corruption Commission received more than 1,700 complaints of bribery and corruption, most of them against the Home Affairs Ministry.

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Tatmadaw Launches Major Offensive Against KIA Headquarters, Bases

Posted: 12 Apr 2018 02:51 AM PDT

The Myanmar military (or Tatmadaw) attacked the Kachin Independence Army's headquarters and other bases on Wednesday in a major new offensive including both ground and air strikes, according to local sources. The attacks follow the KIA's raid on a Tatmadaw base earlier this week.

KIA spokesperson Colonel Naw Bu told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that the Tatmadaw was using artillery to shell areas surrounding the KIA's headquarters in Laiza.

"They started shelling our Laiza headquarters at 2 pm [local time]. They also attacked some of our other bases. They used fighter jets to strike KIA Brigade 2 and KIA Battalion 11," Col Naw Bu said.

Brigade 2 and Battalion 11 are based in the Hukawng Valley, where the KIA recently announced the launch of a guerrilla-style military offensive, including the laying of landmines, against the Tatmadaw. Illegal mine workers in the area were given a deadline of April 10 to leave the area.

The Tatmadaw's attacks killed one civilian banana plantation worker and wounded three others on Wednesday, according to the Northern Alliance.

Col Naw Bu confirmed that some civilians had been wounded.

The Northern Alliance is a bloc of armed ethnic groups including the KIA, TNLA, AA, and MNDAA. It issued a statement on its Facebook page saying that the civilian casualties occurred when a shell landed on the plantation at 4 pm local time.

The Alliance said the Myanmar military used both air and ground forces to attack the KIA's Brigade 2 and Battalion 11 until 4 pm, with artillery barrages continuing until 5 pm.

The Tatmadaw attacked at least five KIA locations in the Hukawng Valley, according to the Northern Alliance, which said the Myanmar military had effectively declared war on it by attacking one of its members.

The escalation of fighting in Kachin follows the KIA's April 6 raid on the Tatmadaw's Battalion 86, which is under Regional Operations Command 2, based in Tanai Township.

Peace talks between the Myanmar Army and the KIA have been held several times in recent years. However, they stalled in February after the KIA issued a statement listing conditions for its peace talks with the Tatmadaw.

The Tatmadaw has ordered the KIA to withdraw at least three battalions, including Battalion 14, which was in the Tanai area, and Battalion 12 and Battalion 27 in the Mansi Township area. However, the KIA refused to withdraw, leading to sporadic clashes in these areas. It eventually withdrew from the Battalion 14 base.

More than 100,000 people remain displaced from their homes after a 17-year ceasefire between the central government and the KIA collapsed in 2011.

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Mon Party Holds Meeting to Justify Ceasefire Deal, Get Feedback

Posted: 12 Apr 2018 02:34 AM PDT

CHIANG MAI, Thailand — The New Mon State Party (NMSP) wrapped up a three-day meeting on Wednesday to explain its reasons for signing the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) in February and to gather public feedback.

The NMSP and Lahu Democratic Union signed the agreement at the same time, joining the original eight ethnic armed groups that joined the NCA in 2015.

More than 250 people joined the NMSP’s meeting this week in Ye Township, Mon State, including politicians, academics and civil society representatives.

Nai Ong MaNge, a member of the NMSP’s executive committee, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that his party took recommendations from the participants and explained the NCA process, including how its political, social and military provisions would be carried out.

“People have different perceptions of what the NCA is. Some think it is just a political agreement. Others think it is just a military agreement,” he said. “We explained the NCA implementation process to the stakeholders, about the political dialogue and joint ceasefire monitoring.”

Last month the NMSP cancelled a public consultation for ethnic Mon in neighboring Karen State because the Myanmar army insisted that attendance had to be limited to 30 people. But Nai Ong MaNge said the NMSP can hold meetings of any size it wants in areas it controls in Mon State.

"The public consultations should be able to convene where our Mon people reside so that they can hear all of our concerns. But it is hard for us to say something because we don't know exactly what deals they [the NMSP and government] made” before signing the NCA, said Nai Ong Mon, a civil society representative who attended the meeting.

He told The Irrawaddy that participants shared their thoughts on peace building, federalism and other issues concerning land and the economy.

The NMSP said it would hold a second, similar meeting in another NMSP-controlled part of Mon State on April 26 and 27.

Nai Ong MaNge said the party would then hold a national-level political dialogue in Ye on May 5-7, in preparation for the government-led 21st Century Panglong peace conference scheduled for later that month.

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Special Report: How the Families of 10 Massacred Rohingya Fled Myanmar

Posted: 11 Apr 2018 10:33 PM PDT

KUTUPALONG REFUGEE CAMP, Bangladesh — Rehana Khatun dreamed her husband came home. He appeared without warning in their village in western Myanmar, outside their handsome wooden house shaded by mango trees. “He didn’t say anything,” she said. “He was only there for a few seconds, and then he was gone.” Then Rehana Khatun woke up.

She woke up in a shack of ragged tarpaulin on a dusty hillside in Bangladesh. Her husband, Nur Mohammed, is never coming home. He was one of 10 Rohingya Muslim men massacred last September by Myanmar soldiers and Rakhine Buddhists at the coastal village of Inn Din.

Rehana Khatun’s handsome wooden house is gone, too. So is everything in it. The Rohingya homes in Inn Din were burned to the ground, and what was once a close-knit community, with generations of history in Myanmar, is now scattered across the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh.

A Reuters investigation in February revealed what happened to the 10 Rohingya men. On September 1, soldiers snatched them from a large group of Rohingya villagers detained by a beach near Inn Din. The next morning, according to eyewitnesses, the men were shot by the soldiers or hacked to death by their Rakhine Buddhist neighbors. Their bodies were dumped in a shallow grave.

The relatives of the 10 men left behind that afternoon wouldn’t learn of the killings for many months — in some cases not until Reuters reporters tracked them down in the refugee camps and told them what had happened. The survivors waited by the beach with rising anxiety and dread as the sun set and the men didn’t return.

This is their story. Three of them fled Inn Din while heavily pregnant. All trekked north in monsoon rain through forests and fields. Drenched and terrified, they dodged military patrols and saw villages abandoned or burning. Some saw dead bodies. They walked for days with little food or water.

They were not alone. Inn Din’s families joined nearly 700,000 Rohingya escaping a crackdown by the Myanmar military, launched after attacks by Rohingya militants on Aug. 25. The United Nations called it “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing,” which Myanmar has denied.

On Tuesday, the military said it had sentenced seven soldiers to long prison terms for their role in the Inn Din massacre. Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay told Reuters the move was a “very positive step” that showed the military “won’t give impunity for those who have violated the rules of engagement.” Myanmar, he said, doesn’t allow systematic human rights abuses.

Reuters was able to corroborate many but not all details of the personal accounts in this story.

The Rohingya streamed north until they reached the banks of the Naf River. On its far shore lay Bangladesh, and safety. Many Inn Din women gave boatmen their jewelry to pay for the crossing; others begged and fought their way on board. They made the perilous crossing at night, vomiting with sickness and fear.

Now in Bangladesh, they struggle to piece together their lives without husbands, fathers, brothers and sons. Seven months have passed since the massacre, but the grief of Inn Din’s survivors remains raw. One mother told Reuters her story, then fainted.

Like Rehana Khatun, they all say they dream constantly about the dead. Some dreams are bittersweet — a husband coming home, a son praying in the mosque — and some are nightmares. One woman says she sees her husband clutching a stomach wound, blood oozing through his fingers.

Daytime brings little relief. They all remember, with tormenting clarity, the day the soldiers took their men away.

“Allah saved me”

Abdul Amin still wonders why he was spared.

Soldiers had arrived at Inn Din on Aug. 27 and started torching the houses of Rohingya residents with the help of police and Rakhine villagers. Amin, 19, said he and his family sought refuge in a nearby forest with more than a hundred other Rohingya.

Four days later, as Inn Din burned and the sound of gunfire crackled through the trees, they made a dash for the beach, where hundreds of villagers gathered in the hope of escaping the military crackdown. Then the soldiers appeared, said Amin, and ordered them to squat with their heads down.

Amin crouched next to his mother, Nurasha, who threw her scarf over his head. The soldiers ignored Amin, perhaps mistaking him for a woman, but dragged away his brother Shaker Ahmed. “I don’t know why they chose him and not me,” Amin said. “Allah saved me.”

The soldiers, according to Amin and other witnesses, said they were taking the men away for a “meeting.” Their distraught families waited by the beach in vain. As night fell, they returned to the forest where, in the coming days, they made the decision that haunts many of them still: to save themselves and their families by fleeing to Bangladesh — and leaving the captive men behind.

Abdu Shakur waited five days for the soldiers to release his son Rashid Ahmed, 18. By then, most Rohingya had set out for Bangladesh and the forest felt lonely and exposed. Abdu Shakur said he wanted to leave, too, but his wife, Subiya Hatu, refused.

“I won’t go without my son,” she said.

“You must come with me,” he said. “If we stay here, they’ll kill us all.” They had three younger children to bring to safety, he told her. Rashid was their oldest, a bright boy who loved to study; he would surely be released soon and follow them. He didn’t. Rashid was one of the 10 killed in the Inn Din massacre.

“We did the right thing,” says Abdu Shakur today, in a shack in the Kutupalong camp. “I feel terrible, but we had to leave that place.” As he spoke, his wife sat behind him and sobbed into her headscarf.

“Day of judgment”

By now, the northward exodus was gathering pace. The Rohingya walked in large groups, sometimes thousands strong, stretching in ragged columns along the wild Rakhine coastline. At night, the men stood guard while women and children rested beneath scraps of tarpaulin. Rain often made sleep impossible.

Amid this desperate throng was Shaker Ahmed’s wife, Rahama Khatun, who was seven months pregnant, and their eight children, aged one to 18. Like many Rohingya, they had escaped Inn Din with little more than the clothes they wore. “We brought nothing from the house, not even a single plate,” she said.

They survived the journey by drinking from streams and scrounging food from other refugees. Rahama said she heaved herself along slippery paths as quickly as she could. She was scared about the health of her unborn child, but terrified of getting left behind.

Rahama’s legs swelled up so much that she couldn’t walk. “My children carried me on their shoulders. They said, ‘We’ve lost our father. We don’t want to lose you.'” Then they reached the beach at Na Khaung To, and a new ordeal began.

Na Khaung To sits on the Myanmar side of the Naf River. Bangladesh is about 6 km away. For Rohingya from Inn Din and other coastal villages, Na Khaung To was the main crossing point.

It was also a bottleneck. There were many Bangladeshi fishing boats to smuggle Rohingya across the river, but getting on board depended on the money or valuables the refugees could muster and the mercy of the boatmen. Some were stranded at Na Khaung To for weeks.

The beach was teeming with sick, hungry and exhausted people, recalled Nurjan, whose son Nur Mohammed was one of the 10 men killed at Inn Din. “Everyone was desperate,” Nurjan said. “All you could see was heads in every direction. It was like the Day of Judgment.”

Crossing the Naf

Bangladesh was perhaps a two-hour ride across calm estuarine waters. But the boatmen wanted to avoid any Bangladesh navy or border guard vessels that might be patrolling the river. So they set off at night, taking a more circuitous route through open ocean. Most boats were overloaded. Some sank in the choppy water, drowning dozens of people.

The boatmen charged about 8,000 taka (about $100) per person. Some women paid with their earrings and nose-rings. Others, like Abdu Shakur, promised to reimburse the boatman upon reaching Bangladesh with money borrowed from relatives there.

He and his wife, Subiya Hatu, who had argued over leaving their oldest son behind at Inn Din, set sail for Bangladesh. Another boat of refugees sailed along nearby. Both vessels were heaving with passengers, many of them children.

In deeper water, Abdu Shakur watched with horror as the other boat began to capsize, spilling its passengers into the waves. “We could hear people crying for help,” he said. “It was impossible to rescue them. Our boat would have sunk, too.”

Abdu Shakur and his family made it safely to Bangladesh. So did the other families bereaved by the Inn Din massacre. During the crossing, some realized they would never see their men again, or Myanmar.

Shuna Khatu wept on the boat. She felt she already knew what the military had done to her husband, Habizu. She was pregnant with their third child. “They killed my husband. They burned my house. They destroyed our village,” she said. “I knew I’d never go back.”

The only photo

Two months later, in a city-sized refugee camp in Bangladesh, Shuna Khatu gave birth to a boy. She called him Mohammed Sadek.

Rahama Khatun, who fled Myanmar on the shoulders of her older children while seven months pregnant, also had a son. His name is Sadikur Rahman.

The two women were close neighbors in Inn Din. They now live about a mile apart in Kutupalong-Balukhali, a so-called mega-camp of about 600,000 souls. Both survive on twice-a-month rations of rice, lentils and cooking oil. They live in flimsy, mud-floored shacks of bamboo and plastic that the coming monsoon could blow or wash away.

It was here, as the families struggled to rebuild their lives, that they learned their men were dead. Some heard the news from Reuters reporters who had tracked them down. Others saw the Reuters investigation of the Inn Din massacre or the photos that accompanied it.

Two of those photos showed the men kneeling with their hands behind their backs or necks. A third showed the men’s bodies in a mass grave. The photos were obtained by Reuters reporters Ko Wa Lone and Ko Kyaw Soe Oo, who were arrested in December while investigating the Inn Din massacre. The two face charges, and potentially 14-year jail sentences, under Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act.

Rahama Khatun cropped her husband’s image from one of the photos and laminated it. This image of him kneeling before his captors is the only one she has. Every other family photo was burned along with their home at Inn Din.

The post Special Report: How the Families of 10 Massacred Rohingya Fled Myanmar appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Myanmar Minister Assures Rohingya in Bangladesh Repatriation is a Priority

Posted: 11 Apr 2018 09:45 PM PDT

KUTUPALONG REFUGEE CAMP, Bangladesh — A Myanmar minister told Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh on Wednesday their repatriation was a priority during the first visit by a top Myanmar official to victims of what the United Nations says was “ethnic cleansing” by the Myanmar army.

Social Welfare Minister U Win Myat Aye, who is leading rehabilitation efforts in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, met about 50 Rohingya gathered in a community center run by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in the Kutupalong refugee camp in southeast Bangladesh.

Acknowledging their mistrust and fear of Myanmar, U Win Myat Aye told the Rohingya to set aside the past and prepare to “go back to your own residences,” promising new villages would be built with hospitals and schools.

“The most important thing is to start the repatriation process as soon as possible. We can overcome all of the difficulties,” he said as he left the meeting.

A Bangladesh foreign ministry official said his country wanted to show the visiting minister the challenges it was facing in hosting the refugees. U Win Myat Ayat is expected to meet Bangladesh’s foreign minister in Dhaka on Thursday.

Bangladesh wants the refugees to go home as quickly as possible and officials said this week they hoped the minister’s visit would speed up repatriation.

But some refugees have said they are worried about going back to Buddhist-majority Myanmar, fearing persecution.

When asked about whether Rohingya could be granted Myanmar citizenship, which they had been long denied, the minister replied: "We are trying to have that.”

For now, Myanmar is offering Rohingya national verification cards (NVCs), which some refugees regard as inadequate.

The meeting became heated only when U Win Myat Aye tried to persuade the refugees to accept the NVCs, telling them they would be given an opportunity to apply for nationality later.

"Before, applying for the citizenship card took very long and [you] don't get it in the end. Now, it won't take long and you might get it. You might get it according to the law."

Dozens crowded around the minister, showing him their parents’ and grandparents' identity documents and raising their voices to be heard.

Some remained unconvinced by the minister’s words and later voiced their doubts about the Myanmar government’s sincerity.

"At first I was glad to hear the minister was coming here, but after hearing his speech I am very upset," said Mohammed Showife, 29, from Buthidaung.

"The Myanmar government does not wish to solve the problem," Showife told Reuters.

Myanmar has rejected accusations of ethnic cleansing in Rakhine, saying its security forces launched a legitimate counter-insurgency operation on Aug. 25 in response to Rohingya militant attacks.

According to UN officials, nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since then. Refugees have reported killings, burnings, looting and rape by members of the Myanmar security forces and Buddhist vigilantes.

Myanmar has dismissed most such accounts, but the army said on Tuesday that seven soldiers had been jailed for 10 years with hard labor for participating in a massacre of 10 Rohingya Muslim men in a village in September.

The two countries reached a deal in November to begin repatriation within two months, but it has not begun, with Rohingya, who face restrictions on their movements in Myanmar, still arriving in Bangladesh.

Huts of bamboo and plastic sheets will provide meager shelter for refugees when the monsoon rains and storms hit Cox’s Bazar, the low-lying coastal strip bordering Myanmar where the camps are located, in June.

The minister asked the refugees whether it was better for them to go to Myanmar or somewhere else. They responded in unison: "We want to go to Myanmar."

The post Myanmar Minister Assures Rohingya in Bangladesh Repatriation is a Priority appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Bangladesh, UNHCR to Ink Preliminary Plan on Rohingya Repatriation

Posted: 11 Apr 2018 09:31 PM PDT

DHAKA/GENEVA — The United Nations refugee agency is set to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bangladesh laying out a framework for the voluntary repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, an agency spokesman said on Wednesday.

The MoU is aimed at establishing cooperation between the UN agency and Bangladesh “on the safe, voluntary, and dignified returns of refugees in line with international standards, if and when the conditions are conducive to returns,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Andrej Mahecic.

Mahecic and Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Mohammad Shahidul Haque said the MoU will be signed on Friday in Geneva.

Another Bangladeshi official involved in the discussions said the MoU is likely to state that the UNHCR will vet all refugees being repatriated to ensure that the process is 100 percent voluntary.

“The whole return process will be operated as per the UNHCR, so there will be no force put on the refugee to go back,” said the source.

Some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled a military crackdown and crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar’s Rakhine State since August. The refugees are living in cramped camps at Cox’s Bazar, and Bangladesh is keen to urge the refugees to return home soon, especially with the oncoming monsoons expected to cause major devastation at the camps.

The official, who asked not to be named as he was not authorized to discuss matters with the media, said the UNHCR is expected to run a few transit sites along the border that will house refugees before they are transferred to temporary resettlement shelters in Rakhine State.

The official added that the UN body is expected to arrange sufficient funds to run the repatriation program and that both the parties would conduct promotional activities urging people to return to Myanmar.

A Myanmar minister told Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh on Wednesday that their repatriation was a priority, in the first visit by a top Myanmar official since last year’s exodus.

The bilateral MoU would be an early step in the process; work on a deal involving Bangladesh, Myanmar and the UNHCR is ongoing. That tripartite deal would aim to provide guarantees around the resettlement and safety of those that agree to be repatriated, along with assurances that officials of the UNHCR will be allowed to regularly inspect these sites.

Htin Lynn, Myanmar’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, told Reuters later on Wednesday that he was confident that his country could reach a deal with the UNHCR by the end of April covering safe and voluntary repatriation.

The post Bangladesh, UNHCR to Ink Preliminary Plan on Rohingya Repatriation appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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