Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Democratic Voice of Burma

Democratic Voice of Burma

Duchira Dan commission slams UN, media; denies massacre

Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:25 AM PDT

A government commission tasked with investigating a series of incidents at Duchira Dan [Du Char Yar Tan] in northern Arakan State released its findings to the public today.

The commission investigated a number of events that occurred in mid-January, centred on the disappearance and presumed murder of Police Sergeant Aung Kyaw Thein on January 13 and the contested massacres of more than 40 Rohingya men, women and children before and after his disappearance.

The government's steadfast refusal to allow an international investigation into the incident at Duchira Dan led the UN's outgoing Special Rapporteur, Tomás Ojea Quintana, to question the commission's impartiality last month.

The massacres were documented in a confidential report by the United Nations and reported on by a number of media outlets, although the government categorically denies they occurred. According to a summary of the commission's final report shared with the media, the delegation interviewed 175 residents of Maungdaw Township in northern Arakan, where Duchira Dan is located, between 15-21 February.

"We do confirm that there's every likelihood police sergeant Aung Kyaw Thein had been murdered by the villagers from Duchira Dan," Daw Yin Yin Nwe, a member of the commission and former high-ranking UNICEF official, told reporters at the Myanmar Peace Centre on Tuesday. "It's quite unlikely… that he's still alive."

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The commission dismissed reports that the security services were responsible for burning Rohingya homes and conducting wide-scale looting, claiming that the arson was committed by "an entity seeking to discredit the present Government of Myanmar [Burma], and not by the police or by the Rakhine [Arakan] community as alleged."

While the summary report does not overtly state the oft-repeated claim that the Rohingya burned down their own homes to elicit international sympathy, passages in the report refer to "Bengali networks… both inside and outside [using] the systemic weakness of Myanmar… to manipulate international media with false allegations… with the intention of destabilising the country's reforms."

Daw Yin Yin Nwe denied the massacres occurred, and rebutted the allegations presented by the UN and media. "There were a lot of claims on international websites… that there was all these killings, and that, for instance, some of these killings were pretty gruesome," she said. "However, the commission concluded that the purported deaths did not happen." She claimed that the names of victims cited on Rohingya websites did not align with local immigration records. "[It] means the names were cooked up," she said.

Although the report states that "the issue of the citizenship of the Bengalis [Rohingya], if not resolved, will only create further problems," the commission recommends citizenship rights be conferred under the existing 1982 citizenship law, the adoption of which rendered most Rohingya stateless.

But commission member Dr. Kyaw Yin Hlaing claims that at least some Rohingya will have their citizenship reinstated.  "If the government makes the citizenship assessment on the basis of the 1982 law, people will be granted citizenship," he said. "Right now, the citizenship law is the law, and it is what we must base it on when it comes to citizenship issues."

On Sunday morning, a fire broke out in central Duchira Dan village, which the state-run New Light of Myanmar reports destroyed 12 houses and a small religious building. The report claimed Rohingya residents intentionally set fire to their own homes.

Shwe Than, superintendent of Maungdaw District Police, said the information reported by the newspaper report was accurate. "The information we have on the incident is same from the newspaper report – there is nothing more to add," he said.

Chris Lewa, the founder and coordinator of advocacy group The Arakan Project, does not believe foul play is involved. "According to my field team, the fire was accidental," Lewa said. "A woman was cooking and her house caught fire, which spread to other houses."

UN urged to maintain human rights pressure on Burma

Posted: 11 Mar 2014 03:43 AM PDT

The European Burma Network (EBN) has called on the UN to remain vigilant as human rights violations continue in Burma.

As the elements of the upcoming United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Resolution on Burma is discussed by the European Union, 14 Burma-focussed NGOs released a statement on Monday highlighting continuing breaches of international law by the Burmese government.

The EBN told the EU to ignore any notion that human rights violations in Burma were a thing of the past and to advise the UNHRC to maintain pressure on the Thein Sein government.

Burma Campaign UK director Mark Farmaner told DVB on Tuesday that "not only has the reform process slowed down, but we are starting to see some small reverses. This in undoubtedly connected to the fact that Thein Sein is no longer facing significant international pressure.

"A weak Human Rights Council Resolution will undermine incentives for making improvements in human rights," Farmaner added.

The EBN statement outlined unwillingness on the government's part to "take the necessary steps to end human rights abuses".

The report alleges that of the 63 recommendations to the United Nations General Assembly made in September 2013 by former Special Rapporteur on Burma Tomás Ojea Quintana, "Not one has been fully acted upon by the government of Burma."

As a result, "members of the EBN believe that ongoing impunity for serious human rights abuses means that international law mechanisms are the most appropriate framework through which to address these crimes."

According to Farmaner, "There is already enough documentation by the United Nations to justify Burma being referred to the International Criminal Court."

In its last resolution, the UNCHR outlined instances of human rights abuses which meet the criteria for international crimes, including arbitrary detention, forced displacement, the use of child soldiers, rape and other forms of sexual violence, military attacks on civilians, and torture.

The EBN sees Thein Sein's failure to release all political prisoners, despite his claims to the contrary, as providing a strong example of his "unwillingness" to comply with UNHRC edicts and a breach of international law.

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The first recommendation listed in Quintana's report of September 2013 states that "all prisoners of conscience should be released immediately and unconditionally."

Despite this, Thein Sein's government currently enjoys a positive relationship with one-time detractors in the international community. Last year, the EU itself lifted the last of its trade sanctions on Burma, leaving only an arms trade embargo in place.

However BCUK's Farmaner believes that the EU's firmest foreign policy weapon was sheathed prematurely:

"The EU lifted sanctions without any of its own human rights benchmarks being met, and shortly after state involvement of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya and multiple cases of the Burmese army raping Kachin women.

"The way the international community treats Thein Sein is the equivalent if the police in one country said, 'this man might have committed murder several times but we'll let him get away with it because he is more friendly than his predecessor and does some good work in his local community'," Farmaner added.

VP urges civilians to speak out against corrupt officials

Posted: 11 Mar 2014 12:33 AM PDT

Burma's Vice-President Sai Mauk Kham addressed regional officials, politicians and civil society in MonState capital Moulmein on Sunday, impressing the urgency of exposing officials who accept bribes in order to tackle what he called "rampant corruption".

"Back in the days, reporting corruption could be a very difficult task. As there are official channels opened now, those accused of corruption – if proven guilty – will face legal action," he said.

In June 2013, Burma's Parliament approved new anti-corruption legislation that offered a long-absent legal definition of bribery.

In February of this year, President Thein Sein signed off on the creation of a 15-member Anti-Corruption Commission chaired by a former major-general, Mya Win, with former ambassador Tin Oo serving as secretary.

Commission members were appointed by Thein Sein and one member from both houses of Parliament, each nominating five people. Those serving are obliged by the new law to disclose their assets, a condition that Thein Sein objected to during Parliamentary discussion.

Parliament's bill committee chose to overrule the President's requests to alter the provision, and it passed with little controversy.

While Sai Mauk Kham urged civilians to report any cases of corruption, he also warned that abusing the new regulation to make accusations against people over personal grudges or resentment will "be held responsible and can face legal action themselves".

Burma has consistently ranked among the world's most corrupt nations. Last year financial watchdog Transparency International ranked Burma 157 out of 177 countries monitored for corruption.

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Chin villages face food shortages following bad harvest

Posted: 10 Mar 2014 08:20 PM PDT

Dozens of villages in Thantlang, Matupi and Paletwa townships are facing renewed food shortages following bad weather conditions and low yields of harvest.

About 30 villages along the India-Burma border are now in a difficult situation as they are running out of rice, according to local media reports.

A subsistence farmer in Tisi, Matupi Township, said in the Khonumthung news that only about two out of 70 households in his village have enough food.

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The village head of La-aw in Thantlang Township told the Chinland Post that his 320 villagers, domiciled in 50 households, are suffering from food and water scarcity, adding: “Some of them [the villagers] are in despair and are even thinking about abandoning the village.”

Chin subsistence farmers consider unusual weather to be the factor affecting their crops and causing low yields from the harvest.

The La-aw village head also said, “We don’t have any educated person in our village and don’t know how to get assistance from the State government or NGOs working in Chin State.”

A Christian pastor based in Pathiantlang village, Paletwa Township, said that the UNDP provided rice in Paletwa areas but the cost of transportation per sack [about 50 kg] up to their village is over 30,000 kyat (US$30), adding: “They cannot afford it and it is not easy to get rice from the Indian side either.”

Late last year, local NGOs in Chin State in collaboration with UNDP in Hakha started assisting the construction of food storage centres for 30 villages in the three Chin townships.

Chinland Guardian is unable to reach the Chin State government for comment on the ongoing issue.
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