The Irrawaddy Magazine |
- An Unsung ’88 Hero Gets His Due
- In Canada, an Ambassador for Burma’s Chinlone
- Search for Malaysian Plane Expands to Burmese Airspace
- ‘When Political Problems Are Solved, There Will Be No More Battles’
- NLD Co-Founder Win Tin Admitted to Hospital
- Rohingyas Dying From Lack of Health Care in Arakan
- A Transition Under Threat
- Mishaps Mar Malaysia’s Handling of Flight Tragedy
- Search Planes Find No Sign of Missing Airliner at Spot Located by China
- Manila Air-Drops Supplies to Troops on Disputed Reef
| An Unsung ’88 Hero Gets His Due Posted: 13 Mar 2014 05:11 AM PDT  Nay Min holds a certificate recognizing his contribution to Burma's 1988 pro-democracy movement, at his home in Rangoon. (Photo: Sai Zaw / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — To an old telephone at his home in Rangoon, for four months he received four calls a day, at specified times. Already knowing who was on the other end of the line, Nay Min picked up the receiver to dictate information that he had from newsgathering in a country hardly welcoming of such activities. Outside, students were staging protests against the government of Gen. Ne Win and his heavy-handed tactics to suppress their pro-democracy demonstrations. It was late July, 1988. For all his efforts to inform the world about demonstrations that would culminate in a nationwide protest known as the "8888 Uprising" on Aug. 8, 1988, Nay Min is not among the canonized pro-democracy crusaders who helped topple Burma's single-party rule system more than 25 years ago. "At that time, I had to keep my identity secret for fear of government retribution," the 68-year-old told The Irrawaddy. "Plus, I feel embarrassed to say, 'You see, that's what I did.'" But his preference for anonymity suddenly came to an end during a panel discussion at the East-West Center International Media Conference in Rangoon on Monday, when he was surprised by a trio of fellow journalists who honored him with a certificate recognizing his courage and conviction in 1988. For four months that year, and at great personal risk, Nay Min served as an unofficial stringer supplying information about the ongoing protests and government crackdowns to Christopher Gunness from the BBC's World Service, who was based in neighboring Bangladesh as an international correspondent. Veteran journalist Bertil Lintner, who writes extensively about Burma and was one of the three journalists who honored Nay Min this week, told The Irrawaddy that he felt the Burmese who supplied news from within the country to journalists on the outside should be remembered and honored. "We would not have been able to do our job without their support," Lintner said. "U Nay Min was the one who had to suffer the most because of the job he did, therefore we wanted to honor him and the work he did." Back in 1988, Burma was known as one of the most reclusive countries in the world, and press freedom was nonexistent. Foreign journalists were barred from entering the country. As much of the outside world remained in the dark on happenings in Burma, public discontent over the regime's mismanagement of the national economy was mounting. University students took to the streets en masse and were brutally suppressed. "The country's situation at that time was on the brink of explosion," Nay Min recalled. Trained as a lawyer, Nay Min found himself in early months of 1988 serving as a volunteer advocate for students unlawfully arrested by the regime for their participation in antigovernment protests. He had no journalism background, but showed an uncommon aptitude for newsgathering—and discretion. "U Nay Min is also a man of great integrity and would often say, 'I heard this, but don't use it until I have checked it,'" the BBC's Gunness told The Irrawaddy. As antigovernment protests gathered steam in late July, Nay Min was contacted by Gunness and managed to send information to him via a land-line telephone. Prior to Aug. 8, and based on Nay Min's work, the BBC reported that there would be a nationwide demonstration against the Ne Win regime on that fateful day, and the predicted protest came to fruition. As a result, more and more people in Burma tuned into the BBC to glean the latest information on the protest movement. Nay Min even got a personal call from Aung San Suu Kyi, who rang him to clarify rumors that she was leading protests on the streets of Rangoon. "She told me, 'Please say in your report that I'm not taking part in the protests,'" he remembered. Gunness acknowledged that Nay Min's eyes and ears on the ground in Rangoon a quarter-century ago were "pivotal" to the BBC reports closely followed by the Burmese audience in 1988. "When I was in Burma in August [for the Silver Jubilee celebration of the 8888 Uprising last year] people kept telling me about my own role, but the true hero of 1988 is U Nay Min," he told The Irrawaddy in an email. "Of course there were many students and activists of all ages who were brave beyond imagination, but U Nay Min's role was pivotal, as I told journalists and others repeatedly when I was in Burma and as I now say again," the former BBC correspondent said. But when the government staged a bloody crackdown on demonstrators on the night of Aug. 8 in downtown Rangoon, Nay Min said he faced a moment of deep moral uncertainty. "When I learned about the crackdown, I broke into tears as I felt guilty because it was me who broke the news that there would be a huge protest on that day," he said. "If I hadn't said anything, people wouldn't have known and they wouldn't have joined it." For his reporting he was arrested twice, spending 16 years in prison and suffering severe torture at the hands of authorities. During stints in solidarity confinement, he slept on a concrete floor and used a plate as a pillow. "I no longer have my molars. They are gone not because of my old age but because of interrogation sessions I went through," he said. These days, in his late 60s, Nay Min spends most of his time meditating, and said he holds no grudge against the former military government for what its leaders did to him. But, like most other former political prisoners, he insisted that "the military government has to admit to their wrongdoing." Asked to consider the ethics and impact of his actions nearly 26 years ago, he said he believed he had done the right thing, helping to show the world what was happening inside Burma and contributing to the country's transition from single- to multi-party rule. "Nobody can deny that the single-party rule was toppled by the 88 Uprising," he said. And all these years later, is Nay Min pleased with Burma's political landscape today? "No. So far we've only got what the government wants to give, from political prisoners' [release] to constitutional amendment issues. It's quite despairing." The post An Unsung '88 Hero Gets His Due appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| In Canada, an Ambassador for Burma’s Chinlone Posted: 13 Mar 2014 05:06 AM PDT  Canadian Greg Hamilton plays chinlone during a blizzard in Toronto. (Photo: Greg Hamilton) RANGOON — It's not likely that you'll find a plentiful stock of chinlone balls anywhere other than Burma, unless you happen to visit Greg Hamilton's home in Canada. His apartment in Toronto is filled with the woven rattan balls, which are ubiquitous in the streets of Rangoon and throughout Burma—as the focal point of the country's most popular traditional sport—but mostly unheard of outside Southeast Asia. "The balls are very, very special. I have all kinds, balls made from gold, from elephant hair, small balls, big ones. And then I have some that were given to me by special teams or people, old balls that hold special memories," says the 60-year-old Hamilton, who has been playing chinlone for more than 30 years. He is one of few foreigners to practice the sport, and not just casually. For decades he has devoted hours each day to the challenge of mastering the couple hundred maneuvers that skilled players use, advancing enough to join a Burmese team at one of the country's most famous chinlone festivals in Mandalay. In 2006, he made an award-winning documentary, "Mystic Ball," about his experiences. These days he continues to visit Burma almost every year, but most of the time he plays alone, in a small park in Toronto. When he returned to Rangoon earlier this month, he surprised his Burmese friends with a video of him practicing back home, juggling a ball with his feet outside in the middle of a blizzard, with negative temperatures and snow blowing past. "I enjoy playing alone," he tells The Irrawaddy, "but sometimes, or maybe often, I wish I had at least one other person to play with." The draw of chinlone It was the sound of the ball that initially caught Hamilton's attention, back in 1981 when he saw one for the first time in Toronto. He was a professional flutist and a freelancer then, but he spent much of his time training in a Chinese martial art. He came across a Burmese expatriate practicing chinlone in the park and started asking questions after hearing the distinct clicking sound that the rattan ball made when it was kicked. Quickly enamored by the game, he decided to craft a homemade version of the ball from crumpled paper and began practicing, usually outside or in a narrow hallway of his apartment. In 1986 he traveled to Rangoon for the first time, and his inspiration to learn new skills grew. The real training began in 1997, when he went to Mandalay and fell under the tutelage of a legendary ball maker and player. Three years later he was invited to join a well-known Burmese team at the Waso chinlone festival, a famous sporting event that sees more than 900 teams from around the country. He was reportedly the first foreigner to ever join. Continuing to return to Burma almost every year, Hamilton found a sense of community that had been absent in many ways from his life in the West. As a child he had seen his mother only occasionally because he grew up in foster homes, and he frequently got into fights, usually over racism and name calling. He remembers joining a wrestling competition in primary school and quickly overcoming his opponent, an Indian boy who started crying at the loss. "My mother told me I had to go over and apologize for beating him," he recalls. "We became friends." "It's one of the only memories that stuck with me, of an interaction with my mother when I was really young. It's strange the little things that can affect us," he adds. "Later in life, I was very competitive and I never wanted to lose, but at the same time I didn't want other people to lose." Chinlone was a perfect fit. Usually six people play on a team, forming a circle and passing the ball back and forth without using their hands. One player goes into the center and performs tricks with the ball, creating a sort of dance as the moves are strung together. The others walk counterclockwise around him or her, offering support by saving the ball and returning it in the event that the soloist loses control. The goal is to perform the most difficult and beautiful moves without allowing the ball to drop to the ground, when it goes dead and a new round begins. At official chinlone competitions, one team performs at a time, with judges selecting a score partly based on the style of the moves. But for the most part, people play for fun, gathering outside on the streets around dusk when the air starts to cool. "There's no winner or loser. It's really a game that involves a lot of empathy and unconditional support for the other player or players," Hamilton says. The sport requires constant concentration, and in that way can become meditative, he adds. Players often practice every day, with a one-pointed focus on the ball over an extended amount of time. Some say that after long periods they experience a trance-like state or a feeling of bliss, known in Burmese as jhana. "Time seems to get stretched out," Hamilton says. "I often feel like I'm flying." Solo, support These days, Hamilton is acting as an unofficial ambassador for chinlone outside Burma. In addition to directing his documentary, which has been screened at more than 35 film festivals in many countries, he has tried to promote the sport by taking local teams abroad to perform. He sees potential in chinlone for peace-building, in much the same way that the UN agency Unicef has used football programs to create a stronger sense of community and friendship, especially among young people, in certain countries after violent conflicts or natural disasters. Chinlone could be better suited for this purpose due to its cooperative nature, he says. During his recent trip to Rangoon, he helped organize a chinlone event at the Myanmar Peace Center, joined by Canadian Ambassador to Burma Mark McDowell. The ambassador, who is learning to play, also supported a Canada-Burma friendship chinlone festival in Mandalay. In some ways, chinlone is catching on. In 2013, amateur teams from Japan, the United States, Thailand and Germany reportedly played at the Waso festival. But promoting the sport in the West is tough. There's a steep learning curve, and it takes a significant investment of time to pick up the techniques. Many people lack the desire or determination to stick with it because they lack context for the game, having grown up without seeing it on television or in person. Often when Hamilton goes to the park in Toronto, footballers or hacky sack players come to say hello and ask for a shot with the ball. Over the years, he has recruited a couple fellow players this way, and they join him sometimes for practice sessions. One is Iranian, and the other is a Canadian man who has also gone on to participate in the Waso festival. "It's usually more fun to have people to play with. But—and I'm not sure if it's just natural for me, or partly out of necessity—I've also really grown to enjoy playing alone," Hamilton says. He thinks sometimes about moving permanently to Burma, where he will always have a team in Mandalay. Logistically it wasn't possible under the former regime, and these days the rental prices for apartments are above his budget. So he will likely remain in Canada, where he designs jewelry, works as a freelance consultant and lives with his girlfriend of 30 years. And he will continue his daily chinlone routine, playing alone for hours at a time, focusing on the feel as he uses his knees and five parts of his feet—the top, inside, outside, Achilles' heel and sole—to keep his target in the air. "It appears from the outside that I'm just hitting the ball like this, the same, the same, the same," he says, juggling the rattan ball on his foot over and over again. "But in reality," he adds, "each one is different." The post In Canada, an Ambassador for Burma's Chinlone appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Search for Malaysian Plane Expands to Burmese Airspace Posted: 13 Mar 2014 04:33 AM PDT  A Vietnamese officer stands next to a TV screen showing a flight route during a news conference about their mission to find missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 at Phu Quoc Airport in Phu Quoc Island, March 11, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) RANGOON — The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has expanded to Burmese airspace, according to Burma's Department of Civil Aviation (DCA). Tin Naing Tun, director general of the department, said the DCA granted permission for Malaysian authorities to search over Burmese airspace for seven days, beginning Wednesday, for the Boeing 777 plane that went missing on Saturday while flying over Southeast Asia. He said a Burmese rescue committee had been formed to offer assistance but would not participate in the search without a request from Malaysia. "A state-level rescue committee has been organized. In the event that the Malaysian government needs assistance from the Burma government, they will communicate and collaborate with each other. With approval from the committee and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we, the DCA, will help them within Burmese airspace," he told The Irrawaddy on Thursday. He said the search in Burmese airspace would focus on areas around Kaw Thaung city in Tenasserim Division, near the Andaman Sea. At least 10 countries have joined the effort to find Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, with dozens of ships and aircraft scouring the seas around Malaysia and south of Vietnam, near where the plane lost contact with air traffic controllers. The plane was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijng, with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board. Earlier this week, Malaysian and Vietnamese aviation authorities focused on areas between Malaysia and south of Vietnam, where Chinese satellite images showed mysterious debris, but they failed to find any trace of the missing plane. A report by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday suggested that the plane may have continued flying for about four hours after making its last reported contact, meaning it could have traveled hundreds of miles farther than the area currently under consideration. India has also joined the multinational search, according to local media reports on Thursday, which said New Delhi could provide satellite imagery and radar readings, as well as ships and maritime reconnaissance aircraft, following a request by Malaysian authorities earlier this week. As the search continues, Burmese have joined others around the world in taking to social media to wait for updates and express concern. Facebook users in the country continue to post comments saying they are praying for passengers on board the plane. A teenager in Rangoon on the social media site said that since Saturday she has continuously watched television broadcasts and read online media reports for the latest news. "I'm sorry to hear that two young infants were on board," she said. The post Search for Malaysian Plane Expands to Burmese Airspace appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| ‘When Political Problems Are Solved, There Will Be No More Battles’ Posted: 13 Mar 2014 04:25 AM PDT  Kachin Independence Organization spokesman La Nan talks to The Irrawaddy in Laiza, Kachin State. (Photo: Sai Zaw / The Irrawaddy) LAIZA, Kachin State — Though Naypyidaw has made significant progress in recent years' peace talks with Burma's numerous ethnic rebel groups, clashes between government troops and Kachin fighters continue, stymieing efforts to bring an end to the country's long-running civil war. As both sides gear up for negotiations this month aimed at reaching a nationwide ceasefire agreement, The Irrawaddy sat down with La Nan, spokesman and joint secretary of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), at the rebels' stronghold in Laiza, a town on the Sino-Burmese border. Speaking from the KIO office—a building that once operated as a casino—La Nan talks about the ongoing fighting between the KIO's armed wing (the Kachin Independence Army) and the Burmese military, as well as discusses peace process prospects and China's role in Burma's national reconciliation. Question: What is the current situation regarding armed hostilities between the KIA and the Burmese army? Answer: We can say that the battles are now fewer. Whenever we talk with the Union Peace Working Committee, we discuss ways to reduce the number of battles occurring, but we can't yet say completely that there is no fighting anymore. The type of battles occurring has changed. Instead of direct offensives like before, it has become surprise attacks against our posts. They [the Burmese military] occupy some places for a week or two and then step back. They make as though it is not a war about occupying territories. Q: What is the KIO's view of the current peace talks between ethnic armed groups and the central government? A: What we have always pushed for is a political dialogue, together with all ethnic armed groups. That's why we have held two ethnic armed groups conferences at Laiza and Law Khee Lar, the KNU [Karen National Union] headquarters. What we discussed in Law Khee Lar was drafting the text of a nationwide ceasefire agreement to be discussed with the Union Peacemaking Working Committee. But what we heard back was that the Ministry of Defense disagreed with what [President's Office Minister] Aung Min was doing. We have already given the draft to them and they brought it to Naypyidaw. When they discussed it, we heard that the army was quite pessimistic about it. They take issue with the fact that they are 'being asked to accept a plan drawn up by revolutionary groups.' They say, 'Shouldn't the Union Peacemaking Working Committee draft the plan and negotiate with the ethnic armed groups from there?' They also say that once a ceasefire agreement is signed, all groups are effectively agreeing to accept the 2008 Constitution, meaning all political discussions would proceed in accordance with what is said in the Constitution. We have heard that the army is of this view. In March, Aung Min and ethnic groups will meet again, but there is not much hope because the current peace process is not adequate. As we have always said, we are urging a political dialogue led by the UNFC [United Nationalities Federal Council, an alliance of 11 ethnic armed groups]. Q: When will the KIO sign a ceasefire? Will it be only underthe terms of the draft agreement submitted to the government? A: We are asking for political dialogue. When political problems are solved, there will be no more battles. The ceasefire will happen then, not because a piece of paper has been signed. We have seen the signing of many ceasefire agreements before. Nothing came into force. They let us open a liaison office, that's it. No political discussion. What we believe is that when the political problems are solved, the ceasefire will happen. Before a nationwide ceasefire agreement is made, we need a framework that will guide us in how we are going to arrive at political discussions after the ceasefire agreement—how long after. It's like a roadmap. If both sides can agree on that political framework, we will sign a nationwide ceasefire agreement. Q: What is your opinion of Burmese army commander-in-chief Maj-Gen Min Aung Hlaing's involvement in the peace talks? A: We are not dictating who we will or will not talk to. We have our representatives, the government has its representatives. What we understand is that the government's group is being led by Aung Min and a state-level committee assigned by President Thein Sein. Their words represent the state's. If they want to include the commander-in-chief, that's fine. Whoever is involved, we are ready to talk with them. Q: What do you think of President Thein Sein's push to sign a nationwide ceasefire agreement this year? A: We haven't seen the will to solve the political problems. We haven't seen the government's true intentions vis-à-vis ethnic armed groups. They used to talk about this in their speeches, but there has been no practical implementation up until now. Dry season military offensives continue, and there will be more battles in 2014 if the KIO does not show restraint. The year 2012 has passed. They were saying that the ceasefire could be done by that time. When Thein Sein began his term as president, he said that in a speech, and also a number of times in 2013. He will continue to say it. But the signing is on a piece of paper of no value. If the signing happens, the government will reap more benefits internationally. But in our ethnic areas, nothing will have changed. To make it a real ceasefire, they should reduce their military operations. Q: What is China's role in the peace process? A: They put a lot of pressure on us. When there are severe battles, they put pressure on us in Laiza to come to a ceasefire quickly. They don't understand that the battles happening are part of a political and civil war. They think in terms of stability on China's border. They can trade when the situation is stable. I think they see the battles in terms of business. When the fighting is fierce, instead of telling the government to stop, they tell us to sign a ceasefire. So, we can say China's government is in some way involved in the peace process. Whenever we say there should be international witnesses to our discussions, they send their Asian affairs officer. But as their general foreign policy, they do not meddle in other countries' affairs. Their only intention is to prevent battles on China's borders. They do not seem to have any deep concern about whether the problems get solved or not. We accept China because we have to deal with them, but due to pressures by the Chinese government, we have suffered more. They talk and pressure to us to do what the Burmese government wants, but they do not intervene to solve the ethnic armed groups' grievances. They just want a ceasefire agreement signed quickly. Q: How long do you think this peace process will take? A: If the form of the ruling government changes, this problem will be solved quickly. But it will not happen with this government representation, the Union Solidarity and Development Party [USDP]. The post 'When Political Problems Are Solved, There Will Be No More Battles' appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| NLD Co-Founder Win Tin Admitted to Hospital Posted: 13 Mar 2014 03:33 AM PDT  Win Tin at an August 2013 event marking 25 years since Burma's 1988 protests against military rule (Photo: Simon Roughneen / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Win Tin, possibly Burma's best-known opposition figure after Aung San Suu Kyi, was admitted to Rangoon's Greencross Hospital overnight due to hip problems. The National League for Democracy (NLD) co-founder requires physiotherapy for hip problems and is expected to be in hospital for around a week, Zaw Myo Aung, who is Win Tin's assistant, said Thursday. Zaw Myo Aung told The Irrawaddy that the 84-year-old politician and former journalist was otherwise in good shape, despite facing several days in a hospital bed. Win Tin was previously hospitalized in September 2013 for respiratory problems. "He is in good health and keen to get back to work as soon as possible. The main problem is that his hip means he cannot walk properly," Zaw Myo Aung said. Win Tin's doctor requested that the long-time anti-military activist, who spent almost two decades in jail as punishment for his efforts to campaign for democracy in Burma, be admitted to hospital on Wednesday morning. March 12, however, was Win Tin's 84th birthday, so the ex-political prisoner preferred to mark the occasion first with a dinner attended by around 70 friends, according to Zaw Myo Aung. "Min Ko Naing and several other 88 Generation leaders attended, but nobody from government," said Zaw Myo Aung. Last year Win Tin—who was kept in solitary confinement and denied some medical treatment while in jail—sought an apology from Burma's former military rulers for their treatment of political prisoners. "They have to admit what they did to us because many people died," the ex-political prisoner told The Irrawaddy in October 2013. "It's not only for me but for all political prisoners mistreated by the country's military dictatorship since 1988." The total number of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Burma over the five decades of military rule could have been as high as 10,000, according to the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners-Burma. Last month the NLD and the 88 Generation, a group of former student protesters who fronted Burma's 1988 demonstrations against military rule, publicized a pact to work together on issues such as reform of Burma's 2008 Constitution, which critics say impedes democracy in Burma. The forthright Win Tin has long been a trenchant critic of Burma's military rulers and of the country's current reforms. In more recent times he told foreign media that NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi has become too close to Burma's government. "U Win Tin is one of the most important leaders in our country," Mya Aye, an 88 Generation leader, told The Irrawaddy. "We wish him a good recovery," he said. As well as holding a senior role in the NLD, which is Burma's biggest opposition party and favorite to win the most seats in the 2015 national elections, Win Tin heads the Hanthawaddy U Win Tin Foundation, which helps former and current political prisoners. "He had some work to finish as well, yesterday, and that was another reason he gave for waiting until last night before going to hospital," said Zaw Myo Aung. The post NLD Co-Founder Win Tin Admitted to Hospital appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Rohingyas Dying From Lack of Health Care in Arakan Posted: 13 Mar 2014 03:24 AM PDT  Rohingya mother Nur Hasha, 23, with her 8-month daughter Anuar Began, seeks shelter from a storm at a school in Thet Kal Pyin village, near Sittwe, in May 2013. (Photo: Vincenzo Floramo / The Irrawaddy) THE’ CHAUNG, Arakan State — Noor Jahan rocked slowly on the floor, trying to steady her weak body. Her chest heaved and her eyes closed with each raspy breath. She could no longer eat or speak, throwing up even spoonfuls of tea. Two years ago, she would have left her upscale home — one of the nicest in the community — and gone to a hospital to get tests and medicine for her failing liver and kidneys. But that was before Buddhist mobs torched and pillaged her neighborhood, forcing thousands of ethnic Rohingya like herself to flee to a hot, desert-like patch of land on the outskirts of town. She was then stuck in a dirt-floor bamboo hut about a quarter-mile from the sea. She and others from the Muslim minority group have been forced to live segregated behind security checkpoints and cannot leave, except for medical emergencies. Often not even then. Living conditions in The’ Chaung village and surrounding camps of Burma’s northwestern state of Arakan are desperate for the healthiest residents. For those who are sick, they are unbearable. The situation became even worse two weeks ago, when the aid group Médicins Sans Frontières Holland (MSF) was forced to stop working in Arakan, where most Rohingya live. The government considers all 1.3 million Rohingya to be illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh, though many of them were born in Burma to families who have lived here for generations. Presidential spokesman Ye Htut accused MSF of unfairly providing more care to Muslims than Buddhists and inflaming communal tensions by hiring "Bengalis," the name the government uses to refer to the Rohingya. Burma, a predominantly Buddhist nation of 60 million, emerged from a half-century of isolating military rule in 2011. Nascent democratic reforms have generated optimism in the international community — the World Bank recently pledged $2 billion in development aid — but waves of ethnic violence, mainly against the Rohingya, have raised concerns from the U.S. and others. Before MSF was shut down, Arakanese Buddhists regularly protested the group in what Vickie Hawkins, its deputy head of mission in Burma, described as a slow strangulation. Staff members were intimidated. Landlords became too fearful to rent houses for their operation. Boat captains declined to ferry patients. The situation intensified after the organization said it treated 22 Rohingya patients who were wounded and traumatized following an attack in January. The government has staunchly denied that a Buddhist mob rampaged through a village, killing women and children, but the United Nations concluded more than 40 people may have been killed. Talks are still ongoing between the government and MSF over whether the group will be allowed to continue working in Arakan State. Dr. Soe Lwin Nyein, the Health Ministry’s deputy director general, said Wednesday that the government was continuing to accept HIV and tuberculosis drugs from the group for patients in Arakan. Many sick patients located in the camps outside of the state capital, Sittwe, prefer to visit MSF’s small facility that sits among a tangle of flimsy thatch-roofed shacks. It is a trusted source of care, having worked in Arakan state for two decades. To see a doctor now, patients living in the camps must secure referrals from government physicians and frequently pay bribes to security guards to get past checkpoints. Treatment is then only permitted at one hospital, forcing some from remote areas to travel for hours. Additionally, many fear violence outside their Muslim area. Aid workers said protesters once stormed a hospital in town, forcing officials to lock the doors while some Rohingya patients fled in terror. Rohingya in Burma have faced decades of systematic discrimination that bars them from certain jobs and requires special permission for them to marry, among other restrictions. But their lives were far more peaceful before ethnic violence erupted in mid-2012. Up to 280 people have been killed in Arakan and tens of thousands more have fled their homes, most of them Rohingya. Before the clashes, Jahan’s family lived comfortably in the heart of Sittwe. They were well-known among both Buddhists and Muslims, owned five houses and ran a construction supply business. When surrounding Muslim areas started burning nearly two years ago, they paid the police to guard their concrete home and believed they were protected. But mobs torched and looted it anyway. The family fled their now-bulldozed house with some jewelry and around $5,000 in cash. They can no longer access additional money in their bank accounts because they left their identity cards behind. The stress was especially hard on 48-year-old Jahan. Suffering from diabetes, liver and kidney disease, she started deteriorating about three months after being corralled into the Muslim area, when the family ran out of medicine and food became scarce. She fell unconscious in December, and her husband, Mohamad Frukan, traveled with her to a nearby government clinic and waited for an emergency referral. Eventually, the Red Cross was able to take them to a Sittwe hospital since the clinic itself has no doctors. Once in town, Frukan said, a security guard shouted ethnic slurs at them and a nurse tried to give them different drugs than the doctor had prescribed. The family was not able to leave the facility, and was forced to rely on guards to bring them food. He said some were helpful, while others were indifferent or downright mean. Jahan was told she needed to see a specialist in the country’s main city of Yangon, but Rohingya need special permission for such a trip — a process that was too complicated and costly for the couple. Instead, after being treated for nine days, she was sent back to the dilapidated house made of bamboo slats and pieces of corrugated tin — still one of the nicest homes in the neighborhood, when compared to the saggy huts surrounding it. Jahan’s condition soon worsened. She couldn’t stand or lie down, so she sat, drawing one agonizing breath after another. The doctor asked that she return a week or two later for a checkup, but by then, Frukan said, security around the camp had tightened and there was no way for the family to leave. Instead, he decided to pay $300 for a boat to take his wife to Bangladesh. He was prepared to carry her through chest-high water for 45 minutes to reach the vessel, but when he tried to arrange it, the boat captain took a look at her and simply shook his head. He wouldn’t take the risk of her dying on the way. There was little that Frukan could do but cry. The couple had traveled to Yangon for care just four years ago, and if the violence hadn’t uprooted their lives, they could have done it again. "Life is so miserable for us," Frukan said. "Sometimes I am out of my mind thinking about her, but she never knows that. Whenever I look at her, it just hurts so much, and it’s so painful. I think my daughters might even die seeing their mother every day and night." Lives have always been at greater risk in Arakan, the second-poorest state of one of Asia’s poorest countries. The situation is worse away from the Sittwe camps, in isolated and predominantly Muslim northern Arakan state. In 2011, before the violence erupted, the European Community Humanitarian Office reported that acute malnutrition rates in parts of northern Arakan reached 23 percent, far above the 15 percent emergency level set by the World Health Organization. In one township, the number of deaths among children under 5 is nearly triple the national rate, according to the U.N. Now the situation is even more dire, with families split and lives disrupted. An estimated 75,000 Rohingya have left the country by boat, including Jahan’s son and son-in-law, though neighboring countries are reluctant to accept them. In the camps, many suffer from diarrhea and respiratory illnesses, including tuberculosis, in cramped shelters with no ventilation. Agencies such as UNICEF highlight poor hygiene, sanitation and a lack of clean drinking water. It’s a possible public health disaster in the making, especially during the rainy season, when the choking dust turns to gooey mud. Potential outbreaks such as measles and cholera remain a worry. Pregnant women are particularly at risk. A quarter of MSF emergency referrals involved complications during labor. One Rohingya woman, Asamatu, started bleeding four days before giving birth to a baby girl last month and died three days later in a camp filled with barefoot children and open sewage ditches. "She was so weak at the end she couldn’t stand," said sister Hasinara as she breast-fed her 15-day-old niece. "If we hadn’t been here, the father would be working normally and earning money and she would have given birth in a better place." The strain is hardest on the poor, who cannot even afford basic medication sold at small pharmacies along a road near several of the camps. An underground group has been smuggling everything from antibiotics to aspirin into the area using business channels, but it’s far from enough. And sometimes, money doesn’t matter. In early March, two months after his desperate efforts to get his wife to a doctor, Frukan walked along a dusty potholed road before sunset in a white skull cap and a crisp shirt. He had been praying for Jahan, whom he fell in love with and married 35 years ago. He would have handed over his entire fortune to save her. "She died in the middle of nothing," he said. "We couldn’t do anything in the middle of nothing." Now all Frukan has left is his guilt and a mound of fresh dirt surrounding a large white concrete grave. The best he could give her. "If I talk about her, I feel I will die," he said sitting in a shady courtyard outside the house. "I try to make myself comfortable by going to the mosque, but if I talk about what happened to her, I will die." The post Rohingyas Dying From Lack of Health Care in Arakan appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Posted: 13 Mar 2014 12:31 AM PDT  A Rohingya girl stands near the Bawdupa IDP camps outside of Sittwe on Aug. 11, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Soe Zeya Tun) NEW HAVEN, Connecticut — As Myanmar moves toward its much-awaited 2015 national elections, persecution of the Muslim minority Rohingyas is casting shadows on the prospect of restoring democracy in the country. Violence against the destitute Rohingyas, numbering less than a million in a country 52 million majority Buddhists, has brought international condemnation. Discrimination also risks arousing sectarian violence from Islamic groups with serious security implications for Myanmar and Southeast Asia. The nine bombs targeting Buddhist pilgrims in India's holiest Buddhist shrine Mahabodhi temple in Gaya on July 7, 2013, was perhaps the first such response to the Rohingya massacre but may not be the last. The little known Rohingyas burst into international news when in 2012 rioting Buddhist mobs massacred 240 men, women and children and burned their pitiful bamboo and thatch huts. Some 240,000 were rendered homeless and have since been living under plastic tents. In another explosion of violence against Muslims—non-Rohingyas—in March 2013, Buddhist activists killed a total 43 people and injured 93 in Meikhtila in central Myanmar. The anti-Muslim violence spread to other parts of Myanmar as well. Thousands of hapless Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh and others have taken to the sea in the hope of starting a new life somewhere in the region. Hundreds drowned but survivors were sent back to Myanmar. The story of the Rohingyas offers an example of how history, religious bigotry, ethnic prejudice and drive for power combine to turn a small problem into a bigger issue for a country and its neighbors. The Rohingyas, who are Muslim and speak a dialect of Bengali of neighboring Bangladesh, are believed to have lived in the coastal Arakan State bordering Bangladesh. In the 1960s, the military government of Gen. Ne Win wooed their vote and recognized them as an ethnic group. Rangoon Radio also had a Rohingya service. But things changed in the early 1980s when the military launched violent operations in Arakan State driving some 250,000 Rohingyas to take refuge in Bangladesh. The 1982 Citizenship Law denied all but 40,000 of 1.33 million Rohingyas access to citizenship; provisional on proving that their families lived in Burma before the first Anglo-Burmese war of 1824 to 1826. Leading Burma expert Bertil Lintner says, "In a country like Burma, where people don't even have surnames, that is, of course, impossible." President Thein Sein's spokesman said "The Myanmar government's policy does not recognize the term 'Rohingya,' but Bengalis who live in [Arakan] State." Aside from their ethnic and linguistic differences, their Islamic faith set them apart from the majority Buddhists who resented their lifestyle. In recent years, a movement called 969 launched by radical Buddhist monks has urged the faithful to boycott non-Buddhist businesses and called for banning of interfaith marriages. Recently revealed confidential government directives show that freedom of movement, marriage and childbirth are severely restricted for the Muslim Rohingyas. The group Fortify Rights that released the document says the policies appear to be "designed to make life so intolerable for Rohingya that they will leave the country." The policies also seem to reflect extremist Buddhist notions of an Islamic plot to convert the Burmese and take over the country, hence the need to expel them. However absurd the idea of 4 percent Muslims forcing 90 percent Buddhists to convert might be, it seems to resonate with masses of the faithful who believe in these apocalyptic scenarios. It is not surprising that when the Arakanese mob burned and killed Rohingyas the police made itself scarce. The images of burned bodies and gruesome accounts have raised anger among Muslim-majority neighbors like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia. A plot to bomb the Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta was foiled by the police. In India, Muslim organizations held protest marches. Pakistan's radical Muslim cleric and founder of Lashkar-e-Toiba Hafiz Saeed tweeted accusations of plots to "wipe out Muslim population of Myanmar" and said it was "an obligation on the whole Muslim Ummah to defend the rights and honor of Rohingya Muslims." In November 2013, the Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation representing 57 nations paid for a fact-finding trip to Arakan showing concern about the fate of the Rohingyas. Whether it was in fulfilment of that appeal or not, New Delhi believes the attack with nine low-intensity bombs in Gaya was the handiwork of Pakistan-based terrorist groups and their Indian acolytes. It seems to have been aimed at Buddhist pilgrims, many of them from Myanmar. Shortly after the blast, Indian intelligence agencies arrested Abdul Karim Tunda, who has been called the "master bomber" of Lashkar-e-Toiba. In the course of interrogation, he revealed that LeT was exploring the possibility of recruiting Rohingya youth for terrorist operations. Although a video of a training camp in neighboring Bangladesh has surfaced, so far there is no indication that Rohingyas have taken part in any terrorist activities. A recent newspaper report said that representatives of the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO), founded in 1982 to train fighters, visited Indonesia seeking assistance for armed struggle. They reportedly spoke at Forum Umat Islam, a radical Indonesian group. Regional experts, however, fear that facing threat to their life and property from Buddhist mobs and discrimination by the military government, the Rohingyas might yet become the latest recruits in a Southeast Asian jihad. As Lintner notes, "Islamic extremists have taken advantage of the plight of the Rohingyas. Most Rohingyas are poor farmers, or refugees, but also, because of their plight, easy prey for radical elements." Rohingyas are not yet a name popping up on the radar of counter-terrorism experts, but if Myanmar's single-minded generals and bigoted monks have their way, that could change. Nayan Chanda is the editor of YaleGlobal Online Magazine at the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. The post A Transition Under Threat appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Mishaps Mar Malaysia’s Handling of Flight Tragedy Posted: 12 Mar 2014 11:30 PM PDT  A search area is seen on an iPad of a military officer onboard a Vietnam Air Force AN-26 aircraft, during a mission to find the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, off Con Dao island, Thursday. (Photo: Reuters) A series of miscues and media gaffes are turning Malaysia into an object of anger and criticism in the aftermath of the disappearance early Saturday morning of a Malaysian Airlines jetliner carrying 239 passengers and crew. No trace of the craft has been found despite a search encompassing thousands of square kilometers. On Wednesday, the day was dominated by confusion over reports that the aircraft might have attempted to head back toward Malaysia before it disappeared. Malaysia's air force chief told reporters very early Wednesday that the plane had veered off course. Later in the morning, the same officer denied the report sharply. By Wednesday afternoon, the government seemed to reverse itself again, requesting assistance from India in searching the Andaman Sea, north of the Malacca Strait, where the plane may have gone down far from the current search area off the coast of Vietnam. Officials finally said the plane “may” have been heading toward the Strait of Malacca when it disappeared and that the search was now also concentrated in that area. Other countries have grown frustrated. The Chinese, with 152 passengers on board, have complained about a lack of transparency over details. They have also complained that Malaysian Airlines staff handling relatives of the victims in Beijing have been short of information and in many cases don't speak Mandarin. From the start, according to critics, the Malaysians have treated the disappearance and ensuing inconsistencies as a local problem instead of one that has focused the attention of the entire world's media on the tragedy. In a semi-democratic country with a largely supine domestic media, the government insists it has the situation in hand but that hardly seems the case. Often, those giving press briefings about the affair communicate badly in English to an international press whose lingua franca is English. Because of widely differing reports of where the aircraft actually disappeared, the picture being delivered is one of incompetence. Networks like the BBC and CNN are openly declaring that the post-accident situation is a mess. Some of it isn't Malaysia's fault. An initial report that two possible hijackers using fake passports somehow got through the country's passport control because of lax surveillance turned out to be false. While the two were traveling on false passports, apparently the stolen documents had never been reported to Interpol, which tracks such incidents. The pair turned out to be Iranians seeking asylum in Europe. But that wasn't helped by the fact that Malaysian authorities originally said erroneously that as many as four to five people could have been traveling with suspect passports, raising the possibility of a fully-fledged hijack gang aboard. The post Mishaps Mar Malaysia's Handling of Flight Tragedy appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Search Planes Find No Sign of Missing Airliner at Spot Located by China Posted: 12 Mar 2014 11:10 PM PDT  Military officer Pham Tuan Minh looks through a window of a Vietnam Air Force AN-26 aircraft during a mission to find the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, off Con Dao island on March 13, 2014. (Photo: Reuters / Kham) KUALA LUMPUR/PHU QUOC, Vietnam — Search planes found no sign on Thursday of a missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft in an area where satellite images had shown debris, taking the as-yet fruitless hunt into the sixth day. Adding to the deepening mystery surrounding the fate of the plane and 239 people on board, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that US investigators suspect the aircraft flew for about four hours after reaching its last confirmed location under conditions that remain murky. At the same time, China heaped pressure on Malaysia to improve its coordination over the search for the Boeing 777, which disappeared early on Saturday on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Of the 239 people on board, up to 154 were Chinese. Premier Li Keqiang, speaking at a news conference in Beijing, demanded that the "relevant party" step up coordination while China's civil aviation chief said he wanted a "smoother" flow of information from Malaysia, which has come under heavy criticism for its handling of the disaster. Vietnamese and Malaysian planes scanned waters where a Chinese government agency website said a satellite had photographed three "suspicious floating objects" on Sunday. The location was close to where the plane, Flight MH370, lost contact with air traffic control. Aircraft repeatedly circled the area over the South China Sea but were unable to detect any objects, said a Reuters journalist, who was aboard one of the planes. One US official close to the plane investigation said the Chinese satellite report was a "red herring." It was the latest in a series of false signals given to the multi-national search team that has been combing 27,000 square nautical miles (93,000 square km), an area the size of Hungary, for the Boeing 777-200ER. On Wednesday, Malaysia's air force chief said military radar had traced what could have been the jetliner to an area south of the Thai holiday island of Phuket, hundreds of miles to the west of its last known position. His statement followed a series of conflicting accounts of the flight path of the plane, which left authorities uncertain even which sea to search in for Flight MH370. The last definitive sighting on civilian radar screens came shortly before 1:30am on Saturday, less than an hour after the plane took off from Kuala Lumpur, as it flew northeast across the mouth of the Gulf of Thailand. What happened next remains one of the most baffling puzzles in modern aviation history and the differing accounts put out by various Malaysian officials have drawn criticism of their handling of the crisis. "The Malaysians deserve to be criticized—their handling of this has been atrocious," said Ernest Bower, a Southeast Asia specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Rodzali Daud, the Malaysian air force chief, told a news conference on Wednesday that an aircraft was plotted on military radar at 2:15am, 200 miles (320 km) northwest of Penang Island off Malaysia's west coast at the northern tip of the Strait of Malacca. But there has been no confirmation that the unidentified plane was Flight MH370, Rodzali said, and Malaysia was sharing the data with international civilian and military authorities, including those from the United States. "We are corroborating this," he added. "We are still working with the experts." Agonizing Wait According to the data cited by Rodzali, if the radar had spotted the missing plane, the aircraft would have flown for 45 minutes and dropped only about 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) in altitude since its sighting on civilian radar in the Gulf of Thailand. There was no word on which direction it was then headed, but if this sighting was correct, the plane would have turned sharply west from its original course, traveling hundreds of miles over the Malay Peninsula from the Gulf of Thailand to the Andaman Sea. This would put it about 200 miles northwest of Penang, in the northern part of the Strait of Malacca, roughly south of Phuket and east of the tip of Indonesia's Aceh province and India's Nicobar island chain. Indonesia and Thailand have said their militaries detected no sign of any unusual aircraft in their airspace. Malaysia has asked India for help in tracing the aircraft and New Delhi's coastguard planes have joined the search. The US National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement that its experts in air traffic control and radar who traveled to Kuala Lumpur over the weekend were giving the Malaysians technical help in the search. A US official in Washington said the experts were shown two sets of radar records, military and civilian, and they both appeared to show the plane turning to the west and across the Malay peninsula. But the official stressed the records were raw data returns that were not definitive. A dozen countries are taking part in the search, with 42 ships and 39 aircraft involved. Authorities have not ruled out any possible cause for the plane's disappearance. Malaysian police have said they were investigating whether any passengers or crew on the plane had personal or psychological problems that might shed light on the mystery, along with the possibility of a hijacking, sabotage or mechanical failure. Two men on board were discovered by investigators to have false passports, but they were apparently seeking to emigrate illegally to the West. The Boeing 777 has one of the best safety records of any commercial aircraft in service. Its only previous fatal crash came on July 6 last year when Asiana Airlines Flight 214 struck a seawall with its undercarriage on landing in San Francisco, killing three people. Boeing Co, the US aircraft company that makes the 777, has declined to comment beyond a brief statement saying it was monitoring the situation. The post Search Planes Find No Sign of Missing Airliner at Spot Located by China appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Manila Air-Drops Supplies to Troops on Disputed Reef Posted: 12 Mar 2014 10:27 PM PDT  A demonstrator holds a placard during a protest by dozens of activists outside the Chinese consulate in Manila's Makati financial district June 11, 2013. (Photo: Reuters) MANILA — The Philippines air-dropped food and water to soldiers posted on a grounded transport ship on a disputed South China Sea shoal, after China blocked two supply ships from reaching the troops, a senior navy official said on Wednesday. Chinese ships patrolling waters around Second Thomas Shoal, known in China as the Ren'ai reef, on Sunday ordered the Philippine ships carrying construction materials to leave the area. Beijing claims Manila is trying to start construction on the disputed reef after it ran aground an old transport ship in 1999 to mark its territory and stationed marines on the ship. Manila claims the Shoal is part of the Philippine's continental shelf. "We only intend to improve the conditions there, we have no plans to expand or build permanent structures on the shoal," said a Philippines navy official, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the press. "On Monday, we sent a navy Islander plane to drop food and water, but it will only last a few days. We really have to send back the civilian boats. Since last year, we've been resupplying our troops using civilian ships to avoid confrontation and this was the first time China blocked them." On Tuesday, Manila summoned the second highest Chinese embassy official to hand over a strong-worded protest, calling the blockade "a clear and urgent threat to the rights and interests of the Philippines." Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said China had called in Philippine diplomats in Beijing to lodge a protest in response. "The Philippines' motive in trying to illegally occupy Ren'ai reef and create incidents in the South China Sea is abundantly clear. China calls on the Philippines to stop all its provocative actions," he added. The Second Thomas Shoal, a strategic gateway to Reed Bank, believed to be rich in oil and natural gas, is one of several possible maritime flashpoints that could prompt the United States to intervene in defense of Asian allies troubled by increasingly assertive Chinese maritime claims. Washington Calls Blockade 'Provocative' On Wednesday, Washington said it was troubled by China's blockage of the Philippines ships, calling it "a provocative move that raises tensions." "Pending resolution of competing claims in the South China Sea, there should be no interference with the efforts of claimants to maintain the status quo," US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement. She added that "freedom of navigation" in the area "must be maintained." China has objected to efforts by Manila to challenge its territorial claims under the Law of the Sea at the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. Ernest Bower of the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank said new pressure on Manila could be due to China's perception that the United States has shown weakness in dealing with crises in Syria and Ukraine and will be similarly lacking in resolve in Asia—in spite of its declared policy "pivot" to the region. It also reflected Chinese concerns about negotiations expected to bring about broader access for US troops to the Philippines, he said. "The Chinese see a very unhappy situation in the Philippines—that one of their smaller neighbors is taking them to court and working with the Americans for expanded military access," Bower said. "It does not fit with the Chinese script of where they want to be in terms of the South China Sea and their sovereign claims." Bower said such incidents raised the risk that a small clash could escalate and it was important for the United States to make its commitment to the region clear ahead of a planned visit to Asia, including the Philippines, by President Barack Obama next month. "The Chinese look at the situation in Syria and Ukraine and they look at the so-called Asia pivot and they don't think there is any political foundation that has been built that would support American action in Asia if push came to shove," he said. Beijing's claim over islands, reefs and atolls that form the Spratlys, a group of 250 uninhabitable islets spread over 165,000 square miles, has set it directly against US allies Vietnam and the Philippines, while Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan also lay claim to parts of the South China Sea. China also has competing territorial claims further north with Japan, a major US ally in Asia. The South China Sea provides 10 percent of the global fish catch, carries US$5 trillion in ship borne trade a year and its seabed is believed to be rich with energy reserves. The post Manila Air-Drops Supplies to Troops on Disputed Reef appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
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