Menikmati “Shueyeyeh” di Kota Rangoon

Kata orang Rangoon sekarang dah nak masuk musim sejuk… Tapi aku rasa panas terik lebih terik dari di Chuping, Perlis. Menghadapi panas melampau nie memerlukan kita untuk sentiasa segar dan mendapat banyak air, sebanyak mungkin.

Dalam melilau nak menunggu waktu solat setelah menyelesaikan beberapa urusan yang berkaitan dengan tugasan di lapangan, kami terjumpa gerai Kakak nie di hadapan sebuah kedai menjual peralatan gantian untuk barangan elektronik.

Kami berbual dalam bahasa Inggeris bercampur aduk, janji komunikasi berlaku… aku faham dia pun faham. Aku tanya dia “benda nie makan macamana?” Kakak tu kata (dia explain dalam bahasa Burma) “roti campur agar-agar campur cendol campur kelapa bla..bla..” Nampak cam lazat dan menyelerakan betul.

Dipendekkan, aku dan Ashraff masing-masing ambil sorang satu mangkuk. Memang sedap, konsepnya sama cam Lai Chee Kang, ada ais ketul, cuma dia tak de segala macam kacang, kismis, kembang semangkuk, selasih tu semua… dia hanya ada roti manis yang terendam ditengah-tengah mangkuk, agar-agar, cendol hijau, agar-agar bulat-bulat, santan kelapa dan isi kelapa yang diracik halus.

Harga pun tak mahal dalam Kyat500 je, lebih kurang RM1.50…

Mesti korang tanya halal ke tidak? Main rembat je… memanglah iklan kakak nie semua dalam bahasa Burma, sepatah haram aku tak faham, tapi ada satu benda yang menyebabkan kami berhenti… dia ada gambar bulan bintang pada iklan dia tu… sahlah nie geng 786.

Jadi, kalau korang ada kesempatan berkunjung ke Rangoon, cubalah cari “Shueyeyeh” nie… ingat Pop Ye Yeh ingat Shueyeyeh!

Pengupayaan Komuniti di Aung Mingalar, Sitwe, Arakan

Sedang menerangkan cara-cara dan kaedah pengagihan untuk penduduk di Aung Mingalar, Sitwe, Arakan.

Ketika berada di Aung Mingalar pada bulan September yang lalu, saya dan Sdr. Johari telah berjaya mengagihkan bantuan dari rakyat Malaysia kepada mangsa-mangsa konflik di Arakan. Kami turut bekerjasama dan meminta bantuan dari penduduk tempatan untuk membantu kami dalam kerja-kerja pengagihan bantuan makanan. Komitmen dan kesungguhan mereka untuk membantu kami amatlah membanggakan dan sangat-sangat dihargai.

KEKACAUAN DI BURMA

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EXPELL Myanmar Ambassador from Kuala Lumpur

Non-stop brutal violences taking place against Rohingyans: Urgent intervention require in Arakan
Press release by NDPHR(exile),

There are on going communal violences growing day to day in inside Arakan/Rakhine state from the day of 3rd June- where 10 muslims massacred in Taungup township. The armed forces who are acting as security forces are sided with Rakhine people and explored more brutal violences against Rohingyans.

The government does not show any sign to stop on going crimes committing by Rakhine people therefore there is in need of international intervention, urgently. Today around 9am, the government ordered to leave all NGOs fnorthern Arakan state..

In brief up to afternoon of today 10 June, at least 200 Rohingyans from Maungdaw and about 30 Rohingyans from Sittwe were shot dead by security forces and other about 50 Rohingyans taken away are missing, Rohingya houses in 30 villages from Maungdaw and Rohingya houses in six villages from Akyab were burn down by Rakhine people. Rohingyans those came out to stop fire were shot dead by security forces. Beside, thousands of Rohingyans homeless and displaced and facing shortage of foods and those injuries are with lack of medic care.

In Akyab/Sittwe city, there are Duamraung and Bumay villages including the mosque near Sittwe airport are still burning. At early morning 4:00am of today, Harzamya village was burnt down, at least 13 Rohingyas were shot dead by Police and Paramilitary Forces, 4 injured.

At around 09:15 am, Police Officer Than Htin killed innocent one Rohingya girl (Ramzaan- 12yrs ) Rohingya boy (Name –Abdu Rahaman-10yrs ) and her brother injured. Dead body was taken by Paramilitary Forces. From yesterday evening, Rakhine people started gangly attacking of Rohingyan villagers and setting fire of their villages after security forces shot fire into the houses. From last night to today early morning, at least dozen of Rohingyans were killed and 30 other were taken away. Arzimya, Nadikya villages were burnt down into ashes.

In Bumay village, under the guide of Rakhine people the police shot dead five Rohingyans during they went into the houses to those Rakhine set fire to go there in order to stop the fire there. Rakhine people are still rounding with lethal knives and chanting with loud speakers- “terminate kala”, “kala-kala.. kill-kill” (‘Kala’ is a racial slur word used to call Rohingya by Rakhine). Several other Rohingyan houses including houses from Kondan-ward were set on fire. It is also confirmed that Rakhine people those came to set fire were entering wearing muslim religious dresses. The local authorities plus police forces are encouraging the Rakhine to eliminate the Rohingyas and set fire at houses. Again early morning today, a group of Rakhine tried to burn Nazi Village but it was stopped by Rohingyan villagers

On previous night of 4 June, A large group of Rakhine people marched to attack the ancient Foktoli mosque and village of Nazi. But it was broke away by security forces after Rohingya villagers came out to resist them.
In Maungdaw township from Friday afternoon, 8 June. Security armed forces involving Rakhine people are acting mainly in shooting and killing of at least 200 Rohingyans and taking away the bodies, burning down 30 Rohingyan villages including religious building, destroying shop lots and looting goods and cash.

NDPHR would like to raise with some escalated the following reports; From Friday at about 2:00pm, 8th of June, the riot police fired more than 40 rounds at about 500 Rohingya peaceful prayers who are going to demonstrate peacefully in Myoma Kayandan village of Maungdaw Town to give the respect to the massacred 10- Muslim in Taungup on June 3. That killed at least two Rohingyas, several other injuries and some houses are burning at the this moment.

Beside, the main central mosque and prayers were attacked by Rakhine people in the presence of riot police. That created furious tension and followed attacking each other. Early morning of 9 June, military forces entered into Hunri-para and shot at Rohyingyas . At least 5 persons death and the bodies were lifted by truck.
Again afternoon, after military guarded Narittardil(ward-5), Rakhine brunt down the mosque.

On the following day the following religious buildings have been torched to burn down; 1)Morcos mosque of Sikdarpara, 2)Noapara mosque, 3)Sambanna and Sarkumbo mosques of Ali Thangyaw.

At midnight of 8 June, the Hlun Htein forces from Ngakura village accompanied by the extremists from the Rakhine village of San Oo Rwa (Hatipra) attacked the Rohingya villagers of the same village, killing one person injuring 3 others. The dead body was carried away by the killers. In many villages, security forces corporately with Rakhine people fired to the Muslim houses. When the inmates left their homes the Rakhine set fire. The villages of Hatalia, Sommonia, Razarbil, Kayandan and San Oo are among those which were also attacked.

From 9 June, the Buddhist monks and Rakhine extremists escorted by security forces were announcing ‘War on Kalas, (war on Rohingyas) along the street of Maungdaw. This message was spread like a wild fire all over Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships. The villagers also confirmed that many security forces dressed in civil clothes but with arms are firing at the Rohingyas.

Despite government authority had mutually approached on following protest near Sulay of Yangon, similar approach was not delivered in Arakan state. In Arakn, the armed forces were sided with Rakhine people and explored more brutal violences against Rohingyans. They also set fire a few Rakhine houses in order to tarnish Rohingyan people’ image.

It’s learnt from the beginning that despite Rohingyan villagers both in Maungdaw and Sittwe are confined within their villages under Curfew order, security forces are shooting at Rohingya villagers with cool blood and Rakhine people are still allowed to attack Rohingyans and to fire houses, to loot goods and cash in the present of security forces.

The due course of pending action against the mass killing of 10 Muslims in Taungup, is also a part of continuing tension between Rakhine and Rohingya communities. While authority has not yet arrested those terror Rakhine people.

All of such violence are direct result from the subject of Arakanese Rohingya Muslims are not entitled to be citizenship under new citizenship law-1982 based on the changes of Rakhine state from Arakan state in 1974. So, Rohingya people have to face oppressions in common and brutal attacks periodically and occasionally.
The mass killing of 10 Muslims by 300 Rakhine people in Taungkup on the 3rd of June, was one of the shock wave of their intentional desires of Rakhine people. For Rakhine people, it was a part of fulfilling to the chapter of muslim-free-zones defined from 1983 which consists Gwa, Taungup, Tandwe and Ponnagyuan townships. There were several hundreds of Rohingyans were killed in similar way in these regions and such crime will be carried on until the government implement such draconian act.

Sports ministry denying Suu Kyi access to stadiums

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Burmese government is throwing up obstacles to prevent the National League for Democracy (NLD) from booking sports stadiums for campaign rallies by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

NLD campaign manager Nyan Win told a press conference on Monday in Rangoon that government sports minister Tint San is disrupting the NLD electoral campaign because the ministry will not allow access to book football stadiums, which are necessary to hold the large crowds that Suu Kyi attracts wherever she campaigns.

Government officials have repeatedly claimed that the April 1 by-election would be free and fair, a specific requirement sought by the international community prior to removing sanctions on the military-dominated government which says it is moving toward democracy. The NLD party is contesting for 48 seats in the by-election, and Suu Kyi said she plans to campaign across the country.

NLD spokesperson Ohn Kyaing said Suu Kyi wanted to deliver a speech at Pyapon Stadium in Irrawaddy Region on February 17, but the Sports Ministry would not make the stadium available and she was forced to deliver her speech at Thelgwin on the outskirts of Pyapon.

Talking about the ministry’s actions, Suu Kyi said in her speech in Thelgwin that such actions will damage the government’s credibility, especially with the international community which is carefully monitoring the by-election campaign.

The ministry also sent the NLD a letter rejecting its request to speak on February 15 at the Hlegu Football Stadium in Rangoon Region. Suu Kyi was permitted to use the stadium after the Union Election Commission (UEC) mediated between the two sides. A similar case involved Suu Kyi’s trip to Pathein in Irrawaddy Region in the first week of February, Ohn Kyaing told Mizzima.

On February 4, Suu Kyi was forced to postpone her planned campaign trip to Mandalay because the authorities said the Myanmar Football Federation refused to rent the Bahtoo football stadium for a speech.

The NLD applied on February 17 to the Mandalay Region Sports Department to use the stadium located near Mandalay Mountain, but the authorities did not reply, said Myo Naing, an NLD official from Mandalay Region.

The UEC has been informed about the issue, but so far it has not taken any preventive action, said Ohn Kyaing.

Minister Tint San is the owner of A.C.E Construction Company. In the 2010 general elections, he won a Lower House seat in Myaungmya Township as a Union Solidarity and Development Party candidate. In March 2011, he resigned to become Minister of Hotels and Tourism and Sports Minister.

In the April 1 by-election, Dr. Phyo Ko Ko Tint San, a son of Minister Tint San, is a candidate for a seat in the Myaungmya Township constituency. The NLD candidate is Mann Johnny.

Meanwhile, at the NLD press conference on Monday, Nyan Win said Upper House MP Dr. Myat Nyar Na Soe has resigned from the National Democratic Force to become an NLD member.

http://networkedblogs.com/ubZLL

Ihsanoglu Calls on Rohingya people to unite their efforts

The Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Prof Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu reiterated the OIC’s solidarity with the Rohingya people and reassured them of the support of the Organisation.

In his speech which was delivered by Mr. Talal Daaous Director of the Department of Muslim Minorities in OIC, the Secretary General highlighted the importance of the Meeting of Senior Leaders of Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU) and the Euro-Burma Office (EBO) which takes place in the OIC headquarters on 30 and 31 May 2011.

He noted that this second meeting of its kind in Jeddah aims to unite the efforts of the Rohingya people which stem from a resolution adopted by the Thirty Seventh Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers held in Dushanbe, Republic of Tajikistan in May 2010.

 Ihsanoglu underlined that the meeting stresses on coordinating the work of Rohingya Muslim organizations and uniting their ranks under a united coordination council and calls on OIC to continue these efforts to reclaim Rohingya Muslims’ rights.

The Secretary General clarified that an agreement was reached in the first meeting on 9th June 2010 which established an organizational and coordination structure known as the Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU) with the aim of uniting Rohingya peoples’ efforts. He stated that today’s meeting seeks the same purpose.

Ihsanoglu also reaffirmed that the OIC supported the return of the refugees and the restoration of their rights and privileges which were taken from them by the Burmese authorities.

Thailand: Recent arrivals from Myanmar

Source: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

Date: 09 Jun 2009

This is a summary of what was said by the UNHCR spokesperson at today’s Palais des Nations press briefing in Geneva. Further information can be found on the UNHCR websites, http://www.unhcr.org and http://www.unhcr.fr, which should also be checked for regular media updates on non-briefing days.

Today and yesterday we have sent our staff to villages and a cave in northern Thailand to find out more details about a group of Karen people who have fled across the Moei River from Myanmar since last Wednesday.

Estimates of the number vary greatly from about 2,000 people to some 6,400, and one of the first things we would like to do is ascertain the number of people who are in the five sites near Mae Sot.

They are staying in temples and in homes in four villages and in one case, in a cave accessible only by river and by a 40-minute climb up a steep mountain which is very slippery right now because it is raining heavily.

From our preliminary discussions with the few new Karen arrivals we have been able to talk with, it seems some were fleeing actual fighting between the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, which is allied with government forces, and the rebel Karen National Union (KNU). Others say they were fleeing forced recruitment or forced labour by government forces.

A number of the people who have fled to Thailand were already displaced within their own country. They were residents of the Ler Per Her camp for internally displaced persons run by the KNU within Karen-held territory inside Myanmar. All of the people in that camp fled to Thailand across the Moei River when it was shelled, they say.

Many of the people brought their belongings with them, and the Thailand-Burma Border Consortium, a group of non-governmental organizations providing aid to refugees, has supplied them with basic food, mosquito nets, pots and pans and blankets. UNHCR has also given them plastic sheeting.

Most of the new arrivals say they want to stay as close to their villages as possible in order to go home quickly once the situation calms down because they left cattle behind and because it is time to begin planting rice.

UNHCR is working closely with Thai authorities to best respond to the needs of the new arrivals.

Rohingya: A regional problem

Solving the problem of Burmese Muslim refugees will take the full efforts of several of the region’s organisations

By: Larry Jagan

“The Rohingya issue is a very complicated challenge to the entire region of Southeast Asia,” Mr Surin told Spectrum in an exclusive interview. “Asean happens to be a foremost regional organisation aspiring to evolve into a community of caring societies, so it has to be an issue of concern to Asean.”

 

The Rohingya issue featured prominently in bilateral talks in the region last week. US Secretary for State Hillary Clinton discussed it during meetings with both the Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and the foreign minister, Hasan Wirajuda. Army chief Anupong Paojinda reportedly raised the issue with the Burmese junta’s leader General Than Shwe when he visited the Burmese capital Naypyidaw earlier in the week, while Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva also compared notes with his Indonesian counterpart during his visit to Jakarta.

“We are going to find a suitable way to raise the Rohingya issue during the Asean meeting,” said a Foreign Ministry spokesman. “But it may not be discussed formally at the summit.”

But this is unlikely to satisfy activists and human rights groups who believe that unless there is a strong political will on the part of the region’s leaders at the forthcoming summit to seriously tackle the issue, the problem will be left to fester.

INTERNATIONAL CONCERN: Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after their meeting in Jakarta.

“The Rohingya issue is a cross-border problem that cannot be handled by one country alone, it needs a regional response,” Yap Swee Seng head of a regional human rights group, Forum-Asia, told journalists last Thursday ahead of the Asean summit. “While it may be discussed on the margins of the Asean leaders’ meeting, what is needed is a formal consultative meeting of Asean, including Bangladesh and India, who have both been affected by the exodus of Rohingya from Burma.”

Thailand and Indonesia have already agreed that the problem will be referred to the Bali Process after the summit. In fact, the Indonesian and Australian foreign ministers, who chair the international group, have already agreed that the next annual gathering will discuss the Rohingya issue. This year’s Bali Process meeting is expected to be held next month, or early in April. “We discussed and welcomed the fact that the question of the Rohingya will form part of the discussion at the forthcoming ministerial meeting of the Bali Process,” Australia’s Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told reporters in Sydney last week, after a meeting with his Indonesian counterpart.

 

“The Bali Process is a very attractive and viable option for the region to get together, to discuss the Rohingya issue,” Mr Surin suggested. “Asean member states affected by the problem can come together and pool their expertise and resources to put this problem into a proper context and manage it together.”

The Bali Process brings together more than 50 countries, mainly Asian, and at ministerial level, to work on practical measures to help combat people smuggling, people trafficking and related transnational crimes in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. “It is primarily a process and framework for information sharing and training of officials, in law enforcement and drafting legislation, in connection with the smuggling and trafficking of people and other crimes,” said Chris Lom, the regional spokesman for the International Organisation of Migration (IOM), based in Bangkok. IOM and the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) are part of the secretariat and help facilitate the group’s meetings.

 

MEET AND GREET: Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva compared notes with his Indonesian counterpart.

The Bali Process was originally set up at the Regional Ministerial Conference on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime, held in Bali in February 2002.

“The region has faced these kinds of challenges many times before, including the [Vietnamese] boat people in the 1970s, but more recently the influx of people fleeing conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran,” Mr Surin said. “That was the origin of the Bali Process, with Australia very much an active participant in the regional efforts to manage that human tide floating across the Indian Ocean.”

Thailand has been forced to take the lead on the issue after allegations that more than 1,000 Burmese-Muslim illegal immigrants were intercepted in Thai territory and cast adrift in three separate incidents on the high seas in several boats, with little food and water, and their engines disabled or removed. Some of the survivors ended up back in Thailand, some made it to India’s Andaman islands, while others drifted as far as the Indonesian island of Sumatra before being rescued. Many of them accused the Thai authorities of abusing them and treating them inhumanely.

 

REGIONAL INVOLVEMENT: Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and Indonesian Foreign Minister Dr Hassan Wirajuda speak at the opening session of the Australia-Indonesia Conference in Sydney.

The refugees were on their way to Malaysia, according to activists and UN officials who have had access to the survivors. Most of them paid the equivalent of 10,000 baht to smugglers who promised to get them to Thailand on the first stage of their trip to a better life. “They would then pay Thai traffickers a further 20,000 baht or so to get them to Malaysia,” said Chris Lewa, who works with the regional Arakan Project, which monitors the situation of the Burmese Muslims, both in Arakan state and those who try to escape the country.

The refugees are members of the ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority, who live in northern Arakan state, in western Burma bordering Bangladesh. They have fled social and religious persecution by the Burmese military authorities there. Most human rights activists believe that the abuses committed by the junta in the Muslim-dominated areas of western Burma are worse than anywhere else in the country.

“Burma’s Rohingya minority is subject to systematic persecution. They are effectively denied citizenship, they have their land confiscated, and many are regularly forced to work on government projects without pay,” said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International’s Burma researcher. “They are often prevented from marrying or conducting religious ceremonies. They are also effectively prevented from travelling within the country as well. The regime creates conditions and circumstances that make it clear to the Rohingya that they are not wanted or welcome, so it’s no surprise that they try to flee the country by the thousands.”

 

MILITARY MIGHT: Burma’s Senior General Than Shwe, left, and Thailand’s General Anupong Paojinda.

Thousands make the hazardous two-week journey from Bangladesh at this time of year  –  between November and April  –  when the seas are not so rough. “We cannot tolerate the suffering any more. We would rather risk going to sea than stay and perish little by little,” one of those who fled Burma and ended up in Thailand told Spectrum. “Live or die; it’s up to Allah.”

More than 5,000 Rohingya have left Bangladesh in the past four months, according to researchers at the Arakan Project. Some have managed to make it to Malaysia, but several thousand Rohingya refugees may have perished in the Andaman Sea in pursuit of freedom and a better life, said Mr Lewa.

The danger now is that by relying on the Bali Process to sort out the problem of the Rohingya boat people, the issue will be treated as people smuggling rather than as a result of persecution.

“It is important that they [the Rohingya] are clearly identified, not just as economic migrants who have been trafficked,” said a UN worker who has interviewed many of the survivors of the latest incidents, but declined to be indentified. “They are asylum seekers escaping oppression, the denial of their rights, violence, land confiscation and religious persecution.”

“UNHCR would like to point out that being trafficked or smuggled does not preclude persons also having a legitimate claim to being a refugee,” said the regional spokesperson for UNHCR, Kitty McKinsey. “Often people fleeing persecution have no way out of their country other than to resort to smugglers or traffickers.”

The root cause of this latest exodus from Burma is the junta’s treatment of its Muslim minority, especially in Arakan state. The regime refuses to accept that they are Burmese citizens. “In reality, the Rohingya are neither Myanmar people nor Myanmar’s ethnic group,” the Burmese consul general in Hong Kong, Ye Myint Aung, wrote in a letter circulated to the press. And what is more they are “ugly as ogres”, he added.

The issue of Burma’s Rohingya has proved an intractable problem in the past. More than a quarter of a million fled massive human rights violations at the hands of the Burmese army. More than 200,000 ended up in camps in Bangladesh in Cox’s Bazaar from 1991 to 1993, largely in the care of UNHCR. Although the UN managed to negotiate a repatriation agreement between Burma and Bangldesh, many thousands remained in Bangladesh, and many of those who returned to Arakan simply fled again at the first opportunity.

So the countries of the region, with the help of the UN and several Middle Eastern countries, especially Saudi Arabia, have tried in the past to help resolve this problem. But all efforts have floundered, largely because of the intransigence of Burma’s military rulers. At the height of the last mass exodus of Burmese-Muslim refugees from Arakan more than 15 years ago  –  the then Bangladesh foreign minister, Mustifizur Rahman (now deceased) said that the Rohingya issue could never be solved while the generals were still in power in Burma.

Many analysts and activists would agree. But that is no excuse for not trying, according to Asian diplomats.

“Countries have always been reluctant to deal with this challenge on their own. They are even hesitant to bilateralise the problem. So as a region we must try to face the challenge as a region,” Mr Surin said.

“Our image, our profile, and our efficiency as a regional organisation, are being tested by the current Rohingya phenomenon. Strong leadership and a determined political will are needed.”

Eavesdropping on a slave trader

RANGOON, Feb 15 — Her glasses were Gucci and her bag YSL. The smart Burmese businesswoman was perched neatly on a sofa in the lobby of a Rangoon hotel, delivering her sales patter to a small group of businessmen.

Her product? Human beings.

“We supply only strong bodies,” she says crisply. “That is our guarantee.’” I am sitting at the next table using the hotel Wi-Fi, and, as she speaks in clear English, I am drawn into a world of desperation and exploitation.

The woman is a supplier of workers for deep-sea trawlers, and her stock of men come from Burma’s beautiful but impoverished Inle Lake area, where fishing the tranquil waters no longer makes enough to feed a family.

“These are just simple fishermen; they are not educated, but what we promise you is strong bodies,” she says, using a phrase she repeats again and again.

It appears the businesswoman’s potential customers are middlemen, probably Chinese. Through a translator, they discuss placing the men on boats in the South China Sea, trawling for tuna.

First, they will be flown to a Chinese city. In echoes of the slave trade, she describes a selection process worthy of a livestock market. In a 21st century twist, she does so with the aid of pictures on her notebook PC.

“We make them stand in the sun for one hour,” she says. “In the middle of the day when it is very hot. We see how they manage, if they look uncomfortable.” The group leans in to see the pictures on her computer.

“We make them carry 20kg, like this,” she continues, showing them photographs I cannot see. “For deep-sea fishing, they may need to carry very big fish for long distances across the ship.”

Then comes the seasickness test. “We put them in here,” the woman says, but I can’t see the picture. I think it must be an enclosed truck or some sort of container on water. “Then we start to move them around. If they are sick or find it hard to breathe we don’t select them. This is how we select the best bodies.”

The group nods. The images of Burma’s Rohingya boat people, fleeing oppression only to be allegedly abused and cast adrift by the Thai military, has drawn international attention to the plight of one of the world’s most downtrodden people.

The Muslim Rohingya face particular persecution in military-ruled Burma, but throughout the country, impoverished men and women who see no future at home are embarking on risky journeys abroad in search of an income for their families.

During the eavesdropping session, I learn more about the business. The fishermen are to earn US$2,400 (RM8,640) a year, an enticing wage in Burma, where average rural incomes are about US$300 (RM1,080) a year.

But their rights are few, and they are expected to work very long hours for their money. “During the high season, they can work 23 hours a day,” says the saleswoman. “Then in the low season they can relax a little and rest.”

Any fee the agent wishes from the salaries is up to them, the woman says, and the fishermen should only be paid every six months “in case they fall sick, or violate the contract”, she said.

Finally, one of the businessmen appears to ask a question about the welfare of the fishermen. The saleswoman suggests there should be an area on board the ships for the fishermen to live and cook, and says that those who operate machinery should get a bonus.

“We hope they can make money to help their families,” she says, smiling, and the group nods again.

Hit by the global recession and the mismanagement and neglect of Burma’s ruling generals, in power for nearly 50 years, the country’s farmers and fishermen are suffering as never before, say aid workers.

“The agricultural sector, which employs 80% of the population, is imploding,” said Kerren Hedlund, an adviser to a consortium of aid agencies in Rangoon. “People are getting into greater and greater debt to finance a livelihood that’s not possible.”

In the cities, there is high unemployment, frequent power cuts and ever-climbing prices for food and basic goods. Most people try to scratch a living in the informal economy or the black market.

A lack of opportunity has driven millions of Burma’s young people on dangerous journeys to Southeast Asia’s wealthier nations. They sneak across the border to Thailand, to work illegally as domestic help, labourers, or in the fish-processing industry.

Many young men make perilous sea voyages in the hope of reaching Malaysia, paying agents hundreds of dollars for places on rickety boats.

If they make it, construction work is relatively well-paid, but migrant workers run the risk of abuse at the hands of employers and the authorities.

The migrants live simply, and try to send all the money they can back home. “There is a huge exodus of people from Burma,” said Debbie Stothard, of the Bangkok-based Burma lobby group Altsean.

“It is a land of no opportunity. The only way people can survive is to have a family member overseas, sending money home.” — The Independent

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/world/18406-eavesdropping-on-a-slave-trader

Rohingya are Muslim outcasts, not welcome anywhere

By AMBIKA AHUJA and MICHAEL CASEY, Associated Press Writers Ambika Ahuja And Michael Casey, Associated Press Writers – Sat Feb 14, 12:03 pm ET

AP – Muhammad Syafirullah, one of Rohingya boat people rescued by Acehnese fishermen lies on a hospital bed …

BANGKOK, Thailand – For generations, the ethnic Muslim Rohingya have endured persecution by the ruling junta of Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country.

The plight of the Rohingya, descendants of Arab traders from the 7th century, gained international attention over the past month after five boatloads of haggard migrants were found in the waters around Indonesia and the Andaman Islands.

But unlike the Kurds or the Palestinians, no one has championed the cause of the Rohingya. Most countries, from Saudi Arabia to Malaysia, see them as little more than a source of cheap labor for the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs.

“The Rohingya are probably the most friendless people in the world. They just have no one advocating for them at all,” said Kitty McKinsey, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. “Hardly any of them have legal status anywhere in the world.”

There are an estimated 750,000 Rohingya living in Myanmar’s mountainous northern state of Rakhine, which borders Bangladesh. Thousands flee every year, trying to escape a life of abuse that was codified in 1982 with a law that virtually bars them from becoming citizens.

A spokesman for Myanmar’s military government did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment. It has repeatedly denied abusing the Rohingya, though Amnesty International said the junta has described them as less than human. Rights groups have documented widespread abuses, including forced labor, land seizures and rape.

“It was like living in hell,” said Mohamad Zagit, who left after soldiers confiscated his family’s rice farm and then threw him in jail for praying at a local mosque. The 23-year-old spoke from his hospital bed in Thailand, where he had been detained after fleeing Myanmar.

“We have no rights,” said Muhamad Shafirullah, who was among 200 migrants rescued by the Indonesian navy last week. He recalled how he was jailed in Myanmar, his family’s land stolen and a cousin dragged into the jungle and shot dead. “They rape and kill our women. We can’t practice our religion. We aren’t allowed to travel from village to village … It’s almost impossible, even, to get married or go to school.”

Twice since the 1970s, waves of attacks by the military and Buddhist villagers forced hundred of thousands of Rohingya to flee over the border to Bangladesh, a Muslim country whose people speak a similar language. Many have since been repatriated, but 200,000 still work there as illegal migrants and another 28,000 live in squalid refugee camps.

Violence against Rohingya women is common, and they face the threat of prison because of their illegal status, said Chris Lewa, coordinator of the Bangkok-based Arakan Project, an advocacy group for the Rohingya. Thousands of Rohingya have taken to the seas from Bangladesh in search of better jobs, but ended up drowning or at the mercy of traffickers.

For years, the Rohingya traveled to the Middle East for work, with nearly a half million ending up in Saudi Arabia.

But in recent years — partly because of bureaucratic hurdles faced by Muslims following 9/11 — many now try to go instead by boat to Thailand and then overland to Malaysia, another Islamic nation.

But even those who make it to Malaysia then struggle find good jobs and quickly discover that, there too, intolerance is growing. Many of the 14,300 Rohingya in Malaysia live in cramped, rundown apartments in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, and face the constant threat of deportation, community leaders said. If caught, the migrants can be caned and imprisoned for up to five years.

Yet most refugee advocates expect Rohingya migrants will keep coming.

“My 14 children rely on me. They have no safety, no food, nothing,” said Mohamad Salim, a 35-year-old, bearded fisherman who also was detained and hospitalized in Thailand and begged to be allowed to continue onto Malaysia.

“What will they eat? How will they live if I don’t find work?” he said, his voice trembling.

Associated Press writer Irwan Firdaus contributed to this report from Idi Rayeuk, Indonesia; Casey in Bangkok; Ahuja in Ranong; Julia Zappei in Malaysia and Farid Hossain in Bangladesh contributed to this report.

SHAHRUL PESHAWAR – The Myanmar Junta is adopting the same policy used by Thailand towards muslim.  In Thailand they accept Muslim group known as Thai Muslim, but treating double standard for other Muslim such as the Malay.  As per Myanmar, they too accept Muslim in the country but not a Rohingya Muslim, it is a pity to them.  Rohingyan Muslim is not a new group of races, they had existed much earlier and they had formed their own dynasties back in 16th Century and even had various diplomatic missions abroad.