Lächeln und schweigen

^{Foto: Stefan Fussan, Blattgold am Golden Rock, Kyaikto Pagode, Myanmar, beschnitten}

Heute protestierten Mitglieder der Partei ‚Myanmar National Movement‘ (MNM) und Mönche der faschistischen 969-Bewegung vor der Botschaft der USA in Yangon.

Nein, nicht gegen die Transpazifische Partnerschaft TTP, auch nicht gegen das eher wirtschaftsinteressengestützte Menschenrechts-Engagement der USA in Südostasien.

Sondern gegen die Verwendung des Wortes „Rohingya“:

„US Embassy used the fake term „Rohingya Community“ in its announcement (dated 20-4-16) of condolences those who died when the boat capsized near Thae Chaung in Sittwe on April 19th.“

Es lohnt, die ganze Verlautbarung zu lesen. Knapp zusammengefasst beleidigt das Wort „Rohingya“ laut MNM die 8 Hauptethnien und 135 Minoritäten in Myanmar. Jeder, der das Wort benutze oder die „Rohingya-Story“ unterstütze, sei ein Feind Myanmars. Wenn die USA solche Sympathien mit „Lügen-Bengali“ habe, solle sie sie selbst aufnehmen.

Slogans shouted and circulated at today’s US embassy protest in Yangon:

„You are our enemy! Peace be upon you!“

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Frontier Myanmar, Hein Ko Soe & Sean Gleeson, 28.4.2016: Nationalist protest rebukes US for Rohingya statement

The statement that sparked the protest, issued by the US Embassy last week, expressed condolences for the families of the victims who died when a boat capsized in rough waters near the Rakhine capital of Sittwe. At least 21 people died in the tragedy, with at least seven of the victims aged eight or under.

Most of the passengers were Rohingya Muslim residents of Sin Tet Maw camp in nearby Pauktaw Township. They had moved there in the aftermath of the communal violence which rocked the state in 2012, claiming hundreds of lives.

Myanmar’s former government and much of its population refuses to recognise the nation’s Rohingya population, estimated to be as many as 1.1 million people, and instead consider them to be illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

Many of those self-identifying as Rohingya have documentary records proving their ancestry in Myanmar goes back generations. The Rohingya community was permitted to vote in the 2010 election before being disenfranchised by the last government in 2015, in an apparent response to pressure from nationalist groups.

The embassy’s statement added that it welcomed the new government’s commitment to “improve conditions for all people in Rakhine State and promote reconciliation, peace and stability”.

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Die Situation der Rohingya in Myanmar ist unverändert bedrückend. Soeben wurden neue Reisebeschränkungen erlassen (bzw. längst existierende zu Papier gebracht), die Rohingya daran hindern, Krankenhäuser in Yangon aufzusuchen, sondern sie an Krankenhäuser in Sittwe verweisen, in denen sie nicht die gleiche Gesundheitsversorgung erhalten wie Buddhisten, Schmiergeld für Überweisungen und für die Reiseerlaubnis nach Yangon zu zahlen hätten.

Maung Maung Sein, another Rohingya representative present at the meeting, told The Irrawaddy that the new rules would place extra financial strain on those in the camps.

“We need security to travel to the hospital in Sittwe. We have to pay at least 20,000 to 30,000 kyats (US$17 to $26) to rent a car to travel from the camp to the town,” he said, adding that patients would need food and accommodation in order to be able to stay in the hospital away from their homes. Paying for this expense is made particularly difficult by limitations placed on the Rohingyas’ ability to seek employment in the region.

Maung Maung Sein explained that Rohingya who could afford to do so once sought treatment in Rangoon, reportedly after obtaining permission from an immigration officer for the journey; without the correct paperwork, Rohingya attempting to travel outside of the region can be imprisoned.

“There were brokers who could help get recommendations from Immigration. We had to pay a lot of money to get the recommendation,” he said.

Burmese government authorities have allowed some clinics to open in the displaced people’s camps, but challenges regarding staffing and patient access remain ongoing.

Doctors and nurses from the camp hospitals will not be eligible to provide the recommendation needed for travel to Rangoon to seek more advanced treatment.

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CNN, Katie Arnold 1.4.2016: Myanmar’s shame: Living inside Rohingya ghettos

Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims live a life of hardship and oppression that a recent report found to be tantamount to genocide. More than 140,000 people live in overcrowded Internally Displaced People camps, with little access to food or healthcare. Thousands of others reside in segregated villages across the state where the most basic of freedoms are denied.

Despite their suffering, other Rohingya like Kyaw Aung, refuse to leave their homes and what they consider to be their homeland. „Even if our future is dark, I will not leave … I have my ID card, I am a citizen of this country,“ he says. His identity card was issued in 1959 but the government of President Thein Sein, a former general who has led Myanmar since 2010, revoked ID cards for minority groups such as the Rohingya last year.

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Frontier Myanmar, AFP, 28.4.2016: Migrants found abandoned in Thai forest a year after smuggling crackdown

More than a dozen Rohingya refugees abandoned by people smugglers have been found in a southern Thai forest, police said Wednesday, almost a year on from a crackdown which has forced traffickers to find new routes.

Muslim Rohingya, an ethnic minority from Myanmar’s western Rakhine state who are forced to live in apartheid-like conditions, have for years fled their homeland seeking work in Muslim-majority Malaysia.

„Fourteen Rohingyas, including kids as young as a few years old, were found at around 6am (Wednesday),“ police captain Panuwat Chomyong, a highway officer in central Chumpon province, told AFP.

Smugglers abandoned the group ahead of a police checkpoint, Panuwat said, adding they had initially entered Thailand through Kanchanaburi province, a much more northern entry point than those usually used by traffickers.

The discovery suggests new routes are being sought by migrants and smugglers following Thailand’s belated crackdown on the grim and lucrative trade last May, which has seen boat crossings over the Bay of Bengal almost entirely cease.

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Radio Free Asia 21.4.2016: Myanmar Disputes Bangladesh Account of Deported Rohingya Muslims

Myanmar dismissed on Saturday a recent assertion by border control authorities in neighboring Bangladesh that they had this month deported at least 340 Muslim Rohingyas – without any resistance from Myanmar counterparts.

Zaw Htay, spokesman for the Myanmar President’s Office, said his office had heard nothing about the case and that his country’s border guards would have had no authority to accept Rohingyas without consulting with the president.

„The President’s Office has no knowledge of the case in question,“ Zaw Htay said in a post on his Facebook page.

„To take back over 300 Bengalis without scrutiny, the immigration authorities would need permission from the President’s Office and they cannot do it of their own will,“ the spokesman added, using the term by which Myanmar refers to its Muslim nationals in the western part of the country.

„Hence, let it be known that it is not true that over 300 Bengalis were taken back without objection and any security checks,“ said Zaw Htay.

The President’s Office could not be reached for clarification on whether he meant the Rohingya were not repatriated at all or whether they were returned after security checks.

There was no information about the fate of the 340 people the head of Bangladesh’s border guard told RFA had been sent back in April.

“Over the last 20 days, we caught illegal Myanmar nationals, photographed them and sent 340 of them back to their homeland,” Lt. Col. Imran Ullah Sarker, chief executive of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), told RFA on Thursday.

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(Nachtrag 26.7.2016)

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Aung San Suu Kyi lächelt und schweigt.

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