Weekly News Package
---------------------------- --------------------------
---------------
On the Border
Rohingya Refugees Attacked (Kalandan Press Network)
News)
Border talks between
Burmese Trade Delegates to visit
Karenni Peace Talks Halted (Network Media Group)
Report of Burmese Army raping Karen women released (Network
Media
Group)
Rohingya Refugees seek High School
education in Bangladeshi Camp
(Kaladan News)
Inside
Akyab- Myuk
Oo steamer passengers in trouble (Narinjara News)
Orient Shipping Line to cease operations in
(Narinjara News)
---------------- -------------------------
----------------------------
On the Border
Rohingya Refugees Attacked
Taknaf, Mar 26: A violent attack
occurred in the makeshift camp of
Rohingya refugees in Taknaf, injuring 8 inmates, and a fire damaged
the belongings of thousands of
others, said a refugee leader of the
camp.
On
to the refugee camp and attempted
to abduct a teenage refugee girl.
When the girl screamed for help, many refugees came rushing
to her
rescue, but the criminal gang,
consisting of 10 people led by one Syed
Alam S/o Hajee
Bashir Ahmed, assaulted 4 refugees: Eman Hussain 26,
Sadek Hussain26, Mohammed Rafique 25 and Nur Mohamed 28,
with sharp
knives, he added.
Immediately after that the gang ran away. Their purpose was
to force
the refugees to vacate the land
where their makeshift hunts were
built. At about
camp on fire and three-quarters of
the huts were completely gutted,
said another refugee leader at the
camp.
This time they hurt three refugee women: Rashida
Begum 25, Zarina 21,
Nayema Nahar18 and two men named
Rashid Ahmed 28 and Anam Ullah
26. No
action has yet been taken against
the culprits, the refugee leader
added.
On 25th March, at about 1 PM, the Thana
Officer (TNO) Matinul Haque
together with Medical Officer Dr. Farid Osman, Police Officer
Mohamed
Mani Uddin,
local UNHCR Officers and local elders visited the site,
the leader told our correspondent.
An estimated 970 undocumented Rohingya
Refugee families, numbering
about 7000 people, have been living
in these makeshift huts for more
than two years, after being dragged
and driven out of their shelters
during an operation in 2002. The
authorities had herded them together
in these places where they were
living under open sky without any help
from anyone. After some time, the
refugees themselves started building
makeshift huts on their own
initiative. Unfortunately, these hapless
and helpless souls are not even
documented as refugees by the
authorities concerned. They are
waiting for a just solution and hope
to be repatriated to their original
homes in Arakan with a full
guarantee for their life, property
and safety.
*** *** *** ***
loggers by Nasaka,
just a week before the visit of Burmese Prime
Minister Khin Nyunt to
Nasaka, the Border Security Force
of Burma, abducted 13 loggers from
Bandarban, a border district between
They were abducted by Nasaka from
Bangladeshi territory while on their
way to harvest wood from the Fulchari area near pillars No. 47 and 48,
according to the Bangladeshi
Defense Rifles (BDR).
The BDR sent a letter to its counterpart demanding the
immediate
release of the woodcutters but Nasaka replied that they were being
held for entering
The BDR has proposed a flag meeting to solve the problem but
the
Burmese still remain silent.
An analyst commented that the poor demarcation of the border
between
Naikkhangchari of Bangladesh and
Maung Daw of
of much such abduction in recent
years.
An initiative for proper demarcation was taken four years
back, but
the death of three people in the
explosion of a landmine planted by
the Burmese military has stalled
the process since then.
The incursion of Nasaka into
prompted the BDR to be on high
alert, local sources said.
This news comes to
Minister of
between the two neighbors.
*** *** *** ***
Border talks between
Cox’s Bazar, March 29 Narinjara News: A four-day border conference
between
Bazar, the town bordering
sources.
Delegations from the Bangladeshi Rifles(BDR)
and the Immigration and
National Registration Department (
the conference.
Deputy Director General of the BDR, Brigadier-General M Ibrahim
Khalil, is leading an eight-member
delegation, while his
counterpart U Zaw
Tun will head a six-member team at the conference.
Issues such as better relations between the border security
guards,
checking illegal entry of
Bengali-speaking Burmese nationals to
of
a government press release said.
Some prevailing issues are likely to be resolved in the
conference,
including the recent abduction of
13 Bangladeshi loggers by Nasaka,
the border security forces, just
before Burmese Prime Minister General
Khin Nyunt’s
visit to the border areas.
The Burmese Military Regime’s Prime Minister is scheduled to
arrive in
religious importance in Cox’s Bazar and in Bandarban border
district
towns on April 5.
*** *** *** ***
between Ukhia
in
million Taka and the project is
just being started now.
According to the newspaper Prothom
Alo on 4 March, when highway
construction is completed, it will
not only connect the highway that
links
will also become one of the most
important infrastructure links
between the two countries. It is
also hoped that this road will help
improve international tourism.
Shajahan Tudhuri,
a Bangladeshi, said that the road would ensure
economical development and speed up
communications and trade, which
will strengthen the close
friendship between the two countries.
A joint board of construction will be set up, and will
consist of 18
members from each country, which
will plan highway construction and be
responsible for its
maintenance. The Bangladeshi Foreign Minister,
Barrister Nazmul Huda, said in parliament that the highway
construction and the survey work
have been agreed to by the government
of
According to a reliable informant, the 18-member Bangladeshi
group
will be led by Mr. Abaddan Uddin Ahamed
and the construction will be
started at the border, which will
include a 60-metre long bridge. The
55km road from the bridge to Buthidaung
in
joint board of construction.
Thirty-six kilometers of the highway will belong to
the remaining 19km will belong to
*** *** *** ***
Burmese Trade
Delegates to visit Northeast India
northeast
Chamber of Commerce and Industry will visit various places
in the
region soon. The delegation will
hold a series of discussions with the
traders of northeast
The Industry Minister of
said that the visit of the trade
body from
traders of northeast
volume of trade with
sell more in the region", he
added.
The minister, along with a 20-member trade delegation,
visited
recently. According to him, the
Burmese traders are now planning to
focus on tourism and the plywood
sector in the region, which has been
ailing lately.
"We are expecting a 20-member delegation from (
probably coming in the next two
months. We are planning to create a
tourism circuit in the region by
involving Burmese traders, for which
a feasibility study would be
carried out,” the minister said. He has
demanded that the Burmese
government remove visa restrictions on the
road, so that the traders of both
the countries can run their
businesses freely.
*** *** *** ***
Karenni Peace Talks
Halted
April 2 (NMG): The talks between the Burmese military
government and
the Karenni rebel group which were
planned for late March have been
postponed, Mann Aung Than Lay, the
Prime Minister of Karenni rebel
government, revealed yesterday. The
Burmese military government
rejected the term describing the
Karenni delegation as ‘the Karenni
Government Delegation’ and the peace trip was
called off, he said.
Mann Aung Than Lay said, “In a
facsimile message we sent to Burmese
government, the KNPP stated that we
were sending a ‘delegation of the
Karenni Government’ for cease-fire negotiations with the
Burmese
government. However, the government
does not want to recognize the
term ‘Karenni Government’, saying
that these are not inter-government
talks. They only want to accept us
as a party, the KNPP.”
As requested by the government, the KNPP on March 26 sent a
fax
message to the Burmese Embassy in
send their delegation to the talks.
The KNPP received the negative
reply on April 1.
The Burmese government asked the KNPP to go to Loikaw through border
post 14 if they still want to talk
as a party.
The KNPP is hoping to hold a series of meetings with the
junta, Mahn
Aung Than Lay said.
Postponement of the talks is due to lack of willingness from
the
government side, while the KNPP
government and party are eager to hold
them, the KNPP said.
The KNPP claims that the 1995 cease-fire agreement is
already finished
due to prior violations, and wants
to start talks from the beginning
again. But the Burmese government
argues that the previous agreement
is still valid and has asked the
KNPP to come back to the ‘legal fold’
on the basis of the previous
agreement.
The 1995 cease-fire agreement stated that the KNPP would lay down
their weapons and return to the
legal-fold, but the agreement was
infringed within three months and
since then the bloodshed has been
going on.
*** *** *** ***
‘Shattering Silence’
or License to Rape Karen Women -
Report of Burmese
Army raping Karen women released
Burmese Army has used rape of Karen women as a weapon of
war, released
a report called "Shattering
Silence", which mentions 125 rape
incidents.
The cover of the report depicts a raped Karen woman wiping
away her
tears with her longyi
(sarong), and the report itself chronicles 125
rape cases perpetrated by the
Burmese Army from 1988 to now, said Naw
Zipporah Sein,
secretary of Karen Women’s Organization.
"We, the KWO, went and conducted interviews based on
information
received. Some information was from
Human Rights groups. Some was from
news services. We can reconfirm
that their information is correct.”
“However, there are many other cases. We have had to leave
out cases
which have not enough evidence or
facts,” said Naw Zipporah Sein,
explaining that the report only
mentions the cases where they could
interview the victims or
eyewitnesses.
The report stated that half of the rape cases were
perpetrated by
military officers and in about 40
percent of cases the women were gang-
raped by a group of soldiers.
This accusation by the Karen women’s organization that the
Burmese
army is using rape as a weapon of
the war was supported by Aung Myo
Min, director of the Human Rights Education Institute of
Burma, which
is the leading Human Rights group
on the borders.
“The threat of rape causes fear in the local people and
damages the
morale of the opposition forces.
So, we can conclude that Army is
using rape systematically as a
weapon of war,” he said.
The Karen women’s report also stated that Burmese Army has
not stopped
raping Karen women, despite the
cease-fire talks between Karen rebel
group (KNU) and the military regime
last December. The report includes
three separate rape cases that have
happened during this year.
Naw Zipporah
Sein said that in such a situation, refugees should
not
be repatriated. If refugees are to
be repatriated, the Burmese army
should unequivocally stop the
violence against women and raping of
women, not only in
situation now is not favorable (for
repatriation),” she said.
In 2002, the Shan Women’s Action Network and Shan Human
Rights
Foundation jointly released a report named “License to Rape”
mentioning more than 600 Shan women
who had been raped by Burmese army
personnel from 1996 to 2001. The
report alerted the world human rights
community to focus on the Burmese
army using rape as a weapon of war.
But Burmese regime spokesman Col. Hla
Min rejected the report in July
2002, saying that the opposition invented
it to defame the Government.
The information in the “Shattering Silence” report was
collected
jointly by the Karen Women’s
Organization (KWO) together with the
Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP), the
Karen
Human Rights Group (KHRG) and the Mergui-Tavoy
District Information
Department.
*** *** *** ***
Rohingya Refugees seek High School education in
Bangladeshi Camp
Cox’s Bazaar,
Bangladeshi camps are seeking High School education for
their children
in the refugee camps, reports our
correspondent.
On 23 March, a group of refugee women staged a demonstration
in
Kutupalong camp demanding High
School Education for their children and
an end to the oppression of camp
officials and their collaborators
(Majees).
The demonstration took place while Mr. Faruk Ahmed
Khan, the
Secretary In-charge of the Bangaldesh
Relief Ministry and Ms. Masiko
Kondo, the country representative of the UNHCR in
the camp. However, the
refugees received no positive response to
their request, said a refugee
leader from the camp.
The refugees are constantly seeking help and cooperation
from the
UNHCR and the international community to find a durable
solution to
their problem as well as to educate
their children in the camps, he
added.
Because of their demands for High School Education, some
refugee
teachers were expelled by Ms. Razia Sultana, the Social Service staff
member of CONCERN (NGO) with the
cooperation of camp officials in
Nayapara camp, said a former
teacher of the camp.
In 1997 the largest school built by the UNHCR for Rohingya refugee
children was burnt down in Kutupalong refugee camp, and many qualified
teachers have had to leave the camp
for fear of arrest or forced
repatriation to
staff to educate our children and
we need help from the international
community to ensure our rights to
education”, he added.
The refugee leader also said that after arriving in
92, they could not open schools till 1995 because of
discriminatory
treatment by the camp officials in
the refugee camps. In 1996, the
UNHCR gave its support to primary education in the camps,
despite
various hindrances and disturbances
created by the camp officials to
stall the refugee education
programs, he elaborated.
Due to the brutal actions of successive Burmese military
rulers
against them, the Rohingya people have not been able to educate their
children in their homeland (Arakan) like other ethnic groups in the
country.
*** *** *** ***
*** *** *** ***
___________
Inside
___________
Akyab- Myuk Oo steamer
passengers in trouble
Akyab(Sittwe), March 29 Narinjara News: Passengers on the steamers
operating between Akyab and Mrauk Oo have to pay
extra money because
the steamer gives preference to
police, which leaves little space for
ordinary citizens.
According to the passengers, the basic fare from Akyab to Mrauk Oo is
700 kyat per ticket, but they have to pay an extra 500 kyat
for a
seat. The police and crew of the
steamer get first preference for the
passenger seats, and they only have
to pay 500 kyat for a seat, which
means that ordinary citizens have
to pay more.
Those who cannot afford to pay for a seat have to stand on
the steamer
for 6 hours all the way from Akyab to Mrauk Oo.
“As government employees cannot survive on their salary, it
is natural
that they have to earn extra money.
But the money they are collecting
in this way places pressure on the
people, not on the government, and
ultimately people suffer the most,”
said a school teacher.
The same teacher added “Like us, government employees get
paid a
salary that is just enough to buy a
bag of rice (50kg). Teachers who
cannot collect tuition fees have to
find extra work for money ..”
As government employees cannot get by with their salary,
they have to
earn extra money in illegal ways,
such as selling seats on the
government-owned passenger
steamers.
The authorities also turn a blind eye to this type of
illegal activity
instead of taking action, because
of sympathy for their fellow
government employees, said a
restaurant owner.
This seat-selling system does not affect well-to-do
travelers so
badly, but the consequences are
severe for the poor passengers coming
and going to and from remote rural
areas with limited money.
*** *** *** ***
Orient Shipping Line
to cease operations in Rangoon from the 1st April
company Orient Express Line (OEL)
will operate a route to
Two container vessels will be in service on the non-stop
route.
The Orient Express Line had been calling in at
but suspended its services two
months ago after one year in operation.
The reason for the suspension of the service is because the
Burmese
military government imposed rigid
restrictions on the import and
export of goods.
When the direct line was in service, it took only two days
to
transport goods between
situation, goods may take as long
as 10 days to go from
This shift in policy, excluding
commerce between
from
----End------
Contact: Duty Editor
+66 1 530
2837