Saturday, July 9, 2011
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Bad Weather Forces Halt to Construction of Foreign Projects in Arakan
Sittwe: Some foreign projects in western Burma's Arakan State have been put on hold temporarily due to heavy rain and flash flooding hitting the area during the current rain season.
The projects with construction currently halted due to the bad weather include the seaport in the capital Sittwe that is being built by India as a component of the "Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project," and and the Madae deep seaport in Kyaukpru that is being built in China as a component of the dual oil and gas pipeline project in the state.
"The construction of Sittwe Port has stopped for the rainy season because it is very difficult for the construction as well as for bringing the materials to the site by vessels due to heavy rains, flash floods and rising sea level in the season", said a local contractor who supplies rocks and gravel for the construction of the port.
Sittwe Seaport
"The Indian construction team is still being found in Sittwe and it is likely they have to halt their construction work due to inconveniences in the season. The heavy showers are continuing in our region and I heard that half of the landfill for the port construction has been already worn away by the rough flow of the Kaladan River", said U Aung Mra Kyaw.
An engineer from the inland water transport also said that there are now difficulties for the ships to enter into the Sittwe Port as the worn-away landfill from the port has settled in the mouth of the river.
A local resident said the construction work on the deep seaport being built for China on Madae Island in Kyaukpru has also stopped for three months of the rainy season.
Madae Seaport in Kyauk Pru
He said that the local workers have also returned to their home with the close of their jobs in the season.
The Madae deep seaport is being constructed by the CNPC Southeast Asia Pipeline Company Ltd and is targeted to be complete by May 2013. The port will be used as terminus for the oil carriers from Middle East and Africa for supplying crude oil as well as local offshore gas through the pipelines from the port to China.
Source: Narinjara
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Officials Cut Travel Expenses from Farmers' Loans
Manaung: Officials have allegedly taken a cut for transportation fees and daily expenses from the agricultural loans that were provided to farmers by the government in Manaung Township in southern Arakan State, Burma.
"In our Kantaing Village group there are 119 farmers and no one wants to pay the officials for their personal expenses, but they told us that they have to spend from their own pockets for traveling and documentation to led loans to the farmers, and forced each of us to pay 1,500 kyat for taking a loan under the amount of 100,000 kyat and 2,000 kyat for loan amounts above 100,000 kyat," said one of the farmers.
He said the farmers are very poor and the loans are very necessary for the farmers. They did not dare to refuse to pay the officials' claims for payment out of fear they would not get loans for their cultivation.
He added that the escorting policies for the bank officials have also collected 1,000 kyat from each of the farmers for their loans.
"Besides the officials, their escorting policies have also forced us to pay 1,000 kyat each for their recreation for servicing on the travel for farmers' loans," he said.
A farmer from Sarchak Village in Manaung Township also confirmed that they faced the same cut from their loans.
"The manager of the local agricultural bank, U Khin Maung Yin himself is involved in this kind of collection of forced payments from farmers' loans distributed on our whole island of Manaung," said the farmer.
He said the group arrived in their Sarchak Village Group on 11 June, 2011, and issued loans to the farmers from the village administrator's house, and cut the same payments of 1,500 kyat and 2,000 kyat from the loans. In addition, they cut 500 kyat from each of the loans to offer robes to the monks on the first day of Buddhist Lent in the manager's office of the Agricultural Bank in the area.
He added that the bank has issued the loans to farmers at a rate of 20,000 kyat per acre of farmland, and the farmers who own the least farmland have suffered the most from the cuts from their loans.
There are 108 villages in 36 village groups in Manaung Township, and most of the residents are farmers.
A local educated youth said, "It is not just in the agricultural sector that the corruption and extortion of money from the public is going on, but it is also continuing in all departments in Burma and nothing has changed from the official norms under the former regime. The U Thein Sein regime should look into their departments and officials rather than shouting with its big mouth about 'Clean Government and Good Governance'."
Source: Narinjara
Bangladesh Army Chief Reveals Discussions with Burmese Counterparts
Dhaka: Bangladesh Chief of Army Staff General M Abdul Mubeen revealed his discussions with his Burmese counterparts on his recent visit to Burma on 23 to 27 May, according to reports in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh president and Army chief M Abdul Mubeen
He informed the Bangladesh president that the Burmese government is particularly keep to take immediate steps to establish air connectivity with Bangladesh, construct connecting roads jointly, lease land to Bangladesh for agriculture, and take joint efforts to curb terrorism.
However, there were no reports on whether the army chief appraised the discussion of military ties between the two neighbor countries.
General Abdul Mubeen met with Lieutenant General Soe Win, the commander-in-chief of Burma's army, in Naypyidaw on 23 May, 2011, during a weeklong visit to Burma.
It was the second high-level meeting between top military officials of the two countries in two months. The first high-level meeting was initiated in April by Burma's Lt. General Myat Hein's visit to Bangladesh.
During the Burma air chief's six-day visit to Bangladesh, the two countries discussed not only military issues, but also other issues like road links and shipping links.
The Bangladesh president expressed his satisfaction over the outcome of the army chief's Burma visit, and said Bangladesh's bilateral relations with neighboring countries, especially Burma, need to be further strengthened.
Bangladesh authorities typically disclose that Burma has agreed to cooperate with Bangladesh in sectors such as road and shipping lines, in order to boost trade between the two countries, but the reality is they have been unable to implement any of the agreed upon projects in the last decade, say analysts.
Source: Narinjara
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Abbott MP Scott Morrison Met with Rohingya Refugees in Malaysia
Malaysia backdown on Abbott MP Scott Morrison
Geoff Chambers in Kuala Lumpur, The Daily Telegraph June 25, 2011
Banned ... Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison / Pic: AAP Source: AAP
It's understood Mr Morrison met with Royhinga refugees last night.
He arrived in Kuala Lumpur yesterday morning for a "first-hand look" at how illegal refugees are treated in Malaysia ahead of the Gillard government's plan for a refugee swap.
But his visit was at first not welcomed with the Malaysian government refusing to let him visit Home Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, who had mocked Mr Morrison's visit.
Instead, the MP visited a local Chin community before meeting the Australian High Commission and refugee advocates.
Earlier, Mr Morrison had heard a boat of 65 asylum seekers and two crew were being taken to Christmas Island yesterday after they were intercepted off Australia's coast.
Those refugees will join the 275 detained and in limbo with no deal officially signed between PM Julia Gillard and Malaysia.
"The key point of this visit for me is to compare education, health and general living conditions for refugees in Malaysia compared with Nauru, where I have also visited," Mr Morrison said.
Travelling with two staffers, he hit back at government MPs who called his 6600km trip a "stunt". "People who have watched these refugee programs on television have told me to watch them. Well I've gone one step further and I've actually come to see for myself what is going on here," he said.
Refugees declined to show Mr Morrison their UNHCR identification cards which often do not stop them from being considered "illegal" by police and sent to prison.
Source: The Daily Telegraph
Friday, June 24, 2011
The anguish of Sayed Kasim, A Prominant Human Rights, Refugee Rights and Pro-democracy Activist
Here in edited form is a letter composed on behalf of a Burmese man, named Sayed Kasim, to the Inspector General of ASIO and the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Chris Bowen. Mr Kasim is a gentle, soft-spoken man whose quite demeanour betrays enormous grief and anxiety. His situation is one of the worst that we have seen, given that his family are literally dying whilst he languishes he detention:
My name is Sayed Kasim and I have been a detainee at the Immigration Detention Facilities within Australia for the last 18 months. I am a Rohingya refugee who fled my native country of Burma and went to Malaysia, where I lived for a period of 17 years, before fleeing to Australia in 2010. I have been registered as a refugee with the UNHCR for over 17 years and was granted refugee status by Australia’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship 12 months ago. I currently reside in Sydney’s Villawood Immigration and Detention Centre.
The reason I am writing this letter is to find out about the status of my security clearance and to ask if you can help me by speeding up the process. I have been waiting for my security clearance for the past twelve months and during that time my family, who are living in Malaysia, are experiencing extreme hardship and poverty. This is causing me great distress and anxiety.
Sayed Kasim in the Villawood Detention Centre, 2011
My story began in 1992, when the Burmese army seized me and took me to an army camp, where I was brutally tortured. They kicked me about the body and beat my legs with an iron rod. When I asked for water, I was made to drink urine. I escaped the army and fled into the surrounding jungle, where I met up with a friend who gave me the money to leave Burma.
I fled to Malaysia, where I lived for 17 years, between 1992 and 2010. There, in the city of Klang in the state of Selangor, I established educational classes for the children of Rohingya refugees. In my capacity as a religious teacher to refugees, I came to the attention of one of Malaysia’s largest government sponsored religious organizations, Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor (JAIS). After I cooperated with a Malaysian Christian association, the JAIS accused me of proselatising Christianity within my school. I was brought before a council, who accused me of apostasy and threatened to behead me if I ever associated with a Christian group in the future. For a time, my life returned to normal, before an innocuous incident again brought me to the attention of JAIS. It occurred when some children from my school played football with students from a Christian school that had been founded with the support of the UNHCR. Later that night (3 October 2010) two masked men appeared at my house, accusing me of working for Christians. I fled from the scene, though the men insisted that if I did not turn myself in they would behead me.
Sayid Kasim (3rd from right in front of children) at his Muslim school for Rohingya refugees in Malaysia
I then relocated with my family to Selayang, where we went into hiding—though it was clear that I would not be safe for as long as we remained in Malaysia. My accusers called my mobile phone and continued to threaten my life. On two occasions I made formal complaints to the police, but this proved a futile course of action after the police threatened to arrest me if I did not desist from my appeals. (I have copies of the accepted police reports which detail my harassment and can show them as evidence if required to do so.) I subsequently went to the offices of the UNHCR, who could not guarantee my safety and advised that I flee to a distant part of Malaysia. I realized that I needed to find refuge in a safe country such as Australia.
In 2010, I fled Malaysia, leaving my wife and four children behind, who are without any legal protection. The oldest of my children is 8 and the youngest is 2 years of age. I originally left my wife and children at the home of a friend, though after a time they did not have enough money to feed themselves and often went for up to two days without food. Because of this our children are malnourished. Five months ago my wife was compelled to place my eight-year old son, Lokman Hakim, in the care of an orphanage in Kuala Lumpur. When I speak to him on the phone, he cries and asks to be taken back to his mother. I do not know what to say to him except that I am in a difficult situation and he needs to be patient, but this is taking a terrible emotional toll on all of us.
Recently, Juma Bibi, my wife, was sexually harassed by a man who is a relative of the friend with whom I left them, which caused me great distress. This person requested that she perform sexual favours for him in exchange for money, effectively pressuring her into a state of prostitution. When an advocate for Australia’s Refugee Action Coalition, Mark Goudkamp, spoke to Rohingya refugees on a recent visit to Malaysia, he met my wife, who was able to relate some of the difficulties that she and the children face. Yet whilst she was able to describe their poverty to Mr Goudkamp, she was unable to describe the sexual harassment she was experiencing because the man who wanted to buy and have sex with her was at the meeting—unbeknownst to the Australian representative who had arrived to listen to her story! Nonetheless, Mr Goudkamp is informed about many of the particulars concerning my family’s situation and I would urge you to contact him for any further information.
After the harassment took place, my wife and my remaining three children fled that house and were homeless for two days. She became so desperate that she decided to kill herself. She walked up to one of the area’s main highways, where she was preparing to throw herself into the traffic, when another refugee saw her and offered that she and the children could stay in her home for a time. However, this woman (whose name is Saburah) is in ill health and my family will not be able to stay with her for much longer. I worry that Saburah cannot afford to keep them and will claim that she is unable to rest and thus regain her health in the presence of crying children.
Juma Bibi and their 3 youngest children
I have made many attempts to seek assistance for my family from a number of refugee advocacy groups and human rights organizations but without the intervention that is necessary to alleviate their suffering. Because I cannot return to Malaysia to protect my family whilst I am in detention, I need answers about the status of my security clearance. If this process is not sped up, and for as long as my family are exposed to danger, I do not see how I can go on living as I am.
Sayed Kasim.
(The Refugee Art Project are organising to help Mr Kasim’s wife and children in Malaysia. If anyone wishes to make enquiries or give a financial donation, please email Safdar Ahmed at safdarnama@hotmail.com)
A letter from the roof of Darwin’s Northern Immigration Detention Centre
Atop the roof of Darwin’s Northern Immigration Detention Centre (NIDC), Habib Habiburahman sits in protest. He has entered day five of a hunger strike in an attempt to raise awareness of his situation after having spent the past 18 months in indefinite detention as an asylum seeker.
When I met Habib in February, the late afternoon monsoonal rain of northern Australia teemed outside one of the Northern Territory’s ubiquitous demountable buildings within the NIDC compound.
Inside, Habib sat with his head bowed. Hair neatly slicked back, face clean shaven. Outside, lines of razor wire and palm trees were visible through the haze.
“When I was 16, the Burmese government destroyed my family’s home,” so begins Habib’s story.
An ethnic Rohingyan, Habib was one of 14 in detention in Darwin. All had been granted refugee status, most in May 2010, yet they remained languishing in indefinite detention, awaiting the completion of ASIO security checks. Most had been in detention for more than a year.
The indefinite waiting and lack of information on their cases had begun to take a toll on the group’s mental health. Four of had attempted suicide. Last year one man tried to hang himself. Another set himself on fire. He was later told that he would be charged with destruction of Commonwealth property. Self-harm is common and most of the Rohingya intermittently refuse food or medical treatment.
Louise Newman, chair of the Detention Health Advisory Group for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship and Professor of Psychiatry at Monash University, said suicidal thinking can spread among detainees in such situations.
“This is very concerning from a mental health perspective,” she said. “This type of condition can be contagious. I am very concerned there are people having suicidal thoughts.”
Professor Newman sees acts such as self-harm as the classic responses of people suffering from traumatic experiences and possessing no sense of control over their lives.
“They’re isolated,” she said. “People feel abandoned and cut off. It reflects human distress when people feel confined and have no control over their lives.”
Habib described the assessment process as a Kafkaesque nightmare of bureaucratic procedure with no clear structure and ever-extended timeframes. “We are told all the time by the department that our cases are being processed,” he said. “But we witness other people released by Immigration. In some cases they have not been reviewed by ASIO.
“The people that try to kill themselves feel they are against powerful government organisations. This is their way to resist.”
This year ASIO has come under increasing scrutiny for delays in processing security clearances for refugees. At a Senate Estimates committee in February, Immigration officials revealed there were 900 people across Australia found to be refugees but left in indefinite detention as they awaited the completion of ASIO checks. This represents 13% of the population in Australia’s overcrowded detention system.
Last year 811 complaints were lodged with the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security for delays in the completion of security checks. In a letter to Habib the Inspector General, Dr Vivienne Thom, did little to offer guidance or assurance on the processes at work for those awaiting ASIO clearance.
“ASIO has advised me that the complexity of security assessments can vary and this makes it difficult to provide exact timeframes for completion,” she wrote. “The best way for you to obtain information about the overall progress of your visa is to contact the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.”
Since then, the Department of Immigration has outlined a new ”triage method” in a letter to the Human Rights Commission — ASIO staff no longer directly carry out security checks for the bulk of asylum seekers, which are instead now delegated to immigration officers.
As reported by The Sydney Morning Herald in late May, the Immigration Department says it will further speed up the new system to introduce a ”same-day service” for security checks.
But Habib expressed frustration at the indefinite waiting. “The Immigration case managers tell us they have no up-to-date information on our cases,” he protested. “We want to know what’s happening in the process or any problems our cases have. There are no groups in our country like al-Qaeda and no other armed groups so we can’t understand the delays.”
On February 2, the Rohingya were told they would have a chance to present their case to Immigration Minister Chris Bowen when he visited Darwin’s detention facilities.
Habib said he was among a group taken to a room and told to await the minister’s arrival.
“In the afternoon we could see the minister leaving and were then told he was not allowed to meet with anyone,” he said. “We felt like it was a conspiracy and became angry. We ran out of the room and climbed to the roof of one of the buildings and began shouting. Finally a lady came to get the letter. She told us she was the assistant secretary for Minister Bowen.”
The letter read: “We understand the importance of people passing security clearances, however we do not understand why ASIO has taken so long to process our applications and are dismayed at the lack of information provided to us by the Department and ASIO regarding our security clearances.”
The Rohingya are stateless people. Human Rights Watch describes them as one of the most persecuted groups in Burma. “Even in Burma’s dreadful human rights landscape, the ill-treatment of the Rohingya stands out,” a 2009 report says. “Religious repression is widespread, with the military destroying many mosques … extrajudicial killings are common.”
There are no known Rohingyan terrorist groups.
After being beaten and tortured and by Burmese authorities in Rangoon, Habib trekked across the country and escaped into Thailand in 2000. From there he travelled to Malaysia where he spent 10 years. While able to work as an electrician, he lived with the constant fear of deportation. Malaysia is not a signatory to international refugee conventions and people fleeing to the country face abuse at the hands of immigration officials and the notorious vigilante groups.
“I was deported from Malaysia four times,” he said. “Each time we were captured we would be beaten and taken to the Thai border. There we were sold to people smugglers who would demand money from us and then take us back into Malaysia.”
On one occasion Habib was unable to pay Thai people smugglers and he was sold into slavery aboard a Thai fishing boat. He spent two months aboard the ship before escaping.
In December 2009, Habib undertook the dangerous sea journey from Indonesia to Australia.
“It was five days at sea,” he says. “The engines broke down and we had to steer the boat as the driver was only a teenager. We thought we would die. When we saw the patrol aircraft we cried with happiness and waved our clothes at it.”
Despite his experiences Habib is determined not to let his current circumstances break him.
“I do not want to attempt suicide or cut myself,” he states. “My way is different. I don’t want to be a victim and I will struggle to reveal the reality of our lives. For me that is more important now than the visa.”
Habib said he would like to see a judicial review of the processes of mandatory detention. Professor Newman agrees that mandatory detention is a failed policy and called on Minister Bowen to treat a review of the policy as a priority.
“We need to radically rethink the policies of detention,” she said. “The majority of people’s claims can be processed in the community. Other countries that function with community detention systems don’t have the rates of mental health problems we see as people can live with a sense of purpose.”
Habib agrees. Describing the case of a fellow Rohingyan now in community detention, his face lit up.
“This man tried to hang himself last year,” he told me. “Finally he is in community detention and he is very happy and healthy. If we were in community detention we could wait 10 years for our security check.”
Source: Crickey
