Rights group concerned over Thai policy on refugees, migrants

By Usa Pichai

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Deteriorating human rights records is in evidence in Thailand given the country’s policy on migrant workers and refugees, the Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2010.

The HRW released a 612-page report on Wednesday, the organization's 20th annual review of human rights practices around the globe. It evaluated the situation in Thailand, and said that the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had largely failed to fulfill its pledges to make human rights a priority.

Brad Adams, Asia Director of Human Rights Watch said while Prime Minister Abhisit sometimes said the right things about human rights in 2009, his actions didn't match his words. "The government continually undermined respect for human rights and the due process of law in Thailand."

Abhisit's government blatantly flouted Thailand's obligations under international law to protect refugees and asylum seekers, the group said.

The expression of the hostile policy towards refugees and asylum seekers, was in evidence in January 2009, when in his capacity as chairman of the National Security Council, Abhisit approved a directive authorizing the military to intercept boats carrying ethnic Rohingya from Burma and Bangladesh.

The Thai Navy subsequently intercepted several boats transporting Rohingya and towed the rickety vessels back to the ocean with inadequate supplies of food and water. While Thailand is not a party to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees or its 1967 Protocol, the Thai government has an obligation under international law of nonrefoulement (non-return) of persons to places where their life or freedom is at risk.

"Prime Minister Abhisit did not honour his pledge to uphold human rights principles and international law in 2009," Adams said. "Getting Thailand back on track as a rights-respecting nation in 2010 is crucial both for the country and the region."

The Thai government gave the green signal to the army to deport more than 4,600 Lao Hmong refugees and asylum seekers on December 28, despite international concerns including that of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the UN Secretary-General.

HRW also noted the failure to act against official abuses by the police. Despite the government's strong opposition to the violent approach to drug eradication by the exiled former Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, it remained unwilling to bring to justice officials allegedly responsible for more than 2,500 unresolved extrajudicial killings and serious abuses committed during Thaksin's 2003 "war on drugs" and the ongoing drug suppression operations by the police.

“At the local level, the government continued to ignore systemic police violence and extortion targeting the over two million migrant workers from Burma, Cambodia, and Laos,” HRW noted.

In addition, the other human rights backslide in Thailand are the growing crackdowns on protesters and other political critics, including intensive surveillance of the internet and a failure to curb abuses by security forces in response to the longtime insurgency in the south.

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Friday, 22 January 2010 15:31
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HRW urges US to wrap up Burma policy review

by Mungpi

New Delhi (Mizzima) - The United States should immediately wrap up its Burma policy review and adopt policies of diplomacy, sanctions and humanitarian aid more effectively, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday in a letter sent to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

HRW, the New York based organization said, delay in announcing a new policy on Burma could encourage the military leaders to believe that the US is becoming weak in its commitment to human rights and pluralism.

HRW is a group defending and promoting ‘Human Rights’ violations around the world and has extensively studied and released several reports of rights violations in military-ruled Burma, including the use of child soldiers by the Burmese Army.

Earlier in February, Clinton said the US is reviewing its policy on Burma adding that its current policy of sanctions has failed to bring about changes in the behaviour of the Burmese junta.

But she also said that the ‘constructive engagement’ policy by Burma’s neighbouring countries including China, India and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), of which Burma is a member, has failed to usher in changes.

Though the US state department had indicated that the review is about to be concluded, the HRW said it is important for the US government to conclude the policy review immediately, so that the American policy and strategy towards Burma is clear to all concerned.

HRW, in a press release on Thursday said, although the situation in Burma seems intractable, an energetic and revitalized approach to Burma from the Obama administration could help bring positive changes.

“We suggest that the policy review should, therefore, aim at making more effective all three prongs of US policy - diplomacy, sanctions and humanitarian aid - and not place one ahead of the others,” Kenneth Roth, executive director of the HRW said in his letter to Secretary Clinton.

Roth said, with regard to making diplomatic pressures have an impact the US should appoint its own special envoy for Burma, who would have a direct line to the secretary of state and specific instructions to engage in a principled way with the Burmese government and key bilateral and multilateral actors.

“Vigorous diplomacy is specifically needed with China, India,Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Japan,” the letter said.

The HRW said generalized sanctions are less likely to be effective and may hurt large numbers of ordinary people, and have no significant impact on the governments. Therefore, the US should consider targeted sanctions.

“Targeted sanctions don't impose hardship on ordinary people, but do provide leverage if effectively implemented,” Roth said in the letter.

Roth, however, said in the light of the sham trial of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the lack of political reforms, “we do not think now is the right time to change these sanctions, as it would send the wrong signal to the SPDC, suggesting that the United States or others have lost their will or commitment to keep up the pressure for democratic reform.”

While vigorously campaigning among regional and the international community and maintaining targeted sanctions, the HRW said, it is also important to increase humanitarian aid support to Burma.

With acute humanitarian needs in Burma, the HRW said, “US funding should increase.”

“The US and other donors offer to provide more humanitarian aid with appropriate oversight, but they should also insist that their contributions are matched by a genuine commitment from the military government to use its vast revenues from natural resources to help the Burmese people,” said Brad Adams, HRW’s Asia director, in a press statement.

The letter said, while “Development aid is a very important incentive for change in Burma”, it should not be made available until there is significant political reform, progress on human rights, better governance, and the possibility of consulting civil society and local communities in setting development goals.

The HRW said, while helping the Burmese people is one of the most difficult and intractable problems the world has faced in recent decades, a renewed approach led by the US could bring a significant change.

“We don't underestimate the challenge, but we think a revitalized approach with strong US leadership can make a significant difference in the years ahead,” Roth said in the letter.

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Plight of Rohingya forgotten: HRW report

by Solomon

New Delhi (Mizzima) - Regional countries and neighbors should press Burma’s ruling junta to cease in the systematic abuse of the Rohingya and provide necessary assistance to those who have fled to their shores, Human Rights Watch (HRW) argues in a new report.

HRW, in a 12-page report entitled “Perilous Plight: Burma’s Rohingya Take to the Seas,” details how the Burmese government’s systemic rights abuses have caused the Rohingya, a Muslim minority living predominantly in Northern Arakan State, to flee their homes for other countries, often entailing a great risk to their lives.

The report says persecution and human rights violations against the Rohingya in Burma, particularly in Arakan State, have persisted for over 20 years, with insufficient international attention.

Persecution and abuse includes extrajudicial killings, forced labor, religious discrimination and restrictions on movement, all exacerbated by a draconian citizenship law that leaves the Rohingya stateless.

"The treatment of the Rohingya in Burma is deplorable - the Burmese government doesn't just deny Rohingya their basic rights, it denies they are even Burmese citizens," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, in a press statement.

"Instead of sidestepping the issue, ASEAN should be pressing Burma's military rulers to end their brutal practices," Pearson said.

According to a Rohingya community leader, now living in London, the Rohingya are prohibited from owning property and are not allowed to pursue higher education.

“Even marriage requires permission from the authorities for us,” the leader told Mizzima in an earlier interview.

The HRW report says such deplorable conditions at home have forced thousands of Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh and other Southeast Asian countries, where hostile conditions often await them.

David Scott Mathieson, Burma consultant for HRW in Bangkok, said members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have not taken effective action on the issue, stating, “The response has been uneven and counter-productive.”

“They [ASEAN] need to openly criticize the SPDC’s treatment of the Rohingya and call on them to stop their actions. They can create a mechanism within the grouping,” argued Mathieson, referring to the Burmese junta by its official name – State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

In late 2008 and early 2009, hundreds of Rohingya boatpeople were rescued from the shores of Thailand, India and Indonesia, after they were found drifting in the Andaman Sea for weeks.

The issue became a hot topic after some survivors confessed that they were first captured by Thai authorities and sent back into the sea with little or no food in engineless boats, an allegation Thailand has denied.

The topic was discussed by officials of the countries involved. On the occasion, Burmese Foreign minister Nyan Win informed his ASEAN counterparts that while the Rohingya are not among the 130 ethnic nationalities registered in the country, the government would accept their return if they could prove their birth in Burma.

“The landing of Rohingya boatpeople in Southeast Asian countries is the direct result of persecution in Burma,” said Mathieson.

Though the topic was prominent for a while and regional countries agreed to address the topic at the Bali Conference, nothing has materialized since the conference culminated a month ago.

“There was a lot of attention in January and February this year…but there was no solution and that is unacceptable,” Mathieson stipulated.

The report calls on regional countries to provide assistance to the Rohingya boatpeople who fled their homeland due to severe rights violations and for the military regime in Burma to cease all persecution.

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Perilous plight - Burma’s Rohingya take to the seas

Source: Human Rights Watch (HRW)

Introduction

In late December 2008, several small boats packed with hundreds of people, mostly ethnic Rohingya Muslims from western Burma, many of them emaciated, landed in India's Andaman Islands. Passengers told Indian authorities they had originally landed in Thailand, that Thai authorities held them for two days on a deserted island, and that they then towed them back out to sea, giving them only a few sacks of rice and a little water. Some told officials and doctors that while at sea they had been tortured by Burmese sailors who stopped their vessel.(1)

Sadly, this was not an unusual story. Rohingya, and other people fleeing Burma to escape oppression or to find a better life elsewhere, are a fact of life in Southeast Asia. What was different this time was that in January and February 2009 the plight of this group was captured on camera. The televised images of hundreds of men and boys crammed into rickety boats, gaunt, some of them bloodied, and expressing equal parts shock and surprise at having reached land were almost from another time. The pictures showed hundreds of Rohingya men lying head first in rows along the beach guarded by armed Thai authorities, including police, navy and national park service officials. Thai officials claimed later that their tactics were standard operating procedures for controlling large numbers of suspects, even though the approach appeared brutal to onlookers.

Some of these graphic photographs of Rohingya detained by authorities on Thai tourist beaches were taken by foreign tourists. If not for the fortuitous presence of these foreigners, these stories may have remained little more than a rumor or even completely unknown. Images of the Rohingya on Thai beaches appeared first in the South China Morning Post, the BBC, and then on CNN.(2)

The international outcry about the treatment of the Rohingya in Thailand centered on Thailand's callous "push-back" policy, which the new administration of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva at first denied, then announced it would investigate. As international concern grew, more boats began arriving as part of the annual transit organized by smugglers, many of the passengers unaware of the events on Thailand's coastline. Ultimately, Thai officials blamed media distortion, saying that the Rohingya were economic migrants, not refugees, and that Thailand could not absorb the flow.(3)

The Thai government dismissed proposals to set up temporary holding centers for the Rohingya to ascertain their status as refugees, asylum seekers, or undocumented migrants. It granted the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) only limited access to the hundreds of Rohingya in Thai custody. Thai authorities fined most for illegal entry, and prepared to send them back to Burma.(4) Rohingya fear being returned, given the likelihood that they will be harshly received by the Burmese authorities and vulnerable to arbitrary arrest as punishment for illegal exit from Burma, including imprisonment and fines, and being stricken from household registration lists.(5)Many of the men detained in January and February remain in custody in southern Thailand.

While the Rohingya finally gained international media and governmental attention, the reality is that this group was only the latest influx in an annual sailing season for people escaping poverty, misery, and rampant human rights violations in Burma and Bangladesh.(6) The Arakan Project, a Bangkok-based non-governmental organization, estimatesthat more than 6,000 men and boys have made the journey in dozens of fishing boats from Burma and Bangladesh since November 2008. Reports suggest that twice as many Rohingya are making the perilous journey than a year earlier.(7)

Recent media attention meant that instead of ignoring them as in the past, national leaders from the region announced that they would discuss the issue of the Rohingya "boat people" on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Thailand in late February 2009. A regional solution was clearly needed. Little was done by the regional grouping, however, except to postpone solutions until a meeting in April of the Bali Process for People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons, and Related Transnational Crime, a multilateral mechanism created in 2002 by Australia and Indonesia for increased cooperation between regional governments and law enforcement agencies on human trafficking and smuggling.

Instead of seeking real solutions, the Rohingya issue was relegated to a discussion outside the formal agenda. The only action agreed was an ad-hoc working group to discuss Rohingya movements at future meetings. The Burmese delegation, led by the National Police Chief, Brigadier-General Khin Ye, denied that the Rohingya were from Burma, prompting the foreign ministers of Australia, Indonesia and Bangladesh to criticize Burma's State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) for the harsh treatment which caused them to flee.(8)

ASEAN's failure to adequately address the issue reflected a long-standing disregard for the treatment of the Rohingya. The lack of urgency showed that the claims by Burma and many of its neighbors that the Rohingya pose a threat to national security are a smokescreen. For the countries involved, the Rohingya are a relatively minor case of unregulated human movement.

Raymond Hall, UNHCR regional coordinator for Asia, summed it up when he said that in terms of "generalized and systemic oppression of their most basic rights, the suffering of the Rohingya is about as bad as it gets. Other people in this situation often have homes they can return to, but for these people, they have nowhere they are welcome. That sense of home is being denied them. It is a terrible plight."(9)

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Words must turn into actions on Burma: activists

by Solomon

New Delhi (Mizzima) - The international community’s calls for the release of Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is currently being tried in a Rangoon court, needs to turn into action that will force the country’s military rulers to free her as well as other political prisoners.

Following the Burmese junta’s charges and the onset of the trial of Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi there has been amounting international condemnation and calls for her release.

David Scott Mathieson, Burma consultant for Human Rights Watch (HRW) in Bangkok, said these calls by governments from around the world should be followed up by actions to force the junta to yield to the calls.

“It is the first step to publicly condemn what’s going on and the next step is governments have to find effective pressure points against the SPDC,” said Mathieson, referring to Burma’s military rulers by their official name – State Peace and Development Council.

“There should be debates in the Security Council about the nature of political reforms and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s place in the political future of Burma,” he said.

Mathieson said it is also crucial for the international community to put pressure on governments including China and Russia, which are supportive towards the Burmese regime.

“Pressure needs to be put on China and Russia and other states that support the SPDC, because they have a lot of influence on the SPDC,” he added.

Detained Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday was produced at a special court in notorious Insein Prison on charges of violating her house arrest after an American man allegedly visited her lakeside home and stayed for three nights.

The Nobel Peace Laureate along with her two live-in party mates and the American man, John William Yettaw, are being tried.

Over the weekend and on Monday, several governments including the United States, European Union member countries, as well as Asian countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia, called on Burma’s military junta to desist in trying Aung San Suu Kyi.

“We need to actually understand that she is the symbol for a lot of people in the country,” argued Mathieson.

He said the international community should come up with a specific plan of action including the targeting of financial sanctions and an arms embargo.

Countries joining the chorus of condemnation against Burma’s ruling junta include the United States, United Kingdom, Norway, Canada, France, Australia, Ireland, Switzerland, Philippines, Austria, Germany and Japan.

Nyo Ohn Myint, in-charge of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National League for Democracy-Liberated Area (NLD-LA), said the international community should work in coordination for stronger action in pressuring the Burmese junta.

“The West and the East need to find a common stand on Burma’s political crisis, they should avoid repeating the same mistake, which has not been working,” he prospered.

He said the West, led by the United States, and the East, led by China, should work for more coordination between themselves rather than acting impulsively on their own.

“China is important. They clearly need to do something right now. They need to speak openly at this time because they also do not agree with this trial,” put forth Nyo Ohn Myint.

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Burma's Human Rights conditions deepens in 2008: HRW

By Salai Pi Pi

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Burma in 2008 was one of the worse violators of Human Rights, when its ruling junta refused assistance to its citizens, faced with severe humanitarian crisis caused by Cyclone Nargis, said Washington-based Human Rights Watch in its World Report 2009.

The 564-page report said Burma's already dismal human rights record got worse in 2008 after the deadly Cyclone Nargis killed more than 84,000 and left 2.4 million people devastated.

"The biggest concern with Cyclone Nargis was the SPDC's delayed response to it by blocking assistance," David Scott Mathieson, HRW"s Burma consultant told Mizzima, referring the Southeast Asian nation's rulers by its official name – State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

Despite the international communities' willingness to enter cyclone devastated areas to help survivors, the junta refused to entertain the requests for weeks, while pushing forward with its referendum on a draft constitution, which critics said was designed to legitimize and cement its rule.

Besides, Burma's military rulers have also been criticized by the report for randomly arresting dissidents and sentencing them to long prison terms.

The number of political prisoners in 2008 nearly doubled from what was over 1,100 in 2007 to over 2,000, the report said.

"Human rights violation in Burma has gotten worse and continue to be perpetrated by the Burmese Army and other armed groups called state paramilitary forces," David Scott Mathieson, Burma research of HRW told Mizzima.

The human rights violation in Burma includes Burmese regime's attack against the political opposition and arrest and sentencing of hundreds of political activists including monks, judges, journalists and other people, Mathieson said.

Since August 2008, Burmese military regime's courts had handed out harsh sentences ranging from 4 months to 68 years to at least 250 political activists on charges relating to involvement in peaceful demonstrations or freedom of expression.

A student activist Bo Min Yu Ko was sentenced to a total of 104 years in prison in early January in what is the longest term so far said the Thailand based Assistant Association of Political Prisoners (Burma).

Moreover, On June 4, 2008, the Burmese junta arrested several former political prisoners for their role in cyclone relief activities including prominent comedian and dissident Zarganar.

The report also said, child soldiers in Burma, despite international condemnation, is still being used in both the Burmese Army and non-state armed groups.

Another point that the HRW noted was the extension of the detention period of Nobel Peace Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest.

"SPDC's extension of her [Aung San Suu Kyi] detention is completely unacceptable. She had done nothing wrong. She should be release immediately," Mathieson said.

While human rights violations in Burma are rampant, the HRW term neighboring countries such as India and China as spoilers for ignoring the human rights conditions in Burma while engaging with the junta.

The HRW urged the United States' incoming president Barrack Obama and his administration to put human rights at the heart of foreign, domestic, and security policy, and also to push the spoilers - Russia and China – to take a pro-active role in addressing the human rights situation in Burma.

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