By Michelle Lai
Kuala Lumpur, October 4, 2011: Seven missing Chin refugees might be the latest victims of the sale of refugees by Malaysian immigration officials to human traffickers, said local Burmese refugee centre.
According to a refugee centre representative who did not want to be named due to security reasons, like him and others before him, the seven Burmese ethnic Chins fled their resource-rich Chin state in northwest of Burma to escape military atrocities.
The refugee centre representative said that each of the seven paid migrant agents or brokers at least RM3,000 (US$970) to transport them to Malaysia, according to their families. “…often the brokers work with accomplices at the Malaysia-Thai border, including immigration officials exploiting the Chin refugees.”
Last year, five Malaysian immigration officials were arrested on charges of being involved in human trafficking. When contacted, a senior immigration official said he could not confirm if any of the arrested five has been prosecuted.
According to the 2009 US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report, there has been credible evidence over the past two years that Malaysian immigration officials sold refugees for approximately RM618 (US$200) per person to human traffickers at the Malaysia-Thai border.
Malaysia was put on a blacklist in the 2009 US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report. Although the State Department has upgraded Malaysia to Tier 2 three months ago, it was placed in Tier 3 last year, which is the worst category when it comes to the state intervention to prevent human trafficking.
A Kuala Lumpur-based human rights group Tenaganita coordinator Katrina Maliamauv said Burmese contacts had notified her two weeks ago about the case and that they were still trying to track the missing persons who were supposed to arrive in Kuala Lumpur three weeks ago. Asked whether the case is related to human trafficking, she said that nothing could be confirmed at the moment.
The Chins are one of the larger ethnic minorities in Burma and like the other minority groups such as the Shan, Karen and Arakan, they face extensive surveillance, harassment, discrimination and arbitrary detainment by the Burmese Army, according to the refugee centre representative. He also said some are forced to work for the Army, some are raped, mutilated and even executed.
The refugee centre representative said, “…the seven missing Chins, in an all-too-familiar story of the plight faced by refugees, were so frustrated with their situation in Burma that they are willing to take almost any other risks to seek reprieve from the persecution in their home country.”
“More than 3,000 Chin adults (approximately equal numbers of males and females) have fled to Malaysia between January and August this year,” he also said.
According to a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Malaysia fact sheet, as of end-August 2010, among the 83,000 Burmese refugees in Malaysia, 38,500 are Chins, making them the largest Burmese ethnic minority group in Malaysia.
By Michelle Lai
Burmese pressured to vote in ‘Junta-hostaged election’
Kuala Lumpur, November 1, 2010: People in Burma will be intimated or bribed to vote for the current military government, guaranteeing them a sure-win and in turn cementing their rule, said opposition sources.
Refugee sources described a number of ways the government could intimidate people into not staying away but voting for them on November 7. Tactics range from imprisonment threats and blacklisting companies, to bribing some members of the minority groups who do not possess citizenships by offering this status.
The K’Cho people “…are all ordered by the authorities that they will be sent to jail if they don’t vote for the government,” said Bernandine from the minority group Chin K’Cho currently living in Malaysia.
“If people do not cast their votes during the election, their record will be kept by the government. If these people work for the government, they will not get promotions,” according to Burmese Arakanese refugee Nyi Nyi Lwin.
“If they are business people, it will be hard for them to get future contracts or licenses for their businesses,” he also said.
Sam from the Rakhine state, currently living in Thailand said that the “intimidation normally comes in a verbal form from the authorities and is hard to document.”
Zailat of the Kachin minority group, who is also a refugee in Malaysia said, “Citizenships will be offered to those without, on the condition they vote for the government.” This “bribery” to draw support for the government is offered to the approximately 1 million Kachins, Shams, other minority groups and foreigners living in the military-controlled areas in the Kachin state.
The Junta seized power in Burma after a military coup in 1962. Although in the last election held 20 years ago, the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party led by Aung San Suu Kyi won a landslide victory, “the military leadership refused to hand over power, and instead responded by arresting opposition leaders” including Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi, who has been put under house arrest in Yangon since July 1989.
The international community is also concerned that the election will neither be free nor fair.
“It is clear that the process remains deeply flawed,” Tomas Ojea Quintana, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Burma’s human rights issues told reporters in New York two weeks ago.
Calling the election a ‘Junta-hostaged election’, where Burma’s constitution guarantees the military 25 percent of seats in the 498-seat national legislature, Nyi Nyi said, “People who live inside Burma have no other choice but to vote for the Junta’s party,” which is the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) led by Prime Minister U Thein Sein.
By pressuring Burmese to vote, “The government wants to show the world and to propagandize to its people that the election is successful because the majority of people voted. Thus, the Junta will announce that the new government is legitimate,” he also said.
By Michelle Lai
Junta may intensify rebel “wipe-out”, many fear impending civil war
Kuala Lumpur, November 2, 2010: Burmese foresee the Junta stepping-up on its “clean-up” efforts of rebellion groups after the election, which some fear may lead to a civil war.
“The attack will not be immediately launched after the election cause the government wants the outside world to view the new government as stable,” said Nyin Nyin Lwin, a Burmese Arakanese refugee.
“But soon after, the information on the ground tells us that the Junta will probably intensify on their offense and will target the minority group armies one at a time,” he also said.
Burmese expert Bertil Lintner also said in an essay in the monthly Look East earlier this year that the election “is being used by the military to pressure nearly two dozen former rebel armies (formed) since the country’s independence from Britain in 1948.”
“If the former rebels do not accept the offer to convert their respective armies into ‘border control forces’ under the command of he Burmese army, hostilities could break out again.”
Burma’s population of 55 million is made up of more than 100 ethnic groups. Ethnic minority groups face persistent discrimination by the military regime, and the minority group armies from the Kachin, Shan, Chin and Karen states, among others have for a long time respectively waged unsuccessful and bloody insurgencies against the Junta.
Kachin-born Zailat concurred that the ruling military government has been preparing for “a cleaning up or to rid the rebellion groups representing the minority groups such as the Kachin Independent Army (KIA), Karen National Liberation Army and Wa State Army.”
According to Zailat, the government has given the rebellion groups an ultimatum to either, disarm and merge with the troops, thereby succumbing to the Burmese army’s authority or be forcibly disarmed.
“But none of the groups will disarm,” said Zailat, “unless the Junta responds positively to their call for autonomy”.
Zailat said he knows that his people in Kachin do not want the war and “it is one the KIA cannot win. The KIA consists only of 30,000 fighters while the Junta has an army of 400,000 soldiers”.
“The fighting between junta and ethnic groups, a war that could last for years will only force more to flee the country,” he said.
“If a civil war happens, it is definitely a big concern especially for those living in the Kachin and Shan States. More people will definitely flee to the border or somewhere that can give them shelter. To seek refuge is the best and only way to survive if a war happens,” according to a Burmese currently working in Hong Kong, who wished to remain unnamed.
According to a refugee centre representative who did not want to be named due to security reasons, like him and others before him, the seven Burmese ethnic Chins fled their resource-rich Chin state in northwest of Burma to escape military atrocities.
The refugee centre representative said that each of the seven paid migrant agents or brokers at least RM3,000 (US$970) to transport them to Malaysia, according to their families. “…often the brokers work with accomplices at the Malaysia-Thai border, including immigration officials exploiting the Chin refugees.”
Last year, five Malaysian immigration officials were arrested on charges of being involved in human trafficking. When contacted, a senior immigration official said he could not confirm if any of the arrested five has been prosecuted.
According to the 2009 US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report, there has been credible evidence over the past two years that Malaysian immigration officials sold refugees for approximately RM618 (US$200) per person to human traffickers at the Malaysia-Thai border.
Malaysia was put on a blacklist in the 2009 US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report. Although the State Department has upgraded Malaysia to Tier 2 three months ago, it was placed in Tier 3 last year, which is the worst category when it comes to the state intervention to prevent human trafficking.
A Kuala Lumpur-based human rights group Tenaganita coordinator Katrina Maliamauv said Burmese contacts had notified her two weeks ago about the case and that they were still trying to track the missing persons who were supposed to arrive in Kuala Lumpur three weeks ago. Asked whether the case is related to human trafficking, she said that nothing could be confirmed at the moment.
The Chins are one of the larger ethnic minorities in Burma and like the other minority groups such as the Shan, Karen and Arakan, they face extensive surveillance, harassment, discrimination and arbitrary detainment by the Burmese Army, according to the refugee centre representative. He also said some are forced to work for the Army, some are raped, mutilated and even executed.
The refugee centre representative said, “…the seven missing Chins, in an all-too-familiar story of the plight faced by refugees, were so frustrated with their situation in Burma that they are willing to take almost any other risks to seek reprieve from the persecution in their home country.”
“More than 3,000 Chin adults (approximately equal numbers of males and females) have fled to Malaysia between January and August this year,” he also said.
According to a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Malaysia fact sheet, as of end-August 2010, among the 83,000 Burmese refugees in Malaysia, 38,500 are Chins, making them the largest Burmese ethnic minority group in Malaysia.
By Michelle Lai
Burmese pressured to vote in ‘Junta-hostaged election’
Kuala Lumpur, November 1, 2010: People in Burma will be intimated or bribed to vote for the current military government, guaranteeing them a sure-win and in turn cementing their rule, said opposition sources.
Refugee sources described a number of ways the government could intimidate people into not staying away but voting for them on November 7. Tactics range from imprisonment threats and blacklisting companies, to bribing some members of the minority groups who do not possess citizenships by offering this status.
The K’Cho people “…are all ordered by the authorities that they will be sent to jail if they don’t vote for the government,” said Bernandine from the minority group Chin K’Cho currently living in Malaysia.
“If people do not cast their votes during the election, their record will be kept by the government. If these people work for the government, they will not get promotions,” according to Burmese Arakanese refugee Nyi Nyi Lwin.
“If they are business people, it will be hard for them to get future contracts or licenses for their businesses,” he also said.
Sam from the Rakhine state, currently living in Thailand said that the “intimidation normally comes in a verbal form from the authorities and is hard to document.”
Zailat of the Kachin minority group, who is also a refugee in Malaysia said, “Citizenships will be offered to those without, on the condition they vote for the government.” This “bribery” to draw support for the government is offered to the approximately 1 million Kachins, Shams, other minority groups and foreigners living in the military-controlled areas in the Kachin state.
The Junta seized power in Burma after a military coup in 1962. Although in the last election held 20 years ago, the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party led by Aung San Suu Kyi won a landslide victory, “the military leadership refused to hand over power, and instead responded by arresting opposition leaders” including Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi, who has been put under house arrest in Yangon since July 1989.
The international community is also concerned that the election will neither be free nor fair.
“It is clear that the process remains deeply flawed,” Tomas Ojea Quintana, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Burma’s human rights issues told reporters in New York two weeks ago.
Calling the election a ‘Junta-hostaged election’, where Burma’s constitution guarantees the military 25 percent of seats in the 498-seat national legislature, Nyi Nyi said, “People who live inside Burma have no other choice but to vote for the Junta’s party,” which is the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) led by Prime Minister U Thein Sein.
By pressuring Burmese to vote, “The government wants to show the world and to propagandize to its people that the election is successful because the majority of people voted. Thus, the Junta will announce that the new government is legitimate,” he also said.
By Michelle Lai
Junta may intensify rebel “wipe-out”, many fear impending civil war
Kuala Lumpur, November 2, 2010: Burmese foresee the Junta stepping-up on its “clean-up” efforts of rebellion groups after the election, which some fear may lead to a civil war.
“The attack will not be immediately launched after the election cause the government wants the outside world to view the new government as stable,” said Nyin Nyin Lwin, a Burmese Arakanese refugee.
“But soon after, the information on the ground tells us that the Junta will probably intensify on their offense and will target the minority group armies one at a time,” he also said.
Burmese expert Bertil Lintner also said in an essay in the monthly Look East earlier this year that the election “is being used by the military to pressure nearly two dozen former rebel armies (formed) since the country’s independence from Britain in 1948.”
“If the former rebels do not accept the offer to convert their respective armies into ‘border control forces’ under the command of he Burmese army, hostilities could break out again.”
Burma’s population of 55 million is made up of more than 100 ethnic groups. Ethnic minority groups face persistent discrimination by the military regime, and the minority group armies from the Kachin, Shan, Chin and Karen states, among others have for a long time respectively waged unsuccessful and bloody insurgencies against the Junta.
Kachin-born Zailat concurred that the ruling military government has been preparing for “a cleaning up or to rid the rebellion groups representing the minority groups such as the Kachin Independent Army (KIA), Karen National Liberation Army and Wa State Army.”
According to Zailat, the government has given the rebellion groups an ultimatum to either, disarm and merge with the troops, thereby succumbing to the Burmese army’s authority or be forcibly disarmed.
“But none of the groups will disarm,” said Zailat, “unless the Junta responds positively to their call for autonomy”.
Zailat said he knows that his people in Kachin do not want the war and “it is one the KIA cannot win. The KIA consists only of 30,000 fighters while the Junta has an army of 400,000 soldiers”.
“The fighting between junta and ethnic groups, a war that could last for years will only force more to flee the country,” he said.
“If a civil war happens, it is definitely a big concern especially for those living in the Kachin and Shan States. More people will definitely flee to the border or somewhere that can give them shelter. To seek refuge is the best and only way to survive if a war happens,” according to a Burmese currently working in Hong Kong, who wished to remain unnamed.
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