March 13-19, 2015

Weekly Media Monitoring report for Burma

Posted on March 23, 2015

Compiled by Kate McFarland

Civil society activists and lawyers are concerned that a religious defamation law that once served as a tool of the military junta to jail its opponents is now being used selectively by the authorities to placate powerful Buddhist nationalists ahead of this year’s elections.
Cites the case of New Zealander Phillip Blackwood and his Myanmar business partners, U Tun Thurein and Ko Htut Ko Ko Lwin, who angered Patriotic Buddhist Monks Union for using an image of the Buddha wearing headphones to promote a drinks night at their since-closed VGastro bar. They were sentenced this week to two and a half years in prison.
Section 295(a) of the penal code prohibits “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs”.
Article argues that authorities use this provision as a weapon of punishment to maintain political power.
Matthew Smith, director of Fortify Rights, an NGO, commented, “This is an election year and religion is already being used for political purposes. It’s become a race to the bottom to determine who is a stronger defender of conservative Buddhism.”

Irrawaddy, March 19: “Threatened UN rights envoy confident Burma will protect her”

Yanghee Lee said on Wednesday she expects Burma to guarantee her security, despite failing to censure a radical Buddhist monk who called her a “whore” and incited his followers against her.
She has angered the country’s government by criticizing its restrictions on political freedom and by demanding citizenship rights for the Rohingya Muslim minority in Arakan State.
In response to her latest report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva last week, U Wirathu posted a threatening riposte on his Facebook page: “Dear patriots, let us find ways and means to teach the beastly woman a lesson,” he wrote.
Lee countered: “I have confidence in the Myanmar government that they will see that my security and the security of my staff is their utmost priority. But it doesn’t mean that any individual couldn’t do something very crazy. However, I am disappointed that the government has not disassociated itself from these remarks, and the government has blamed me for leaving the country with this distrust, discord and incitement.”

Burma has been identified as a country of concern by the United Kingdom for the 10th consecutive year as the UK foreign office prepares to increase direct aid to the country by more than 30 percent.
In its annual Human Rights and Democracy Report, published on Thursday, the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) listed Burma as one of 27 countries over which the UK has “wide-ranging concerns” with regard to human rights.
“Of all the human rights concerns in Burma in 2014, the situation in Rakhine [Arakan] remained the most worrying,” read the report, stating that discrimination against Rohingya and other minority Muslims has continued in the absence of a satisfactory government action plan.
The FCO’s report noted a “worrying increase in anti-Muslim sentiment and violence” in the country more broadly, in some cases linked to Buddhist nationalist movements.
The report also criticized proposed legislation, drafted by Buddhist nationalist lobbyists, which would create new regulations on religious conversion, population control, interfaith marriage and polygamy. The FCO warned that the laws, “if enacted, could harm religious tolerance and respect for diversity in Burma, as well as contravene international standards and treaties to which Burma is a signatory.”

UN News, March 13: “Myanmar: UN officials pledge humanitarian, development assistance for country’s future”

The UN remains committed to helping Myanmar achieve its humanitarian and development needs in order to boost living standards for all its citizens, top UN officials have declared during their visit to the Asian country.
UNDP Administrator Helen Clark visited Myanmar earlier this week. She travelled with the Executive Director of the WFP to Rakhine State, where “humanitarian and development needs are most acute.”
In Rakhine, UNDP is providing development assistance and working with communities in 63 villages to improve livelihoods and strengthen social cohesion while also investing in developing the capacity of local governments. WFP has been providing life-saving food assistance to over 128,000 internally displaced persons in the state since 2012.

Authorities throughout Arakan are urging Rohingya Muslims to denounce their claims as natives of the land and apply for the green card according to the 1982 citizenship law.
Immigration officials have told Rohingya Muslims that their troubles will be over if they get the green card. For this they must identify as Bengalis and not Rohingyas.
The green card refers to foreigners who have become citizens of the state as opposed to the pink card, which refers to full citizens. Green card holders are treated as second-class citizens in Burmese law but they have more rights that the white card holders.

Local Burma Times correspondent writes that a group of Rohingya men were harassed while applying for a green card as Bengalis at their local immigration office.
The immigration officer began asking complicated questions about Bangladesh, and the men responded that they could only answer questions relating to Burma and not Bangladesh because he was not from that country. The men then told the immigration official that they were not Bengalis and had only agreed to be Bengalis because the police threatened them.
The immigration official told the Rohingyas that charges will be pressed against them. Many Rohingyas have been arrested and tortured, some even killed for insisting on identifying themselves by their native name.