Special Report: Thailand secretly supplies Myanmar refugees to trafficking rings

Special Report: Thailand secretly supplies Myanmar refugees to trafficking rings

By Jason Szep and Andrew R.C. Marshall

RANONG, Thailand (Reuters) – One afternoon in October, in the watery no-man’s land between Thailand and Myanmar, Muhammad Ismail vanished.

Thai immigration officials said he was being deported to Myanmar. In fact, they sold Ismail, 23, and hundreds of other Rohingya Muslims to human traffickers, who then spirited them into brutal jungle camps.

As thousands of Rohingya flee Myanmar to escape religious persecution, a Reuters investigation in three countries has uncovered a clandestine policy to remove Rohingya refugees from Thailand’s immigration detention centers and deliver them to human traffickers waiting at sea.

Myanmar’s ethnic conflicts: Waiting for the dividend

Myanmar’s ethnic conflicts: Waiting for the dividend

Despite hopes of a nationwide ceasefire agreement, the trust needed for lasting peace remains a long way off

Oct 5th 2013 | HPA-AN

“We are out of politics, country stable”, Myanmar Army chief bluffed shamelessly

We are out of politics, country stable: Army chief

Eleven Media Yangon September 23, 2013 1:00 am

Relations between Thailand and Myanmar are at their most cordial in the history of ties between the two countries, says Min Aung Hlaing, the commander-in-chief of the Defence Services of Myanmar. (Bangkok Post picture)

The military has reduced its role in running the country and this has helped Myanmar achieve political stability in its transition to a more democratic system, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing told Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra during their meeting in Bangkok last week.

Mons in Myanmar and Malaysia

Yes, some Mons in Myanmar are assimilated with Bamas. But don’t worry, I have a Mon close friend, in very high position. As he is related to one of the feared MI chief during General Ne Win‘s time who was also a Mon they kept that as a secret. But in their family you could be surprised: many doctors, specialists, sub-specialists, professors, rectors, Generals, one Defense Minister (or Chief of Staff, I am not sure, Division level Military Chiefs and even Deputy Ministers…And I heard that most of the Yangon thars that are not migrants from other part of Myanmar are Mons…..Don’t worry of their culture and language…

Tun Abdullah Urges Myanmar Muslim Minorities To Give Priorty To Education

Tun Abdullah Urges Myanmar Muslim Minorities To Give Priorty To Education

KUALA LUMPUR, June 19 (Bernama) — Former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi urged the Muslim minority in Asean countries, including those in Myanmar, to give priority to education.

He said that the Muslim communities should seek to empower themselves with education and pursue knowledge which is relevant to their needs in the 21st century.

International Buddhist-Muslim Joint Statement

Maung Zarni

International Buddhist-Muslim Joint Statement
Shared Commitment of Action

Bangkok, Thailand | 16 June 2013

Buddhist and Muslim leaders from South and South East Asian countries including India, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, have gathered in Bangkok, Thailand to address
escalating tensions between two communities and potential spread of hatred across the region. The
consultation was co-organized by the International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB), the
International Movement for a Just World (JUST), and Religions for Peace (RfP).

Myanmar’s ‘old man’s land’ seeks new lease of life

Myanmar’s ‘old man’s land’ seeks new lease of life

They call it “Old Man’s Land” — ravaged by conflict and economic deprivation, Myanmar’s southeast Mon state is a place bereft of its young, who have flooded overseas in search of work.

An elderly woman uses an old weaving loom to make cotton clothes at her house in Mawlamyine, Myanmar’s Mon state, on March 14, 2013. Myanmar’s southeast Mon state is a place bereft of its young, who have flooded overseas in search of work.

But with a reformist government now promoting peace and economic development in impoverished border areas, the region is now looking to its future — and its lost youth.

The rural Mon community of Ywarthit is a place for the old and the very young. Locals say around 70 percent of households are missing the generation in between.

Many teenagers leave once they have finished school, crossing the border into Thailand to seek work in factories or as domestic helpers.

May Allah ask the Muslim leaders around the world on Judgement day, why they ignored the plight of the Muslims of Myanmar

Don’t worry about the FOREIGNER Burmese Muslim professionals like me who is in your country for 27 yrs. .

And forget about the Rohingya Myanmar Muslims that you all never consider to even grant just a legal document to temporarily stay in your country. Why one of your great leader, who know all the atrocities and show sympathy on us chosen to advise other countries like Australia to accept the Rohingyas. Why you Muslims refused to accept and shamelessly ask Christians to accept those downtrodden Muslims. And one great former leader with Islamic credentials advised Thailand and ASEAN in the Bangkok Post Interview, to push back the Rohingyas into the Indian sea. (To let them die?)

Now there are more than enough evidences of Persecution, Prosecution, Religious Cleansing of Muslims of Myanmar, burning of hundred of Masids and Qur’ans but you Malaysians keep quiet? You just wish to help Orang Puteh (=European) Bosnian Muslims? And your cousin Acheh Muslims, Southern Thai, Southern Filipinos and Indonesians only.

You all SHAMELESSLY even PROTECT Myanmar Gov at the UN and ASEAN to continue to get usual business benefits from them.

I hope Allah would surely ask this question on the judgement day to all the Muslim leaders who ignore the PLIGHTS of fellow Muslims and collaborate with enemies of ISLAM. Just shout loudly against Israel and supporting Palestine to get the grassroots Muslims’ vote only enough for those hypocrite Muslim leaders around the world.

I will be in my clinic working whole day up to 10-30 PM. My wife and children will also stay in the house (voluntarily) to avoid traffic jams and to avoid unwarranted incidences or disturbances.

My comment under RACIST Malaysian Insider‘s bigot article, ”

Watchdogs on foreigners’ ‘fishy behaviour’ in GE13, says PAS

Nowhere to hide for Myanmar’s Muslims

Nowhere to hide for Myanmar’s Muslims
By Himaya Quasem

PHUKET – In a narrow, damp alley at the heart of this bustling tourist hotspot sits a row of tin-roofed shacks. Hidden from view, they house Rohingya Muslims who have fled sectarian bloodshed in neighboring Myanmar.

Described by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, the Rohingya – including women and children – have been fleeing the country by boat in growing numbers to escape communal rioting, which has killed an estimated 200 people and left tens of thousands homeless.

Why Myanmar Muslims are not given equal rights as other foreigners in Malaysia?

There are a lot of Myanmars in Malaysia: Muslims/non-Muslims, Professionals, businesspersons, white/blue collar staff, labourers and refugees (including illegal immigrants etc.
Myanmars may be about 50% of all foreigners.
But how many percent got ICs…may be less than 01% of all other Foreigners who got new ICs.
IT IS NOT FAIR in all standard!
Please change the system and mindset of discrimination on Myanmars esp. on Muslims of Myanmar including Rohingyas.