Sunday 16 December 2012

Jason Mraz, Human Trafficking, Slavery and the Rohingya

This post is to help educate the people participating in the MTVExit concert in Burma/Myanmar on 16th December, to stop human trafficking and modern day slavery.

Yet all the while that this concert is going on, just down the road there is a genocide happening live in Myanmar, in the state of Arakan, with >100,000 penned into dire camps, and hundreds of thousands more suffering from starvation and illness in their own homes due to blockade.
There has been no mention of the Rohingya by the concert organisers in the run up to the concert, despite repeated requests for them to speak out.

'Right now, roughly 2,900 babies and toddlers in the Rohingya camps may be beyond help.' Read how the Myanmar government could stop this disaster if they wanted!
See how the Burma government are providing aid to the Rakhine but starving the Rohingya to death.

In addition to the Rohingya currently starving to death, over 4000 Rohingya have been trafficked out of the country over the past 2 months. Many die at sea. Those that don't die are often forced into slavery to pay for their trip. Others back in Burma are taken for forced labour by the military.

Read how Burma is feeding human trafficking with the unwanted Rohingya here.

Read how the Rohingya are often forced into slavery to pay for their ride.

Read how hundreds of Rohingya are dying right now at sea.

I believe that there should be a ZERO TOLERANCE policy on GENOCIDE. This concert should not be taking place, it is just whitewashing the regime. Jason Mraz  @jason_mraz has unfortunately just fallen into the hands of the Burmese regime following in the footsteps of Aung San Suu Kyi, dazzlling the world with the word 'reform' whilst all the time ethnic cleansing is taking place right under everyone's nose.

There should be a complete freeze on all business with Burma until the Rohingya are fed, protected, and granted their human rights. Please #BoycottBurma

Petition (only started a few days ago since we found out about this concert late).

Here is a playlist of 38 videos on the topic that will help educate you on the current situation.



News Links

UN Official Calls for Help for Myanmar's Displaced worst refugee camps in the world

Blogs Posts:

Other Resources:
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs - Statement on the Republic of the Union of Myanmar ‘The level of assistance provided in the different camps varies significantly...I saw thousands of people in shockingly overcrowded, substandard shelter with poor sanitation. They don’t have jobs, children are not in school and they can’t leave the camp because their movement is restricted. The situation is dire.’
UNOCHA Rakhine Response Plan >115,000 internally displaced. Burma Gov figures (treat with caution): 10,100 buildings destroyed (couldn’t be denied as there is satellite evidence), 167 killed, 223 injured

US Aid in Burma lots of useful links and info here, people that should be doing something

If you want to raise awareness about this issue on Twitter here is how you can:

Hash Tags to Use:
The following are tags being used for the concert. We need to inform people what is really happening in Burma.
Also use:

Twitter accounts to tweet to:
Also ask people to follow @aungaungsittwe the only Rohingya refugee tweeting daily updates from the ground in Burma

YouTube Videos:
MTV Exit Live in Myanmar the PR + hypocrisy of the Burma gov needs exposing
Rohingya Playlist all these vids are worth tweeting individually
Rohingya Boat People in 2009 its got worse since then
End to Rohingya plight draws closer more on the Boat People 2009 - this been going on years, got a lot worse recently
Valerie Amos Pleads for Full Access for OCHA and WFP to Deliver Aid because they haven’t got it! (note this one is not a YouTube vid)

Important tweets to link to/RT
ALD,ALP,RNDP&NaSaKa organized a plan to reduce #Rohingya fr #Arakan, they persuade to send Malaysia& using cargo send to Thai fishing ships
Acc to information, Cargo carried #Rohingya 3 times to Thai-ships; 755+455+635 #Rohingya, Thai-ships sold them somewhere else.
Special message from @jason_mraz about LIVE coverage #LiveinMyanmar: http://youtu.be/fUpZ1-Uytng  via @youtube
603 #Rohingya families in Thandawli have been starving, Rakhine authority doesn't allow any aid group to help them, they need urgent food.
Off to Myanmar tonight. I'll be answering some of your questions about our trip with MTV Exit. Tweet & tag them #LiveInMyanmar.
At the gate of some hospitals, it is written in Burmese "Kalar are not allowed"
WFP trying to send food to starving #Rohingya of Anauk Pyin, Rathedaung town of #Arakan but Rakhine authority doesn't allow to save those #Rohingya.
NaSaKa of Tharekun Baw accompanied by 352 military confiscated 30 arcs of #Rohingya's farm land
Watch the short film of my visit to #Myanmar where I saw one of the worst IDP camps in the world: http://ocha.smugmug.com/Countries/Myanmar/USG/26912848_jWCXgQ#!i=2260307570&k=p34D4KH …
Eyewitness statement regarding military + security force involvement





 

Saturday 1 December 2012

Rohingya Shot During Tent Clearance

On 24th November NaSaKa and police in Burma started to destroy Rohingya makeshift camps and threaten the removal of others. On 1st December police shot 6 Rohingya as they were removing them from Thay Chaung camp. The following email and photos were forwarded to me via Rohingya refugee @aungaungsittwe on 1st December.

BREAKING NEWS

Date – 1st December 2012.

Today at 4:20pm, six innocent Rohingya IDPs have been shot by Police
in Thay Chaung Refugee Camp (where they have been refuge since after
the violence broke out in June ) during trying to forcibly shift these
Rohingya IDPs to another remote, isolated and deserted place called
Say Tha Mar camp (Baud Del).

Suddenly, the Rakhine State Government planned by forcing them to
shift to isolated camp like that but the Rohingya refugees refused to
go there because fearing in advance to suffer difficult situations in
terms of safe water, road condition, contagious diseases, access to
Health infrastructures there.

So, after a few minutes of dispute between Rohingya refugees and riot
Polices, the tension was a bit big and police open fire into the
refugees mob.

Now, among these six injured persons, five IDPs got severely injured
and another one IDP was very serious condition that the bullet hit in
the chest and the bullet remain inside, so he was taken to the State
General Hospital. No other news still so far.

The list of severely injured Rohingya IDPs were as follows:

No.   Name                     Father’s Name           Age             Place of Origin
1.      Zia Bul Hauque       Hamid Husung             25               Narzi Block (1)
2.      Mawnura Begum    Mohamed Rofique       23               Narzi Block (3)
3.      Solim                      Bodi Rahman               22              Narzi Block (4)
4.      Anuwar Begum       Ahmed Husung            20              Narzi Block (11)

This following IDP was very serious condition,

5.      Shawfi Rahman           Har Lar Mia            28           Narzi Block (3)

Remarks: We are sorry for the date setting failure (12/2/2012 &
31/10/2012 instead of 12/1/2012) in the photos due to our bad
management and also poor resources.

Hot news presented by,

Rohingya News Team,
Arakan.
























Copyright notice: Media may use any of the information on this page freely as they wish. If you need higher resolution photos please tweet @jamilahanan and she will email you them.

Please also read about when the police started to destroy tents and threaten the removal of others here.