BURMA'S LEAST WANTED: THE ROHINGYAS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 RANGOON 000181

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP, PRM, AND IO; PACOM FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/11/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL BM
SUBJECT: BURMA'S LEAST WANTED: THE ROHINGYAS

REF: A. 06

B. RANGOON 235

C. 06 RANGOON 1722

Classified By: P/E Chief Leslie Hayden for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (SBU) Summary: The Muslim Rohingyas who inhabit Burma's
Northern Rakhine State (NRS) are among the world's most
oppressed and marginalized people. Burma's military regime
refuses to recognize the Rohingyas as one of Burma's official
ethnic groups, denies them citizenship, and systematically
extorts and persecutes them. The regime denies the Rohingyas
permission to travel freely from village to village, stifling
their ability to earn a living. The repressive
military/police agency charged with overseeing the Rohingyas
uses an "agent" system, assigning ethnic Burmans or Buddhist
Rakhines to each village to monitor and extort the local
residents. Virtually captive in a small portion of their
native land, many Rohingyas suffer from malnutrition and
communicable diseases, and food security remains a major
issue in a region that suffers frequent flooding, drought,
and brushfires. Only the UN and international NGOs do
anything to protect these stateless people and alleviate
their misery. End summary.

The Rohingyas
--------------


2. (SBU) UNHCR recently organized a trip to Northern Rakhine
State for diplomats to view UN and INGO operations to assist
Rohingyas. Fleeing intense oppression in Burma, hundreds of
thousands of Rohingyas fled west in the 1960s and 1970s, and
250,000 more fled NRS for Bangladesh in 1991 and 1992. In
1994, UNHCR established operations in NRS to facilitate the
repatriation and reintegration of Rohingya returnees from
refugee camps in the Cox's Bazaar region of Bangladesh after
Burma's ruling regime agreed to accept them back. Nearly
235,000 Rohingyas have since returned to NRS with UNHCR
assistance - roughly 95 percent of those who fled. In 2006,
UNHCR began to shift its focus in NRS to concentrate more on
protecting the entire Muslim population in NRS (Ref A),in an
attempt to improve their legal status and minimize the
likelihood of any future emigration. UNHCR also maintains a
minimum capacity for repatriation in order to assist any of
the remaining 28,000 Rohingya refugees who still remain in
the refugee camps in Bangladesh.

NaSaKa
--------------


3. (C) In addition to the traditional government Peace and
Development Council administrative system, NRS is tightly
controlled by the Border Immigration Headquarters, known by
its Burmese acronym NaSaKa. NaSaKa reports to the Western
Regional Commander and has repression down to a fine art. In
NRS there is one NaSaKa officer for every one hundred
villagers. Under former Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, NaSaKa
was staffed and controlled by military intelligence officers
loyal to the Prime Minister. When he was ousted, many NaSaKa
officials were replaced with less-experienced officers and
their power structure diminished. UNHCR told us the new
officers are now fully up to speed and are once again ramping
up the level of repression and corruption in NRS.


4. (C) NaSaKa controls all movement of the Rohingyas in NRS
and also issues all valid birth and marriage certificates.
In order to effectively control the Rohingyas, NaSaKa
appoints either an ethnic Burman or Buddhist Rakhine "agent"
in each village and hamlet to keep tabs on the population.
These agents not only act as spies for NaSaKa, but they use
their positions to enrich themselves through extortion.
Since there are few employment opportunities for the mostly
illiterate Rohingyas, many men earn their living by traveling
to nearby forests to cut and sell bamboo. Restricted from
leaving their home villages, the Rohingyas must pay the
agents a fee each time they depart the village to cut bamboo.
They are also required to pay the agents a yearly tax on
their earnings. During two separate instances of unmonitored

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conversations, Rohingya women complained to us about the
agent system in their villages. In addition to the agents,
regime immigration officers visit every Rohingya house once
every six months to check immigration documents. The
officers usually demand a "fee" from the families during
these visits, in addition to heavy bribes to register new
marriages and births in their papers. NaSaKa also controls
large groves of cashew trees in NRS and uses the labor of
local villagers to harvest the nuts. The local officials
regularly subject the Rohingyas to forced labor for
porterage, road repair, and anything else the authorities
should need.

Destroying Mosques
--------------


5. (C) During our trip we had a chance to talk with Dr. Tin
Aung, Chairman of the Islamic Council in Maungdaw, and U Than
Tun, Chairman of the Myanmar Muslim Association in Maungdaw.
Both men said that regime authorities ordered the destruction
of seven mosques last year in Buthidaung and another two in
Maungdaw, two of the three townships comprising NRS. The
Muslim officials said NaSaKa officials added insult to injury
by requiring local mosque members to destroy the buildings
themselves. Other mosques are arbitrarily declared
"off-limits" by NaSaKa and stand empty because worshipers are
forbidden from entering them. Immigration officials became
visibly upset on our trip when the Bangladesh and Malaysia
Ambassadors stopped to visit a particularly beautiful mosque
at one of our stops.

Foreign Assistance
--------------


6. (U) UNHCR gears its activities in NRS toward protecting
local residents, and focuses on promoting self-reliance and
integration for the Rohingyas. It is the lead agency for
humanitarian assistance in NRS and coordinates the activities
of several INGO partners. Among them are FAO, UNDP, UNICEF,
WFP, WHO, Action Contre la Faim (ACF),Aide Medicale
Internationale (AMI),AZG (MSF Holland),CARE, GRET, ICRC,
and Malteser. UNHCR-funded implementing partners in NRS are
Bridge Asia Japan, Community and Family Services
International (based in the Philippines),the Immigration and
National Registration Department (IND),and the Myanmar Red
Cross.


7. (SBU) Fundamental to UNHCR's NRS strategy are its Burmese
language training classes and its community centers. The
majority of Rohingyas in NRS do not speak either Burmese or
Rakhine, but a dialect of Bengali for which there is no
written script. UNCHR is working to reduce the isolation of
the Rohingyas by training them to communicate in Burmese and
preparing their children for enrollment in the public school
system. The language training is also a basis for improving
the Rohingya's legal status, since knowledge of a national
language is a prerequisite for citizenship. UNHCR also uses
the curriculum to teach the women to interact directly with
local authorities, including practical guidance for
completing local birth and marriage registration procedures.
Lessons on gender roles and equality and literacy curriculum
that includes human rights awareness, child care education,
reproductive health awareness, and HIV/AIDs information are
also included.


8. (SBU) One of the most impressive projects we visited was
a local community center where UNHCR has enlisted the support
of the local Imam to encourage women to receive vocational
training and learn community interaction skills. Women
attending these centers receive instruction in gardening,
sewing, and HIV/AIDs awareness. The centers also host
regular community meetings where UNHCR workers use role play
exercises to strengthen the Rohingyas' skills for maintaining
their communities and interacting with the local authorities.
One of the instructors told us a favorite tool in these
meetings is a book the Embassy donated to the center on a
previous visit, entitled "The Mosques of New York."
Community center members, most who have never traveled beyond

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the immediate area, are intently interested in the pictures
of the large mosques and the instructors use the book as an
illustration of how mosque life can strengthen and unite a
community.


9. (SBU) One of UNHCR's key projects, and one for which they
have requested USG funding, is their Temporary Registration
Certificate (TRC) project. The majority of Rohingyas in NRS
are not entitled to hold National Registration Cards because
the GOB does not recognize them as citizens of Burma.
Instead, many Rohingyas hold TRCs, a legal document that
proves the cardholders' legal residence in Myanmar. UNHCR
estimates that over 150,000 Rohingyas do not even possess
TRCs. Without these cards, the regime can restrict almost
all their travel and make it extremely difficult for them to
register births and marriages. UNHCR's proposed project aims
to work with the IND to issue TRCs to Rohingyas free of
charge. Possessing TRC cards will also facilitate
citizenship should it ever become politically possible.

Obstacles
--------------


10. (C) One of the biggest obstacles to providing assistance
to the Rohingyas in NRS is the restriction of rice movements
throughout the area. WFP operates a food for education
program in local primary schools to provide incentive to the
Rohingyas to send their children to school rather than keep
them at home to work. Each child receives ten kilos of rice
for each month he/she attends school. The program has been
successful and, during the months rice has been available,
school enrollment has tripled. Unfortunately, the regime
requires the WFP to obtain a separate permit each time it
transports rice to different points within NRS. When rice
prices rise, permits are often refused. During 2006, WFP
could only provide rice for four out of nine academic months.
WFP told us they have repeatedly urged the regional
commander to facilitate more reliable future rice deliveries.


11. (C) UNHCR told us they have worked hard to develop trust
and build a cooperative relationship with the IND, the
Western Regional Commander, and local Muslim community
leaders. Their local field monitoring teams keep regular
tabs on the villagers and try to use the relationships they
have developed with the IND to advocate greater freedom of
movement for the Rohingyas and to facilitate official
approvals for medical evacuations and access to educational
institutions for the local population. They also monitor for
indications of forced labor and demands by local officials
for compulsory contributions of cash, poultry, and livestock
from local villagers. UNCHR intervenes in the most egregious
cases.


12. (SBU) Comment: UNCHR's presence in NRS provides the only
real protection the Rohingyas have. Indeed, INGO activities
in NRS appeared to be well run and well coordinated. What is
startlingly absent are any USG funded activities. The
French, the Germans, Japan, and the EU have visible flags and
signs on their projects advertising their funding and
involvement, but there is no sign of the U.S. there. While
all of Burma suffers in relative poverty and fear,
malnutrition and brutal repression is most palpably visible
in NRS. The GOB allows greater access to humanitarian
assistance here than most other areas of the country, so USG
assistance can address the needs of the most oppressed people
in Burma. PRM has indicated an interest in offering
assistance, which this Embassy would be pleased to
facilitate. End comment.
VILLAROSA