China steps up campaign against Ramadan in Xinjiang

Beijing accused of misguided attempt to secularise minority Uighurs by banning or discouraging civil servants, students and others from fasting

Muslims in Xinjiang offer Friday prayers near a no-stopping sign on the first day of Ramadan. Beijing says its attempts to restrict participation come out of health concerns.

China is discouraging some Muslims in Xinjiang from fasting duringRamadan. The government says the move is motivated by health concerns.

Several city, county and village governments in the far-western region have posted notices on their websites banning or discouraging Communist party members, civil servants, students and teachers from fasting during the religious holiday.

A regional spokeswoman, Hou Hanmin, was quoted in the state-runGlobal Times on Friday as saying authorities encourage people to "eat properly for study and work" but would not force anyone to eat during Ramadan.

Xinjiang is home to the Muslim Uighur ethnic group. Long-simmering resentment over the rule by China's Han majority and an influx of Han migrants has sporadically erupted into deadly violence.

Those familiar with the region say attempts to restrict participation in Ramadan are not new, but this year's campaign is more intense.

There is "a much more public and concerted effort" than in previous years and in some cases Communist party leaders are delivering food to village elders to try to get them to break their fast, according to Dru Gladney, a professor of anthropology at Pomona College in California and an expert on China's Muslim minorities.

"I think it is a misguided effort to try to secularise the Uighurs and my feeling is it will backfire," said Gladney. "It makes the Uighurs even more angry at the party for not honouring their religious customs."

Separatist sentiment is rife in Xinjiang, with some Uighurs advocating armed rebellion. A smaller fringe has been radicalised and trained in camps across the border in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In July 2009, almost 200 people were killed during rioting between Uighurs and Han Chinese in Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi. Uighur activists say the riots were the result of decades of pent-up frustration with Chinese rule.

China has responded by boosting police presence and restricting the practice of Islam – moves that have increased tensions.

Over the last few months, authorities in Xinjiang have stepped up a campaign against illegal religious schools, which they believe are fomenting extremism and separatist thought.

Hou said battling religious extremism and terror in the region remained a priority.

"Religious extremism is closely related to violence and terrorism, and cracking down on these is one of our top priorities," the regional spokeswoman was quoted as saying.

Ilham Tohti, a Beijing-based Uighur economist, said this year's campaign against participation in Ramadan was being more strictly enforced, with officials in some areas requiring people to sign pledges that they will not take part in religious activities.

Tohti said the campaign appeared to be aimed solely at Uighurs in Xinjiang, noting that Kazakh and Hui Muslims in Xinjiang, as well as Uighurs outside the region, face no such restrictions.

At the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing, where he teaches, there have been no warnings against taking part in Ramadan and up to 70 Muslim students, including about 10 Uighurs, gather nightly at a local restaurant next to campus to break their fast, he said.

He said officials may be particularly nervous about potential unrest in Xinjiang in the lead up to a once-a-decade leadership transition in Beijing in the autumn.

"As a result they are tightening control measures in many areas, not just religion, but this could give rise to new problems and they may end up with an outcome that is the opposite of what they were seeking," he said.

On Monday, the US state department released a global report on religious freedom that criticized the authorities in Xinjiang for their "repressive restrictions on religious practices" and failure to "distinguish between peaceful religious practice and criminal or terrorist activities".

China's foreign ministry dismissed the report as biased and called it interference in Chinese affairs.

US warns China on South China Sea moves

The Obama administration has warned China against further moves to tighten control over a disputed section of the South China Sea, as tensions rose in the flashpoint region.

In a statement, the US State Department cautioned China about its addition of a military garrison and civilian officials near the contested Scarborough Reef and its use of barriers to deny access to foreign ships.

These moves "run counter to collaborative diplomatic efforts to resolve differences and risk further escalating tensions in the region", said the statement, issued early on Friday morning and attributed to Patrick Ventrell, the acting deputy spokesman.

Six countries have complex competing claims to the region's water and islands, which are rich in fish, oil and gas and other resources.

China's recent moves over the Scarborough Reef have ruffled feathers in several nations, including Vietnam, Japan and the Philippines. There also have been reports that China is preparing to invite oil company bids for energy exploration in the area.

Countries in the region have been trying to work out a method for peacefully arbitrating their claims through a leading regional body, the Association of South-East Asian Nations, and have urged states not to take any provocative actions.

The US statement appeared to be a sign to South-East Asian countries that the administration continues its close watch on developments in the region. But one analyst cautioned that by singling out China at a time when several nations have been pushing claims, the Obama administration may confirm Chinese fears that it is strengthening security ties in South-East Asia to limit the expansion of Chinese power.

"It's very likely that China will read this as unnecessary, and confirming its concerns that the US is actively seeking to line up with South-East Asia against it," said Kenneth Lieberthal, a China specialist at the Brookings Institution and a former Clinton administration official.

Administration officials said last year they were shifting their foreign policy attention more to East Asia and have announced a series of steps to reinforce security ties with Vietnam, the Philippines, Australia and other countries.

China hits back at Clinton’s Africa comments

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, accompanied by Senegal’s Foreign Minister Alioune Badara Cisse, speaks at the Presidential Palace in Dakar, Senegal on Aug. 1, 2012. Click through for more photos of Clinton in Africa.

NAIROBI — Chinese state media lashed out Friday at U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton after she warned African leaders about cooperating with countries that want to exploit the continent’s resources.

On a tour of Sub-Saharan Africa to promote political stability, Clinton this week said the United States will stand up for democracy and universal human rights “even when it might be easier or more profitable to look the other way, to keep the resources flowing.”

“Not every partner makes that choice, but we do and we will,” she said, without naming China, in a speech delivered in Senegal.

The “implication that China has been extracting Africa’s wealth for itself is utterly wide of the truth,” said an English-language commentary from China’s official Xinhua News Agency on Friday, referencing Clinton’s comment that the United States is committed to a model that “adds value rather than extracts it.”

Clinton’s words constitute “cheap shots” and are part of “a plot to sow discord between China [and] Africa” for the United States’ “selfish gain,” Xinhua said, adding that her trip was part of a hidden agenda “aimed at least partly at discrediting China’s engagement with the continent and curbing China’s influence there.”

Clinton’s 11-day trip to Africa comes as China continues to gain influence in markets across the continent, which is home to vast and lucrative reserves of natural resources and some of the world’s fastest-growing countries.

While President Obama unveiled a new Africa strategy in June that focuses on democracy, economic growth, security and development, last month China promised Africa $20 billion in loans during the next three years. China, which put Africa-China trade at $166 billion last year, overtook the United States as Africa’s largest partner three years ago.

“There is a general sense that China appears to be eclipsing America in Africa,” said Comfort Ero, Africa program director at International Crisis Group.

Ero added of Clinton, referring to a visit she made to Africa last year: “This is her second big pitch to try to sell the differences between the U.S. and China in a positive way, suggesting the U.S. has Africa’s interests at heart and is genuinely concerned with progress around democracy, and that China is only interested in grabbing resources.”

Clinton, whose trip includes stops in Senegal, Uganda, South Sudan, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa and Ghana, is accompanied by a large U.S. business delegation and has stressed Africa’s economic potential.

“We believe that if you want to make a good investment in the midst of what is still a very difficult global economy, go to Africa,” she said during her speech in Senegal.

She voiced fears the continent was “backsliding” on democracy. But her close relationship with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, whose army makes up the bulk of a heavily U.S.-funded African Union force that fights Islamist militants in Somalia but who has refused to step down, has attracted criticism.

The U.S. focus on governance is “inconsistent and shifts with its interests,” said Daniel Kalinaki, managing editor of Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper. After bombings in Uganda in 2010 that were carried out by al-Qaeda-linked, Somalia-based militants, “all the talk of democracy was suddenly replaced by talk about regional security and Somalia.”

Clinton met with Museveni and South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir, on Friday, stressing the need for strong institutions and adherence to the constitution. She is due to meet Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Saturday before travelling on to Malawi and then South Africa.

Pakistan jails officers for links to banned group

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan has jailed five military officers, convicting them of links to a banned Muslim political group at a court martial, the army said Friday.

It is the first time that senior army officers have been convicted and jailed over associations with banned organisations in the country on the frontline of the US-led war on Al-Qaeda and fighting its own Taliban insurgency.

The army did not name the organisation in a statement announcing the sentences, but officials have in the past identified it as Hizb ut-Tahrir.

The group, which is headquartered Britain, does not outwardly advocate violence, but has been accused of links to violent extremist groups.

The army said the most senior officer to be convicted, Brigadier Ali Khan, had been sentenced to five years' rigorous imprisonment.

The other four, all ranked major, were sentenced to three years, two years, and two each to one year and six months, the military said.

The army said the convicts have the right to appeal, but provided no further details.

Khan was detained days after US Navy SEALs found and killed Osama bin Laden in the military town of Abbottabad on May 2, 2011, reviving disturbing questions about ignorance or complicity within Pakistan's powerful military.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is not banned in Britain, but has been outlawed in Pakistan and lies on the fringes of Western concerns about links between the military and terror groups.

According to its website, it aims to resume the Islamic way of life by establishing an Islamic state that executes the systems of Islam and carries its call to the world.

Since bin Laden was killed, Pakistan has been under increasing pressure from the United States to crack down on militant sanctuaries in its northwestern border areas with Afghanistan and cut all ties with extremist Islamist networks.

Pakistan court strikes down contempt law

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's top court on Friday struck down a new law that sought to exempt members of the government from contempt trials, clearing the way for legal proceedings against the prime minister.

Parliament passed the bill last month after the Supreme Court dismissed Yousuf Raza Gilani as premier and convicted him for refusing to reopen multi-million-dollar corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.

But on Friday, a five-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry declared the law "unconstitutional".

It was the latest episode in a two-and-a-half-year saga in which the government has resisted demands to investigate Zardari, arguing he enjoys immunity as head of state.

The showdown could force elections before February 2013 when the government would become the first in Pakistan's history to complete an elected, full five-year mandate.

The Supreme Court has now given the new prime minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf, until August 8 to indicate whether he will follow a court order to write to authorities in Switzerland, asking them to reopen the cases against Zardari.

Last month, it suggested that Ashraf could suffer the same fate as Gilani -- being dismissed for contempt -- if he refuses to do so.

Critics of the judiciary and members of Zardari's main ruling Pakistan People's Party have accused the court of waging a personal vendetta against the president.

It was not immediately clear how far the government would resist Friday's order. State television quoted the attorney general as saying that he was "stunned" by the court decision that "went beyond its jurisdiction".

"Parliament is supreme and has the authority of legislation. The judiciary should not interfere in legislative affairs," Irfan Qadir told the channel, PTV.

But the petitioners who challenged the law, welcomed the move.

"We are thankful to the Supreme Court of Pakistan which has protected our rights through this decision. This act was formulated in a bid to quash the fundamental rights of the common citizen," barrister Zafarullah Khan told AFP.

The allegations against Zardari date back to the 1990s, when he and his wife, late premier Benazir Bhutto, were suspected of using Swiss bank accounts to launder $12 million allegedly paid in bribes by companies seeking customs inspection contracts.

The Swiss shelved the cases in 2008 when Zardari became president and the government insists the president has full immunity as head of state.

But in 2009 the Supreme Court overturned a political amnesty that had frozen investigations into the president and other politicians, ordering that the cases be reopened.

Zardari had already signed the contempt law, which sought to exempt government figures, including the president, prime minister and cabinet ministers from contempt for acts performed as part of their job.

Revamping the Pakistan-US alliance

The war against terrorism will be fought in Pakistan whether we like it or not. And Pakistan cannot fight it alone. DESIGN: JAMAL KHURSHID

Before sending his ISI chief General Zaheerul Islam to Washington to meet the CIA Director David Petraeus, Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani set the tone after meeting the top US commander in Afghanistan General John Allen: “The meeting helped towards improving strategic and operational understanding between the Pakistan military and ISAF”.

In Washington, General Islam expressed Pakistan’s desire to move to ‘new beginnings’, resetting cooperation in the two countries’ strategic projections. The ‘new beginnings’ indicate progress from where it was disrupted when the former ISI chief General Ahmad Shuja Pasha broke off talks with his counterpart in high dudgeon several months ago. Pakistan follows policy cues of its army with public opinion swinging along as moulded by the media and a divided political community competing in keeping the army on its right side.

Pakistan’s defiance did not last long because a voluble parliament and such ‘civil society’ organisations as the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC) hammed it up and destroyed the fine nuances of the strategy adopted by the army when it closed Nato supply routes after the November 2011 Salala incident. The upshot of this overkill was that in July, Pakistan was politically cornered with its frayed economy sending out distress signals to an international community that was not willing to listen. The drop scene was that Pakistan reopened the supply route ‘for free’ but got $1.1 billion from the Coalition Support Fund that its policy had put in abeyance.

The Allen-Kayani meeting was obviously significant, possibly achieving some kind of agreement on how to handle the Haqqani network on the Pakistani side attacking Afghanistan and the terrorist Maulana Fazlullah’s gang in Nuristan and Kunar in Afghanistan attacking Malakand in Pakistan. The foreign office in Islamabad seems to have found its voice — with a go-ahead from the GHQ — when it declared dead the policy of strategic depth for which Pakistan had sacrificed more than it should have. If the army was once wedded to it, it may have backed off after seeing the dire straits that the Pakistan economy was in and the changing mood of the captains of the national economy who were in favour of opening up the occluded trade with India.

The new voice in the foreign office was expressed through Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar who defied the much dreaded DPC and opportunistic politician by saying that the ‘I am sorry’ type of apology from America was enough for Pakistan to forgive and forget, emphasising that Pakistan could not afford to be isolated. The phase in which the foreign office put its shoulder to the strategic depth obsession of the army was put aside at the risk of offending the non-state actors of the DPC. Pakistan is, therefore, well on its way to ridding itself of the international pariah status and thinking straight about confronting its internal weaknesses.

The theme of opposition to drones developed by Pakistan and its media will not be easily suppressed. To get Washington to stop them will depend on how honest Pakistan is in pledging to get after the terrorist outfits on its side and admitting its limitations in this regard. The other side will have to mount new operations in Kunar, a Wahabi stronghold, and in Nuristan, a province with little or no ISAF presence, to stop the Fazlullah gang from carrying out attacks inside Pakistan.

Though Nato’s ability of precisely targeting enemies through drones might achieve results, Pakistan may have problems coping with the Haqqani network whose outreach in Pakistan is considerable outside North Waziristan. Pakistan has to overcome its passion with sovereignty and nationalism. Both concepts are unrealistic and have come to be associated with victimhood and an inclination to promote suicidal policies. The only viable strategy is one geared to promote Pakistan’s economy.

There are signs that the GHQ is now desirous of this change. The war against terrorism will be fought in Pakistan whether we like it or not. And Pakistan cannot fight it alone.

Pakistan-born parents guilty of murdering ‘westernised’ British daughter

FILE – This is a June 19, 2012 file photo of Iftikhar Ahmed, the father of murdered teen-ager Shafilea Ahmed. A British court on Friday Aug. 3, 2012 found a mother and father guilty of murdering their teen-age daughter Shafilea Ahmed in a so-called honor killing. The Chester Crown Court found that Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed, both originally from Pakistan, suffocated their 17-year-old daughter, Shafilea, in 2003. During the trial, Shafilea’s sister Alesha told the jury that her parents pushed Shafilea onto the couch and she heard her mother say “just finish it here” as they forced a plastic bag into the girl’s mouth.

LONDON:A jury found the Pakistani parents of a teenage girl guilty of murder Friday, a conviction that came after the girl’s sister turned against her parents, telling a jury how her mother and father suffocated 17-year-old Shafilea with a plastic bag in a so-called honor killing.

Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed face life in prison for killing their daughter in 2003.

The Chester Crown Court found that Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed killed her daughter in 2003 and dumped her body.

Shafilea’s sister Alesha told the jury that her parents pushed Shafilea and then she heard her mother say, ”just finish it here.”

British authorities investigated hundreds of cases of forced marriages last year.

Some of the cases have ended up in so-called honor killings where relatives believe girls have brought shame on their families, sometimes for refusing marriage, other times for becoming too westernized.

Shafilea was only 10 when she began to rebel against her parents’ strict rules, according to prosecutor Andrew Edis.

Schoolmates described how she would wear western clothes and change before her parents picked her up.

Those same schoolmates also reported that Shafilea often went to school crying, describing how her mother would slap her and throw things at her.

But it was the last year of her life that was to be the most traumatic, the court heard. Shafilea began seeing boys, which prompted her parents to keep her at home more.

Despite multiple reports to social services, Shafilea’s file was closed in 2002.

Between November 2002 and January 2003, Shafilea told friends and teachers there had been an increase of assaults.

In February 2003, she ran away with her boyfriend Mushtaq Bagas and told council officers she needed emergency accommodation as her parents were trying to force her into an arranged marriage with her cousin.

In the same month, her parents took her to Pakistan where she drank bleach in protest against the arranged marriage. When she returned to Britain in May 2003, she was admitted to a hospital because of damage done to her throat. She was eventually released, but rows over her clothing continued.

Eventually, her parents beat her, stuffed a thin white plastic bag into her mouth and held their hands over her mouth and nose until she ”was gone,” her sister testified. The highest incidence of reported forced marriages is in Muslim communities

Britain is home to more than 1.8 million Muslims.

Burma: Government Forces Targeting Rohingya Muslims

Burmese security forces committed killings, rape, and mass arrests against Rohingya Muslims after failing to protect both them and Arakan Buddhists during deadly sectarian violence in western Burma in June 2012. Government restrictions on humanitarian access to the Rohingya community have left many of the over 100,000 people displaced and in dire need of food, shelter, and medical care.

The 56-page report, “‘The Government Could Have Stopped This’: Sectarian Violence and Ensuing Abuses in Burma’s Arakan State,” describes how the Burmese authorities failed to take adequate measures to stem rising tensions and the outbreak of sectarian violence in Arakan State. Though the army eventually contained the mob violence in the state capital, Sittwe, both Arakan and Rohingya witnesses told Human Rights Watch that government forces stood by while members from each community attacked the other, razing villages and committing an unknown number of killings.



“Burmese security forces failed to protect the Arakan and Rohingya from each other and then unleashed a campaign of violence and mass roundups against the Rohingya,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government claims it is committed to ending ethnic strife and abuse, but recent events in Arakan State demonstrate that state-sponsored persecution and discrimination persist.”

The Burmese government should take urgent measures to end abuses by their forces, ensure humanitarian access, and permit independent international monitors to visit affected areas and investigate abuses, Human Rights Watch said.

The “Government Could Have Stopped This,” is based on 57 interviews conducted in June and July with affected Arakan, Rohingya, and others in Burma and in Bangladesh, where Rohingya have sought refuge from the violence and abuses.

The violence erupted in early June after reports circulated that on May 28 an Arakan Buddhist woman was raped and killed in the town of Ramri by three Muslim men. Details of the crime were circulated locally in an incendiary pamphlet, and on June 3 a large group of Arakan villagers in Toungop stopped a bus and brutally killed 10 Muslims on board. Human Rights Watch confirmed that nearby local police and army stood by and watched but did not intervene. In retaliation, on June 8 thousands of Rohingya rioted in Maungdaw town after Friday prayers, killed an unknown number of Arakan, and destroyed considerable Arakan property. Violence between Rohingya and Arakan then swept through Sittwe and surrounding areas.

Marauding mobs from both Arakan and Rohingya communities stormed unsuspecting villages and neighborhoods, brutally killed residents, and destroyed and burned homes, shops, and houses of worship. With little to no government security present to stop the violence, people armed themselves with swords, spears, sticks, iron rods, knives, and other basic weaponry. Inflammatory anti-Muslim media accounts and local propaganda fanned the violence. Numerous Arakan and Rohingya who spoke to Human Rights Watch reached the conclusion that the authorities could have prevented the violence and the ensuing abuses could have been avoided.<

The Burmese army’s presence in Sittwe eventually stemmed the violence. However, on June 12, Arakan mobs burned down the homes of up to 10,000 Rohingya and non-Rohingya Muslims in the city’s largest Muslim neighborhood while the police and paramilitary Lon Thein forces opened fire on Rohingya with live ammunition.

A Rohingya man in Sittwe, 36, told Human Rights Watch that an Arakan mob “started torching the houses. When the people tried to put out the fires, the paramilitary shot at us. And the group beat people with big sticks.” Another Rohingya man from the same neighborhood said, “I was just a few feet away. I was on the road. I saw them shoot at least six people – one woman, two children, and three men. The police took their bodies away.”

In Sittwe, where the population was about half Arakan and half Muslim, most Muslims have fled the city or were forcibly relocated, raising questions about whether the government will respect their right to return home. Human Rights Watch found the center of the once diverse capital now largely segregated and devoid of Muslims.

In northern Arakan State, the army, police, Nasaka border guard forces, and Lon Thein paramilitaries have committed killings, mass arrests, and other abuses against Rohingya. They have operated in concert with local Arakan residents to loot food stocks and valuables from Rohingya homes. Nasaka and soldiers have fired upon crowds of Rohingya villagers as they attempted to escape the violence, leaving many dead and wounded.

“If the atrocities in Arakan had happened before the government’s reform process started, the international reaction would have been swift and strong,” said Adams. “But the international community appears to be blinded by a romantic narrative of sweeping change in Burma, signing new trade deals and lifting sanctions even while the abuses continue.”

Since June, the government has detained hundreds of Rohingya men and boys, who remain incommunicado. The authorities in northern Arakan State have a long history of torture and mistreatment of Rohingya detainees, Human Rights Watch said. In the southern coastal town of Moulmein, 82 fleeing Rohingya were reportedly arrested in late June and sentenced to one year in prison for violating immigration laws.

“The Burmese authorities should immediately release details of detained Rohingya, allow access to family members and humanitarian agencies, and release anyone not charged with a crime recognized under international law in which there is credible evidence,” Adams said. “This is a test case of the government’s stated commitment to reform and protecting basic rights.”

Burma’s 1982 Citizenship Law effectively denies Burmese citizenship to the Rohingya population, estimated at 800,000 to 1 million people. On July 12, Burmese President Thein Sein said the “only solution” to the sectarian strife was to expel the Rohingya to other countries or to camps overseen by the United Nations refugee agency.

“We will send them away if any third country would accept them,” he said.

Burmese law and policy discriminate against Rohingya, infringing on their rights to freedom of movement, education, and employment. Burmese government officials typically refer to the Rohingya as “Bengali,” “so-called Rohingya,” or the pejorative “Kalar,” and Rohingya face considerable prejudice from Burmese society generally, including from longtime democracy advocates and ethnic minorities who themselves have long faced oppression from the Burmese state.

Burma’s new human rights commission – led by chairman Win Mra, an ethnic Arakan – has not played an effective role in monitoring abuses in Arakan State, Human Rights Watch said. In a July 11 assessment of the sectarian violence, the commission reported on no government abuses, claimed all humanitarian needs were being met, and failed to address Rohingya citizenship and persecution.

“The Burmese government needs to urgently amend its citizenship law to end official discrimination against the Rohingya,” Adams said. “President Thein Sein cannot credibly claim to be promoting human rights while calling for the expulsion of people because of their ethnicity and religion.”

The sectarian violence has created urgent humanitarian needs for both Arakan and Rohingya communities, Human Rights Watch said. Local Arakan organizations, largely supported by domestic contributions, have provided food, clothing, medicine, and shelter to displaced Arakan. By contrast, the Rohingya population’s access to markets, food, and work remains dangerous or blocked, and many have been in hiding for weeks.<

The government has restricted access to affected areas, particularly Rohingya areas, crippling the humanitarian response. United Nations and humanitarian aid workers have faced arrest as well as threats and intimidation from the local Arakan population, which perceives the aid agencies as biased toward the Rohingya. Government restrictions have made some areas, such as villages south of Maungdaw, inaccessible to humanitarian agencies.

“The authorities should immediately grant unfettered humanitarian access to all affected populations and begin work to prevent future violence between the communities,” Adams said. “The government should assist both communities with property restitution and ensure all of the displaced can return home and live in safety.”

Since the June violence, thousands of Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh where they have faced pushbacks from the Bangladeshi government in violation of international law. Human Rights Watch witnessed Rohingya men, women, and children who arrived onshore and pleaded for mercy from Bangladesh authorities, only to be pushed back to sea in barely seaworthy wooden boats during rough monsoon rains, putting them at grave risk of drowning or starvation at sea or persecution in Burma. It is unknown how many died in these pushbacks. Those who were able to make it into Bangladesh live in hiding, with no access to food, shelter, or protection.

Bangladesh is obligated to open its borders and provide the Rohingya at least temporary refuge until it is safe for them to return, in accordance with international human rights norms. Human Rights Watch called on concerned governments to assist Bangladesh in doing so and press both Burma and Bangladesh to end abuses and ensure the safety of Rohingyas.

“Bangladesh is violating its international legal obligations by callously pushing asylum seekers in rickety boats back into the open sea,” Adams said.

US: AGOA, DR-CAFTA fixes and Burma bill finally passed

Legislation that will help provide stability for apparel and textile firms sourcing from sub-Saharan Africa and Central America, and also renews trade sanctions on Burma, was finally passed yesterday (2 August) by the US Senate and the House of Representatives.

Their passage follows a row over funding for the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which temporarily halted the bills' progress last week.

It also puts an end to uncertainties over the third-country fabric provision under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which had been set to expire in September 2012.

It is estimated that almost 95% of apparel imported from AGOA nations is made with third-country fabric, and the provision's extension to September 2015 now means apparel produced in sub-Saharan African countries made from third-country fabric, or fabric originally produced anywhere in the world, will continue to enjoy duty-free access to the US.

The Republic of South Sudan has also been added to the list of countries eligible for AGOA duty-free benefits on products including apparel, footwear and textiles

As far the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), is concerned, the fixes apply to rules of origin for textile products from Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

In particular, the modifications provide certainty of duty-free treatment for women's and girls' woven pyjama bottoms and clarify how certain items will be treated on the textiles "short supply" list of the FTA. Another change would be to fix a long-standing loophole under the trade pact by requiring all sewing thread, monofilament and plied, to originate in the US/DR-CAFTA region in order for products to qualify for preferential tariff treatment.

The bill also renews for another three years an import ban that has been in place since 2003 to prevent goods from Burma entering the US market. But it also leaves the Administration with the authority to waive or terminate the import sanctions.

The legislation must now be signed by President Barack Obama before being implemented.

Burmese Vice President Visits Arakan State

Protesters hold banners outside the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Rangoon on Aug 3, 2012.

Burmese Vice-President Sai Mauk Kham traveled to the predominantly Muslim township of Maungdaw in northern Arakan State on Friday amid growing international criticism of the government’s handling of recent communal conflicts between Arakanese Buddhists and Muslim Rohingyas.

The purpose of the trip is to assess the situation in the area two months after the worst violence in decades broke out there in early June, according to Win Myaing, a spokesperson for the Arakan State government.

During the two-day trip, the vice-president and government ministers will observe conditions at camps set up for the tens of thousands of people from both communities who were displaced by the riots. In addition to Maungdaw, they are expected to visited Kyaukphyu and the state capital Sittwe.

The visit comes as international rights groups and foreign governments, especially in Muslim countries, have accused the government of siding with Buddhists in the clashes. Earlier this week, US-based Human Rights Watch released a report alleging that government troops targeted Rohingyas during the crackdown on the violence.

In a statement released on July 27, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay also claimed that Muslim communities in Arakan State were being targeted by security forces.

However, the state government denied these charges, insisting that there was no discrimination against the Rohingya, a Muslim minority of about 800,000 people living mostly in townships near the Bangladeshi border.

“If they [foreign critics] come here, they will see that we have treated everyone equally,” said Win Myaing, adding that the state government plans to propose “security measures” to address the accusations during the vice-president’s visit.

While groups such as Amnesty International have said that hundreds of Rohingyas have been killed, raped, beaten and arbitrarily arrested since Burma declared a state of emergency in Arakan State in June, official figures put the number of casualties on both sides at 77 dead and 109 injured.

In addition, 4,822 houses, 17 mosques, 15 monasteries and three schools were destroyed, according to figures released by the government. In a report on Monday, the state-run New Light of Myanmarsaid that some 14,328 Arakanese Buddhists and 30,740 Rohingya Muslims have been affected and are currently living in 89 temporary camps.

Meanwhile, some Arakanese have complained that the international community has been one-sided in its expressions of concern. They noted, for instance, that during his visit to Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships on Tuesday, UN human rights envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana spoke only to Rohingyas who had been displaced by the conflict.

“It isn’t fair to focus only on the suffering of one side,” said Ven Manisara, a Buddhist abbot who heads a local aid group in Maungdaw. “Our people have also suffered a lot.”

This perceived imbalance—and deep-seated resentment of the Rohingya, who are seen by many in Arakan State as interlopers from neighboring Bangladesh—has been a boon to the government of President Thein Sein, who last month rejected international calls to accept the Rohingya as citizens.

At a protest in front of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Rangoon on Friday, demonstrators held banners supporting Thein Sein’s refusal to recognize the Rohingya as one of the country’s ethnic groups.

Meanwhile, Sai Mauk Kham’s visit to Arakan State comes as Bangladesh, which has refused to allow a fresh influx of Rohingyas into the country in the wake of the recent violence, has ordered international charities to stop providing aid to those who make it across the border.

Three aid groups—France’s Medecins sans Frontieres and Action Contre la Faim and Britain’s Muslim Aid UK—have been told to suspend their services in Cox’s Bazar District bordering Burma.

Burma on the move

Seven years ago, the government of Burma (Myanmar) started to move the main offices of the civil and military bureaucracy from Yangon north to Nay Pyi Taw. Travelers can take a morning return flight from Yangon. During the rainy season, when flight schedules become unpredictable, the safer recourse is the road.

A 201-mile, four-lane divided tollway connects the two cities. At Mile 115, a rest camp offers travelers a choice among several shops serving food and selling staple provisions—and access to the only bathroom facilities between the two points. Business on a Sunday mid-afternoon was brisk, with buses unloading passengers bound for Nay Pyi Taw or the nearby town of Pyinmana.

Traffic is still relatively light. On a weekday morning drive back to Yangon, we overtook about a dozen 4-wheeled vehicles during the entire stretch of the 4-hour tollway trip. The traffic is bound to increase. The government remains highly centralized. Nay Pyi Taw (“site of the royal country”) is the indispensable stop for diplomats and any organization whose business requires government authorization.

On my first trip to Nay Pyi Taw in 2007, the relocation, officially announced in July 2006, had only started. The government had built staff housing, appropriately differentiated to reflect rank, but many officials had not yet moved their families from Yangon. Five years later, all of the ministries had constructed their own monumental buildings and the infrastructure of shops and schools supported a new community.

Nay Pyi Taw now has its own mall, with a supermarket, restaurants and movie theaters. A number of hotels have opened for business and a couple are still under construction. Residences rival those in Manila’s gated communities. The government had also built a slightly smaller version of the Shwedagon Temple in Yangon, affirming the capital’s connection to the country’s precolonial history and traditions.

More impressive than infrastructure as a sign of the changes taking place in Burma is the emergence of young leaders at the highest level of government. Those whom I met struck me as competent, committed, and confident. They recognized that their country still faced many serious problems. They also knew that they had a narrow window of opportunity to undertake fundamental changes and appeared determined to seize the moment, and they were willing to learn from the experience of others.

Last week, Burma convened a meeting on the mining industry. Some 300 participants reportedly showed up, among them foreigners and Filipinos engaged in the extractive-industries sector in the Philippines. While known to be rich in mineral resources, the Philippines is not the only deal on offer, and Burma clearly intends to join the game.

Our Burmese colleagues were aware of the discussions in the Philippines on a regulatory framework that would promote the sustainable development of the mining industry. We talked about the research that the Asian Institute of Management’s Policy Center is conducting on the sharing of benefits from mining operations between the state and private investors.

For President Aquino’s recent State of the Nation Address, the research staff had supplied the note that the government received only 9 percent of the P145 billion generated by mining activities. The bulk of government collections comes from income taxes, more easily collected from the corporate, large-scale mining sector. The government would receive more if it could more effectively collect taxes from the small-scale mining sector.

The Policy Center’s research is also looking at firm-level costs and benefits. Corporate financial results—and company contributions to government—can differ because of many factors: the kind and quality of their mineral deposits; the scale and efficiency of their operations; the stage of their life cycle. A company could be paying as much as 20 percent of its revenues to the state.

As it is opening up its own mining industry to private investors, the issue of benefit-sharing is also crucial for Burma. Those I talked to seemed to appreciate the need for the equitable sharing of mining benefits between the state and private capital, between the national government and local government units, and between the current and the future generations of citizens.

They acknowledged that the benefits from mining did not come only from the direct company payments to the state. The funds companies pay their suppliers and employees and their corporate social responsibility expenditures also boost the economy of mining communities. But they were also concerned about the environmental costs that come with mining operations. As mines have a finite, productive life span, they realized that the state must try to maximize their share of the benefits they bring.

Throughout its history, Burma has suffered its share of natural and political calamities, and survived. It now values and wants foreign investments, but not at any cost. Potential investors now lining up to enter Burma should be prepared for some tough negotiations.

Edilberto C. de Jesus is president of the Asian Institute of Management.

DPC observes countrywide protest against Burmese Muslims’ massacre

LAHORE: The Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC) Friday observed countrywide as day of protest against the alleged ‘genocide’ of Muslims in Myanmar (Burma).

The day of protest was observed across the country including in all four provinces, Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and northern parts on the call of Chairman DPC and chief JUI, Maulana Sami ul Haq.

The DPC also condemned the government’s decision to reopen NATO supplies routes.

Maulana Sami ul Haq while addressing the gatherings in Rawalpindi and Akwara Khattak condemned the killings of more than 20,000 Muslims in Myanmar and urged the Muslim leaders, international human rights organizations to come forward to stop oppression against Muslims in the country.

He demanded of the government of Pakistan¸ United Nations, Organization of Islamic Countries and other humanitarian organizations to take action against the genocide of Muslims.

He said leaders from various political and religious parties should come forward to play theirs to stop brutal killing of Muslims.