{"id":81554,"date":"2016-10-24T12:00:40","date_gmt":"2016-10-24T11:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=81554"},"modified":"2016-10-24T12:30:50","modified_gmt":"2016-10-24T11:30:50","slug":"myanmars-rohingya-continue-to-suffer-systematic-extortion-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/10\/myanmars-rohingya-continue-to-suffer-systematic-extortion-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"Myanmar\u2019s Rohingya Continue to Suffer Systematic Extortion, Abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Report from Physicians for Human Rights Shows Severe Persecution Contributes to Cycle of Poverty and Despair among Rohingya Minority<\/em><\/p>\n

\"FILE<\/a>

FILE – Internally displaced Rohingya stand outside their makeshift tent in a camp in Sittwe in Myanmar’s northwestern Rakhine state.<\/p><\/div>\n

10 Oct 2016 – <\/em>Despite significant advances in Myanmar, minority groups in the Southeast Asian country continue to face systematic and pervasive human rights violations. Today, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) released a new report \u2013 \u201cWhere There is Police, There is Persecution<\/a>\u201d \u2013 documenting arbitrary and discriminatory restrictions on freedom of movement and a widespread pattern of abuse and extortion targeting the Rohingya minority group, considered one of the world\u2019s largest stateless populations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis report illuminates how authorities conduct raids, extort money, and single out Rohingyas for rights violations that are feeding a vicious cycle of poverty and persecution,\u201d said PHR\u2019s director of programs, Widney Brown, a lead author on the report. \u201cThe progress in Myanmar has not helped the Rohingyas, who are still subjected to brutality and persecution by military and security forces. They can hardly leave their own homes or travel to the doctor without the fear of having to pay bribes that could bankrupt them. It\u2019s a system of repression that must end for there to be a just future in Myanmar.\u201d<\/p>\n

PHR interviewed 170 people in Myanmar\u2019s Rakhine State, where most Rohingyas live, as well as in the capital, Yangon, and in neighboring Bangladesh. Rakhine State, in western Myanmar, is among the country\u2019s poorest regions, and PHR found that systematic extortion, forced evictions, arbitrary detentions, and onerous restrictions on movement are only serving to exacerbate poverty and deprivation. As part of the report, PHR\u2019s team of investigators documented and mapped a network of 86 security checkpoints scattered across northern Rakhine State, where Rohingyas are routinely forced to pay bribes or face jail time and other types of brutality at the hands of security forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese so-called security checkpoints are in fact places of extortion and humiliation, where Rohingya people are perpetually reminded of their marginalized status,\u201d said PHR\u2019s Brown. \u201cFreedom of movement is a right that facilitates other rights, such as the right to work and the right to health, and Myanmar authorities violate those rights with abandon throughout northern Rakhine State. While there are legitimate security concerns in the area, we found that these checkpoints rarely serve a security function; rather they are a further means for Myanmar authorities to persecute the Rohingya people.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the system of checkpoints, PHR gathered evidence of raids and a pervasive surveillance system in Rohingya-populated areas, as well as instances of forced labor and arbitrary fines and detention. Combined with land confiscations and restrictions on movement, these conspire to create significant difficulties for Rohingyas trying to access health care and provide for their families.<\/p>\n

\u201cLand confiscation is one of the most detrimental economic weapons that\u2019s been deployed against those who live in Rakhine state,\u201d said PHR\u2019s Brown. \u201cFor years, Burmese authorities have effectively evicted people\u2014especially the Rakhine\u2014in the name of progress, and those confiscations are ongoing. This has led to impoverishment of the Rakhine and a divide and conquer policy by the military that has led to both persecution of the Rohingya by the government and violence between the two groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Myanmar has made major strides toward democratization, the military continues to hold ultimate political authority and control over security services. The Rohingya people, a Muslim ethnic group of roughly one million, have been stripped of citizenship under the Burma Citizenship Law and omitted from the country\u2019s list of \u201cnational races.\u201d And while the plight of Rohingyas living in internally displaced person camps \u2013 as a result of inter-ethnic violence in 2012 \u2013 has received some international attention, most Rohingyas live outside these camps in areas where monitoring and humanitarian access is severely curtailed.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur report only touches the surface of what is a pernicious system of discrimination against the Rohingya,\u201d said PHR\u2019s Brown. \u201cUnless and until citizenship laws are changed and military forces end their campaign of subjugation, there will be little hope for peace and development in northern Rakhine State and elsewhere in Myanmar. The government of Myanmar has persecuted the Rohingya for decades, and these abuses continue to wear away at the health and wellbeing of all Rohingya people.\u201d<\/p>\n

__________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

Nobel Peace Prize Co-laureate<\/em><\/strong>,<\/em> Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a New York-based advocacy organization that uses science and medicine to stop mass atrocities and severe human rights violations. Learn more here.<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n

An earlier version of this press release said PHR documented land confiscation among the Rohingya in northern Rakhine state. In fact, PHR\u2019s partners in the region\u2014not PHR\u2014have documented land confiscation and evictions of Rohingya and other groups by Burmese authorities.<\/em><\/p>\n

Media Relations Manager, New York: <\/em>Stephen Fee<\/a> – sfee@phrusa.org<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 physiciansforhumanrights.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Report from Physicians for Human Rights Shows Severe Persecution Contributes to Cycle of Poverty and Despair among Rohingya Minority<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nobel-laureates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81554\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}