Northern Burma speakers at UK Parliament
BCUK team with Northern Burma delegation Kachin, Ta’ang and Shan, and Christian Solidarity Worldwide in the UK Parliament where the delegates spoke at the All Party Parliamentary Group on Burma.
Rohingya Citizenship: Now or Never? – Mark Farmaner in LSE blog
With Burma’s general election exactly two years away, the next 12 months may be the last chance to reform the law, give the Rohingya their long overdue citizenship rights, and help create conditions for the safe return of a million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, writes in the London School of Economics’ South Asia blog: “The single most important step the government of Myanmar can take is to reform or replace the 1982 Citizenship Law and give citizenship to all Rohingya.”
Displaced Karen villagers oppose UK charity over land conservation – the Guardian
Karen people who live in Burma’s south-eastern Tanintharyi region are opposing a ridge to reef project planned by British conservation charity Fauna and Flora International and the UN’s development programme. The project aims to protect pristine forest in the area from threats like poachers, loggers and palm oil companies.
The Conservation Alliance of Tanawtharyi (Cat), a coalition of local environmental groups, says the project will displace Karen villagers from their ancestral lands, which they conserve using indigenous practices, and upset the 2012 ceasefire agreement between the rebel Karen National Union (KNU) and the Myanmar military.
Zoya Phan interviewed by University of East Anglia
Zoya Phan, Burma Campaign UK’s Campaigns Manager, graduated from the University of East Anglia in 2005 with a MA in Politics and Development. Asked by UEA’s alumni team for her advice to students, Zoya said “Use your university education to strive for a better world, take risks, make decisions and go out there to make a difference.”
UK discusses options for further sanctions – Mark Field MP
In reply to a written question on Burma, the Foreign Office Minister Mark Field MP gave this answer: “The UK initiated the EU’s new sanctions on seven military commanders and a strengthened arms embargo … we would likely need to take further action in response to the UN Fact Finding Mission report. We are now discussing options for further EU sanctions with member states, including whether to sanction the Commander-in-Chief and his Deputy.”
Helen Goodman MP speaks up for Chin refugees
Helen Goodman, Labour MP for Bishop Auckland in County Durham, has written to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to ask that he urgently reviews the decision to suspend refugee status for Chin refugees from Burma living in Malaysia and India.
She says in her letter “It is not clear to me that any fundamental change has occurred in the country so as to justify the cessation of refugee status for the Chin refugees.” We thank her for speaking up for Chin refugees, and hope UNHCR will listen.
Mark Farmaner speaks at Justice4Rohingya event
Burma Campaign UK’s Director, Mark Farmaner, spoke at an event entitled “How to achieve justice for Rohingya”, organised by Justice4Rohingya yesterday at the London Central Mosque.
Karen environmental activist Saw Wee Eh Htoo visits London
Burma Campaign UK welcomed Saw Wee Eh Htoo, an environmental activist from Karen Wildlife Conservation Initiative, whose visit enabled us to discuss the current environmental and human rights situation in Karen State.
While in the UK, Saw Wee Eh Htoo attended a London conference on illegal wildlife trade, and met British Parliamentarians and the Karen Community Association UK.
Mark Farmaner, Saw Wee Eh Htoo, Zoya Phan, Anna Roberts
EU warned not to suspend trade preferences for Burma – Financial Times
The Financial Times reports on the message to the European Union from human rights campaigners, including Burma Campaign UK, that cutting off trade preferences for Burma would do little if nothing to sanction military leaders, while further inflaming societal tensions.
“If broad-based sanctions harmed average citizens, which is likely, then domestic anti-Rohingya sentiment would escalate,” said Matthew Smith of Fortify Rights, and Mark Farmaner, of Burma Campaign UK, called the EU’s potential review of trade preferences for Burma “crazy”.
Read Financial Times article [login needed]
EU trade preference halt would cause widespread harm – the Irrawaddy
The Irrawaddy reports on the response to the European Union’s threat to remove “everything but arms” (EBA) trade privileges from Burma.
The European Burma Network of eleven groups based in the UK, Belgium, Ireland, Sweden and Germany, including Burma Campaign UK and Burmese Rohingya Organization UK, warned the EU that “such a move risks having a disproportionate impact on ordinary people who have played no role in human rights violations against the Rohingya and others, and in fact themselves suffer from a lack of human rights and genuine democracy in Burma.”