US embassy cable - 06RANGOON1722

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 RANGOON 001722 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MLA, G/PRM 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PREL, PGOV, EAID, BM 
SUBJECT: A TALE OF TWO SITTWES: BURMA'S ETHNIC TENSIONS 
 
REF: A. RANGOON 0668 
     B. RANGOON 0235 
 
1.  (SBU) Summary.  Non-Buddhist ethnic minorities in Burma's 
Rakhine State face the worst of times, with a flat economy, 
no citizenship rights, and no freedom to seek better 
opportunities elsewhere.   The UN Food and Agriculture 
Organization (FAO), World Food Program (WFP), UN High 
Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), and a number of Japanese and 
European NGOs work actively in northern parts of the state to 
provide assistance to the Rohingyas, but Muslim and Hindu 
residents of other parts of Rakhine state face many of the 
same oppressive controls. Many of the Arakhan Buddhist 
majority fear population growth among Muslim Rohingyas more 
than the regime's heavy military presence in their state. 
Despite the state's potentially lucrative offshore oil and 
natural gas fields, today only major population centers 
receive any state-supplied electricity, and even those only 
get a few hours each night before an 8 pm curfew.  End 
summary. 
 
2.  (U) DCM joined 14 diplomats from other Rangoon missions 
and 4 UN officials on an FAO and WFP-organized trip to 
Rakhine State October 27-30.  The trip focused on UN 
humanitarian assistance in Northern Rakhine State (NRS), two 
overcrowded districts along the Bangladesh border whose 
population is literally interned by the Burmese military. 
The diplomats also visited the historic city of Mrauk-U and 
spent two nights in the state capital of Sittwe, where 
Muslims face many of the same restrictions their brothers and 
sisters suffer in NRS. 
 
Living Under the Gun 
-------------------- 
 
3.  (SBU) While most Rohingya Muslims are confined to the 
districts of Maungdaw and Buthithaung in Northern Rakhine 
State (NRS), and not permitted any real freedom of movement 
(ref A), Muslims living in the capital city of Sittwe and 
other parts of the state said that they, too, are held 
captive by rigid GOB restrictions on their travel and 
activities.  Local residents estimate about one million 
Muslims are crowded into NRS, and a further 300,000 Muslims, 
also primarily Rohingyas, live elsewhere in Rakhine State. 
Hindu residents of the state, most of who are ethnically 
Indian, suffer the same lack of citizenship rights and 
restrictions on travel as their Muslims neighbors. 
 
4.  (SBU) The Imam of the oldest mosque in Sittwe told us 
that no Muslim resident of the city is permitted on the 
streets after 8 pm, and confirmed that he and most of the 
Muslims in his local community are not permitted to leave the 
city limits at all.  In his youth, the Imam was able to 
travel to Rangoon but, he said, "I have not been anywhere for 
20 years now."  The regime has boarded up most of the rooms 
of his historic mosque, located next to the State Museum in 
central Sittwe, and worshippers are not allowed to pray 
inside it, but one area of foyer is left open to show 
tourists the structure's elaborate century-old architecture. 
 The Imam said there were about 100 mosques in Sittwe 
District, but the authorities only permitted a few to remain 
open, and none could be repaired without permission.   He 
also told those of us who broke away from regime "escorts" to 
visit the mosque that he knew he would be called in for 
interrogation as a result of our visit, but he was still 
delighted that we had visited. 
 
Across a Great Divide 
--------------------- 
 
5.  (SBU) The Muslim residents of NRS and Sittwe were 
delighted to meet with us and expressed no hostility toward 
the Arakhanese Buddhists with whom they share Rakhine State. 
In contrast, DCM spoke to many young Arakhanese students and 
laborers who were mildly critical of the GOB but spent most 
of their time warning of the "Muslim threat" their province 
faced, claiming the regime's heavy military presence was 
needed to protect the Arakhan people.  When pressed to 
explain how the unarmed Rohingyas threatened them, one young 
student told us, "They breed too fast." 
 
RANGOON 00001722  002 OF 003 
 
 
 
6.  (U) Faced with little else to occupy their time, the 
residents of NRS do take procreation seriously.  According to 
WFP, the average number of children in NRS families is 8.5. 
Few Rohingyas can afford to educate all of their children, 
and preference is given to boys; UNHCR estimates that about 
70 percent of the women in NRS have never attended school. 
 
7.  (SBU) Surprisingly, in some respects, the residents of 
NRS enjoy more control over their local communities than in 
other parts of Burma.  Even though most residents are not 
allowed to possess National Identity Cards or passports, and 
Burmese soldiers guard every key bridge and intersection, the 
long arm of the regime does not reach into village life as 
pervasively as elsewhere.  In most Rohingyan communities, 
unofficial community leaders are selected directly by the 
population.  Most serve ten-year terms and then hand over the 
duties to another community elder.  We were told the "grayest 
beard" among local heads of households is usually selected, 
but in two villages the headmen we met were middle-aged men 
who had snuck into Bangladesh and back, earning extra respect 
and extra hard currency for their endeavors. 
 
8.  (SBU) As a result of the informal election system in NRS, 
the treatment of women varies widely from village to village. 
 At one we visited, women wore heavy black clothing and full 
Saudi-style veils and hid from outsiders.  However, in a 
village just two kilometers away, women wore no head covering 
and mingled freely with local males and foreigners alike.  At 
the next village, a few kilometers away, a group of women 
wearing only headscarves stopped to watch our unusual 
diplomat entourage until the Philippine Ambassador asked if 
she could take their photo.  The women agreed, but a young 
bearded man zoomed up to them on a bicycle and spoke harshly, 
and they quickly vanished into a nearby shelter. 
 
"The Island of Beautiful Women" 
------------------------------- 
 
9.  (U) Several sources during the trip mentioned another 
location in Rakhine state where the local population is 
isolated, in this case free to travel but with no outsiders 
allowed to see their island.  Man Aung Island, located west 
of Ramree Island and the town of Taungoo, is off-limits to 
foreigners and to most Burmese visitors.  Most Burmese refer 
to the island as Mein Ma Hla Kyun, "The Island of Beautiful 
Women," because its original inhabitants are said to be 
Portuguese, Dutch and British buccaneers who settled there 
centuries ago and married locals.   The inhabitants of the 
island speak a dialect of the Rakhine language and, although 
almost all are Buddhist, they also retain traditional customs 
closer to those of Muslims in northern Rakhine. 
 
10.  (U) Today, somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 
inhabitants eke out a living on the island, through fishing 
and raising rice, chili, corn, roselle, and goats.  The 
island is close to the potential oil and gas field in the Bay 
of Bengal (ref B), and oil can be found near the surface in 
some parts of the island.  With no outside investment, 
islanders still draw the oil out of the ground the 
old-fashioned way, sucking it out with bamboo tubes and 
bottling it to sell for use in oil lamps and crude home-made 
generators.  They trade some seafood, agricultural products, 
and oil with neighboring islanders and a few traders, but 
there almost no shops on the island and most residents have 
no access to any currency. 
 
11.  (U) With no real prospects for local employment, many 
women on the island have departed to work as prostitutes in 
Burmese and Thai cities.  According to informal estimates, 
the HIV/AIDS infection rate on Mein Ma Hla Kyun may be double 
the national rate, already alarmingly high.  The GOB 
restricts travel to the island by patrolling the two island 
towns where boats can easily dock, and also by monitoring the 
destinations of people departing from Taungoo and nearby 
Ramree Island.   The island once had an airport, but it was 
closed in the late 1980s and has fallen into disrepair. 
 
What Can Be Done 
---------------- 
 
RANGOON 00001722  003 OF 003 
 
 
 
12.  (U) International organizations and NGOs try their best 
to address the critical food, health and social needs of 
people crowded into Northern Rakhine State, but until the 
Government of Burma is prepared to treat the Rohingyas as 
people with rights, and allow them to hold identity cards, 
the pressures of overpopulation and limited education will 
only create more misery.  FAO estimates that it will take 
seven to ten years of sustained international funding to make 
NRS self-sufficient in food; stabilizing its explosive 
population growth and providing meaningful work and 
educational opportunities to its residents will take even 
longer.  The Japanese focus most of their funding today on 
infrastructure, building sorely needed bridges and roadways 
to link remote villagers in NRS's watery delta environment. 
European donors support much of the current NGO work in 
health care and agriculture. 
 
13.  (U) UNHCR and FAO reps repeatedly encouraged the U.S. to 
make a greater contribution to the people of NRS, identifying 
maternal health training and other ways to help empower women 
(through handicrafts, child nutrition and learn-for-food 
programs) as among their most critical needs. They also 
appealed for donations of reading materials in any language. 
Since most Rohingyas are illiterate, they said that books and 
magazines with photos and pictures were ideal, but Burmese, 
Bengali, Arabic or English texts would also be suitable. 
Deforestation is also a significant concern.  With no current 
sources of fuel and no available electricity, most residents 
spend several hours each day collecting firewood for cooking. 
 Much of NRS' forests have vanished in the last five years 
and WFP officials estimate the remainder will be gone before 
the year 2010 if alternatives are not provided.  The FAO's 
local rep promotes the use of cattle dung as fuel, based on 
his success with similar projects in Afghanistan and Sudan. 
 
14.  (SBU) COMMENT:   The Embassy will continue to pursue 
every opportunity to visit Rakhine State.  Unfortunately, the 
regime tightly restricts access to the region, perhaps 
realizing how truly dreadful the situation there has become. 
Fortunately, UN agencies and international NGOs, once inside, 
have more latitude to work there than elsewhere in Burma.  We 
appreciate PRM's willingness to assist and will continue to 
offer suggestions worth exploring.  End comment. 
VILLAROSA