Ed.: The following article was received in my email from Malaysia but there was no media source referenced. Elizabeth Wong also has photos and info on the demonstration.

Kuala Lumpur, 28 September 2007

This morning, more than three thousand Burmese protesters , most of them wearing red marched in the street of Kuala Lumpur . They walked from Ampang Park to the Burmese Embassy, 2 kilometers away. There they had a very organized peaceful demonstration facing the local Riot police who were guarding the Embassy. Then they proceeded to the Chinese Embassy and the Russian Embassy to hand over a memorandum.

The demonstration was a joint effort of nine Burmese Organization here.   more »

Nathaniel Tan, the Malaysian blogger and activist who was arrested on the 13th and remanded to police custody for four days has been released on bail. He has posted his statement about the events at his blog. His statement is an eloquent and inspiring response, and there's really nothing I could say to add to it here. Here are a few excerpts from his statement, but do go read the whole thing.

I was eventually made to understand that I was arrested in connection to accusations made on the internet regarding Datuk Johari Baharum.

The connection to me was based on a comment made on my blog that was made by an anonymous commentor on the 10th of Februrary, 2007.

It was prepostorous of the police to suspect me of publishing these accusations based on documents protected by the Official Secrets Act that were supposedly in my posessesion. There is absolutely nothing even remotely resembling proof to substantiate such claims.   more »

Malaysian blogger and activist Nathaniel Tan, from Bangkit.net and Jelas.info was arrested without charge on Friday. He was taken from his work Friday afternoon by plainclothes officers who did not identify themselves, and did not tell him he was being arrested or the reason he was wanted for questioning. He was asked to bring his laptop and told that it had something to do with the internet. Police had him in lock-up for six hours while his friends and colleagues searched for him, all the while denying that they had him in custody.

The court remanded him to custody on Saturday for four days, in a closed-door hearing which police attempted to orchestrate without informing Nat's lawyers (from Elizabeth Wong). Nat has not actually been charged with a crime, but is being held for an investigation - even though the police have already seized his laptop and home computer, as well as CD-Roms and documents.

The current official line is that Nat is being held under section 8 of the Official Secrets Act.   more »

228 Burmese Asylum Seekers and Refugees Arrested by RELA

SUARAM is informed that 228 asylum seekers and refugees from Burma were arrested in an operation by the Malaysian Immigration and RELA (People’s Voluntary Corps) raid today (25 June 2007). About 2.00am, the joint force raided the Chin Refugee Centre and Chin communities at Jalan Imbi and Jalan San Peng, Kuala Lumpur.

Most of the detainees are recognised as refugees by the United Nations High Commission of Refugees (UNHCR). Among them, 30 people are underaged, 5 are pregnant women and 10 are people who will be sent to the United States of America tomorrow for resettlement. Chin refugee leader U Sang was also among those arrested.   more »

Malaysian newspaper The Star has a great article about Kachin refugees in Malaysia, in honor of World Refugee Day. It's a pleasant departure from the typical articles focusing on the negative conditions of refugees - the jungle camps and overcrowded apartments - and does a good job of reflecting the personality and character of those interviewed. They also have a related article about a new class being held for the Kachin children.

A tidbit from the first article for you:

Unlike most of his countrymen, Kam Li is fluent in English and was able to represent his community in encounters with the locals.

“The name ‘leader’ is high-sounding but my work is really at the ground level. I go to the different settlements, I bring the sick to the clinic, look into the education programme and the welfare of the pregnant women and such.

“Sometimes our people are detained at the police station. These people are from my community, and I’m their leader so I have to go and explain their situation. Some police do not even know what UNHCR is,” says Kam Li who holds a UNHCR card that identifies him as a refugee entitled to protection under the international human rights law.

I am now missing my friends. Go read the article, and if you know a refugee, wish them a happy day and give them a hug.

By Salai Za Uk Ling
www.chinlandguardian.com

11 April 2007 – Kuala Lumpur: Dally Sui Hlei Par, a 7 year-old refugee girl who was found murdered and mutilated a week after she went missing on March 20 was finally laid to rest in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon.

More than 500 Chins and local sympathizers attended the emotional funeral and burial service at Cheras Christian cemetery. Funeral goers braved the drizzling rain to pay their last respect to Dally whose decomposing body was discovered under the bushes near the family’s home with both her hands severed at the wrists.

Dally’s peers and classmates sang an emotional farewell song dedicated to her memory.

Like other refugee and undocumented children, Dally didn’t have access to formal primary education in Malaysia. Chin refugee children receive informal education in community schools run by groups such as Chin Students Organization and Chin Women’s Organization.

Read more...

Van Biak Thang
www.chinlandguardian.com

A distant knell echoed 'long the horizon
Like a whisper that blows a hollow horn;
Tears dropped and hearts ached in silent pain
Over a tragic brutal loss of a seven-year old girl,
So sweet and lovely, Delly Sui Hlei Par.
She loved to play, pray and her stories share:
How she wanted to be free and live to care
When the family's to the States fly in hours
All her dreams but turned into a nighmare
Vanishing like a puff of smoke into breezy air   more »

(CHRO Press Release)

CHRO joins the Malaysian Parliamentary Caucus for Democracy in Burma in their call for the Malaysian government to take immediate action in the case of Dally Sui and to protect all Burmese children living in Malaysia. As a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Malaysia has a responsibility to uphold and ensure the rights of all children, including refugee and undocumented children, are protected.

THE CASE OF DALLY SUI

Dally Sui is seven year old Chin girl who was abducted on 20 March. Her body was later found with her hands severed at the wrist on 27 March. Dally Sui and her family fled Burma, and had been living in Malaysia as refugees since 2002. She went missing the day before she and her family were scheduled to leave Malaysia to be resettled to the United States.

After becoming aware that Dally Sui had disappeared, her parents immediately filed a missing persons report with the police. As the hours turned into days and the search for Dally Sui spread throughout the Chin community in Kuala Lumpur, the police did little to help. Despite repeated requests for their involvement, the authorities failed to take exert the effort even to simply speak to the distraught parents or interview the neighbors

In the end, Dally Sui was found dead with her body dumped in some undergrowth just 4 kilometers from her parent’s house. Her hands remain unaccounted for and her killer has still not been identified by the authorities. Her parent’s must now face leaving for the United States without receiving answers about the death of their little girl.   more »

As per my previous post, this is an appeal to write letters to the Malaysian government calling for an end to the abuse and arrests of asylum-seekers and refugees. The Home Affairs Minister and Foreign Minister have recently made comments that government does not recognize the authority of the UNHCR, and will not recognize refugees in Malaysia. They have announced plans to arrest up to half a million illegal migrants, and are using the People's Volunteer Corps, Rela, to conduct raids. Many victims have recounted abuse and violence at the hands of Rela volunteers, and registered refugees as well as legal visa holders have been arrested and harassed.

Please write to the Malaysian ministers and let them know that their attitude and disregard for the human rights of migrants and refugees is not acceptable and that people are paying attention. They've justified their policies and the use of Rela by saying they have the support of the Malaysian people, and by playing on fears of invasion by floods of illegal migrants. But immigration policy should be shaped by reason and logic, not xenophobia, and economics is never a justification to deny people their human rights.

Here are a few points to request in your letters:   more »

Immigration raids and arrests have been steadily increasing in Malaysia, as the government announced plans to arrest up to half a million illegal migrants this year. Rela, the People's Volunteer Corps, has been mobilized to do immigration's dirty work. Rela has become known for their violent raids and abuse of power. Suaram, the Malaysian human rights NGO, reported last year on several incidents of abuse by Rela officers, including beatings, theft during raids, and arrest of individuals with valid documents. One raid on a market was followed by five bodies being pulled from a nearby lake.

More recently, on March 12, Rela conducted a raid in Jalan Imbi, a neighborhood known to be home to a large number of Burmese nationals - mostly asylum-seekers and refugees from Chin State. The Chin Refugee Center is also located in Jalan Imbi. According to the Chinland Guardian,

"The raid began around 1:00 am and continued for several hours. Forty-eight Chin asylum seekers from Burma, including ten women, have been taken to Seminyah detention camp, where they will await deportation.

Among those arrested and detained is, Salai Ni Kio, a resettled refugee visiting from Denmark on valid travel documents. According to our sources, the Malaysian authorities have confiscated his travel documents and are refusing to release him. The Danish Embassy has been notified about the situation."

   more »

March 8th was International Women's Day, and although this post is a day late, it's still a good time to reflect on the issue of women's rights. The International Women's Day 2007 site has a history of IWD. I find it unfortunate that in reading that page, I didn't come across one bit of information that I already knew. According to the site, the first National Women's Day was observed in the U.S on February 28th, a year after 15,000 women marched through New York city demanding better work conditions and the right to vote. In 1911, "More than one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women's rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination."   more »

By Salai Za Uk Ling
www.chinlandguardian.net

23 February 2007 – Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian authorities on Wednesday detained a 2 week-old refugee baby and her Chin parents after the parents tried to register the child’s birth with the National Registration Department here in Kuala Lumpur.

The new-born child and both her parents were placed in custody yesterday afternoon when the parents tried to register the child as a person born in Malaysia. As of late this evening, they remain in detention at the National Registration Department office in Damansara. Under Malaysia’s immigration law, every child born in the country must be registered within 14 days of birth.

According to a relative who accompanied them to the office yesterday, both parents of the baby are unwell. The mother reportedly still hasn’t completely recovered from child birth and was still bleeding at the time of being detained. The father also had just been released only a few hours earlier from hospital where he was treated for temporary paralysis of the limbs when they were placed in immigration custody. “I was waiting outside of the office until the office closed only to find out that they had been detained inside,” the relative told Chinland Guardian.

Dawt Hlei Tial, the mother, is registered a principal with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as a Person of Concern to the office and is awaiting a final decision on her refugee status. According to the relative, the father has also been notified to appear for interview with UNHCR.

The detention came only a few weeks after Malaysian Home Affairs Minister made a public statement in which he threw criticism at UNHCR for “interfering” with law enforcement’s operations against “illegal immigrants” in the country. In his statement, the Minister further said that his government does not recognize the functions of UNHCR in Malaysia.

According to sources from the Home Ministry, Malaysia currently detains more than 2,000 persons from Burma alone of which a third of them are Chin asylum seekers and refugees. Last year, Home Minister Radzi Sheik Ahmad was quoted by the Malaysian newspaper as saying that his government would intensify crackdowns on “illegal immigrants” despite overcrowded detention centers. “If they [illegal immigrants] have to sleep on the floor next to each other, then so be it,” he was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times.

“We are constantly dealing with arrest and detention every single day,” says Salai San Aung, Secretary of Chin Refugee Committee. According to CRC records, the organization has so far secured the release of 78 Chin refugees in February alone from various police lock-ups and detention.

CHRO is deeply concerned and dismayed by the recent statements made by Malaysia’s Home Affairs Minister, Datuk Seri Radzi Sheikh Ahmad, regarding United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Malaysia. CHRO urges the Minister to consider the implications of his statements in conjunction with the realities of the refugee situation in Malaysia.

On 1 February 2007, the Minister reportedly criticized UNHCR for getting in the way of the operations of agencies such as RELA and the Immigration Department. The Minister further indicated that Malaysia “accepts UNHCR’s presence, but not their powers.”   more »

Continued from Malaysia 12-06-06: Generals and Chickens

After leaving the CWO, Goi and I fetch a cab to go to the Arakanese Refugee Relief Center, which is located some ways outside the city. Although we had the address, finding it was no mean feat. Goi's English is not bad, but he has a unique way of communicating - with mumbled words and ambiguous grunts. I suspect this is a result of an ever-present wad of tobacco or other substance that remains well-hidden within with his cheeks. We found ourselves driving in circles looking for the right street, and I had to laugh to myself a little at the ensuing conversation of the driver's "Eh?!" and "La" peppered English, and Goi's mumbles and "uunnhs". This was punctuated by calls to the Arakanese office and a friend of the taxi driver, with further efforts to communicate directions between several people in at least three different languages.   more »

It would seem I've fallen a bit behind on journaling my trip to Malaysia. I'm going to consider it a positive that I was too busy actually doing things to write about them in a timely fashion, and just forge ahead as if I'm not a month behind. I'm not big on end of year retrospectives or new year's resolutions, anyway.

December 6th started with breakfast with Simon's wife - Simon was the coordinator at the CRC last year who I'd spent so much time with, and who's now in Australia. Last year I had ijagwe and coffee with him every morning, so the plan was to call him so we could chat over breakfast again. Unfortunately, his new job on a farm somewhere around Adelaide pre-empted our conversation.

After breakfast Goi and I went to visit the Chin Women's Organization. They have a set of flats on the other side of the city and run their own projects, providing a safe house for women and children when necessary, running a few classes taught by foreign volunteers for women and children, and a new handicraft project. When we arrived, Zi, the director, led us up to the second flat, where she lives with her husband, and where they had a table set up with their handicraft products so I could look through them and pick some to bring back with me. There was also a teenage boy and an older man sitting quietly against the opposite wall - I've gotten used to there always being random people about, so I don't really pay much attention.   more »

By Salai Za Uk Ling

24 Dec 2006 - Kuala Lumpur: Signs of festivities are everywhere as Chin refugee community in Malaysia prepares for festive celebrations. But hundreds of them will be spending this year’s Christmas in detention centers across Malaysia. More than 500 Chin refugees and asylum seekers are languishing in Malaysian jails and detention centers after being arrested for immigration offences. Detainees range from young single males to entire family members; to mothers and pregnant women to children as young as three years old.

Just last week, 43 Chins were arrested during an immigration raid in a construction worksite near Singaporean border in government’s ongoing operation against “illegal immigrants.” Mr. Peng had been working in the site for more than one month to support his wife and two young children before being arrested in last week’s sweep. Like other recognized refugees in the country, Mr. Peng is not legally permitted to work in Malaysia. Last month, he found a menial work in a construction site in Jahor, more than three hundred kilometers away from Kuala Lumpur where he and his family live. He took the job there, though it meant having to leave his family alone. He needed to earn extra money for the family this Christmas. He and his family are awaiting resettlement in a third country and were recently interviewed for relocation in the United States. His plan was to come back to Kuala Lumpur to spend Christmas with his family, but he is now being detained with dozens of his co-workers and is facing prospects of prolonged detention and even deportation. His wife and two children are now spending this Christmas without Mr. Peng.

Read more at the Chinland Guardian

On December fifth, I met up with Kam Li, the director of the Kachin Development Organization, to talk shop. The KDO started about two years ago, but have had an office and drop-in center for less than a year. When I met up with them last year, Kam Li wasn't working as the coordinator yet. A Kachin friend of mine in Chiang Mai put me in touch with his brother who lives in Malaysia; he works in a swanky restaurant in KL, but is also involved with the KDO. Kam Li came to meet me with a tape recorder, and as we sat in the tea shop he asked me about how they should organize, and what activities they should do.   more »

Later Monday evening, Uncle asks if he could show me his rejection letter from the U.S. His case had been referred to the DHS for a resettlement interview, but wasn't accepted. The letter shows a list of possible reasons for rejection, with the relevant option ticked. The reason he was rejected was that the interviewing officer had given him an 'opportunity to present evidence to support his case', but as he could not produce it, he was rejected. The evidence he was asked to produce was a photo of him and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, proving he was a member of the NLD. He'd left the photo at home, and asked if he couldn't bring it back to show him. The interviewing officer told him there was no time. And that was that.   more »

On Monday, the fourth, I went with Victor and Ling to the magistrate court to watch the proceedings for 23 Chin who were arrested in the raid two months ago. The court is a sprawling marvel of Moorish (as the internet tells me) architecture, with golden domed minarets and spiraling stairwells. The whitewashed hallways are dappled with ornately patterned sunlight streaming through the iron latticework in the dome shaped windows.

The hallways are lined with courtrooms, each with heavy hardwood double doors. There appeared to be hundreds of rooms on several floors in the building. We didn't yet know which room the 23 would be brought to, so we ended up wandering up and down the hallway, someone occasionally popping their head into an open door. We finally met up with the lawyer who was sent by the UNHCR to represent them.   more »

I am starting to remember last Sunday more and more fondly as the week goes by. Why? You may ask - did something fun or interesting happen on Sunday? The answer to that is no. Nothing happened on Sunday. It was a wonderfully unproductive day that I got the better part of to myself. I even got to take a nap. It being Sunday, many people, including Uncle, who seems to be there every time I turn around, were in church. He made a great effort to guilt me into going, but the fact is that I hate church. I am already trying to plot how I can be absent from the neighborhood this coming Sunday, as I gained reprieve last week by telling them 'maybe next week'.   more »

Saturday was a lazy day compared to Friday. Breakfast was Ijagwe and coffee again, with both Uncle and Belle*, who may possibly be the saddest girl in the world. I've spent enough time listening to Uncle tell me how great his god is and that he's praying for me to become Christian, and I know she feels the same way. I often notice her looking at me with an expression that strikes me as being a mixture of pity and regret, and I feel like she's imagining my poor heathen soul burning in hell. I could be wrong though, and it's just as likely that she looks at everyone like that.

I spent the afternoon wandering around with Zaw at the mall, looking for a plug adaptor for my laptop. They have Christmas decorations up in all the malls, and the shopping crowds to match. The crowds, however, are par for the course in a country where shopping seems to be a national past-time.   more »

For my first full day here, the CRC had a meeting with the UNHCR to discuss re-opening registration, so I made arrangements to visit with Li from the Kachin Development Organization. We met up after my requisite breakfast of ijagwe, Chinese doughnuts made Burmese style, and sweet milky coffee.

When I was here a year ago, the KDO was just starting to get organized, and they didn't yet have a proper office to operate out of. They had asked me lots of questions about organizing and operating that I'm hardly qualified to answer, and told me that next time I visited, they would be able to show me their office. Li did just that. Besides the advocacy work he does, like helping Kachins with employment, getting referral letters for hospital visits, and networking with other NGOs, they are also starting up a Kachin radio program, and a handicraft program to generate income. He showed me the room where they have their office set up, with a computer on a low table, and a pile of equipment I didn't recognize that was used for their radio program. He asked what I thought of it and I told him it looked just like a student office. He asked if it didn't look like an 'underground' office - I'm not sure I've ever seen an underground office before, but said it probably did.   more »

It seemed to be business as usual here in Malaysia when I arrived on Thursday. I ended up having to make my own way from the airport to the CRC, a relatively simple task, but I still managed to get ripped off. The guys at the CRC were busy preparing a report for the UNHCR for a meeting to discuss the re-opening of registration. The CRC registers Chin asylum-seekers and then the UNHCR schedules interviews according to the order they are registered. At some point, though, the UNHCR lost the queue, and scores of people got passed over. General registration has been closed for well over a year now, but they are now going to re-open it - for the CRC's 2004 registration list.

There are a few new faces and a few old faces missing here. Simon, the old coordinator that I shadowed for two months last year is now in Australia, waiting for his new wife to join him. Van, the secretary, will be leaving for Australia within a week, while the new coordinator, Philemon expects to be leaving for America sometime next year. There are a few new staff members, more teachers, and the secretary's new baby, as well as a little gray and white cat courtesy of the UNHCR.   more »

Before I take off for Malaysia, I thought it would be worthwhile to post a general overview of the situation with Burmese refugees there, and what I will be doing.

My first trip to Malaysia was just over a year ago - I stayed there during November and December after I left Thailand, and before I returned home to the U.S. I went after being asked to do so by Victor, a Chin community leader who lives and works in Chiang Mai. The idea was to help the Chin Refugee Committee with improving their office operations - stuff like organizing, writing reports and grant applications etc. At least, I think that's what the idea was, although I'm not sure how much I actually helped with that. I did write up a few reports for grant applications, and I wrote a couple official letters to other agencies. I also helped facilitate a few meetings with the Executive Committee to determine priorities for the CRC's future development, and come up with ideas for restructuring the organization to fix some problems they were facing. Unforutanetly, many of these solutions, like having staff members who were focused on community outreach, and developing a communications strategy, required money that's hard to come by. The CRC was formed with the moral support of the UNHCR, and they were tasked with managing the Chin community and handling pre-registration of asylum-seekers, but to the best of my knowledge, that moral support was not backed up by financial support. All of the CRC staff were volunteers, working for room and board, and small stipends to cover some work related costs.   more »