Burmese Rohingya refugees say they are not willing to go back home to participate in the  November 7th elections because it will not bring badly needed change or any guarantee of citizenship rights, according to a Rohingya who has lived in a refugee camp for a long time.

“It is nothing new; same people, same junta, same rules, like old wine in new bottles,” Kyaw Maung, a thirty year-old school teacher and father of three daughters said.

He does not want to vote in the election because it is not “free and fair.”  

“It is an election to choose a rubber-stamp parliament, packed with allies of the dictatorship. It will be a transition from military to civilian dictatorship.  Real power is likely to lie in the National Defense and Security Council (NDSC), which will be full of soldiers and ex-soldiers,” he said.

Kyaw Maung said Burma’s generals deliberately delayed naming the date of the election until the last possible moment. The brief announcement on Friday, August 12, was carried on state TV and radio, when the junta finally announced the date for the country's first polls since 1990.

Like the schoolteacher, many other refugees say they will not be voting, and will not return to Burma because the election is not free and fair.

A community leader from the refugee camp said little has been left to chance, with the regime’s opposition detained and jailed, a new constitution designed to maintain military power through a 25 per cent allocation of parliamentary seats reserved for the military, and a refusal to amend that constitution.

The community leader says the election laws are designed to make it even harder for those opposed to the military dictatorship.

“They require parties to defend the constitution; something a party committed to democracy could not do without compromising its principles. They also require parties to expel members serving a prison term.”

The National League for Democracy has boycotted the election rather than expelling its leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who is still under house arrest. More than 400 NLD members are in jail for their political activities.

The dictatorship banned the NLD Following its refusal to compromise its principles and register under the new rules.

The generals seized power 20 years ago, after promising free and fair elections in 1990. The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) defeated the military-backed National Unity Party (NUP) that year, winning 59% of the vote and 80% of the seats in the People’s Assembly. The regime dismissed the results, and subsequently detained the NLD’s Prime Minister-elect, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, now currently under house arrest.

A former politician also says he does not want to vote in the regime’s 2010 election for the same reasons.

“The Burmese military junta wants to win this election. The election laws exclude the democratic opposition. Huge fees are incurred by any party wanting to take part. Simply fielding candidates in each seat will cost a party around a quarter million dollars. The only parties able to afford the fees are the regime’s allies, who benefit from government funding and backing by business cronies.”

During the past five decades of continuous military rule, ethnic and religious minorities in Burma have suffered from systematic and widespread human rights violations including summary executions, torture, state-sanctioned rape, forced labor, and the recruitment of child soldiers.

To fend off risk of a second defeat at the polls in late 2010, the Burmese military regime has stepped-up militarization in several ethnic states across Burma, assuring that opposition parties cannot organize prior to upcoming elections.

The politician said the ethnic Rohingya Muslims of Arakan are one of the most persecuted ethnic minorities.
“Persecution and human rights violations against the Rohingya have persisted for over 20 years, with insufficient international attention. Such abuses include extrajudicial killings, forced labor, religious persecution, and restrictions on movement, all exacerbated by a draconian citizenship law that leaves the Rohingya stateless,” he said.

Tomas Ojea Quintana, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, said violations have included mass arrests of dissidents, deaths and torture of detainees, and forced labor, which could involve categories of crimes against humanity or war crimes under international law.

Elaine Pearson, Deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch said, "The treatment of the Rohingya in Burma is deplorable - the Burmese government doesn't just deny Rohingya their basic rights, it denies they are even Burmese citizens."

A Rohingya refugee said, “After the election the situation will remain as it is. How can we go back there? We will go back to Burma if we get security and are treated like other ethnic groups.”

Speaking to the exiled Burmese media in Thailand, American State Department Deputy Spokesman, Mark Toner, said, “This election cannot be inclusive or credible under current circumstances. We remain concerned about the lack of a level playing field and the oppressive political environment in Burma.”

Currently, Bangladesh hosts approximately 28,000 Rohingya refugees in two official camps at Kutupalong and Nayapara. They are the Rohingya remaining after a quarter of a million fled to Bangladesh in the early 1990s, to avoid persecution by the Burmese authorities.

At present, over 40,000 thousands unregistered Rohingya refugees live in an unofficial makeshift camp at Kutupalong, and another 12,000 refugees live in Leda camp (Tal).
In spite of requests from the international community and UN groups, these people have been refused refugee status by the Bangladesh government.
There are between 400,000- 500,000 Rohingya struggling to survive in the region.

The Rohingya refugees say that they have no place to live with dignity, their lives are in danger, and their living conditions in the camps are miserable.

The remaining Rohingya refugees say they need an immediate and permanent solution. They refuse to go back to Burma without equal rights, citizenship and guaranteed security.