Authorities in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state have introduced a local regulation setting a two-child limit on Rohingya families in a bid to restrict population growth among the Muslim minority group, according to a government spokesman.

Officials announced the measure—part of a directive that also enforces a ban on polygamy—this month but have not said how it will be enforced.  

The new rules have been imposed in northern Rakhine state’s Maungdaw district, which comprises Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships, along the border with Bangladesh.

The two-child limit only applies to Rohingyas, a stateless group widely considered in Myanmar to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh even though they have lived in the country for generations.

Rakhine state spokesman Win Myaing said the measures were being implemented to curb Rohingyas’ high population growth and were in line with recommendations made by a central government panel probing communal violence that tore through the region last year.

“The birth rates for Muslim families in this area are too high,” he told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

“The Rakhine inquiry commission advised controlling the birth rate in its report, and we will follow their advice,” he said.

The inquiry commission’s report, issued in April, recommended family planning education be provided to Rohingya families, saying their “rapid population growth” had “fuelled insecurity among some Rakhines” and been a factor leading to the violence between the two groups.

Buddhist Rakhines and Muslim Rohingya held bloody clashes in the region in June and October last year, which left nearly 200 dead and 140,000 displaced.

Rights groups have said Rohingyas bore the brunt of the violence, with Human Rights Watch accusing security forces of complicity in “ethnic cleansing" against the group.

“According to many Rakhines, the implementation of family planning programs amongst [Rohingya] communities would go some way to mitigating such concerns and would support the goal of peaceful coexistence,” the inquiry comisson's report said.

“If, as proposed, family-planning education is provided to the [Rohingya] population, the government should refrain from implementing non-voluntary measures which may be seen as discriminatory or that would be inconsistent with human rights standards.”

Surprise checks

Though Myanmar’s nearly 800,000 Rohingyas are a minority in Rakhine state and the rest of the country, the group makes up a majority of the population in Maungdaw and Buthidaung, which are also home to a small Rakhine Buddhist minority.

Authorities are making surprise inspections on Rohingya homes in the townships to check for compliance with the birth control regulation, Myanmar Eleven media quoted a district immigration official as saying last week.

Win Myaing said families who broke the new rules would be dealt with “according to the Immigration Law,” but did not give further details. It remained unclear what measures would be taken against families that have more than two children or are involved in polygamous marriages.

The measure could later be extended to other townships if necessary, he said.

Myanmar has no national laws limiting reproduction, but its ethnic state governments have the authority to introduce regulations in accordance with regional security demands.

Reported by Min Thein Aung for RFA’s Burmese Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

A prominent U.S. lawmaker has said he plans to let sanctions legislation against Myanmar lapse, making the announcement as Myanmar President Thein Sein wrapped up a historic visit to Washington that saw the two countries ink an unprecedented trade and investment agreement.

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell voiced his support for dropping the sanctions Tuesday after meeting Thein Sein along with several other legislators who have helped to shape U.S. relations with the country also known as Burma, including Senators Harry Reid and Lindsay Graham.

On Monday, Thein Sein became the first leader of Myanmar to visit the White House in nearly five decades and was hailed by his counterpart President Barack Obama for the democratic changes he has implemented since taking power from the country’s military junta in 2011.

While Obama has waived the majority of sanctions against Myanmar enacted to punish rights abuses by the former regime, the legislation enabling the sanctions has remained in place, with Congress using the threat of their renewal as leverage meant to encourage further reforms.

But McConnell—the Republican Party’s lead senator who had pushed for sanctions against Myanmar over the past  two decades—said he would no longer support a ban on imports from the country when it comes up for renewal.

A lapse in legislation would mean that Washington could not reimpose the ban if Myanmar backtracks on reforms.

“I believe renewing sanctions would be a slap in the face to Burmese reformers and embolden those within Burma who want to slow or reverse reform,” Agence France-Presse quoted the lawmaker as saying.

“Many of us who have followed Burma for years never thought reform would come to this troubled country. This is an important moment and I believe it is time for Congress to take responsible action," he said.

McConnell said that not renewing the trade restrictions would also allow U.S. companies looking to invest in Myanmar to gain an equal footing with their Western competitors in the European Union, which last month lifted its economic sanctions against the former pariah nation.

He said Congress would retain leverage on Myanmar through other sanctions that remain on the books.

Trade agreement

McConnell’s change of tack followed an announcement by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) Tuesday that Washington and Naypyidaw had signed an agreement to promote cooperation on trade and investment.

“As part of this dialogue, the two sides will work together to identify initiatives that support the ongoing reform program and promote inclusive development that benefits the people of Burma, including the poorest segments of its population,” the USTR said.

U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis, who signed the pact along with Myanmar’s deputy commerce minister Pwint San, said that Washington is in support of far-reaching economic reforms by Myanmar’s new leadership, which is seeking greater investment from the U.S. and other nations.

“Economic reforms and trade are mutually supportive. Stronger institutions, transparency, and rule of law create stronger foundations for commercial transactions, trade, and investment,” Marantis said.

On Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is the investment arm of the World Bank, said that reforms in Myanmar had grown the country’s economy by 6.5 percent last year and are likely to fuel additional acceleration.

The IMF predicted that Myanmar’s economy would grow by around 6.75 percent in the 2013-2014 financial year, driven by gas production and investment.

“The authorities’ ambitious reform program is bearing fruit, with macroeconomic stability and high investor interest,” the IMF’s Matt Davies said, marking the end of a mission this month to the country, whose economy had stagnated for decades due to misrule by the former junta.

“International reserves will continue rising as foreign direct investment inflows outweigh a widening current account deficit,” he said.

Myanmar is expected to draw significant foreign investment as companies look to cash in on the country’s huge amount of extractive and timber resources, as well as its large population.

Hurdles remain

But while the U.S. government and the international investment community have showered praise on Myanmar’s leadership for its ambitious reforms, hurdles remain for the fledgling government as the country pushes forward on its path to becoming a democratic nation.

On Tuesday, members of the U.S. House of Representatives pressed Thein Sein to release the country’s estimated 200 remaining political prisoners, who rights groups say have been used as a form of leverage in matters of international diplomacy.

His government has also faced criticism for falling short of pledged reforms and failing to address abuses, including ethnic violence against Muslims in Rakhine state and central Myanmar over the past year.

Two outbreaks of violence in Rakhine state last year left nearly 200 dead and hundreds of thousands of ethnic minority Muslim Rohingyas displaced, while clashes in central Myanmar this spring killed dozens.

Thein Sein’s government has yet to forge a lasting peace with several ethnic minority militias in the country’s borderlands, including with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state.

Protesters had gathered outside the White House on Monday during Thein Sein’s unprecedented visit with Obama at the Oval Office, warning that Washington’s welcome of the ex-general was likely to take pressure off of his government to proceed with reforms.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch cautioned that “if the U.S. keeps delivering carrots on the same schedule while Burma breaks its promises, Burma’s leaders will conclude that they are no longer under serious international pressure to follow through on reforms.”

A court in central Myanmar sentenced seven Muslims to between two years and life in prison over the death of a Buddhist monk that fueled deadly communal riots two months ago in Meikhtila city, lawyers said Tuesday.

The defendants, accused of killing the monk Thawbita, were spared the death penalty in one of the highest-profile cases since sectarian violence flared in the country last year.

Myat Ko Ko, also known by the name Annawar, was sentenced to life imprisonment—equivalent in Myanmar to 20 years—for murder, in addition to four years for unlawful assembly and religious disrespect, for a total of 24 years in prison, a lawyer for the defendants said.

Five others—Myo Myo Tun, Myo Nytunt, Pho Cho, Zaw Thet Naing, and Myo Win, who is also known as Rache—were given between two and 14 years in jail for charges including abetting murder, unlawful assembly, and religious disrespect.

A juvenile defendant, Nyi Nyi Aung, was tried in a separate court and received a seven-year sentence—the maximum allowed.

Another four people suspected by police of masterminding the murder are still on the run.

Sensitive case

Thein Than Tun, a lawyer for one of the defendants, said observers were not allowed in the courtroom during the trial because of the sensitivity of the case.

“No one could get into the court today,” he told RFA’s Myanmar Service.  

Thawbita’s death on March 20 had inflamed passions in Meikhtila after photos circulated widely through social media of what was purported to be his body after he was pulled off a motorbike, attacked and burned.

Clashes stemming from quarrel earlier that day between a Buddhist couple and the Muslim owner of a goldsmith shop in Meikhtila spread to other towns in central Myanmar and raged for more than a week, leaving at least 44 dead and 12,000 displaced—most of them Muslims.

So far no Buddhists have been convicted over the clashes, but authorities have said both Buddhists and Muslims are among the more than 140 people arrested in connection with the violence.

Last month, the goldsmith was among three Muslims sentenced to 14 years in prison each for various offenses, including aggravated assault, attempted injury, and aiding and abetting crimes.

International rights groups have accused local authorities of complicity in the violence, saying security forces stood by and watched while attackers burned down entire neighborhoods.

State of emergency renewed

On Tuesday, Myanmar’s parliament voted to extend for two months a state of emergency in the area, which had been declared by President Thein Sein in the area on March 22 and was up for renewal.

The clashes in central Myanmar were the third bout of sectarian violence in the country since last year, when deadly violence flared up in Rakhine state in the west.

The June 2012 unrest in Rakhine state, together with clashes in October, left at least 192 dead and 140,000 homeless—most of them Muslim Rohingya, who rights groups say bore the brunt of the violence.

Reported by Yadanar Oo and Myint Oo for RFA’s Burmese Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

Myanmar’s President Thein Sein on Monday became the first leader of his country to visit the White House in nearly half a century, in a warm welcome by the U.S. for the head of the once-pariah state and a strong show of support for his reform program.

In a scene that would have been unthinkable three years ago under Myanmar’s former military regime, U.S. President Barack Obama welcomed Thein Sein, an ex-general, to talks in the Oval Office while protesters gathered outside.

Rights groups and some U.S. lawmakers were wary that the visit was premature and likely to take the pressure off of Thein Sein’s government to implement promised reforms.

Speaking after the talks, Obama praised Thein Sein’s leadership in spearheading the country’s democratic transition over the past two years but raised “deep concerns” about ethnic violence against minority Muslims in Myanmar and other rights issues.

Thein Sein vowed to push forward with reforms in Myanmar while asking for U.S. support amid the many “obstacles and challenges” facing the country, which is also known as Burma.

“Our democratic government is just two years old and we have carried out many political reforms,” he said.

"For our democracy to flourish in our country, we will have to undertake more political and economic reforms in the years ahead,” he said, adding that Myanmar will need the “assistance and understanding” of the U.S. and the rest of the international community to do so.

‘Genuine efforts’

Thein Sein’s visit repays a trip in November by Obama to Myanmar, after the two countries formalized their diplomatic relations last May for the first time in more than 20 years.

Since his reformist government took power in 2011 following decades of military misrule in Myanmar, Thein Sein’s government has released hundreds of political prisoners, eased restrictions on assembly and the press, and renewed attempts at dialogue with armed ethnic minority groups.

His government has also allowed Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent years under house arrest during the junta regime, to enter parliament following landmark by-elections last year.

In response, the Obama administration has suspended sanctions against Myanmar in an attempt to encourage further change and extend its influence in the former military-ruled nation.

But rights groups have said the steps fall short of pledged reforms and the government has failed to address abuses, including recent ethnic violence against Muslims in Rakhine state and central Myanmar over the past year.

Two outbreaks of violence in Rakhine state last year left nearly 200 dead and hundreds of thousands of ethnic minority Muslim Rohingyas displaced, and the clashes in central Myanmar this spring killed dozens.

Obama said Thein Sein has made "genuine efforts" to solve the ethnic conflicts that have plagued Myanmar for decades, but urged an end to the violence.

"The displacement of people, the violence directed towards them needs to stop," he said at the briefing after the meeting.

But he praised the country’s progress toward reform, saying Thein Sein was the “first to recognize” further changes needed.

"What has allowed this shift in relations is the leadership that President Thein has shown in moving Myanmar down a path of both political and economic reform,” he said, referring to the country by its official name, instead of “Burma,” in a gesture of support.

'End to all forms of discrimination'

In a speech after the White House visit, Thein Sein urged an end to the ethnic violence and ethnic discrimination in the country, but stopped short of mentioning the Rohingyas.

"Myanmar people of all ethnic backgrounds and all faiths—Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, and others—must feel part of this new national identity," he said at a forum at John Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.

“We must end all forms of discrimination and we must ensure not only that intercommunal violence is brought to a halt but that all perpetrators are brought to justice.”

Thein Sein said the government was working toward forging a lasting peace with ethnic minority militias in the country’s borderlands, saying he was “confident” peace could soon be forged with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state.

Myanmar is also in the process of working to reform the role of its military, developing “a new vision of national security and strategy necessary to ensure people’s human security.”

The military—which under the country’s 2008 constitution is reserved a quarter of the seats in parliament—has come under fire from rights groups for abuses committed in fighting against the Kachin, as well as for standing by amid the sectarian clashes in Rakhine and central Myanmar.

Past commitments

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch had urged Obama to use Thein Sein’s visit to insist Myanmar implement past commitments to reform, including pledges made just before the U.S. president’s visit to Yangon, also known as Rangoon, last year.

“If the U.S. keeps delivering carrots on the same schedule while Burma breaks its promises, Burma’s leaders will conclude that they are no longer under serious international pressure to follow through on reforms,” HRW’s Asia advocacy director John Sifton said in a statement on the visit.

The U.S. Campaign for Burma staged demonstrations outside the White House and elsewhere in Washington against Thein Sein’s visit.

“President Thein Sein has not taken any recent steps to investigate allegations of government-perpetrated violence, revise laws that condone human rights abuses, or hold anyone accountable for gross violations of international law,” the group said in a statement.

A report released Monday by the U.S.-based Physicians for Human Rights said it had found evidence that police were complicit in attacks in the Mingalar Zayone quarter of Meikhtila in March that resulted in a “massacre” of 20 children.

On the eve of the talks Thein Sein told the Washington Post that the military “will always have a special place” in government and dismissed as “pure fabrication” allegations that the military had condoned or participated in violence perpetrated against Muslims.

Reported by RFA’s Burmese Service. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

Religious freedom continued to decline in China this year, while Vietnam showed slight signs of improvement despite ongoing abuses, the U.S. State Department said in an annual report to American lawmakers.

Meanwhile, in Myanmar, also known as Burma, violations of religious freedoms continued unchanged in spite of progress made in political reforms, the report said.

In China, the State Department’s 2012 Religious Freedom Report said, “the government’s respect for religious freedom declined during the year, particularly in Tibetan areas and the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Republic.”

In general, China’s government emphasized state control over religion, the report said, adding that the religious activities of religious adherents were restricted “when these were perceived, even potentially, to threaten state or Chinese Communist Party interests, including the Party’s concept of social stability.”

Protestants and Catholics practicing outside of state-controlled churches came in for particular scrutiny, said the report, as did members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement and smaller groups called “evil cults” by China’s government.

“Government repression, including crackdowns at monasteries and nunneries, resulted in the loss of life, arbitrary detentions, and torture,” said the report.

The U.S. Secretary of State has designated China as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) since 1999, with the designation most recently renewed in August 2011.

Countries of Particular Concern

Countries of Particular Concern are countries “that are considered to commit ‘particularly severe violations of religious freedom,’ and whose records call for the U.S. government to take certain actions under the terms of the [International Religious Freedom] Act,” said the report.

Burma, or Myanmar, also designated a CPC since 1999 with that status renewed in 2011, saw “considerable” movement in political reform during 2012, “but the trend in the government’s respect for religious freedom did not change significantly during the year,” the State Department report said.

The report noted especially that local officials in the country’s Rakhine state took part in ethnic violence targeting Rakhine’s Muslim community last year.

Overall, Myanmar authorities “subjected religious activities and organizations to restrictions on freedom of expression, association, and assembly,” the report said, adding that the government  promoted Theravada Buddhism over other religions, “particularly among certain ethnic minority populations.”

In Vietnam, though abuses of religious freedom—involving arrests, detentions, and convictions—were  reported during the year, “the government also showed signs of progress,” said the report.

“It registered new congregations, permitted the expansion of charitable activities, and allowed large-scale worship services with more than 100,000 participants.”

Problems remain

“Other problems remained, [though], especially at the provincial and village levels, including slow or denied approval of registration for some groups. Some Christian groups also reported harassment or administrative obstacles when they tried to hold Christmas services,” the report said.

The State Department included Vietnam on its list of Countries of Particular Concern in 2004 but removed it from the blacklist two years later and has since ignored repeated calls by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedoms (USCIRF) to reinstate the country’s designation.

“The Vietnamese government is still using vague national security laws to suppress independent Buddhists, Protestants, Hoa Hao, and Cao Dai activities,” USCIRF chair Katrina Lantos Swett told RFA in April.

“And they are definitely working to stop the growth of ethnic minority Protestantism and Catholicism through discrimination, instances of violence, and repeated episodes of forced renunciations of faith.”

“It’s still a very concerning situation, and one that we believe does merit CPC designation,” Swett said.

Lax enforcement

In Laos, “the trend in the government’s respect for religious freedom did not change significantly during the year,” the State Department’s report said.

“Officials respected the constitutional rights of members of most religious groups to worship, albeit within constraints imposed by the government.”

But local officials were sometimes lax in their enforcement of laws protecting religious freedom, said the report.

“District and local authorities in some of the country’s 17 provinces continued to be suspicious of non-Buddhist religious groups and occasionally displayed intolerance for minority religious groups.”

This was especially true in the case of Protestant congregations, “whether or not officially recognized,” the report said.

Contrasting cases

Meanwhile, in Cambodia, “there were few reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious affiliation, belief, or practice,” though Buddhism is the country’s state religion, said the report.

“[Cambodia’s] constitution and other laws and policies protect religious freedom and, in practice, the government generally respected religious freedom.”

By contrast, the government of North Korea “severely restricted religious activity, except for some officially recognized groups it tightly supervised,” according to the State Department report.

“Reports by refugees, defectors, missionaries, and nongovernmental organizations (NGO) indicated that the authorities arrested and subjected to harsh penalties persons engaged in religious proselytizing and those in unauthorized contact with foreigners or missionaries.”

Reports of arrests and punishments  during 2012 were difficult to verify, though, “[D]ue to the country’s inaccessibility and the inability of foreigners to gain timely information,” the report said.

Plans by authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong to build a cemetery reportedly reserved for officials and war heroes have sparked satire and anger on China's Internet in recent days.

In an era where sky-high land prices put a traditional burial plot far beyond the means of most people, a common joke circulates that regular folk "can't afford to die."

According to recent media reports, the Guangzhou municipal government has earmarked 620 million yuan (U.S. $100 million) for the construction of a new "revolutionary cemetery" in the city's Fushan district, which will begin in June.

While calls to the Guangzhou municipal civil affairs bureau went unanswered during office hours, the bureau responded to online criticisms via its account on the popular Twitter-like service Sina Weibo, denying claims that the government planned to create an elitist cemetery.

"The Fushan cemetery is a public cemetery," it said, before adding: "But it will have the honor of burying individuals who have made a special contribution to their country."

But the attempt at clarification didn't hold much water with local residents.

One resident of Guangzhou surnamed Zhang told RFA that the whole idea of such a division is basically wrong.

"I don't believe it's acceptable to have a section of the cemetery for regular folk and a section for officials," he said. "Officials shouldn't be allowed any sort of special treatment in cemeteries, regardless of how much of the space they are given."

"Everyone should be treated the same," Zhang said.

Netizen backlash

Meanwhile, online comments hit out at yet another area of life in which those who hold public office are given special power and privileges.

Microblog user @geyanxingju commented in one post: "Even death is subject to special privileges; why bother letting us live at all?"

Another commentator quipped: "When the earthquake came, we let the officials go ahead [of the rescue teams] ... When planes are overbooked, officials board first ... So we should let them die first, too!"

A tweet reporting a man-on-the-street interview on the topic allegedly conducted by state broadcaster CCTV was retweeted thousands of times, amid scores of laughter emoticons.

In the interview, the journalist asks an old man his opinion of a planned cemetery for officials. The old man thinks for a moment, before asking, "Will they be burying them alive?"

War cemetery

The Guangzhou authorities have also announced plans, meanwhile, to demolish a war cemetery and memorial honoring Chinese soldiers who died in World War II.

The Baiyunshan war cemetery was initially set up after the war using donations gathered by Kuomintang Gen. Sun Li-jen, known by his nickname "Rommel of the East," who led the Chinese "First Army Under Heaven," credited with defeating the most troops in the war against Japanese invasion forces in China.

Later in the war, Sun's New 38th Division played a key role in protecting the Burma Road and joined the 'X Force' under Joseph Stilwell during the campaign to retake northern Burma in 1943.

Many of those buried in the cemetery fought and died alongside Sun, who was one of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's most respected generals.

Reported by Yang Fan and Yang Jiadai for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Wei Ling for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

Myanmar on Friday released around 20 political prisoners, including a prominent activist who had recently been thrown back in jail after receiving a pardon, ahead of President Thein Sein’s historic visit to Washington next week.

Social campaigner Nay Myo Zin, who in the first case of its kind in the country had his previous amnesty revoked earlier this month under a controversial provision of the criminal code, left the Maubin prison in Ayeyarwady region where he had been held for 14 days.

Friday’s group amnesty did not require other prisoners to sign a document binding them to the provision, which had raised concerns among the country's thousands of ex-political prisoners over their ability to freely engage in democracy after it was used to re-imprison Nay Myo Zin.

Zaw Htay, director of the president’s office, said on his Twitter page that the amnesty signaled that Myanmar’s efforts at democratic reform would be “all-inclusive” and that the country’s dissidents were not being used as a form of leverage.

Thein Sein has granted several prisoner amnesties since his reformist government took power in 2011 following decades of military misrule in Myanmar, though many of them have occurred either just before or immediately following strategically diplomatic events.

Members of the government’s political prisoner scrutiny committee say that according to their list, around 160 dissidents remain behind bars in Myanmar, though some activists have put the number as high as 200.

Nay Myo Zin told RFA’s Myanmar Service that officials at the prison had read him the president’s order before letting him go.

“I am happy that the president is making a good move for the country by ordering the release of political prisoners without any conditions,” he said.

“I also would like to thank the president. It is obvious that he is willingly helping the country when we need reforms and when the government needs to earn the trust of the people.”

Nay Myo Zin, who had been critical of the nation's police was earlier this month ordered to serve six years of a sentence he got for a conviction in 2011 after he had been freed in January last year.

His return to prison to serve part of a 10-year sentence he was handed under the draconian Electronics Transactions Act in 2011 drew attention to Article 401 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which gives the president powers to free prisoners but also to "remit the whole or part of the punishment to which he has been sentenced" at any time.

Nay Myo Zaw welcomed Thein Sein’s new amnesty and said he had even been invited by the government to participate in Myanmar’s reform process.

“I have been expecting that all political prisoners would be released without any conditions and I think it is finally happening. We have been fighting against the old systems of the old era…. We are ready to collaborate for the betterment of our country,” he said.

“There are some [purged] military intelligence officers still in different prisons. I want them released as well because if we can work together for our country, this would be good. I want the government to allow everybody to collaborate in politics.”

US visit

Thein Sein is expected to meet with President Barack Obama at the White House on Monday as the first leader of Myanmar to visit Washington since 1966. A Myanmar government official told Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity that Thein Sein was due to leave late on Friday and return next Thursday.

Thein Sein has embarked on substantial democratic reforms in the more than two years since his government took power, and the meeting with Obama is seen as an acknowledgement by Washington of the progress he has made in reversing the oppressive policies of Myanmar’s former junta leadership.

In addition to the release of large numbers of political prisoners, Thein Sein’s government has eased restrictions on assembly and the press, renewed attempts at dialogue with armed ethnic minority groups, and allowed Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to enter parliament.

As a result, the Obama administration has suspended most sanctions against Myanmar in an attempt to encourage further change and extend its influence in the former pariah nation.

But several of the political prisoners released Friday said reforms are not coming fast enough and called for the release of all of Myanmar’s remaining jailed dissidents.

Ye Htut Khaung, who was released after being sentenced in 2011 under Myanmar’s religion act, maintained that he and the country’s other political prisoners were innocent, adding that many others are languishing in the country’s jail for their beliefs.

“We have suffered mental anguish [while imprisoned] and I am very sad for our friends who were not released today,” he told RFA’s Myanmar Service. “We can feel what they feel.”

“We must remember the political prisoners who remain in various prisons around the country. It is not enough for the government to simply establish the political prisoner scrutiny committee.”

Kan Min Tha, a political prisoner who was released from Yangon’s notorious Insein prison—where Reuters News Agency reported 10 prisoners had been released—welcomed the amnesty without conditions.

But he said that the government must answer for the dissidents who remain behind bars.

“We were released today, but I don’t know why other political prisoners were not,” he said.

“They released us without any conditions for the first time—we didn’t need to sign anything. But we demand the release of the other political prisoners.”

Article 401

Ye Aung, a member of the government's political prisoner scrutiny committee, said Thein Sein’s government needs to make assurances that future amnesties will no longer hinge on Article 401.

“As committee members, we have asked for the release of additional political prisoners as soon as possible. The committee also submitted a request to release political prisoners without requiring them to sign Article 401,” he said.

Ye Aung said Thein Sein is responsible for deciding which political prisoners must sign the document on their release and which do not.

“We have called on the president to order the release of all political prisoners without any conditions.”

In April, Burmese authorities released 93 prisoners, including nearly 60 identified by a rights group as political prisoners.

The government freed 452 prisoners in November last year in a gesture of “goodwill” ahead of an historic visit by U.S. President Barack Obama, but the amnesty drew criticism from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners which said that none of those granted freedom had been sentenced for their political views.

More than 80 political detainees were released among more than 500 prisoners in September 2012 ahead of Thein Sein’s trip to the U.S. to attend the United Nations General Assembly. Additional political prisoners were released in amnesties in July last year and in May 2011.

Reported by Kyaw Thu and Ei Ei Khine for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Authorities began moving tens of thousands of people, including some displaced by communal violence, back to their homes and temporary camps Friday after a tropical storm from which they had sought shelter left western Myanmar largely unscathed.

Cyclone Mahasen fizzled out and veered west of its expected point of landfall, sparing more than 8 million people along the coast of the Bay of Bengal in Myanmar and Bangladesh that the U.N. had warned could have faced “life-threatening conditions.”

At least 46 people were killed either by the storm or while trying to escape it, including 31 Muslim Rohingyas whose boat capsized after setting sail from Myanmar’s Rakhine state, according to officials. Of the 31 who drowned, 25 were children and six were women.

Fifteen people were confirmed killed in Bangladesh by Mahasen which produced winds up to 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour before being downgraded to a tropical depression.

In Myanmar, which was spared the brunt of the storm’s force, efforts were under way Friday to return some of the 70,000 people evacuated, including

Rohingyas displaced by communal violence last year, to their homes in 13 townships and to area refugee camps.

Win Myaing, a Rakhine state information official, told reporters that the government was assisting displaced evacuees in returning to camps, while others were returning to their homes on their own.

“We brought back displaced persons from five refugee camps to their places as a preliminary group,” he said of the evacuated Rohingyas.

“Some were sent back to their temporary tents at the camps and others were sent back to new huts that are more secure.”

Win Myaing said that there were no reports of deaths or serious damage from the storm and that the area was “no longer in danger.”

Distrust of government

Authorities had struggled over recent days to evacuate Rohingyas from camps thought to be in the path of the cyclone, where they had been living since two outbreaks of communal violence between Buddhist and Muslims last year.

Many camp residents, distrustful of the government, had refused to leave, prompting officials to issue a stern warning to those failing to comply with evacuation instructions.

Myanmar, which is also known as Burma,  saw its southwest coast devastated in 2008 by Cyclone Nargis, which killed more than 130,000 people.

Local people were left homeless and without food or water in its wake, complaining that the country’s then-ruling military junta had deliberately blocked aid to victims of the catastrophic storm.

They also said officials hindered private attempts to plug the gap, and an unknown number of people were jailed for providing aid.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement earlier this week that Muslims in the camps on the Rakhine state coast were at risk not only from the storm but also from violence at the hands of ethnic Rakhine communities and local security forces.

Rights groups have accused security forces of complicity in last year's violence between Buddhist Rakhines and Rohingya Muslims, which left at least 192 dead and displaced 140,000.

Reported by Min Thein Aung for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Cyclone Mahasen slammed into the coast of Bangladesh on Thursday, mostly skipping Myanmar’s western coast where tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees are living in low-lying areas.

The cyclone weakened to a tropical storm before it made landfall on Bangladesh’s southern coast early Thursday afternoon, bringing tidal surges, heavy rainfall, and strong winds to the region.

At least 14 people have been killed in Bangladesh from drowning and fallen trees, but fears of massive devastation both there and in neighboring Myanmar—which suffered a devastating cyclone in 2008—eased as the storm abated.

The fading tempest spared tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims living in flood-prone camps and temporary shelters in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where rights groups had warned of a looming humanitarian disaster.

Waves in northern Rakhine’s Maungdaw township reached heights of 2 meters (6 feet), while those in the state capital Sittwe hit 1.5 meters (5 feet), according to the local Irrawaddy online journal.

Kyaw Moe Oo, the deputy director-general of Myanmar’s Department of Meteorology, warned that even though the storm had bypassed the coast, the threat of flooding and landslides remained.

“People should be still careful of the heavy rain, flood, and landslides it will cause,” he told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

Evacauations

Authorities had struggled over recent days to evacuate Rohingyas from the camps, where they had been living since two outbreaks of communal violence between Buddhist and Muslims last year.

Many camp residents, distrustful of the government, had refused to leave, prompting officials to issue a stern warning to those failing to comply with evacuation instructions.

Myanmar state media said that by Wednesday 70,000 people had been evacuated from the camps and vulnerable villages.

Bodies found

On Thursday, Bangladesh authorities found the bodies of 22 Rohingyas who had been missing since their boat capsized Monday as they fled the oncoming storm, according to Agence France-Presse. Authorities said the remaining 31 missing would likely wash ashore.

Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, saw its southwest coast devastated in 2008 by Cyclone Nargis, which killed more than 130,000 people.

Local people were left homeless and without food or water in its wake, complaining that the country’s then-ruling military junta had deliberately blocked aid to victims of the catastrophic storm.

They also said officials hindered private attempts to plug the gap, and an unknown number of people were jailed for providing aid.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement earlier this week that Muslims in the camps on the Rakhine state coast were at risk not only from the storm but also from violence at the hands of ethnic Rakhine communities and local security forces.

Rights groups have accused security forces of complicity in last year's violence between Buddhist Rakhines and Rohingya Muslims, which left at least 192 dead.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

Burmese authorities on Wednesday urged tens of thousands of Muslims living in flood-prone camps in Rakhine state to comply with evacuation instructions ahead of a looming cyclone, after some wary of their safety in the wake of ethnic violence refused to move.

Around 140,000 people, mostly ethnic Rohingyas, have been living in tents and makeshift shelters in the coastal state since communal violence forced them from their homes last year, nearly half of them in areas vulnerable to storm surges and flooding from Cyclone Mahasen expected to make landfall late Thursday or early Friday.

Authorities have arranged to relocate tens of thousands in the camps to higher ground, but many have refused to go, saying they fear for their safety in the new locations or that they will not be able to return.

Aung Min, a minister in President Thein Sein’s office, warned Wednesday that authorities will take serious action against those who do not comply with government arrangements to move them to higher ground.

"Some people don't want to move from their homes, but we don't want to see them dead,” he told a press briefing on the cyclone in Rangoon on Wednesday.

“According to the natural disaster management law, entering disaster areas managed by the government and refusing instructions to move to safer areas is also forbidden. The government will punish those who don't follow these instructions to evacuate,” he said.

Deputy Information Minister Ye Htut said those encouraging others to refuse to move “may have action taken against them.”

'Life-threatening conditions'

Officials promised that the government would provide disaster relief to members of all religious communities equally, and urged ethnic communities in Rakhine to put aside their differences to weather the storm.

The U.N. has warned of “life-threatening conditions” for 8.2 million people at risk from the storm along the coasts of India, Bangladesh, and Burma.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement earlier this week that Muslims in the camps on Burma's coast were also at risk from violence at the hands of ethnic Rakhine communities and local security forces.

Rights groups have accused security forces of complicity in last year's violence between Buddhist Rakhines and Rohingya Muslims, which left at least 192 dead.

Fear and distrust

Tun Wai, a Kaman Muslim leader at a camp in Ramree township had agreed with plans to move into a government hall in the township on Thursday, but others at the camp said they were afraid they would not be safe in the new location.

“I think they have refused because they think that the new location is not safer than where they are,” he told RFA’s Burmese Service.

Others fear that once evacuated they will not be allowed to return, or that the new locations they are assigned to will not have as many provisions.

“I don't want to move.  I don't know if there will be food rations in the new place,” one Rohingya man living in a camp in Sittwe told RFA.

Khin Maung Win, a local Rohingya leader in Sittwe, said that members of his community have refused instructions to leave.

“We asked them to evacuate, and yesterday they said they would. But now they don’t want to move,” he told RFA.

The U.N.’s Office of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement late Tuesday that the storm had weakened to a Category 1 storm, but that it posed “life-threatening conditions.”

In 2008, Burma’s southern delta region was devastated by Cyclone Nargis, which killed more than 130,000 people.

Two days before hitting Burma, Nargis weakened to a Category 1 cyclone before strengthening to a Category 4 storm.

Reported by Zin Mar Win, Khin Khin Ei, and Min Thein Aung for RFA’s Burmese Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.