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 U.S. President Barack Obama has sought to make Myanmar's
transition to democracy a legacy of his presidency, and Washington
is stepping up pressure on the Southeast Asian nation to tackle what
it sees as the root causes of an exodus of migrants across the Bay
of Bengal that the region has struggled to cope with.
The 727 migrants were found drifting in the Andaman Sea on Friday in
an overloaded fishing boat that was taking on water. Myanmar's navy
brought the vessel to the coast of western Rakhine state, where they
disembarked on Wednesday.
Scores of migrant men were sat on the ground at the landing spot
near the town of Maungdaw, close to the border with Bangladesh, a
Reuters witness said.
Others assembled inside a warehouse, and all were being watched over
by dozens of police, the witness said. There were no aid personnel
yet at the site, he added.
Many of the more than 4,000 migrants who have landed in Indonesia,
Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar since the Thai government launched a
crackdown on people-smuggling gangs are Rohingya who say they are
escaping persecution.
 It was not immediately clear where the people on the boat were from.
Myanmar authorities have said they believe most are Bangladeshis.
Myanmar officials had said last month that another migrant boat
found at sea with more than 200 people on board was mostly filled
with economic migrants from Bangladesh. But interviews by Reuters
found more than 150 Rohingya had earlier been on the same boat, but
were quietly whisked off by traffickers before authorities brought
the vessel to shore. [ID:nL3N0YH25D]
NOT CITIZENS
Myanmar does not recognise its 1.1 million-strong Rohingya minority
as citizens, rendering them effectively stateless. Many have fled
the apartheid-like conditions of the country's Rakhine state.
Myanmar denies it discriminates against them.
"Rohingyas need to be treated as citizens of Burma," U.S. Assistant
Secretary of State Anne Richard told reporters at a press briefing
in Jakarta, using the country's former name.
"They need to have identity cards and passports that make clear they
are as much citizens of Burma as anyone else."
Obama said on Monday that Myanmar needed to end discrimination
against the Rohingya people if it wanted to succeed in its
transition to a democracy. [ID:nL1N0YN2AO]
Politicians in Myanmar were focused on a historic general election
scheduled for November, Richard said, which was hindering political
discussion of the status of the Rohingya, who are deeply resented by
many of Rakhine's Buddhist majority.
Images of desperate people crammed aboard overloaded boats with
little food or water has focused international attention on the
region's latest migrant crisis.
The crisis blew up last month after the Thai crackdown made it too
risky for people smugglers to land their human cargo. Smugglers
abandoned boats full of migrants at sea.
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SUU KYI SILENCE
Richard said she would like to see all Myanmar's political leaders
address the issue. Opposition leader and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu
Kyi has faced international criticism for failing to speak out on
behalf of the nation's many ethnic groups, including the Rohingya.
"We would love to see all Burmese leaders speak up on human rights
and to realise that they should help the Rohingya," Richard said.
"The boats are not going to wait until December - the people on the
boats need help right now."
At an international meeting on the migrant crisis in Bangkok on
Friday, Myanmar bristled when the United Nations raised the
citizenship issue and when other delegates blamed the country for
the problem.
"You cannot single out my country," said Myanmar's head of
delegation Htein Lin.
Richard said that the United States was not considering imposing
sanctions on Myanmar over the issue, but that sanctions were always
"in the diplomatic toolbox".
Obama has invested significant personal effort and prestige in
promoting democracy in Myanmar, which emerged from 49 years of
military rule in 2010, travelling there twice in the past three
years.
The U.S. president said in a routine note to Congress last month
that Washington - while not curtailing engagement with Myanmar -
would maintain some sanctions on the country.
"We really hope we are working with a Burma that is on a path to
being a more responsible member of the international community,"
Richard said.
Many Bangladeshis fleeing poverty at home have joined the Rohingya
on the boats.
Around 800 Bangladeshis were among more than 1,800 migrants who
landed in Indonesia's Aceh in May, Thomas Vargas, the representative
to Indonesia for U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, told reporters at the
same press briefing on Wednesday.
Among the group of 1,800 were some 350 unaccompanied minors, he
said.
Vargas reiterated a UN estimate that around 2,000 people were still
at sea and said the first priority for nations involved in the
crisis and for international organisations should be to save lives.
(Additional reporting by Soe Zeya Tun; Writing by Simon Webb;
Editing by Alex Richardson)
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