Yangon: The BBC's Burmese language service on Monday said it was pulling a broadcasting deal with a popular Myanmar television channel citing "censorship" as the two partners clashed over coverage of the Muslim Rohingya minority.

The announcement is the latest blow to struggling press freedoms in the country and a remarkable turnaround for a news organisation that famously kept Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi up to date during her long years of house arrest under junta rule.

Since April 2014, BBC Burmese broadcast a daily news programme on MNTV with 3.7 million daily viewers.

On Monday, the BBC said it was ending the deal after MNTV pulled multiple programmes since March this year.

"The BBC cannot accept interference or censorship of BBC programs by joint-venture TV broadcasters as that violates the trust between the BBC and its audience," a report on the BBC's Burmese website said.

The BBC statement did not detail what content was censored.

But in a statement MNTV, a joint venture between private and state media, said it began pulling reports to comply with government orders over "restricted" words.

"The BBC Burmese program sent news that included wordings that are restricted by the state government," the statement said.

A station official said the problematic word was "Rohingya".

"That's why we cannot broadcast their service," the employee said, asking not to be named.

The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority in Myanmar's western Rakhine who face severe state-sanctioned persecution and have fled in droves in recent years.

Most international media call them Rohingya because the community has long self-identified that way.

But Myanmar's government — and most local media — call them Bengalis, portraying them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh despite many living in the country for generations.

Last week Suu Kyi's government called on media to only refer to militants as "extremist terrorists".

While local media have largely complied, the order was reminiscent of the years under the junta when the press was ordered what to write.

Hopes had been high that the new government of democracy icon Suu Kyi would usher in an era of free speech when they took power last year after half a century of military rule.

Suu Kyi was confined for years to a lakeside Yangon house under the junta but used to listen to the World Service and its Burmese language offshoot on her radio.</s>Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi came under more pressure on Tuesday from countries with Muslim populations to halt violence against Rohingya Muslims that has sent nearly 125,000 of them fleeing over the border to Bangladesh in just over 10 days.

Reuters reporters saw hundreds more exhausted Rohingya arriving on boats near the Bangladeshi border village of Shamlapur on Tuesday, suggesting the exodus was far from over.

Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi, in Dhaka to discuss aid for the fleeing Rohingya, met her Bangladeshi counterpart, Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, a day after urging Suu Kyi and Myanmar army chief Min Aung Hlaing to halt the bloodshed.

"The security authorities need to immediately stop all forms of violence there and provide humanitarian assistance and development aid for the short and long term," Retno said after her meetings in the Myanmar capital.

The latest violence in Myanmar's northwestern Rakhine state began on Aug. 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked dozens of police posts and an army base. The ensuing clashes and a military counter-offensive have killed at least 400 people and triggered the exodus of villagers to Bangladesh.

The treatment of Buddhist-majority Myanmar's roughly 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing Suu Kyi, who has been accused by Western critics of not speaking out for the minority that has long complained of persecution.

Myanmar says its security forces are fighting a legitimate campaign against "terrorists" responsible for a string of attacks on police posts and the army since last October.

Myanmar officials blamed Rohingya militants for the burning of homes and civilian deaths but rights monitors and Rohingya fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh say the Myanmar army is trying to force them out with a campaign of arson and killings.

"Indonesia is taking the lead, and ultimately there is a possibility of ASEAN countries joining in," H.T. Imam, a political adviser to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, told Reuters.

He was referring to the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations that includes both Myanmar and Indonesia.

"If we can keep the pressure on Myanmar from ASEAN, from India as well, that will be good ... If the international conscience is awakened, that would put pressure on Myanmar."

Malaysia, another ASEAN member, summoned Myanmar's ambassador to express displeasure over the violence and scolded Myanmar for making "little, if any" progress on the problem.

"Malaysia believes that the matter of sustained violence and discrimination against the Rohingyas should be elevated to a higher international forum," Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said in a statement.

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan, who has said the violence against Rohingya Muslims constituted genocide, told Suu Kyi the violence was of deep concern to the Muslim world, and he was sending his foreign minister to Bangladesh.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi begins a visit to Myanmar on Tuesday, during which he will meet top officials, including Suu Kyi.

The latest estimate of the numbers who have crossed into Bangladesh since Aug. 25, based on calculations by U.N. workers, is 123,600.

That takes to about 210,000 the number of Rohingya who have sought refuge in Bangladesh since October, when Rohingya insurgents staged smaller attacks on security posts, triggering a major Myanmar army counteroffensive and sending about 87,000 people fleeing into Bangladesh.

Refugees arriving in Shamlapur, and residents of the village, said hundreds of boats had arrived on Monday and Tuesday with several thousand people.

Reuters reporters saw men, women, children and a few possessions, including chickens, disembark from one boat.

"The army set fire to houses," said Salim Ullah, 28, a farmer from Myanmar's village of Kyauk Pan Du, gripping a sack of belongings.

"We got on the boat at daybreak. I came with my mother, wife and two children. There were 40 people on the boat, including 25 women."

The new arrivals - many sick or wounded - have strained the resources of aid agencies and communities already helping hundreds of thousands of refugees from previous spasms of violence in Myanmar.

Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said one camp in Bangladesh, Kutupalong, had reached "full capacity" and resources at others were being stretched.

"We are doing what we can, but will need to seek more resources," Tan said.

Bangladesh is concerned about Myanmar army activity on the border and would lodge a complaint if Bangladeshi territory was violated, an interior ministry official said.

A Bangladesh border guard officer said two blasts were heard on Tuesday on the Myanmar side, after two on Monday fueled speculation Myanmar forces had laid land mines.

One boy had his left leg blown off near a border crossing before being brought to Bangladesh for treatment, while another boy suffered minor injuries, the officer, Manzurul Hassan Khan, said, adding the blast could have been a mine explosion.

The Myanmar army has not commented on the blasts near the border but said in a statement on Tuesday Rohingya insurgents were planning bomb attacks in Myanmar cities including the capital, Naypyitaw, Yangon and Mandalay to "attract more attention from the world."</s>JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Several thousand people marched in Indonesia's capital on Wednesday, calling on the government of the world's most populous Muslim nation to put more pressure on Myanmar to halt the persecution of its Rohingya Muslim minority.

The demonstration was the largest in a series of protests this week by Indonesians against Myanmar's government and its leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. It was organized by the Islamic Defenders Front, a vigilante group, but also joined by mainstream Muslim groups.

The U.N. says about 125,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh after a military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state. The government of the predominantly Buddhist country says the crackdown is in response to attacks on police and paramilitary posts.

The Indonesian government risks a backlash from Muslim voters if its response to the crisis is perceived as insufficiently robust. But its room for maneuver is limited by a consensus among Southeast Asian nations of avoiding open criticism of each other.

Indonesia's foreign minister met with Suu Kyi and the head of Myanmar's armed forces on Monday. She said she pressed them to immediately end all violence in Rakhine and promised Indonesia would respond to the crisis with humanitarian aid.

Sobri Lubis, a protest organizer from the Islamic Defenders Front, called for Indonesia to expel Myanmar's ambassador, the United Nations to impose sanctions on Myanmar and for Sui Kyi's Nobel Prize to be revoked.

"The world does not care so we are gathering here to show the world that the Rohingya are not alone. Indonesian Muslims will stand and fight to defend them from injustice and brutality," he said.

Demonstrators were met with a show of force by police, who blocked streets around Myanmar's already cordoned-off embassy in Jakarta with vehicles and barriers. Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono estimated about 5,000 people had joined the protest.

Elsewhere in Indonesia, schoolchildren in Bandung and civil servants in Ambon held mass prayers while hundreds protested in Medan, Indonesia's third-largest city.</s>Several thousand people marched in Indonesia's capital on Wednesday, calling on the government of the world's most populous Muslim nation to put more pressure on Myanmar to halt the persecution of its Rohingya Muslim minority.

The demonstration was the largest in a series of protests this week by Indonesians against Myanmar's government and its leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. It was organized by the Islamic Defenders Front, a vigilante group, but also joined by mainstream Muslim groups.

The U.N. says about 125,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh after a military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state. The government of the predominantly Buddhist country says the crackdown is in response to attacks on police and paramilitary posts.

The Indonesian government risks a backlash from Muslim voters if its response to the crisis is perceived as insufficiently robust. But its room for maneuver is limited by a consensus among Southeast Asian nations of avoiding open criticism of each other.

Indonesia's foreign minister met with Suu Kyi and the head of Myanmar's armed forces on Monday. She said she pressed them to immediately end all violence in Rakhine and promised Indonesia would respond to the crisis with humanitarian aid.

Sobri Lubis, a protest organizer from the Islamic Defenders Front, called for Indonesia to expel Myanmar's ambassador, the United Nations to impose sanctions on Myanmar and for Sui Kyi's Nobel Prize to be revoked.

"The world does not care so we are gathering here to show the world that the Rohingya are not alone. Indonesian Muslims will stand and fight to defend them from injustice and brutality," he said.

Demonstrators were met with a show of force by police, who blocked streets around Myanmar's already cordoned-off embassy in Jakarta with vehicles and barriers. Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono estimated about 5,000 people had joined the protest.

Elsewhere in Indonesia, schoolchildren in Bandung and civil servants in Ambon held mass prayers while hundreds protested in Medan, Indonesia's third-largest city.</s>Rohingya woman: 'They tore all my clothes'

A top UN official says "crimes against humanity" are being committed by the military and police against Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority.</s>A Rohingya man carrying his son and belongings walks through a broken road after crossing the Bangladeshi border at Shah Porir Deep, in Teknak, Bangladesh. (Photo: AP)

Cox’s Bazar, (Bangladesh): At least five children drowned when boats carrying Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar sank early on Wednesday, Bangladesh border guards told AFP.

Authorities said three to four boats had sunk at the mouth of the Naf river, which divides Bangladesh and Myanmar's violence-wracked Rakhine state, raising fears there could be many more casualties.

Scores of people have already been killed attempting to cross the Naf border river since a fresh upsurge in violence in Rakhine on August 25, many using small fishing boats unsuited to the rough coastal waters.

Border Guard Bangladesh officer Aloysius Sangma said three to four boats packed with Rohingya refugees had gone down early Wednesday.

"So far, the bodies of five male and female children have been found at different locations," he told AFP.

Local police chief Main Uddin said authorities were travelling to the spot to investigate.

More than 125,000 refugees have flooded across the border into Bangladesh.

Most are Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority that the government of Buddhist-majority Myanmar largely does not recognise as citizens.</s>Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder treks through difficult terrain with people fleeing Myanmar

The number of Rohingya refugees crossing from Myanmar into Bangladesh has surged, the UN says, with more than 35,000 new arrivals identified in the last 24 hours.

More than 123,000 Rohingya are now said to have fled violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state since 25 August.

The conflict was triggered by an attack by Rohingya militants on police posts.

This sparked a military counter-offensive that has forced a flood of Rohingya civilians from their villages.

The Rohingya are a stateless mostly Muslim ethnic minority who have faced persecution in Myanmar (also called Burma). Many of those who have fled describe troops and Rakhine Buddhist mobs razing their villages and killing civilians in a campaign to drive them out.

The military says it is fighting against Rohingya militants who are attacking civilians.

Independently verifying the situation on the ground is very difficult because access is restricted, but since the police-post attacks Rohingya families have been streaming north into Bangladesh.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Rohingya families are making their way across the Naf River into Bangladesh

The UN says it is not clear exactly when the latest refugees arrived, but said the number of new arrivals needing food and shelter had surged dramatically.

Two main UN camps for them are now full, so people are sleeping outside or building shelters on open ground and along roads, a spokeswoman said. Many are in dire need of food and water.

"We fled to a hill when the shooting started. The army set fire to houses," Salim Ullah, a farmer from Myanmar's Kyauk Pan Du village, told Reuters news agency as he arrived in Bangladesh.

"We got on the boat at daybreak. I came with my mother, wife and two children. There were 40 people on a boat, including 25 women."

The UN's migration agency has launched an appeal for $18m (13.9m) to provide "life-saving services" for the new arrivals.

Where have the refugees fled?

Some 123,600 people have crossed into Bangladesh since 25 August, the Inter Sector Co-ordination Group reports

In addition to the numbers shown on the map, about 36,000 additional refugees are also living in host communities and spontaneous sites dotted around the border region.

Meanwhile fighting appeared to be continuing in Rakhine, a UN situation report said, with smoke seen at at least 15 points close to the Bangladesh border.

Thousands of Buddhist villagers in Rakhine are also reported to have fled south. One woman told BBC Burmese she saw Rohingya militants attack people in her village with swords and ran for her life.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Aid agencies say those who have fled need food, water and shelter

The refugee surge comes amid mounting concern in Muslim nations over the plight of the Rohingya.

"The security authorities need to immediately stop all forms of violence there and provide humanitarian assistance and development aid for the short and long term," said Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, who met Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, on Monday.

On Tuesday Ms Retno met Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who said the Rohingya influx was a "big burden" for Bangladesh and called on world leaders to put pressure on Myanmar to take them back.

Indonesia is one of several nations where there have been protests over the Rohingya issue. Pakistan and Malaysia have spoken out, and the Maldives has suspended trade with Myanmar. The Turkish president called Ms Suu Kyi to raise concerns about human rights abuses, Turkish media said.

Chechnya and Indian-administered Kashmir have seen protests and Kyrgyzstan has postponed an Asian Cup football qualifier with Myanmar, citing possible protests.

On Monday, a senior UN human rights official said it was time for Ms Suu Kyi to step in to protect the Rohingya.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Rohingya families are living in makeshift shelters in refugee camps

Ms Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate who was under house arrest for years for her pro-democracy activism, has yet to comment on the latest violence.

She is under growing pressure to condemn the army's campaign, but faces both a powerful military and a Burmese public largely hostile to the Rohingya.

On Tuesday Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Myanmar for an official visit, but the extent to which he will raise the issue is unclear.

Last month, his government - which wants to boost economic and military ties with Myanmar - announced plans to deport India's 40,000 Rohingya refugees, because it says they are illegal migrants.

However, finding a country to accept them will be very hard, because Myanmar does not consider them citizens and Bangladesh, which is already home to hundreds of thousands of displaced Rohingya, takes a similar view.</s>Assam’s Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) on Monday commenced export of High Speed Diesel to Myanmar, an official said. An NRL spokesman said that two tankers carrying 40 kilolitres of the fuel were flagged off by NRL’s Director, Finance, S.K. Barua on Monday from Manipur’s Moreh town to Myanmar’s Tamu, where the consignment will be received by officials of Parami Energy Services Co. Ltd (PES). Earlier the tankers were dispatched from NRL’s Marketing Terminal in Numaligarh to reach Moreh via Imphal. The NRL establishment refinery is situated at a distance of 420 km from Moreh-Tamu border crossing connected by Asian Highway I. “This is further to signing of sale purchase agreement between NRL and PES for supply of 90 MT of Diesel (Gas Oil) from Numaligarh Refinery Marketing Terminal (NRMT) through Moreh-Tamu Land Custom Station to Myanmar,” the NRL spokesman said. “Success of this trial consignment will pave the way for further business with PES and other such customers in Myanmar. NRL plans to export 5,000 MT of HSD per month to Myanmar through tankers,” he added.

The spokesman however said that the NRL is also exploring the possibility of laying a pipeline to export diesel at a later stage. “A product pipeline has been proposed from Numaligarh to Imphal in the North East Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 released by the government of India last year. The proposed pipeline could be extended to Moreh post expansion of NRL’s Refinery capacity from present 3 MMTPA to 9 MMTPA,” he added.

The NRL is also looking at opportunities for entering into the retail business of petroleum products in Myanmar. Export to Myanmar will a win-win situation for both the countries. Present demand of petrol and diesel in Myanmar is around 3 MMTPA, while it has three small refineries which together produce 0.7 MMTPA and the balance is imported, mainly from Thailand and Singapore.</s>SITTWE, Myanmar (Reuters) - Noor Bagum would have liked to have voted for Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) but, like the majority of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority, she took no part in the historic election the Nobel laureate won by a landslide.

Stripped of their right to cast ballots by the current government, many Rohingya now hope that, with the NLD able to rule largely on its own, a Suu Kyi-led government will work to restore their lives and many of the rights they have lost.

“I hope that things will get a little bit better,” said Noor Bagum, a 28-year-old mother-of-five, whose village was destroyed during violence between Buddhists and Muslims that swept through Myanmar’s western Rakhine State in 2012.

Dealing with the Rohingya will be one of the most controversial - and unavoidable - of a long list of issues Suu Kyi will inherit from the current government.

Feted by many in the West for her role as champion of Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement during long years of military rule, she has been criticized overseas, and by some in Myanmar, for saying little about the abuses faced by the group.

When an NLD government takes power in March, she will come under mounting international pressure to take a definitive stance in their defense.

But speaking out for the Rohingya would carry a political cost at home. The group is widely disliked in Myanmar, where they are seen as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh - including by some in Suu Kyi’s party. She risks hemorrhaging support by taking up the cause of the beleaguered minority.

The NLD also faces a powerful local rival - the Arakan National Party (ANP) - that has been accused of stoking anti-Muslim sentiment and has called for the deportation of Rohingya. The ANP won 22 of 29 national level seats in Rakhine and took 22 of the 35 elected seats in the state’s regional assembly, one of the strongest showings by an ethnic party in the election.

“We’ll be damned if we do, and we’ll be damned if we don‘t,” said Win Htein, a senior NLD leader, adding that standing up for the Rohingya would give the ANP “ample reason to criticize the NLD”.

Although many have lived in Myanmar for generations, the Rohingya are not one of the 135 ethnic groups recognized under the country’s citizenship law and are thus entitled to only limited rights.

Many Rohingya held temporary citizenship documents, known as “white cards”, that allowed them to vote before they were nullified by President Thein Sein this year.

“We won’t be able to solve the problem as long as the international community is supporting and standing for the Bengalis,” said ANP vice-chairman Phone Minn, using the government’s term for the group, which insinuates they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Phone Minn was elected to a Rakhine regional parliament seat on Sunday.

Noor Bagum, and thousands of other Rohingya are now kept as virtual prisoners outside the state capital of Sittwe in refugee camps like Thae Chaung, a dusty sprawl of listing bamboo huts covered with patchworks of tarps and relief agency rice bags.

“This time, we would have voted for the NLD,” she said, a sentiment widely reflected across the camp.

So far, the NLD has offered little in the way of concrete policy that would tackle Rohingya citizenship status or their resettlement and integration back into the communities they were forced to flee.

But the first post-election comments by the party’s senior leader Win Htein on the 1982 Citizenship Act that denied Rohingya full citizenship rights showed that their hope may be justified.

“It must be reviewed because it’s too extreme...review that law and make necessary amendments so that we consider those people who are already in our country, maybe second generation, so they will be considered as citizens,” Win Htein told Reuters.

Win Htein said that he wanted the NLD administration to allow the Rohingya to settle anywhere in the country to “lessen the burden on Rakhine State”. It was not clear if Win Htein, one of the most influential politicians in the party, was speaking on behalf of the party or giving a personal view.

ANP’s Phone Minn has a different view. He said that the law was “the solution”.

“If they followed that law, the problem will be solved...if these Bengali people deserve citizenship according to the law, they can get it,” said Phone Minn.

Suu Kyi has never visited the refugee camps that house some 140,000 people, mainly Rohingya. Still, many believe her government will be more sympathetic than the outgoing Union Solidarity and Development Party, which was created by the country’s former junta and led by retired military officers.

Mohammed Solim, 32, who like many camp residents was angry at being deprived of the right to vote, said: “We hope that since the NLD won, we will get freedom.”</s>Surabaya, E Java (ANTARA News) - Thousands of people held a rally in front of the office of East Java Governor Grahadi, here, Tuesday, to protest against the Rohingya ethnic cleansing by the Myanmar regime. 



 Various members of the community, including women, youth, religious figures, and professionals, participated in the rally.



 "What has been happening against the Rohingya ethnic minority is a real tragedy, disaster, and crime against humanity," M. Arifan, coordinator of the Humanitarian Action Committee, stated.



 The protestors urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to pressure Myanmar into stopping the genocide on the Rohingya ethnic minority. 



 The committee also urged the Nobel Committee to revoke the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Myanmars de-facto leader Augn San Suu Kyi, who is viewed as not being serious in solving the crisis in Rakhine State, home to over one million Rohingya people.



 Machsun Jayadi, chairman of Muhammadiyahs Surabaya chapter, noted that some four thousand members of Muhammadiyah, the countrys second-largest Muslim organization, took part in the rally to demonstrate their solidarity with the Rohingyas.



 "Hopefully, the world would see that Indonesia rejects violence. We pray to Allah, God the Almighty, to give strength to Muslims," Jayadi remarked. 



 Meanwhile, Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi, during her visit to Myanmar, emphasized the importance of de-escalation of situation in Rakhine State amid ongoing armed skirmishes in the region.



 "Efforts to de-escalate the situation in Rakhine State should be the main priority of the Myanmar security authority," Marsudi stated in a release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received on Monday.



 The message of de-escalation was conveyed by the Indonesian minister in front of Senior General U Min Aung Hlaing, the commander in-chief of the Myanmar Armed Forces.



 Marsudis meeting with Hlaing lasted for more than an hour, kicking off a series of meeting with officials of Myanmar authority to discuss the humanitarian crisis in the countrys Rakhine State.



 During the meeting, Marsudi, who arrived in Myanmar on Monday morning, was briefed by Hlaing on the recent developments and situation in the Rakhine State. He noted that the Myanmar authority would continue its effort to restore the security and stability in the Rakhine State.



 Marsudi remarked that Indonesia and the world are very concerned over the development of Rakhine States situation.



 "The authority of Myanmar should cease from any form of violence which occurs in Rakhine State and provide protection to all society, including the Muslim one," Marsudi explained.



 The attack on the Myanmar police on Aug 25 by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army has triggered a counter-offensive raid that resulted in the killing of more than 100 people, including civilians.



 The incident has forced thousands of Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh to avoid Myanmars worst humanitarian conflict in the last five years.(*)
More than 123,000 Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh due to escalating violence by the Myanmar Army.