Manipur: Dead ‘Militant’ Returns Home

In a stunning incident, a man who was presumed dead after he failed to return ever since he went missing in 2010 suddenly turned up but was arrested by police on the charges of being a cadre of an underground outfit. The man identified as Nongmaithem Shyam Singh, 51 under Lamlai Police Station, Imphal East district was supposedly taken away by militants and engaged in their services.

Family members of the man had already solemnized his last rites assuming that he died in an encounter with security forces. Meanwhile, Shyam was arrested by a team of Imphal East District Police Commando from his residence on May 19 and handed over to Lamlai Police Station on May 20. After a case was registered against him by the police, he was produced before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate/Imphal East. The court remanded him to police custody till May 27. As the period of the remand has ended, he was again produced before the court today wherein he pleaded to grant him bail. Admitting his plea, the court granted him bail after conducting hearing of the case. (Courtesy of northeasttoday.in)

Home ministry vows to free activists

The military-controlled Ministry of Home Affairs says it will work to drop charges against political activists within 100 days.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said there were 64 political prisoners behind bars and 174 activists facing charges at the end of April.

The ministry announced that it would free 440 prisoners, including two children, after cancelling 256 cases within 100 days.

It also announced a four-part plan on crime prevention and on how to establish the rule of law across the country also within 100 days. (Courtesy of elevenmyanmar.com)

Government still identifying nationality of refugees at Belantik depot

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the government is still in the process of identifying the nationality of the refugees at the Belantik detention depot in Sik, Kedah.

He said it would determine whether they are Rohingyas or Bangladeshi nationals who are victims of human trafficking.

"We are still checking whether they are really Rohingyas or Bangladeshis because there are no documents being issued to them by either the Bangladeshi or the Myanmar government," he told reporters after welcoming the arrival of the second group of Syrian migrants here, today.

Ahmad Zahid told this to reporters when asked on an Amnesty International report today on the conditions of 'boat people' that are still been detained at the detention depot. (Courtesy of thesundaily.my)

One year on, no justice for the ‘boat crisis’ survivors in M’sia

Hundreds of refugees who survived the 2015 boat crisis in South-East Asia have been locked up in poor conditions in Malaysia ever since, Amnesty International said, following a visit to the country to investigate the fate of people one year on.

After harrowing footage of desperate refugees and migrants stranded at sea was beamed around the world last May, Malaysia agreed to accept 1,100 people. Almost 400 of those were identified as Rohingya refugees - people fleeing persecution in Myanmar. One year on, the majority of the Rohingya remain in Malaysia’s Belantik detention centre.

“We went to Malaysia to investigate the fate of the boat crisis survivors and found that, for hundreds of them, the suffering and human rights abuse continue,” said Khairunissa Dhala, a refugee expert at Amnesty International. (Courtesy of malaysiakini.com)

Rohingyas: Abandoned in their own land

Currently world’s most damned and the condemned displaced ethnic minority group of people are the Rohingyas of Arakan State of Myanmar, most of who are Muslims by faith (1.3 million in Myanmar). With the Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD)  sweeping  to power in the recent election, held after about more than half a century of military rule, the democracy loving people and international community saw hopes for the condemned Rohingyas. Suu Kyi dreamt that she would be the President of the new government but in Myanmar still the army has the last say and retains considerable amount of power in the government and parliament. They amended the Constitution and incorporated a clause saying whoever is married to a foreigner cannot hold the post of the President of the country. That sealed the fate of Suu Kyi. But Suu Kyi made it clear that whoever sits in that chair will be her proxy and she will run the government from behind the scenes. For many the return to democracy of Myanmar after decades of military rule could either become a proxy military rule or even the entire exercise of democracy may collapse before it takes off. The military still controls most of the important state machinery. However, when Aung San Suu Kyi won the election and her party formed the government the Rohingyas saw hope under the new regime but their hope seems to be fast fading, just within seven months after the democratically held election. Rohingyas have been persecuted since the British left Myanmar in 1948. Recently when US Foreign Minister John Kerry visited Yangon and raised the issue with Suu Kyi she said she needs time to address the issue and at the same time she refused to acknowledge that there are any Rohingyas in Myanmar. She, like most of the Buddhists in Myanmar, sees Rohingyas as illegal settlers from Bangladesh though historical evidence shows that Rohingya Muslims have been living in the Arakan State (according to the Burmese Rakhine State) since 16th century. Many historians have proved that the original settlers of the Muslims in the Arakan were Arabs and over the century due to intermarriage between the settlers and the inhabitants of the adjacent Chittagong district of present day Bangladesh there were cross border migration. Only the Naf River separates the Arakan State from greater Chittagong. (Courtesy of daily-sun.com)