November 26, 2016

Rohingya cleansing: International silence deafening

It is quite appalling that despite the continuous reports of killing, raping, burning down of villages of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine by the Myanmar security forces over last one month, there is still no global outrage.

The United Nations, United States, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and some others have voiced concern, but world governments seem still not so vocal in forcing the country to avert further bloodshed. Is it to give more time to newly installed government of the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung Sung Suu Kyi, that won a landslide victory in the elections late last year, ending more than two decades of brutal military rule.  (Courtesy of thedailystar.net)

Burma’s leader can’t help Rohingya minority until she consolidates power

The treatment of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority, in Burma is appalling but, after years of studying, visiting and living in Burma, I can say with great confidence that Aung San Suu Kyi knows much about the mistreatment of the Rohingya and feels awful about it.

If she were the editor of a U.S.-based newspaper, she would not hesitate to call attention to the inhumane treatment of the Rohingya. But she is the democratically elected leader of a country in the early stages of an immensely difficult political transition from five decades of military misrule. Ending the civil war that has raged since independence in 1948 is rightfully Aung San Suu Kyi’s top policy priority. Overcoming the deeply rooted anti-Muslim sentiment endemic in the Buddhist majority in Burma is also a priority, but nowhere in the world has it taken less than a generation to overcome such sentiments. (Courtesy of washingtonpost.com)

'They raped us one by one,' says Rohingya woman who fled Myanmar

The brutal gang rape that Habiba and her sister endured is a story that is becoming depressingly familiar among the thousands of Rohingya refugees fleeing to Bangladesh to escape the violence of Myanmar's soldiers.

"They tied both of us to the bed and raped us one by one," said 20-year-old Habiba, who has now found shelter with a Rohingya refugee family a few kilometres (miles) from the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

"We're almost starving here. But at least no one is coming here to kill or torture," said Hashim Ullah, Habiba's older brother who escaped with his sisters. (Courtesy of indiatimes.com)

Gang rape, torture claims as Rohingya flee Myanmar

Horrifying stories of gang rape, torture and murder are emerging from among the thousands of desperate Rohingya migrants who have fled to Bangladesh in the past few days to escape unfolding violence in Myanmar.

John McKissick, head of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) in the Bangladeshi border town of Cox's Bazar, told the BBC that Myanmar authorities' actions against the Rohingya amounted to "ethnic cleansing".

Up to 30,000 of the impoverished ethnic group have left their homes in Myanmar, the UN says, after troops poured into the narrow strip where they live earlier this month. (Courtesy of yahoo.com)

Myanmar: Rohingya Muslims displaced, starving amid allegations of human rights abuses by security forces

Allegations of grave human rights abuses at the hands of Myanmar's security forces have drawn sharp criticism from international human rights advocates, but the nominal head of country and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi remains taciturn.

"Suu Kyi risks shredding what residual credibility she still has on promoting human rights if she fails to speak out," says David Scott Mathieson, from Human Rights Watch.

"She has made it clear she is a politician, not a human rights defender or humanitarian, when the desperate situation in Rakhine requires any political leader to prioritise those issues." (Courtesy of abc.net.au)

Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is failing to stop military violence against Rohingya Muslims in Burma

On 9 October, nine police officers were killed in Rakhine State, Burma. While the motivation and identity of the attackers remains unclear, the Burmese military responded with a series of operations against Rakhine’s Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim minority of approximately 1.3 million, blurring the lines between counter-insurgency and ethnic cleansing. Amid reports by Rohingya refugees and human rights organizations of arson, rape and killings, the lacklustre response of Burma's state counsellor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has been criticised by media and human rights groups.

While Western governments and media alike have praised Burma's transition from military to civilian rule, Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy’s overwhelming victory in last year’s election merely overshadowed the fact that anti-Muslim sentiment remains pervasive throughout much of the country. Tensions in Rakhine in particular remain a festering wound in the country’s multi-ethnic society. And while the government appears to have reined in the Buddhist-nationalist Ma Ba Tha movement, which had heavily agitated against Muslims and the Rohingya in particular, the NLD has adopted the military’s narrative of the Rohingya constituting ‘illegal immigrants’ from Bangladesh. (Courtesy of independent.co.uk)

Malaysia to summon Myanmar envoy on Rohingya as protests mount

Malaysia will summon Myanmar's ambassador over the crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in northwestern Rakhine state, it said on Friday, as protesters across Southeast Asia demonstrated against the rising violence.

The conflict in Rakhine has sent hundreds of Rohingya Muslims fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh and poses a serious challenge to leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who swept to power last year on promises of national reconciliation.

At least 86 people are reported to have been killed in escalating violence that has displaced about 30,000 in the region's most serious bloodshed since hundreds were killed in communal clashes in 2012. (Courtesy of reuters.com)