On Saturday (December 10), the Guardian ran a story on two Rohingya women, Noor Ayesha and Sayeda Khatun.
‘Noor Ayesha held her last surviving daughter tight as their boat crossed into Bangladeshi waters. She left behind a firebombed home, a dead husband, seven slain children and the soldiers who raped her’, the Guardian wrote.
‘A group of about 20 of them appeared in front of my house’, the 40-year-old Rohingya woman recalled the morning in mid-October when her village was invaded by hundreds of Burmese government troops.’ They ordered all of us to come out in the courtyard. They separated five of our children and forced them into one of our rooms and put on the latch from outside. Then they fired a “gun-bomb” on that room and set it on fire. Five of my children were burnt to death by the soldiers. They killed my two daughters after raping them. They also killed my husband and raped me.’ (Courtesy of newagebd.net)
December 13, 2016
Reprisals, Rape, and Children Burned Alive: Burma’s Rohingya Speak of Genocidal Terror
If the Naf River could talk, which horror story would it tell first?
The narrow waterway marks the border between Burma and Bangladesh. On its western bank is the Bangladeshi province of Chittagong. To the east, Burma’s Arakan state, also known as Rakhine, home to the Buddhist-majority country’s Rohingya people, a Muslim minority described over the years as stateless, friendless and forgotten.
But if the river could remember their stories, it might speak, for example, of the night in late November when Arafa, a 25-year-old Rohingya woman, entered its waters with her five children.
She used to have six. As she talks, sitting on the threshold of a hut in a makeshift refugee camp on the Bangladeshi side of the Naf, she is surrounded by her son and four young daughters. They are a lively bunch, noisy, restless, yet shy, hiding behind their mother’s back or running in and out of the hut, as she recounts what happened to her second son. (Courtesy of time.com)
The narrow waterway marks the border between Burma and Bangladesh. On its western bank is the Bangladeshi province of Chittagong. To the east, Burma’s Arakan state, also known as Rakhine, home to the Buddhist-majority country’s Rohingya people, a Muslim minority described over the years as stateless, friendless and forgotten.
But if the river could remember their stories, it might speak, for example, of the night in late November when Arafa, a 25-year-old Rohingya woman, entered its waters with her five children.
She used to have six. As she talks, sitting on the threshold of a hut in a makeshift refugee camp on the Bangladeshi side of the Naf, she is surrounded by her son and four young daughters. They are a lively bunch, noisy, restless, yet shy, hiding behind their mother’s back or running in and out of the hut, as she recounts what happened to her second son. (Courtesy of time.com)
Burmese Troops Are ‘Squarely Responsible’ For Torching Rohingya Muslim Villages, Rights Group Says
The Burmese army has burned down more than 1,500 homes and other buildings in a systematic pattern of destruction targeting the country’s stateless Rohingya Muslims, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).
In a statement released Tuesday, the watchdog said it had collected satellite images and interviews with refugees that directly implicate the army, which has consistently denied allegations of wrongdoing and instead blamed suspected Rohingya jihadists, claiming that they have been torching their own communities. (Courtesy of time.com)
Eight Rohingya women and girls gang raped by Myanmar military whilst Myanmar’s investigation commission is visiting the area
8 Rohingya women and girls from Chaung Ka Lar hamlet in Zee Pin Chaung village tract, situated in Taung Pyo Let Wel sub-township, were gang raped by the military at gunpoint and some other women were sexually abused, whilst Myanmar’s investigation commission, led by Vice President Myint Swe, was visiting the area.
Today, on December 12th 2016 at 12 noon, a group of 55 soldiers entered Chaung Ka Lar hamlet. Fearing that they may be gang raped, as is frequently the case, 30 women and girls all gathered together at the house of Hafiz Akbal. 12 soldiers entered then entered his house and had 8 of the women and girls brought into a room at gunpoint, where they were gang raped, a local villager told RB News. The remaining women and girls, more than 20 of them, were also sexually abused. Their clothes, including underwear, were removed by the soldiers, who then abused them as much as they wanted.
Among the eight rape victims, four are married and four are single. (Courtesy of rohingyablogger.com)
Today, on December 12th 2016 at 12 noon, a group of 55 soldiers entered Chaung Ka Lar hamlet. Fearing that they may be gang raped, as is frequently the case, 30 women and girls all gathered together at the house of Hafiz Akbal. 12 soldiers entered then entered his house and had 8 of the women and girls brought into a room at gunpoint, where they were gang raped, a local villager told RB News. The remaining women and girls, more than 20 of them, were also sexually abused. Their clothes, including underwear, were removed by the soldiers, who then abused them as much as they wanted.
Among the eight rape victims, four are married and four are single. (Courtesy of rohingyablogger.com)
Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (Rome) Takes up ‘Urgent Case’ of Myanmar’s Rohingya
Dear Mr Ippolito, Dr Tognoni and Ms Fraudatario,
We, the undersigned group of researchers, academics, and activists, in coalition with global Rohingya refugees, hereby request that the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) take up the urgent case of Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority. We make this request in response to the well documented unfolding and escalating genocide in Rakhine state, Myanmar.
We ask that the Tribunal examine the current crisis in the context of historical evidence of recurring patterns of persecution by the Myanmar state against the Rohingya, that have precipitated at least three waves of mass exodus since the 1970s.
We make this request on the basis of compelling evidence of ongoing: widespread institutional discrimination; state sponsored hate crime; mass killings; mass sexual violence; wholesale destruction of communities and neighbourhoods; massive forced displacement; apartheid structures of segregation; targeted population control; state denial of Rohingya identity; forced labour; denial of access to livelihood, healthcare, freedom of movement, and food. Evidence of these genocidal violations, with blanket impunity, is to be found in the extensive and systematic research conducted by a range of academic and human rights organisations (Green, MacManus and de la Cour Venning, ISCI, 2015; Zarni and Cowley, 2014; Fortify Rights, 2015; Human Rights Watch, 2012, 2013; ASEAN, 2015). (Courtesy of statecrime.org)
We, the undersigned group of researchers, academics, and activists, in coalition with global Rohingya refugees, hereby request that the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) take up the urgent case of Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority. We make this request in response to the well documented unfolding and escalating genocide in Rakhine state, Myanmar.
We ask that the Tribunal examine the current crisis in the context of historical evidence of recurring patterns of persecution by the Myanmar state against the Rohingya, that have precipitated at least three waves of mass exodus since the 1970s.
We make this request on the basis of compelling evidence of ongoing: widespread institutional discrimination; state sponsored hate crime; mass killings; mass sexual violence; wholesale destruction of communities and neighbourhoods; massive forced displacement; apartheid structures of segregation; targeted population control; state denial of Rohingya identity; forced labour; denial of access to livelihood, healthcare, freedom of movement, and food. Evidence of these genocidal violations, with blanket impunity, is to be found in the extensive and systematic research conducted by a range of academic and human rights organisations (Green, MacManus and de la Cour Venning, ISCI, 2015; Zarni and Cowley, 2014; Fortify Rights, 2015; Human Rights Watch, 2012, 2013; ASEAN, 2015). (Courtesy of statecrime.org)
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