A report, released recently by the office of the Geneva-based UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, documents testimony from 204 Rohingya Muslim men and women who are part of 66,000 who have fled from Myanmar’s northwestern Rakhine state to Bangladesh.
Linnea Arvidsson, leader of a four-member team of UN human rights investigators, said in the report: “For me, personally, I have not ever encountered a situation in which you have interviewed so many people in such a short period of time, who have undergone such serious violations.”
Speaking to Voice of America, Arvidsson said that she was on the verge of breaking down on the first day after having interviewed an endless stream of women who recounted horrific tales. “Mothers who would say, ‘I was raped and my baby was crying and they slit the throat of my baby while I was being raped.’ I mean, it was horrendous. Frankly, it was absolutely unbearable to do the interviews,” Arvidsson said. “I cannot imagine what they went through having lived through that.” Of the 101 women interviewed, more than half reported they had been raped or suffered other forms of sexual violence at the hands of Myanmar security forces. (Courtesy of saudigazette.com.sa)
February 9, 2017
Bangladesh: Reject Rohingya Refugee Relocation Plan
The Bangladeshi government should immediately drop its plan to transfer Rohingya refugees to an uninhabited, undeveloped coastal island, Human Rights Watch said today. Relocating the refugees from the Cox’s Bazar area to Thengar Char island would deprive them of their rights to freedom of movement, livelihood, food and education, in violation of Bangladesh’s obligations under international human rights law.
Between 300,000 and 500,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees, most of them unregistered by the authorities, are in Bangladesh after fleeing persecution in Burma dating back to the 1990s. Since October 2016, nearly 69,000 Rohingya from Rakhine State in Burma have entered Bangladesh to escape attacks by Burmese security forces, including unlawful killings, sexual violence and wholesale destruction of villages. (Courtesy of hrw.org)
Between 300,000 and 500,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees, most of them unregistered by the authorities, are in Bangladesh after fleeing persecution in Burma dating back to the 1990s. Since October 2016, nearly 69,000 Rohingya from Rakhine State in Burma have entered Bangladesh to escape attacks by Burmese security forces, including unlawful killings, sexual violence and wholesale destruction of villages. (Courtesy of hrw.org)
Nobel Prize winners under pressure
It hasn’t been a good week for two Nobel Peace Prize winners who both have spent time in Oslo. Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar (Burma) is accused of not doing enough to stop her country’s persecution Rohingya refugees, while Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has been accused of accepting bribes.
Former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik is among those criticizing Aung San Suu Kyi, who has received lots of support over the years from a succession of Norwegian governments. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her efforts to restore democracy to the country she still called Burma, and she finally succeeded at being released from house arrest and being able to accept her Peace Prize in Oslo. She won election to the parliament in Myanmar the same year, in 2012. (Courtesy of newsinenglish.no)
Former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik is among those criticizing Aung San Suu Kyi, who has received lots of support over the years from a succession of Norwegian governments. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her efforts to restore democracy to the country she still called Burma, and she finally succeeded at being released from house arrest and being able to accept her Peace Prize in Oslo. She won election to the parliament in Myanmar the same year, in 2012. (Courtesy of newsinenglish.no)
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