Myanmar army chief rules out Rohingya citizenship

Myanmar's military chief on Monday denounced the claim to citizenship by Rohingya Muslims, and defended the government's crackdown on them.

"We have already let the world know that we don't have Rohingya in our country," army chief Min Aung Hlaing said in a speech marking Myanmar's armed forces day.

"Bengalis in Rakhine state are not Myanmar citizens and they are just people who come and stay in the country," Hlaing added.

Myanmar is now under civilian leadership but its powerful military, which ruled the country until recently and built up a notorious reputation for rights abuses, still uses the armed forces day to flex its muscle.

Rohingya Muslims, stripped of their citizenship in 1982, are often referred to as "illegal" immigrants by Myanmar's leaders. About 1.1 million Rohingya are denied citizenship and their movement is severely restricted, with tens of thousands confined to dire camps since violence drove them from their homes in 2012.

Hlaing's speech came just one day after the government rejected a decision by the United Nations rights council's to send a fact-finding mission to Myanmar to investigate allegations of rape and murder by security forces against Rohingya. (Courtesy of aljazeera.com)

Myanmar rejects UN probe into Rohingya abuse claims

Myanmar yesterday rejected the United Nations rights council's decision to investigate allegations that security officers have murdered, raped and tortured Rohingya Muslims, saying the probe would only "inflame" the conflict.

The Geneva-based body agreed on Friday to "urgently" dispatch a fact-finding mission to the South- east Asian country, focusing on claims that police and soldiers have carried out violations against the Rohingya in Rakhine state.

The army crackdown, launched last October after militants killed nine policemen, has sent tens of thousands of Rohingya fleeing across the border to Bangladesh. Escapees have given UN investigators gruesome accounts of security officers stabbing babies to death, burning people alive and committing widespread gang rape. (Courtesy of straitstimes.com)

Burma: UN Takes Key Step for Justice

The United Nations Human Rights Council on March 24, 2017, took a key step toward preventing future abuses and bringing justice for victims in Burma by adopting a strong resolution condemning violations and making significant recommendations, Human Rights Watch said today.

The resolution authorizes the council president to urgently dispatch an independent, international fact-finding mission to Burma. The mission would establish the facts and circumstances of alleged recent human rights violations, particularly against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State, to ensure “full accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims.”

“The Human Rights Council’s authorization of an international fact-finding mission is crucial for ensuring that allegations of serious human rights abuses in Burma are thoroughly examined by experts, and to ensure that those responsible will ultimately be held accountable,” said John Fisher, Geneva director. “Burma’s government should cooperate fully with the mission, including by providing unfettered access to all affected areas.” (Courtesy of hrw.org)

U.N. will investigate crimes against Rohingya in Myanmar

The top United Nations human rights body agreed on Friday to send an international fact-finding mission to investigate widespread allegations of killings, rape and torture by security forces against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

But Myanmar ambassador Htin Lynn, speaking before the decision was taken by consensus, rejected the move as "not acceptable". Myanmar's national commission had just interviewed alleged victims who fled to Bangladesh and would issue its findings by August, he said.

The U.N. Human Rights Council adopted a resolution without a vote, brought by the European Union and supported by countries including the United States, that called for "ensuring full accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims". Courtesy of reuters.com)

A brazen political killing shakes Myanmar, already teetering on the path to democracy

U Ko Ni had just stepped off a plane and was standing curbside at the airport in Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar. The tall, gray-haired lawyer cradled his 3-year-old grandson while passengers around him spoke on their phones or climbed into taxis.

No one seemed to notice as a man in shorts and sandals sidled up behind Ko Ni, drew a 9-millimeter pistol inches from his head and pulled the trigger.

The fatal shooting not only silenced one of Myanmar’s most prominent legal experts, it exposed the dangers lurking below the surface of this former military dictatorship’s fitful transition to democracy.

In the old Myanmar — previously known as Burma and ruled by a junta for a half-century — political activists routinely disappeared into prisons or died in murky circumstances. Then in 2010, the military began ceding authority to civilians.

Pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s party won a parliamentary majority in 2015 elections, and last October the Obama administration lifted economic sanctions, formalizing Myanmar’s reentry into the global community. (Courtesy of latimes.com)

UN official says 'crimes against humanity' could be unfolding in Myanmar

Their homes burned and relatives killed, Rohingya have been fleeing northern Myanmar since October.

They trek for miles along a dangerous route -- risking drowning, disease and capture by the military -- to cross the border into neighboring Bangladesh, where refugee camps provide temporary shelter
.
Tens of thousands of members of Myanmar's Muslim minority have left in this fashion, and their treatment may amount to "crimes against humanity," warns UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee.

"When there's 77,000 people running away from their home towns, leaving everything ... the international community should really step up to the plate," she told CNN.

Lee has visited northern Rakhine State, which has been largely off limits to journalists and NGO workers since early October, and spoken to many refugees. (Courtesy of edition.cnn.com)

India Has Special Responsibility to Help Myanmar Address Rohingya Issue: UN Expert

Thousands of Rohingya have been displaced since renewed violence broke out in October, with India saying Myanmar be given more time to resolve the issue.

As the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) gets ready to call for a UN fact-finding mission to Myanmar, special rapporteur Yanghee Lee said that India has a special obligation to use its “good relations” to persuade Nay Pyi Taw to support an independent and fair inquiry into serious allegations of human rights violations against the Rohingya people during the current round of violence in Rakhine State.

In an interview with The Wire, Lee, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, stated that New Delhi had to be more involved and vocal in finding a sustainable solution to the Rohingya problem, as ripples from the violence continue to spread across Myanmar’s neighbourhood. (Courtesy of thewire.in)

Diplomatic protection for the stateless Rohingya

Persons rendered stateless enjoy far fewer protections than refugees under international law, but the UN could be empowered to come to their defence, Farhaan Uddin Ahmed writes.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, there are over 10 million people around the world who are stateless due to denial of nationality by their home states. As a result of their lack of nationality, they are, in most cases, denied access to education, healthcare, employment, social security, and other basic social structures.

In many cases, not only are they denied nationality and the benefits of citizenship, they are also actively persecuted by the various governments within whose territories they reside. Since a vast majority of the UN member states (104 out of 193) are not signatories to the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, 1954 and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, 1961; they have no legal responsibility to provide basic rights and benefits to the ‘stateless’ people residing within their territories. Therefore, the ‘stateless’ are neither treated as aliens nor granted certain basic rights that are assured to a refugee. (Courtesy of policyforum.net)

Arakan State Advisory Commission Releases Interim Report

The Kofi Annan-led Arakan State Advisory Commission released a list of urgent recommendations for the Burmese government to improve the situation in Arakan State in an interim report at a press conference in Rangoon on Thursday.

The report—which the commission said had been presented to both civilian and military sections of the government—calls for immediate and unimpeded access for humanitarian aid organizations and the media to areas of northern Arakan State. Access to the region has been restricted since Burma Army “clearance operations” began in response to insurgent attacks on police border guard posts on Oct. 9 of last year.

In a recorded statement, head of the commission and former UN secretary general Kofi Annan acknowledged that the crisis facing Arakan State had changed since the advisory commission was established by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in September last year. Yet he emphasized that the commission’s mandate to tackle “long-standing obstacles to peace and development,” had not changed. (Courtesy of irrawaddy.com)

Zahid slams Aung San Suu Kyi over Rohingya killings

Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today slammed Myanmar leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi over the killing of the Rohingyas, describing it as "pure madness".
The Deputy Prime Minister said it was appalling that the murder of the Rohingyas had taken place in their homeland, by their own citizens.

"We really hope that what is happening at the Rakhine state will end soonest possible.

"I urge our friends in Myanmar to stop this madness, the craziest crisis, and prove to Asean communities that you have a big heart that can accept Muslim minorities as one of your citizens," he said at the closing of the International Conference on Rohingya (ICR), here. (Courtesy of thesundaily.my)

JWAM demands ouster of Rohingyas, Bangladeshis

Expressing concern over the settlement of foreign nationals in and around Jammu city, Jammu West Assembly Movement (JWAM) demanded immediate ouster of Rohingyas, Bangladeshis from the State.

Speaking to media persons, President JWAM, Sunil Dimple alleged that Rohingyas and Bangladeshis have encroached the State land in the outskirts of Jammu city.

Dimple regretted that BJP leadership was merely issuing press statements but has done nothing to deport these illegal immigrants. He alleged that these immigrants had involved in several criminal and rebellious activities. (Courtesy of statetimes.in)

EU seeks U.N. probe into crimes against Myanmar Rohingya

The European Union called on Thursday for the United Nations to send an international fact-finding mission urgently to Myanmar to investigate allegations of torture, rapes and executions by the military against the Rohingya Muslim minority.

A U.N. report last month, based on interviews with survivors in Bangladesh, said the Myanmar army and police had committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya in a campaign that may amount to crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.

The EU draft resolution, submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council, strengthens language in an earlier draft circulating that stopped short of demanding an international probe into alleged atrocities. (Courtesy of reuters.com)

Myanmar must work to close Rohingya camps, says Kofi Annan panel

Myanmar should immediately start letting Rohingya Muslims return home and ultimately close rundown camps for the displaced in its western Rakhine state, a panel led by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan said on Thursday.

More than 120,000 people, mostly Rohingyas, have been living in what were meant as temporary shelters for internally displaced persons (IDPs) since bouts of communal violence roiled the state in 2012.

"It’s really about time they close the camps and allow the people in the camps, particularly those who have gone through the (citizenship) verification process, access to freedom of movement and all rights of citizenship," Annan told Reuters by telephone from Geneva. (Courtesy of reuters.com)

Myanmar set to dodge full U.N. probe on Rohingya abuse

Myanmar looks set to escape an international investigation into alleged atrocities against its Rohingya minority, after the European Union decided not to seek one at the U.N. Human Rights Council, a draft resolution seen by Reuters showed on Wednesday.

The United Nations said in a report last month that the army and police had committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims in northern Rakhine state and burned villages in a campaign that may amount to crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.

Setting up a full international commission of inquiry into the findings - similar to those for Syria and North Korea - has been seen as a test of international resolve at the main annual session of the Council that ends on March 24.(Courtesy of reuters.com)

Persecution of the Rohingya

The United Nations rapporteur on human rights on Thursday has asked that a Commission of Inquiry (COI) be created to investigate Myanmar's treatment of the Rohingya. The UN official stated that the “systematic, structural, and institutional discrimination in policy, law and practice, as well as the long-standing persecution, against the Rohingya and other minorities in Rakhine State” calls for the COI, which is the highest-level probe body of the UN.

The UN rapporteur last month also pointed out how the government of Myanmar is incapable of carrying out a credible investigation and so it is imperative for the human rights council of the UN to act. Indeed, the plight of the Rohingya has been reported widely enough, but the authorities in Myanmar have either denied or downplayed the extent of the persecution of the Rohingya. (Courtesy of thedailystar.net)

‘UK committed to working with Dhaka on Rohingyas’

UK Minister for Asia and the Pacific Alok Sharma made a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Ganabhaban on Saturday morning.

Alok said in an earlier tweet that the UK is committed to working with Bangladesh and Myanmar on the Rohingya issue.

He tweeted after the meeting: “Delighted to meet #Bangladesh PM Hasina. Excellent & substantive discussions. Great opportunity 2 further already strong #UK-Bangladesh ties.”

On Friday, Sharma attended a meeting with Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali at the State Guest House Padma. They discussed global and regional political issues as well as trade and investment between the UK and Bangladesh. (Courtesy of dhakatribune.com)

Time for the UN to show its Teeth

It is not surprising that the United Nations Rapporteur on Human Rights in Burma called the creation of a Commission of Inquiry (COI), the UN’s highest-level probe, to investigate abuses in the country.

The 47-member body must establish a COI “to investigate the systematic, structural, and institutional discrimination in policy, law and practice, as well long-standing persecution, against the Rohingya and other non-Myanmar ethnic nationalities” reports both from inside Burma and from the Bangladesh undoubtedly proves the authenticity that the Tadmadaw, which has been committing gross human rights violations for more than seventy years on the non-Myanmar ethnic nationalities, is a crime against humanity. Now it is time that these SA (Self Appointed) Generals should be tried at The Hague. How come, a country with hundreds different kinds ethnic nationalities miserably suffering ethnic cleansing for more than half a century was not responded by the international community? The answer is simple, because Ka Lar Rohingya is not an ethnic. In this respect a Burmese proverb coming true, literal translation means that “you hear only when the Ka Lar (any one whose complexion is black and is not a degrading word as many foreign scholars use to describe,) shouts and believe only when he cries” is proven true in this Rohingya case.

Now it has reached at the civilized world forum that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, either has to accept the shame on behalf of the entire Myanmar race or bent to the Tatmadaw’smotto of, “Lying the very concept of truth” in the international forum and be branded forever that that Myanmar race itself are liars and cannot be trusted placing her between ‘devil or the deep sea.’ It is high time that the UN Security Council should recommend the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commission (UNHRC) to enquire Burma’s latest crime against humanity. In fact the UNHRC has a good record of doing excellent work in Eritrea, Darfur, Burundi, and Gaza and currently in Syria. The Burmese Generals knew that in March 2013 its bosom friend and nuclear partner North Korea was investigated by the UNHRC for the systematic widespread and grave violations and now it is her turn to be investigated. (Courtesy of asiantribune.com)

Bangladesh, UK to hold first strategic dialogue

Bangladesh and the United Kingdom will hold their first ever strategic dialogue later this month with a view to strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries.

UK Minister for Asia and the Pacific Alok Sharma and Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali agreed to hold the dialogue during a meeting on Friday.

The dialogue will be held between the foreign secretary of Bangladesh and the permanent undersecretary of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. (Courtesy of dhakatribune.com)

Joint letter to HRC calls for COI for Rakhine

We, the undersigned organizations, write to urge your delegations to support calls by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, for the establishment by the UN Human Rights Council during  its 34th session of a Commission of Inquiry or similar international mechanism to investigate, at a minimum, alleged and apparent serious human rights violations and abuses in Rakhine State, Myanmar.

Since 9 October 2016, Myanmar's security forces have carried out large-scale attacks against the Rohingya population in Rakhine States Maungdaw, Buthidaung, and Rathedaung Townships as part of clearance operations in response to attacks on three police border posts by armed assailants. These clearance operations violate numerous provisions of  international human rights law. Download the full letter

(Courtesy of csw.org.uk)

Dalai Lama adds voice to Pope's in calling for the persecution of Rohingya to end

The Dalai Lama has joined Pope Francis in calling for Myanmar Buddhists to end violence against Rohingya Muslims in what the United Nations says amounts to ethnic cleansing and possibly crimes against humanity.

The Tibetan Buddhist leader revealed he has privately communicated with Myanmar's de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi "to use her influence to bring about a peaceful resolution to this problem". (Courtesy of theage.com.au)

Thousands of children’s lives at stake as ‘indirect victims’ of Burmese crackdown on Rohingya Muslims, UN warns

Fears are growing for the lives of several thousand children in northwest Burma suffering from severe malnutrition and lack of medical care but denied vital aid after a sweeping military crackdown against suspected Rohingya militants.

UN agencies were unable to maintain lifesaving services for more than 3,000 registered children, mostly from the minority Rohingya Muslim community, in two townships of northern Rakhine state after the military sealed off the area during operations in response to the killing of nine policemen in attacks on border posts on 9 October.

Following an international outcry, the military allowed the UN to resume limited aid operations in Buthidaung township in mid-December and last month in Maungdaw North. (Courtesy of independent.co.uk/news)

Burma Army Defends Arakan State Operations, Denies Reports of Abuses

The Tatmadaw, Burma’s military, defended its crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority in Arakan State as a lawful counterinsurgency operation at a rare news conference on Tuesday, adding that it was necessary to defend the country.

It was the first time the top generals directly addressed the mounting accusations of human rights abuses, which, according to UN experts, may amount to crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.

“I want to say that I am very sad because of these kind of reckless accusations and neglect of the good things that the government and the military have done for them,” said Gen Mya Tun Oo, chief of the general staff, referring to the reports in the media quoting Rohingya residents describing the alleged abuses such as burning of houses in the area. (Courtesy of irrawaddy.com)

Why is Pakistan entering an arms deal with the Burmese government?

Many among us take pride in Pakistan’s position as one of the prime bastions of Islamic ideals in the modern Muslim world. The Islamic Republic’s ongoing negotiations with Myanmar, therefore, are a matter of some concern for an average Muslim patriot.

In a global political climate where many Muslims already feel besieged by external colonial forces, a new name is fast emerging among our list of oppressed Muslim groups from Palestinians to Kashmiris. And that name is ‘Rohingya’. More commonly known to Pakistanis as simply “Burma ke Musalman”, the Rohingya people are a predominantly Muslim Indo-Aryan population from the Rakhine state in Myanmar.

This new entry to the vernacular and argumentation ammunition of a Muslim nationalist constitutes a story of human misery that is mortifying by any objective standard. A great bulk of the Rohingya people inherited their perceived criminality from their forefathers in the 60s, who rebelled against the Buddhist-dominant authorities and their discriminatory policies. The resulting resentment against the Muslim population led to the promulgation of the Burmese Nationality Law, which denies the Rohingya people citizenship and essentially renders them stateless – not unlike the Palestinians.

There has been some controversy in the past concerning the degree of the oppression by the state of Myanmar. Pakistani web spaces were flooded by fake images of devastation caused by the military forces. In a country where Pak Studies, among other Islamo-nationalist devices, has generated a fertile ground where stories of Muslim victimhood are taken at face value, the images were accepted largely uncontested. (Courtesy of pakistantoday.com.pk)

Military Chief of Staff: Army Not Open to Talks With AA, MNDAA or TNLA

Chief of the General Staff of the Burmese military Gen Mya Tun Oo has described ethnic armed alliance the United Nationalities Federal Council’s (UNFC) demand for the army’s unilateral ceasefire “impractical,” and instead has called on the UNFC to sign Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA).

“My view is that this is not a question that they [the UNFC] should ask,” the general told the reporters after the military press conference in Naypyidaw on Tuesday, referring to UNFC’s demand.

The ethnic armed alliance’s members should sign the NCA, rather than asking the army to declare its own ceasefire, because their signing would result in an actual ceasefire, said the general. (Courtesy of irrawaddy.com)

Burma Army Denies Involvement in U Ko Ni’s Assassination

The Burma Army was not involved in the assassination of National League for Democracy (NLD) legal adviser U Ko Ni despite the fact that ex-military officers are suspected of being behind the conspiracy, said chief of general staff Gen Mya Tun Oo.

The general dismissed the speculation as he answered questions from journalists at a military press conference in Naypyidaw on Tuesday regarding Mong Ko clashes and issues in Arakan State.

U Ko Ni was shot dead on Jan. 29 at the Rangoon International Airport. (Courtesy of irrawaddy.com)

Thailand Upholds Death Sentence for Burmese Men Over 2014 Murder of British Tourists

A Thai appeal court upheld the death sentence handed down to two Burmese migrant workers for the murder of two British backpackers on a holiday island in 2014, the two men’s lawyer said on Wednesday.

The bodies of backpackers Hannah Witheridge and David Miller were found on a beach on Koh Tao island in September 2014. Police said Witheridge, 23, had been raped and bludgeoned to death and Miller, 24, had suffered blows to his head.

Thailand sentenced Burmese migrant workers Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun to death after convicting them of the crime on Dec. 24, 2015. (Courtesy of irrawaddy.com)

Stateless Rohingya Muslims Fodder For Jihadists – Analysis

There are reports that international Islamic terrorist outfits, particularly the Islamic State and Al Qaeda, are recruiting young Rohingya Muslims for carrying out terrorist activities in the name of jihad. There are also reports that Pakistan’s sinister Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) is also enrolling immature Rohingya Muslims for terrorist activities in India after imparting them training in terrorist camps in Pakistan.

In October, foreign-trained Rohingya Muslims killed nine Myanmar Border Guard personnel on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border. Again on November 3, six Rohingya Muslims attacked 11 Myanmar police personnel killing one police officer and injuring several others. Besides these attacks, there were reports that Rohingyas were radicalised and they clashed with Buddhists in Rakhine state.

After these attacks, the present government launched a massive clearance operation in Rakhine state which is the home of Rohingya Muslims. The Myanmar security personnel resorted to extra judicial killings, rapes and merciless beatings of Rohingya Muslims. A large number of suspected extremists and their supporters were imprisoned. According to United Nations observers, about 65,000 Rohingya Muslims took refuge in Bangladesh. (Courtesy of eurasiareview.com)

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Breaks Silence on Assassination of Legal Advisor U Ko Ni

Burma’s State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi broke her silence on the assassination of National League for Democracy (NLD) party legal advisor U Ko Ni, calling him a “comrade” of hers and said that losing him was a “deep loss” for the party.

The prominent Muslim lawyer U Ko Ni was shot dead in broad daylight by a gunman on Jan. 29 outside Yangon International Airport. Taxi driver U Nay Win was also fatally shot as he tried to apprehend the assassin.

U Ko Ni was an expert on Burma’s 2008 Constitution, which he referred to as undemocratic, and was very critical of the country’s military.

The country’s de facto leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi made a rare public appearance at the memorial service for U Ko Ni and U Nay Win, organized by the NLD on Sunday in Rangoon. (Courtesy of irrawaddy.com)

Britain needs to find its backbone over Burma - the abuse of the Rohingya cannot go on

Addressing the Chatham House think tank in December, Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said that "people around the world are looking for a lead from Britain". He pledged to provide it: using Britain's global influence "for good" and to be "more engaged with the world than ever before".

Lofty sentiments. But there is little evidence of such leadership in the British government's tepid response to rampant atrocities in Burma perpetrated by government security forces against the Rohingya Muslim community.

During a visit to Burma last month, Johnson expressed concern about the situation facing the Rohingya. But his comments were scarcely commensurate with the scale of repression in Rakhine State, where most Rohingya live. (Courtesy of ibtimes.co.uk)

Exclusive: Myanmar probing police 'cover-up' of deaths of two Rohingya Muslims

Myanmar's army-controlled home ministry is investigating a cover-up by the country's border force of the deaths in custody of two Rohingya Muslims in troubled Rakhine State, according to a police report reviewed by Reuters and interviews with two senior security officials.

The internal document is the first official admission of serious wrongdoing by security forces in their crackdown against insurgents in northwestern Myanmar that has sent more than 70,000 people fleeing across the border to Bangladesh.

When contacted by Reuters, the Home Affairs Ministry denied an investigation was under way, but the commander of the Border Guard Police (BGP) in the area where the incident took place and a senior home ministry security official confirmed the authenticity of the document and said it was not the only such case that was being looked into. (Courtesy of reuters.com)

4 Rohingya found dead in Myanmar's Rakhine state

The government of Myanmar said on Tuesday that four Rohingya villagers were found dead in a conflict-torn area of country’s western Rakhine state.

The Office of State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi said in a press release that the bodies of three women and a man were found buried near Luu Pan Pyin village in the Maungdaw area last Thursday, Feb. 16.

“Police are investigating who these victims are,” it said, adding that the three bodies bore deep wounds, while a woman had no internal injuries.

The bodies were found a day after the government announced the end of military operations in the area predominantly occupied by members of the stateless Rohingya minority group. (Courtesy of aa.com.tr)

‘Hope Myanmar will take back Rohingyas’

Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende today hoped that Myanmar government will repatriate stranded Rohingyas from Bangladesh.

“I hope Myanmar will make it possible for Rohingya people to go back to their homes,” he said at a roundtable dialogue at a city hotel around noon.

Hailing Bangladesh’s steps for the Rohingya refugees, he added that Bangladesh has done really a good job allowing them to enter the country. (Courtesy of thedailystar.net)

Turkey sends aid to Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar

Turkey’s Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) said Monday that it had delivered food to 18,500 displaced Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar this month.

The aid -- including rice, oil, beans, salt and spices -- was distributed in Sittwe and Buthidaung in Rakhine state.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled their homes in Rakhine since October, when Myanmar's military launched a crackdown that has attracted severe international criticism of its brutality.

Around 100,000 people had been displaced due to oppression and the military violence, IHH Southeast Asia Desk's Mucahit Demir said in a statement. “Over 75,000 people had to settle in and around Kutupalong camp in Bangladesh’s Cox Bazar region, which is also known as the worst camp in the world. (Courtesy of aa.com.tr)

69 ‘attackers’ killed, 585 arrested in Myanmar operations

Myanmar government claims to have arrested 585 people, apparently Rohingya Muslims, in connection with the attacks and clashes in Rakhine State in four months since October 9.

At least 69 people who allegedly participated in the attacks were killed by the security forces during the army’s “clearing operations.”

On the other hand, 10 policemen, seven soldiers and 13 civilians were also killed in the series of attacks and clashes perpetrated from October 9 to February 9, according to the Myanmar State Counsellor’s office, reports Xinhua.

Of the arrested attackers, 39 are facing trials for “killing people, destroying public property and communicating with illegal organisations.” (Courtesy of dhakatribune.com)

UN envoy visits Rohingya camps in Bangladesh

UN human rights envoy Yanghee Lee was Tuesday visiting Rohingya refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh, where thousands have taken shelter after fleeing a military crackdown in Myanmar.

Almost 73,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since the military unleashed a four-month campaign of violence against the stateless Muslim minority that the United Nations says may amount to crimes against humanity.

The refugees, most of whom are now living in squalid camps in the Cox's Bazar district which borders Myanmar's Rakhine state, have brought harrowing accounts of systematic rape, killings and torture at the hands of the military. (Courtesy of dailymail.co.uk)

Rohingya women who spoke out on rape, murder 'pursued by Myanmar officials'

If you believe the Myanmar government, the military "clearance operation" in northern Rakhine state, which began after an attack on a police post in October, officially came to a halt on Thursday.

But for the region's Rohingya inhabitants, the reign of terror shows no signs of ending.

Following an international outcry over allegations of widespread human rights abuses by Myanmar security forces and Buddhist tribal groups in the state, the government allowed selected Myanmar journalists to visit the area in December.

As the journalists toured Rohingya villages, where killings, rapes and arson had been reported, most Rohingya avoided interaction with them. (Courtesy of smh.com.au)

Hundreds of Rohingya 'return home' to Myanmar from Bangladesh

Hundreds of Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh to escape persecution in Myanmar have returned home, community leaders said Sunday (Feb 19), adding that most had gone back temporarily to fetch relatives.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled across the border from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine since October to escape a bloody crackdown by troops and police.

Dudu Mia, a refugee camp leader in the coastal town of Teknaf, said nearly 1,000 Rohingya - mostly young men - had returned to their home villages to collect elderly family members left behind earlier. (Courtesy of straitstimes.com)

Support Rohingya relocation

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday sought support from the international community, including Germany, to temporarily relocate Myanmar nationals living in Bangladesh to Thengar Char in Noakhali for providing them with all facilities.

She said this when German Chancellor Angela Merkel wanted to know about the present situation of the Myanmar nationals during a bilateral meeting with her at Hotel Bayerischer in Munich.

The PM informed the German chancellor that the Myanmar citizens were currently leading a miserable life in Cox's Bazar and its adjacent areas without any proper civic amenities, including sanitation, PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim told reporters after the meeting, reports UNB. (Courtesy of thedailystar.net)

Julie Bishop presses Myanmar leader for 'credible' Rohingya investigation

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has told Myanmar's de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi Australia is "deeply concerned" about atrocities on Rohingya Muslims documented in a United Nations report.

"I have expressed my concerns about the situation in Rakhine State to Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi," Ms Bishop said, referring to the Noble laureate by her official title. (Courtesy of smh.com.au)

Joint NGO letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres about the situation in Myanmar's Rakhine State

The Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority group in Myanmar, have been systematically disenfranchised and increasingly marginalized, including through denial of citizenship and restriction of movement. Over the years successive UN Special Rapporteurs on the situation of human rights in Myanmar have reported serious continuing human rights violations against this community. Following a 12-day visit to Myanmar in January, Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee noted allegations of ongoing human rights abuses in Rakhine State. She also raised concerns regarding widespread fear amongst civilians of potential reprisals as punishment for speaking out. In her upcoming report to the 34th session of the Human Rights Council, Special Rapporteur Lee will call for the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry into the Rohingya situation. As you know, on 3 February the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a report based on interviews with Rohingya who had fled from Myanmar, which detailed "widespread and systematic" attacks against the Rohingya and reiterated "the very likely commission of crimes against humanity" – as had already been concluded by the High Commissioner in June 2016.1 The High Commissioner, likewise, has called for a Commission of Inquiry.

Following a series of attacks on border guard posts on 9 October 2016 and subsequent joint army-police counterinsurgency operation, there have been consistent reports of extrajudicial executions, rape and other crimes of sexual violence, torture and ill-treatment, enforced disappearances, mass arrests, and the widespread destruction of Rohingya buildings and mosques. During your tenure as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, you witnessed first-hand the discriminatory treatment of the Rohingya, including the proposal by then-President Thein Sein to settle all Rohingya in displacement camps or send them to third countries. The situation has only deteriorated since. (Courtesy of globalr2p.org)

Amid allegations of Rohingya mass killings, Myanmar says military operation in Rakhine has ended

Myanmar's military has ended a clearance operation in the country's troubled Rakhine state, government officials said, ending a four-month sweep that the United Nations said may amount to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing.

The security operation had been under way since nine policemen were killed in attacks on security posts near the Bangladesh border on Oct 9. Almost 69,000 Rohingyas have since fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh, according to UN estimates.

The violence has renewed international criticism that Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has done too little to help members of the Muslim minority. (Courtesy of straitstimes.com)

U.N. wants to negotiate with U.S., Canada to resettle Rohingya refugees

The United Nations' refugee agency has asked Bangladesh to allow it to negotiate with the United States, Canada and some European countries to resettle around 1,000 Rohingya Muslims living in the South Asian nation, a senior official at the agency said.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya live in Bangladesh after fleeing Buddhist-majority Myanmar since the early 1990s, and their number has been swelled by an estimated 69,000 escaping an army crackdown in northern Rakhine State in recent months.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) would push for resettlement of those most in need, despite growing resistance in some developed countries, particularly the United States under President Donald Trump, UNHCR's Bangladesh representative, Shinji Kubo, told Reuters on Thursday.

"UNHCR will continue to work with the authorities concerned, including in the United States," Kubo said. (Courtesy of reuters.com)

Filmmaker: Push for inquiry into Rohingya genocide

Malaysia should take the lead in getting the United Nations’ Human Rights Council to set up a Commission of Inquiry on the atrocities against the Rohingya, said investigative filmmaker Mahi Ramakrishnan.

She said Malaysia was in a perfect position to lead the initiative after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s strong stand on the issue.

She pointed out that no other leader in the region had urged the world to stop the genocide of Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya mino­rity.

“When the killing stops, the Rohingya will stop fleeing Myanmar,” said Mahi after the screening of her documentary Bodies for Sale about Rohingya refugees.

She said non-governmental and civil socie­ty organisations should also support this push for an inquiry on crimes committed by Myanmar’s army. (Courtesy of thestar.com.my)

Retired Myanmar Army Officer Ordered Prominent Lawyer’s Murder, Government Says

A retired military officer allegedly masterminded the killing last month of a prominent Muslim rights attorney and ruling-party advisor in what the Myanmar government has called a politically motivated “terrorist act,” the President’s Office said Wednesday.

A statement issued by the office of President Htin Kyaw said Aung Win Khaing, a former army lieutenant colonel who retired voluntarily from the military in 2014, orchestrated the assassination of Ko Ni on Jan. 29.

Police and the military are on the lookout for Aung Win Khaing, who is on the run, and other possible conspirators, the statement said.

Aung Win Khaing is the brother of Aung Win Zaw, who was arrested on Jan. 30 in Kayin state in connection with the murder. (Courtesy of rfa.org)

Bringing Burma Back From the Brink

The rattle of gunfire awoke a Rohingya man on the morning of Oct. 9 in his hometown of Wa Peik, a dusty hamlet of Kyee Kan Pyin village in a remote corner of Burma’s Rakhine state. “We were very scared,” he told me on the Bangladesh border. “All we could hear was yelling and gunfire.”

Several hundred ethnic Rohingya men and boys had attacked the local police headquarters. Rohingya militants simultaneously targeted two other police posts in the state. In total they killed nine policemen and wounded five, according to the government.

The Burmese army responded with brutal efficiency, rolling into Wa Peik in six vehicles, weapons at the ready. “When the soldiers entered the village, they started shooting,” the man recalled. “I saw them shoot at people as they fled.” (Courtesy of wsj.com/)

Foreign minister: Myanmar has to resolve Rohingya crisis

The Rohingyas, who already entered Bangladesh, will be shifted to Thengar Char in Hatiya, after the completion of total infrastructural development there, AH Mahmood Ali told the media at the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, during a briefing on the prime minister’s upcoming visit to Germany.

“We will seek assistance from our partners to help ensure infrastructural development in Thengar Char,” the minister added.

Mahmood also binned the reports by foreign media on security menaces in Thengar Char, terming them baseless and contradictory.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set to leave for Germany on Thursday to attend the 53rd Munich Security Conference. (Courtesy of dhakatribune.com)

Myanmar imposes death penalty on border post attacker

A court in western Myanmar has sentenced to death a man arrested for his part in an attack on a border guard post that triggered a crackdown by security forces on the country’s Muslim ethnic Rohingya minority.

The state-owned Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported Tuesday that the Sittwe District Court sentenced a man named Uruma for murder for the Oct. 9 attack on an outpost on Rakhine state’s border with Bangladesh that killed one officer.

Attacks on two other outposts that same night killed eight other guards and resulted in the attackers seizing a cache of war weapons. The government responded with counterinsurgency operations in northern Rakhine that human rights groups charge has involved rapes, the burning of homes and the killings of possibly hundreds of civilians. The government denies the allegations, but has instituted an official investigation in the wake of a detailed report from the U.N.’s human rights agency alleging serious abuses by the security forces. (Courtesy of washingtonpost.com)

Breaking: Military Besiege KoeTanKauk and Force Villagers to Accept NVC

The Myanmar armed forces have besieged the village of ‘Koetankauk’ and begun to force the villagers to accept the National Verification Cards also known as NVC at gun points, a reliable source has reported.

At around 9:30 AM today, trucks loads of the Myanmar military and the Border Guard Police (BGP) arrived fromwards Maungdaw have besieged ‘Koetankauk’, and been rounding up and beating up the Rohingya people, regardless of men or women, the source has added.

The barbaric action of the Myanmar military are leaving the villagers terrified.

The Rohingyas categorically reject NVC as it is meant to issue to the foreigners recently arrived in Myanmar and valid for only two years. Therefore, accepting these cards will automatically deprive the Rohingya people of their indigenous status with the identity ‘Rohingya,’ disqualify their citizenship rights by birth. (Courtesy of rvisiontv.com)

Footage of Monk and Foreign Reporter Goes Viral

Footage has gone viral of a BBC correspondent questioning a Buddhist monk in Rangoon on Thursday in a manner netizens deemed impolite.

Jonah Fisher—the first resident correspondent in Burma for the British news outlet—questioned a monk protesting the arrival of a ship from Malaysia carrying aid to the troubled Maungdaw Township in northern Arakan State as it docked at the Myanmar International Terminals port in Thilawa near Rangoon.

Several dozen Buddhist monks and nationalists—including monks from the Ma Ba Tha-aligned National Coalition Group—demonstrated against the use of the name Rohingya, which is commonly used by a group of Muslims in northern Arakan State to describe their ethnicity. (Courtesy of irrawaddy.com)

Rohingya Crisis: Int'l initiative needs to be strengthened

Hearing from Rohingya refugees the description of torture they suffered at the hands of Myanmar army, three foreign envoys in Bangladesh yesterday stressed the need for stronger international initiative for reinstatement of their citizenship and their safe return to homeland.

The Rohingyas, who had fled to Bangladesh in the face of persecution in Myanmar, narrated their harrowing experience when the high commissioners of the UK, Canada and Australia paid a two-day visit to Cox's Bazar from Wednesday.

Alison Blake of the UK, Benoît-Pierre Laramée of Canada and Julia Niblett of Australia visited an official Rohingya refugee camp and a makeshift settlement at Kutupalong in Ukhia upazila during the trip jointly arranged by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and World Food Programme (WFP).  (Courtesy of thedailystar.net)

Protests greet Malaysia aid ship for Myanmar's Rohingya

Anti-Rohingya protesters gathered at a Yangon port on Thursday (Feb 9) to meet a Malaysian ship carrying aid for thousands of refugees from the persecuted Muslim minority fleeing a bloody military crackdown.

Dozens of Buddhist monks and demonstrators waving national flags and signs reading "No Rohingya" congregated at the Thilawa port waiting for the ship to dock.

Hundreds of Rohingya are thought to have been killed in a brutal four-month campaign by security forces that the UN says may amount to ethnic cleansing. Tens of thousands have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh bringing harrowing tales of murder and rape. (Courtesy of channelnewsasia.com)

More than 1,000 Rohingya feared killed in Myanmar crackdown, say UN officials

More than 1,000 Rohingya Muslims might have been killed in a Myanmar army crackdown, according to two senior United Nations officials dealing with refugees fleeing the violence, suggesting the death toll is far greater than previously reported.

The officials, from two separate UN agencies working in Bangladesh, where nearly 70,000 Rohingya have fled in recent months, said they were concerned the outside world had not fully grasped the severity of the crisis unfolding in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

“The talk until now has been of hundreds of deaths. This is probably an underestimation – we could be looking at thousands,” said one of the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. Both officials, in separate interviews, cited the weight of testimony gathered by their agencies from refugees over the past four months in concluding the death toll was likely to have exceeded 1,000. (Courtesy of theguardian.com)

How a Muslim Immigrant from Bangladesh Became America’s Master Builder

If the United States has a national architectural form, it is the skyscraper. The notion of building a tower to the heavens is as old as Genesis, but it took some brash 19th century Americans to develop that fanciful idea into tangible, profitable buildings. Although we dressed up our early skyscrapers in Old World styles (the Met Life Tower as an Italian campanile, the Woolworth Building as a French Gothic cathedral), most foreigners agreed that the skyscraper suited only our misfit nation. For decades, Americans were alone in building them. Even those European modernists who dreamed of gleaming towers along Friedrichstraße and Boulevard de Sébastopol had to cross the Atlantic for a chance to act on their ambitions. By the start of World War II, 147 of the 150 tallest habitable buildings on the planet were located in the United States.

No building style better represented America’s industriousness, monomaniacal greed, disregard of tradition, and eagerness to attempt feats that more established cultures considered obscene. And while those indelicate traits prompted Americans to develop the skyscraper, it was our openness and multiculturalism that brought us our greatest skyscraper builder: a Bangladeshi Muslim immigrant named Fazlur Rahman Khan.

Khan was born on April 3rd, 1929 in Dhaka, Bangladesh (Dacca, British India at the time). His father, a mathematics instructor, cultivated young Fazlur’s interest in technical subjects and encouraged him to pursue a degree at Calcutta’s Bengal Engineering College. He excelled in his studies there and, after graduating, won a Fulbright Scholarship that brought him to the University of Illinois. In the United States, Khan studied structural engineering and engineering mechanics, earning two master’s degrees and a PhD in just three years. After a detour in Pakistan, Khan returned to the United States and was hired as an engineer in the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), one of the most prominent architecture and engineering firms in the world. (Courtesy of hackaday.com)

Chilling developments in Rohingya crisis put Suu Kyi in hot seat

Before dawn on Oct. 9, several hundred Muslim men gathered in northern Rakhine State to wage attacks on police posts near the border with Bangladesh. Armed with crude weapons and about 30 aging firearms, they raided three posts and made off with about 62 guns and considerable ammunition. Nine policemen and eight attackers were killed; two were captured.

The long-planned operation was launched prematurely, when the group's leaders realized that authorities had been tipped off, according to a detailed investigation by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. It was the first known operation of the group, which called itself Harakah al-Yaqin, or "Faith Movement," in YouTube videos posted afterward. It was also the first concrete sign of organized armed resistance by a Rohingya group in decades.

The group is thought to number 400 to 600 men. Led by Rohingya veterans from Saudi Arabia, the operation was expertly planned, showing a high degree of discipline and coordination. More important, it signaled a new phase in the troubled history of Rakhine State and official oppression of the Rohingya, who are regarded as interlopers from neighboring Bangladesh, even though many have resided in Myanmar for generations. (Courtesy of asia.nikkei.com)

Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims: Victims of crimes against humanity

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)

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)

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)

Myanmar’s army is tormenting Muslims with a brutal rape campaign

For Fatima, a 13-year-old girl from Myanmar’s western marshlands, the new year began with a grueling escape. She spent the first days of 2017 on the run, slogging through rice fields in the dark.

With each step, cold muck sucked at her ankles. The sky above was dark — just a dim crescent moon and a thousand pinpricks of starlight.

She was grateful for the blackness of night. At least there was no sign of armed border guards on the horizon. No distant flashlight beams scanning for intruders in the fields.

She was determined to stay alive until she reached the refugee camps in Bangladesh — a haven for Rohingya Muslims, among the world’s most tormented people.

But as Fatima trudged on, her insides burned. Just one week before, Myanmar’s army had violated her in almost every imaginable way. (Courtesy of pri.org)

A 'Long, Sickening' History: Burmese Army Systematically Raping Rohingya

A Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigation into the oppression of Rohingya minorities in Burma has found government forces perpetrated rape and other sexual violence against hundreds of women, and girls as young as 13, during security operations in late 2016 - the organization's deputy director for Asia has told Sputnik.

The investigation indicates Burmese army and Border Guard Police personnel took part in rape, gang rape, invasive body searches, and sexual assaults in at least nine villages in Burma's Maungdaw district between October 9 and mid-December.

Survivors and witnesses identified army and border police units by their uniforms, kerchiefs, armbands, and patches, and described forces carrying out attacks in groups, some holding women down or threatening them at gunpoint while others raped them. Many survivors reported being insulted and threatened on an ethnic or religious basis throughout the assaults. (Courtesy of sputniknews.com)

Rohingya Refugee: ‘They Cut the Bodies Into Four Pieces

In light of a new U.N. report documenting atrocities against Rohingya in Myanmar, photojournalist Allison Joyce profiles Rohingya refugees who recently fled to Bangladesh and have harrowing stories to tell.

Hasina Begum is still reeling from the stomach-churning scenes that she witnessed before she fled her home. She points to her knee, then to the top of her thigh as she describes how the Myanmar military quartered the bodies of the Rohingya men they killed when they attacked her village called Bura Shida Para in Rakhine State, Western Myanmar.

The military would “cut the men up into four pieces and bury them in the ground,” so people couldn’t photograph proof of the atrocities, the 20-year-old woman explained. (Courtesy of newsdeeply.com)

Burma Government Asks UN for More Evidence on Human Rights Claims

Burma’s government said on Monday that it has requested more information from the United Nations so that it can investigate alleged human rights abuses by the Burma Army in Arakan State.

“If there is solid evidence to prove these allegations of human rights violations, if they can be investigated, then we will take action in accordance with our procedures,” U Zaw Htay, deputy director general of the President’s Office, told The Irrawaddy on Monday.

In response to a recently published UN human rights report, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi directly asked the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to provide more information on the allegations, he added. (Courtesy of irrawaddy.com)

Qatar steps forward to support Malaysia in helping Rohingya community

Qatar is among the latest Islamic countries to come forward to support Malaysia in its humanitarian project to help the Rohingya community that had sought refuge in the country.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the Qatar government had agreed to provide special funds for Malaysia to aid the refugees in three areas, primary school education, skill training, and medical and health care.

"The agreement to channel funds is a positive response by Qatar to Malaysia's ongoing efforts in resolving issues regarding the Rohingya.

"The Qatar government is very appreciative of the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak)'s role in assisting the Rohingya community," he told Malaysian journalists here.

Ahmad Zahid who is also Home Minister is in Qatar on a four-day working visit since Feb 4. (Courtesy of saudigazette.com.sa)

Violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state could amount to crimes against humanity – UN special adviser

The scale of violence against the Rohingya community in Myanmar's Rakhine state documented in a recent United Nations human rights report is a level of dehumanization and cruelty that is “revolting and unacceptable,” the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide said today, underlining the Government's responsibility to ensure that populations are protected.

In a statement, Special Adviser Adama Dieng said the flash report issued last week by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) gave further credibility to allegations that security forces were committing serious human rights violations against civilians in northern Rakhine state from the very beginning of the recent escalation of violence, which was precipitated by attacks on border posts in early October 2016 and the ensuing operations by those forces.

According to the findings contained in the OHCHR report, human rights violations committed by the security forces include mass gang-rape, extra-judicial killings – including of babies and young children, brutal beatings and disappearances. (Courtesy of un.org)

Statement by Adama Dieng, United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide following OHCHR’s report on the situation in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar

The United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, stated that he was shocked and alarmed to read the accounts of serious human rights violations being committed against Muslim Rohingya in northern Rakhine State by Myanmar’s security forces, as set out in the report published on 3 February by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). According to the findings of the report, human rights violations committed by the security forces include mass gang-rape, extra judicial killings – including of babies and young children – brutal beatings and disappearances. These attacks have taken place in the context of an escalation of violence in northern Rakhine State since border security posts were attacked by armed assailants in early October 2016. (Courtesy of yangon.sites.unicnetwork.org)

Police Seize 4.6 Million Methamphetamine Pills From Monk

The head of the Maungdaw Township police confirmed that an anti-narcotics task force confiscated more than 4.6 million methamphetamine pills from a Buddhist monk on Sunday.

At around 6 p.m., U Arsara—an abbot—and a novice monk drove U Arsara’s Toyota Kluger from Shwe Baho village in southern Maungdaw to a downtown area known by locals as Na Ta La village. They were arrested by the Mayu Operation, an anti-narcotics task force, at Bawdhikone checkpoint on the outskirts of Maungdaw.

Police said they initially discovered 400,000 meth pills and some ammunition in abbot U Arsara’s vehicle. They then searched the Shwe Baho monastery and discovered 4.6 million stimulant tablets, said Maungdaw Township police head Col Kyaw Mya Win. (Courtesy of irrawaddy.com)

U.S. 'deeply troubled' by U.N. report of Myanmar atrocities against Muslims

The United States is "deeply troubled" by the findings of a United Nations report that said soldiers in Myanmar's Rakhine State had committed atrocities against minority Muslims, the State Department said on Monday.

Washington was still studying the report, but urged the Myanmar government "to take its findings seriously and redouble efforts to protect the local population," a spokeswoman for the department, Katina Adams, said.

"We are deeply troubled by the findings," Adams said, referring to the Feb. 3 report from the U.N.'s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. (Report: bit.ly/2kwtWGq)

The allegations should be investigated "in a thorough and credible manner," and those responsible for any violations held accountable, she said, adding that Washington was continuing to call on the government to restore fully humanitarian and media access to the area.

The U.N. report issued on Friday said Myanmar's security forces had committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burned their villages since October in a campaign that "very likely" amounted to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing. (Courtesy of reuters.com)

'What kind of hatred could make a man stab a crying baby?'

THE Rohingya have been described as people struck by tragedy. They have been persecuted for decades by Myanmar, a country they call home.

But they are unloved abroad and suffer from the geopolitics of powerful neighbours India and China, and overshadowed by the refugee crisis in Europe. In short, they have nowhere to go.

And to underline their worsening plight, the United Nations has just issued a damning report detailing an unprecedented “devastating cruelty” against the Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

In the report, the UN says human rights violations against the Rohingya by Myanmar’s security forces indicate “very likely commission of crimes against humanity”. Rohingya children had been subjected to “devastating cruelty” during a military campaign against Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority since Oct 9. (Courtesy of nst.com.my)

'Food Flotilla For Myanmar' Not Just A Humanitarian Mission But A Message To Stop Atrocities Against Rohingyas

The 'Food Flotilla For Myanmar' on board the 'Nautical Aliya' which departed from Malaysia for Myanmar is expected to arrive in Yangon, Myanmar on Feb 8.

The mission organised by the Malaysian Consultative Council of Islam Organisations (Mapim), Kelab Putra 1Malaysia and Turkiye Diyanet Vakfi Foundation (TDV) from Turkey will see the vessel 'Nautical Aliya' carrying 200 volunteers and 2,300 tonnes of food and medical supply for the ethnic Rohingya in Myanmar.

The mission is not just to provide humanitarian aid but accompanied by a message - that of to stop the atrocities against the ethnic Rohingya.

Following is the transcript of an interview with MAPIM President Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid by BERNAMA journalist Anis Nabilla Md Wazilah who is part of the mission.

BERNAMA : What is the 'Food Flotilla For Myanmar' mission about? (Courtesy of bernama.com.my)

Painful voices of Rohingya’s Muslims are not heard?

According to a UN report Babies and children have been slaughtered with knives during a military campaign on Rohingya Muslims in Burma.

An eight-month-old, a five-year-old and a six-year-old were all reportedly stabbed to death in their own homes during so-called “area clearance operations” by Burmese security services, which are reported to have killed hundreds of people since 9 October, in a Rohingya-dominated area in northwest Rakhine State.

One mother recounted in the report how her five-year-old daughter was trying to protect her from rape when a man “took out a long knife and killed her by slitting her throat”, while in another case an eight-month-old baby was reportedly killed while his mother was gang-raped by five security officers. (Courtesy of baaghi.tv)

Asean and the Rohingya crisis

The worsening plight of Muslim Rohingya communities in the Rakhine state of Burma (Myanmar) could soon imperil the country’s government, as well as the reputation of its leader, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The crisis has been escalating since last October, when Burma’s military launched an offensive in which 130 Rohingya were killed, and dozens of their buildings were torched. At the time, the military’s leaders claimed that the attack was part of an effort to locate unidentified insurgents who were thought to be responsible for the slayings on Oct. 9 of nine policemen at three border posts in the district of Maungdaw.

According to a Human Rights Watch analysis of satellite images, more Rohingya villages were destroyed over the course of nine days in November, bringing the number of buildings razed to 1,250; meanwhile, 30,000 people have reportedly been displaced.

The United Nations considers the stateless Rohingya to be among the world’s most persecuted minorities. (Courtesy of opinion.inquirer.net)

Bangladesh calls for support with Rohingya relocation plan

Bangladeshi authorities urged the international community Sunday to back a controversial plan to relocate tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar to a remote island despite warnings it is uninhabitable.

Foreign Minister A.H. Mahmood Ali called on representatives from 60 diplomatic missions and several United Nations agencies to take "meaningful measures" to relocate the refugees.

The scheme would see the Rohingya resettled on Thengar Char island in the Bay of Bengal, where Ali said the displaced would have "better access to humanitarian assistance". (Courtesy of dailymail.co.uk)

Burma: Security Forces Raped Rohingya Women, Girls

Burmese government forces committed rape and other sexual violence against ethnic Rohingya women and girls as young as 13 during security operations in northern Rakhine State in late 2016, Human Rights Watch said today. The Burmese government should urgently endorse an independent, international investigation into alleged abuses in northern Rakhine State, including into possible systematic rape against Rohingya women and girls.

Burmese army and Border Guard Police personnel took part in rape, gang rape, invasive body searches, and sexual assaults in at least nine villages in Maungdaw district between October 9 and mid-December. Survivors and witnesses, who identified army and border police units by their uniforms, kerchiefs, armbands, and patches, described security forces carrying out attacks in groups, some holding women down or threatening them at gunpoint while others raped them. Many survivors reported being insulted and threatened on an ethnic or religious basis during the assaults.

“These horrific attacks on Rohingya women and girls by security forces add a new and brutal chapter to the Burmese military’s long and sickening history of sexual violence against women,” said Priyanka Motaparthy, senior emergencies researcher. “Military and police commanders should be held responsible for these crimes if they did not do everything in their power to stop them or punish those involved.” (Courtesy of hrw.org)

Bangladesh blockade of food flotilla regrettable, says Anifah

Foreign Minister Anifah Aman yesterday met with the High Commissioner of Bangladesh to Malaysia, Md Shahidul Islam at the Foreign Ministry in Putrajaya.

Wisma Putra in a statement said the meeting was aimed at seeking clarification from the Bangladesh government on its decision not to allow the Humanitarian Mission – Food Flotilla for Myanmar to provide humanitarian aid to the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

During the meeting, Anifah expressed deep regret over the Bangladesh government’s decision, given the excellent bilateral relations between the two countries.

“The High Commissioner acknowledged my concern and will revert after getting further clarification from the Bangladesh government,” he said in the statement. (Courtesy of freemalaysiatoday.com)

Cambodian PM not support any attempt to internationalize Myanmar's Rohingya issue

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said on Saturday that the country would not support any attempt to internationalize the issue of Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar, according to Information Minister Khieu Kanharith.

The prime minister expressed the country's position during a meeting with Myanmar's president U Htin Kyaw at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, Khieu Kanharith wrote on his Facebook after the meeting.

"We do not agree with any attempt to internationalize the Rohingya issue, considering it as the Myanmar's internal issue, and the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Charter also bans members from interfering in others'internal affairs," he quoted the prime minister as saying to the Myanmar president. (Courtesy of shanghaidaily.com)

Christian group sends hope to Rohingyas via food flotila

The Association of NextGen Christians of Malaysia (ANCOM) joined the coalition of humanitarian NGOs led by the Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organisations (Mapim) and Kelab Putera 1Malaysia to support the mission to deliver humanitarian aid to the Rohingyas in Myanmar via a food flotilla.

ANCOM advisor Jason Leong said the group felt deeply the pain and suffering of the Rohingyas in Myanmar and wanted to do their part to help.

“We stand with those who suffer in our words, prayers and deeds,” he said in a statement on Friday.

“As such, we urge more Christians to speak up and stand in solidarity with Muslims with regard to the Rohingya situation because this issue now is much larger than a Myanmar-only problem; it affects every single one of us globally as humans because it is a humanitarian crisis,” he said while referring to the atrocities committed against the ethnic minority in the country. (Courtesy of nst.com.my)

A Blow to Myanmar’s Democracy

The murder of U Ko Ni, a prominent Muslim lawyer and a key member of Myanmar’s governing National League for Democracy party, on Sunday is a serious blow to the country’s fragile democracy. The brutal, public killing — he was shot at point-blank range outside Yangon International Airport after returning from a government-sponsored trip to Indonesia to discuss democracy and conflict resolution — has the hallmark of a political assassination.

Mr. Ko Ni’s murder deprives Myanmar’s civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and the governing party of a talented and trusted adviser, notably on reforming Myanmar’s military-drafted Constitution. “We lost a hero,” U Win Htein, a spokesman for the party lamented, adding, “It is a bad situation here.” (Courtesy of nytimes.com)

Myanmar's Suu Kyi vows to investigate crimes against Rohingya -U.N.'s Zeid tells Reuters

The top United Nations human rights official said on Friday that Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has promised to investigate allegations of systematic and widespread violence against Rohingya Muslims in northern Rakhine state.

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein was speaking in an interview with Reuters after his office issued a report based on accounts from 220 Rohingya who have fled to Bangladesh since a counter-insurgency operation began on Oct. 9 in Rakhine.

"I did speak to Aung San Suu Kyi about an hour and a half ago. I called upon her to use every means available to exert pressure on the military and the security services to end this operation," Zeid said. (Courtesy of uk.reuters.com)

Arakan State Advisory Commission Member Describes Inhumane Conditions for Refugees in Bangladesh

An Arakan State Advisory Commission delegate who participated in a three-day trip to Bangladesh, Al Haj U Aye Lwin, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that the living conditions for Muslim refugees on the Bangladeshi border were “inappropriate even for animals.”

Commission members, U Win Mra—of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission—and Al Haj U Aye Lwin—co-founder of Religions for Peace Myanmar—as well as the former UN Special Advisor to the Secretary General, Ghassan Salame, visited Bangladesh at the end of January and arrived back in Rangoon on Wednesday.

The advisory commission made an official announcement on Thursday that three delegates had traveled to Dhaka to explore Bangladeshi perspectives on the various challenges facing Arakan State. During the visit, they held meetings with Bangladesh’s Foreign Affairs Minister, the Minister of Home Affairs, an advisor to the Prime Minister, former Bangladeshi diplomats of Bangladesh, as well as non-profit organizations, according to U Aye Lwin. (Courtesy of irrawaddy.com)

Devastating cruelty against Rohingya children, women and men detailed in UN human rights report

Mass gang-rape, killings – including of babies and young children, brutal beatings, disappearances and other serious human rights violations by Myanmar’s security forces in a sealed-off area north of Maungdaw in northern Rakhine State have been detailed in a new UN report issued Friday based on interviews with victims across the border in Bangladesh.

Of the 204 people individually interviewed by a team of UN human rights investigators, the vast majority reported witnessing killings, and almost half reported having a family member who was killed as well as family members who were missing. Of the 101 women interviewed, more than half reported having suffered rape or other forms of sexual violence.

Especially revolting were the accounts of children – including an eight-month old, a five-year-old and a six-year-old – who were slaughtered with knives. One mother recounted how her five-year-old daughter was trying to protect her from rape when a man “took out a long knife and killed her by slitting her throat.” In another case, an eight-month-old baby was reportedly killed while his mother was gang-raped by five security officers. (Courtesy of ohchr.org)