Burmese government dismisses images of 'Rohingya Alan Kurdi' as propaganda

Images have emerged of the body of a baby boy, reported to be a Rohingya Muslim child who drowned while fleeing violence in Burma’s Rakhine state.

Non-state media are banned from entering the north of Burma – making it difficult to verify the the photograph – and the government has dismissed the image as “propaganda”.

Despite documented evidence by human rights organisations, Burmese authorities on Wednesday released a report denying allegations of human rights violations against the country’s Rohingya minority and warning readers against believing “fabricated news and rumours”. (Courtesy of independent.co.uk)

Genocide or Not, Time to Act on Myanmar's Rohingya Crisis

The word genocide is a loaded term. Lawyers, human rights advocates, governments and militaries often spend too much time arguing the finer points of law over whether this crime had actually occurred in areas where there is no doubt that great atrocities took place.

In Cambodia, at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, where Pol Pot’s former henchmen are facing charges of genocide, such arguments are being hotly contested. The expulsion of ethnic Chinese at the point of a gun by the Vietnamese in the late 1970s is another example.

The debate of what constitutes genocide continues to this day in regards to the massacre of communists by Indonesian authorities in the mid-1960s or their treatment of Christians in East Timor during its occupation three decades later.
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Myanmar to Send Diplomatic Team to Bangladesh to Discuss Rohingya Refugees

The Myanmar government said it hopes to send a special diplomatic team led by the deputy foreign minister to Bangladesh later this month amid increasing tension with the neighboring country over the tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar following violence that began in northern Rakhine state in early October.

“It is possible that a Myanmar special diplomatic team will travel to Bangladesh this month when the Bangladesh prime minister and foreign affairs minister are available to meet them,” said Kyaw Zayya, director general of Myanmar’s foreign affairs ministry, on Thursday.

“We will arrange it through discussions with their government,” he said. “The deputy foreign affairs minister will possibly lead the team. The team will have only three or four members, but it is difficult to say the exact date of the travel.” (Courtesy of rfa.org)

Rohingya Muslim crisis in Myanmar: The warning signs of a possible ‘genocide’

Myanmar has been under severe attack from the international community in recent times for what is being considered as ‘genocide’ against the Rohingya Muslims. Considered by the United Nations as the “most persecuted minority group in the world”, the Rohingyas are a stateless group of people concentrated in western Myanmar, and facing brutal assaults from the Burmese state and military. Since October, frequent reports have come in of the Burmese army burning down Rohingya villages, rapes and murders of the nature of ‘ethnic cleansing’.

Faced with the savagery, about 10,000 Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar have rushed into Bangladesh for refuge. This is not the first time that this group has been seeking shelter from the Bangladeshi government on account of being brutally persecuted at home. Last time a mass exodus of the Rohingyas happened was in 2012 when communal clashes erupted between them and the Rakhine Buddhists who were later represented by the Burmese Army. While Bangladesh remains their favourite destination for decades now, they have been seeking out refuge in other neighbouring countries as well. According to a UN report, at present around 5,500 Rohingya refugees have been registered in India and are living in makeshift camps under precarious conditions. (Courtesy of indianexpress.com)

Govt report on Rakhine State ‘would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic’

Human rights groups have slammed an interim report released by the Maungtaw Region Investigation Commission this week that denies claims of genocide, religious persecution and rape in northern Rakhine State and puts the blame for the violence there almost exclusively on Rohingya insurgents.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) responded to the report, calling it “methodologically flawed” and “a classic example of pre-baked political conclusions”.

The commission drew criticism as soon as it was formed by the office of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. The commission is chaired by Myanmar Vice President Myint Swe – a former military general believed to have orchestrated the brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters in the 2007 Saffron Revolution. (Courtesy of yangon.coconuts.co)