Hardline Buddhist nationalists stopped a Muslim religious ceremony in Yangon on Sunday, witnesses and organisers said, as Islamophobic tensions boil over amid a bloody military campaign against Rohingya in northern Rakhine state.
Dozens of people, led by a handful of maroon-robed monks, marched to the YMCA in Myanmar's commercial capital to shut down a service marking the Prophet Mohammed's birthday.
"We have celebrated this festival for my whole life. Now this seems like an attack on freedom of religion," Kyaw Nyein, secretary of the Ulama Islam organisation, told AFP. (Courtesy of channelnewsasia.com)
January 9, 2017
January 8, 2017
Calls to strip Nobel Peace Prize winner of freedom of Newcastle
Calls have been made to strip a Nobel Peace Prize winner of the freedom of Newcastle.
Human rights campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi who was awarded Freedom of Newcastle in 2011, but has come in for strong criticism in recent weeks after violence erupted against Burma’s Rohingya Muslims.
Ms Suu Kyi, the feted pro-democracy activist who spent 15 years under house arrest before being elected as Myanmar’s State Counsellor in 2015, has failed to visit the affected region since the outbreak of violence.
In that time at least 10,000 members of the Muslim ethnic group have been driven across the Bangladeshi border by threat of violence.
Instead, she has repeatedly defended the purges, attacking foreign intervention in the region and demanding: “show me a country without human rights issues”. (Courtesy of chroniclelive.co.uk)
Human rights campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi who was awarded Freedom of Newcastle in 2011, but has come in for strong criticism in recent weeks after violence erupted against Burma’s Rohingya Muslims.
Ms Suu Kyi, the feted pro-democracy activist who spent 15 years under house arrest before being elected as Myanmar’s State Counsellor in 2015, has failed to visit the affected region since the outbreak of violence.
In that time at least 10,000 members of the Muslim ethnic group have been driven across the Bangladeshi border by threat of violence.
Instead, she has repeatedly defended the purges, attacking foreign intervention in the region and demanding: “show me a country without human rights issues”. (Courtesy of chroniclelive.co.uk)
January 7, 2017
The twin tragedies of Syria and Myanmar
A heart-wrenching photograph of the lifeless body of a 16-month old boy, washed up on the shore of the Naf river, was recently published on CNN. The headline read, “'The Rohingya Alan Kurdi': Will the world take notice now?” The name of the boy in the picture is Mohammed Shohayet, a Rohingya refugee, who drowned along with his mother, uncle and three-year-old brother. The image of Mohammed lying face down on the seashore is a dead ringer for Alan Kurdi, the Syrian boy whose riveting photo made global headlines more than a year ago.
While Alan and Mohammed hail from different countries, the circumstances which led to their premature deaths are very similar, and sadly, all too frequent. Both the Syrian war and the Rohingya tragedy see no end in sight. The Syrians and the Rohingya who have lived in their respective homelands for generations are being forced to make a journey across dangerous terrains and seas to seek refuge. To add to their dehumanising plight and sufferings, both the Syrians and Rohingya are being demonised by the West and Myanmar respectively—the Syrians for fleeing to countries which created the crisis in the first place, and the Rohingya, who, despite having lived in Myanmar for centuries, are being told they don't belong to the place they call home. (Courtesy of thedailystar.net)
While Alan and Mohammed hail from different countries, the circumstances which led to their premature deaths are very similar, and sadly, all too frequent. Both the Syrian war and the Rohingya tragedy see no end in sight. The Syrians and the Rohingya who have lived in their respective homelands for generations are being forced to make a journey across dangerous terrains and seas to seek refuge. To add to their dehumanising plight and sufferings, both the Syrians and Rohingya are being demonised by the West and Myanmar respectively—the Syrians for fleeing to countries which created the crisis in the first place, and the Rohingya, who, despite having lived in Myanmar for centuries, are being told they don't belong to the place they call home. (Courtesy of thedailystar.net)
UN rights envoy to probe Myanmar Rohingya violence
The United Nations on Friday (Jan 6) said its human rights envoy for Myanmar will probe escalating violence in the country, including a military crackdown on Rohingya Muslims, when she visits next week.
UN special rapporteur Yanghee Lee's 12-day trip, starting on Monday, will also take her to Kachin state, where thousands have been displaced by fighting between ethnic rebels and the army.
Intensifying clashes between Myanmar's military and ethnic minorities has undercut Aung San Suu Kyi's vow to bring peace to the country following her party's elevation to government last March.
The Nobel prize winner has also faced strong international criticism for failing to rein-in a months-long military crackdown on Rohingya villagers in northern Rakhine State. (Courtesy of straitstimes.com)
UN special rapporteur Yanghee Lee's 12-day trip, starting on Monday, will also take her to Kachin state, where thousands have been displaced by fighting between ethnic rebels and the army.
Intensifying clashes between Myanmar's military and ethnic minorities has undercut Aung San Suu Kyi's vow to bring peace to the country following her party's elevation to government last March.
The Nobel prize winner has also faced strong international criticism for failing to rein-in a months-long military crackdown on Rohingya villagers in northern Rakhine State. (Courtesy of straitstimes.com)
US official: In Myanmar crackdown, abuses appear 'normal'
buses appear "normal and allowed" in Myanmar's response to an armed uprising by Rohingya Muslims, a senior U.S. official said in an interview, casting a pall over one of President Barack Obama's legacy foreign policy achievements.
Obama and his advisers have long held up the former pariah nation's U.S.-backed shift from military rule as a breakthrough for American interests and democratic values in Southeast Asia. But the situation in strife-hit Rakhine State makes the transition no straightforward success story.
Rakhine has been largely closed off to foreigners, including aid workers, since a deadly insurgent attack against police in October. Subsequent "clearance operations," led by the military and reminiscent of its decades of junta rule, have left at least dozens dead. Tens of thousands of Rohingya have escaped to neighboring Bangladesh. (Courtesy of chicagotribune.com)
Obama and his advisers have long held up the former pariah nation's U.S.-backed shift from military rule as a breakthrough for American interests and democratic values in Southeast Asia. But the situation in strife-hit Rakhine State makes the transition no straightforward success story.
Rakhine has been largely closed off to foreigners, including aid workers, since a deadly insurgent attack against police in October. Subsequent "clearance operations," led by the military and reminiscent of its decades of junta rule, have left at least dozens dead. Tens of thousands of Rohingya have escaped to neighboring Bangladesh. (Courtesy of chicagotribune.com)
January 6, 2017
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)
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.
Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month. (Courtesy of thediplomat.com)
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.
Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month. (Courtesy of thediplomat.com)
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