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)
February 8, 2017
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)
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)
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)
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)
“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)
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