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)
February 16, 2017
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/)
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)
“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)
February 15, 2017
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)
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)
February 12, 2017
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)
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)
February 11, 2017
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)
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)
February 10, 2017
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)
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)
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