Rohingya Ethnic Cleansing - Updates & Discussions

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04:57 PM, September 24, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 05:26 PM, September 24, 2017
History and sufferings of Rohingya community
Khalid Hussain Ayon
The Rohingya people of the Rakhine state of Myanmar have been a subject of hatred and oppression by the Myanmar authorities that term them as “immigrant Bangalees.”
They are migrants alright, but they migrated from Bengal to Myanmar (then Burma) several hundred years ago.

Also, it is internationally practiced everywhere that if a child is born in a country, that child will naturally earn the local citizenship or residence permit.

Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) says “everyone has the right to a nationality” and that “no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality”.

Most articles of the UDHR are considered customary international human rights law where the right to citizenship/nationality is clearly stated.

But to Myanmar authorities, the Rohingyas do not deserve any such rights.

Watch the Star Live Video to know more about the history of the Rohingya people.
http://www.thedailystar.net/world/r...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all

 

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Turkey to build shelters for 100,000 Rohingya
Turkey to provide 10,000 packets of relief aid to refugees, says TIKA’s Bangladesh coordinator
September 24, 2017 Anadolu Agency

Archive
Turkey would build shelters for 100,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, an official of Turkey’s state-run aid body said on Sunday.

According to a press release, Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency’s (TIKA) Bangladesh Coordinator Ahmet Refik Cetinkaya held a meeting with Disaster Management and Relief Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya.

“Turkey will soon provide 10,000 packets of aid [to Rohingya Muslims],” Cetinkaya told the minister.

He said Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdag would visit Bangladesh.

03:01 dk22 Eylül 2017 Yeni Şafak
Erdoğan calls on world leaders for Rohingya, Syrian refugees at UN
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addressed the 72nd UN General Assembly in New York. He drew attention to the plight of the Rohingya refugees, with more than 410,000 currently fleeing the Myanmar army's violence, and to the Syrian refugees, and called on the world leaders to find a solution and overcome these crises.

Since Aug. 25, more than 429,000 Rohingya have crossed from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh, according to the UN's migration agency.

In total, more than 800,000 Rohingya refugees are now believed to be in Bangladesh, including the arrivals since Aug. 25.

The refugees are fleeing a fresh security operation in which security forces and Buddhist mobs have killed men, women and children, looted homes and torched Rohingya villages. According to Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali, around 3,000 Rohingya have been killed in the crackdown.

Turkey has been at the forefront of providing aid to Rohingya refugees and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the issue with the UN.

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world's most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

Myanmar mines target Rohingya refugees: Rights group
Myanmar’s military has been accused of laying mines in western Rakhine state, an international human rights group said on Saturday, as some 420,000 Rohingya Muslim civilians have fled the violence in the country since late August.

Citing evidence such as eyewitness accounts, independent reporting, and photo and video recordings, New York-based Human Rights Watch said on Saturday that the military had laid anti-personnel landmines at key crossing points on Myanmar’s western border with neighboring Bangladesh.

HRW said the landmines laid by soldiers along the border pose a grave risk to Rohingya villagers fleeing the ongoing atrocities.“The dangers faced by thousands of Rohingya fleeing atrocities in Burma are deadly enough without adding landmines to the mix,” said HRW’s South Asia Director Meenakshi Ganguly, using Myanmar's former name.

“The Burmese military needs to stop using these banned weapons, which kill and maim without distinction,” she said in a statement.Video: Rohingya villages set on fire by Myanmar’s military and Buddhist mobsWitnesses told the group that Myanmar military personnel also planted mines on roads inside Rakhine prior to their attacks on predominantly Rohingya villages.

The group interviewed refugees who witnessed soldiers laying antipersonnel mines on roads during an attack on Rohingya villagers.Mohammad, 39, said he saw a neighbor’s son step on one of the mines laid by the military. “The mine blew his right leg off,” said the statement.Blast at religious school Separately, according to media reports, a blast on Friday partially damaged a Muslim religious school in a Rohingya village in Buthidaung Township that had remained largely peaceful amid the recent violence. Myanmar’s government blamed the explosion on militants, but failed to provide any evidence.Bangladesh’s government recently protested the use of landmines by Myanmar security forces on the border area after a mine blast killed three Rohingya villagers fleeing violence in the Maungdaw area.Since Aug. 25, more than 421,000 Rohingya have crossed from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh, according to the UN.

In total, more than 700,000 Rohingya refugees are now believed to be in Bangladesh, including the arrivals since Aug. 25, according to the UN.India closes off border to Rohingya Muslims

The refugees are fleeing a fresh security operation in which security forces and Buddhist mobs have killed men, women and children, looted homes and torched Rohingya villages. According to Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali, around 3,000 Rohingya have been killed in the crackdown.Turkey has been at the forefront of providing aid to Rohingya refugees and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the issue with the UN.The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world's most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.
http://www.yenisafak.com/en/dunya/t...glish&utm_campaign=facebook-yenisafak-english

 

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Rohingya Hindu women share horror tales
Manik Miazee
Published at 05:17 PM September 19, 2017
Last updated at 12:52 AM September 20, 2017

Anika Dhar, 18, gets emotional while talking to the Dhaka Tribune about the persecution of Hindus in Rakhine, MyanmarMahmud Hossain Opu/ Dhaka Tribune
More than 500 Rohingya Hindus have crossed over to Bangladesh to escape military persecution of the minority group in Rakhine, Myanmar that began in late August
The morning of August 27 started as any other for Anika Dhar, 18, a resident of Fakira Bazar village in the Maungdaw area of Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine state.

Her husband Milon Dhar, a barber who worked at a salon in the nearby market, was preparing to go to work when a group of men wearing black uniforms burst into their home. They were armed to the teeth with guns and long knives, Anika said.

“They looted our house, then marched us with more than a hundred of our neighbours to a secluded spot,” she told the Dhaka Tribune. “They had dug holes in the ground. They shot and stabbed people and dumped the bodies into the holes.”

Milon was among those killed by the militiamen dressed in black. Over one hundred people were killed that day, according to Anika.

Anika said she was able to escape in the confusion and friendly people helped her get across the river Naf to Bangladesh.

Anika is among a small group of Hindu Rohingya who have fled to Bangladesh along with their Muslim neighbours, Rohingya Hindu men have also been killed by the Myanmar security forces during its latest crackdown on the Rohingya in Rakhine state, human rights activists say, but the number has yet to be confirmed.

Such accounts are consistent with the stories brought by the mainly Muslim Rohingya, who accuse the Myanmar military and Rakhine militias backed by the army of carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya.

At least eight Hindu women refugees, who fled to Bangladesh from Rakhine in the last few weeks, said armed men killed their husbands in front of them.

They looted our house, then marched us with more than a hundred of our neighbours to a secluded spot. They had dug holes in the ground. They shot and stabbed people and dumped the bodies into the holes

Promila Sheel, 25, said she decided to flee to Bangladesh after her husband was killed by militia.

Like Anika Dhar, Promila has found shelter at Kutupalong’s Hindu camp with roughly a hundred other families.

Anika, who is expecting a baby, said her husband Milon worked at a salon in Maungdaw’s Fakira Bazar.

“They shot him dead,” she said. “I joined the Muslims and escaped with them.”

As of Monday, more than 410,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh after the Myanmar security forces launched “security operations” targeting Rohingya villages following insurgent attacks on police posts and an army base on August 25, according to UN estimates.

Among the Rohingya refugees are more than 500 Hindus who fled the persecution in their homeland.

Many of these refugees said their houses were attacked, looted and set afire by the security forces.

About 30,000 Arakanese Buddhists, Hindus and Arakanese sub-ethnic residents fled violence apart from the Rohingya, according to Myanmar-based media The Irrawaddy.

Cox’s Bazar Assistant Deputy Commissioner and Executive Magistrate AKM Lutfor Rahman said out of a total of around 409,000 Rohingya in Ukhiya, 7,078 had been registered by the government by Tuesday.

More than half of the more than 400,000 Rohingya who have escaped Myanmar’s military crackdown live in makeshift sites without proper shelter, clean drinking water and sanitation.

On Tuesday, police and army officials were checking vehicles coming from the camps towards Cox’s Bazar city, after the government announced restrictions on the refugees’ movement.

The scenario was the same as the previous days, when many local people joined government agencies and NGOs to distribute relief goods to refugees in Ukhiya’s refugees camps and nearby areas.

Many of the Rohingya are suffering from a variety of diseases including diarrhea and fever, however medical teams trying to given treatment, the civil surgeon’s office said, although the teams are not enough for all.

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader could not hold back his tears when he learnt of the horrible fate the Rohingya refugees had escaped when they fled to Bangladesh.

Highlighting the grave conditions for Rohingya refugees, aid agencies reported on September 15 that at least two children and one woman were killed in a stampede that broke out as aid was being distributed. The authorities have denied any casualties during aid distribution.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2017/09/19/rohingya-hindu-horror-myanmar-military/

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Is Indian law enforcement using Bangladeshi ‘militant’ to vilify the Rohingya?
Tribune Desk
Published at 11:04 PM September 24, 2017

Rahman allegedly crossed over illegally into India in July this year, roughly three months after his release Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune
The charges levelled against the British citizen of Bangladeshi origin by the Delhi police’s special cell raise grave doubts about the agency’s intentions
The September 17 arrest of Samiun Rahman – a British citizen of Bangladeshi origin – in east Delhi came a day before the government in New Delhi told the Supreme Court that the 40,000 Rohingya refugees in its territory constitute a national security threat.

The government had submitted its plea in a sealed envelope to the court, so it is not definite whether Rahman’s case is included as evidence, according to a report by The Wire. Media reports have described him as “al-Qaeda’s key recruiter,” although some other reports have been more circumspect, naming him only as a “suspected al-Qaeda militant.”

Twenty-eight-year-old Rahman, whose family is still in London, had previously been arrested in Dhaka in September 2014. Then, the Bangladeshis claimed he had been working for ISIS as well as al-Qaeda, pointing at a highly improbable combination between the two warring outfits.

The Jabhat al Nusra, which was sent into Syria as an advance team by ISIS “caliph” Abu Bakr al Baghdadi from Iraq, had broken ranks and declared its allegiance to the Ayman al Zawahiri-led al-Qaeda.

According to reports, Rahman, a drug addict and alcoholic in London till 2012, had turned religious, travelled to Syria to train and fight on behalf of the al Nusra front, and also travelled in Turkey and Mauritania (Mauritius, according to the Bangladesh police). Contrasting reports, however, point to the fact that his travels to Syria were as part of a humanitarian aid team and not to join the terrorists. Rahman, in fact, was briefly detained at the Heathrow airport in 2013 and was allowed to go after he proved that he was indeed part of a humanitarian aid team to Syria.
Also Read – IS recruiter British citizen held in capital
At the time of his arrest in Dhaka in September 2014, Rahman, according to the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), had been operating in the country for six months under the fake name of Ibn Hamdad, and had been involved with ISIS activities as a recruiter of militants in Dhaka as well as Sylhet. His arrest took place after five suspected ISIS militants were picked up by Bangladesh security forces from the capital.

The DMP spokesperson claimed that the militants had a plan to conduct “massive subversive activities” in Bangladesh. The police charge, however, had been contested by human rights organisations like CAGE, which claimed that Rahman was merely visiting his relatives when he was picked up by the police. In a media interview, Rahman claimed he was picked up from Sylhet and has since been forced to sign blank documents without any interrogation. A crowdfunding campaign for fighting Rahman’s case is still up on JustGiving.comand has collected 3,059 pounds sterling till date.

Rahman spent the next three years in a Bangladeshi jail and was released on bail in April 2017. This rather short term in jail for an alleged militant recruiter who was planning to carry out “massive attacks” is strange, and the fact that he was able to secure bail appears to vindicate the stand of the human rights organisations. No charge could be proved against him in a court of law. No open source report is available on his activities after his release.

Rahman allegedly crossed over illegally into India in July this year, roughly three months after his release. The Delhi police special cell says his movement was under instructions from Nusra leader Mohammad Jowlani, who was responsible for Rahman’s radicalisation in 2012 and with whom he had reconnected after his release from a Dhaka prison.
Also Read – How did a jailed Bangladeshi militant end up in Delhi?
What Rahman (allegedly operating under another pseudonym, Hamdan alias Shumon Haq alias Raju Bhai) has been credited with doing by his interrogators of the special cell since then, in a matter of less than three months, is highly impressive even for a trained terrorist who had spent more than three years in jail and was virtually cut off from the world of jihadism.

He is said to have stayed at various madrassas in Kishanganj, Bihar and Hazaribagh and Delhi/NCR to tap vulnerable youths; used secured apps as well as social networking sites such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram to developed an “al-Qaeda module”; recruited 12 Rohingya refugees living in Kashmir, the northeast, Delhi, Bihar and Jharkhand; and was planning to set up base in Delhi, Manipur and Mizoram to radicalise and recruit Rohingya refugees to “wage a war against India, and also to fight the Myanmar army.” He was being assisted in his tasks by al-Qaeda cadres in Delhi, Hazaribagh and other places in India. Within a short period of time, Rahman had managed to secure an Aadhaar card as a resident of Kishanganj. The special cell also suspects that he was in touch with some militant organisations in Kashmir.

The Delhi police special cell has an ignominious record of framing people as terrorists. Is it possible that Rahman has simply been handed over by the Bangladeshi authorities to their Indian counterparts as part of a deal to buttress official claims about the security challenges posed by al-Qaeda’s attempts to recruit the Rohingya? The timing of his arrest and the immediate leak in the media about the details of his activities, with several apparent unasked and unanswered questions, raise doubts about the entire case.

Neither his “al-Qaeda contacts” in India nor the 12 youths he recruited have been arrested. There is a striking similarity between the special cell’s accusations and that of the DMP’s 2014 charges against Rahman. Is the Delhi police, which reports directly to the Union ministry of home affairs, merely attempting to use Rahman as a pawn to vilify the Rohingya? And finally, the bigger question. Isn’t the short-sighted policy of the Modi government to deport Rohingya refugees – in gross contravention of international humanitarian norms, the principle of non-refoulement and refugee laws – making them even more vulnerable to terrorist recruitment?
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...aw-enforcement-bangladeshi-militant-rohingya/

UN finds rape evidence in Myanmar army’s Rohingya cleansing campaign
Reuters
Published at 01:29 AM September 25, 2017

The ruins of a market which was set on fire are seen at a Rohingya village outside Maugndaw in Rakhine state, Myanmar Oct 27, 2016 Reuters
'They all said Myanmar army had done this'
Doctors treating some of the 429,000 Rohingya who have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar in recent weeks have seen dozens of women with injuries consistent with violent sexual attacks, UN clinicians and other health workers said.

The medics’ accounts, backed in some cases by medical notes reviewed by Reuters, lend weight to repeated allegations, ranging from molestation to gang rape, levelled by women from the stateless minority group against Myanmar’s armed forces.

Myanmar officials have mostly dismissed such allegations as militant propaganda designed to defame its military, which they say is engaged in legitimate counterinsurgency operations and under orders to protect civilians.

Zaw Htay, spokesman for Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, said the authorities would investigate any allegations brought to them. “Those rape victim women should come to us,” he said. “We will give full security to them. We will investigate and we will take action.”

It is rare for UN doctors and aid agencies to speak about rape allegedly committed by a state’s armed forces, given the sensitivity of the matter.
Fraction of the cases
Doctors at a clinic run by the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) at the Leda makeshift refugee say they treated hundreds of women with injuries they said were from violent sexual assaults during the army operation in October and November.

Doctors at the Leda clinic showed a Reuters reporter three case files, without divulging the identity of the patients. One said a 20-year-old woman was treated on September 10, seven days after she said she was raped by a soldier in Myanmar.

At Bangladesh government clinics supported by UN agencies in the Ukhia area, doctors reported treating 19 women who had been raped, said Dr Misbah Uddin Ahmed, head of the main health complex there, citing reports from female clinicians.

In one day alone, September 14, six women showed up at one of the clinics, all saying they were sexually assaulted. “They all said Myanmar army had done this.”

The doctor treated 15 of the 19 cases of women who appeared to have been raped, and another eight women who had been physically assaulted. Some were given emergency contraceptives, and all were given treatment to reduce the risk of contracting HIV and jabs against hepatitis. Symptoms included bite marks over the arms and back, tearing and laceration on the vagina and vaginal bleeding, the doctor said.

Internal reports compiled by aid agencies in Cox’s Bazar recorded that 49 SGBV survivors” were identified in just four days between August 28-31. SGBV, or sexual and gender-based violence is used to refer to only cases of rape, according to UN doctors.

A situation report from aid agencies says more than 350 people had been referred for “life-saving care” relating to gender-based violence – a broad term that includes rape, attempted rape and molestation – since August 25. Kate White, emergency medical coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Cox’s Bazar said the charity had treated at least 23 cases of sexual and gender-based violence including gang-rape and sexual assault since August 25.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...ce-myanmar-armys-rohingya-cleansing-campaign/

04:57 PM, September 24, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 05:26 PM, September 24, 2017
History and sufferings of Rohingya community
Khalid Hussain Ayon
The Rohingya people of the Rakhine state of Myanmar have been a subject of hatred and oppression by the Myanmar authorities that term them as “immigrant Bangalees.”
They are migrants alright, but they migrated from Bengal to Myanmar (then Burma) several hundred years ago.

Also, it is internationally practiced everywhere that if a child is born in a country, that child will naturally earn the local citizenship or residence permit.

Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) says “everyone has the right to a nationality” and that “no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality”.

Most articles of the UDHR are considered customary international human rights law where the right to citizenship/nationality is clearly stated.

But to Myanmar authorities, the Rohingyas do not deserve any such rights.
Watch the Star Live Video to know more about the history of the Rohingya people.
http://www.thedailystar.net/world/r...community-in-rakhine-state-of-myanmar-1467037

 

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12:00 AM, September 25, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:34 AM, September 25, 2017
World's most urgent refugee crisis: UNHCR
Diplomatic Correspondent

Filippo Grandi
As Rohingyas have continued to flee into Bangladesh, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi warned of humanitarian disaster.

The exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar is "the most urgent refugee emergency in the world" right now, he told reporters while visiting the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar yesterday.

“People have fled unspeakable violence, and their needs are enormous,” he said, as he toured around Kutupalong camp and its adjacent sprawling new extension.

Arriving in Bangladesh on a three-day visit, Grandi went to Cox's Bazar on Saturday to observe the situation of Rohingya refugees in camps.

The needs of more than 435,000 people who have fled terrible violence in Myanmar over the last month are enormous, he said, adding that the international community must step up financial and material aid to help Bangladesh deal with the refugee crisis.

The latest round of violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state erupted on August 25. Those fleeing have described indiscriminate attacks by security forces and Buddhist mobs. The Myanmar government has shrugged it off saying Rohingyas themselves set fire to their houses, but could not produce any proof to substantiate the claim.
The United Nations and others have described the violence as ethnic cleansing.
UN doctors based in makeshift clinics in Rohingya camps have reported symptoms of rape and horrific sexual abuse on women arriving from western Myanmar.

There are dozens of cases of violent sexual abuse, including the ones leveled against Myanmar's armed forces, reports Reuters.

The UN chief for refugees accompanied by UNHCR field staff and Bangladeshi officials yesterday toured a site recently assigned for the new arrivals. UNHCR staff there distributed cooking equipment, sleeping mats, solar lamps and other essential relief items to 3,500 families selected by community leaders.

Despite immense challenges at the beginning, there had been an “incredible outpouring of local generosity and support” but that now needed to be “beefed up by massive international assistance, financial and material,” Grandi said.

International support is also being stepped up, under the leadership of the government, but these efforts must be accelerated and sustained, he added.

Grandi visited the massive refugee camps that had sprung up to accommodate new refugees. Cox's Bazar also has a large camp accommodating another 4 lakh Rohingya refugees who fled persecution over the decades.

The Bangladesh government has kept its borders open for the terrified Rohingyas "in a world that has often turned hostile to refugees", for which, the UN official said, he was thankful.

The Rohingyas need a long-term solution beyond measures to ease their immediate sufferings, and "just like the causes of the influx are in Myanmar, clearly the solution is in Myanmar as well."

Myanmar must end the violence that has caused such a vast number of people to flee their homes, and grant human rights organisations like the UN access to areas where violence has taken place, the UN refugee agency chief said.

Though the UNHCR and the World Food Programme have their presence in Rakhine, "our movement is still restricted”.

“We know that there are people on the other side and under pressure and we know that there are people who are displaced internally in northern Rakhine."

Grandi also expressed the hope that the UN's role would give the registration of Rohingyas in Bangladesh “the necessary credibility, which is so urgent not just for repatriation but for assistance.”

AID ARRIVING
Meanwhile, the first consignment of the Unicef emergency supplies for Rohingya children and their families arrived in Dhaka, Unicef says. A cargo plane arrived from Copenhagen with 100 tonnes of supplies comprising water purifying tablets, family hygiene kits, sanitary materials, plastic tarpaulins, recreational kits for children and other items.

The supplies will be given to around 250,000 Rohingya children. The next consignments of relief materials are also on the way to Bangladesh, according to a Unicef release.

Our New Delhi Correspondent reports that India is sending a fresh consignment of relief materials for the Rohingyas.

Nearly 700 tonnes of humanitarian relief materials were loaded onto Indian Navy ship Gharial at the Kakinada deep water port in southern state of Andhra Pradesh for transportation to Chittagong, a naval official said yesterday.

The relief materials will be handed over to the Bangladesh government for over 68,000 distressed families in customised family packets containing food, clothes and mosquito nets.

In addition to the already installed 196 tube-wells, 224 latrines and 35 bathing cubicles, BRAC said that by October 15, it will form 60 medical teams, install 15,000 latrines and 1,120 tube-wells and set up 10 maternity centres to provide services to three lakh Rohingyas.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/mayanmar-rohingya-refugee-worlds-most-urgent-crisis-1467262

 

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International journalists, activists urge UN to stop ‘Muslim holocaust’ in Myanmar
Tribune Desk
Published at 08:18 PM September 24, 2017

Rohingya refugees scuffle as they wait to receive aid in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh September 24, 2017REUTERS
According to Human Right Watch, new satellite images show that 99% of the villages in Rakhine have been destroyed
A group of international journalists and activists have called on the UN to put an end to the “Muslim holocaust” in Myanmar, warning that the “worst bloodshed” after the World War II looms ahead as a result of the ongoing atrocities against the Rohingya Muslim minority group, Tehran based news agency, Press TV, reports.

“Hereby, we, as the international journalists, photographers and media activists condemn in the strongest terms the Muslims’ holocaust in Myanmar, and call for an emergency meeting of the UN Human Rights Council on this issue, before the world faces the worst bloodshed after the World War II,” the journalists said in an open letter to the UN Human Rights Council.

The letter expressed deep concern over the murder and displacement of thousands of Muslims in Myanmar who are deprived of their citizenship rights and forced out of their homes while their farms and cottages are burnt.

The journalists warned that while the international community, including the US and EU, have imposed an arms embargo against the government in Myanmar, Israel is “the main arm supplier of Myanmar and continues to arm Burma military amid ongoing violence against Rohingya Muslims.”

“It is noteworthy that all these crimes are happening before the Myanmar’s Nobel Peace Prize winning Aung San Suu Kyi, who not only refrains from condemning these crimes against humanity, but also claimed that the situation is being twisted by a ‘huge iceberg of misinformation’,” the letter pointed out.

According to Human Right Watch, new satellite images show that 99% of the villages in Rakhine have been destroyed.

On Friday, Amnesty International said Myanmar’s military and vigilante Buddhist mobs continue to set fire to Rohingya Muslim villages in Rakhine, despite the claims by Suu Kyi that army operations have ended there.

The government forces in Myanmar do not even spare the fleeing Rohingya refugees. Recent reports by Amnesty International and Bangladeshi officials say the military plants landmines on the path of those trying to cross into Bangladesh, causing them to sustain serious wounds or lose their limbs.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...ivists-urge-un-stop-muslim-holocaust-myanmar/

 

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The Shame of Myanmar
Sometimes, geopolitics should be set aside.
By Amitai Etzioni
September 24, 2017

The continuing campaign to exterminate the Rohingya people in Myanmar summons the memory of Srebrenica.

In Srebrenica, UN troops stood idle as thousands of Bosnian Muslim men and boys were slaughtered, while women and young children were bussed away to Bosniak-held territory. The main UN troops involved were Dutch, subject to an order from their government not to bring home any body bags; in other words, not to risk their lives. Ever since, most Dutch consider the slaughter that resulted to be a great stain on the national conscience, referred to as the Shame of Srebrenica.

In Myanmar, the world witnesses thousands of Rohingya fall victim to ethnic cleansing, carried out by the Burmese nationalist military through murder, rape, arson, and forced displacement. This time women and children are not spared. Satellite images show scores of decimated, burnt-out villages in Rakhine state, and more than 400,000 Rohingya forced to flee to Bangladesh. More than half of the refugees are children.

Oh, there have been speeches galore, even a full-throated condemnation by the head of the UN’s Human Rights Council. Words of condemnation issued from leaders in Indonesia, Pakistan, and Turkey. Words. However, the Burmese junta (which hides behind the banner of democracy) has not been put on notice that its leaders will be held accountable, that they will have to face the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and, if deemed guilty, a life sentence at the Hague. The junta leaders ought to be reminded of the fate of Slobodan Milosevic and Ratko Mladic.

Beyond reaffirming the universal jurisdiction of international law, why has the Burmese regime been spared sanctions for its military’s actions? U.S. sanctions on Myanmar had been in effect for decades but were terminated by President Barack Obama in October 2016, and no new measures have since been imposed, though the U.S. and its allies have been more than willing to sanction countries, including Russia, Iran, Syria, and Venezuela, for rights abuses. Revoking the Noble Peace Prize of Aung San Suu Kyi, for betraying the cause for which she was celebrated, would amount to some small degree of international recognition of Myanmar’s disgraceful actions.

All 191 UN member nations endorsed the principle of Responsibility to Protect in 2005. The responsibility requires a nation to protect its own people or forfeit its sovereignty, building on the 1948 Geneva Convention on genocide that enjoins all nations to prevent, stop, and punish genocides, ethnic cleansing, and large-scale atrocities. The U.K. and France, with the help of the U.S., invoked R2P and invaded Libya after its leader Muammar Gaddafi threatened the rebels in Benghazi with a bloodbath. Yet the crimes against humanity in Myanmar are much more troubling; here we are confronted not with threats but with action, on a much larger scale.

Samantha Power pointed out in her book The Problem from Hell that, genocide after genocide – in Cambodia, Iraq, Bosnia, Rwanda – world powers failed to act. Genocides happen often enough for the UN, and the powers that support it, to prepare a response ahead of time. There should be UN troops, specially trained for such a mission, supported with budget allocations made ahead of time, to jump in when nations do not protect their own people, giving meaning to warnings that the world will no longer tolerate Srebrenica. For now, a few well-placed missiles on the barracks of the junta should get their attention.

One suspects that a key reason Myanmar is not subject to these kinds of meaningful acts, from sanctions to threats of limited military interventions, is that the country is being courted by the U.S. to become part of its strategy to contain China. Broadly, this approach entails building alliances and military ties with nations on China’s border, as the U.S. did in Vietnam. This courting is one reason Obama was the first president to visit Myanmar while in office. At the same time, China is keen to try to maintain, if not increase, its influence in Myanmar.

These geopolitical considerations have their place. However, when a country’s military is acting as savagely as Myanmar’s, geopolitics should be set aside. Otherwise, the often-voiced commitments to human rights will ring hollow. Leaders of the world face the same question, posed by us, by our children, and by future generations: where were you, and what did you do when the Rohingya were slaughtered in Myanmar? You let Rwanda happen; Srebrenica to take place; what will it take to make you live up to your speeches? Shame on you, shame on us.
Amitai Etzioni is Professor of International Affairs at The George Washington University. He is the author of many books including Foreign Policy: Thinking outside the Box and, most recently, Avoiding War with China.
http://thediplomat.com/2017/09/the-shame-of-myanmar/

Are the Rohingya Facing Genocide?
A single word; the most heinous of crimes.
By George Wright
September 19, 2017
Teenagers executed with rifles. Babies drowned in rivers. Hundreds of thousands fleeing to squalid refugee camps in Bangladesh as their villages were set ablaze by soldiers and Buddhist militias.

The horror stories streaming from the mouths of Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar’s Rakhine State, as the country’s armed forces launch a brutal offensive in response to militant attacks on August 25, has resulted in widespread condemnation over the treatment of what many call the most persecuted minority on the planet.

While a top UN official recently called the treatment of the Rohingya a “textbook example” of ethnic cleansing, some, including the Bangladeshi foreign minister, have taken it a step further by accusing the Myanmar government of committing what has been coined the “crime of all crimes.”

“The international community is saying it is a genocide. We also say it is a genocide,” Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali told reporters in Dhaka on September 10.

Ethnic cleansing has never been recognized as an independent crime under international law, meaning there is no exact definition and has resulted in the term being used liberally by politicians and journalists. In popular discourse, ethnic cleansing is generally defined as using violence or terror to disperse a group in order to make an area ethnically homogeneous.

The UN’s Genocide Convention, however, legally defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”

Those acts listed under the convention include killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, and “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

Alicia de la Cour Venning, a researcher at the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI), who has studied the treatment of the Rohingya extensively, said a genocidal practice was being enacted in Myanmar and that genocide should be seen as a protracted process, rather than the sole focus being on acts of mass murder.

“Our research reveals that the historic and current conditions of persecution against the Rohingya minority have developed into genocidal practice,” de la Cour Venning said.

The Rohingya have been subject to stigmatization, harassment, isolation, and systematic weakening, the lawyer said, which are four of the six stages of genocide, according to a model devised by Daniel Feierstein, president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars.

The remaining two are extermination and symbolic enactment, which is the reconstruction of a new society in which the victims of genocide are physically and symbolically “gone.”

“Understanding genocide as a process, which takes place over years, even decades, allows us to identify genocidal processes in motion, enabling us to step in to prevent escalating violence, including mass killings, which is just one part of the genocidal process, which begins with stigmatization and dehumanization of the target group,” she said.

“Until genocide is understood in this way, rather than solely as mass killings, which is just one component of the genocidal process, we will be unable to prevent this form of violence whilst in motion,” she said.

Although the Rohingya have faced persecution for generations, many trace the source of the escalated oppression in recent decades back to a 1982 law that refused to recognize them as one of the 135 “national races” of Myanmar. This has only intensified in recent years as members of government have denied the existence of any ethnic group named “Rohingya,” referring to them as illegal “Bengali” immigrants.

“Once we take into consideration the Myanmar government’s systematically oppressive policies and practices in regards to the Rohingya from the 1980s onwards, a very clear picture emerges of intent to eradicate this group,” she added.

Thomas MacManus, a researcher at Queen Mary University of London who authored an ISCI report “Countdown to Annihilation: Genocide in Myanmar” with de la Cour Venning and scholar Penny Green in 2015, said that the recent atrocities illustrated “the latest phase in the genocide of the Rohingya.”

“The stages don’t always happen in such a clear cut, step by step, way and often repeat and overlap and what I was saying is that we have entered a ‘new’ phase since August,” MacManus said.

“I would say that ‘systematic weakening’ is well under way and that we now need to start investigating whether ‘annihilation’ has begun in earnest.”

Myanmar’s de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi — who was a darling of the West during her years under house arrest at the hands of the military junta — has come under hitherto unheard of international scrutiny for her silence over the atrocities being committed in Rakhine. Many have called for her Nobel Peace Prize to be revoked, claiming her refusal to speak out is giving the green light to the most heinous of crimes.

“Aung San Suu Kyi will play a major role in blocking recognition of the Rohingya genocide. Diplomats worked for years to get her freed. They idealized her until she got a Nobel Peace Prize,” said Gregory Stanton, president of Genocide Watch.

“Now they are portraying her as having no power to stop the genocide. In fact her only power is moral, yet she won’t use it.”

Despite increased calls from academics to label the atrocities in Rakhine as genocide, Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), said he did not believe there was enough evidence available to prove genocidal intent on the part of the military — a requirement under international law.

“Not yet, but that doesn’t preclude that there might be at some point in the future, if more evidence can be collected about the intent of the Burmese government and Tatmadaw,” Robertson said, using the official name of the armed forces of Myanmar.

“There is a clear legal standard that needs to be met under the Genocide Convention and in our view, we would need to be able to get on the ground in Rakhine state to investigate in order to make that kind of determination, and ideally be able to uncover some government documents that lays out their plans.”

In comparison, Robertson cited the mobilization of militias, the use of government radio and speeches of Rwandan leaders in 1994 as an example of an “abundantly clear” genocidal intent against the Tutsi minority.

Robertson said he actually felt that efforts to tout the term genocide by some of the exiled Rohingya community and human rights activists could have had a detrimental effect on advocacy efforts.

“It’s not that simple by a long shot, and there are some strong arguments that by over-claiming without adequate evidence, the exiled Rohingya community has hurt its credibility with precisely those governments that they need to get on board if international justice for the Rohingya is going to be obtained,” he said.

However, HRW has accused the Myanmar authorities and Buddhist militias of committing crimes against humanity in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya in 2012, and Robertson accused the international community of having “no strong interest” in addressing accountability for those atrocities.

While agreeing that the requirement to prove genocidal intent makes it far more complex in comparison to crimes against humanity, which simply requires that the acts be committed in a widespread or systematic way, mass atrocity scholar Kate Cronin-Furman said there were grounds to “accuse Burma of genocide.”

The reluctance on the part of the international community to call it such was due to a belief that it would then require action, she argued, when in fact the Genocide Convention imposes no obligation for intervention to stop a genocide.

Member states of the United Nations do, however, have an obligation through its endorsement of the “responsibility to protect,” a global political commitment which was agreed on at the 2005 World Summit to prevent genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, Cronin-Furman pointed out.

“Someday, it may be an international prosecutor’s job to decide whether to charge members of the Burmese military or civilian leadership with genocide. For now though, it doesn’t really matter whether they’re acting with genocidal intent,” she said.

“What matters is that the Rohingya are being slaughtered, raped, and burned out of their homes in huge numbers, all while the world watches.”
George Wright is a freelance journalist based in Phnom Penh.
http://thediplomat.com/2017/09/are-the-rohingya-facing-genocide/

 

[Banglar Bir]

06:03 PM, September 25, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 06:10 PM, September 25, 2017
China favours permanent solution of Rohingya crisis

Rohingya refugees gather for relief at Hoaikong in Teknaf upazila of Cox's Bazar. Some private organisations brought aid to them. The refugees have been living in makeshift houses in the area since they fled violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State several days ago. Photo: Star
BSS, Dhaka

The Communist Party of China (CPC) today assured Bangladesh of convincing Myanmar government to resolve the Rohingya problem permanently.

The assurance came from a meeting in Beijing between the CPC and visiting 18-member Awami League (AL) delegation headed by its presidium member Lt Col (retd) Faruk Khan.

"China will convince Myanmar government for holding talks with Bangladesh as we think the permanent solution to the Rohingya problems is a must for ensuring peace in the rejoin," said Li Jun, vice-minister of International Liaison Department of CPC.

Deputy office secretary of the AL and member of the delegation Biplab Barua confirmed the matter over telephone from China.

The assurance came as AL joint general secretary Dr Dipu Moni sought an effective role of the Chinese government in solving the Rohingya problem after describing the inhuman torture on Rohingyas that forced them to flee the Rakhine state to Bangladesh.

In reply, Lee June said, "We are well aware of the Rohingya crisis and we have already talked about the matter with Myanmar government to find a peaceful and permanent solution to the matter," he also said.

He added that China will play a positive role in the international arena for the repatriation of Rohingya to Myanmar.

"We are respectful to the AL government's humanitarian behaviour towards the Rohingya and we will send relief which includes blanket and tent on September 27 in response to the initiative of Prime Minister of Bangladesh (for Rohingyas)," he said, adding that the assistance will be continued.

The delegation includes AL's cultural affairs secretary Ashim Kumar Ukil, information and research secretary Afzal Hossain, legal affairs secretary SM Rezaul Karim, forest and environment affairs secretary Delwar Hossain, international affairs secretary Dr Shammi Ahmed, deputy office secretary Bilob Barua, and central committee members Nazibullah Hiru, Riazul Kabir Kawsar, Dipankar Talukder, and vice-principal Remon Areng and lawmaker Habibe Millat.
http://www.thedailystar.net/world/r...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all

5 PM, September 25, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 07:07 PM, September 25, 2017
Solution to Rohingya crisis lies with Myanmar: UNHCR chief
Calls for stepping up aid for refugees

UNHCR head Filippo Grandi meets with Rohingya refugees in Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Photo taken from UNHCR/Roger Arnold
Star Online Report

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi today said that the solutions to Rohingya refugee crisis lie with Myanmar.

“Only Myanmar has the solution to the Rohingya crisis as the issue has started from the country,” he said while addressing a press conference over the issue at a Gulshan hotel in Dhaka this afternoon.

But until then, the world had to help the "deeply traumatised" refugees facing enormous hardship, whom he had met on a weekend visit to camps in Bangladesh, adds Reuters.

Grandi said Muslim refugees seeking shelter in Bangladesh from "unimaginable horrors" in Myanmar will face enormous hardship and risk a dramatic deterioration in circumstances if aid is not stepped up.

He called for aid to be "rapidly stepped up" and thanked Bangladesh for keeping its border open.

The head of the UN refugee agency arranged the press briefing following his visit to different refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar on Saturday and Sunday.

Earlier on the day, Myanmar government forces found the bodies of 28 Hindu villagers who authorities suspected were killed by Muslim insurgents last month, at the beginning of a spasm of violence that has sent 430,000 Muslim Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh.

The violence in western Myanmar's Rakhine State and the refugee exodus is the biggest crisis the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has faced since it came to power last year as part of a transition from nearly 50 years of military rule.

The latest violence began on August 25 when militants from a little-known group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), attacked about 30 police posts and an army camp.

The United Nations has described a sweeping military response as ethnic cleansing, with refugees and rights groups accusing Myanmar forces and Buddhist vigilantes of violence and arson aimed at driving Rohingya out.

The United States has said the Myanmar action was disproportionate and has called for an end to the violence.

http://www.thedailystar.net/world/r...on-refugee-unhcr-chief-filippo-grandi-1467532

 

[Banglar Bir]

China comes to Myanmar’s aid in face of sanctions
Larry Jagan, September 26, 2017

While some countries mull possible sanctions against Myanmar, China stands poised to use the opportunity to prove its friendship. At issue is the situation in Rakhine, which has forced more than 400,000 Muslim Rohinygas – or Bengalis as the government insists on calling them — to flee across the border to Bangladesh for safety.

The international community has been quick to urge the Myanmar government to take immediate steps to remedy the root causes of the communal conflict in Myanmar’s western state. After meeting with ASEAN foreign ministers over the weekend, the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the UN would work with ASEAN on providing humanitarian aid to the refugees and finding constructive approaches to resolve the problems in Rakhine.

The UN head called for three immediate actions to be taken: the suspension of military and security operations, unfettered access to affected communities for humanitarian agencies, and allowing the safe return of those who fled the country in the wake of the attacks. The State Counselor, in her televised address to the international community and nation last week, insisted these were already being implemented.

“At present, humanitarian assistance is our first priority,” Myanmar’s Vice President Henry Van Thio told the UN General Assembly last week, echoing the Aung San Suu Kyi’s comments the day before. “We are committed to ensuring that aid is received by all those in need, without discrimination,” he declared.

A new government-led mechanism, established in cooperation with the Red Cross Movement, has also already started distributing humanitarian assistance, according to senior government officials. ASEAN countries have been in the forefront of offering assistance for these activities. But the government is yet to indicate how it proposes to implement the broader recommendations of the Kofi Annan led Advisory Commission on Arakan.

On the eve of the ASEAN-UN meeting in New York, the foreign ministers issued a statement on their preparedness “to support the Myanmar Government in its efforts to bring peace, stability, rule of law and to promote harmony and reconciliation between the various communities, as well as sustainable and equitable development in the Rakhine State.”

The Myanmar government’s plans for Rakhine is not going to deflect further criticism this week at the UN. For western countries, though, commitment is not enough: they want to see concrete action. And some countries – particularly members of the Organization of Islamic States – are contemplating calling for the renewal of sanctions until the situation with the refugees at least, is resolved.

Recently the United Kingdom suspended an aid program it provided to Myanmar’s military — on democracy, leadership and English language – until there is an acceptable resolution to the current situation. Though it only amounts to around US$ 411,000 last year – it maybe a precursor of more sanctions to come: particularly designed to punish the military for their behaviour.

This was a very nuanced approach on the part London – as it sends a shot across the military’s commander-in-chief, Senor General Min Aung Hlaing’s bows, as the general tries frantically to broaden the army’s sources of hardware and military training for its officers. The military chief has also been desperately courting Washington – since recent hints that the Pentagon was not interested in improving their bilateral relationship, with Congresses’ approval.

The British move may now delay any further movement in that direction, especially as the Senior General will know that the suspension of the aid programme most certainly has Aung San Suu Kyi’s approval. Of course this also underlines one of the hidden tensions in government – between Aung San Suu Kyi and the army commander. The State Counselor fears that the increased international criticism of the government’s handling of Rakhine has weakened her position in relation to the army chief – who is increasingly seen in the country as a hero.

As international criticism mounts, especially at the UN, Beijing wants to take advantage of Aung San Suu Kyi’s isolation. The Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi has publicly backed the Myanmar government’s efforts to protect its national security and oppose the recent violent attacks in Rakhine State.

“China is willing to continue promoting peace talks in its own way, and hopes the international community can play a constructive role to ease the situation and promote dialogue,” Wang Yi said after a meeting with the UN secretary general recently.

For Myanmar’s diplomats, that is understood to mean that Beijing would use its veto at the UN to stop any moves to impose sanctions against Myanmar. It is reminiscent of the past, according to a senior Myanmar diplomat who declined to be identified, “when China protected us from international censure.” And again, ASEAN will stand with its fellow member, Myanmar. While it is unlikely to come to that, it has given Beijing a golden opportunity to underline its unwavering support for its ally. This has become an important strategic concern for China – fearing that the Myanmar military is seeking too many “alternative friends” – Beijing has thrown its political weight behind the country’s civilian leader, rather than the army.

Beijing is especially suspicious of Delhi’s recent overtures to Myanmar – both to Aung San Suu Kyi and Min Aung Hlaing. And as far as the commander-in-chief is concerned, it may not be entirely misplaced. In recent visits abroad, especially to Delhi and Tokyo, Min Aung Hlaing is reported to have stressed the Myanmar military’s independent position on Beijing, hinting that Aung San Suu Kyi had completely entered the Chinese camp.

Beijing’s qualms about the commander-in-chief’s outlook, have not gone unnoticed in the army’s top leadership, and according to senior military sources, Min Aung Hlaing is likely to visit Beijing in the coming weeks, to allay their concerns.

But what remains certain is that China and Myanmar have strengthened their bilateral relations, for both strategic and economic reasons. This will be highlighted when the Chinese president, Xi Jinping visits Myanmar, expected to take place in early November.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/09/26/china-comes-myanmars-aid-face-sanctions/

 

[Banglar Bir]

Are the Rohingya India's 'favourite whipping boy'?
Soutik Biswas India correspondent
25 September 2017

Image copyright REUTERS
Image caption The Rohingya are described as the world's 'most friendless people'

At home in Myanmar, they are unwanted and denied citizenship. Outside, they are largely friendless as well. Now the government says that Rohingya living in India pose a clear and present danger to national security.

First, a government minister kicked up a storm earlier this month when he announced that India would deport its entire Rohingya population, thought to number about 40,000, including some 16,000 who have been registered as refugees by the UN.

The Rohingya are seen by many of Myanmar's Buddhist majority as illegal migrants from Bangladesh. Fleeing persecution at home, they began arriving in India during the 1970s and are now scattered all over the country, many living in squalid camps.

The government's announcement has come at what many say is an inappropriate time, as violence in Myanmar's western Rakhine state has forced more than 400,000 Rohingya Muslims across the border into Bangladesh since August.

Seeing through the official story in Myanmar
Who are the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army?
When petitioners went to the Supreme Court challenging the proposed ejection plan, Narendra Modi's government responded by saying it had intelligence about links of some community members with global terrorist organisations, including ones based in Pakistan.

It said some Rohingya living here were indulging in "anti-national and illegal activities", and could help stoke religious tensions.

Image copyright REUTERS
Image caption Most Rohingyas in India live in squalid camps
Experts agree the threat from Myanmar's newly-emergent Rohingya militant group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa), should not be underestimated. Analyst Subir Bhaumik describes Arsa as "strong and motivated", although its exact size and influence remain unclear.

The current crisis began in Rakhine in August with an Arsa attack on police posts which killed 12 security personnel. Reports say the group has at least 600 armed fighters.

Bangladeshi officials claim that Arsa has links with a banned militant group Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), which was held responsible for the July 2016 cafe attack in Dhaka in which 20 hostages died. Delhi believes groups like Arsa pose a threat to regional security.

But critics of the move wonder how much credible intelligence India has on Rohingya refugees on its soil with terror links.

They say India has fought long-running home-grown insurgencies with rebel groups in the north-east and Maoists in central India, which have arguably posed a greater threat to national security than what they say is a rag-tag and scattered Rohingya population.

Also, many question a proposed move to punish a community for the perceived crimes of some - in other words, is it right to consider all Rohingya a security threat?

Media caption Watch: Who are the Rohingya?
On the other hand, India's Home Minister Rajnath Singh insists Rohingya are not refugees or asylum-seekers. "They are illegal immigrants," he said recently.

But critics say this is untenable because India is legally bound by the UN principle of "non-refoulement" - meaning no push-backs of asylum seekers to life-threatening places.

Also, India's constitution clearly says that it "shall endeavour to foster respect for international law and obligations in the dealings of organised peoples with one another".

Like much of Asia, which is home to a third of the more than 20 million displaced people in the world, India has a curious track record in refugee protection.

Although the country is not party to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and its 1967 protocol and doesn't have a formal asylum policy, it hosts more than 200,000 refugees, returnees, stateless people and asylum seekers, according the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. (These include more than 100,000 Tibetans from China and more than 60,000 Tamils from Sri
Lanka.)

Image copyright EPA
Image caption The Rohingyas are thought to number about 40,000 in India
At the same time, India has always taken in refugees based on political considerations. It took in tens of thousands of refugees from Bangladesh during the country's 1971 war of independence from Pakistan even as it trained and supported pro-liberation guerrillas, for example.

Many like Michel Gabaudan, former president of the advocacy group Refugee International, believe that India distrusts the international refugee process partly "because it [has] received little recognition for taking in refugees" in the past.
'Unenviable'
A 2015 paper by a group of Indian researchers said the image of Rohingya in India was "unenviable - foreigner, Muslim, stateless, suspected Bangladeshi national, illiterate, impoverished and dispersed across the length and breadth of the country".

"This makes them illegal, undesirable, the other, a threat, and a nuisance," the paper said.

This also makes them, says analyst Subir Bhaumik, "a favourite whipping boy for the Hindu right-wing to energise their base".

"Remember how the issue of the Bangladeshi illegal migrant was invoked by Mr Modi and his party during the 2014 election campaign?" he said, referring to the prime minister's efforts to generate support from his Hindu base in areas with many migrants.

Image copyright REUTERS
Image caption In Myanmar, Rohingya are seen as illegal migrants from Bangladesh
In the end, many say, what is is deeply troubling is a country talking about returning Rohingya people to Myanmar even as they appear to be the target of what the UN says "seems a textbook example of ethnic cleansing".

"Any nation has a right, and indeed a responsibility, to consider security risks, but that cannot be confused as an excuse to knowingly force an entire group of people back to a place where they will face certain persecution and a high likelihood of severe human rights abuses and death," Daniel Sullivan of Refugees International told me.
That is something India would possibly do well to remember.

Malaysia’s dissent on Myanmar statement reveals cracks in Asean facade
Reuters
Published at 12:47 AM September 26, 2017

Malaysia's Foreign Minister Anifah Aman addresses the 72nd United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 22, 2017Reuters
Myanmar objects to the term Rohingya, saying the Muslims of its western state of Rakhine state are not a distinct ethnic group, but illegal immigrants from Bangladesh
Dissent surfaced again in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) after Malaysia disavowed a statement issued by the bloc’s chairman, the Philippines, as misrepresenting “the reality” of an exodus of 435,000 ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar.

The grouping of 10 nations in one of the world’s fastest growing regions has long struggled to reconcile conflicting interests in tackling issues such as China’s claims over the South China Sea and the crisis facing the Muslim Rohingya.

“The Philippines, as chair, tolerates the public manifestation of dissenting voices,” the Philippine foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday.

The move showed a “new level of maturity” in pushing Asean’s principle of consensus when dealing with issues affecting national interests, it added.

Malaysia had made its position clear “in several Asean meetings” in New York, the ministry said, adding that it had to also take into account the views of other members, however.

On Sunday, Malaysia “disassociated itself” from the Asean chairman’s statement on the grounds that it misrepresented the “reality of the situation” and did not identify the Rohingya as one of the affected communities.

Myanmar objects to the term Rohingya, saying the Muslims of its western state of Rakhine state are not a distinct ethnic group, but illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Senior diplomats and foreign ministers of Asean nations discussed the contents of the statement on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York before it was published, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and Malaysian government sources said.

The chairman’s statement released by the Philippines did not reflect Malaysia’s concerns, said one of the officials, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...yanmar-statement-reveals-cracks-asean-facade/

12:00 AM, September 26, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:28 AM, September 26, 2017
UN to work with Asean to resolve crisis
Wants the regional body to intensify its actions on Rohingya issue

Rohingya children ask for relief as aid workers distribute that among them in a playground in Ukhia's Balukhali area yesterday. Photo: Rashed Shumon
Staff Correspondent

The UN wants the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to intensify actions to solve the Rohingya refugee crisis, in which, it says, it is ready to cooperate with the 10-member regional body.

“The time to act is now,” said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in a meeting with the foreign ministers of the association members on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York over the weekend.

The UN welcomes constructive approaches by the Asean as well as the provision of humanitarian assistance for the Rohingyas, reports Myanmar Times yesterday.

Antonio Guterres called for three immediate actions -- suspension of military and security operations, unfettered access for humanitarian agencies to affected communities, and allowing the safe return of those who fled the country facing attacks.

About 450,000 Rohingyas fled violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state into Bangladesh after Myanmar security forces began a crackdown on the community in response to August 25 Rohingya insurgents' attacks on Myanmar police posts and an army base.

Rights bodies said actions against the Rohingyas were disproportionate as Rohingya villages were burned down, men killed and women raped. The UN termed it a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".

Last week, Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi claimed clearance operations had ended on September 5 and that humanitarian aid was delivered to the affected areas in Rakhine without discrimination.

However, fire was still seen on September 23 burning the Rohingya villages, Amnesty International said, while Doctors Without Borders said hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas internally displaced in Rakhine were facing shortages of life-saving assistance.

The issue was a major agenda in the UN meeting last week.

The UN secretary general said multilateralism and regional integration are absolutely vital in today's world, representing an opportunity to promote prosperity as well as advance human rights and the rule of law.

Under the Asean-UN Comprehensive Partnership, both sides can intensify and integrate efforts to ensure peace and security, sustainable development, human rights and humanitarian action, Antonio Guterres said.

Given the threat of terrorism and violent extremism worldwide, including in Southeast Asian nations, he pointed out that the new UN Office of Counter Terrorism and the UN as a whole stand ready to support the Asean in addressing these complex threats through regional cooperation.
MALAYSIA DISASSOCIATES FROM ASEAN STATEMENT ON RAKHINE VIOLENCE
Meanwhile, Malaysia on Sunday said it "would like to disassociate itself" from a statement issued by the Asean on the situation in Myanmar's Rakhine state, reports cable television news agency, Channel News Asia.

The Asean chairman in a statement issued on the sidelines of the UN general assembly condemned the Aug 25 attacks on Myanmar security forces, as well as "all acts of violence which resulted in loss of civilian lives, destruction of homes and displacement of large numbers of people".

Malaysia's Foreign Minister Anifah Aman in a separate statement said his country felt the Asean statement was a "misrepresentation of the reality of the situation".

"The statement also omits the Rohingyas as one of the affected communities," he said.

Malaysia urged Myanmar to immediately implement recommendations made in an advisory commission's final report on the Rakhine state, Anifah added.

The Asean statement called the situation in Rakhine a "complex inter-communal issue with deep historical roots", and "strongly urged" all parties to avoid actions that could worsen the situation on the ground.

APRRN URGES INTL COMMUNITY TO PRESSURE MYANMAR
The Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN), meanwhile, urged the international community to apply all possible measures to pressure Myanmar into halting military operations, protecting civilians and ensuring unfettered humanitarian access to Rakhine State.

In a statement by APRRN Programme Coordinator Evan Jones, the Thailand-based rights body demanded implementation of all recommendations of the Rakhine Advisory Commission led by Kofi Annan.

"Nations cannot stand aside and watch hundreds of thousands of people being forcibly displaced, thousands indiscriminately killed, in a government-sponsored operation amounting to ethnic cleansing," it said.

It also urged the international community to rally around Bangladesh that is under extreme pressure in the face of this humanitarian emergency.

HRW SLAMS INDIA
Human Rights Watch has slammed India for “mistreating” the Rohingya refugees.

It referred to Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh who said in a recent tweet that his government is “not violating any international law” if it deports Rohingya refugees as India is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention.

“If India had not signed the Convention against torture, would Indian authorities have carte blanche to torture and ill-treat anyone in custody?” said Bill Frelick, HRW's refugee rights programme director in a statement on Sunday.

Indian government says it is worried about the entry of refugees with links to Rohingya militants. "If that's the case, they should produce evidence and prosecute individual suspects," Frelick said.

"When your neighbour flees his burning house, you are not at liberty to push him back into the flames because you consider him a trespasser," he added.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...e-crisis-un-work-asean-resolve-crisis-1467718

 

[Banglar Bir]

12:00 AM, September 26, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:08 AM, September 26, 2017
MAYANMAR-ROHINGYA-REFUGEE-CRISIS-
Don't let Myanmar go Rwanda's way

Inam Ahmed and Shakhawat Liton

It has been over three weeks that the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had issued a letter, unprecedented in the last 28 years since the 1989 Lebanon conflict, to the Security Council for its action on the ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. It has been about two weeks that the Security Council met behind closed doors calling for Myanmar to stop violence against the Rohingyas.

Since then it seems the Myanmar violence is going Rwanda's way – lots of talking but doing little which had prompted the then secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali to say in bristling anger “all of us are responsible for this failure. It is a genocide which has been committed”.

Just as the UN remained hamstrung when 800,000 Tutsis were killed in Rwanda in the face of complete disinterest of the US and other big nations, the same is being repeated in case of Myanmar. The UN is unable to take any stern actions such as sanctions and sending peacekeepers in the face of Chinese and Russian resistance.

Just like the case of Rwanda, different organs of the UN had sounded alarms about the Rohingya issue long ago. The UN special adviser on the Prevention of Genocide had pressed the red button in early February after last year's October massacre of the Rohingyas.

The special adviser had categorically said “This must stop right now. There is no more time to wait.”

Before him, the UN Human Rights Commission had reported “the devastating cruelty to which these Rohingya children have been subjected is unbearable. What kind of hatred could make a man stab a baby crying out for his mother's milk. And for the mother to witness this murder while she is being gang-raped by the very security forces who should be protecting her.”

Nothing could move the world. It did not have time to pay heed to the cries just as it was the case in Rwanda.

After this prolonged foot-dragging seven countries including the UK, USA and France three days ago called on the UN to convene another meeting. Meantime, a fresh exodus of whatever little Rohingya population remained has started from Myanmar. They are confined in small pockets in the style of Nazi concentration camps. More tales of horrors are emerging.

So is Myanmar going the Rwandan way? Not really. Because in the end, the peacekeepers landed in Rwanda, albeit too late. The country has been reconciled and reconstructed. A Tutsi man whose tribe had been the subject of genocide became its president. The wrongs had been righted after so many lives were lost. A Tutsi woman whose husband and children had been killed by her Hutu neighbor married the very same killer in the process.

For Myanmar there is no reconciliation. No end to hatred. No mercy and no possibility for a happy ending. The six decades of systematic killings and ethnic cleansing find no solution in the devious posturing of Myanmar de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi who blamed “terrorists” for “a huge iceberg of misinformation” about the violence. And her repeated denial of the atrocities by the military is an indication of how Myanmar is dealing with the humanitarian crisis.

In the end history may have to repeat and we might see another UN Secretary General apologise as Boutros-Ghali and Kofi Annan had for the world's failure in Rwanda.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...risis-dont-let-myanmar-go-rwandas-way-1467733

 

[bluesky]

September 25, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:35 AM, September 25, 2017
Night at a refugee camp

Rohingya settlement on hillocks of Balukhali area of Ukhia light up on Friday night. Photo: Rashed Shumon

Pinaki Roy and Mohammad Ali Jinnat

7:00pm
As the last relief truck departs, Shafiuallah Kata Pahar, a group of hillocks, reverts back to a strange sense of calm. People, carrying sacks of rice and packs of food, begin to return to their tents.

Suddenly, the hills seem to be dotted with fireflies. Lamps and candles masquerade as shining stars in the sky on a dark night, lighting up one by one.

After another hectic day of collecting relief and building homes, some retire to their beds. When darkness falls, there's nothing to do in the camps.

8:00pm
By now most families are done with their dinner of mostly dry food. A few have fashioned makeshift ovens to cook.

In a few minutes, a medical team from Darus Salam Mirpur arrives, packed with medicines. The last open shop, selling water, cold drinks, biscuits and cigarettes, also prepares to close for the night.

A few people, especially those who arrived yesterday or the day before, mill about on the roadside, waiting for relief. At night, people in luxury cars arrive to donate money.

Mehmudullah, a young farmer from Buthidaung sits on a bamboo stack beside the highway. As we approach him, he dives into his story. “We came yesterday morning. We do not have any tarpaulin for shade yet. We need money to buy materials to construct our tent,” he says. He adds that his wife and children are sitting in their semi-constructed tent.

9:00pm
The night now grows darker. The entirety of Shafiullah Kata Pahar is cloaked in tranquility. Only the sound of a tube well being pumped breaks the silence from time to time. It can be heard but not seen.

Mehmedullah picks up the sound and begins to walk towards it. He turns on his torch to light his path. “Turn it off. Women are bathing here,” a voice from the darkness warns.

Why are they bathing so late, a question is asked to the black. The voice now introduces himself as Ebadullah. “We just got this tube well yesterday. Many women have not bathed for days and have finally gotten an opportunity,” he says.

Ebadullah, too, is waiting to take a bath.

Suddenly, the stillness is disturbed again as a crowd of people rush towards the highway where a bus has stopped.

Mehmedullah says that they are donating money.

We head towards the bus and see some bearded men in white panjabis and kurtas giving out 100 tk notes to the people. They also give bags of rice, potatoes, flattened rice and gur. More people are drawn to the crowd.

Soon, the men are ready to leave. As the bus speeds off, some stick their necks out of the windows and shout, “Pray to Allah. Things are going to be okay.”

Mehmedullah returns, having gotten nothing.

As darkness falls on Rohingya settlements, they try to sleep wherever they can lie down. Photos: Rashed Shumon
9:30pm
We move ahead and catch up with Mohammed Hossain, a youth from Buthidaung, who says he once had a fishing boat and a net. He used to catch fish along with other fishermen and earned around 10,000 Myanmar kyat every day.

We ask what his plans are now. Hossain is unsure.

“There are many people in Bangladesh. I do not know what to do here. It is hard for even the locals to get work,” says Mohammad Hossain.

Some, however, run after relief trucks or collect water. The photos were taken in Ukhia and Teknaf on Saturday. Photos: Rashed Shumon
10:30pm
Mohammad Hossain and Mehmudullah ask us to go to the top of the hill with them. Mehmudullah informs that most people here are from Buthidaung.

On the way up, we see the forested areas now cleared and the fallen trees. Equipped with a torch, we do not see much more but there is movement in many of the tents. The mosquitoes and the weather make sleep difficult to come.

On top of the hill, we find Md Rafiq's tent. He is currently engaged, talking over his mobile phone to someone in Myanmar. As Rafiq finishes his conversation, we ask who he was talking to.

“My sister in law. She is in Buthidaung. The roads there are now blocked and army patrol has increased so she cannot come,” he says.

The mobile reception is better on top of the hill. Many people can be seen, ears glued to their phones, sometimes concern and sometimes a smile, on their face.

Photos: Rashed Shumon
11:30pm
Walking downhill, people can be seen fanning themselves. The weather is sultry.

As we reach the bottom, a pickup stops in front of the approach of Shafiullah Kata Pahar. Around 20 people rush to the bus. They only throw a few packs of biscuits and go off.

12:01am
A young boy, Omar Sharif, is sleeping in an empty shop beside the road. He suddenly wakes up. We ask why he is here. He has come too far and lost his way, Omar says. He tries to go back to his slumber.

12:51am
By now the entirety of Shafiullah Kata has fallen asleep. We decide to check out the Bhagghona camp on plain land. It is muddy everywhere. A few babies can be heard crying. In the distance, we hear someone's radio playing.

We follow the noise and come across an elderly Rohingya woman listening to the Waj Mahfil of one Maulvi Masud. “He was very popular in Arakan,” she says when asked about him. We move on.

As darkness falls on Rohingya settlements, they try to sleep wherever they can lie down. Photos: Rashed Shumon
2:30am
A few feet away, at Palongkhali union parishad office, the light remains switched on. A bunch of local people inside the office are grinding spices to cook khichuri in the morning as the government has recently opened a mass kitchen there.

3:00am
A jeep is seen at Balukhali camp. A known government official is sitting in the car distributing money. Seeing us, his jeep quickly speeds up and goes away. Strange.

4:00am
Near Balukhali camp, some people are sitting in an open field. Speaking to one Md Rafik, he informs that they had come from Buthidaung a few days ago. Rafiq's wife Mamtaz is lying under a polythene sheet with their children while Rafiq sits on a tree stump.

“Why are you sitting here,” we ask. Rafiq says that they could not make any tent. The locals were asking for money to set up a tent.

Rafiq's wife Rehana comes out, and shows a side of her head which is swollen. She says relief workers had given her a tarpaulin but a local woman had beaten her up and taken it from her.

As dawn breaks and our night ends, we begin to leave. A local youth on a motorcycle informs that there are many people taking shelter in Palongkhali Primary School.

We find nearly five hundred newcomers in the school.

In the classroom, in the veranda everywhere there are people, lying down. As we approach them and begin to take some pictures, some lift their heads and watch us. They do not say a word.

They seem almost relaxed, probably after having already seen too much cruelty in Myanmar. They knew perhaps that the Bangladeshi people meant no harm.

 

[Banglar Bir]

03:05 PM, September 26, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 04:09 PM, September 26, 2017
UN experts call on Suu Kyi to visit Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar
Condemn persecution in Myanmar

Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi delivers a national address in Naypyidaw on September 19, 2017. Aung San Suu Kyi said on September 19 she "feels deeply" for the suffering of "all people" caught up in conflict scorching through Rakhine state, her first comments on a crisis that also mentioned Muslims displaced by violence. Photo: AFP

Star Online Report
Seven UN experts have called on Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi to personally meet the Rohingya refugees who have fled persecution in the country’s Rakhine State and taken shelter to Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar.
“We call on Aung San Suu Kyi to meet the Rohingya personally in Rakhine State as well as in Cox’s Bazar to talk to those who have fled, as well as those who have stayed, as she says the Myanmar Government is interested in doing,” the experts said.

Condemning the violence, the UN experts jointly asked the Government of Myanmar to stop all violence against the minority Muslim Rohingya community and halt the ongoing persecution and serious human rights violation in the country, according to a UN press release issued in Geneva today.

The call comes a month after attacks in Rakhine State against 30 police outposts and the regimental headquarters in Taungala village, and subsequent indiscriminate counter-terror operations, the press release said.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights has described the ongoing persecution as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

In the press release, the experts said, “There have been credible allegations of serious human rights violation and abuse committed against the Rohingya people, including extrajudicial killings, excessive use of force, torture and ill-treatment, sexual and gender-based violence and forced displacement, as well as the burning and destruction of over 200 Rohingya villages and tens of thousands of homes.”

“We understand that State Counsellor Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi in her diplomatic briefing on 19 September had encouraged the international community to learn along with the Myanmar Government the possible reasons behind the current exodus from Myanmar to Bangladesh,” the experts said, noting that about 430,000 people had reportedly crossed into Bangladesh in the past few weeks.

The experts stressed: “No one chooses, especially not in the hundreds of thousands, to leave their homes and ancestral land, no matter how poor the conditions, to flee to a strange land to live under plastic sheets and in dire circumstances except in life-threatening situations. Despite violence allegedly perpetrated by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the whole Rohingya population should not have to pay the price.

The experts further noted that even the Government-appointed Rakhine Advisory Commission led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had concluded in its final report that “protracted statelessness and profound discrimination have made the [Rohingya] Muslim community particularly vulnerable to human rights violations”. It also found that successive governments since independence, particularly after the military coup of 1962, had “adopted legal and administrative measures that progressively eroded the political and civil rights of the Muslim communities in Rakhine State”.

“While it is commendable that the Government appears intent on implementing the Commission’s recommendations, including those related to the Rohingya’s citizenship rights, this will largely be an empty gesture now that the Myanmar military and security forces have driven out almost half of the Rohingya population in northern Rakhine and the Government has indicated that they can return only if they have proof of their nationality. Moreover, due to the mass burning of Rohingya villages, there is no home left for many to return to,” the experts said.

They further added: “We are equally alarmed by the Government’s apparent acquiescence in incitement of hatred and the condoning of intimidation and attacks against Rohingya families by other ethnic and religious groups. All violence aimed at the general population, including internally displaced people, must immediately cease.”

“Myanmar should provide uninterrupted humanitarian access to international organizations to assist tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of internally displaced people in Rakhine State. It should further ensure full and unfettered access of human rights monitors including the Human Rights Council Fact-Finding Mission for an independent and impartial assessment of the situation on the ground.

“The Myanmar Government should cooperate with all international aid organizations, rather than accusing them of supporting terrorism in their efforts to discharge their responsibilities to provide humanitarian aid and assistance to populations in need,” they added.

“UN member states need to go beyond statements and start taking concrete action to stop the military and security forces from accomplishing their so-called ‘unfinished business’ of getting rid of the Rohingya minority from Rakhine State,” the experts concluded.
http://www.thedailystar.net/world/r...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all

 

[Banglar Bir]

3:47 PM, September 26, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 04:12 PM, September 26, 2017
UNHCR calls for redoubling of humanitarian efforts in Bangladesh

Some Rohingyas trying to get bags of relief materials in Cox's Bazar on Monday, September 26, 2017. Photo: Rashed Shumon

Star Online Report
Expressing concern over conditions of 436,000 Rohingya refugees who have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar, the UNHCR today called for a redoubling of the international humanitarian response in Bangladesh.
Addressing a press briefing in Geneva, UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards said the conditions of Rohingya refugees in last month could still deteriorate.

As part of its contribution to the response led by the Bangladeshi authorities, he informed UNHCR has flown in its fourth humanitarian airlift.

The UNHCR-chartered Boeing 777 cargo jet, loaded with 100 metric tonnes of aid, landed in Dhaka around 12:30pm today. As shelter needs in south-eastern Bangladesh are acute, this flight has been loaded with shelter materials only. Two more aid flights are being scheduled.

Despite every effort by those on the ground, the massive influx of people seeking safety has been outpacing capacities to respond, and the situation for these refugees has still not stabilised. Many of those who have arrived recently are deeply traumatised. Despite having found refuge in Bangladesh, they are still exposed to enormous hardship.

A boy leans against UNHCR tarpaulin, waiting to be distributed at Kutupalong refugee camp. Photo Courtesy: UNHCR
At the request of the Bangladesh authorities, UNHCR and our partners have scaled up protection and life-saving support to the new arrivals in Kutupalong and Nayapara camps, and extended this support to the informal settlements surrounding these camps. UNHCR is also distributing emergency shelter kits, kitchen sets, jerry cans, sleeping mats, solar lamps, and other non-food items.

“We continue to identify and support the most vulnerable refugees such as unaccompanied children, women, the elderly and disabled, who are in urgent need of shelter, food, water, and healthcare.”

“In the last week, we and partners distributed hygiene kits to some 1,900 women, while each day an average of 9,900 people received meals through community kitchens, 2,600 received other hot meals, and 4,700 received high energy biscuits,” said the Spokesperson.

As the population in the Kutupalong and Nyapara camps has now doubled, so have the needs for clean drinking water. In the last few weeks, we've constructed additional seven deep tube-wells, 13 shallow tube-wells, and 116 latrine chambers in the two camps to help deal with this increase.

During his visit to Bangladesh this past weekend, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi discussed the importance of working towards solutions with Bangladeshi authorities, but emphasised that for now, the immediate focus has to remain on fast, efficient and substantial increase of support to those who are so desperately in need.
http://www.thedailystar.net/world/r...bling-humanitarian-efforts-bangladesh-1468015